Hi folks

Adam Franklin & Bolts of Melody will be heading out on the road in North America in support of the Spent Bullets album.

The band that started The Church tour back in May, that's Locksley Taylor on guitar, Josh Stoddard on bass and Mikey Jones on drums as well as Adam of course, naturally feels it has unfinished business to carry out, due to Josh only making the first five or six shows on that tour.

The band will be rocking the Spent Bullets and Bolts of Melody tunes as well as probably previewing a tunes from the already recorded and currently-in-the-mixing-process NEW album I Could Sleep For A Thousand Years, just for the sheer hell of it.

These dates are confirmed, with more to follow:

JANUARY
Tue 01/05/10
New York, NY Mercury Lounge
          
Wed 01/06/10
Washington, DC DC9
 
Thu 01/07/10
Wilmington, DE Mojo 13
 
Fri 01/08/10
Philadelphia, PA The Khyber
 
Sat 01/09/10
Norfolk, VA 37th & Zen
 
Sun 01/10/10
Charlotte, NC Milestone Club
 
Mon 01/11/10
Atlanta, GA The EARL
 
Wed 01/13/10
Austin, TX Emo's
          
Sun 01/17/10
Los Angeles, CA Echo
          
Mon 01/18/10
San Jose, CA The Blank Club
 
Tue 01/19/10
San Francisco, CA Bottom Of The Hill
 
Thu 01/21/10
Portland, OR Rotture

Fri 01/22/10 Vancouver, BC Media Club

Sat 01/23/10
Seattle, WA Comet TavernChicago, IL Empty Bottle

Sat 01/30/10
Detroit, MI PJ's Lager House

Hello folks

Just a quick note to say the new Adam Franklin album Spent Bullets is released today (March 31st) in North America and will be available May 18th in the rest of the world.

It's a bit of a pain that it doesn't come out the same day everywhere but you can still get a hold of it before then by going direct to the label here and actually that's probably better for us anyway with you coming directly to the source.

We shall have some confirmed tour dates to give you in the next week or so.
And thanks for the kind words! Glad that you're digging the sounds!

cheers
Adam

Happy New Year one and all!

And thanks for making 2008 a fun year.. It seemed to go on forever, from the Bolts of Melody show in Kilburn and the solo shows in Australia that must have been in February through the Swervedriver tour that went from Coachella to Glasgee and the Magnetic Morning autumn US tour that rocked all of our worlds, ...and how.

And then there was recording two frigging albums that started in London in April, carried on through Toronto, Atlanta, Athens, Cardiff and finished in Oxford just now.
The Magnetic Morning album 'AM' comes out on vinyl and CD in January and is unmissable (go to:www.myspace.com/magneticmorning to hear some sounds) and the Adam Franklin & Bolts of Melody album 'Spent Bullets' will be available for spinning March/April time, we promise, and is equally delectable, of course.

And then there are the Swervedriver re-issues hitting your racks (ouch, sorry) also - I believe Raise, Mezcal Head and Ejector Seat Reservation are already loitering seductively for any passing trade at UK outlets and Raise and Mezcal at least will be available in North America come January via Second Motion/Hi-Speed Soul - I think Sony have decided they own Ejector Seat Reservation for the US afterall and intend to walk her down the aisle on some unspecified future date.. Let's hope they don't stand her up again. huh?

And so I've posted some new tunes here - a couple new 'Bullets' tunes; a Magnetic demo; there's a live Bolts tune plus an Amy LaVere cover (we all love Amy and saw her play twice in Nashville this year and apart from anything else you just gotta love anyone who's instrument is larger than they are!) and an anthem to carry us through to Rome, hopefully. Makes a nice little EP methinks..

Buenos aires
XX

Hey everyone

So the Magnetic Morning tour starts today.

After five days rehearsal in Nashville we head down to Athens GA where we recorded the album and debut the lion's share of the new tunes at the Caledonia Lounge. Then it's up, off, around and back.

This band sounds so monumental, even I don't know where some of the sounds are coming from! It's a deeply psychedelic sprawl y'all.. If we're heading to a city near you, you really should step down into dreamstate and blast out those Great Depression Blues.

