This is instrumental

Hi there

With sliced up fingers and sprained wrists, we battle on regardless.

Here is a quick post concerning a song we wrote a few months ago. The song has no words, it is an instrumental, and since we wrote it it's kind of been thrown on the slag heap really, but I thought it was worth posting here as it's got some really ace bits to it. A little bit BSP meets DCFC. The beginning and end in particular...pretty sure they will see the light of day in another song sometime, but who knows. We're still writing and coming out with what feels like better and better stuff all the time, so perhaps this shall be consigned to the dustbin of history, other than on this blog here.

It has no title. And i can't be arsed to think of one at the moment. So it will be known as 'No Name #1', in homage to elliott smith.

Enjoys! x

'No Name #1'

God is a concept by which we measure our pain

I am listening to Lennon tonight. I had kind of forgotten about that chap. I guess there is a massive influence of his in Minor Coles, despite my Beatles-obsessive phase being redundant now. Although, of course, once you truly immerse yourself in The Beatles then it remains an obsession in some capacity for the rest of your life. I can't call it redundant yet, really.

So I came back to him tonight. I felt like listening to something real and pure. Emo if you like, before emo was even a concept in proper Emo bands like Sunny Day Real Estate's mothers minds. I've listened to a lot of the Smiths recently and although I love The Smiths and Morriseys lyrics, it's time for something a bit more to the point. And for that, I guess Lennon is one of the first real original Emo's.

The song 'Mother' being the prime example. Lennon lost his mother twice - first as a toddler when his mother gave him up (abandoned him, to put it in blunt terms) and put him in the care of his Aunt Mimi. Then, just after he and his mother had reunited after a decade and a half of having only seen eachother a few times, and just as he had finally developed a relationship and bond with his own mother.......she was knocked over and killed by a car. 'Mother, you had me....but i never had you'

You can hear at the end of this song everything was flooding out of his head about this. You can picture the scene in the vocal booth. You can imagine how his face would have looked (not quite so carefree as the photo below, mind).....just pure and sheer emotion, primeval, unforced and utterly honest. In part this was in-line with the primal therapy he was experimenting with at the time, which was an un-conventional psychiactric attempt at ruthlessly purging childhood memories and 'moving on' through the expression of animal like emotions. However, to put all of that real emotion into song and make it feel unforced and brutally honest is something I find pretty special. So it is probably in many respects one of my favourite John Lennon songs.

'Mother'

gypsy chic

I never realised how cute Stevie Nicks bloody well was, least not until I watched a documentary on Fleetwood Mac the other night. Woweeee. Gypsy chic.

She was only five foot high, yet commanded a stage as if she owned the place, (with the help of six inch heels) and with a mystical bewitching aura about her. A romanticism too. Bohemian romantic and ethereal. Fuck me was she good.

I guess the only modern day comparison i can think of is Natasha Khan.

I learnt to play the song 'Never Going Back Again' this evening. That's quite a proud moment in my life.

Up the Mac.

I'm going to put The Chain on again now and think of Nigel Mansell's tache. xxx

New song

Howdy, so last night at band practice we wrote a new song, it is here now for your ears. The recording is an ambient recording so the quality is a tad ropey, but we can't be perfect all the time. Also need more lyrics perhaps and more in-tune guitars. But hey ho. Given that it was fresh outta the box last night and written in about 30 minutes, we'll work on it more. The best ones always tend to come out the quickest though. Hope you can dig it (or imagine yourself diggin it when it's a bit more practiced and finished). x

Tell Me Friday

Oh haii there

Oh hai there. It's been a while since the last blog update, but we Coles' have been keeping busy. We've been frolicking about on farms and rolling around drunk on village greens and we also now have some songs recorded with the full band, which are available on our myspace. Do check out. In all we recorded 4 tracks: The Deer Song; 5,4,3,2,1; Last Days of The Summer; and Small Rooms.

Hopefully we will record Little Miss Sunshine too, and once that song is nailed down and all 5 tracks are mastered we shall endeavour to do a little pressing of a CD EP, which people can listen to on their hi-fi ghettoblasters from here all the way to the Don Valley to their blessed hearts content.

