THE DAGGER LEES SPLIT !!!!

It's with sadness and a genuine feeling of what could've been that I type this blog. My good friends THE DAGGER LEES from Dublin town have split. All bands with any decency should split but not before they get to record their opus and this has turned out to be what's happened.

(Fuck it I'm calling them by the name I knew them by before a lawyer made them change it, STAGGER LEE god damn it)

Late last year I heard they were to record the debut album at Detroit Recorders with Jim Diamond, I've been a fan of Jim's for years now, one of my favorite albums of all time was recorded there "The Von Bondies - Lack of Communication" (thats also funny for another reason but I won't go there). But when I heard the Lees had been paired with Mr. Diamond I saw a great rock n roll album, the hard part had been done the tours & gigs, writing and more writing, trouble & strife, heart-ache & joy then pair it with the right guy to make the album and bam your home and dry......or so I thought.

Stagger Lee have been one of the best bands in Ireland for a couple of years now, (the only only possible argument to that could only be personal taste and you'd have been wrong), and by Grums twisted bones they deserved to make that fucking album.

Lets go through it, they got the choons brothers and sisters by fuck have they got the choons, they got Donna and Benni let's face it two good looking women or I'm a fucking Cornish pastie. Donna wailing with Rock n Soul Gospel vibrations and looking so damn pretty the paradox makes you wonder what happened to her that she can sing like that because like all the best its all born of pain baby. Benni, beautiful and the coolest looking person I ever saw on a stage in my life and the coolness comes over in her playing, she looks like she'd show Sinatra a thing or two. Grum, the writhing beautiful dirty bastard guitar daemon, inspired and inspring. Justin looking like a fucking cartoon of himself and drumming like he was melting. It makes me sad.

Ah well, Let it be known brother and sisters I've had a couple of drinks and Stagger Lee will-o-the-wisp'd their way into my misty brain and I was compelled to type this little tribute. Stagger Lee, genuine heavyweight contenders I shall have my memories and my regret.

To Stagger Lee. My friends.

www.myspace.com/thedaggerlees

GOOD SUITS & FIGHTIN' BOOTS POPISIMS Album of the year

HI All,
The Bonnevilles album, Good Suits and Fightin' Boots has made it to the top of Garwood Pickjons albums of the year list, this is a very good thing as Garwood knows his stuff, any man that can run that huge site needs to be operating with fully charged batteries. So hats of to Garwood for his great taste, to quote the man, "this is nothing short od the swampiest “Honest to God Punk-Blues-Rock’n’Roll-Lo-Fi-Trash”! you’re likely to hear this side of the first Black Keys albums"

Check the links Here and Here

BLOOD ON THE SCRATCHPLATE '65 now only £4.99 including P&P

BLOOD ON THE SCRATCHPLATE '65 - NEW PRICE £4.99 inc. P&P Worldwide
Once upon a time, a long long time ago, before the wind before the snow.....No wait thats American Pie isn't it? I'll start again. The first album we put out on Motor Sounds was our amazing compilation Blood on the Scratchplate '65 and when I say amazing I mean it kids, its so good we're going to do another later on this year, but to the matter at hand, we're going to sell these bad boys from now on for £4.99 just to clear our remaining stock, seriously you really should buy this its a brilliant album.Featuring THE ROUTES, ROCK N ROLL MONKEY, THE BONNEVILLES, MUDLOW, THE URGES, THE SURGENS, THE CHILDISH THOUGHTS and more, sleeve notes from Marc Littler from Slowboat films and a killer sleeve design by yours truely and don't forget to check out the mp3s' page at our webshite for a couple of freebies � CHECK IT OUT HERE

MOTOR SOUNDS RECORDS MAILOUT, World Financial breakdown special

Hi All,
In these times of uncertainty, its good to know there are heroic types out there working hard for you, brothers and sisters, bringing you culture and by proxy joy. On the other hand there are people out there who scrape along on their bellys, smelling a bit funny and content to sit in their pants all day watching daytime trash TV taking comfort in the knowledge that they will never, no matter how hard they try, ever amount to a damn thing, thats us. HERE'S TO OUR FUTURE BROTHERS' AND SISTERS', it may be cheap, it may be ugly but by God it will be fun or I'm the first Mick in Space.