New songs are up at:www.myspace.com/magneticmorning
A couple older ones are still up at the ghostly www.myspace.com/thesettingsuns

October 2008
15 - Athens, GA - Caledonia Lounge
16 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
17 - Washington, DC - Rock and Roll Hotel
18 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
20 - Boston, MA - Great Scott
21 - Brooklyn, NY - Southpaw
23 - Toronto, Ontario - Horseshoe Tavern
24 - Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop
25 - Milwaukee, WI - Cactus Club
26 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
27 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th St Entry
30 - Seattle, WA - Chop Suey

November 2008
1 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
2 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent
3 - Los Angeles, CA - The Roxy
4 - San Diego, CA - Casbah
7 - Dallas, TX - House of Blues
8 - Austin, TX - Waterloo Park (Fun Fun Fun Fest)
10 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl

Press release from White Whale Records:

ADAM FRANKLIN / HANDSOME FURS ~ SHINE A LIGHT!
Filed under: News : June 3, 2008
We're very proud to be releasing the Shine A Light 7? with Handsome Furs (Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade) and Adam Franklin (Swervedriver) covering a track by each others "other" band

Adam Franklin's cover of Shine A Light by Wolf Parade is now available on iTunes. Meanwhile, Handsome Furs are recording a yet to be announced Swervedriver cover… Once the Handsome Furs are done recording this month, the 7? will be pressed and both tracks will be available everywhere digitally. Perfect symmetry?!

http://whitewhale.ca/label/artist/shinealight/

So it looks like Swervedriver will hit the road once more. It all happened quite quickly and we met up in a pub in London last month and figured out what we'd like to do, which at this point is just heading out and playing some shows again.

As far as new recordings are concerned, I already have two albums to record next year (a new 'solo' and The Setting Suns debut) and they take priority. Maybe the Swervies can rustle up a new tune or two but really, there's more than enough going on with that back catalogue already.

I gotta say that something that really sparked my interest in this was hearing the live version of Sandblasted that has been posted for some time at swervedriver.com and subsequently at the MySpace page. I'd just never heard it played like that before. I mean, I guess I was there and everything, but it's got this great kinda country style to it that sounds like it might have only happened one night, and it's stuff like that that keeps the whole thing alive to me... not only in the music but the fact that other folks cared enough to record and post these recordings.

In the meantime this 'Bolts of Melody' tour has been going really good and finally it's reached the point where nobody bitches after the shows about the lack of Swervedriver songs! I guess because they've been leaving completely satiated by the set that culminates with the twelve minute C chord that is Ramonesland. Things are nicely in place to build on with another album next year and there's already a great album taking shape I think..

So I guess I'd better sleep now.. cheers - A

Goose Flies on David
Posted by Trent Moorman on July 17 at 14:11 PM


Adam Franklin is a master, a sculptor of a guitar player. He chisels and nimbly modulates his Fender Jazz Master through layers of notes and marble.

People watch his hands when he plays to see how his fingers move.

Not that he is into nude men, or nudity, but his latest David is called Bolts of Melody, out on Hi-Speed Soul. A clean, quarantined, full length collection of mood sifters and regal chord imagery.

Franklin's fans are hardcore. They want autographs and encores.

First, there was Swervedriver. Then Toshack Highway. Now as 'Adam Franklin', Bolts of Melody. Franklin also has a project in the works with Interpol drummer, (and Swervedriver fan) Sam Fogarino called the Setting Suns.

(Billy Corgan had asked Franklin to play in his current lineup, but Franklin said no.)

Fogarino had a bottle of Grey Goose waiting for Adam at the Crocodile when he finished his set on Saturday night. A little something to get the tour started right. Improbably, the bottle remained unopened until the next night at Portland's Doug Fir Lounge.

