Newsletter 57 – Lots of new releases and a big gig or two!

Hi Folks

We have a busy last week of October with four new releases planned for October 25th and a couple of high profile gigs for that weekend.

All releases are digital except where indicated and will be available from our Bandcamp Page and via Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon and all of the other usual digital platforms

ELASTIKBANDE – VACUUM CLEANER EP

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Elastikbande are a brand new Manchester UK based three piece (post punk / grunge / garage rock) outfit featuring ex members of The Fall / Polythene, (Una Baines’) Poppycock and Rose & The Diamond Hand. Featuring Kate Themen on drums, Luisa Maraffino on guitar / backing vocals and Mark Corrin on bass / vocals.

The band’s sound is dynamic, melodic, catchy and often witty. Previously band member’s other work has featured on The John Peel Show, BBC Radio 1, 6 Music and BBC 3’s Late Junction, plus covered in blogs such as The Quietus and Louder Than War.

Their debut EP Vacuum Cleaner was recorded entirely live in the studio in Salford in August 2019 to capture the energy of the group’s stage show.

Musically Elastikbande have been compared to a blend of The Fall, Pavement, The Pixies and more. These early songs are about everything from household appliances to stage diving etiquette.

The band will be appearing at our showcase gig on October 25th at Gullivers, Manchester (see below)
Mark’s solo album from this year “Pub Bin” is also still available

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BOUQUET OF DEAD CROWS – LEFT TO ROT

Following the success of their album “Motus Octo” and a line-up change Cambridge alternative rock band “Bouquet of Dead Crows” is back with a brand new single “Left to Rot”. With new bassist Karen Gadd the band embark on the next phase in their career with a heavier sound …. they will be playing Manchester Gullivers on October 25th – and the Blue Moon Cambridge on 1st November as part of a gig swap with Manchester rockers The Parish Church Fire.
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MOFF SKELLINGTON – THE INFRASOUND GUEST

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Moff follows up his “Strange Acrylic Night Custard” album with another journey into the mysterious realm of Abstercot in the company of The Infrasound Guest – tales of Pardonian customs, squirrels and Seraphs, and pillows for your Spasms amongst other strangeness add to the over 20 + albums he has released to date. Moff is the natural successor to Ivor Cutler and Viv Stanshall if those two had been fed on a diet of Pere Ubu, Cabaret Voltaire, Tom Waits and The Fall. Moff defies description so we won’t bother, you either get it or you don’t – we understand that to – but if you do get it please trumpet it from the highest pinnacles in your neighbourhood so he get the attention he rightly deserves.

Moff will be back next months with a fascinating new album via The Sleeping Ducks.

If you want to have a further taste of Strange Acrylic Night Custard …….

THE JUNTA – JE SUIS

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Salford’s premier electrohead is back with a new six track EP The Junta is the alter-ego of Salford musician John “Monty” Montague. Monty, aside from delivering electronica via The Junta also plays bass in Kit B and Positronik and is a DJ on Salford City Radio and can be seen DJing at Wangies in Eccles on a Friday Night.

His new EP follows on from the highly regarded “Network” album and is packed with dance friendly beats inspired by the likes of Jean Michel Jarre, and Chemical Brothers.
The EP is launched on October 26th at The London Road Inn, Buxton with support from 243 Ida and Neural Dance

A limited edition CD version will be available at gigs and via our Bandcamp page.

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SHOW CASE GIG

We end October with a showcase gig (as mentioned above) at Gullivers, Oldham Street, Manchester with a great line up of

THE PARISH CHURCH FIRE
BOUQUET OF DEAD CROWS
ELASTIKBANDE

With the more rock/punk elements of our releases in play this promises to be a great evening of music with some special surprises promised by the headliners.

Tickets are available at SEETICKET.COM and the whole thing kicks off at 7pm

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New Moff – Strange Acrylic Night Custard

We are pleased to announce a brand new album from the master of Eddodi – Moff Skellington.

Entitled “Strange Acrylic Night Custard” the 12 track release is the latest in Moff’s unique journey through the Brigadoon of Dreamsleep – Abstercot

It is released in digital format only on 4th October via our Bandcamp Page as well as via all the usual digital platforms through AWAL.

Moff, whose given name is Andy Quayle, is an iconoclast blessed with a unique talent with words and music that defies convention and operates in a separate and quite distinct time continuum to the rest of the world of entertainment. His prolific and prodigious output, over thirty albums, EPs and one DVD since 1999, offers some of the most exciting and challenging work you are ever likely to hear. Aside from his musical endeavours he is also a gifted and talented visual artist who has exhibited his unique painting and drawings in many different locations.

Moff also works alongside Ian Moss as “Moss Skellington” and “The Colourful Disease”, and has also collaborated with Auster Boys, and with Hazel Fairburn in the project Sleeping Ducks.

