Cuckundoo Records

Vessels are currently in Dallas, Texas, recording their second album with John Congleton (Explosions In The Sky, St Vincent, Baroness). The band are writing a diary of their exploits as they make the follow up to 2008’s White Fields and Open Devices. You can keep up to date with the band’s words and pictures here:
http://vesselsband.com
http://twitter.com/vesselsband

Meanwhile, the Leeds five-piece have also announced a clutch of dates with fellow noisy Loiners These Monsters this July. This will be an early opportunity to hear tracks from the as yet untitled second album by Vessels and to hear music from These Monsters’ debut Call Me Dragon, which came out earlier this year. See all the band’s shows below.

Friday 9 July - Brudenell Social Club, LEEDS (with These Monsters)
Saturday 10 July - The Zuu Bar, BRADFORD (with These Monsters)
Monday 12 July - The Lexington, LONDON (with These Monsters)
Tuesday 13 July - The Freebutt, BRIGHTON (with These Monsters)
Wednesday 14 July - The Croft, BRISTOL (with These Monsters)
Thursday 15 July - Play, READING (w/ A Genuine Freakshow and Talons)
Saturday 17 July - 2000 Trees Festival, CHELTENHAM

http://myspace.com/vesselsband
http://facebook.com/vesselsband
http://youtube.com/cuckundoo

Quack Quack’s debut album Slow As An Eyeball was released this week and the band have announced a handful of new shows including a fundraiser for Leeds listings guide Cops and Robbers and an appearance at the rescheduled Fell Foot Sound festival.

The gigs:
Saturday 12 June - Rock & Roll Circus, LEEDS (with Pifco & Quip) NB facebook invite only
Saturday 26 June - The Cube, BRISTOL (with Nitkowski and The Wailingest Cats)
Friday 9 July - Sewing Room Bar, Playhouse, BRADFORD (with Executive Legs)
Friday 10 September - Fell Foot Sound Festival, ULVERSTON (with Bo Ningen, Juffage, Plank! and That Fucking Tank)
Saturday 25 September - North Finchley Arts Depot, LONDON

On Slow As An Eyeball:

“This Leeds band rock, they swoon, they hypnotise. In my parallel universe, Slow As An Eyeball goes in at No. 1. It’s a thing of spellbinding, powerful beauty”
John Kennedy, XFM/Dazed & Confused

“Good grief, Slow As An Eyeball is fun…. The sort of immediate, raw and inescapable joy that leaps out of the speakers to demand smiles, dance action and increased volume all at the same time.”
All About Jazz

“Quack Quack is crafting some of the finest instrumental music since Tortoise’s Millions Now Living Will Never Die. Seriously…. Slow As An Eyeball is one of the finest recordings to come out this year – one that offers hope and promise for the future of instrumental rock music”
8/10 The Silent Ballet

“Rhythmically minded in the extreme, they have the chops to conjure hooky splendour”
Rock Sound

“Kraut-prog craziness… stunning musicianship”
Rock-A-Rolla

“Porn for people who hum…”
Cokemachineglow

“Fans of innovative sounds and killer rhythms should make this a must hear”
5/5 Album Of The Fortnight Leeds Guide

7.77 Lodown Magazine

“The album does pack quite a wallop”
The 405

“It’s the ghost of Ron Pickering, calling you across the the ages to a shared childhood that never was”
Vibrations

Buy the album here. Of course you can find the album in the best indie record shops and online at the usual places…

A free download of the Errors remix of ‘An Idle Brain and the Devil’s Workshop’ has been made available. The original remix was found on 2009’s Retreat, but the band subsequently found that there was an, erm, error with the remix, so they are giving away the track as it was meant to sound. Here’s what Tom Evans of Vessels says:
“In the spirit of the late John Peel, the tune was unintentionally slowed down before its release on the 2009 remix EP Retreat, and the mistake wasn’t noticed until long after the record came out when Steev Errors received his copy of the album and was somewhat baffled as to what had happened to his remix. It turned out to have been caused by an unnoticed bit-rate transfer which slowed the whole tune by 10%, and no-one noticed because it still sounded ace.”