THE WRENCH ISSUE 8 - FREE MOTOR SOUNDS RECORDS CD
We've teamed up with the stunningly beautiful and talented Zoe over at The Wrench Magazine and decided to give away a free, yes you heard me FREEEEEEEEE CD album with every issue and we got it in stock. The Wrench - issue 8 , it features an interview with yours truly and a free 11 track MOTOR SOUNDS RECORDS CD, featuring The Routes, Rock n Roll Monkey and the Robots, The Bonnevilles, The Mighty Steph, D-66, Mudlow, Dead Elvis, The Dagger Lees, Grum, The Things and Rusty Springfield. It also has a fucking super cool sleeve designed by the one and only Bob Jesus, all this as well as the usual oily greatness and wait for it, its only £4 inc P&P. Whatcha waiting for you dogs buy this bad boy....NOOOOOWWWWW.

http://www.motorsoundsrecords.com/THE%20WRENCH.html

1...The Bonnevilles - Hardtale Lurgan Blues
2...The Routes - Left My Mind
3...Rock n Roll Monkey and The Robots - We Want to Hear You Howl
4...The Things - Set Me Free
5...D-66 - Mondo Trasho
6...Mudlow - Zac
7...Dead Elvis and His One Man Band
8...The Dagger Lees - Stagger Stomp
9...The Mighty Stef - Hunter Gatherer
10.Grum - Too Much Rockin'
11.Rusty Springfield - I Got (Fever)

ROCK N ROLL MONKEY AND THE ROBOTS - NEW ALBUM - BACK TO BEATSVILLE
As you may or may not know, the new album from Detroits own Rock n Roll Monkey is a work of Rock n Roll genius and you need to own it, if you only buy one more album for the rest of your lives buy this, seriously have I ever letcha down?? huh have I??? I think you'll find the answer to that question is NO, so trust me and get this. Thee Craig Campbell is going into the history books people, be a part of it. £7.99 including postage ...worldwide
http://www.motorsoundsrecords.com/BACK%20TO%20BEATSVILLES.html

THE BONNEVILLES BELFAST GIGS WITH SCOTT BIRAM AND DAVE ARCARI
We also of course need you to buy The Bonnevilles album - Good suits and Fightin Boots which has just got a great review in this months Blues Matters magazine, you can read by buying the mag itself or checking out The Bonnevilles blog on the old MyFace page. http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=98154006&blogID=464282608
But onwards to the matter at hand.
TOMORROW, Saturday 17th of Feb w/Dave Arcari at The Black Box Theatre - Belfast
This one is a daytime show kids, 2PM and includes your lunch for the giveaway price of £5
Feb 5th and 6th w/Scott H Biram at The Menagerie Belfast and Masons Derry, respectively. The Belfast show will also have The Hellfire Club on the bill
For those of you that don't know Scott H. Biram, I urge you to get to one of these shows the man is practically a living legend and needs to be seen, for more info heres the mans myface page, drop in, say hi and tell him we sent ya. http://www.myspace.com/scotthbiram

Thanks it for now you beautiful people
Andy Motor Sounds

The current situation in the Gaza strip

I don't wish to become politicised or to get all political on your ass, I also am mindful of Bill Hicks' "Love all the People" ideas, which I agree with but in the past couple of days I have seen half a dozen photos of dead babies/children in the news papers, their little chubby fingers closed and sticking through rubble, or one particularly horrific photo in which a father on his knees over the bodies of three dead children pleads with the sky, what he pleads for I don't know but I'm sure you can imagine. In another image the bodies of a dozen or so dead policemen are laying were they fell, all inside 10 yards of one another, twisted, broken and un-natural. Whilst on the front page of a British dailys' supplement, one poor bastard reaches to the camera man for help, he's not looking at the lens he's looking right at the cameraman, his fingers burnt and bruised, I know he's fucked.

The invasion of Gaza by Israel is a disgrace and one which we should all be ashamed that our governments have encouraged or ignored the hellish situation that has been allowed to fester there over the years. It's no mistake that Israel has done this on the eve of the handing over of the US presidency to a less sympathetic administration. Israel complains of extremist Islam meanwhile it seems to be doing all it can to create extremisim, you simply cannot bomb and murder your way to any sort of resolution, Israel know this, so therefore they must have an alternative agenda.

Hamas on the otherhand have been firing missle across the border into Israel on a daily basis for years now, what the hell did they think was going to happen? Did they really think that Israel, an agresive state, backed by the most right wing U.S. government in history was going to let that continue unabated, it could be argued that if Israel, the U.S. and Europe recognised the legitimacy of Hamas when it was elected then perhaps they may have had other options. But thats all too late now.

