Shunt is my new favourite place on Earth. If you have never been, go. And get there early before things kick off so you can have a wander in quiet reverence.

We played on Friday and it was one of our best shows ever. There was basically no one there who knew who we were but the place was packed and people were dancing and singing and clapping and yes! There was a massively long table with a bull's head in the middle which was used as a theatre piece at one point during the night in which a naked woman was eaten. Greg performed 'man in the mirror' to passersby. There was video animation. There were short films. There were table dancers. There was James Brown.

We played two sets. The first was acoustic in a little side room. It went really well, but I remembered why we don't play any of my songs live anymore... Then we processioned down the halls playing 'chalon valley house band' finishing up in the audience and then going on stage to do set no. 2.

Napoleon IIIrd played after us and put on a great show. Then keyboard choir took over and blew the house down. Everyone was dancing and their as yet unrecorded song that goes 'pussy cat pussy cat kill kill kill' (but no doubt has a name like 'transgenic marine') was fan-fucking-tastic. Sublime. They've been playing the same songs for a while now, but the new stuff they're producing is so so good. Bate your breath, people.....

Thanks to all who came. 

Special thanks to Jon Stornoway for playing banjo in Fleet River and John Brainlove for putting on the whole night. 

Love, We Aerotom

ps. it should be noted I'm a little overexcited thinking about it all again, hence scatty post...

We Aeronauts seem to be channelling the spirit of the Arcade Fire, The Decemberists and Spiritualized, if the Arcade Fire were ten years younger, The Decemberists liked shoegaze and Jason Pierce if he’d never discovered drugs. They’re the kind of band you’d like to take home to your mother, all fresh-faced and, somewhat previously, full of the joys of spring. Their music mixes the delicate (melodies so fragile, light and pretty they would disintegrate in your hands), the soaring (headswimmingly climactic endings to many of their songs, a la Spiritualized).

Pretty cool. A week or so later, with Tom back, we played at the wonderful Sunday Roast. I love Sunday Roast. Fun night all round!

There was a small break until we were supposedly playing with Ex-Lovers(on Valentines Day) at the Cellar, but they pulled out to go on the Emmy the Great tour. We managed to convince Jimmy at the Cellar to let us play anyway, and we did, with Alphabet Backwards and Bitches. It was another good night. Ric was ill, but Anna was back, and so our streak of not playing two gigs with the same line-up since November was continuing.

Less than a week later, Greg, Zoobs and myself were packed with all out equipment into a car and driven up to London for a show at the George Tavern on what is probably the weirdest bill we'll ever play on. All bands were amazing, but I don't think any of them were expecting a folky shoegaze band to open proceedings. Maths Class, Action Beat and Don Vito were very nice, and one of them (i forget which) let us use their drum kit (Thanks guys!).

The next day we played at the Union Chapel. It was amazing. Quite an experience for all of us! The sheer majesty of that room was enough to distract me from the amount of people watching. We did the 'Chalon Valley in the crowd' thing because of the natural reverb thing in the church, and I'm glad we did. You can see pictures of the day here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/weaeronauts/

A week or two after that, we played at the Academy in Oxford, with the beautiful Horse Feathers. We didn't play that well, but it was an experience nonetheless!

We've got nothing lined up for a while in Oxford. A small show at Koko (which we're still not sure how we're going to approach) on Friday, before we take an April break for exams/projects and suchlike. We'll be back in early May for our first Birmingham gig, and then pushing on throughout the summer.

Plans for our first release are go!

We're also entering the studio over the next couple of weeks to record something new.

It's all go.

x

salut

we aeronauts have been on the busy side. surprisingly so, given that half of our number live in foreign lands. anna and greg returned, albeit briefly, a few weeks ago, for general fun and two gigs.

the cellar on the 2nd november with a lovely guy called mr b. he was such a gentleman. we played a tight set, played chalon valley in the crowd and finished with alpe. it couldn't really have gone any better. thanks due to cat and soundman phil for dealing with our ridiculous set up.

the regal on the 3rd, with why? and jonquil was something else. massive, beautiful old place. we had sound problems throughout but rode it out and really enjoyed it all. played a new track called 'a strange sign of life' which seemed to go down well. jonquil were brilliant, and it was fantastic to get to play with why?- cheers to isla at the regal for that one too.

for both of these gigs we had help from two friends- ric, of the mountain parade, and my dear old friend tim. ric stepped in to play trumpet and tim played drums in the absence of ads and jez respectively. so thanks to those two- tim will still be with us on the 23rd december. in the mean time, check out ric's amazing band here: http://www.myspace.com/themountainparade  

goodbyes were said soon after as anna made her way back to madrid. greg is still here for a week or so, and we'll all be back for christmas. 23rd december @ the big chill house in king's cross is the next one! free entry apparently.

we've been demoing tracks fairly regularly in various bedrooms. they are very rudimentary, and very daniel johnston at this stage, but alpe, haste and fleet all started out that way too so i'm looking forward to getting all of us in a room.

