Hey team, here in all its raintastic and chilly glory is our acoustic rendering of “I’m gonna get married” live on BalconyTV. Simon from Vatican Cellars helping out on guitar, Will Byers from BeeStings on Cello and Clare Younis providing the vocal heartbreak. (PS If you look very carefully you’ll see us being pelted with confetti amid the raindrops… x)
Most exciting! AFH will be playing a little acoustic, single-song set (nano-gig? ach, whatever…) for BalconyTV, on the LockLounge balcony on Tuesday 15th September. It’s the end of the summer but there’s still time for a wedding song we think…
Link: BalconyTV. We’ll post the video up here once the nice people at BalconyTV have put it up… For now here’s what it was like singing to a month’s rain in a single nacht! Pictures by the superbly waterproof slash diligently dry Nicholas Tucker!
Nice little performance of some Piney Gir tracks from the Yearling album which AFH produced and played on, here acoustified in the Ol’ Blue Last in darkest Shoreditch…
Good news everyone!
[singlepic id=27 w=320 h=240 float=left]The AFH-produced/arranged new Piney Gir album “The Yearling” gets **** out of 5* in the Sept. 2009 issue of Q magazine. Hooray! The record hits the shops on 14th of the month too, for which “woo!”. (UK, released in USA mid October on Grey Day Records/Warner).
More great reviews from the web’n’blogosphere:
Musoguide: http://musosguide.com/…
Music Fix: http://www.themusicfix.co.uk…/
Gigwise: http://www.gigwise.com/…
Adequacy.Net: http://www.adequacy.net/…
ALayerOfChips: http://alayerofchips.blogspot.com/…
SubbaCultcha: http://www.subba-cultcha.com/…”
IndieHandbook: http://theindiehandbook.wordpress.com/…
Late last year AFH was approached to contribute to an album of Bruce (“Broooce”) Springsteen cover versions by the nice people at the WIAIWYA label. A chancey gambit you might think, as AFH knew next to nothing of the Boss’s back catalogue and had spent little time in checkered shirts or contemplating the ups and downs of life in New Jersey.
However, there’s nothing like a short-ferry ride away from the old music komfort zone so AFH readily agreed and went into deep Brucemmersion. The result is “Empty Sky”, a song chosen for its dark 9/11 subject and forceful simplicity. Piney Gir lends her lovely voice to the choruses. Dedicated to the memory of Suria Clarke. Hope you like it. x
AFH is on Disk 2: Track 16 but there are lots of other treats on this mega expansive 38 track overview!
Amazon: “Empty Sky”
iTunes: Empty Sky
[singlepic id=37 w=320 h=240 float=left]Old video guest appearance news…! AFH braved the cold with friends Psapp last winter to play bones percussion (the smell of lamb has polluted the old AFH mittens to this day…) on their Bandstand Busking acoustic set in Arnold’s Circus. Songs are from their excellent album “The camel’s back”. Watch clips here
Back indeed when girls when taller and cooler… AFH’s reverie, half imagined, half designed, about the clash of disco and apres-disco… a boy in a bar, a bar full of people and well, a video cartooned into existence by the ever so talented Mr Tim Benton… Now watch on…
So before the album comes out I thought it would be kind of cool to make a record, but not one, crucially, that absolutely no-one could actually play. I have a record player but it sits rather unhappy looking in the corner, its direct drive downcast, its needle needled, whilst the music hums out of a laptop next door… What to do then? Given that vinyl is such a nice format? Well AFH decided to DIY it and make a new music format: VP3.
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As you can see, they’re ahem, handmade and there *highly collectable* and in some cases the B-side is still playable (assuming you don’t mind spraypaint on the initial synth stabs in “I feel for you…”)
AFH songs available for download from the vinyl are “Like 79” and “Becoming the Reason”, (grab a preview here!) whilst on the B’ you’ll find the likes of the J Geils Band, Wham!, Sarah Brightman and Van McCoy. Quite the lucky bag! For sale at aFH shows this autumn and winter…
x
Here’s a new AFH song, which will be on the debut album. It’s rather nuptial. I wrote it at New Year’s in Berlin, sitting looking out on a snowscape from a 4th floor window. Strangely the mood is less minimal techno and more cowboy lament, not quite sure how that happened…
Here’s a video, (well animated instructional thought-stream?) I made for my remix of Piney Gir’s Nightsong. The original is a lovely jazzy duet between Piney and Simple Kid. I thought it would sound cool as meltingly acidic smooth jazztronic f**k-up. The video is just because. Just because these days we all watch music rather than just listen to it, right? 😉
“Night song” Piney Gir
(AFH’s San Fran Disko Mix)
[singlepic id=23 w=320 h=240 float=right] okay this is just daft… but I got a stamp made. For the making of VP3s (of which more, later)… So yes a stamp, from Blade Rubber Stamps which on account of being opposite the British Museum, feels like a proper place for a gentleman to place an order. I feel like I’ve started my own civil service department. If anyone would like a law enacting or a document stamping I’m your man…
[singlepic id=21 w=320 h=240 float=left]… to everyone who came down for AFH’s show with Tim Ten Yen at the Doghouse, 17th July 09…
Great to blow the dust off some old songs and give a good airing to some new ones… We’ll be back to play again soon, hopefully in September… x
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