Owner: Blog Scary Monsters URL:http://blogscarymonsters.blogspot.com Join Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 12:41:44 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: The day to day ramblings of an independent record label. Blog Scary Monsters is what goes on behind the scenes at Oxford based record label, Big Scary Monsters. Check it out for exclusive videos, downloads, photos, stories and rants about post offices, th Site statistics:Click here
Another day another STUPID video 2008-03-27 11:18:39 How is it that it can absolute piss it down all day yesterday yet today is full of glorious sunshine? I just don't understand it. Neither did my sweat glands as I trekked into town in my big coat.Mother Nature: get your head in the game, blud.Remembering a previous conversation with Dave from the band, as well as the opening line from the NME feature, for some reason I started thinking about Tubelord and, more specifically, how to dance to them. Stop-start rhythms and awkward time signatures coupled with hooky, sing-along vocals make it a musical contradiction of shapes and sounds, likely to confuse even the most professional amongst you. Well good news, because help is at hand. Here's an educational video
I just threw together on the matter:Sorted? Sorted.Tonight I'm off to see My First T
Tunelord 2008-03-26 06:31:00 Psycho! Psycho! Psycho! Sorry to interrupt your enjoyment of Mr Tanbad's incredible beats (below), but today is another one of those Tubelord days.If you're an NME reader then you may well have already noticed that the Kingston trio have picked themselves up a lovely, lovely live review from last Monday's BSM St Patrick's Day party at The Social in London. It includes the phrases "With their jerky dance-punk rhythms smoothed out into melodic choruses (and aided by a vocal crowd) the trio pose the best kind of dilemma – should we try and dance or concentrate on learning the words?" and "we should celebrate daily that BSM exists to continually discover such thrilling bands." I very much like the idea of the latter. Feel free to take this matter into your own hands, people.In other press ne
New Secondsmile track! 2008-03-28 11:12:28 They've only gone and bloody done it, 'aven't they?!Do you want to hear a track from the brilliant forthcoming Secondsmile album?Stupid question. Get on it: www.myspace.com/secondsmile
Cold as ice 2008-04-01 06:44:03 I feel terrible today. Last weekend I seemd to pick up some form of Highlands bug which then broke down into a heavy bout of Man Flu. 8 days later and it just keeps on getting worse. On one hand I feel like I shouldn't complain (as it makes me sound like a little girl) but on the other, my head feels like it's turning itself inside out and I want to share my pain.To combat the ill-feelings I'm listening through some new rough mixes of a few This Town Needs Guns tracks. They're currently untitled so are simply known by animal names for the time being. Aadvark, Baboon, Badger, Chinchilla, Dog, Gibbon, Lemur, Pig and Rabbit. The record won't be finished until June so you've got yourselves a long time to wait before you'll be hearing these little beauties.We only have 60 copies of the Tubelord
Tubelord out today! 2008-03-31 07:28:36 The debut single from Tubelord is out today! To-bloody-day!Buy it from Banquet, itunes or the BSM shop. Or maybe all three, if you're a 'Lord loving greedy pig, which I for one heartily condone.
