#06 - Hallo...I Love You! - self titled album

#06/09 of the Used Vinyl Club releases. It’s a delightful 8 track album at. This will be available to download for FREE (from here: http://rekordmeistermusic.bandcamp.com/album/06-hallo-i-love-you) from Friday 6th of July. Also, that night will be the 6th Used Vinyl Club show featuring House that Jack Built & The Swapsies.

A few words from the indefatigable Christopher McIntosh:

“Hallo...I Love You!

Hallo! All of these songs were recorded around 2 years ago in Whitewood Studios, Liverpool by our very own Robert Whiteley. The songs were mostly written by Christopher McIntosh with the help of both Robert and Andrew Donovan and we roped Annamarie Owens to come and splash her lovely voice across them. None of us had done this type of music before and I guess that's why we wanted to do this band. All of the songs are total fun-time pop-fests and we're strangely proud of the results! We started to think that maybe these songs would never be released and we were kind of upset at the thought of all that fun going to waste but then when the idea of the Used Vinyl Club release came about, we were really excited and jumped at the chance to get the album out! We really hope you enjoy the songs as much as we enjoyed making them - hopefully we'll be making more soon.

Chris x”

#05 House that Jack Built - A Study of Reading Habits

The Fifth (blimey!) Used Vinyl Club release and a 10 track album at that. This will be available to download for FREE (from here: http://rekordmeistermusic.bandcamp.com/album/05-a-study-of-reading-habits) from Friday 1st of June. Also, that night will be the fifth Used Vinyl Club show featuring House that Jack Built & Down & Outs.

A few words from Mark Donovan of House that Jack Built:


A study of reading habits is a collection of songs, or rather a collection of thoughts written over the past couple of years. It’s not exactly autobiographical but the opinions, feelings and circumstances in these songs are all about who I am at this very moment. The books I love, the films I never get round to watching and the music I hate! It’s sometimes self assured and sometimes a bit scatty and uncertain but all written safe in the knowledge that me, Andy, Paul and Aaron will look back in 15 years confident in how much we’ve changed much like we look back smugly at how different we are from 15 years ago. This right now the ‘inch thick specs’ stage as Larkin wrote.
House that Jack Built has been a great way for best mates to play gigs and make friends with loads of brilliant bands and even more brilliant people, packing the gear away after shows and drinking the rest of the night away. ‘Get stewed’ is always the inevitable conclusion.

#04 DoubleDoublePlusGood & Meow Meow - Split EP: by Meow Meow!

The fourth Used Vinyl Club release. A split EP this time around. 4 tracks each from Meow Meow! (Marko Magill, Anna Maconald and Andy Maton – so the best bits of SSS, Down and Outs and Fight Fight Fight) and DoubleDoublePlusGood (Tony Keenan, Graham Jones and Andy Donovan – the worst bits of Tokyo Adventures, Voo and Elle s’appelle trying their best!).

This will be available to download for FREE from Friday 4th of May. Also, that night will be the fouth Used Vinyl Club show featuring both bands playing live.

We asked Meow Meow! for some words:


So, Meow Meow! had a chat, and we are pretty sure we started out in 2004.  We can't be sure if it was definitely in 2004 and there is no way of knowing when in 2004.  It's not that we don't care, but more that we are dead forgetful.  I think if we did all this again we'd write more stuff down.

 2004 does sound like a long time ago, but its also fair to say that MM are in no way prolific.  We meet up sporadically, and gig infrequently.  We aren't lazy, it's just that other stuff gets in the way.  This approach means we've hardly built up an archive of material - a download only single on  http://www.wiaiwya.com/ in 2010, followed by a track on their Xmas record of 2011.  That's why it's super nice for us to be involved in the Used Vinyl Club split with  DoubleDoublePlusGood.  Meow Meow ! don't see much of the world, so the opportunity to go out on a Friday night - well, how could we pass that up?  Big props to UVC and DD+G for having us along.

A couple of important things about Meow Meow!
i) I only just found out about the '!' at the end of the band name and for that I thank UVC - I thought there were 2, and then I thought over time it had completely fallen off.
ii) I reckon we are named after a club in Portland that Mark liked the name of, and not the fertilizer drug that causes men to irreparably damage themselves*
iii) We have a strict caffeine rule - if it's after 6pm tea has to be decaffeinated**  This is ironic given the confusion over point (ii).


See you on the 4th

Love
Meow Meow!
x

*http://www.metro.co.uk/news/802002-meow-meow-made-man-rip-his-scrotum-off
**http://www.taylorsofharrogate.co.uk/teaitem.asp?itmid=746

#04 DoubleDoublePlusGood & Meow Meow - Split EP: by DD+G

The fourth Used Vinyl Club release. A split EP this time around. 4 tracks each from Meow Meow (Marko Magill, Anna Maconald and Andy Maton – so the best bits of SSS, Down and Outs and Fight Fight Fight) and DoubleDoublePlusGood (Tony Keenan, Graham Jones and Andy Donovan – the worst bits of Tokyo Adventures, Voo and Elle s’appelle trying their best!).

