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
What the...?! 2007-10-02 12:25:00 I just "pinged" my blog. Answers on a postcard if you can tell me what the heck that means!
Demon facing and the future of our planet 2007-10-02 09:29:00 I decided it's time to stop living in fear and made my return to the post office today, to face the wrath of the angry man after I shunned him and his kind offer of letting me sell his records for him a few weeks back. Don't get me wrong, if I had my way I'd live cowering in my nice, warm house for years without so much as laying an eye on the place, but the pile of CDs waiting to be shipped around the world kinda forced my hand on this one.All was looking good as I set off down the road. The rain had eased off, the air was thinner than the radiator-warmed oxygen of the house and the work traffic wouldn't be seen for at least two hours yet. I even allowed myself a little song as I skillfully kept hold of the huge pile of jiffy bag packages whilst waving a friendly greeting to Next Door Geoff, un-necessarily cutting large pieces of wood in his garage, as per usual. I cruised into the Post Office, bypassed the shelves of sweets and headed straight for the counter where our eyes locke Read more:planet
A very reliable source 2007-10-01 06:06:00 I've just updated the BSM Myspace blog with an update of last months comings and goings. Click here to have a read of that along with past monthly entries, and see below for a couple of stories ripped from said blog, which I thought I would share with you here too:The scary man at the post office guessed that I work in music from the number of CD shaped parcels I've been sending over the past couple of months and decided to offer me the very priveleged job of selling a box of his old vinyl for him. Ever heard of Frankie Kuntz? Of course you haven't. I told him I don't think these records would fetch much and having fled from his death stare I've been too scared to return for the past 4 weeks.Check out Deal Or No Deal this month as a friend of the label's, Ed (who some of you may recorgnise as the elf from the BSM Christmas parties) attempts to get rich. Good luck lad! FYI: Ed's the one on the left, no, wait...
Frankie says relax 2007-09-30 05:01:00 I've decided to give myself a bit of a rest this weekend. Too much partying over the past couple of weeks has left me feeling crushed, physically, mentally and financially. Last night I watched the first episodes of the new series of Heroes and House, thanks to my new found best friend, bit torrents. A wonderful invention if ever I saw one.The Fall of Troy, Daughters and Secondsmile tour ended Friday night in London in a haze of booze, dancing, a sold out Academy and kebab meat and chips. Good times.Favourite band of the day: Anathallo. Sitting somewhere between Sufjan Stevens and The Polyphinic Spree, they're a 7-piece band from Chicago which aren't so much of an instant attention grabber as they are a beautiful thing which you'll learn to love over a series of plays. Check out their album 'Floating World' for the stunning artwork as much as the adorable, intelligent music.Sending a big news mailout tomorrow. I'm never really sure how many people read them, let alone receive th Read more:Frankie
Decptember 2007-09-27 04:54:00 How bloody cold is it right now? Seriously, someone give Mother Nature a prod and tell her to wake up!Last week I was lucky enough to visit Maida Vale studios for the second time in my life and managed to keep up my 100% tradition of arriving late. This Town Needs Guns and Cats And Cats And Cats were recording a joint session for Huw Stephens Radio One show in the famous Studio Four. I don't actually know for sure that it's famous, but it's a big room with a lovely grand piano, a balcony and amazing acoustics where I like to assume that everyone who is anyone has previously recorded. I read a rumour a few months back that they were planning on tearing the studios down because their analogue setup is too out-dated. I really hope that isn't true. If I was a boaster I'd probably say that I know the least about recording and sound quality of everyone who has ever worked in the music industry, but to my untrained ears the sound in there is stunning.The two bands recorded three songs ea
Last night I missed all the fireworks 2007-09-25 06:43:00 Saturday night I saw a wonderful thing. The Fall of Troy, Daughters and Secondsmile had been together for the past three days, performing, drinking and partying, reaching that point of the tour where they've now bonded sufficiently enough for their talents to unite and vent themselves in the one thing which brought them all together in the first place: music. The upstairs backstage area of the new Zodiac (much the same as the upstairs of the old Zodiac, for anyone who's interested) was the location as, aided by the Mac's Garageband program, the three bands sat down, many cans of beer in hands, and put their creativity to good use. American's saying "I whacked my balls on the stove" in cliched English accents, Snoop Dogg impressions, hand claps and ambient electronica music fused together, the track is to be completed this week and I hope to post it online as a world exclusive in the not too distant future. Come back soon.In other news: For the first time in 6 years I missed Truck f
