Force Fed Thin Air

buzzy eagle

2012-01-11T02:14:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, Christmas, etc etc..basically anything i've missed...
Well...2011 was fun...it also dissapeared before we knew it. We finished and released Repetitions and also embarked on our longest tour to date yet. Once again we met and made new friends, but were also lucky enough to catch up. and hang out with old friends too...its a very privileged position we are in.
Highlights of 2011? Theres too many to mention really - It was great revisiting places such as Dresden, Leipzig and Freising where we met up with old friends, visiting Ukraine was also an amazing expeerience. The people there were so kind and wonderful to us (except the slightly corrupt policeman that wanted to take all of Rich's money for smoking outside - maybe a lesson that smoking truly is bad for you!?). Interesting and beautiful country that i'm sure we'll re-visit at some point.
We also embarked on a short UK tour supporting The Pineapple Thief in December (great band, coming out with a new album in 2012). We dont often play many shows in the Uk, so this was a nice change. Playing as the support band doesnt always mean that many people listen to you, but I must say that the fans of TPT were an amazing bunch of people that gave us a lot of time and respect...we made a lot of new friends on that short tour. good times.
So whats in store for 2012? Well at the moment i'd have to be honest and say that from a blueneck perspective it looks quiet. We have a show in Athens at the end of January...and thats it! We're currently having talks about possible tourdates, but nothing is confirmed as yet...so it could be a REALLY quiet year...coming after a busy year it will seem a little strange i guess. Obviosuly we'll keep you updated on developments if they happen.
On a personal level, i'll be back in the studio from next month onwards working on some new songs which maybe arent destined for blueneck. i'll initially be working with just Mat Sampson which means its going to be a fun time at the very least. This new 'project' will get some kind of release later in the year (album/ep/who knows). We'll set up a new webpage/facebook page to give you updates on the project as soon as theres a name for it (theres currently a stupidly long list of name ideas but feel free to post any ideas on the blueneck facebook page!)
so thats about it for now....really looking forward to seeing some of you in Athens...and MAYBE we'll see some more of you at some point in 2012...otherwise theres always 2013..or 14... :)
laters
dunk

brown bears

2011-11-09T05:14:00.000-08:00

hello again campers.
its been a while...or at least it SEEMS that way...a lot has gone on since i last wrote...we were about to embark on what was our longest tour yet...and it already feels like it was an age ago that we came back.the days have tended to blur into one massive crazy memory for me.
First off it was a great tour, full of some amazing experiences...we are so lucky to get to do what we do...thankyou to EVERYONE that came along, helped out, shouted drunken abuse at us (yes...thats you, drunken man in Cadca!!). Theres so many memories that we've come back with from this tour it would be impossible to list them all without boring you. we revisited some amazing places and discovered some equally amazing new places.
Paris was wonderful, Leipzig now feels like a second home, Dresden was as welcoming as ever, Cadca was ...well..cadca ;-) , Kiev was an amazing experience where we made some amazing new friends (and also appeared on morning TV there!! weird), Magdeburg was surreal but ridiculously enjoyable...man...the list goes on...we finished the mainland european tour in a church in bochum which was great and then the whole tour finished off with a hometown show in bristol with our friends Deafhorse and The Pirate Ship Quintet. This was the only show we played with Sandy guest appearing on cello...was a great way to end it all.
Like i said...i could go into depth about each and every show...but i wont...just ask me if you want to know my views on a specific show...i remember them ALL!
Its hard coming home and not playing anymore...but luckily we have some UK dates in December supporting the wonderful Pineapple Thief - these shows should be great...so hopefully we'll see a few of you along at one of those.
We've also now started planning for next year...it looks like late Spring we'll be visiting France, Portugal and Spain...the latter two countries are places we've never been before...so this will be cool...we'll be doing this with another Denovali band alongside us for the whole of the tour... ;-)
Theres also lots of other stuff going on in the pipeline... This week ive been in the studio working with Mat again - we're working on a couple of different projects and its so nice to be back recording again (even though this is NOT blueneck stuff)...the temptation is to just stay there, carry on recording....ive never been one to resist temptation that well...
christmas is nearly here again!!..so i guess we'll be dusting off those old christmas tracks that we've recorded over the previous years and once again offering them to you all as a free download....who knows, if theres time we may well add another this year...i REALLY enjoyed doing white christmas last year, so it would be nice to do another...i already have a couple of ideas on what to do.
like i said...this post/update could go on forever...so im trying to keep it as short as possible....so i'll leave now....oh...you may have noticed a link we put up ...it was for an HBO show promoting an upcoming big boxing match in the USA..it features Pneumothorax towards the end of the show....pretty surreal seeing your music alongside 2 guys beating the shit out of eachother...but it was nonetheless very flattering to be asked for permission to use the music...i have no idea who the boxers are...im told theyre pretty handy....so, er, good luck to you both!
theres probably other stuff i should be writing about...but it doesnt spring to mind just yet....like i said earlier...if you have any specific questions just ask....best place is tfacebook i suppose.
till later
much love
dunk

Tour Update

2011-10-05T14:14:00.000-07:00

Hi
So we're less than a week away from starting the European tour on 11th October in Paris. Its been a hard couple of weeks - i'll explain why...
we got a call from the company that we are hiring our van from to say that we were not allowed to take the van into the Ukraine or Romania....basically the insurers would not allow it for whatever reasons they have....so we had to quickly find another company that would let us drive into these countries....most of the companies all said they couldnt do it either , but then one company said they could....all seemed fine....but then we had a call on Monday to say thatthey could not in fact do it after all...so it not only left us with no way to drive into Ukraine and Romania...but also left us with no van at all for the whole tour! stressful times.
To cut a long long LONG story short we have had to cancel 2 of our shows in Ukraine and the show in Romania....we're REALLY gutted that we have had to do this, but honestly there is no other way.....we have cancelled the shows in Lviv and Chernivitsi...but we are still able to play in Kiev as we will be taking a 15 hour train journey to get there...hopefully some of you that were coming to the other Ukraine shows might be able to make it to Kiev.
We are REALLY sorry that this has happened....we will loook into a way of playing Romania soon...I promise.
So its not pleasant news im afraid....we've really tried out bet to make everything work out as best as we can.

We play our first show for nearly a year tomorrow night in Southampton. Its going to be a new experience playing with Chris on drums instead of Johnny...but he has put so much hard work into learning the songs.

We look forward to meeting you all on this tour.....a lot!

We'll also be announcing a few more dates for 2011 very soon...keep an eye of facebook etc....

Thanks for all the support guys...xxx

dunk

update

2011-09-09T01:55:00.000-07:00

bonjour etc

just a quick update...

firstly we're aware that blueneck.com is currently being given the tag of being 'potentially dangerous' by google....we've now had the problem fixed, but we're now just waiting for google to unflag us as dangerous criminals that are out to get you all...shouldnt be long.
Theres also a problem with the site in taht we cannot update the store...meaning we cant add the new album or t-shirts in there....we have someone looking into the problem and as soon as its done, the new album and tees will be available to you all. excitement. perhaps.

the other thing is the tour...we've had a frustrating few weeks because a lot of the promoters that have said they will book shows for us are now not replying anymore...so it looks like we're now going to have to cancel those shows and start the tour a bit later as obviosuly there is no time to book a replacement show (unless you'd like blueneck to play in your living room?) - maybe the promoters heard that blueneck are 'potentially dangerous' and got scared? maybe.

so unfortunately the following shows are now no longer on...sorry to those people that had planned in coming along...its REALLY not anything to do with us...its just as sad and frustrating for us ...:(

10/10/11 - Belgium
11/10/11 - Germany
12/10/11 - Germany
29/10/11 - Paris

not the most joyous of updates...but it matches the downright miserable english weather today at least.

laters
dunk

from a great height...

