Banzai!

I trust that the vast majority of people who have pre-ordered City of Thieves are now in possession of their copies! The CD is going to be officially in the shops and on iTunes on Monday 1st June. Let us know what you think of the album over at our myspace and facebook accounts. You could even photograph yourself holding up your CD like some kind of champion. You might even want to kiss it. I would like to see that.

Right then, some big old news, your friendly neighbourhood Boom are playing Reading/Leeds festival on the August bank holiday weekend. We're opening the main stage on the Friday at Reading and Sunday at Leeds so come and represent and show those stuffy white-shirts down at City Hall how teh punx rock a dusty field.



The tour is still going swimmingly. The remaining dates are as follows...

Wednesday May 27
THE WAGON AND HORSES WITH RANDOM HAND, BIRMINGHAM
Thursday May 28
WEST COAST ROCK CAFE WITH RANDOM HAND AND STAND OUT RIOT, BLACKPOOL
Friday May 29
THE MAZE WITH RANDOM HAND, NOTTINGHAM
Saturday May 30
TALKING HEADS WITH RANDOM HAND, SOUTHAMPTON
Sunday May 31
THE UNDERWORLD WITH RANDOM HAND, LEFT ALONE AND THE SKINTS, LONDON.

The tour ends on May 31st at the London Underworld. We have, in addition to Random Hand, the awesome Hellcat Records band Left Alone as well as our London reggae-punk buddies the Skints to bolster an already terrific bill. We're really imploring everyone who considers themselves a Boom fan to come down to this show and have a party. Obviously, the last month has been a bit of a rollercoaster for us what with all the ups and downs and this day will hopefully be a day where we can all have a great time, sing along with the new album and draw a line under the manufacturing bobbins and look to the future! Why not make a day out of it?! Check the megabus. There is a hug and kiss for everyone who does, right here. Right here in these loving arms. Tickets are HERE.

Over in Kerrang! magazine today there is a feature and interview with the Boom. It's surely a wonderful read and has a photo of us doing something outlandish I don't doubt. It's in shops now! Also, in the new Big Cheese! there is a photo shoot of Laila and Itch from King Blues looking all mod-like and modelling clothes. On one picture Itch is smoking and Laila has a cigarette behind her ear because if she smokes, she instantly coughs. So don't do it kids!



Finally, the instore show at Reskue skate shop in Southampton has been rescheduled. The more eagle-eared amongst you may have heard that 'The Concrete We're Trapped Within' has been blasting it's way across XFM and Kerrang! Radio and the Radio One Punk Show. We're going to be releasing it as a single and have a full acoustic shop tour to co-incide with the release (which will include the elusive, long-touted, Banquet Records, and indeed Reskue, instores!) More news about this soon as we have it! We promise we're gonna make it happen.

Love to you all!

Barney x

Hello Chummers

Well, there is one main item of news today and that one main item of news is the item of news that says ‘the CDs are here! The CDs are here!’ That’s right, this morning we’re piling into a living room and signing the poster booklets of hundreds of digipak CDs that contain our magnum opus City of Thieves on compact disc digital audio. For those of you who have missed the craziness, the original CD production company went into liquidation three days before the release of our record and then neglected to let us know this fact for a good few weeks. A lovely company called NoonMedia stepped in to turn the CDs around in record time and that’s why we have them in our hands now, late but beautiful, like a well-baked cake. So, it seems they’ll be on their way to everyone ordered right about now. The new shop and iTunes release date for the album is the 1st June (although some good stores may have them in before that) so please pop into your local music store on this day and buy a copy. We’ll be rescheduling the acoustic instores to come right after this current UK tour so look out for that...



Here’s some snippits of the super reviews that the record has been getting. I do hope they may be enough to get any doubters out there to go into their local record store and say to the good storekeep "Sir, I would like a copy of the new Sonic Boom Six record City of Thieves and I want it now".