Rolodex Propaganda 2007-09-22 04:31:00 Last night I saw At The Drive-In headline The Underworld in Camden. At least, I saw Sam Get Cape Wear Cape Fly and four of my friends flailing around on stage, reading words from the floor and rocking out in big afro wigs. It was, sadly, as close as I'll ever get to seeing one of my all-time favourite bands play live.Shameful story: When ATD-I infamously ripped up the small Carling tent at the Reading festival a few years, I instead opted to watch Gomez on the main stage so that I could sing along to 'Whippin' Piccadily'. Good song, poor choice.Tonight is my first visit to the newly opened Zodiac, or Carling Academy Oxford, if you're that way inclined. With Secondsmile supporting The Fall of Troy and Daughters upstairs and This Town Needs Guns playing main support to The Young Knives in the new, large, 1000 capacity room downstairs, it's a nicely BSM endorsed evening and I look forward to good times running up and down the stairs trying to see as many bands as possible. Before th Read more:Propaganda
The wind in Brighton 2007-09-20 10:45:00 Yesterday I fled from home to the usually-lovely-but-this-time-disappointingly-windy seaside town of Brighton
. The reason for the trip was Meet Me In St Louis' Kerrang photoshoot for their upcoming magazine feature and my chance to look like a high flying music exec. Daydreams of a lazy day on the beach, eating ice cream and playing crazy golf were quickly displaced by reality as I arrived late (as usual) and was asked to spend the next two hours holding some sort of light blocking camera prop, deparately trying not to let it blow away. Or more truthfully, not let it blow me away. Any delusions of grandeur I may have hoped to retain are snatched from me as I realise I am actually the lowest person here. I'm not the cool, artistic guy holding a huge camera calling the shots, I'm not one of the five scruffy rockstars posing menacingly whilst onlookers look puzzled and think "ooh I wonder if they're famous?", hell I'm not even the lonely guy stood down near the sea watching as a sick
Welcome home, Jellybean 2007-09-20 10:32:00 I've finally given in and taken the plunge, deciding to setup my first real blog. Up until now I've posted randomly on Myspace (something which I will continue to do, I'm sure) but now I feel really cool. I mean, this is what all the kids are doing these days, isn't it?Truth be told, the main reason I signed up to this website is because I thought the name "Blog Scary Monsters" was too good not to use - Simple things, and all that - but now I guess I'm going to have to find a way to justify my time and efforts, not to mention your time and boredom.I guess I'll use this space to talk about upcoming Big Scary Monsters news, releases, tours, awesome bands from around the world, random stories, amusing videos and, most likely more often than not, whatever my latest fad is.To get the new blog off to a winning start I've decided to begin as I intend to go on, and have stolen the below video from the wonderful 'Simply The Best' blog. Get ya weapons out. Read more:Welcome
Funding 2007-10-13 06:38:00 In the past I've been asked in numerous magazine interviews how I fund the label. When I tell them it's partyly down to gambling on football, the usual response is for them to laugh.Today I have £1 on the following teams to all win: Poland, France, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, England, Sweden, Serbia, Portugal, Argentina, Greece, Turkey, Belarus, Crotia, Uruguay, MK Dons, Nottingham Forest, Leeds, Oxford and Ebbsfleet.Lets see who has the last laugh. Read more:Funding
Nice to meet you 2007-10-12 04:25:00 Today we launch the new BSM singles series, Meet & Greet. Myself and my good friend Ivano have been working on this for a bit now and we think it's a great idea, I just hope you lot agree!Basically we're going to be collaborating with other labels from all around the world (meeting and greeting them, if you like) to co-release loads of singles. Some of the labels will be old friends, some will be labels we love and admire as music fans. Some of the singles we work on will just be one band, some will be splits between two or more. It's a very open scheme which leaves us with lots and lots of possibilities. We didn't want to confine ourselves to a straight-forward singles club where everything comes out on a certain format on a routine date. Everyone knows BSM can't stick to a deadline, so it just wouldn't have worked that way!The first two singles have been announced and the band's are both very busy. First up we have The New 1920 (released with BSM and Sam Get Cape Wear Cape
