So we've now got this great new rehearsal space on the Hackney Rd which we have kindly been allowed to share with Factory Floor. It is 'initmate' in that after three or so hours it smells pretty much like sex and it has loads of dismantled electrical things and a sawn off poly-foam bear/fox/dog head hung from the ceiling, which Gabe of FF surely must use to channel his unique drum patterns from the gods. Anyway this space of our own means that much writing and discussing has been going on as we approach another round of recording for our next Parlour Records release. And what do you imagine the soundtrack to this process has been thus far?

A field recording of 1920s Berlin? The soft brush of rain over clay tiling? Joy Division? A mega mix of great funk drumming?

No you fools, Skunk Anansie!

What?

Yeah, you know, a bit of Skunk Anansie, only get this, it's live!

Like a live album?

No, they rehearse next door!

What?!

Yes, in know. Apparently they're gearing themselves up for a greatist hits tour of something, so we hear Weak as I am through the walls along with all sorts. They had Miss Dynamite in the other week for something or other, anyway all this has been a bit much for us as you can understand, so work has been slow but we're getting there and I think it might just be propelling us in the direction we need to go.

Of late we've been quite busy. A great rammed show at 93ft East with PLUG and EIOH, a barfly in Camden (see video) and then there are the four or so new songs we'll be wheeling out slowly over coming weeks, which we've got round to writing. One involves a rather long introduction featuring slap bass and some jazz guitar heroics.

What?!!!

Don't blame us, we can't help what we come up with. If anyone, blame Skunk Anansie.

jx

Just thought i’d explain the screamy old breeders cover ’when i was a painter’ up on our profile at the moment. some crazy old fish asked us along with some super cool indie bands to record some hot kim deal related covers for those lovely folks at American Laundromat Records who’ve previously brought you pixies and cure tributes too. Although the release is stateside, you can still buy the record over the interweb via the ALR website. I’ve heard a few and they are fucking awesome. Just thought i’d clear it up in case people thought our sense of ’homage’/ripping off had got the better of us again. jx

So we've been pretty darn busy since my birthday Pop (going the weasel) show, which still leaves a horrid taste in my mouth and the words 'dick', 'promoter' and 'head' on my lips.

Firstly we did a club mooncat show for stuffy of fuses and graham coxon drummer fame, which was good but i think he was a bit miffed not many folks turned out. It was in herne hill- a bit too far for our nearest and dearests. Still, had a neat time with jenna and edward taking photos. Turns out that matthew and edward and jenna all went to college with mark from giant robot who were playing. I love this kind of peculiar small worldism. We also did a white heat show which was interesting, with scum and ulterior, two bands a thousand odd miles away from us in terms of style and such, but i think we got on pretty well. It's hard to decipher a general attitude of cool from a general attitude of contempt sometimes and London seems a little more 'attitudinal in general' compared to our native norwich, so i think we often come over too familiar or get met with a tepid welcome when sharing dressing rooms. The white heat dressing room was jolly- lot's of beer and a charming promoter with a moustache. A lot of latex and pvc on display too, which as a band we found unsettling. I also met Elaine and her compadre whose name i forget (apologies) from twee as fuck, a popular night for beat combos at the buffalo bar. Both charming ladies, unfairly ejected from the backstage area by an under qualified security man- (too much man, not enough security).

That friday we had the nme award tour aftershow party, which was okay, except for some dodgy microphones, some very irritating drunk people and a nazi cab driver. He was having conversations with people he'd met through late night radio phone ins. It turns out there is a whole subculture of people who phone in to debate stuff on air, often with wildly outdated or shall we say 'colourful' views on all sorts of things, only to later meet up. Our driver who was a right piece of cock, and rude, was ringing in to rant about the prison system with a general 'hang them all' approach to most of the issues raised.

Next night the lovely Matthew from Parlour records drove us to the delightful seaside town of Bournemouth, famous for giving us members of help she can't swim and sleeping states band. It was a good old trip, with lot's of free beer and smoking out of car windows. We danced nervously as the room filled with what seemed like everyone from the postcode between the ages of 16 and 35.

Then there was a gig at 93ft east on saturday which was a hoot. Phil and Laurel came down, as did nik void, julianna and some lovely people from norwich. The singer from black list who we played a wombat wombat with two years ago was there with julianna, so another small worldism, as we soon realised we had met before. Nice guy. The black list are sadly no longer a unit. The death of a band is a sad thing to hear about.

GOOD NEWS:

we're number one in the pix magazine chart this month. We have never been a number one before and it feels super.