The vast majority of the Moff Skellington albums are home recordings, on which Andy sings, talks and plays a variety of instruments, including accordion, melodica, harmonicas, whistles, ukulele, guitar, huttyphone, stylophone, bodhran, jaw harp, kalimba, dulcimer, metronome, tenor horn, baritone euphonium, various percussion and elastic bands.. The results are then mixed and mastered to create amazing collections of songs and poems. Everything is recorded in real-time, there is no cut and paste, no sampling, in fact nothing artificial at all, except perhaps the stylophone and the occasional drum machine.

Moff’s manifesto is simple and quite direct

“The chosen musical form is that of Edoddi, a species of folk music which celebrates the very individual and often skewed perceptions of the world engendered by modern life. Edoddi provides a refreshing alternative to the prescriptions and formulas of mainstream and “alternative” folk music. Edoddi philosophy: nothing is arbitrary. Make it up as you go along, it’s bound to be authentic!”.

Moff’s is inspired by a disparate variety of artists from Pere Ubu, through to Tom Waits via Cabaret Voltaire and The Red Krayola. This is “folk music” viewed through a post-punk prism.

Our promotional package for this release includes a thirty minute audio presentation from Moff on the thinking behind the album where he introduces each track this will be available on release date from our Mixcloud Select page.

In addition to the above Moff has prepared a one hour podcast for our Mixcloud Select channel which will include three songs from the album and a fascinating selection of music that has inspired him over the years including some rare and unique artists that we hadn’t even heard of here at German Shepherd HQ.

Strange Acrylic Night Custard will be followed by a second album “The Infrasound Guest” on October 25th and a new Sleeping Ducks album “The Radio People” on November 29th.

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Newsletter 41 : More Moff, Live Scissors album, Adventures of Salvador album, Umbrella Assassins T Shirts and Gigs!

Hello and welcome to your weekly news for all things German Shepherd Records

This week

– The Pukes of a Hot Cloister re-released
– New Scissors live album coming soon
– Adventures of Salvador new album trailed
– Umbrella Assassins T Shirts now available
– More Gigs announced

MORE MOFF SKELLINGTON

As we continue our programme of re-releasing Moff Skellington’s huge back catalogue we have reached the landmark “The Pukes of a Hot Cloister” which will be re-released digitally on May 3rd.

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The dark days of January 2012 were brightened somewhat by the arrival of The Pukes Of A Hot Cloister album. As usual there was a feast of lyrical athleticism, Moff plucks words out of the ether and re-arranges them in a completely unique and totally compelling way. This album is particularly full of memorable “Moffism’s”, too many to mention and all rather special, there is some degree of continuity from prior releases in parts, with several references to molecules, and the usual bovine references that are scattered across the albums, and the opening instrumental “House of New Bricks” is quoted in the words/music of the penultimate track “Four Peg Wooden Unit”. Two of the tracks “Time for Nervous Questions In The Pub” and “Confident of Pending Treats” formed part of the six song set Moff recorded for Bob Osborne’s “Reformation” radio show on Salford City Radio, the other four appearing on the previous years Embers from the Rapid Eye album, so there is some specific continuity between those two albums. As is usual with Moff you know what you are going to get – the difference with each album though is how he has progressed his art and which particular parts of his “dreamscape” he is addressing in this instance.

The opening “House of New Bricks” sets the scene with a stately waltz around the accordion with bluesy harp wailing – this soon transforms into the strange and somehow beautiful “Crap and Ugly Toys” which is Eddodi in its purest sense. From there on we are gently led through a journey of fascinating words and unique music. A contemporary “manifesto” of Moff’s work, whether it be his art or his music, described a reality comprising three interacting factors – octoberness, perfection and slapstick. Simply put these three elements , anticipation, entropy, and the essentially comedic nature of existence, intertwine to allow innovation, expression and interpretation. We are resisting the urge to release spoilers about the content of this album as we believe that the listener should absorb this marvellous work and draw their own conclusions from the text/sound. All we will say is that the other-worldliness of Moff’s output is never more apparent as it is here. He has always been unique. no one else is doing music like this – it just seems he has built on his work to date to create something rather special. Variety is the watchword here and it is all good. Comparisons, bench-marks, yardsticks etc are impossible so the listener needs to approach it from his/her perspective.

Moff has a major exhibition of his art at the Canwood Gallery and Sculpture Park during May. Exhibition will run from 11am to 4pm each week Tuesday to Sunday. 30 canvasses and 40 prints will be on show at the exhibition.

LIVE SCISSORS

We are pleased to announce the return of Cambridge band the Scissors with a live album recorded at The Smokehouse in Ipswich earlier this year. The raw sound of the live Scissors experience is captured perfectly and demonstrates the pure energy of the band on stage. Release date is planned for 10th May.

