Splendid Dead

Courtesy Markus Thorsen

In March at Mutant Music we had an all-star line-up that included our boys Bad Bad Men alongside returning heroes Blood of the Bull and the gargantuan Second Hand Marching Band. All tough acts to follow, but luckily we had an ace in the hole in the shape of Sparrow And The Workshop who finished the evening in style.

Fittingly, we have the very last track of their set – the encore! – for you to download and enjoy. Sparrow And The Workshop have a wee note for you too…

Magic Tricks (mp3)

“Having never played at this lovely establishment before, we were very surprised to get an encore. After being lovingly heckled for a few minutes, we decided upon an older song, “Magic Tricks”, which was one of the first songs we played together as a band. It’s about a magical violin. It doesn’t float or anything, but it’s got its strengths. ps. Thanks for inviting us out Splendid Dead Collective, we had fun!”

No, thank you, Sparrow And The Workshop! Catch Sparrow And The Workshop next at The Captain’s Rest, Glasgow 14/05/09 and at The Village Inn, Edinburgh 05/06/09. Catch Jill solo at Bowery, Edinburgh 11/04/09.

www.myspace.com/sparrowandtheworkshop

Last month at Mutant Music, we played host to Alko-fucking-tron. We recorded their set straight off the soundboard and they are going to talk about it right now. (Right-click-and-save on the songtitles for free downloads. Plus, if you do, leave us a comment or something). Alkotron!

La Madrina

This song is always our opener. A bastardized version of The Godfather. Thus the horse’s head. Pretty obscure, but you got to try something these days. Feel too many bands more interested in trying to be very serious chaps this weather and don’t appreciate that a lot of folk listen to live music for the aural and visual spectacle. This is where the Splendid Dead nights piss over a lot of other nights put on by so called fireside musical svengalis. Of which there is plenty. 

By now you may get the impression that we are nothing but a bunch of bitter old cnuts. Which nicely leads into second track,

Nameless Faces

As Paul states in the intro this is for all those insufferable no-marks who pollute our TV screens now. Didn’t start out like that, but you are who you are!!! (Know what I mean Rhydian??).

Time Tunnel

is a tune we resurrected from a previous incarnation. Gilbo plays a blinding Rhodes Piano and Paul swaps his bass for Gilbo’s telecaster. Didnae really come out that good on the bootleg , but when we play it well it is an unmitigated psych freak out of a tune. 

Made Me Hate Me

Putting the boot in again. This time to old fools who risk all for the sirens call. Paul McCartney is 74 and Heather Mills has one leg and is very rich!

Alkotron

Self congratulations the order of the day here. Good time in proceedings to whip out the Congas and funk it up a gear. Gilbo on Congas but PC on plank spank a highlight.

Dub Don’t Really Like You

Time in the set to really chill out. In the right atmosphere, and this venue has it by the shitload, we can blow minds with this. Always try and give our sets 100% regardless of crowd size or anything for that matter. Gilbo played a great version that night. Sit back, light a big fat one and just listen.

Man From Del Monte

Gilbo on Harmonica. Lyrical content will remain in underpants. Always a crowd pleaser.

Six Miles

Brand new tune. Not much to say. Next time we play, will be complete. We love the tune though. 

On The Mend

One of Alkotron’s favoured sons. Always try and play this like a jackhammering of the bollocks with toe-capped Doc boot. Living at home with over-bearing mother at 40. NOT autobiographical for the record, but everybody knows a guy like it. Or will when you hit our age. 

Frankenstein

Always a closer. Probably about stoating about nightclubs oot the old cranium on all sorts, thinking your a cool MF but really just looking like a sad old tit!!!

And then the people wanted more……..So we left them with a 

Dirty Surprise

(In the curry of a cheating husband no less courtesy of Fido).

Hope to be back among you all again sometime. Peace to all you bright and beautiful people…and those that are not we love you even more!!!