2011-09-02T06:18:00.000-07:00

Hey all, Rich here. Thought I'd drop by and say hi...

Thanks to everyone who has spent their hard-earned cash on our new album 'Repetitions'. We're very, very proud of it and we hope you feel like you've got your money's worth. We're getting a lot of positive feedback which we appreciate. Any one of you that creates music will know how much it means to us when we hear that one of you has taken a particular song to heart.

We've been living with some of these songs for over 2 years now (some of you may have heard one or two of them when we were touring The Fallen Host) so it's great to be able to share them with you. One or two of them have been recorded in totally different styles to how we arranged them to begin with, so it's interesting that we now have 'definitive' versions down on record. Only a couple of months ago 'Sawbones' sounded completely different. Only a few months ago we were arguing over tiny details, tracklistings etc etc. It's so nice to be finished and be looking forward to playing live.

Repetitions was always intended to be a very different album to The Fallen Host. Warmer, more tender and less agressive. But it's interesting that when rehearsing, many of the Repetitions songs instantly get harder-edged. The guitar volumes get dialed up in volume, as do the drums. Sawbones, again, is a lot of fun - tribal beats... It even gets Dunk doing an odd dance. Surely that in itself is worth a ticket to one of our shows? :)

With 3 albums worth of material, picking setlists for our October tour is difficult but we're now at the position where we know the songs we're planning to play on most nights. I hope that if you've seen us before then you'll get a few surprises this time round. We've deliberately tried to dust off those songs that, at the end of a show, people have come up to us and give us a friendly telling off for not playing. I'll let you guess what they might be.

One last thing - I'm always interested to hear what fans of the band are listening to. So let us know on our Facebook page. We have a lot of miles to cover in the European tour so we'll try and listen to everything you tell us about.

Here's what I'm loving at the moment... Crosses EP, King Creosote and Jon Hopkins' "Diamond Mine", Jon Hopkins' "Insides", the last Bon Iver album, Bohren & Der Club of Gore's "Black Earth" (everyone knows this is a classic now, right?), the soundtrack to John Carpenter's movie "The Fog" and The Best of Lightnin' Hopkins. Every one a gem.

See you on the road....
Rich x

NAWTY!

2011-08-16T05:29:00.000-07:00

So the last time the blog was updated we were still mixing the album....seems like an age ago now...but i guess it was only like 4 weeks ago or something like that.
So where are we now? Well Denovali have started the pre-order prior to it hitting stores on September 23rd, and theyve also made the MP3 version available as of now....
im also aware of a fair few sites that have made it available as a 'naughty' download...
Ive been asked a few times what I think about this....My opinion might be a little different to some others...and thats that I'm not really against these sites sharing the album...it CAN actually help a band out from time to time...a number of people have come up to me at various shows and whilst buying an album from us, they tell me that they indeed have had the album a long time after downloading it for free but are finally getting around to buying the album...i beleive if you fall in love with an album, you eventually want a physical copy of it...and you'll buy it one day or another...possibly....even if you dont, youre likely to go see that band live if they happen to roll into town to play a show. That in itself helps a band to survive...

So whats the band doing now? Well we're now currently rehearsing for the next tour in October. Its tricky as we're having to learn how to best play some of the new tracks live...we're needng to stretch ourselves a bit more this time...which isnt such a bad thing - For instance we've got Oli playing violin aswell as guitar (not at same time mind!), myself whacking additional drums, Ben and Rich swapping instruments and also Oli playing organ too (not at the same time as the violin or guitar)...its a challenge....but actually quite enjoyable i have to say.
The other major thing for rehearsing for this tour is the fact that we no longer have Johnny on drums...he had to unfortunately bow out and take a step back from the commitment of touring with blueneck - it must have been a really hard decision, but he has a young family and his priorities lie there - we miss him a lot - you have to remember that he's been a part of blueneck since the beginning...but I guess these things happen. good luck jonky!
So we now have a new drummer called Chris Copsey who has been working tirelessly to learn a bunch of blueneck songs - things have finally started to gel over the last couple of weeks and we've been able to start adding in more and more songs to the setlist. so welcome aboard chris!
So what can you expect on tour this fall? well we'll be playing a mix of old and new as im sure you'd expect...we've also been working on one older track in particular that we've not played live ;-) - i also see that we're playing with some other great bands aswell along the way...which is always a bonus.
hopefully we'll see some of you along the way...

cheers
dunk

socks and pants pants and socks rice and cheese cheese and rice

2011-07-01T04:00:00.000-07:00

STILL mixing....we're about halfway there now - it'll be all finished and wrapped up in exactly a week from today...fact.

sometimes you need to just distance yourself from the whole mixing process for a while...so this morning i took the opportunity to do this, whilst driving in my shitty car. (im reliably informed i have the shittiest car ever...its not even a cool shit...its just shit...please buy 3 albums each of the new album so that i can afford a cool shit car...as opposed to a shit shit car...deal?)

er...yeah...so im in the car....and managed to forget about mixing for a while by means of;

a) seeing a 13 or 14 year old boy on his way to school sporting a MASSIVE morrisey style hairdo...tres cool i say...i wonder if he knows who morrisey is? or whether his hairstyle is MEANT to be like that...maybe his mates say his hairstyle is shit...and not cool shit...just shit....i shouldve stopeed him to ask him....but you cant really do that here in the UK...youd get arrested.

b) best way to distance yourself from listening to melancholic shit like blueneck all day? listen to something completely different - preferably something youve not listened to in years...maybe something from your youth...so this mornings listening ear candy was guns n roses - appetite for destruction...awesome album...it made me want to rewrite the blueneck album completely...and grow my hair long...and probably some other stuff too...like..er...drink a bottle of jack....but i was driving...and it was 9am...so probably not a great idea....although pretty rock n roll

c) - i found that its possible to raise my goblet of rock whilst driving....you just need to drive with your knees....this is not an endorsement btw....but its fun....especially when people driving the other way see you doing it...

d) the UK really isnt such a shit hole when its sunny yknow...

hmmm....i'll probably find theres other things to enjoy the day with today - and create some space between mixing an album and 'enjoyment' - but for now i'll make a return to listening to blueneck mixes....im ready to hear some more didgereedoo now (true)

if you get a minute...maybe let us know via the wonders of good old facebook what your own personal 'great albums from your youth' would be...
im sure theres some beauties

yiassou...(cant remember how to say goodbye in greek...but this'll do)

dunk x

nam nam nam

2011-06-27T05:33:00.001-07:00

Hey,

As most of you may well now know, we've now finished the recording process of the new album and are now currently in the process of finalising the mixing of the record.
I know that some people/bands really love the mixing side of making an album, but I must admit i'm not one of those people.
Blueneck, being blueneck, tend to get a little obsessive during the mixing stage, and more often than not, you tend to find yourself listening over and over and over again to the same track, listening for the minutest of details that may or may not need changing. You also have the problem that everyone seems to hear things differently and will have a different opinion on something. It can be very frustrating...but hopefully by the end of it, it'll be a rewarding bit of time spent on this.
We're about a third of the way through mixing and i must admit i'm really pleased with how everything is sounding so far.
For those of you that wanted to know..we've named the new album Repetitions..basically because every song is EXACTLY the same. ;-)

Its kind of a bit sad now we've finished recording...i already miss that side of things...so ive started toying around with new ideas that can be used somewhere - blueneck or something else perhaps.