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ADVENTURES OF SALVADOR ALBUM TRAILED

The much anticipated new album from Adventures of Salvador “Welcome to our Village” is coming in June. Pending that the band play The Peer Hat, Manchester this Thursday (25th) and Ramsbottom Cricket Club on May 10th, Liverpool Fringe on June 6th with the album launch scheduled for June 28th at The Castle, Oldham Street, Manchester. Watch this space for more details.

UMBRELLA ASSASSINS T’S

Haverhill’s finest are hard at work on new material with an album promised later in the year pending that you can increase your sartorial eloquence by acquiring one of their rather fine T-Shirts at this LOCATION. The trio play The Smokehouse, Ipswich on July 13th.

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GIGS

The Spring Summer gig list is hotting up with extra gigs for Inferior Complex, Keltrix and Four Candles emerging…..the full list is below

April
25th – Adventures of Salvador play the Peer Hat, Manchester
26th – Mark Corrin plays The Railway, Didsbury
May
1st to 31st – Moff Skellington has an art exhibition at Canwood Gallery and Sculpture Park, Checkley, Hertfordshire
3rd – Inferior Complex play Winchester Gate, Salisbury
3rd – The Scissors play The Blue Moon, Cambridge
4th – Positronik and Pearl Divers play Music on the Market Place, Buxton
4th – The Mind Sweepers play The Frunge Festival, The Elmerglen Hotel, Thornhill
5th – Keltrix play The Green Man Brew Ballyhoo, Granchester
7th – Ian Moss performs in Unseasonal Beasts project with Simon “Ding” Archer at the Castle Hotel, Manchester as part of the MASS assembly event. This is a free event but you must reserve a ticket
10th – Adventures of Salvador play Ramsbottom Cricket Club
11th – Keltrix play The Haymakers, Cambridge (Acoustic Set)
18th -Weimar play the Eagle, Salford supporting St Lucifer
20th – Stewart Harris from Scissors on Dave Hammonds Smellypot Show on Cambridge 105 talking about the new live album
24th – Four Candles play Strummercamp at Oldham Rugby Club
25th – Sam Smith plays Strummercamp at Oldham Rugby Club
June
1st – Keltrix play Strawberry Fair, Midsummer Common, Cambridge
2nd – Inferior Complex play Bandstand, Eastleigh
5th – The Junta plays West Street Live, Sheffield
6th – Adventures of Salvador and Matthew Hopkins play Liverpool Fringe Festival
7th – The Parish Church Fire and Four Candles are playing The Eagle, Salford

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7th – Inferior Complex play The Alexandra, Southampton
8th – Keltrix play Pride!, Jesus Green, Cambridge
8th – Inferior Complex play The Red House, Yeovil
15th – The Mind Sweepers and Paul Winter (solo set) supporting JD Meatyard at Leith Depot Edinburgh tickets are £5 with £1 going to local homeless charity.

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20th – Inferior Complex play The King Charles, Poole
21st – Weimar play The Eagle, Salford
24th – The Junta plays The Peer Hat, Manchester with Lucky + Love.
26th – Dominic Carlton Jones plays Cuckoo Calling (Featured Artist) Bury New Road, Prestwich
28th – Adventures of Salvador play The Castle, Oldham Street, Manchester – ALBUM RELEASE SHOW
July
5th – Mark Corrin’s Elastikbande play The Railway, Didsbury
5th – Inferior Complex play The Shooting Star, Southampton
6th – The Mind Sweepers play Electric Fields Festival, SWG3, Glasgow
13th – Umbrella Assassins play The Smokehouse, Ipswich
13th – Electric Cheese play Indiefest 2019 at The Boulevard, Wigan
19th – The Scissors with Ember Rev at Blue Moon Cambridge
20th – Keltrix play Whoosh Festival, The Missing Sock, Sto-Cum-Quy
28th – Monkeys In Love celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing at The Klondyke Club, Levenshulme – afternoon show between 1pm and 5pm
31st – The Junta plays The Peer Hat
August
9th – Mark Corrin’s Elastikbande play The Railway, Didsbury
10th – Weimar play Scarborough Apollo
16th – Keltrix play The Green Man, Granchester
25th – Toska Wilde plays It Came From The Sea II at The Centre, Margate

German Shepherd Records Newsletter 39 – Mark Corrin album, sycloner, Moff Skellington and gigs!

Hello and welcome to the latest news from German Shepherd Records.

This week –

– Mark Corrin explores the Pub Bin
– sycloner bring Gold Coast sunshine to German Shepherd
– Moff Skellington announces huge art exhibition
– gig news

MARK CORRIN – NEW ALBUM “PUB BIN”

19th April sees the release of a new album from Mark Corrin.

