O O O

... the robots have malfunctioned and they have been returned to the factory for repair work.

sooooo...a pretty quiet week really - mainly preparing for the last recording session - finalising lyrics - (yes - we shall be printing them all up in full the album artwork booklet*)
we've said goodbye to approximately 1 minute and 43 seconds of the record by butchering a song - much like going to the barbers, but hopefully more classy than a barber's haircut - not saying that a barber's work isnt classy....er

so not a whole lot going on...so ive had a little time to think about random things...and one thing was to try and think of what i'd perceive to be the most important albums to me - both musically and influentially...
there was literally thousands - well...not thousands..but yknow.
anyway...i thought i'd list them here....maybe some of you that read this could post up what your top 10 'most important' albuums are over on our facebook page?
ive tried to think of records that inspired me as a kid, and records that have blown me away and made me fall in love with music all over again...heres my list...i decided it best to trim it down to 10...in. no. particular. order.

oh...by the way...low were excellent...and the rehearsal went well...i'll talk about that particular thing some other time as it deserves a blog of its own..;-)

Cult of Luna - Somewhere Along the Highway
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Godspeed! You Black Emperor - F# A# (Infinity)
Tears For Fears - Songs From the Big Chair
Sparklehorse - Its a Wonderful Life
Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Radiohead - Kid A
Low - Things We Lost in The Fire
Mogwai - Happy Songs for Happy People
Pavement - Wowee Zowee
Howard Jones - Humans Lib
Arcade Fire - Funeral

ok...spot the deliberate mistake...theres 13 albums here...which is a cooler number i think...so i'd be interested to hear about your most important albums (any number goes! extra points for doing 13!) - post them over at www.facebook.com/blueneckuk

cheers
dunk



* a lie

Gunslinger shoots fake rabbit.

at some point someone else from blueneck will post a blog...until then, you have to put up with me. maybe im actually the only member of blueneck? the rest are robots - just like in the film westworld (one of my favourite films) - hopefully they wont malfunction at our next tour and kill everyone in the crowd (diclaimer: only makes sense if youve actually seen the film!)....that would put a dampener on the whole evening i guess.
er..yeah....so this weekend we (ie me and the robots) have a busy time. Tomorrow we're off to see a favourite band of ours, Low, - ive not seen them live before and have always meant to..and nows the opportunity. They went off my radar for a bit, but i recently acquired a copy of the new album 'c'mon' and its great...inspiring me to listen to the back catalogue once again. great band. looking forward to it...and we're also going with our producer mat sampson...i think quite possibly its the first time we'll ever see him in an environment that is NOT in the studio....hopefully he doesnt burst into flames when he actaully goes outside...or soemthing like that.
Saturday, we then have the first (yes first!) blueneck rehearsal of this year....its actually a REALLY important rehearsal for reasons that i'll go into another time...so we've hired some rehearsal space for the day and hopefully things will be clearer when we come out that evening. hmmm...that all sounds a bit mysterious and intriguing...its not really...but well...yknow...
it'll be nice to actually play a few songs as a band together again actually...and also maybe start working on interpreting some of the new album tracks.
Sunday - i have a day out with blueneck's official/unofficial/great friend and photographer whereby we'll be taking some shots for potential album artwork....we have a lot of ideas that we're umming and ahhing over at the minute...but its always good to have as many ideas as possible...we've not yet come across the absolutely perfect album artwork for this album yet....and we need it finalised by the end of june really.....so yeah...that'll be a nice few days .

THanks a lot to those of you that have all been buying stuff from the blueneck store...its really very much appreciated...it helps us out a LOT too. we'll keep all of the prices reduced until the new album is released as long as we have stock left...we're getting low on certain sizes and styles but i'll try and keep you updated on anything that is about to sell out.

tour - its very nearly finalised...apparently we're still waiting to book some french dates (hoping to once again visit Paris at the very least) - but as soon as its all finalised we'll announce all the dates.

album - as said...its nearly done...still very much on course for september release...warning...this is a slooooow album, ben paget has been falling asleep to it on regular basis over the last 2 weeks. ;-)

keep all your comments and messages coming on facebook...we appreciate them all. ....

so yeah...thats about it....i'll hopefully have programmed one of the other blueneck eveil robots to write a blog next time...meaning a waffle free zone.

hmmm. waffles. now im hungry.

dunk

BUSINESS EXECUTIVES!!!!

another exciting update from blueneck towers...

so its now May...and i just came across a few posts here and there on the worldwide web hinting at the fact that we'd said that the album would be released early 2011...oops....that kind of didnt happen....i guess we kind of got distracted with other things - this often happens with blueneck in all honesty...we state a date that something will be finished, we then get distracted and then that date passes and we realise that the initial date stated was particularly unrealistic....its much like life athome really...i'll state a time that i'll be ready to go out or meet somebody...and then an hour later i'll turn up....i'd like to think that people see it as a charming trait of my personality....although in reality i know its probably annoying as fuck....so...sorry on all accounts of stating unrealistic targets!
that said....i do beleive we'll stick to our latest promise of finishing the album completely by the first week of july...the sessions last week went well - we had sandy in for a loooong day of cello which was as usual sounding sublime, and we also had oli trot down to the studio to play some off the cuff violin - its the first time ive heard him play violin...and man can that boy play (although he'd try and tell you otherwise!)...hopefully he'll be persuaded to take his violin along with him on tour this autumn...rich thinks he wont....i think he will....lets see who wins!!
so yeah...where was i? oh yeah - recording - so we're pretty close to having finished all the recording - we have one more week booked in to finish off everything such as vocals and any extra bits of sauciness that needs to be added and then we'll start mixing
once thats finished we then just have to wait for it to be released (september) - so it'll be a matter of finding something to do in that time....obviously we'll start rehearsals for the tour - i also need to get around to finally doing the vocals for the new alpha album - plus we have a couple of other little things we'll be dabbling with. more on that some other time.

last week a couple of members from the pirate ship quintet turned up at the studio - for thos of you that are fans and were worried theyd dissapeared off of the face of the earth, i an confirm theyre still alive...and STILL working on their debut album...i thought blueneck worked slow...but these guys are ridiculous! i think it'll be worth the wait though...it'll be great to play a show again with them oin november at bristol - oh yeah...tickets for that are now on sale over at bristolticketshop.co.uk (search for blueneck) - tickets are going to be pretty limited for that - so get onit.

think ive waffled enough....oh yeah...thanks of you that have bought stuff from the blueneck store this week...it always REALLY helps the band out...just in case you havent checked, we've reduced EVERYTHING in the store...

thanks for your continued support...we'll have something for you real soon...

dunk xxx