We'll hopefully show you some sneak peaks of the new album at some point soon...but until then...just sit tight..

cheers
d x

O O O

2011-05-27T01:46:00.000-07:00

... 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.

2011-05-19T03:52:00.000-07:00

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!!!!

2011-05-06T02:51:00.000-07:00

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

505. 345...

2011-04-18T03:26:00.000-07:00

So this week, and next we're back in the studio...we're trying to get this album wrapped up by the end of June and so now we're getting to the time when we have to take things just that extra little bit more seriously, so no more experimenting with stylophone solo's or bagpipe playing (hmm...)
Tomorrow, we'll be looking at the one track that has been a bit of a problem for us...its a track that prior to taking it into the studio, we were really confident about...but it just didn't work out...no matter what we tried....so in the end we scrapped it completely and started again....it now sounds completely different to how we intended...but also a lot better...sometimes i guess things work out like that.
i also start vocals this week...which is a good indication of how far along with this record we are as i always prefer to leave vocals until the latest possible moment...i think it gives you a better idea of how the track 'feels'...yknow?
Sandy is also in for a cello session which will be a good day...basically i'll be sat on a sofa listening to him play...each take will be perfect...but he'll still say he needs to do one more take...musicians eh!?

we decided to put on our own show for the end of the european tour..this way we get to choose where we play it and also who we play it with...we've not played in what theoretically is our hometown (bristol) now for quite some time - so it'll be nice.
we've managed to track down the pirate ship quintet boys and persuade them to come and play on the night...hopefully by that point they may be near to releasing their much anticipated debut album!!..? We'll also have a new band called deafhorse playing - they've been getting some really good feedback for their first few shows...all in all it should be a great evening.
... and yes...we DO plan on playing more UK shows...at some point.

we'll try and upload some more video this week (and next) from the studio - we've been a bit slack on the video taking front for this recording - but in our defence..its VERY dark down there (lighting wise - not mood wise!)

well thats it from me...ive got a ballache of a headache and so i need something to nullify it.

dunk x

lilitu - lyrics

2011-04-07T06:51:00.000-07:00

ok...you guys ground me down...so here's the lyrics to lilitu
dunk x

a still born boy who didnt get to where
your mother felt, if you'd have come from there
your baby arms, that never grow
you save yourself, from a desperate soul

once again we lost
all control to lust
once again we loved
and never got to end

a mothers pride, i want to take you down
a degutted child that didnt show
to raise tender, an unholy child
despise your gender and every other life

once again we lost
all control to lust
once again we loved
and never got to end
(x2)

liliths child
she'll hold you down
you cant get by
by burning out
(repeat)

diesel.diesel.diesel.diesel....

2011-03-25T06:54:00.000-07:00

So...its been a while. As ever we've been real slack with updating the website and posting blogs etc...although we HAVE got better at keeping updates flowing on (what seems to be) everyones faithful friend, Facebook lately...but maybe thats due to the fact that having access to such social networking tools is a lot easier these days. ie its seems to be on everyones phone/ipad/ipod/whatever the latest gadget is.

Anyway..we're close to finalising the third blueneck album and so I guess its inevitable that we're going to start posting blogs and updating things a bit mor! scandalous.

So...since Rich's last blog, we've come on a lot further with the record and we've now got the entire album tracklisting down in some form or another. I think the whole process has gone really well, and ive enjoyed making this album immensely...the only drawback has been the availability of the studio, which has held up the album recordings from time to time.
We're due back in the studio very soon and we'll have Sandy coming in for a day to try out some cello ideas on what we have...its one of my favourite parts of the recording process...sitting for a whole day listening to cello. good times.

So people have been asking us what to expect...well, i think essentially its still very much blueneck...but its far more vocal heavy than say The Fallen Host...its certainly less heavy too, but I think theres still a really intense feel to everything It'll probably also be apparent that we've recorded in a different studio with a different producer..theres a lot of depth to the sound...we've been spoilt for choice with a vast array of vintage amplifiers, old valve mics, a ridiculous selection of guitar effects, a melletron (my own personal favourite!), a VERY ancient piano and a ridiculous choice of analogue synths at our disposal.
We've also been creating a lot of the effects in real time too...playing along with the track as opposed to editing effects in afterwards...its all been a lot more hands on...which is kind of more enjoyable for us as a band. Our prucer Mat (Sampson) has kind of pushed us to work more in this way....so, if you dont like the album...just blame Mat!

So yeah...we have a deadline to get this finished by June, so that we can release in September...and then we head on out to the road to travel around Europe for just over 3 weeks which will be great...ive really missed playing live and meeting old and new friends alike.

We've not planned anything for the UK as of yet...but im sure we'll do a couple of shows later in the year...

well...until the next blog...

cheers
dunk x

2011 Update

2011-01-14T02:20:00.000-08:00

Hello friends,

We thought that maybe you'd like an update on the new album, and also our plans for 2011. Here's the news...

As many of you know, we've been working on the follow-up to The Fallen Host on-and-off for the last 6 months or so. It's progressing well, and we have a lot of the album close to completion. We now hope to finish these songs, plus a few new additions, over the next 3-4 months. Which means that we'll likely have the record finished by late Spring and ready for release in late Summer. Thanks for being patient with us - we promise to try and make it worth your wait :) The next chunk of recording will be happening in February and we will definitely try and share some of the sounds/experiences/mental breakdowns we have along the way.

We're also planning a number of tours to promote the album. These are all currently at the early planning/scheduling stage, but we plan to play more shows this year than in any previously. We had a fantastic time on the road in 2010, we made many great new friends (hello to you all!), and we're certainly missing drinking white russian cocktails for breakfast ;) So you can expect an extensive tour of Europe and maybe (just maybe) a few shows much much further afield... Exciting stuff, but I can't say any more on that for the moment.

In the meantime, don't forget that you can talk to us directly on our Facebook page
www.facebook.com/blueneckuk

Rich x

Oops!

2010-09-27T02:46:00.000-07:00

So this morning it was pointed out to me by an eagle eyed fan that i'd totally forgotten we are playing in Stoke on October 16th...hence I neglected to state this fact in the last update...we do infact have 9 gigs left...not 8...and we ARE playing alongside our labelmates Heirs at Harrys Bar in Stoke!...Hopefully thats cleared that one up then!

I also noticed that there seems to be a bit of confusion on the internet regarding us playing in Camden, London....we ARENT, (as suggested on a few places online) playing at the Dublin Castle...we ARE playing at The Unicorn, Camden on October 15the....which evidently is a FREE show....how nice.

i'll try and take more care with my updates in future....thanks for noticing Ben!

cheers
dunk

Tour/Album/Whatever

2010-09-24T02:25:00.000-07:00

Hi
thought i'd write a quick update after returning back to life's 'normality' after our short expedition to Eastern Europe.
I think we all enjoyed the tour a lot...we got treated ridiculously well, made new friends and reaquainted ourselves with old ones too.

Far too much went on to write in detail about each show/city etc so i'll try and cram it all into as small a package as possible for you....

