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