‘This isn’t good, it’s well beyond that and deep into the realms of something special’ - 9/10 Rock Sound
‘This is witty, vital and utterly infectious fare.’ - KKKK Kerrang!
‘City of Thieves’ is a paranoid mash-up of modern life set to a soundtrack that feels inexorably, thrillingly now.’ - 8/10 NME
‘It’s smart, joyous music that has plenty to say and does so eloquently.’ - Big Cheese!
‘As Sonic Boom Six evolves from its early roots it’s safe to say things are just getting better and better. Absolutely storming!’ – Punktastic.com

OK, as for the current UK tour, everything’s been going superbly and Random Hand have been slamming it every night. Special thanks to all the local supports we’ve had, shoutouts to Gecko, Myth of Unity, NY-Lon, Magic Skool Bus, A War Against Sound, Overthrow, Harijan, Stand Out Riot, The Hijacks, Bombskare (for Ben) and the Hostiles for kicking arse beyond the call of duty. And if I’ve forgotten anyone, I’m sorry. And thank you all.

On the subject of the tour there are a couple of points worth underlining. Despite any shenanigans this way and that, the Liverpool gig on the 26th May is going ahead. Don’t believe the rumours. And we’ve got the awesome Stopouts and the City Rats on there so it’s going to be a good’un. Get your tickets HERE.

The Asylum in Birmingham has had a licensing problem which means the show has had to be moved. The Wagon & Horse is now the venue to be at. Apparently it’s a little music-lover’s pub so we’re all gonna squeeze in and have a rate old time. Gonna be a sweaty one! That’s the Wagon & Horse, Birmingham on the 27th of May, put it in your diary.

And finally, last but not least, we openly implore all our fans a favour. A big, big favour. On May 31st we are playing London Underworld. What with all the recent problems with the CD release, things have become a bit problematic in the world of the Boom. If we could have a send-off party for the tour where kids made it their duty to come and rock out then we would simultaneously be celebrating the release of the City of Thieves album and the fact that the whole ordeal hasn’t left us rolling around on the floor with grey hair and foaming mouths. We have, in addition to Random Hand, the awesome Hellcat Records band Left Alone as well as our London reggae-punk buddies the Skints to bolster an already terrific bill. This is going to be a massively important gig for us, a celebration of this record making it into the big wide world and a chance to get together and have a massive party. It’s a Sunday, so please check your local Megabus service or what have you, make a day out of it. Come down to London and lets rock the place to the floor. It’s pretty much your duty.

Tickets are HERE.

Enjoy the album! Let us know what you think!! Take it easy!!!

Barney x

p.s. Remember, you can keep up to date with our general shenanigans on our blog over at our BLOG.

p.s.s. There is currently a big old feature on the Boom in the current Big Cheese! and an interview with Laila in the new Rock Sound, which is out today. Green Day were not hurt in the making of this mail out.
 

Hello everyone

Despite appearances to the contrary, City of Thieves is out now! Reviews have been dropping in thick and fast with NME describing it as “inexorably, thrillingly now”, and Big Cheese magazine (which you can visit HERE) concluding that “it’s smart, joyous music that has plenty to say and does so eloquently”. The heavy, heavy monster sound of Kerrang! gave it four Ks, but I haven't had chance to read that yet because it came out today and I'm still in bed. Even Music Week are getting in on the Boom love with the almost biblical proclamation of “finally, their time has come”. The digitally inclined among you can go and buy City of Thieves now from our online Digital Store over at Rebel Alliance Recordings (also released today is the incredible ‘True Stories’ by Mouthwash).

http://www.rebelalliancerecordings.com/digitalstore.cfm

Unfortunately, with all this love coming our way, the karmic tectonic plates of Boom have shifted to create a right old bothersome situation. The CDs, ordered some time ago (in time for the original 20th April release date at least) simply never came. Scant correspondence from the (apparently professional and trustworthy) company which we were dealing with gave way to answering machine shrug-offs and ignored emails as the days became weeks. By the time we’d moved the release date back to accommodate their ‘mistakes’, something was smelling very fishy. We took the gamble of ordering an extra batch of CDs from a different company a week into waiting from the date the original company had promised we’d have them by. This gamble paid off. The original company simply took our money and gave us promises the CDs would materialise. They never did. We don’t know why, we don’t know how, we don’t know if the company is even in business right now (we even went and physically visited their empty offices). We are currently receiving legal advice about how to go about dealing with the situation, what with no only the obvious financial implications but also our loss of earnings and so on. This, as you may imagine, is enough to turn ginger into grey. I won’t bother keeping you up to date with that through emails if you don’t mind, just rest assured that this is not something we’ve been in any way lackadaisical about in our approach to dealing with it. Come and ask in person at a gig on tour if you want to know the gory details. But I probably won’t be able to say anything for legal reasons, like on the telly.