After a momentous drive we visited what I presume were the outskirts of Frankfurt for our first show. Great venue, lovely promoter, and a barman that doubled up as the soundguy! nice. Especially pretty funny when you want your vocals turned up and the sound guy is serving a pint of beer! We stayed in the red light district of Frankfurt that night, kindly refusing the advances from the local 'working girls of the night'...interesting place....i even witnessed a BMW driver smack a wobbly cyclist off of his bike...he seemed more concerned about his headlights than the cyclist that was bleeding from his mouth.
Hmmm...if i carry on like this, this 'brief' update is going to last a lifetime....lets try and fix this...
SO;
Freising - Very cool venue in an old army base. Met some lovely new friends here. Ironed out some technical problems from the previous night and aired a couple of new songs for the first time. Stayed in the army base on our own...i swear it was haunted..we have video footage to prove (kind of ) as much...then we locked ourselves out of said venue at 3am...apologies...again! 8(
Gdynia - Loooooong drive....grey skies. grey buildings....the venue wa cool though....huge.....no support band and we played ridiculously early...meaning we were finished up early....so had time to eat pizza and drink jack daniels (a good mix)..
Poznan - ANOTHER loooong drive - thanks Timo ;-) - Unfortuanlty we didnt have much time to explore the city...it looked like it may have been nice....can anyone confirm this? The cobbled street where the venue was - was nice at least? Think we had a LOT of sound issues at this show - this was a shame as a lot of people came along (some from quite a distance) - We slept in a childrens nursery taht night....pretty surreal.....and it was at the top of an 8 story building.....not nice.....espeically taking all the equipment up all those flights of stairs....grumpy blueneck the next morning!
Krakow - lovely city...shame the one way system makes it impossible to find anything! Klub Re was a great venue - we met some lovely people and I think we started to really gel as a band on this night...Baring in mind Oli had only had about 6 weeks to learn the entire setlist with us. Im awful with names...i apologise for this...but thanks to the guy that hitchiked 300km to get to this show...means a lot. We were then given a tour of Krakow...not the British stag party tour but a proper bona fide Polish tour of the local pubs....we were up until 5am drinking Polish vodka with cinnamon...beautiful...I needed to be up a couple of hours later to meet Emma at the airport. nice. Emma joined us halfway through....to do the merch properly for us or just to hang out and sit on a rickety tour bus for 8 hours at a time? not sure. But the merchandise help was indeed much appreciated! x
Final night in Poland was Katowice...i dont know where to begin....it should be in a blog by itself....probably the most interesting venue, promoter ...er ever....the venue was full of old vintage american muscle cars...we had smoke machines blasting out at us throughout the show...and weirdly , bublles falling down....apparently there was a snow machine that could have come into action at any time!...we were plied with polish vodka, metaxa, who knows what else!!...all i wanted was soe milkshake...i wasnt allowed 8(...i felt ill the next morning...not as bad as ben mind...
Off then, to Leipzig...I was a little worried that after such a great show and time here in February that it wouldnt be as good....but it was like going home..we love the people there very much and had a lovely evening...its always such a pleasure playing at the Paris Syndrom. I think we can safely say that they are now good friends...There IS a secret plan in progress regards to blueneck and the Paris Syndrom actually - ;-)
Dresden next...lovely venue...biggest yet...we were looked after like royalty...amazing food, amazing drink and totally professional sound and lighting guys...it was a pleasure playing here...and so many people came that made the whole night so great....We even had a couple that came along that had got married that day ....as i said...im awful with names...and ive forgotten their names...VERY rude...but one of the other guys will put me straight...congratulations to you both again.
Also apologies to the people that shouted out for epiphany to be played...we've actually only ever played it once....and that was at the launch party for scars of the midwest...we WILL play it again...i promise.
Oberhausen was last...unfortunatly there were sound issues which wasnt so great for us on stage and the people watching - i guess..always a little dissapointing...we did get to meet up with our friends from denovali though...our third date no less...We've bonded a strong relationship which is why we're very happy for Denovali to be releasing album 3 solely by themselves this time...the release will be capable hands..very much looking forward to date 4 in essen at the Swingfest (i beleive there are still tickets left!)

Well...thats it...i tried to keep it as brief as possible....those of you that know me well, know its hard for me to keep things brief....so im patting myself on the back ...
The tour was great...very enjoyable...we have 8 shows remaining before touring takes a MAJOR backseat and we complete the album..i'll miss playing live....but its something to look forward to getting back into next year sometime.
We're now going to phase out all of the fallen host merchandise...so no reprints on any of it...grab it whilst you can....hopefully see you at one of the last 8 shows...

dunk
x

Left Side Brain

2010-09-22T07:22:00.000-07:00

Quick post here....another one to follow with an update following the recent trip to Eastern Europe.
But for now I thought some of you may be interested in a show that is coming up that will feature 2 members of blueneck in one of their other projects.
Oli and Rich are also in a band called Left Side Brain...quite different to blueneck, but both bands have strangely always worked really well together (we've done numerous shows in the past together) -
Its LSB's tenth anniversary this year and to celebrate they are putting on a special show in Bristol. All money made is going to Cancer Research and Motor Neurone Disease, as they are the illnesses that has affected the band really deeply of late.
You can find out more info about the band and the show at the facebook event page....
hopefully we'll see some of you guys at the show.

www.leftsidebrain.com

cheers
dunk

counting

2010-08-24T07:18:00.000-07:00

4 days ..hang on...5 days , till we leave for folkestone, on our way to cross the channel for the long drive to frankfurt...thanks to timo at denovali for booking the first gig so far away...sometimes i think the guy really has something against me! ;-)
Apologies for the cancellation of the gig at Prague too...this would have given us an 11 and a half hour non stop drive to Poland the next day...it really wasnt viable....once again...blame timo for this...tsk.
I think we're just about ready to play a few shows. Just about...As previously mentioned , Oli has done a sterling job taking over from Ben G...he's fitted in so well theres no doubt he'll be a permanent fixture in blueneck now. A lot of equipment has gone wrong, needed repairing or replacing this last month or so...luckily we've had a lot of people help us out. Ben, Rich and Oli all have new guitars and i've had 2 of mine overhauled...i even found out the birthdate of my fender telecaster - 3rd March 1973...how anyone can find out such stuff is beyond me.
Our producer Mat, over at Bink Bonk studios has been looking into modifying my amp and also attempting to fix my piano module...we really could do without the piano going wrong again...as anyone that was at the gig in lille earlier will testify to!
I think though, that we've more or less sorted out equipment issues...thanks to everyone thats helped on that front.
We've ordered in some new merch...a VERY small amount of new fallen host 'bird' design merch...printed on dark grey...they'll be exclusive to this tour only and will be the last lot of fallen host merch that we have done. There are also some numbered prints from scars of the midwest and the fallen host. So hopefully some of you can pick these up on the tour next week.
You might have seen the video from rehearsals we took of le:465 on facebook recently...we've taken some more footage of rehearsals and will be uploading ub2 and a one of the new songs over the next day or so. Facebook seems to be the easiest place to share these so keep an eye out there...we'll also try and keep an update going whilst we're out on tour...bth rich and ben are pretty savvy with updating when we're mobile so we'll leave it to them.
Hopefully we'll meet some of you over the next couple of weeks...and if not...maybe in october or november.
dunk

epiphany

2010-08-13T02:21:00.000-07:00

So we've had a lot of requests for lyrics over the last couple of years...ive always managed to dodge them 'ive forgotten them' 'nobody knows them' 'the dog was sick on them'...but recently we've had even more requests..one in particular had a really good guess at the lyrics to epiphany....so...maybe its about time i started putting them out there?..maybe....maybe im just in a good mood today or something? (i'll probably delete this post in a day or so)
....where was i?

oh yeah....

so one of the most requested lyrics is epiphany....

im strained and down
for kicks we're tossed and thrown against the ground
skins peeling to the bone
the scratches and the graise holding me down
feel me closer a face with small glass pieces pulls you in
im not sleeping over
a fist comes through the mirror and you think
im not stable, ungrown
waiting alone
my hands bleeding and numb
the cracks around the face is only half way done

stripped down
as far as i can tell theres nothing else
please me for another hour
placing all the bets onto myself
im unstable and dumb
waiting alone
im not pleading no
pieces stick together and we're half-way home