With Greyhounds circulating, I hovered near Mr. Franklin as he packed up after the Doug Fir show. He velcros his pedals to a thin slab of wood. The instruments of a brain surgeon, yes. He had shown up in Seattle without this wood and had to have it Fed Exed out. He joked how he has a few of these slabs in various places, one in New York, and one in Europe somewhere. Now one on the west coast. He said, "I have wood everywhere."

Adam Franklin is a highly intelligent, soft-spoken man. When he speaks, he has something to say. His English accent adds austerity and an official-ness. He relayed a story about being in a NY cab on the way home after a show.

The cab driver was an older raspy man, and was telling Adam if he ever needed a vocalist, to give him a call. Adam got home and on a whim, Googled the guy. Turns out he sang for the Platters. Adam and Fogarino need to pull this guy into their collaboration. Would rule.

Sunday night ended by the Doug Fir fire pit. Mirth and liquids flowed. Franklin's bass player, Josh, was tackled in the bushes and piled on. It was Adam's drummer, Than's birthday. Beyond last call, the hour approached super late and became early morning.

The next day, they were to play in San Francisco at Café du Nord. From Portland, a what, ten hour drive? Load in at what, 7:00? Which meant leaving Portland at 9 that morning?

Can you say super fresh van time? Ibuprofen? Red bull, gas station shitter food?

The Grey Goose spreads its wings and claims. Band loses brain cells, reels, and rebounds to the highway headed South. Put on Ry Cooder's soundtrack for Paris, Texas and hope for no traffic.

"Fly like an Eagle, to the sea. Fly like an eagle, let my coffee carry me."

Update via Adam text: They made the San Fran show just in time. No soundcheck. Good crowd for a Monday.

Original article:http://lineout.thestranger.com/2007/07/goose_flies_on_david

Oh man, well I don't want to be permanently 'blogging' obituaries here - I just ain't qualified - but another great man passed away yesterday..

What can you say about Arthur Lee? Well let's look at some of his words instead..

A House Is Not A Motel was the first Love song I ever heard and I loved the way the gently rocking acoustic guitars and the rolling-n-tumbling rhythm section sound contrasted with enigmatic, cinemascopic words:

At my house I've got no shackles
You can come and look if you want to
In the halls you'll see the mantles
Where the light shines dim all around you
And the streets are paved with gold and if
Someone asks you, you can call my name

You are just a thought that someone
Somewhere somehow feels you should be here
And it's so for real to touch
To smell, to feel, to know where you are here
And the streets are paved with gold and if
Someone asks you, you can call my name

By the time that I'm through singing
The bells from the schools of wars will be ringing*
More confusions, blood transfusions
The news today will be the movies for tomorrow
And the water's turned to blood, and if
You don't think so
Go turn on your tub
And if it's mixed with mud
You'll see it turn to gray
And you can call my name
You can call my name
I hear you calling my na-a-ame!

before giving way to a head-removing electric guitar solo that simply stopped dead on the earlier pressings.

(*apparently it's actually "the schools of walls" but I always heard it as "wars" so I'm sticking with that!)

The second Love song I heard was Seven & Seven Is/ Number Fourteen where the sound of fucked-up, fuzzed up electric tremelo guitars, staccato, machine gun rhythm section (Arthur plays drums apparently) and crazed, fucked-up lyrics:

When i was a boy i thought about the times i'd be a man
I'd sit inside a bottle and pretend that i was in a can
In my lonely room i'd sit my mind in an ice cream cone
You can throw me if you wanna 'cause i'm a bone and i go
Oop-ip-ip oop-ip-ip, yeah!

If i don't start cryin' it's because that i have got no eyes
My father's in the fireplace and my dog lies hypnotized
Through a crack of light i was unable to find my way
Trapped inside a night but i'm a day and i go
Oop-ip-ip oop-ip-ip, yeah!

keeps on speeding like a runaway train until the almost inevitable sound of atomic explosion gives way to a brief post-apocalyptic coda before you hear someone blowing on a jug and Number Fourteen starts up:

Wake up in the morning don't know what to do
Wake up in the morning feelin' kind of blue
Going down to Virginia, going down the fairway. Going down to Virginia, Virginia gets me straight