Please tell me why I'm sleeping with my clothes on 2007-10-11 04:24:00 I've known about this for a couple of days now but last night it became public knowledge: Jairus have decided to call it a day. I won't go into details but a statement will be up on the band's Myspace page soon. We're hoping to release the new album via itunes in early 2008 as planned, so if you were looking forward to hearing it, you still can. As I said on the press release regarding the band's demise: "There are currently no plans for a £40 vinyl discbox set". That's me mocking Radiohead that is. Topical.On a brighter note, how good were Lit?We had another Alcopop! meeting last night, after playing football for two hours. I drank a bottle of citrus vodka and we made yet more industry shaping plans; some ridiculously good, some just ridiculous. This morning I can't decide which hurts the most, my legs or my head.Today I plan to listen to everything The Get Up Kids ever recorded, in chronological order, of course. Read more:Please
John Peel 2007-10-10 09:34:00 As tomorrow is John Peel day I thought I would share a little story with you:The first radio airplay BSM ever received was from Mr Peel back in 2004. He played two of my releases back to back and called it a "BSM segway". One of the records he put on at the wrong speed and the other was a split single, from which he played one band but called them by the others name. I was at my girlfriend's Mum's wedding when I received a text telling me he'd played them the night before, so I faked illness to literally run the 2 miles home and listen back online. I spent the rest of the afternoon punching the air, wearing a huge smile and getting drunk on WKD blue, before being rumbled and shouted at by my girlfriend. She didn't understand my reasoning. We broke up shortly after citing musical differences as the reason.R.I.P. John Peel
House of Free Music 2007-10-08 05:13:00 Do you want to download a free House
of Brothers track, taken from the forthcoming debut EP? Don't worry, it's a rhetorical question, here's the link:House of Brothers - Deadman MP3Download it, love it, pass it onto your friends and spread the word. The song's already been made Student Radio Association's 'approved track of the week' and with live dates with Youthmovies coming up this week, you can be the coolest kid on the block when you tell your mates that you've been a fan since the start. Read more:Music
Saturday afternoon in the city 2007-10-07 05:41:00 To all of the people who walk really, really slowly down the high street, folk who stop abruptly right in front of me for no reason at all, old women who stand in the middle of aisles blocking the whole shop up and rude boy kids who strut around with their trousers tucked into their socks and their caps barely touching the tops of their shaved heads: What the hell are you playing at?!There's something about busy Saturday
s in packed city centres which really makes my blood boil. Well actually, that's four things.On a happier note: The first pressing of the Meet Me In St Louis album is nearly gone already and the second one has just been ordered. Two new releases - which haven't even been announced publicly yet - are also being pressed right now, and I'm downloading the House of Brothers EP artwork as I type this. I've also just polished off a nice looking new flyer design and have placed an order for some new t-shirts. It's 11am on a Sunday, I'm hungover from drinking too much ci
Alcopopping 2007-10-04 04:38:00 As well as BSM I also co-run Alcopop! Records with my former housemate and good friend, Jack. After leaving our shared house in June, Jack moved west to Bristol with his girlfriend. This put an end to our nights of cutting and folding CD sleeves infront of the TV and ridiculous midweek drinking binges dreaming up hairbrained schemes for the label... Or that's what we thought! Last night Jack came down and our "meeting" panned out as such:Arriving at 7pm we downed a couple of large vodka's and came up with possibly the best gimmick the record industry has ever heard of (tbc). We caught the bus to Cowley Road where we met a couple of the guys from a local band (whose name, for now, will remain a secret. Note: they have a digital release coming out soon and you might have heard of them, but that's all I'm saying) for a curry and to discuss a future release or three, arriving late as we stopped off, sorry, went out of our way to get to, the dodgy off licence where everything is 50p and
Stop the press! A glorious day 2007-10-03 10:12:00 The sun's threatening to come out, Oxford's packed with smiling, happy students and the press is flooding in.Meet Me In St Louis are featured in this week's Kerrang (see below for photoshoot dramatics) and receive a glowing album review from The Fly, both out today, whilst tonight, This Town Needs Guns and Cats And Cats And Cats Radio One session gets it's first airing. It's like buses. Beautiful, record-selling buses.I've just cooked myself some celebratory garlic bread, something I only realised last week I actually enjoy, after 24 years of missing out. Maybe it is the future after all, hey Peter?