2010-08-11T06:25:00.000-07:00

Busy week this week...we've stepped up a gear with rehearsals for the tour in August/September and now have a clear idea of what the setlist will be. A mix of material from the 1st and 2nd album along with a few introductions to what will be appearing on the 3rd record. Oli's been working really hard learningall the tracks and has so far done an amazing job.
We have a van sorted now...and a window is currently being ..er...made (??!) for it...rich insisted on being able to see out of a window for the trip...not sure what his next demand will be...

anyhow, you mightve seen uthat we're missing a couple of dates on the tour...september 1st...and...erm...september 6th....ideally we'd much rather be playing a show somewhere...so if you know of anyone that fancies putting on perhaps an intimate blueneck show in berlin (1st) or prague (6th) then give us a shout perhaps? I think the place to let us know of any ideas is our friends at denovali... booking@denovali.com.

back in the studio over the next few days too..rich is finishing off his guitars, ben will be going over all his bass and i'll be making a start on all of my guitars...along with putting down a couple more guide tracks which will mean we have the whole album recorded in some form or another...we'll finish the tour in september and then really get stuck into finsihing off the record.

Thanks for all the messages we've had lately from a lot of other bands enquiring about support slots...we've got to hear of a lot of really cool bands this way...hopefully we'll get to play with a few of you either this year or early next year when we'll arrange a few UK dates to coincide with the album release.

expect a slight change to the look of blueneck.com over the next few days...just a slight one...and we should have some more pics from the studio for you...we're hanging out with russ again....which is always good fun... www.russellhowphotography.com

cheers
d

update from someone other than dunk? surely not...

2010-08-04T01:30:00.000-07:00

So the news from Blueneck HQ is that we're currently working on two separate bits of work. The first is the 3rd album. As Duncan has written in previous blogs, this was originally intended to be an EP length release that we hoped to make available around the time of our Autumn tours. However, quite early on in the writing process it became clear to us that the group of songs deserved a little more time and attention, and that we had enough of them to create a new full length LP.

Now anyone familiar with the history of our band will probably think that 'a little more time and attention' could mean years, given the time elapsed between Scars of the Midwest and The Fallen Host. However, we have a lot of confidence that we will be finishing the album in 2010. We're making steady progress in the studio and the early versions of the songs are sounding great.

So what can you expect from this new album? Some things will remain the same. Dunk's beautifully melancholy way with a tune is still intact. But I think the iciness of The Fallen Host is gone. The songs are warmer, more organic and often recorded live in the room as a band. Digital manipulation is - so far - sparse. So it's Blueneck, but with more of a human pulse. Things may change as we start to work further on the arrangements, but the mood in the Blueneck camp is very hopeful indeed.

If you're coming out to see us on tour in September, October and November, you can hear us play a few of the new tracks live. Which brings us to the second bit of work - rehearsals for the tour. This is a fun challenge as we're taking the time to break in our new touring guitarist, Oli (Oli will be picking up the reins from Ben Green who's taking some time out to spend with his young family), as well as working through a huge list of potential songs we can be playing.

Which means that now's the time to tell us if there's a particular song you'd like to hear live (don’t forget to say which gig you’re attending). If you have a favourite, mail us at the Myspace or Facebook pages and we'll hopefully see you on the road in the Autumn.

Best,

Rich

uni, presto, bobby, venger ...

2010-07-23T06:06:00.000-07:00

Once again we start an update apologising for the lack of recent updates...
you've heard all that before...

so yeah...what been going on since the last update? johnny had a baby, england failed dismally in the world cup, i ran away and married the merch girl, we started recording an ep, wrote more new songs, ben had a birthday, as did johnny, rafa got the sack, decided the ep will be an album etc etc..

But yeah..overall its been pretty fkg hectic. I was away throughout June travelling around California. Amazing place...in fact we have plans to do a short tour March/April next year....only thing about the USA is the fact that you have to be 21 just to BE in a bar...making it pretty hard for people to get into a show surely? I found this when we tried to go see a random band in a bar in san diego- but were refused entry as i didnt have ID on me...despite being well over 21! It must be pretty hard for bands to exist over there youd think?

We started recording again about 8 weeks ago. We've moved to a studio run by Mat Sampson in the city of Bristol in the basement of an old town house..very cool - quite different to our usual recording environemnt...but yeah...what started out as an ep has now basically turned into the embryonic stages of album 3...I think we were all so pleased with the initial sessions that we felt that we had the makings of a more than adequate follow up to the fallen host...The album is now basically written...with about 75 per cent of it recorded at one stage or another. The aim being that we'll sign it off by the end of this year...with no silly release delays this time...!!! As always it'll be released on the same formats as usual.

We've also got a few shows to be concentrating on...all the more difficult as we'll be playing with a replacement for Ben (Green) on these dates as he's unavailable to play live for the rest of the year unfortunatly...So Oli Duerden will be joining us to cover Bens role.
The dates will take us to a few new and a few familiar places and we're very much looking forward to getting back on the road and giving a few of the new songs their first airings.

Hopefully you'll hear from one of the other guys soon...but dont hold yer breath!

cheers
dunk

tick tock

2010-04-28T06:38:00.000-07:00

Just a quickie...
we havent died...we've not given up...just gone underground for a while (so to speak)

Lots of new shows being added for later in the year..really excited about some of the places we're going to be visiting...more to be announced soon.

We've practically finished writing 5 new songs for the new recording..with a sixth basically also complete aswell. We start recording these on May 20th and are anticipating a pretty quick turnaround for these tracks.

What to expect? hmmm...i think its still pretty much 'blueneck'...but with maybe a few nods into different directions...theyve certainly been REALLY enjoyable to write and play with the other guys so far...and im dying to get them into the studio environment and really go to work on them...

A lot of people downloaded the last album for free via the usual outlets (rapidshare etc) - fair enough...im not about to moan about such things- far from it....so we've decided that for this next record we'll give away the mp3 version of the album via the website - it'll save people going to the trouble of uploading it at least! With a bit of luck if people enjoy it then they'll buy a physical cd or vinyl version (the release WILL be on both formats again) or come to a show etc.

I think we'll know pretty soon after the initial recording session roughly when the record will be available...but we'll be aiming for August to coinicde with the new shows and tours.

cheers
dunk

new record

2010-03-12T01:55:00.000-08:00

I'll get around to doing the final part of the tour 'diary' soon...but for now i thought id just give an update on whats happening here at the moment (blueneck wise). We started rehearsing some new material on Wednesday night. The plan being to start recording later next month with the aim to release an ep in the summer in time for the next batch of tours. There seems to bit a slightly 'warmer' feel to a lot of these new tracks....i wonder if thats due to the fact we know that this will be released in the (theoretically) warmer months. We also will be recording this next record differently from the first 2 albums...more on that at a later point. Anyway, we'll be taking some short video clips over the next few weeks which should act as a slight preview to what is coming up.
We're rehearsing without johnny at the moment who this week had a new addition to his family. a baby girl. so congratulations to johnny and laura on the safe arrival of isla....the next time we see johnny im expecting a grey head of hair, zombie like tiredness and a look of defeat that can only be matched by the look of defeat of Liverpool fans this season.....this has been the least enjoyable season of football in a LONG time...i dont think ive experienced such an anti climax since queing up and spending good money to see highlander 2.