Went to bed last night babe couldn't sleep a wink
Went to bed last night babe didn't sleep a wink
Going down to Virginia, going down the fairway. Going down to Virginia, Virginia gets me straight

Going to see my doctor to see what he can do
Give me some of those capsules either red or blue
If they don't make it, if they don't help me I'm going down to Virginia, Virginia gets me straight

(by the way, where is this song? I don't think I've ever seen it on CD which amazes me because for me it's always been integral as the end of Seven & Seven Is - if the wee fade-out at the end of Seven is the immediate nuclear fall-out, then Number 14 is driving across country back to Virginia hoping that it ain't a burnt-out shell as well...)

Well to quote the man again,
"Everybodys gotta live
And everybodys gonna die"
so watcha gonna do huh?

And finally, here's a Robyn Hitchcock lyric:

The wreck of the Arthur Lee
Will never return again
Never return again
The captain and all his men
Went up and jumped overboard
"Jesus is Lord," they cried
Believe in love!
Believe in love
And I'll believe in you

The missing Avenger planes
Will never return to base-dont you wait up for them
How often have you boys said
"I aint gonna bump no more."
"We aint gonna bump no more."
Believe in love! Believe in love!
And I'll believe if you'll believe in me
I got home
There was nobody there
Just the phone
let it ring in the air
But its home

The wreck of the Arthur Lee
Will never return again
Never return again

I'm very sad to hear the news today that Syd is dead. He's finally gone and may his soul rest in peace.

Syd has always been a source of fascination because unlike his contemporaries from the 1960s - Jimi, Brian, Jim etc - he's always actually still been here among us, even though it kind of feels like he's been dead a long time.

Like a lot of people I seem to go through obsessive Syd spells from time to time and earlier this year it was triggered by the photograph in Floyd drummer Nick Mason's book, of Syd when he reappeared, unannounced in the studio at Abbey Road when Floyd were mixing Shine On You Crazy Diamond, the song about Syd.

None of the band had seen him in 8 years or so and when they had last seen him he had at least still been looking like Syd, even if his mind had gone. So when they entered the room and saw a strange bald, fat bloke sitting in the corner they just wondered who the hell it was. It was apparently only when he started jumping up and down and brushing his teeth that they realised with horror that it was Syd.

He was wearing a big white shirt and enormous black trousers and had shaved not only the hair on his head but his eyebrows too and was about twice the size he had been before.
One of the Floyd's roadies took him out to the canteen to have a conversation with him and when asked "So how ya been, Syd?" Syd replied "Well, I've bought a new fridge and I bought some pork shops for it but the pork chops keep going off and so I keep having to buy more".

I recently saw legendary rock photographer Mick Rock in New York City at an aftershow thing and felt compelled to go over and ask him about Syd. Mick was a lovely guy and sat me down and just said "Well, Syd's so fascinating because he was like a beautiful spectre that just came and went".

He understood the fascination that people have with wanting to know where Syd lives and with all those photographs that appear in British tabloid newspapers from time to time, of Syd going to the corner shop to buy a pint of milk or cycling home with a newspaper under his arm because it was like watching Hendrix or Brian Jones growing old before our very eyes in completely normality (as far as riding the bike and going to the shops is concerned at least). But Mick was sad about Syd because he'd simply lost a good mate.

It's obviously a tragic story in most respects but it has to be said that apart from that Abbey Road photograph (it must have been one hell of a shock for his ex bandmates) Syd doesn't look unwell or unhappy in the other later photographs. He looks like your older brother's scally mate in one from the late 70s and he just looks like someone's friendly dad coming home from work, wearing his donkey jacket on one from a few years back where he's riding his bike home.

I'd like to think that Syd was able to live in his world relatively comfortably and contentedly, painting and listening to jazz music in his mum's basement in Cambridge and riding that bike with the basket, the bell that rings and things to make it look good.
Syd will shine on forever..

Well many thanks to those who showed up for the show in Austin Texas. Chaos ruled supreme as is mostly to be experienced at SXSW so it seems..