The result is dead children, dead fathers, brothers, wives and sisters. Grief and grieving. Little chubby fingers poking up through the rubble and blood staining the dust and mortar from where you know the head is going be. There can be no winners here type Gaza into Google images and tell me its worth it.

BOOKING BANDS - ETIQUETTE, RULES AND STANDARDS

BOOKING BANDS - ETIQUETTE, RULES AND STANDARDS

Hi Kids, Andy here, all's well here at Motor Sounds Towers, we've had to turn the heating of...again, but never mind we can burn all the shit demos we get, those bad boys burnt like the fires of hell, much hotter than the good demos, go figure. Emo music on the other hand we've had to stop burning altogether, its like a fucking nuclear explosion. This one time we burnt a Funeral for a Friend album and we had to evacuate the building, the old people we use for wheelchair skittles in the foyer survived intact, more by accident than design, but now we can't use them for skittles anymore as the rubber tyres melted and stuck them to the floor so they couldn't wheel themselves out the door to safety and I'll be fucked if I was going back in there, it was real hot man, don't look at me like that. On the upside we've now got some brilliant corporate art, so if any Japanese business men have a spare million or two they need to be getting rid of, we can talk. We accept cheques.

BOOKING BANDS
I digress, the purpose of this blog, is to make a few things clear to some folks who want to book a band, obviously I'm concerned only with the bands whose music we release here at Motor Sounds Records, but you can apply this to any band who you think is good enough to book.

The music 'bidniz' is full of charlatans and sharks, if you don't want to be seen as one of their number heed my words of wisdom. they come from being involved in music since before I was born, I'm like a fucking modern, drunken Confucius.

PAYMENT
First of all, I know for a fact that a certain band on Motor Sounds Records have been getting a lot of booking requests lately from people who seem to be surprised that the band expect to be paid. This to me is an insult. Let me walk you through it point by point.

1...These bands have paid their dues to the Gods of Rock n Roll, now they just need to pay the rent.

2... The bands have their own expenses, Jesus the price of fuel alone would make a dead man weap.

3...If your club night/venue can't generate a couple of hundred quid to pay the band, you perhaps need to reconsider its viability.

4...We appreciate you may be trying to get something off the ground, but we're trying to feed our families and pay the rent, just like you.

5...You shouldn't expect bands to drive, sometimes, hundreds of miles, so you and your mates can have a giggle and play pretend at being promoters, its an insult.

6...All the bands on Motor Sounds are good enough to be paid for what they do.

7...I for one, and I know most of the bands that I speak of, have no other careers, we don't have an education or degrees to fall back on, when you were training to be a Surveyor/Accountant/Banker we where playing gigs, mostly for free and learning our trades.

8...We're not talking about thousands of pounds here. Get in touch if your curious about how much to pay/charge

9...But what about 'Giving the music back to the kids' or 'Just do it for the music maaaaaaannnnnnn' . All bands do play for free, its called rehearsal. (rehearsal rooms aren't free either)

OTHER THINGS
As well as payment, there are a few other things that need to be taken care of for the bands.

1...DIGS. If the band is traveling a long distance, accommodation is expected to be provided. A floor to lie on is more often
than not adequate, hostels are also acceptable and hotels are fucking great. But whatever you can provide do try and make it comfy.

2...FOOD should be provided, musicians aren't skinny thin because they want to be, its because promoters don't feed them, and yes it is standard practise for the promoter to feed the band.

3...BACKSTAGE. Although its not always practical, a place for the band to be alone is always appreciated, a backstage area, usually a broom cupboard to allow the band to gather their thoughts.

4...MERCHANDISE An area for merchandise to be displayed and sold, preferably near the entrance. Not all bands have merchandise to sell but those that do really rely on it boost their income. Let face it, if your not paying the fuckers the least you can do is help them make burger money.

5...SECURITY. YOU, THE BOOKER, need to think about the security of bands equipment. Me?, Yes you. The band don't know the area, they're in a van with thousand of pounds of often vintage and irreplaceable gear. They could park the van in the local pikey familys' back yard and not know a damn thing about it till its to late. Most bands will be really fussy about never letting their guitars etc. out their sight, indulge them.

6...BEER, you the booker/venue need to provide the band with beer. Most bands will enjoy a few drinks through out the course of the evening. If you give the band a couple of hundred quid to play your room its not fair if they spend it over the bar. Failing that, most well prepared bands travel with emergency supplies in the event of meeting a mean promoter. Do not tell a band off for bringing their own beer if you don't provide it.