we got reviewed: thanks to colin for such nice words.

http://www.oxfordbands.com/2008/11/10/we-aeronauts-ep/

i've also put two new tracks up. haste ye back is brand new. greg, jt and i recorded it in july/august at the combination of... again. it's a track greg wrote shortly before he went to canada. he's played it live a couple of times- although, to my knowledge only once with the extra guitar/accordion as exhibited here. it also features james t playing his 'morin khuur', a stringed instrument he bought back from mongolia (see below).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matouqin

the version of chalon valley up there is from the session we did at the banbury road bbc studios in june for tim bearder and david gilyeat. zoobs and greg swapped instruments- banjo and guitar playing each others parts to great effect. essentially we all set up in a room with several mics, and played- somehow andrew (the sound engineer, and also of the gullivers) managed to make it sound cool.

the studio version of chalon valley house band is still up as a free download on our last.fm page.

http://www.last.fm/music/We+Aeronauts

take care.

james c.

a few bits of press below: interview with the fly, and review of our recent port mahon show. x

WE AERONAUTS TAKE FLIGHT - a chat with the Oxford-via-Brighton octet...

Oxfordbands.com @ Port Mahon 17/10
 

We Aeronauts rather despairingly admitted that 'We're f***ed, basically' due to half the eight-piece folk-rock band's taking up residence on other continents. Still, with various ringers on board they gave us a satisfying if far-from-perfect set. The strengths are in the effortless excellence of the songwriting: 'Boatswain's Cry' is a worthy successor to Dylan's 'Boots of Spanish Leather' as the cool person's sea shanty of choice and '99 Days' was a spirited, singalong stomp with more than a nod to Mercury Rev. 'Fleet River' (the famous subterranean Other London River- Tom Baker's Doctor Who once caught a salmon in it and shared it with The Venerable Bede, who adored fish) is charming on record, full of tremulous guitar atmospherics, but was on the shambolic side tonight. I hope they get their lineup sorted out soon, because songs like these are too good to lose.- Colin MacKinnon- Oxfordbands.com

Track on Compilation:

Our track Fleet River has recently been released as a free download on Norwegian record label Ear Drum's compilation A Good Crop. It's a good collection with a strong tracklisting- 'Fleet River' closes the second volume.
For more information, visit:

http://eardrumsmusic.com/2008/09/23/eardrums-autumn-compilation-2008-volume-1-2/

xxx

We Aeronauts played our last gig for a while a few weekends back at the Freebutt, without Anna, Tom or Ads, and with Emma (of Ace Bushy Striptease) deputising for a bit.

Anna was in Edinburgh practising for the Fringe, Tom was lost on Macchu Picchu and Ads was in the US of A.

SOOO, alongside the aforementioned Emma that left us with myself, Zoobs, James T, Greg and Jez (who is now in India!!!!).

We played pretty much all of our songs as I recall, with the exception of Alpe d'Huez and Fade! Go. Haste Ye Back was aired, as was Fleet River, and it was the first time we'd done Little Magician without the full band.

When the autumnal days of September roll in, We Aeronauts will go into hibernation. As September draws closer, it has become incredibly apparent to me that some of my best friends on the planet are going places, for work, for love, or to follow ideas and dreams. As I already mentioned, Jez is already in India. Soon to join him in the far reaches of the planet (not literally) are Ads (Serbia), Anna (Spain) and Greg (Toronto). Jez will be back in December or January, Ads in May-ish, Anna slightly after him, and Greg will hopefully be around May time too. It's a sad time- but it gives me, Zoobs, James T and Tom the chance to see what we can do in the meantime- whether it be a series of acoustic shows or an attempt at stripped back Aeronauts rockers, there'll be something...plus maybe we'll get some guests to fill in for our companions until they return. To be honest, I don't really have a clue.

Sort of suits us, as Autumn and Winter loom on the Horizon- we've always been a summer band. I think our music reflects that. Our two big bouts of activity were the last two summers...

Which brings me to the new songs. We recorded three new ones before Jez went to India at the same Bermondsey Studios where we recorded Chalon Valley et al. Mr Michael Page presided over proceedings once again- and proved a valuable extra pair of ears in the studio as usual. We did 'The House on Ash Tree Lane', a 2.5 minute pop song about World War Two (and with no real relevance to 'House of Leaves' other than the title), 'Haste Ye Back', a melancholic, sparkling 5 minute bolt from Greg's brain concerning the gulf the Atlantic Ocean puts between people, and 'Fleet River' (on the front page now) which sounds pretty epic and tells the story of a weekend I spent in Brighton with a few close friends (incidentally, also the first time I heard Greg play 'Haste Ye Back' other than down a phone). The other two should be finished within a couple of weeks.

That about brings you all up to date. We're just confirming our first stripped back shows too so if by some chance you'd like to hear what we sound like without our engine room, then check back on the page soon for dates.

James