I'm the Statman 2008-03-31 04:33:54 The start of another grey, overcast week in Oxford. How many of your forgot to change your clocks and overslept today? Come on, admit it. Today is the last day of the month which means that a good lot of you out there will be out and about flittering away your pay cheques on frivolous activities, toys and fun. Unfortunately, being self-employed without a dedicated wage it's not quite so fun for me. The end of the month means no pay cheque, but lots of lovely, lovely bills. The worst combination. Oh what I'd do to have it the other way around!A few months back regular readers may remember I posted a little message regarding the blog stats, who's reading it and where in the world these people are. Well here's the update I figured (4/10 for that pun) that you'd all be desparate to know how th
That's what she said 2008-04-04 06:21:36 The next new Secondsmile track is up online, give it a listen - www.myspace.com/secondsmileRight, that's enough work talk for today, it's Friday yo!The second part of my new Myspace Fruit Of The Week feature has unfortunately fallen through. It was a beauty as well. It was one of those classic dickheads who messages you saying "I love your band" although you're clearly not a band "Pay me $500 and I'll make you famous". I'm not in a band but even I found it difficult to turn that offer down! Unfortunately Tom and his crack team of profile erasers caught up with the lad before I had a chance to learn an instrument and run to the bank, so until next week I recommend you scroll down and give Psycho Tanbad and his massive dog another spin.Anyone a fan of the US version of The Office? People who
The lowest part of the night 2008-04-03 11:48:07 1.30am Thursday 3rd April. I'm in the Borderline, a nasty little venue which I dislike at the best of times, crouched in a dirty toilet cubicle with a snotty hanky grasped tightly in my hand, ridiculous songs about dolphins annoyingly spinning around my head, trying not to be sick everywhere as my stomach gurgles violently once again. My nose is blocked up to the point where it's become completely redundant and every time I breathe through my mouth the phlegm wobbles about pushing me one step closer to puking. It's not a happy combination. I take another swig of water, gingerly get back to my feet and walk out. The main room's dark, Avenged Sevenfold is booming through the PA and kids in vests with terrible haircuts are windmilling all over the place. Time to go home, I think. I've made a
Dillinger Escape Quo 2008-04-02 04:34:24 Is it just me or does Lemsip taste like crap? I've just made my first mug for the day and it's sitting here looking smugly up at me. Little bastard. Even two sugars and a load of honey won't save this one.Here's an awesome video:I'm still listening to the Secondsmile album a lot. My favourite song changes daily but overall I think 'Stars Away' just about tops the poll, and good news for you lot is that's the one we're putting up online tomorrow. Less good news, however, is that it'll only be there for two weeks! Time to start cancelling plans and booking time off work, your new addiction is just 24 hours away.Just been reading on the Sub-Pop website about how they're celebrating their 20th anniversary. That's quite something. I've always been aware of the label and their bands but couldn't Read more:Dillinger
, Escape
Grand National - the winners! 2008-04-04 12:07:19 Good news, sports fans. I've spent the past two and a half minutes studying the names, numbers and colours (completely disregarding any sort of form or stats, obviously) of tomorrows GrandNational
runners and can exclusively reveal the first three horses who will be romping home to win you a fortune will be:1. King John's Castle2. Butler's Cabin3. Bewleys BerryA heavily plural selection, chosen using three important factors: One wears my lucky number, one features my middle name and one is trained by a man I saw driving down my street about a month ago.Use this valuable information as you see fit. I'm off to Ladbrokes to see how much I can cash a small independent record label in for.Best of British. Read more:Grand National
New TTNG video 2008-04-07 06:41:09 As promised in my Grand National gloating post, below, here's the new video
(for an old song) from This Town Needs Guns:Enjoy
Good ol' blighty 2008-04-07 03:47:36 When I posted those Grand National predictions, I wasn't joking. King John's Castle, my middle namesake, came in 2nd at odds of 20/1 and Bewley's Berry was a respectable 5th at around 17/1 (if you placed the bet when I wrote the blog - he dropped to around 12's on the day), which you will have won money on if, like me, you placed your bet with Paddy Power who were paying on top 5 finishes, and also gave a 10% bonus on all wins. My 3rd prediction, Butler's Cabin, unfortunately fell at the 22nd fence when looking good. You'll listen to me next time won't you?Saturday night I enjoyed a tremendously UK moment. Sitting in a Hungry Horse pub, somewhere deep in a rural part of Peterborough. Every single square inch of the place was covered in England flags, the TVs were blasting out the Amir Khan