Also, i learn today the guardian have named us top myspace. Here is what they say:

MySpace of the week: LeTetsuo
"Predictably," begins their MySpace biography, "Le-Tetsuo met at art school in autumn 2002, and began having sweaty, drunken rehearsals." The trio, who list their origin as Norwich/London, describe their music as spikey noise pop, a term it's difficult to argue with when exposed to Charlotte's ear-splitting vocals or their exuberant live shows. The band will encourage you to 'tip-ex their name on your satchel', but if that's a bit much, you can just listen to them here.

So all in all a jolly good time. Looking forward to an artrocker show and our norwich ep launch later in the month. And of course, we await the return of our beloved charly tetsuo who is swilling coffee, eating moules marinere, wearing a beret at a jaunty angle and smoking camel lights in paris probably. Hooo-fucking-yah! jx

My Birthday gig was good. Thankyou Brownies and co. for coming out. Massive thanks to the chimps and plug who played a blinder for nearly fuck all money (more on this later) and for all chums who came along to say happy birthday. You are jolly nice. Birthday wishes to Julianna too whose birthday it was.

I was well pleased with how the gig went- less our dodgy drunken performance with a charly muted by the soundman (arrrgh!!! two singers? what? how? surely not?...Yes...two singers...a girl and a boy...equal volume...what's the fucking problem here?) - and more with the other two bands -cruiser chimps who i LOVE and whose new songs are amazing. And also PLUG who were pretty bloody astounding. They are: Sian on fucking nifty drums, whose vocals sounded like gin and tonic i reckon, really clear and cool and Georgie doing all sorts of good business on bass and playing keyboards with her feet. Yeah. Her feet. I don't get all jaw-droppy, knot-footed about bands very often, but they were well good, so extra pleased they played on my beefday.

RANT OCCURRING:

What marred the event was that even though there were about say 70 odd folks there from early on, which for london is pretty good on a weeknight, we were offered £30 for all three bands. A disgrace. I had a bit of a go and got told to calm down by some emo and a big fat guy who looked like a toad and he got all uppety (skippety hoppety?!) saying that some bands bring down four hundred people etc get paid a hundred quid each etc...which of course is bullshit and in any case, not our problem as the bands. It is the problem for the promoter, whose job is, and let me get the wording right 'to promote'? Taxis getting drums and amps there cost money, the chimps had travelled from Norwich- Paul from Blow-up the promoter WASN'T EVEN THERE AT THE GIG. Yes. I know. I heard nothing in the month before and he had promised the bands 'all the money form the door'. What we got was 'all the money from the door' minus the cost of PA hire and sound engineer and bar staff wages etc etc. Paul from blow-up is clearly some kind of idiot, liar or shit bag. In fact, if you are Paul blow-up reading this, or know him, please let him or yourself know you are a turd of some description and you soured my lovely birthday royally. Dare i say it ANOTHER FUCKING CENTRAL LONDON CLUB PROMOTER WHO TREATS BANDS LIKE SHIT. I will never do another central london club gig ever again. I will never do a blow up gig. Rubbish.

So all that is left to say is my apologies once again to plug and cruiser chimps. I owe you both drinks and will look to it when i see you all- hopefully soon and Fuck you Blow-up/Metro for being generally shitty and for being really unhelpful and rude when my phone got nicked from my coat while i was arguing with the club manager for more money. The security staff cleared the backstage area where my bag and coat was and took it to the cloakroom. Wheni got it back- no phone in coat pocket. All the security staff could say was "Well...your bag was open". I know fuckhead. My phone was in my coat pocket which was 'closed'. Also, isn't it at all alarming to a 'security' person whose job it is to protect people in the club that theft has taken place? Does a shrug warrant the correct security response. If so, according to which cleptomaniac/anarchist/knuckle-dragger's procedural handbook. Dicks.

Also FUCK YOU to the dick head in the pork-pie Doherty style hat outside who was being sarcky and a general penis to us leaving the club. You are ugly in face, style (you looked like a rabbid cartoonist's depiction of Johnny  Borrel- does that not alarm you?)...wherewas I? oh yes...ugly in soul and manner and you may well lead a empty life.

On a lighter note: Lots of great gigs coming up, the spanking new record which sounds neat and which you can hear a few tracks off if you message us asking to nicely. We can't yet put tracks on our myspace, but as a reward for reading this blog, if you get in touch i can direct you to another 'place' where you can! Deal.

Also, we have some lovely gigs coming up, put on by promoters who like music and the bands they put on, who give a shit and work hard. I salute you, the good ones, the nice people. All best dear readers and listeners. love to all the nice people. jx

Last night (9:30-12:30) we had our first rehearsal since Sam's excursion to the states. It turned out we hadn't forgotten too much of the new material and that the old material, well, that is just so old it would take all our physical and mental strength to actively engage in the act of forgetting it. Speaking of old things- le tetsuo, i worked out, have been goin now for about five and a half years. Shittola! and we still don't tour the country in a giant penis-lorry. What have we been doing all these years? Drinking? at least that was the order of the night after we finished. Stu chow popped in to hear new things, so we took him to a odd little members club on greek street and got even more arse-faced. I have only been able to manage to eat oat cakes. Just the oat cake, no cheese, today so far, so that should indicate the level of arse on said faces.