7...PARTYING Musicians, more than anybody understand the desire to "party hardy dude", but if a bands touring through your town and your gig is the 12th night straight the band have played, I can assure of one thing, they will be completely fucked and may want to just get their heads down after the show, please allow them to do this. On the other hand they may want to inject drain-o into a cat, I 'll leave that one up to you. Trust me, touring is an exhausting business, and if your to survive it at all you need to pace yourself.

8...PROMOTION, this is more for your the bookers benefit. Please try and promote your event properly, if you don't know how to, then ask someone who does, trust me here, they will give you tips and contacts. Just ask. Bands with a professional attitude will play to two men and a dog, they won't enjoy it but they will do it but If you don't cover your expenses then the chances are you will be put off promoting events and we need more decent folks like you, who pay bands, in this game.

Tips*** ask the band for promo copies of their album/single to give to local press along with the usual press gumpf, all decent outfits will have a press pack readily available, you just have to ask.

***Don't be afraid to tell your friends to fuck off when they expect to get be put on the guest list. In my experience the best events have a very, very small guest list, coincidence?. Some promoters don't even let the bands girlfriends in on the guest list, its always the amateur affairs that have half the audience on the guestlist.

TO CONCLUDE
Thats most of it, if I think of anymore I'll add it, but as you can see most of this stuff is not difficult to do or organise but it is stuff that needs done and you would be amazed at how many cats just don't bother.

By the way, I know this stuff all cuts both ways, the bands have a contract to fulfill as well.
*Don't be late
*Don't be drunk
*Sound check is just that, a "sound check" not a fucking rehearsal if you can't be done in 15/20 minutes you've no business being on a stage.
*Be pleasant, these folks are putting their own money on you. Too cool for school wanna be rock stars are the most hateful wankers on Gods green earth.
*Bring all your own gear, drummers with no sticks and guitarists' minus leads do not inspire confidence.
*Be professional and work with the sound man, he's there to make you sound good, be clear and concise.

this list could actually be longer than the first one so I'll blog this some other time. So ta ta for now and we'll catch you on down the trail pardners.

Andy Motorsounds

MOTOR SOUNDS RECORDS MAIL OUT No.14 (global credit crisis special)

Hi Boys and Girls,
How the damn hell are y'all, good I trust. Here at Motor Sounds Towers we're getting excited about the pending "The Bonnevilles" albumGood Suits and Fightin' Boots. We are still waiting to get it ourselves, the printers are a bit slow, but good and thats what counts. We're going to be teaming up with a few labels across our big blue globe to bring the gospel of punkblues to the enlightened masses, Shoot First Records, Pop Suicidal Records, Zorch Productions and a few others, but we'll letcha all know about those as and when.

MP3s
We have a couple of MP3s available for y'all to download for free, thats right FREE, God damn it. If you go to the following link you can take receipt of this extreme act of generosity on our parts http://www.motorsoundsrecords.com/GOOD%20SUITS%20AND%20FIGTHIN'%20BOOTS.html You get "Good Suits and Fightin' Boots" and "God Might Love Me (but doesn't know me like the Devil does)" gratis, and of course if you enjoy those, and why wouldn't you, come back and buy the album.

We know there's an international credit crisis so we've reduced the price of all our release's to a practically for free £8 including postage worldwide. As with all our stuff, you can buy it via paypal and if you don't want to use that get in touch, we can work something out.

While we're on the MP3 tip, why don't you visit our webshite and download a few free MP3s from all our releases Ch...ch...ch...check it out http://www.motorsoundsrecords.com/MP3'S.html

RUSTY SPRINGFIELD
Its early days but theres another Rusty Springfield album in the can and will be with us in due course, I haven't heard this one yet but the early reports are all good baby. But just to add a little flavour to the stew, it was recorded using Joe Meeks old gear, if you don't know who Joe Meek is, then get googling you spanner.

RETAILERS
We got a couple of new retailers on board (i know that makes me sound like a business criminal), On Stage Records in Greece will be stocking our stuff along with Dead By Mono Records in the UK, if any of you Hep Kats and Kittens know any dudes that would be interested in doing the same then get in touch. We're cheaper than an octogenarian hooker and twice as eager to please.

SUPER-8-EKOTRONIC
Oh and before I forget, we've added a new string to the bow, super-8-ekotronic the cheapest nastiest sounding mobile recording studio in North Lurgan, shaaammmooonnnnn. Go here to read more about this modern marvel http://www.motorsoundsrecords.com/super-8-ekotronic.html

Thats all for now kids, stay in touch and don't let that smelly old tramp touch you there no matter how many teeth he has.

Andy Motor Sounds