cheers
dunk

tour - part 3

2010-03-05T02:51:00.000-08:00

ok....so the gap between part 2 and part 3 was nearly as long as it took for us to write a new album - maybe i was waiting for one of the others to write something...what was that? oh...a tumbleweed just drifted past...
so yeah...lets see if i can remember the last part of the tour...
so we went from leipzig to the beautiful city of chemnitz - a pretty short journey if i remember correctly - i wonder why so many people that we came across on this trip laughed when we said we were going to chemnitz...?...the weltecho was a pretty impressive venue actually...VERY professionally run...we were soundchecked early and had plenty of time to return back to our respective hotels and chill out or do whatever took our fancy for a couple of hours....this was actually a bit weird...noramlly we'll get to a venue...set up...and just hang out there for the course of the evening...
this was a LATE start (more like a club night)...we watched the support act 'Hello Yes Yes' who were good, then played the same setlist as at leipzig...We were meant to be playing 'weaving spiders come not here' at all of these gigs...but just seemed to keep forgetting to play it..apologies for that.
Maybe after the gig we had a few too many birthday drinks...me and ben certainly did...which made for what was probably the most baffling of interviews that we've ever given after the gig..so apologies to Katrin for having to put up with us making no sense whatsoever and for certain members of the band constantly picking up Katrins microphone thinking it was a cigarette lighter!...other notable events from chemnitz? a very cool glitter ball, rich worrying he was about to be raped and probably a lot of other things ive forgotten about (maybe one of the others will remember and write about it - but probably not!)
So - the next morning...we met in the car park...ben (paget) looked as bad as i felt ...we both opted not to drive...the others breathed a sigh of relief that they werent about to be driven by either myself or ben! certain death...so off to duisburg we went...well...kind of...we had a minor detour....unfortunatly one of the band members (who we wont shame by naming) put unleaded fuel into the diesel van....now this is a BIG no no....the van didnt like this...in fact i think the van felt a whole lot worse than me or ben did at that point!..so we spent a rather long time in the middle of nowhere waiting to get the van fixed....a loooooong time......it was cold...FREEZING...and there was nothing to do....literally. nothing. to. do...but you know...we wont blame Rich TOO much for putting unleaded into a diesel van....oops...i wasnt going to name and shame was i??! ah well..serves you right for not writing any blogs..
so anyway...the day was fading fast....and we were at this point a little concerned as to whether we'd make it to duisburg in time for the gig...we were, afterall, still about 4 hours drive away and it was already 4 olock in the afternoon....

dunk

we're only making plans for... blueneck

2010-02-12T05:58:00.000-08:00

Blueneck plans...
so yeah...you might have noticed that we'll be touring europe again later in the year (see news item at blueneck.com) - we're currently booking up both tours but we're dead excited to be visiting some new places that we've not been to before. ie Poland, Croatia, Czech Republic etc.
Johnny is taking some leave for the next few months as he and Laura are about to produce a baby drummer. nice. so during that time We've decided to work on and produce an ep which we hope will be ready by the Summer time...coiniciding with some more live shows. I think going back into the studio is going to be a far more enjoyable experience this time around - I dont think , for this ep at least, that we'll be seeing a massive change in direction for the band or anything...but there may well be hints of what we have planned for album 3.
so yeah...i think 2010 is going to be a busy one...im looking forward to it..hopefully some of you are too.
dunk

dunk's (yes mine) europe pt 2 - leipzig

2010-02-11T02:16:00.000-08:00

...So off towards leipzig...this was going to be a long journey...especially due to the fact that our van was limited to 60mph!!!...something that the guys from Immanu El found pretty amusing....especially as they overtook us on the motorway about an hour into the journey!
checklist for the next tour...
a van that goes faster than 60mph
a van that has central locking that actually works
a van that has a heater that works properly
a van that has a cigarette lighter that works properly
a van that has a stereo that doesnt magically turn itself down
need i go on???

so yeah...a long drive...but we saw some beautiful wintery scenery...it was as if we were touring scandanavia or somewhere similar.
Leipzig is a lovely city...its a shame we didnt have time to explore it in detail...instead we went straight to the venue, Paris Syndrom, which is a beautifully designed building catering for art exhibitions, bands etc and also has a lovely cafe/bar.
Patrick was promoting the evening, and had obviously worked REALLY hard..he's a top guy and into some great music...he gave me some links to various projects he's involved in which im still yet to check but will be doing so this weekend when finally i have some time.
Now...once again me and my rude memory has forgotten the sound guy's name...im pretty sure it was tom...someone please remind me!!...anyway...he was fantastic..spent a lot of time making sure we were happy with the sound.whichfor once we really were. It was a great crowd this evening...they REALLY made us feel welcome and were very responsive. We even had the luxury of some visual accompaniment for the show...thanks Dirk. As always we ended with Revelations, but rather kindly we were asked to go back and play more...which we obliged with ...and played Judas! Judas! and amoc...Sometime you just know its been a really great gig...and i think us as a band really enjoyed this one....during amoc rich whispered into my ear 'best blueneck gig ever'....i'll always remember that moment with great fondness...
They served bulleit bourbon here...always a bonus....and seeing as it was now my birthday i indulged myself...The owner was Dirk...what a lovely guy...we shared a few glasses of bourbon together and talked music...he then showed off his cocktail making skills and produced rather amazing cocktails for myself and the merch shop manager/girlfriend (aka emma)....man...my heads buzzing just trying to remember this night!!...oh..yeha...there was an amazing apple crumble too at some point!! But Dirk (for me) ruled the evening...i may even grow a beard in his honour. ;-)

Leipzig was all in all a great night. We've been invited back...and it was a pleasure to accept such a lovely invitation!

Chemnitz next...but not after a nice long sleep and breakfast and lunch at the Paris Syndrom.

Its times like these that you realise just how lucky a position we are to be able to
experience nights such as these....

dx

dunks europe pt 1

2010-02-09T09:17:00.000-08:00

so...a week in europe....and with a mass of snow it was just like we'd gone back a couple of months to christmas time again...in fact in germany people still had the decorations up!...or maybe theyd put them back up.
We started the week in Lille - with the lovely Marie playing hostess...she kindly made us quite possibly the best lasagne ever along with a vast array of rather lovely other food. She also found the time to arrange our show at le select. Thankyou Marie...you were lovely xxx
The show at le select was a bit mixed. Unfortuantly the venue had had their equipment stolen the week before...so the PA was...lets say...a bit muffled!...A solo artist played before us...using loop stations and a vast array of pedals...i rudely cannot remember his name....but he was great...
1 song into our set and the piano sound died...i tried to get the sound engineer to fix the problem with the PA....but later found he'd gone home ill!!..so we played a setlist without the piano..a bit disapointing as there was a nice sized crowd that had come to see us....we played le:465 which we hadnt played for some time and the lovely people of Lille i think were very understanding about the technical issues.
A nice sleep, and a mountain of pancakes later (thanks again Marie!) and we were headed off to Munster...
Munster was our first gig of 3 with the nice guy sfrom a great band from Sweden called Immanu El. Expect to hear more from this band...they could well be BIG!
Gleis 22 is a fantastic venue...and once again fantastic hosts...the food, company and everything was amazing. The sound man - who (once again, rudely) ive forgotten the name of, was great...its always such a bonus when you come across professional but extremely friendly sound guys...the gig i think went well....for me in particular because for oonce i could hear everything....being deaf in one ear can be a bit of a pain as you tend to not hear everything on stage....but it was great....we finished playing only to find a mass of snow coming down all over munster...it was to say the least, rather beautiful.
Fair play to the people of Munster coming out in force to this gig...in England...we'd have all stayed inside...
I dont think we thought that the week could get any better at this point as we left for Leipzig....but then...Id not met Dirk from Leipzig at that point...