How to get signed 2008-04-09 04:06:46 It must be difficult for bands. There are literally millions of them in the world, all competing for notoriety, attention and world domination, but relatively few labels out there willing to listen. Being a man completely free of any musical talent, it's not really something I'll ever need to concern myself about, but being stuck firmly on the record label side it's something I come into contact with every single day. A disappointing number of bands seem to have decided the way to get signed is to add you on Myspace and leave an arrogant "thanks for the add, we're the next big thing" comment on your page. A simple rule of thumb for me is if you can't be bothered to even write me a proper email, through a proper medium, then I don't have time for you. However, sometimes bands do take the ti
Emotional 2008-04-11 04:52:59 Tonight I'm off to see Dashboard Confessional and get exceptionally emo. Six years ago (six?!) I bought the MTV live album from Ebay and bloody loved it. It's a record I haven't listened to in a good couple of years now but I feel like I owe it to the 18 year old inside to go and get drunk on cider and have a good ol' sing-along. I might even try and dig out a sweat band for the occasion. I understand that this will probably make 50% of you reading this re-think your feelings towards BSM, it'll make a further 49% of you lose all respect you may have for me and the final 1% will be thinking "right on, brother!", and to you 1% - sing with me: Read more:Emotional
Indigestion 2008-04-10 07:15:50 There are two kids in the street outside comparing the sounds of their bicycle bells. "bring-bring... riiiiing... bring-bring... riiiiing.... bring-bring.......... riiiiiiiiiiing". This has been going for 10 minutes now and is every bit as annoying as you would imagine.This week I've completed two email interviews with magazines. One was for an article in Clash about DIY indie labels, which I'm quite interested to see. I answered the questions whilst hungover and feeling fairly negative about the world, so I'll probably come across as some sort of fascist. Again.I haven't made a proper new band recommendation for a while so lets rectify that right now shall we?Dinosaur Pile-UpTubelord have been banging on about this band for a few weeks now and I think I like them. They have the kind of re
Working 9 til 5 2008-04-12 09:17:46 Dashboard was suitably emo last night. I think he must have played for two hours but I missed the first half due to due to vodka related activities. Here's a picture of the happy gang. We eventually agreed to have our picture taken with Mr Confessional. He was having the time of his life.Today is Saturday but there's no rest for the wicked. Right now I'm burning loads of Secondsmile promo CDs for press. I have one of those duplicating machines which knocks out 3 at a time but it seems to be broken, or at least, part-broken. So now that's down to doing 1 at a time I have a system setup which basically sees me running between that, this computer and the one on the other side of the room, setting a new CD going on them all roughly every 2 minutes. It's like spinning plates. Brilliantly musica
Myspace Fruit Of The Week - Number 3 2008-04-15 05:43:15 Continuing my new series of Myspace Fruit
Of The Week, the latest entry comes thanks to a friend and her keen eye for a weirdo (or should I say, musical talent?) on Myspace. Said friend works for a well known UK music festival so I'm writing this whilst hoping and praying she'll do the right thing and make us all very happy this summer with the booking of...Gaz ReynoldsIf you know a more English man than Gaz Reynolds, put your hand up now. Nobody? Didn't think so. Gaz is the very epitome of British. His bulldog features, his EastEnders accent, his flabby pale body and his excellent hard house beats. That's right, hard house beats. If Gaz wasn't the wrong side of 40 he could be the best up and coming DJ this isle has ever seen. Check out this brilliant video of (apparently one-toed) Gaz in Read more:Number
No title 2008-04-15 05:29:37 Monday 14th April. 4pm: "I didn't realise it took so long to get seen in A&E, I've never been before" I said to Ivano, whilst talking about the time his Dad sliced his finger off.Monday 15th April. Midnight: "I can't believe we've been sitting here waiting for someone to see you for over three hours" I say to Gemma, in A&E, completely disheartened and sick to death of listening to people chew gum loudly all around me.What are the chances? In 24 and a half years the very first time I ever utter the words "I've never been to A&E" I end up there, on a completely unrelated matter with a completely separate person, just a few hours later.I HAVE NEVER WON THE NATIONAL LOTTERY BEFORECome on lightning, strike me twice