Mark Corrin’s early releases as “Shirokuma” were frequently broadcast on the John Peel Show on BBC Radio 1, and his more recent solo work has featured on BBC Late Junction with Nick Luscombe. He also presents a weekly music radio show himself on Salford City Radio and has collaborated and performed with several notable artists from all over the world both live and on record. He has previously also been a member of groups including Una Baines’ (The Fall) band Poppycock, Rose & The Diamond Hand and is currently working with a new group called Elastikbande.

“Pub Bin” a digital only release is described as a dark comedy concept album set mostly in the venues, shops, offices, pubs and bins of modern Manchester. Blending electro pop and punk with Mark’s wry observational humour this is the album to lighten the mood of a distressed nation, and world!

Mark’s recent set at Manchester Meltdown includes many of the tracks from the album

You can check out Mark’s previous solo releases on two separate pages on Bandcamp as well as via Valentine Records Bandcamp page. Links are available on our artist profile page.

Mark is playing live on 26th April at The Railway, Didsbury, Manchester

SYCLONER JOIN GERMAN SHEPHERD RECORDS

Brisbane-Gold Coast duo sycloner (the S is lower case) become the first Australian artists to join German Shepherd Records. We will be distributing their first two EPs, which are currently available on Bandcamp, from May 24th with hopefully new material to follow soon. Their sophisticated indie sounds are deserving of a wider audience and we hope to spread the word about these talented musicians.

MOFF ANNOUNCES MAJOR ART EXHIBITION

Master of Eddodi Moff Skellington has announced a major exhibition of his art at the Canwood Gallery and Sculpture Park during May. Exhibition will run from 11am to 4pm each week Tuesday to Sunday. 30 canvasses and 40 prints will be on show at the exhibition.

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GIGS

Forthcoming gigs featuring German Shepherd artists

April

12th – Inferior Complex play The Shooting Star, Southampton
13th – Positronik play London Road Inn, Buxton
14th – Rose and the Diamond Hand play SpringFest at Victoria Baths, Manchester
18th – Inferior Complex play The Facebar, Reading
20th – Toska Wilde plays The Venue, Southend On Sea
26th – Mark Corrin plays The Railway, Didsbury

May

1st to 31st – Moff Skellington has an art exhibition at Canwood Gallery and Sculpture Park, Checkley, Hertfordshire
3rd – The Scissors play The Blue Moon, Cambridge
4th – Positronik and Pearl Divers play Music on the Market Place, Buxton
4th – The Mind Sweepers play The Frunge Festival, The Elmerglen Hotel, Thornhill
5th – Keltrix play The Green Man Brew Ballyhoo, Granchester
10th – Adventures of Salvador play Ramsbottom Cricket Club
18th -Weimar play the Eagle, Salford supporting St Lucifer
24th – Four Candles play Strummercamp at Oldham Rugby Club
25th – Sam Smith plays Strummercamp at Oldham Rugby Club

June

1st – Keltrix play Strawberry Fair, Midsummer Common, Cambridge
5th – The Junta plays West Street Live, Sheffield
7th – The Parish Church Fire and Four Candles are playing The Eagle, Salford
7th – Inferior Complex play The Alexandra, Southampton
15th – The Mind Sweepers are supporting JD Meatyard at Leith Depot Edinburgh tickets are £5 with £1 going to local homeless charity.
21st – Weimar play The Eagle, Salford
24th – The Junta plays The Peer Hat, Manchester with Lucky + Love.
26th – Dominic Carlton Jones plays Cuckoo Calling (Featured Artist) Bury New Road, Prestwich

July

4th-6th – The Mind Sweepers play Electric Festival, Drumlanrig Castle (North West of Dumfries off the A76
5th – Mark Corrin’s Elastikbande play The Railway, Didsbury
5th – Inferior Complex play The Shooting Star, Southampton
13th – Umbrella Assassins play The Smokehouse, Ipswich
19th – The Scissors with Ember Rev at Blue Moon Cambridge
20th – Keltrix play Whoosh Festival, The Missing Sock, Sto-Cum-Quy
28th – Monkeys In Love celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing at The Klondyke Club, Levenshulme – afternoon show between 1pm and 5pm

August

9th – Mark Corrin’s Elastikbande play The Railway, Didsbury
16th – Keltrix play The Green Man, Granchester

Greetings from Abstercot U.K.

March 15th sees the first dual effort by Moff Skellington and Auster Boys. Titled “Greetings from Abstercot UK” the two track release brings together the pyschogeography of Auster Boys and the other worldly genre known as Eddodi. Auster North produced two funky electro backing tracks and Moff added a good portion of Abstercot magic to create something new entirely, here is a sneak preview…… we hesitate to add the usual RIYL thing as this is nothing like anything you have heard before, unless you live in Abstercot!

For the main release the single will feature the two tracks, for German Shepherd subscribers the release will include the two Auster Boys base tracks as an added bonus

The cover art shows the centres of Leeds, Northampton and Eccles – all Abstercot in their own way!