Download track here.

Vessels begin their rescheduled tour with Oceansize (full details below - please note the Nottingham venue has changed) this week and have arranged an exciting warm-up gig with newly-announced labelmates Quack Quack this Wednesday 27 January at The Library in Leeds. As well as normal sets, their will be a special Quack Quack vs Vessels four-kit drum battle.

Members of Vessels have recorded a podcast to help promote this show, playing tunes from The Leaf Label, Big Scary Monsters, Smalltown America, Brew and Run Of The Mill, as well as Cuckundoo. Click here for the podcast.

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/68950
http://seetickets.com/see/price.asp?code=448123&userid={E5FBD4A7-1984-4D13-890D-1E8228909214}&filler1=see&filler2=art-srch

Lee J. Malcolm (pictured above) has come up with a ‘Best Of’ list for the decade. Pedants, please beware that the list is not entirely accurate when it comes to release dates (or titles):

1. Mirrored - Battles
2. Self-titled - Moderat
3. Andorra - Caribou
4. The sound of silver - LCD Soundsystem
5. Either or - Elliot Smith
6. Wincing the night away - The Shins
7. & yet & yet & yet - Do make say think
8. Drums and guns - Low
9. Peregrine - The appleseed cast
10. Minimal Techno - Loads of People

Vessels have been named as support for Oceansize on their November/December tour this year. Brontide and And So I Watch You From Afar also make appearances, see below for full listings.

Oceansize also share the same stage as Vessels at Brainwash festival on November 1st in Leeds.

You should be able to hear some of Vessels new tracks at these shows as they prepare to record their second album.

The shows:

Wednesday 25 November
The Barfly, CARDIFF (with Oceansize & Brontide)

Thursday 26 November
Academy 3, MANCHESTER (with Oceansize & Brontide)

Friday 27 November
Seven, NOTTINGHAM (with Oceansize & Brontide)

Sunday 29 November
Fat Sams, DUNDEE (with Oceansize & And So I Watch You From Afar)

Monday 30 November
The Tunnels, ABERDEEN (with Oceansize & And So I Watch You From Afar)

Tuesday 1 December
King Tuts, GLASGOW (with Oceansize & And So I Watch You From Afar)

Wednesday 2 December
Masque, LIVERPOOL (with Oceansize & And So I Watch You From Afar)

Thursday 3 December
Heaven, LONDON (with Oceansize & And So I Watch You From Afar)

I have hastily put together a Spotify playlist if anyone is interested:
http://open.spotify.com/user/cuckundoo/playlist/4jZhgQiY4r8bnzqN9HSYvc

It’s a mixture of new and old…

This session was recorded in Manchester on 21 April 2009 at Channel M’s studios.
http://www.channelm.co.uk/music

Track listing:
1. Ornafives
2. A Hundred Times in Every Direction
3. Two Words and a Gesture

To mark Vessels‘ latest tour, the first that sees the band play some shows in Europe, the band have readied a new release. Retreat is available now via the band at shows or on iTunes. The CD should be in stores early May…

The release features remixes by Lee J. Malcolm and Tom Evans (aka Peasman) from Vessels, as well as Bracken, Errors, Brendon Anderegg (from http://www.myspace.com/apestaartjemountains) and Little Evil (Middleman, Mye Mi). There is also a bonus track, which you may know from the BBC Raw Talent session recorded in 2007.

Here’s the tracklisting:

1. Walking Through Walls
2. Fully Altered Beast (Lee J. Malcolm remix)
3. Descent
4. Pea Jerk (Peatronica remix)
5. Walking Through Walls (Bracken remix)
6. Remain (Brendon Anderegg remix)
7. Wave Those Arms, Airmen (Little Evil remix)
8. An Idle Brain and the Devil’s Workshop (Errors remix)
Bonus track:
9. Knee Jerk

You can hear ‘Descent‘ and Errors’ remix of ‘An Idle Brain and the Devil’s Workshop‘ on the band’s myspace.
http://myspace.com/vesselsband

And here’s the awesome art from Luke Drozd: