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There's lots of exciting things going on here at Smerins HQ and 2009 is shaping up to be an amazing year already. Cheeba has just finished a 3 minute "minimix" of 8 of our songs which sounds ace (check out our profile page to hear it). Plus we have some spangly new press shots courtesy of Hacker Photography.

But most excitingly we have just found a producer, Mr John Hendicott, who'll be working with us to create our (very) long awaited debut album. We'll be releasing a couple of EPs and then the full album via our own record label, launching soon. Watch this space!...

We'll be back gigging in the spring, and here's an early heads up that we'll be hosting another "Party in the Woods" on the second Bank Holiday weekend in May. More info soon.

Respectacles.

Thanks to the kind people at Soundcrash, we've been asked to support reggae legend and Massive Attack vocalist Horace Andy on his UK tour. Thursday 13th November at Bristol Academy and Friday 14th November at London's Islington Academy.

Woop woop!

Well we're half way through this rainy and somewhat soggy festival season. So far we have waded through the muddy goo at Sunrise, Bath Fringe, Larmer Tree, Trowbridge and Sheep Music. Each one has been AMAZING regardless of the oozing beneath our wellies! Massive Thankyous to all the people who have braved the weather to come and see us wigging out in the rain - you all ROCK!!!!

Wow our first blog, how exciting!?!

We've been asked to put on a one-off gig for the amazing Oi Va Voi to prepare them for their tour of Europe and the Middle East. If you know about them already you'll probably be as excited as we are. If you don't know who they are, read on....

Oi Va Voi came together in the late 1990s when trumpeter Lemez Lovas, drummer Josh Breslaw, bassist Leo Bryant, clarinettist Steve Levi, guitarist Nik Ammar and violinist Sophie Solomon pooled their diverse musical backgrounds in left-field jazz, hip-hop, rock bands, drum n bass and Jewish klezmer. With the addition of KT Tunstall on guest vocals, their debut album fused modern dance music, singer-songwriter sensitivity and their Jewish cultural heritage with global rhythms drawn from Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean and beyond. 'Laughter Through Tears' received rave reviews and won two nominations in the BBC Radio 2 awards for world music. Yet anybody who saw Oi Va Voi's spectacular live shows was left in little doubt that they were far more than a world music act with an enviable ability to rock a crowd and get a dance-floor heaving.

Having fought their way through a series of trials and tribulations that would have finished off a lesser band, and now with fantastic vocalist Alice McLaughlin proving to be a memorable successor to KT Tunstall, their long-awaited second album 'Oi Va Voi' is due for release on V2 Records, and takes their unique mix of global rhythms and club-friendly beats to new heights - bigger, bolder and with more attitude than anything even their most ardent fans could have imagined.

We welcome them to Bristol for a special one-off show before they depart round Europe and the Middle East. Its their only UK date for several months, and a perfect chance to see them debut new material in an intimate setting.



Tickets £7 advance. Doors 8pm; Show starts 9:30pm.
Bristol Ticket Shop - 0870 44 44 400 - www.bristolticketshop.co.uk, Rooted Records & Prime Cuts (Gloucester Road)