Anyways, Sam is out of our dreams and godless prayers and into our arms and front rooms once more. Hoorah! Order is restored. Carl loves Susan etc. Watch this f'ing space face. jx

 

 

Hello dear readers,

if we've been absent for a while its because we've been absent for a while. Sam is currently off globe trotting in the states eating large amounts of mexican food, while Charlotte and I sweat it out in London, gagging for gigs and impending recording sessions. We've been busy trying, with mixed fortunes, to write some new things and get them remembered. Most importantly, after wafting around abjectly, we've decided to put something out with our good freinds at the parlour, on their spanking new, laminted (wipe-dry), crotchless, high tear-strength indie label Parlour records. Thus the new songs and period of hibernation before what we hope will be a sustained period of growth and economic stability.

My main concern at present, is how I will remove the image of Charlotte miming an act of buggery on me with her bass, as I writhed drunkenly and up-ended on the buffalo bar floor, at the end of the Iain Chow Chow memorial show; more to the point, how i will remove said image from the memories of the hundred odd folks who saw it. Terrible behaviour.

Anyway, shows to be confirmed soon i promise and in the meantime, check out B-movie being used by Channel four as the theme tune for 'racing rivals' a programme about the touring car championships which go on all over the place, unbeknown to us indie types. It's on at 7:30 on sunday mornings and following our heavily filtered and chopped up theme to the introdutory sequence, you can enjoy a whole half hour or so of banal yet thoroughly researched and up to date news and gossip from the world of international touring car racing. VVRRRROOOOOOM VROOOOM.....SCREEEECH!!!!!! BOSH!

Tetsuo ugs, jx

Anyway, so we turn up at half five after having to grovel all our equiptment, such is the way with humble norwich outfits like ours (and big thankyous to the cyclones and black cherry who were both super with their gear and really nice folks) and seven hours, about six rounds of drinks at four pound a pint later, having dragged our seven or so london based gig goers across london to watch us, somebody's fuck up (still yet to find out who) meant we got to play but three songs. We were pretty riled, even after moaning four bottles of beers out of the venue and after much heartfelt placation from the promoters. I suppose the reason i am writing this is not because i want to get back at anyone, nor soil the name of noble jam, who were a really nice bunch of people (gareth was also a very good sound man too) and as far as i can tell had been mislead and so are really blameless, but the reason i have been moved this evening to comment, is that even though we wait around, pay for travel, then go and try and work our asses off on stage, it feels like despite these things that venues are generally unappreciative, uncoopperative and down right rude, even though bands like us provide them with much of their business and tend to get fuck all money for the 'priveledge'.

It is about time that decent bands get what is due to them. I saw four acts tonight that were worth paying to see and yet none of us it seems, went home in any kind of profit. Maybe our country is just plain shit for unsigned or small music (in europe it is very different, people actually make a living out of it), maybe we are all too desperate for some kind of success that we are prepared to put up with this shit, or maybe venues like POP, 14 Soho street are so caught up with their mediocre clubland bullshit, that they just couldn't give a fuck and bands like ours may as well be djs playing dj oizi, or venga boys as long as they get a cut of the door money and the occasional excuse for their bouncers to kick the shit out of some kid who shouldn't have been served booze in the first place. I am sorry for all who came out to see us and were disappointed, sorry for the hassle we caused the other bands borrowing their gear for essentially a fart in a jar of a gig and i am sorry to my band mates for organising a gig i thought would be worth the hassle but turned out to be more hassle than it was worth even thinking about. Promoters tend to be well meaning people who understand all this and noble jam are no exception. I liked them very much and hope to play for them (a full set mind) some other time if my band mates are game. It is just regretable that despite all this good intention on all our humble parts, bands included, it only takes one fuck up, one misunderstanding, lack of communication, assumption, crossed-wire and is all screwed up the shitter and usually it is the bands that go home with empty pockets and sour feelings about the whole thing, wondering where the fun went and when being a half decent band stopped mattering. jx 

Just googled our band name as one might well do absent-mindedly and apart from the next big thingy stuff, all one can read is a load of bad reviews of our first ep. 'pale imitations of elastica' was a delightfully astute description of our efforts, as was 'shellac go pop'. My favourite is still 'they appear to have nothing to say' which is so accurate it restored my faith in music journalism. Yes, occasionally, when asked, we might 'appear' and when we do, it is highly unlikely that we'll have anything 'to say', so top marks. Hopefully more recent recordings will prove more critic-friendly, or at least lead to yet more finely honed confidence rapings, or slightly better google results. Hoo yah. jx