Man flu 2007-10-17 03:15:00 During the course of yesterday I felt gradually more and more ill. It set in slowly, beginning with a cloudy head and then moving south, by 2am nestling horribly in my throat making it almost impossible to sleep. I woke up complaining this morning as my mouth feels like it's on fire and, despite a solid 8 hours sleep, I'm devestatingly tired. Instead of taking any form of medicine or even contemplating a trip to the doctor's I have planned a day of moaning and looking for sympathy.Over the past few days I've been asked for interviews by a few, wonderfully named, student newspapers. To begin with we had the Brighton Badger, this was followed by Oxford university and their Cherwell paper, and today I've had an email from the Warwick Boar. If the Gateshead Goose, the Upminster Fairy or the Bradford Ape fancy asking me a few questions, you'll find me on email all day, complaining about my sore throat to anyone who will listen.PS. Listen to 'My Brother, The Astronaut' by Elle Milano
Jhazz never spelt so good 2007-10-15 09:07:00 So my bet didn't come in on Saturday. It's another week of poverty for me. England won the rugby though, which I guess is good news? I would love to go on a rant now about how everyone suddenly becomes a fan at times like this, but as anyone who knows me would testify: I bloody hate rugby! An opinion further enforced after watching the game at a crowded pub with a whole squad of steroid-filled local players.Have you downloaded the House of Brothers MP3 yet? No? Well shame on you.Favourite new band of the day: Tera Melos. Technically not a new band having been around for quite some time, and officially they're not even a new band to me, as I first heard them a few months back now, but I'm counting them as new because last week was when I finally 'got' them for the first time. When listening before I just couldn't quite get my head around the time changes, the random bits of guitar noise, basically the awkward determination to steer clear of producing anything at all easily access
Ska punk and 17 year old boys 2007-10-26 05:58:00 One of the first ever BSM releases was a compilation CD entitled 'You Do Know What This Means, Don't You?'. It featured 24 punk and ska bands, some of whom me and my juvenile ears considered to be the most important bands in the world at the time, along with a picture of the Thundercats inside the booklet. I think it's fair to say I was a pretty bog-standard, typical student. The CD went on to sell the best part of 70 copies, proving just how well I knew my new-found job, with the remaining 430 still sitting boxed up in my parents garage. Looking back at the release there are quite a few things which make me cringe, but there are also two things I will always be proud of. In the week that one of them, the mighty Finch (who's first ever UK release came thanks to the demo version of 'Letters To You' on this very compilation), announce that they are to reform, my other favourite thing about the release is coming to an end. Probably my all-time favourite UK punk band, the fantastic
Ache 2007-10-23 06:29:00 Today I'm hungover. Really, really hungover.Thankfully last week's flu passed just in time for me to head up to In The City in Manchester on Sunday to catch The New 1920, Data.Select.Party and a few other, mostly terrible, bands, get stupidly drunk, find my way into a free bar party at a very nice hotel, eat chicken, chips and gravy, then pass out watching baseball. Monday wasn't so fun with a very stressful trip back to Oxford, only to leave for London and the Alcopop! gig half an hour later. Still, all went well there, the band's were great, the people were, as always, great, and I once again got drunk. Great.I'm now sitting here in an England football shirt and checkered pyjama trousers, staring through bloodshot, bearly open eyes at my computer trying to pick my way through something like 500 emails. Excellent time for a hangover.In musical news, Meet Me In St Louis are on tour with An Emergency right now and begin their dates with Hell Is For Heroes later on this week. The Ne
Dropping bombs 2007-10-31 12:14:00 'Torpedo Libido' by The New 1920 has been added to the Xfm evening playlist in London, Manchester and Scotland, on top of the plays Zane Lowe and Steve Lamacq have given it on Radio 1 and 6 Music. Good times. Give it a listen and place your order now at www.myspace.com/thenew1920 - It's available on 7" and CD, for the indecisive amongst you.I'm going to freeze my nuts off playing football now. Hopefully not like this
Perks 2007-10-30 10:02:00 I decided to work from home today. Granted, I would from home everyday, but today I decided to forget the office upstairs and have instead been working from the laptop in the comfort of my own bed. And I guess, if you want to get technical, I haven't really done all that much 'work', as such. I've just spent the past hour reading a huge blog written by the former Vice President of Victory Records, talking about his former employer. I don't know if this is public knowledge and I just missed out, or if the court order from the label which followed the rant meant that it was given very little public notice? Either way, read it hereIn other, slightly more relevant news, Toby (vocals and beard) has left Meet Me In St Louis. I've known about this for about 10 days now and it's been difficult keeping quiet, especially as we share many of the same friends. It brings around a somewhat strange end to an amazing year for the band, but don't worry, they will definitely be continuing. The d
Distraction in times of boredom 2007-10-29 10:22:00 Dear DiaryI don't know how to break this to you. I've been wrestling with my thoughts all day and can't bear it any longer. You see, I've not been completely honest with you. I'm nothing but a dirty, rotten user.Right now I have nothing good to say to help brighten your day or bring a smile to your beautiful face. I don't plan on taking the time to ask how you are and this is probably the first time I've ever shown you any sort of respect. I write purely out of selfish, boredom-alleviating reasons, and to offer myself a means of escape from my monotonous task of mailing out House of Brothers EP promo CDs, which I have been doing for the best part of three hours now. It's not that I don't love you, because I do, in my own special way, it's just that I fear that this is all you will ever be to me. Someone I only turn to you in these such times, and not, as I should, to dedicate any true amount of care or affection towards you. You will never be anything more than a bit on the s
Food for thought 2007-10-27 08:58:00 I've just got home from my first ever trip to a UK branch of Lidl, surprised by the lack of British products available, yet pleased and amused by the large bag of Pommes Frites I picked up. That E in GCSE German came in handy at last.An interesting night last night, but not for any hard partying reasons. Feeling the effects from a busy week which took in four gigs and two bottles of vodka, I stayed in with the laptop in front of the TV, searching Google for the words "UK music industry future". It was mostly out of intrigue to see what's going on out there in the big wide online world, but also in the hope to find some sort of insurance that me and my independent record label can survive these difficult times.No obvious answers were found, as you may imagine, but some interesting articles nonetheless, some four years old yet discussing ideas and trends which I'm only just beginning to think about right now. It's times like this that make me realise I'm not quite as up to date as I Read more:thought
Bad mood 2007-11-02 11:47:00 I can't even be bothered to think of a decent title. Pure and simple, I'm in a bad mood. I woke up in one and I'll go to sleep in one, it's just one of those days where I feel like I hate the world, for absolutely no reason whatsoever. It's frustrating to the say the least, especially as not even this will cheer me up:So, it's Friday again eh? Seriously that comes around quicker every week. Anyone get tricked or treated this week? Halloween's always a bit of a non-starter for me, never could give a crap about it. You know your mood's bad when even this won't sort it:Sam Isaac's new single 'Sideways' had a nice play on Colin Murray's Radio One show last night, and not one but two from Huw Stephens the night before. Unfortunately his single launch gig has been booked for 13th December, the same night as the BSM Christmas Party. That was poor planning wasn't it? I'm starting to think I must be dead inside:This weekend is looking fairly busy. Tomorrow morning I have a date w
Testimonial 2007-11-09 03:48:00 On March 3rd 2008 my all-time favourite dance song turns 10 years old. 'Renegade Master' by Wildchild had it all. Fast, catchy lyrics, pounding bass, breakdowns and an unstoppable energy that, at the age of 14, I just had to throw my arms in the air and sing-along to. At 24, nothing has changed.How do I celebrate this landmark release? A day dedicated to Wildchild? Ask one of the BSM bands to cover the song? Publish a host of 'Renegade' offers and promotions on the website? Perhaps some rememberance day armbands would be apt? Maybe I should write to the Prime Minister and request the day be made a public holiday? After a small amount of research this morning I'm said to discover that Roger "Wildchild" McKenzie, the genius producer behind the original version of the track, unfortunately died in November 1997. The track was first unleashed on the world in 1995 but I, unfortunately, did not discover it until 1998 when Norman Cook, AKA Fatboy Slim, gave it a second life with a rousing
I am massively hungover 2007-11-07 10:23:00 Have you ever crammed into a north London phonebox with a pal to share a bottle of vodka, Orangina and Irn-Bru? No? Well you haven't lived then have you?Richard Walters recently trekked up to Manchester to record a live session for the Channel M television channel. He played 'Elephant In The Room', a favourite from this year's 'Pilot Lights EP', along with a new song. Watch them.'Pilot Lights' is available to buy from itunes now, if you're one of those digitalaholic-types
Alcohol enduced creativity 2007-11-06 04:48:00 Sunday night we had the first of this weeks three planned Alcopop! meetings. The night began with a trip to the Purple Turtle in Oxford to check out goFASTER, a brilliant indie pop band from Liverpool. Imagine The Young Knives crossed with The Wombats, but influenced by the likes of Make Believe, Owls, Cap n Jazz etc, and throw in a butt-load of cheeky scouse charm. They played a blinding set then we crushed them at table football, twice, before saying our goodbyes and returning home to tackle the second tack on our agenda: Alcopopular Vol. 2's artwork.Alcopopular Vol. 2, the second in our line of compilations on alternative formats, is a 16 track cassette due out on 1st January 2008, limited to just 98 copies. It was supposed to be 100 but an ex-housemate destroyed 2 of the tapes with vomit. Between the hours of 12am and 3am we sat in my kitchen spraying 30-something tapes, heads spinning from the toxic fume and alcoholic combo, yet too afraid to open a window due to the artic condit Read more:Alcohol
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