I don't like Mondays 2008-04-14 04:36:54 It must be the school holidays as everytime I look out of my window I see kids rolling past. And I mean rolling. In my day they didn't build tiny wheels into the bottoms of shoes. What is this new and bizarre fad? Kids are all about multi-tasking these days.Well as you may have noticed I lost yet another 15p football accumulator this weekend. Bit annoying, I thought this was going to be a winner but I ended up very, very wrong. Millionaire status will have to wait another week.I just poured the best part of half a pint of orange squash into my keyboard. Obviously I didn't mean to, but the poor thing has had gallons over the last couple of clumsy years. My whole computer is on it's way out anyway. Outlook has decided it won't send anymore emails until I clear some of the 20,000 out of my se Read more:Mondays
Shuffle 2008-04-16 05:46:06 This morning I've been getting loads of menial admin tasks out of the way (currently halfway through copying 319 mailorder details onto a spreadsheet - wow, exactly) and decided to put my itunes on shuffle to keep me company. Despite there being 1694 songs on there, apparently 4.5 days of solid music, 5 of the last 10 songs have all been Glassjaw. I'm not complaining, but I think it says a lot about my taste. What also says a lot about my taste, is that the last song to play was 'Centrefold' by The J-Geils Band.Inspiration for the next Secondsmile video? I think soNa na nanana Read more:Shuffle
Cosmo 2008-04-16 03:35:37 Girls everywhere! Put down your lipstick and listen up: "Anathallo's sound is so soothing to the soul it'll cure you of just about anything" proclaim Cosmo
Girl magazine in their 'Daily Kiss' article. Whilst we appreciate the support from the sweet cheeks bible of everything X chromosome, I'd like to take this opportunity to say that whilst Big Scary Monsters Records loves and fully endorses listening to Anathallo, we offer no guarantees of their ability to cure "anything" and hereby refuse to accept any liability. Just had to get that out of the way, like. I dread to imagine that difficult law suit.Click here to read what else everyone's favourite girly mag had to say about your new favourite Chicago 7-piece.Girl power
Under achieving 2008-04-17 06:17:04 It's 12pm, I've been up for 4 hours yet feel I have achieved nothing thus far. In an attempt to rectify I head over to Blog Scary Monsters with the intention of venting loads of inane crap. Will this help my under-achieving
feelings? Will it fuck.Please excuse my french.I'm still enjoying the fruits of my itunes shuffling today. We've just had Biffy Clyro followed by Audrey. Earlier on saw two Get Up Kids tracks back to back followed by Andrew WK. The joy was astounding, I nearly put my head through my difficultly low ceiling. At the time I was also working on the BSM Summer Collection flyer. I gave myself a brief of combining as many sunshine-inspired happy thoughts as possible and it's shaping up nicely. A little piece of summery ecstasy, you could say.So This Town Needs Guns are in the
Goodnight 2008-04-18 08:07:45 In a shocking bout of showing my old age... I'm going back to bed! It's 2pm and I'm now really hungover so the BSM office is shutting down for the rest of the day.If you're going to the Camden Crawl this weekend come to Bar Monsta at 11.30pm to see myself and Ivano DJing some massive tunes. I'm under strict instructions not to play any of my "pop shit" so I'll probably be throwing down some mosh. Well... maybe. Not sure which bands I'm going to see but I have a pass which will get me into any venue and I'm not afraid to use it. Get your recommendations in now.Night Read more:Goodnight
Snickers. No, wait... Marathon Bar 2008-04-18 05:06:46 Just another normal night out last night, winding up drinking vodka and eating a battered sausage in the back of a packed chip shop whilst a little fella played Johnny Cash and Elvis covers. Standard, really. Still, could've been worse, could've been out with these lads. Myself and Jack Alcopop made the trip into London last night to catch up with our good pals in goFASTER, along with a cluttered array of brilliant other friends. Quite the industry fest, we hung out with managers, labels, publishers, booking agents, promoters, press people, a few band members and apparently one or two actors, not that I recognised them. We even managed to agree a new, and brilliant, release which I'm pleased about. Oh and Mike Hooper, the former Liverpool substitue goalkeeper, now a doorman in his hometown Read more:Snickers
, Marathon