Le tetsuo update: So since i last wrote we've been a bit more active playing in London, Norwich and Margate too with some great fun Bands- the cruiser chimps as ever were delightful. I don't think the margate teens were ready for them though, they cleared the floor pretty quickly, with the exception of one girl in red who was just going crazy. Love and thanks to you girl in red for your supportive bodily gestures of musical gratification for the cruiser chimps. I did not check to see if you were shaking them down for tetsuo later on. Thanks if you were. Thanks also to Jamie for being so friendly and of course Mark who put us on. He was quite the gentlman, very charming as was his girlfriend. Thankyou both.

Played with the captain, giant robot and Kaito at the marquee which was a fun time, though we never really got into it. Charlotte looked concerned about her tuning, so i looked concerned for charly and sam looked dismayed at me. I suspect charlotte's tuning was fine and i only escalated the rot of concern in the tree of our performance. Sorry tetsuos. Kaito were knocking socks off as is their wonderful way. Clever, interesting songs. Particularly enjoyed a track i believe is called 'parrot *some text missing due to boozy noise*' or something. It's got the word 'diary' in it if you know the one i mean. Giant robot were good and loud- mickey's voice was audible which i enjoyed. Afterwards we didn't get 'al-co-call' or something, but instead got wasted at charlie's house- sorry to tristan and amy who also live there, for that.

Played with the contortionists and the great chow chow at the pleasure unit- i forget the name of the other band (sorry) who i missed a lot of due to that slightly dazed post-gig feeling mixed with finding Hannah and Sophie who hadn't made it in time for our set because they were trying to get in through the wrong door. I lost Hannah's scarf which was awful- Sophie (hannah's sister) lost her bag/had it stolen there about a year before- there must be a big hole there where these things are hiding. The contortionists were very good indeed, particulalry the first twenty minutes and last three-four minutes. Their boy singer is quite bendy and long. I found them very watchable and hope Norwich folk will get the chance to see them. "Yes you are, you are, what you read!"- excitement.

Met Lauren at that gig- another myspace friend whose profile is accurately and reassuringly being lived out in a pleasant human form- who came along with Phil. I missed her gig later that week which i'm sure was lovely. Phil once again charmed me like i was some witless snake to his mystical pipings.

We have a new cd. Dave kaito says it is good, annie catwoman likes it, so buy it perhaps and blame them if you think it rubbish perhaps again.

I would like to use this public forum to thank tom humphreys for letting borrow his puffer jacket which provided enough warmth to give me a good nights' sleep in a van in ollie beavis' garden. I was very drunk so thanks to Steve for his van and for putting me into the jacket and then into the van.
That's all, see you soon somewhere. Bye! jack tetsuox

Ahh, the first blog entry. Well, i'm just doing some spring cleaning on the site, trying to upload a new backdrop kindly donated by a friendly man called mat. It hasn't appeared yet and the whole thing has been a fearful process, but i think i've got it done.

Tetsuo news: Charly promised me she would stop drinking and kissing Sam's brother long enough to record the vocals for DOGBITCH and STOP SHARPENING YOUR KNIVES SO I CAN THINK A MINUTE, which are long overdue, though i sympathise wholly with her dissertation plight. Difficult times.

On the Deltaville feud front, Duncan my nemesis has fallen silent after i threatened an amatuer circumscision  (sp?) from Sam. Whether another apology on my part is warranted remains to be seen. New photos will soon be taken. The ones we have here are all a bit out of date and as we are lazy fuckers, none of late have been taken so none have appeared. I wonder who will interested enough to read this? 

Another news and i have recovered fully from my stiff shoulders and neck brought on by carrying shopping home from Morrisons. Thanks for all your cards and well wishes. I really am ok now so you can stop sending them. Also my mouth ulcer has shrunk substancially as a result of a two for one offer on mouthwash at Morrisons. Perhaps the mouthwash was the proverbial straw to break my back as it were. O the irony.

Apparantly Violet Violet have a new bass player which is an exciting development. I hope to attend their shows soon. I have been wearing my 'i love violet violet' badge proudly around the streets of hackney and New Cross. One Japanese girl on the tube even asked me who they were. The word is spreading Grrrls.

Also we will be apearing on the womabat wombat compilation which is great news. That is assuming we get the tracks done in time- this friday. So far the recording is going well despite the fact that i attempted to play synth- very low in the mix- on DOGBITCH. What next? Chad teknikov in ree bock pumps?

END OF BLOG

 

If you enjoyed or even bothered reading this blog please pass comment and Jack or Sam or Charly may well continue to write one for your perusal. They currently suspect no one cares. Thankyou.