This will be available to download for FREE from Friday 4th of May. Also, that night will be the fouth Used Vinyl Club show featuring both bands playing live.

We asked Tony for some words:


DoubleDoublePlusGood consist of 3 lads, havin' a laff. Andy Donovan plays drums and sings. You may recognise Andy from havin' laff in a boss band called Elle S'appelle, and another boss band called House that Jack Built. Graham Jones plays bass and sings. You may recognise Graham from havin' a laff in a boss band called Voo. Actually, the pair of them ALSO have a laff in a boss band called 28 Costumes too! Their heads must be chocka! The 3rd lad havin’ a laff in DoubleDoublePlusGood, is Tony Keenan - that’s me… hello!... I play guitar and sing by the way.

Anyway, what happened was… I was playing non stop (not literally) in bands for about 10 years. I became a bit jaded and decided to take a well deserved break from carrying heavy amps up and down various staircases around Liverpool. I assumed I'd just naturally get back in to the whole 'song writing/playing in bands' thing at some point, but didn't know when.

Years passed. I tried, now and again, to write some new songs but it all felt a bit forced/rubbish, so I'd usually just watch the telly instead... or go to the supermarket. I like supermarkets.

Long story short, after receiving some much needed encouragement from some kind friends, I finally got my act together and made a demo of new songs. In late 2011, Andy and Graham bullied me in to starting a band with them so these songs could be heard. And so began DoubleDoublePlusGood (or DD+G... if you value your time). With hindsight, I’m extremely grateful to Andy and Graham for their relentless, and sometimes violent, bullying.

Andy Donovan (like Timbaland with a cuppa) recorded/produced the 4 songs that appear on this split release with Meow Meow!, who were kind enough to let us share a disc with them. The DD+G songs are all essentially about not doing anything creative for an extended period of time. It turns out that you can create something out of not being creative. Who knew?

We're extremely psyched about our recordings and the split release in general. We hope you enjoy it.

To those who encouraged - thanks for the encouragement.

tk x

#03 28 Costumes - This Band Has Eaten All Our Money

The THIRD Used Vinyl Club release. A 10 track album this time around. This will be available to download for FREE from THURSDAY 5th of April. Also, that night will be the third Used Vinyl Club show featuring 28 Costumes and Spanish Announce Team from PARTS UNKNOWN:

“28 Costumes started in way back in 2003 and have since recorded 3 albums, 2 EPs and 7 singles. This album was recorded in 2008 by Andy Donovan in 'The Punch Tank', the old warehouse which we used to have on the Dock Road in Liverpool. We got a load of our friends to come and help us record it but there are too many to name them all on here! We had an indoor BBQ when we had finished recording the album which nearly burnt the whole god damn place down. 28 Costumes feel lucky to have played with, recorded with and made friends with some of the best people on the planet. Christopher McIntosh and Tony Reilly came up with all of the songs on this album and played the guitars and the bass and stuff, Ally McPhie done all the drumming on it and Sam Skinner done the artwork for it. We hope you like it - maybe we'll make another one soon.”

Chris
x

#02 Elle s'appelle - The Amazing World o' Stuff

The second Used Vinyl Club release. A 12 track album this time! This will be available to download for FREE from Friday 2nd of March. Also, that night will be the second Used Vinyl Club show featuring Elle s’appelle and Barbieshop:


Elle s’appelle – The Amazing World o’ Stuff is 12 songs which started life in 2005. I made up the songs when out of work and full of ideas.

The songs were written about five stories - the stories were written about a monkey, a pyromaniac, the shortest person out of all of the ‘tall people’, an atheist on an island of full pious people (and farmyard animals) and a little boy with an irrational compulsion to learn how to play the piano. All exist - unbeknownst to each other - in The Amazing World o’ Stuff.

In 2007 I decided to use these ROCK songs to make a POP band. To go from the Guitars and LADS of Guild of Defiants to keyboards and a feminine touch. Some people liked this, I had several adventures with some exceedingly talented people then found myself back in the Amazing World.

I’ve spent parts of the last three years borrowing time and talent from my friends and family to tidy up the massive mess of idea’s I had six years ago – to make The Amazing World o’ Stuff.

Andy
x

A plan. A rough plan. A very rough plan…

In December last year we filmed three or four songs by eight or nine bands at our practice room in Highfield Studio's in Liverpool. the backdrop was of a massive wall of amps and speakers.

As the months and these shows pass by we’re hoping to have all of these performances edited and available to watch here: http://www.youtube.com/user/RekordmeisterMusic/videos

We’re aiming to have one ready every week, at the start of the week (Let’s say Monday) for everyone to watch. At the moment Sam’s editing the video and I’m editing the audio to the tracks Puzzle recorded. The first of which you can see here:

There will inevitably be the odd gap (Some bands recorded 3 songs others a few more) so in the place of a video we’ll make a track from the current album/EP available to stream. This is nothing more than a cheap trick to build suspense.

On the day of each release (Always a Friday) all videos should be available to watch and all tracks available to either download or stream. The following week we’ll announce the next release and start all over again.

Andy