Secondsmile podcast 2008-04-19 05:15:57 Todays hangover is bought to you courtesy of Koppaberg Pear Cider and Tesco Value vodka.Good news is that the Secondsmile podcast has finally gone live on itunes. Round of applause for Apple, please. Featuring a couple of tracks taken from the forthcoming album, an old one and some of the bands favourite other artists, you can download it via itunes or as an MP3. We're all about giving you options.The next proper episiode of the podcast will be online towards the end of next week and having just been listening to it now I can honestly tell you it's a bit of a winner.No outrageous 15p football accumulators today, I'm too nervous about Reading's game with Arsenal and our questionnable Premier League survival to concern myself with winning millions. Fame and fortune can wait a couple of weeks
That was pimp 2008-04-21 04:54:02 Watched Superbad for about the 10th time last night. It's pretty pimp. If you haven't seen it, sort yourself out. I couldn't decide which video to link to on Youtube so here are loads.I think it may have somehow escaped my posting before but Hush The Many (Heed The Few)'s 'Revolve' single is out on Alcopop (our lovely sister label) next Monday and they have an awesome animated video for the song. A crack-team of people who'd never previously attempted animation before pieced it together, which makes it twice as good in my book. Check it:
Flicked 2008-04-22 03:52:13 So I've just joined Flickr. What's that all about, hey? I literally don't have a clue what I'm doing but I've managed to add 50 pictures and 20 friends. Come and join in the fun.What's new, pussycat? Well, I've just updated the website with a new release. Ooooh. It's called '50 Not Out' and is a compilation CD featuring 50 MP3s of past, present and future BSM artists, as well as some of our favourite others. Give it a look. It's free with all online purchases or £4 to buy on its own. I'll post the press release and more info on here soon.Our lovely friends in Anathallo are heading out on tour with Anticon's own Dosh very soon. Have a look at those dates on their Myspace and be prepared to be jealous, all non-Americans. Which does actually include me, so I know how you're feeling.I have a
Tubelord guest blog entry 2008-04-21 11:36:43 Here's a lovely (if a little weird) blog entry from Tubelord about all sorts of nonsense and their upcoming tour plans. Enjoy. Safe.hello dear children men and woman of the internet.so...touring's pretty fucking mint. especially when you get the chance to meet some pretty inspiring people, hear the most inspiring new music, and get to gig with some of your most favourite bands ever. i can't complain. good times.anyone who came to a show, safe for coming along, i hope we weren't too shambolic (we probably were... if you thought that then all i have to say to you is gutted!!... i hope you really fucking hated it). and to those of you who bought stuff you helped re-pay debts which is always nice :)if i could take away any new found knowledge from the tour, it would be credit card suicide.I as
Myspace Fruit Of The Week - Part 4 2008-04-23 04:58:36 I'm quite busy this week with the launch of the '50 Not Out' compilation as well booking a couple of tours for Secondsmile and enjoying a feast of particuarly fruitful brainstorming sessions, so I've decided not to focus on any one induvidual in this weeks Myspace feature, and instead give you a little glimpse of the wonderful add requests I've received so far today. A picture speaks a thousand words and all that:Cunt Pig wants to be your friend. That sounds like a difficult request to decline.Wasn't the weather great yesterday? Walking down Portobello Road, arms bare, jumper left at home neatly filed under "no need", McFlurry in hand and almost considering smiling at passers by. "Hello summer, it's so good to see you."This morning I awoke to the sound of rain on the window. Mother Nature Read more:Fruit
50 Not Out press release 2008-04-24 06:56:07 "We should celebrate daily that BSM exists to continually discover such thrilling bands" - NME"The DIY ethos is alive and kicking and BSM is one of the finest purveyors of underground music right now" - Rock Sound"Without doubt, one of the most reliable and consistently challenging independent labels in the UK" - Drowned In SoundCompletely against the run of play, Big Scary Monsters Records have made it to 50 releases! The half-century came as a bit of a shock to everyone but we prefer to think of it as one in the eye for the music industry Grim Reaper, rather than blind faith and an outstayed welcome from this little independent label.Started on an adolescent whim amidst wide-eyed dreams of rock n roll stardom, Kevin Douch awoke one morning with Melody Maker-grubbied fingers and decided t
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