Sianspheric travelled through the night from Louisiana having found all motels still fully booked-up with flood victims - let's hope that the government funding hasn't completely dried up and that they'll all find themselves properly rehoused very soon.

In the meantime the band pulled into Texas around 9am, made their way to our hotel room 4 miles north of the centre of Austin and found us to be very hospitably still up and about from the night before.

The writing should perhaps have been partially scrawled upon the walls at this point as some post-drive beverages were embarked upon.

The band made their way down to the Drink on Sixth around 2pm and I joined them a couple of hours later.

The second daubing on the walls occurred on discovering that complimentary beers weren't available at the club, only complimentary spirits - cheap ones at that..

Now as anyone with even the slightest knowledge of the workings of life on the road for the eternally skint musician will tell you, a complimentary whiskey - even if it's a Dewars and not a Jamesons, even at 4 in the afternoon - is preferable to paying for a beer at the club you're playing at and not just in principal but to ease one's pocket-of-change path to the post-show burrito you've had your mind set on. Having said that I personally hate cheap whiskey and so bought a beer.

However the writing was finally splashed over all four walls in BIG RED CAPITAL LETTERS when news of complimentary BLOWJOBS filtered through! I know Texas prides itself on being more hospitable than most other places but this takes some beating.. especially at 4.15 in the afternoon.

We shall draw a discreet veil over the exact names and identities of blower and blowee but suffice it to say that this freebie could be seen as an attempt to make amends for the non-complimentary beers, being as it was performed by someone "involved with the club" - and no it wasn't the bartender!

Anyway Mark Gardener's no-show was supposed to have opened up a little more time space for Goldrush, Sianspheric and my TH set with Sianspheric. But of course somehow it didn't work out that way as all three acts were given around an hour to complete and the house soundman told me it would be 4 songs for Sian and 3 for Toshack.. if only!

Sianspheric take the stage, Matt the drummer is shit-faced on the complimentaries and although they sounded pretty good and Psychedelic Stooge-like from where I was stood, the truth was that Matt was fucking up the beats somehow. How do we know this? Could be something to do with the Fender Stratocaster that seemed to fly through the air in slow motion from around singer Sean's neck straight into the middle of the drum kit, which partially collapsed.

Show's over? You gotta be kidding me.. didn't come all this way etc and so I made my way to the stage and tried to appease drummer and guitarist. It seemed to work as five minutes later Sean has switched to bass and is trying to lock in to Matt's drumming on the Toshack Highway set.

I guess it was an uphill struggle but these new Toshack songs even feel great when they sound like they're being played backwards through a vacuum cleaner - which is just as well 'cause they probably did sound like that, all things considered.

We got through Theme From LSD, Morning Rain and Seize The Day and I was tuning up for Canvey Island Baby when other guitarist Ley came over and said "I guess the show really is over now". I looked around to see two feet sticking up in the air behind the kit. The drummer was done for.

I seem to recall asking the audience which book titles they thought best summed this all up - thanks to the girls who came up afterwards suggesting "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" (due to Matt's collapse) and "Paradise Lost" but "The Fuck-Up" by Arthur Nersesian had to be the natural winner.

Anyway after having originally been given a grand total of "no time" to tie up proceedings I now had about 10 minutes to fill without a band and I really wasn't in the mood for the ol' finger picking stuff I'm afraid which is why after a noisy solo bash through Syd's "See Emily Play" I was quite pleased to see the legendary Joe Dilworth at the front of stage saying "Adam! Do you want me to get behind the kit?"

Joe is a photographer and plays drums with the recently reformed Th' Faith Healers who had rocked across the road the previous night. And since this was supposed to be the "Shoegazing Hacienda" night who better to have on stage than the guy that took the photo on the cover of Isn't Anything by My Bloody Valentine? Go see: www.joedilworth.com for more..

So me and Joe piled through duo versions of Son of Mustang Ford and Duel before finally retiring for cocktails elsewhere. None of these cocktails contained Dewars whiskey.

Nice to make the LA Weekly I suppose:http://www.laweekly.com/nightranger/12970/nightranger-at-sxsw/