The recording session was conducted upon Hill Farm in Steventon, at Truck Studios. Hill Farm, famous for it's Truck Festival and awesome sunsets and drunken moments of fun, is a strange place when there is no festival happening. However there was an amateur rally going on at the time to provide some distraction. And distracting it was, because their savage little souped up Vauxhall Novas were quite loud and were blatantly disregarding the local speed limit.

Joe Bennett, who used to be in Goldrush (and could probably be called 'Mr Truck'), and currently plays in Dusty and The Dreaming Spiers, put his skills to the test by making us relatively novice recording artists bash out 4 songs in just one day. Which I think we did pretty well all told, and I'm quite proud of them as our first tracks. We intended to essentially try to create a really decent demo, and I think we've managed that. Joe helped massively and made us all feel at ease and confident in what we were trying to do, so big thanks to Joe. He also drilled into us knowledge of the quite shocking amount of wasted energy that is used when a kettle is re-boiled soon after it has already boiled. Something I have taken on board and notified my good friend Ciara about when she tried to reboil an already boiled kettle at work the other day. I demanded it was not reboiled. Lessons have been learnt.

We spent the first day amongst little mountains of carbonated soft drinks and confectionary and I genuinely felt like my stomach might explode due to the fizzyness of it all. I also had a secret weapon though, some baby bell cheese, which helped regulate the acidity a little, and i was surprised at my subconscious cleverness with regards to that. We ate in style in the evening however, with the underappreciated al fresco dining that is pot noodles sat on a hay bail. After that was eaten, i pretty much felt like a badgers arsehole. Next time, i'm going to be better prepared with regards to foodstuffs.

Amongst all this frivolous junk food consumption we managed to record the songs in pretty swift style - something we needed to do in order to get the 4 tracks completed in time. Martin, who plays the guitar with the 4 chunky strings, had to work during the day, so he didn't arrive until around half 8. Because martin has skills akin to that of an experienced wizard however, he nailed his bass lines all in one take. Job done in about 10 minutes for Martin. Heroic performances.

The second day in the studio consisted of a few finishing touches and the mixing - the 'sitting around a lot and stroking the beard' phase. We basically made sure that the part in the song Small Rooms where Ruben has made the sound of 'mario collecting gold coins' was at a nice volume, and other things like that. We added a few more vocal tracks and some handclaps here and there too, and the icing on the cake was provided when Joe got involved with his trumpet......and created a beautiful, melancholy, lonely trumpet line over the top of the deer song. Job done.

Within one week we had our first radio play with the results of our work in the studio, which was quite surprising and made us all do pretty epic smiles. Apparently BBC6 are going to whip The Deer Song on too this week.

We hope you like the songs. We are writing some new tracks at the moment, a couple of which we will air at our next gig, which is also our first headline show, at the Wheatsheaf on the 20th October.

In other news, with regards to friends and bands and stuff, it looks like I may be doing another temp stint in the hit band We Aeronauts for a while, which should be fun (providing of course it doesnt clash with the day job of the coles). The Aeronauts are currently recording their debut EP. It will probably come out in the new year so that they can be in all of those top 10 artists to watch for 2010 lists....as Greg Aeronaut so humbly put it in a radio interview - which he gets away with, because it's probably true.

Alphabet Backwards have their mini album for sale on itunes now too, if you want a nice slice of sunshine cider and shagging to get you through the bleak midwinter. Jonquil meanwhile have been spreading calypso vibes through continental europe and are currently recording some amazing stuff in a basement in the West Bank town of Jericho, which is literally going to fuck you all up with feelings of wow. Their blog is here.

The Gullivers also have a beautiful, fragile and gorgeous EP, Legerdemain (which translates as sleight of hand, I googled it) just out, which I'd recommend indulging in. Oh and Birminghams finest NME stars Ace Bushy Striptease, who have helped us get our first gig in Birmingham in November, did this thing, which is just far too wonderful to not CLICK HERE (stick with it....)


Take care of yourself, and take care of the ducks
Mark x

When you play a kitchen this small, someones going to get a guitar in their face

The Friday before truck was outstanding. We played our second house party gig (and 9th gig in total, wow, we are getting used to this). Big thanks go out to Ben and his housemates for putting this show on in his little kitchen. Another one of the series of Les Editions De Minuit gigs that Ben has put on at his house over the last few months. Sadly, being that Ben has now graduated from studentsville, this was the last of the Kitchen Gigs which have been so much fun every month recently.