ALKOTRON

You can hear more Alkotron at their myspace page, and see them live shortly at Cosmopol, Glasgow on 07/03/09, at Box, Glasgow on 29/03/09 and at Ivory Blacks, Glasgow 04/04/09.

www.myspace.com/alkotron

At Mutant Music last month we played host to Aberystwyth boys Convoi Exceptionnel. Lovely lads they are too, and clean. We managed to get most of their set bootlegged off the soundboard and  Gunslinger Duck (AKA Christopher Stevens) agreed to talk a bit about each track for us.

N.B. we didn’t get their cover of M.I.A.’s Paper Planes on tape so the boys have very generously offered us an exclusive download of the studio version of the same track. Enjoy!

Mestupatopia

We always play this song first cos we like how it starts, it doesn’t really give the audience an idea of what we’re gonna be like when we get going.

Glyn had seen this photo of Muhammad al-Durrah, a Palestinian boy killed by gunfire from the Israel Defense Forces during a clash with Palestinian Security Forces in the Gaza Strip in 2000 and wanted to write a song about friendly fire. It snowballed into an anti conflict song, the crux of which is that photograph, taken by Talal Abu Rahma.

I guess this is the first song we wrote that we were really happy with, the main riff and rap came together very quickly then Glyn slapped an A Tribe Called Quest beat on it, sung the hook and mixed it down. It’s been through a few incarnations but this is how we like it now.

Swn Yr Heddlu

This song is bilingual, half of it is in Welsh. The title means “Sound of the Police” and it’s a sort of pastiche of british hiphop acts that act gangsta. The lyrics tell a story of a kid getting caught smoking dope by a policeman, trying to bribe him and get him to smoke with him then trying to convince him by defending his choice of drug. We used to play this song with a different band and we always really dug the riff and chorus so we kept it around when we started Convoi Exceptionnel.

Fy Nghariad

Glyn’s girlfriend Angharad wrote a piece of poetry in Welsh while they were travelling in Asia together that expressed how fleeting love can be and he decided to use the lyrics for a song, he layered guitar tracks on top of each other which gave it a really latin feel so we went with that. I added some lyrics which Glyn thinks translate the vibe into english perfectly.

We got invited to play this song on Welsh music tv show Bandit so we did it properly with 3 guitars and live drums, which was really good fun.

Paper Planes

This is a cover of an M.I.A track, I really dig the original so I started fiddling around with a guitar and came up with the main loops, Glyn put it all together and put some sweet backing vocals on it to space it out even further and we went with it. The chorus has quacks instead of gun fire because I’m the Gunslinger Duck.

Beats On The Deli

I found a gypsy band’s version of the Russian folk song Kalinka that had some good parts in it so I sampled it and cut it up and then I wrote these rhymes about hiphop complaining about what it’s turned into today. The chorus is an homage to the Fugees.

Sea Sore

This is our obligatory rap song talking about where we’re from, in an old hiphop school style. We’re from Aberystwyth in Wales which is a very pretty coastal town and we love it there so this is our ode. It’s got a really good vibe to it, is really good fun to play and we both really like it. 

It helped us get new band of the week on Radio Wales after we got it online and got on BBC radio 6 thanks to Tom Robinson.

P’u

This title (pronounced pu) is a Daoist metaphorical expression that translates as “uncarved block”. Glyn wrote this song about his Grandad’s influnce on his life, it’s really heartfelt and pretty with great spaced out vibes but also has some chaotic drum and bass breaks. It’s a really great song and is awesome to play live. Glyn does some rapping on this and has some sweet singing parts too, it’s a good juxtaposition. I added some synth and my own raps which help tie the lyrics together.

Casiotone & Korg Song

I got given an old Casio keyboard by my grandparents recently and it’s got some fat sounds so I played a chord sequence and put some electro beats on it. I wrote the lyrics about graffiti and writing songs. It’s got some video game sounds in it. Glyn added some bass and wah guitar but we’re still finishing this one off – you guys heard it only a couple of days after I wrote it.

Gunslinger Duck (AKA Christopher Stevens) is  vocalist/keyboardist/producer/percussionist and Glyn Langham is  guitarist/vocalist/percussionist/producer of Convoi Exceptionnel. They are playing next at The Twisted Wheel, Glasgow, on 18/03/09 (more dates on their myspace) and will hopefully return to Mutant Music later in the year.

Also, check out the video for Paper Planes here.