Dunk x

Europe 1 - UK 0

2010-02-09T05:38:00.000-08:00

So, that's our first 'tour' done and dusted. For myself, a very mixed experience... it's no secret I find the whole gigging thing less enjoyable than the other guys... so it was a test for me to see how I'd cope on the road for a week.

It was pretty hard in all honesty... I missed my wife and kids like crazy.... but, I have to say the people we encountered in France and Germany were so ridiculously hospitable and nice, it made the whole thing a damn site easier to cope with... and we met up with some great bands too - Emmanu El, Sankt Otten (amazing, again!) and Hello Yes Yes – at some great venues. The UK live scene has a LOT to catch up with... a heck of a lot... over there you actually feel it was worth turning up for gigs, rather than over here, where the promoter gives you a fiver... if you're lucky... (and catch them before they leave)....

It was an interesting experience for sure... new places, new crowds.... long journeys.... Johnny's never-ending flatulence..... so one I'm glad I took part in, even if I wasn't loving every second..... There was one notable scary moment on the last night when we all thought we might get murdered by a crazed drunk guy, but thankfully he left.... with the help of the Police..... It's not often you see a man do the splits - in jeans.... he was scary. Very scary. Why he had to stand next to me, I don't know.... I also never discovered how to open the Vivarium alien space ship in the park at Leipzig - so if anyone knows how to, please do let me know....

Anyway... it certainly turned out to be a week of ups and downs for myself - the mixed emotions certainly made it a trip to remember! I know the other guys had a blast and plans are underway for us to return to Europe later in the year. We'll have to wait and see as to where/whens etc etc.

So a massive thank you to anyone and everyone who came out to watch us, the promoters for putting on the shoes, to those who fed us and gave us shelter, and for all the support we got while we were out there. We were quite taken back by how much we were appreciated.

I'm sure the other guys will ad their own experiences and thanks, but for me that's about it...

See you again soon....

Ben G
x

Bardens Boudoir, London 31/01/10

2010-02-08T05:59:00.001-08:00

The week started out with a trip to North London...a trip that due to traffic lasted about 8 hours as opposed to just under 3!..not the best of starts. Still, the guys at Bardens Boudoir were well prepared for such occasions and it was decided we'd just set up equipment and just play. I think the long journey kind of took it out of the band, and brains were slightly frazzled...hence us countlessly forgetting the order of the setlist...in fact i still dont recall it now...other than we finished up with 'amoc'.
We played with 2 other bands that were kind enough to play with us at late notice. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster from London who were excellent, and also potential labelmates (for blueneck), Khuda - quite how a 2 piece make so much noise is beyond me...great band and lovely guys - Hopefully they'll finish up their debut album really soon.
We had recordings from both bands in the van for the rest of the week and both got regular plays. Thanks to Marcio for arranging this one at such late notice - a top guy whose friendliness was the perfect appetiser for the rest of the lovely people we were about to encounter that week.

Setlist;
Intro
Seven
Oig
Lilitu
Low
Weaving Spiders Come Not Here
Ub2
Revelations
amoc

www.myspace.com/tacomanarrowsbridgedisaster
www.myspace.com/khudamusic
www.bardensboudoir.co.uk

Green Park Taven - 28/01/10

2010-01-29T02:23:00.000-08:00

This was the first of 8 dates over the next 10 days, and where better to play it than what is (more or less) a home town gig at a venue that knows how to look after their bands properly and ensure a really enjoyable night.
The Green Park Tavern has developed into one of those rare venues that actually have a passion for music and are trying to bring better known bands into town along with promoting local talent along the way.
George Knight - once again opened the night. He's a solo singer/songwriter. He's very good, great voice and seems to get better each time i've seen him..he's got a growing fanbase too, so worth keeping an eye on i think.
Mo (the owner of the GPT) booked a band called 'The Ginger Cravings' - unfortunately they dont have any recordings yet as theyve only recently formed so I didnt know what to expect....but man...theyre good. Its hard to explain what this 3 piece sound like...and i wouldnt want to do them the injustice of attempting it...but they were amazingly tight for only their second show. Changes in tempo here there and everywhere, quiet/loud/loud/quiet. They certainly need to get some recordings done soon...its the sort of band that our European label Denovali would love i think. Swingfest '10 perhaps?...maybe theyd need to change the name first ...? ;-)
Anyway...Blueneck then played a longer set than we've been playing recently...which was really nice for a change...most of the shows over the next few days 'should' be longer sets i think.
We've re-introduced a Moog Prodigy to the set up which i think adds a bit of bottom end at times and overall just improves things on an atmospheric level and Rich has been adding some really nice parts to some of the songs....I think thats one of the more enjoyable things over the past few rehearsals, playing around with the current songs for the live shows.
Anyhow...we played a mix of material from both The Fallen Host and Scars of the Midwest...im personally really enjoying playing Ub2 again at the minute....A few glitches here and there throughout the set...but overall it was good fun...and a really nice responsive crowd with some good old fashioned somerset banter!
London next....playing with a couple of bands im really looking forward to watching....hopefully see some of you there.

Setlist:
Seven
Oig
Lilitu
Low
Weaving Spiders Come Not Here
Ub2
Revelations
...
amoc

www.myspace.com/greenparktavernmusic
www.myspace.com/gingercravings
www.myspace.com/augustusporticos

just a distant hum

2010-01-27T07:47:00.000-08:00

Busy week this week. Seems we've left certain things like travel arrangements, for next weeks short tour, to the last minute. I guess its kind of the blueneck way.
Its also been an expensive week...buying band equipment in particular. A delay pedal for the moog (which we're re-introducing to live shows), numerous other effects pedals, leads and also the jack socket on my guitar went in for a repair...it all adds up....put on top of that tickets for 'the end of the road' festival, alcoholic faith mission, los campesinos and a silver mt. zion, and january is proving to be a wallet melter so to speak.

so the video for lilitu has finally made it out for you all to view online...hopefully youre liking it...it went through a number of storyboard changes until everyone was happy with it....Myspace are showing it exclusively all this week...its a shame they were (or maybe STILL are) under the impression its actually called lulitu..and not lilitu....i looked up lulitu....no results...if anyone can shed any light on the meaning of lulitu then id be interested to know!

we've finalised the designs for some extra merchandise too....this will be available from Feb 2nd onwards at all of the shows next week...if there is stock left then obviosuly it'll be in the online store...the design is based on a screenshot from the video. but yeah...hoodies, t-shirts, bags and a few ltd edition screen printed posters are going to be available.

We've also been discussing dates for further tours this year...it looks quite likely that later in the year we'll be re-visiting mainland europe and taking in germany, france, holland, spain and portugal along with the UK. THis should all be confirmed really soon. We'll now be concentrating on summer dates and finalsing plans for these...we're looking further afield for these dates.

so yeah...the tour essentially starts tomorrow in the UK...we're playing at a great venue in Bath called the Green Park Tavern. These guys are one of the rare places in the UK that actually take care of the bands and ensure that its a great night...im looking forward to playing there again and seeing a few familiar old faces.
We then play in London which was a hastily put together date with a lot of help from Marcio (thanks)...but im also looking forward to this as we're playing with a couple of really great bands...Khuda and The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster - its such a bonus when you get to play with bands youre looking forward to watching.
Then its onwards to france and germany....reuniting with one of my favourite bands that we played with last year Sankt otten...check these guys out...you can find them via the denovali records website.
Its my birthday whilst we're away...im hoping to celebrate with a drink or 2. Ben P tells me i dont have to do any work that day other than playing a show...i'll be holding him to that.

so maybe see some of you over the next week or so....if not...maybe check back to the blog where we intend to run a tour diary as such...and we'll also be putting together a few video clips from the trip.

cheers
dunk

Exciting year ahead....