A crowd of about 40 were present and rammed in little corners and peeking through little windows to watch all the bands play.

We even got to play our first encore.

Ruben sported a fucking fantastic moustache, which i was shocked and saddened to see he then shaved it off for truck the next day.

My mate Ceri from Liverpool came down to join in the fun and now never wants to leave. Almost. He might move down here someday anyway. Big respect to him for bringing all the RUM.

Jody and Hugo Jonquil came along to psyche themselves up for the Jonquil houseparty on the 15th at the secret location. (PS Can't fucking wait for that)

Anna Log played an amazing set with various members of her day-job band we aeronauts helping her out.

Mark and Grillo gulliver coined my new nickname, Steve-o, and proceeded to shout that out a lot.

We missed UTE a lot, because they couldnt make it sadly. Last time they played in this kitchen, i had a spiritual awakening.

We got drunk and mingled and chatted, I think.

And all was gooood.

Thank you for mr daniel ershov (legend) for the photos x

Truck and pissed dancing

My stomach muscles wince when i laugh at the moment, because they exerted themselves with too much laughter at this years Truck Festival and wore themselves out. Amazing scenes.

Highlights were not only playing to a decent crowd at the barn stage at 10am, seeing the crowd almost scarily flood in to see us when we strummed our first chords, and enjoying the whole playing truck experience despite all of us having a wrecked head each, but also, moments of enjoyment went as thus:

The pissed dancing to Ash - WILD SURF!! - and pissed dancing to Britpop in the village pub tent until 2:30am; seeing alphabet backwards storm stage main and make everyone happy - the pissed dancing went along with this, and yes it was only 1pm; seeing Stornoway become oxford legends; getting angry at the fact We Aeronauts were not on the bill; remembering meeting Mark Hamilton from Ash immediately after their show but being too shy to say anything since he's from the band who were my boyhood heroes; the broken glasses on the floor; DOGS IN 1930's CLOTHING and the impromptu BBC Oxford interview; warm hugs from someone you dont want to let go of, ever; arguing with Mark from the Gullivers about Ash: ''why aren't you dancing!!'' I ask ''because they are fucking shit!'' replies Mark;

Being happy in the country air in the fields 2 miles from where you grew up, the summer, the summer. Say goodbye to the last days of summer and i'm waiting here for you...(because lets face it, Truck won't be topped until it comes around again next year)

Love x

Introducing the Cat and the Rat

The cat and the rat have been enemies for centuries, but now they have decided to make peace and collaborate. With the cool elegance of the cat and the brazen attitude of the rat a new hip hop crew from the sewers and back alley ways of inner west of Sydney is born. Cat and The Rat are like Tom & Jerry, if they were mates and loved funk, hip hop and soul. While only in its infancy CATR plan to fill your saucer and rock your nest. No cheese!

www.myspace.com/catandtherat
So this is a new musical project from my friend Paddy who is an Australian and lives all the way over in that freakin crazy place called Australia. Paddy is a good friend whom i met when he was living here with his girlfriend Intan, both of whom i don't see anymore because they both live all the way over in freakin Australia. Paddy and I once dabbled in a musical experiment of folk-soul-rap. One of these days i'll see him again. But this is my way of saying what a great guy he is and i look forward to hearing more stuff from him and his crew.

I think this kind of music could only ever come from a place like Australia. Laid back colourful and cool with an honest edge.

Freddie loves it.

It's ropey...but you get the idea

As of yet, we haven't yet recorded anything properly with a full quota of 'Coles. We're hoping to get something 'proper' recorded in the next couple of months. Some kind people have offered to help record us. In the meantime here are a selection of ambient recordings from a band practice recently. Please note this makes us sound like we enjoy practicing in a small toilet. And voices are a bit haggard and guitars a little out of tune. But there's an energy on their which is captured quite well. So i'm popping them up on here. Things can only get better recording wise at least.

Sad Eyes

Small Rooms

The Deer Song

Magnet

Ho-dowwwn!!

Saturday 11th July was a brilliant night. We were playing a very much looked-forward to show at the Bullingdon Arms in Oxford, alongside our good friends We Aeronauts and Alphabet Backwards, who were headlining the night celebrating the release of their fantastic mini-album and debut record (buy online here - sunshine cider and shagtastic).