Anyhoo, the upshot of this is that we’re going to have CDs from the new company very early next week, with the digipaks following shortly after. We have to thank the guys at Photofit and the Ministry of Sound for helping us out of this hole (and Lil for offering). I was going to provide the number and email of the original company for you to forward your complaints to but due to the fact we are unsure of where we stand legally at this point, we’re going to leave it. Just believe you me, it’s getting dealt with. If anyone has ordered a CD up to this point, they will receive a complimentary digital download link, for the Mp3 version of the album so they can hear it in the meantime.

Unfortunately (how I hate that word!) this has meant the instores this week in Exeter, Taunton and Kingston have had to be rescheduled again. We offer our thanks and appreciation to Banquet Records and the guys in Exeter for their understanding about our predicament. And we promise we are going to make it over. We are going to re-schedule the dates the minute we have a CD in our hands! And you have to come, clap along and buy a CD yeah! Thanks to everyone that came down to Afflecks and All Ages.

Oooh, but thanks to everyone who has seen us on the tour so far! And hopefully see you at a gig somewhere down the road. Shout outs to the Bomb Ibiza crew, the gig this Saturday in Manchester is the Bomb Ibiza 5th year anniversary special which features 5 bands and free entry to the clubnight. Ooooh, it'll be messy! They've been providing Manchester with ska and punk gigs for 5 years now. I remember the first night back in the day in the student hall of residences. Me and Bobby Keeling out on the town. It was like Swingers. Ooooh, the stories I could tell you. But again, you'd have to ask me in person. Check out their myspace!

http://www.myspace.com/bombibiza

Anyway, enough of my yakkin. Thanks to everyone who has come down to the tour so far. Random Hand joined us last night on the tour and will be with us for the remainder. And they rocked! Check the rest of those dates!

http://www.myspace.com/sonicboomsix

Barney x

Hello gang

Tomorrow we're going to be kicking off the City of Thieves tour in everyone's favourite liberal sea-side hotspots, Brighton. We've got a full new album of material to play to you, a full new live show and are officially 'nervous and excited'. I'm assured by someone in the know that it's good to be 'nervous and excited' and the day we aren't 'nervous and excited' any more, we should give up. So, to bolster our nervous excitement please come and bring along friends, family members and hanger ons to kick the tour off in style. Whether or not they like us, music or indeed leaving the house.

Today on this fine Wednesday 29/04/09 to celebrate the start of the proceedings we're going to be doing an acoustic set in AFFLECKS (3rd Floor Cafe) in Manchester at around half past 5. This has been moved back half an hour because there were lame workaholics complaining that 5 was too early. Now they have no excuse! Come along and show your face. Bring a smile and a pocketful of goodwill. There is a wonderful Facebook event for it HERE. It's probably a bit late to join that now but at least you can check in the confirmed guests there is no ghastly ex-girlfriends coming or anything like that.

As well as the Manchester instore, we've got a few others confirmed. We've been rehearsing it specially so we promise it's sounding wonderful, if slightly like a christian folk ensemble.

03/05/2009 12:30pm LONDON, All Ages Records. http://www.allagesrecords.com
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04/05/2009 12:30pm EXETER. Martian Records. http://martianrecords.co.uk
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06/05/2009 17:00pm TAUNTON. Martian Records. http://martianrecords.co.uk
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07/05/2009 17:30pm KINGSTON. Banquet Records. http://www.banquetrecords.com

There is a Facebook Group for the Kingston show HERE.

Yes, yes. City of Thieves will be out on Monday 4th of May. Pester the man in your local independent record shops and make sure that disc is coming in. Or you can order direct from us at our online store HERE.

Speaking of Rebel Alliance Recordings, our longtime friends and touring partners Mouthwash have joined the fray! Come and read all about the newest Rebel Alliance release HERE and spread the word.

Well, I guess I'll see you on tour! Pop over to the Myspace for the full tourdates, Random Hand support from the 5th (Cardiff) onwards.

Barney x

p.s. Check out Ben C's remix of Big D and the Kid's Table's 'Shining On' and details of how to order their gnarly new remix release over at http://www.remixrevolution.com/