Despite the summer rain rearing its ugly head a lot of people turned up for the show, and it was a great show for alphabet backwards to kick start their record-release with. We all got drunk on a big self-procured rider of carling and various quantities of rum. Cue some flashdance style dancing at the zo2diac afterwards for some of us. For those who remember. And i don't.

I have been playing in We Aeronauts recently, to help them out as their tertiary guitarist is out in Africa chasing baboons and frolicking in the jungles. I've had a really great time playing with them and thank them for letting me loose on their live show, and entrusting me not to fuck up. It's surprisingly nervewracking playing in a friends band. You are put in a position where fucking up royally and hitting bum notes is much easier to achieve, and the fear of letting down your mates band is quite nerve-jangling. But I got through it all unscathed. A particular highlight was playing with them at brixton windmill on a bill featuring Ute and Jonquil and other oxford bands. With a free bbq thrown in to the mixer. That was a fine way to spend a june afternoon.

Today i am ill, i have come down with this man/pig flu stuff. It means i'm locked at home and pretty upset because I can't go to see Ute at the Wheatsheaf, a gig hosted by 3 blind mice (the boys and girls from the gullivers promotion arm). Ah well. Cuppa tea and the alphabet backwards mini album will cheer me up.

We really need to get into the studio

It's frustrating, as the only songs currently on the minor coles myspace are two acoustic demos hastily bashed out on cubase - one at ruben's grandparents house and one in my bedroom. Although they give a little hint as to what are songs are like, in reality they don't sound anything like the full band. Some people seem to like them, which is great, but it's akin to preferring lambrini over a veuve-cliquot. Not that I happen to spend my days quaffing veuve-cliquot.

So we are all itching like flea ridden dogs to get into a studio and lay down some songs with the full band as soon as possible, partly so that those of us who haven't seen us live yet can actually know what we're all about, and aren't misled by the songs on myspace. I can't help but feel they lack a lot of energy and feeling, and generally are a little weak. We are hoping to enter the studio sometime in June. We will probably record 3 songs if time permits.

We have 9 finished songs now. One of those will probably never be played again though, due to an infamous outing at the Bully at our second gig - so technically we have 8 songs. At our 4 gigs so far we have only been able to play six song sets each time, so this bodes well for our next gig. We might be able to play for longer than 20 minutes without having to resort to stringing out faintly witty banter and trying to sound like we're comedians. Or resorting to me talking about the Villa. And ruben complaining about me talking about the Villa.

At last weeks practice we wrote our second 'ballad'. I can't wait to get in the Coldroom's up in sleepy Cumnor again tonight to give it another run through. It seems to have stuck in my head at least, which is always a positive thing with new songs. If you forget them, it's generally for a reason: they are probably shit and not worth remembering. The ballad is not so straightforward, at least it doesnt sound like Snow Fucking Patrol, it's not overly cheesy and doesnt follow a verse chorus verse chorus structure. It also involves both Ruben and I singing different sections of the song, which has actually become quite a useful feature of our band on a lot of our songs.

On a secondary note, i have managed to see Jonquil again, so I am now not quite so crushingly disappointed about not being able to attend their June 12th gig. Jody managed to get myself and my housemate Laura onto the guest list for Wood festival to see them (big thank you Jody), and Laura has wheels unlike I so kindly drove us up there, and we watched their set in amongst the beautiful surrounds of Braziers Park and (unfortunately) the cold and sodden ground. It had lashed down with rain for a good hour or two before the set. I think the festival is a little early in the year - although had it happened the weekend before when the weather was much kinder, then perhaps that would prove that theory wrong. All in all it was a really good show and it was a pleasure to see 4 new Jonquil songs being aired. I'm convinced they will shift some units with songs like those on their next album. Vibrant, quite poppy, summery, and exciting.

Tra for now
Mark x

Old stuff - Goodbyehigh Fives



So there's a few old songs (well more than a few) knocking about on my pc, mainly of me and james from Alphabet Backwards, from a time in yonder past when we wrote many a tune together. This was probably about 3 years ago or so now.

I've put a few up here. Some are recorded fairly well, others are just little jam session songs.

6am Morning Walk (New York)

A little jam session jingle:
The Day Buddy Holly Died

This song was written i think on the day England got knocked out of the World Cup to Portugal back in 2006. World cup themed. As you do:
Defence Defense

This next song is one of my favourites of the goodbye high five era, the chorus could have been improved but the ending is definitely a winner:
Lung Capacity

Gigs I am looking forward to:

On July 11th we Minor Coles are playing at the Bullingdon Arms with the amazing We Aeronauts (yes yes yes!) and Alphabet Backwards (double yes!). It should serve, potentially, as a release party for Alphabet Backwards mini album too. It should be great fun playing with them two bands. Mainly since we generally know most of one another and will no doubt get our party pants on afterwards.

Then on August 22nd at The Wheatsheaf we are playing with the Backwards again, as main support. Yipeeeiii ayyy, yippeeeiii ohhh.

I would also say i am looking forward to Jonquil at the Zo2diac on the 12th June, but I have now realised I can't attend that, as we Coles are playing at the Jericho Tavern that night. I do wish I could see Jonquil again though, I haven't seen them since they supported Foals in December. And that's 5 months now without a Jonquil fix. I'm gettin tetchy. I have resorted to drunkenly singing Lions with Jody Jonquil and James Aeronaut whilst walking the streets of Oxford in order to get my kick.

Also looking forward to seeing The Gullivers again at the Jericho Tavern on 3rd June.

I've just realised i have a tetleys teabag in my pocket. That's a bit random.

More photos from the party, including one of Ruben doing his ghost impression. Something strange was going on in the neighbourhood. I was tempted to call ghostbusters.

Hi there

I think i must have been in a funny mood this morning, because it's a Saturday and I woke up at 6:30am and I decided to start a blog for the band Minor Coles. That doesnt happen every day. Especially days when i actually have to get up and drag my arse into work. I have barely seen 6:30am on them days.

This photo above is from a house party we played last weekend, at our bassist Martin's hobbit hole. It was a great evening. His house is detached, so we didnt disturb the neighbours too much. We had forewarned them, and also invited them, so I think on the whole they were kept appeased. Playing house parties is a dangerous but exciting thing. Like an extreme sport.

We played our set and it was really good fun. Our friend Olly had brought a PA around (many thanks to Olly) so the sound was really decent for playing amongst the sofas and tv sets. Apart from the tingly sensation on my lips whenever i moved my mouth to the electrically charged microphone. That was slightly unnerving. I half expected to be fried alive mid-set, charged by 240 of your finest english volts. In the end though I kind of enjoyed the random tingly sensation. It was a bit like that lip balm, out there on the lip balm market, which gives you an instant botox. Not that I have ever used that on my lips. Not when I was down the pub and had had a few and thought it would be fun to play with my friends instant botox lip balm. I've honestly never done that. Honest.

So it was a great set and we played the songs we have nailed down pretty well on the whole.

Our friends The Gullivers followed us onto the carpeted living room stage. I was really glad they played. They had already played a set earlier in the day, at an all day outside gig so it was in fact their second show of the day. They have a really great, sheogazy sound and some beautiful songs. The assembled throng lapped them up. You can listen to them here www.myspace.com/thegullivers

Alphabet Backwards, well, my friend James (who basically is Mr Alphabet Backwards), then rounded things off with a solo acoustic set. There were singalongs to polar bears and 80's pop video (the hideously infectious 'na na na naa na' song). Ruben and I tried to mimic the sound of the absent Bob Tom's keyboard synth with our voices, at one point. It actually worked quite well. Bob tom should be concerned he might be out of a job soon, with skills like that. I of course am only jesting, because bob tom is the synth-whiz-king of all the world. I saw Black Kids at the Zodiac last year and they couldnt do with two synths what Bob Tom can do with his little finger on one synth. Fact. www.myspace.com/alphabetbackwards

We all then had a bit of a drink and indulged in various other associated vices. Some people did a bit of dancing. Martin's chilli was devoured by a half dozen or so liquored up hungry vultures at about 1am. There was a giant pan of the stuff but it all disappeared at frantic speed. It was the nicest chilli I have ever had the pleasure of eating. I have to also reveal that I had double helpings. The secret ingredient was....well I can't say can I. it's a secret. It wasn't banana though.

Special thanks must go to Beth, whose house this was also at. Beth was a very kind and good host.

We hope to do more exciting little shows soon, perhaps another in the summer, and hopefully we can get some more of Oxford's bands playing too.