2010-01-23T02:16:00.000-08:00

Well, 2009 came and went in a flash so I think i'd best hold on tight this year and enjoy the ride and consume all the good things that will happen personally and 'Bluenecky' in 2010!

I'm STILL quite chilled about the prospect of being a dad in March. I guess at the moment the soon to be little bundle of joy is happy and content with his or hers mother so i'm kind of waiting with expectation - until the contractions start (yipes!)- but yeah looking forward to the day arriving and spending a few months with new arrival until i return and catch up with the world outside of dirty nappies and sick on my shoulder ;)

But anyway, i'm sure 2010 will hold many more gifts in store, new recordings, house warmings, tours, romantic meals (because and because not of the tours), baby sitting, building relationships and having some fun!

Take care

Johnny
x

I cant think of a title as this is about nothing inparticular...consider this the title.

2010-01-20T03:10:00.000-08:00

Well the album finally gets its UK release on February 8th. Seems to have taken an age...especially as its been available throughout Europe...Once again...apologies ...but you never know - we might just back it up with something else new a LOT sooner than it took to produce album number 2...

So...whats been going on since the European release of The Fallen Host? Well we played a handful of shows (nowhere near as many as we'd have liked), including the Denovali Swingfest 2009. This took place in Essen...was a really great event and an amazing line up of bands. I particularly enjoyed Sankt Otten (who we'll be playing with again in February) and Fall of Efra.
Regards to Blueneck sets - i think each show we did seemed to be littered with technical issues, equipment not working and more often than not (in my case at least) leads falling out of guitars!...we've been working hard to rectify these problems for the upcoming short tour in February.

The shows we did last year were mainly consisting of tracks from the Fallen Host with a couple of older tracks (Oig and Le:465) getting a run out. This month we've been rehearsing and playing around with a wider range of songs...I think the tour in February willconsist of a balance between tracks from Scars of the Midwest and The Fallen Host....Its actually been really enjoyable playing tracks such as Ub2, amoc and Judas! Judas! again...Once again we've tried making Epiphany work....its just not quite right....we've decided we just need an extra drummer!..we'll continue trying to nail this one as we've actually only ever played this live once...

So after the tour in February whats happening? Well Johnny is about to become a dad...so he's going to be taking a break for a couple of months....in the meantime we'll be back in the studio awaiting johnny's return. Then its back to touring. Theres a big emnphasis on playing shows for blueneck in 2010....booking is actually already underway and we'll be confirming some dates pretty soon. We'll be covering more areas this time around, quite possibly some that are further afield...so hopefully we'll get to visit some new places and meet new people. Obviously as soon as dates for tours are confirmed we'll begin to announce them on the website. THere should be a 'Touring' section added real soon...

We'll try and update this blog section at least once a week...so if you have any questions or want to know specific info then just let us know....maybe post on the forum (i'll start a topic inviting questions) or just contact us through the website.

I think ive waffled on enough now....

Take care

Dunk

Get a FREE download of Lilitu!

2010-01-19T09:05:00.000-08:00

You can now get your grubby little mits on a FREE download of Lilitu over at Blueneck.com now - all you need to do is sign up and you'll get the link....

New Year, New Stuff

2010-01-13T05:48:00.000-08:00

Hello.

New year - and I hope we won't ignore the blog as much as we have recently... hehe.

The album finally gets its UK release on 8th Feb - so keep your eyes peeled. There's a free download of Lilitu to whet your appetite on the new look website, so head over and grab it. There will be a video to follow, which we'll update you about sometime soon.

For those of you in Europe, we'll be doing some dates in early Feb so check the website or MySpace for details.

We're pretty snowed in here in the UK so we've not been able to rehearse... so we'll have to work hard to be ready for the shows, but it'll fall into place I'm sure.... at least we've been able to build the obligatory snowmen, igloos etc....

BenG

Sorry

2009-11-02T09:21:00.000-08:00

OK... we've neglected this a little... we've been tied up with other stuff, work, release dates, gig organisation.... excuses, excuses)....

But the new album will be out in Europe first (November) and then the UK in Feb next year. Not quite how we wanted it, but the powers that be have said it's the best way. Whatever.

We're doing a few shows here and there over the coming months, and some live streams from Blueneck HQ.... so we are getting our there.

There will be a new website soon too, and we may move this blog within it, so easier for us to update. Then we just need to actually do it. :)

See you soon

Ben G

Mastering.....

2009-06-30T06:13:00.000-07:00

...is pretty much complete.... heard the first one... a few issues, but I think the new record sounds pretty damn fine... so we're there basically. Now to iron out the release details. Not sure how long this might take... hopefully not long. We're as keen to get this out as some of you are to get your mits on it, I'm sure.

We shuld be posting the artwork and tracklist soon, so keep tabs on the website for when that happens.

I can't really write something this week without mentioning the death of Michael Jackson. Probably not the most popular figure to those that follow our kind of music, but he did play a big part in my youth... however much recent years have tainted his image/persona/mental health, you can't take away some of those songs from the 70's and 80's we're absolute belters.... RIP Jacko.

BenG

Finishing line

2009-05-07T05:59:00.000-07:00

Hello....

We're getting there... I've had the rough cut album mix on repeat for the last few days.... It's gooooood. (Well, I think so anyway).

Looking at artwork now too... my other favourite bit. I've come up with something Dunk and I are pretty stoked by so will no doubt release a preview of it to the hungry public soon.

Thanks for sticking with us – we appreciate it!

BenG

PS. Are all baby girls as noisy as ours?

Album update...

2009-03-31T11:33:00.000-07:00

OK.....so....after a pretty manic and intense past couple of weeks more or less literally locked in the studio, we have now practically finished the second album. The first mix was completed 29th March. Sandy (The Pirate Ship Quintet) came back over for another cello session and came up with some absolutely insane parts.

So....what to expect? I'd say we're looking at something thats a bit harder, more intense....and possibly just as draining (if not more so) to listen to than Scars of the Midwest.

We'll be posting up a preview MP3 with snippets from all tracks later this week/next week.

We'll update you as soon as, with regards to release dates etc.......but we're getting there. Finally.

Thanks for sticking around guys.

Dunk

Fresh Air

2009-03-06T09:47:00.000-08:00

Busy week recording wise this week....next week too....theres finally a chink of light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

Sandy from the Pirate Ship Quintet came over and played cello on a few tracks...his professionalism put us guys to shame. Its always a pleasure playing with such talented musicians...we hope to be joined onstage by Sandy at a few shows later this year...in the meantime you can catch the Pirate Ship Quintet on tour throughout April - i heartlily recommend them - even if they look and come across as a bit 'special'.

I think bens been busy chucking together pieces of video to upload to blueneck.com - theres various bits and bobs here and there, including snippets of new tracks, chess playing and some awful language on my part - which i apologise for. a couple of additions to the audio sections online too.

theres not really a whole lot to update you on really....we have a new engineer (Matt) on the scene in the studio whilst Corin is away in France, theres a new facebook page that you can join if you so wish. but thats essentially it....heads are buried firmly in the ground to ensure we get this next release out to you asap.

we'll continue trying to update things as and when...but until then....

There is a light that will never go out.

2009-02-18T09:36:00.000-08:00

Seems just like yesterday that I last did a blog/bulletin update....in
fact it was about 4 months ago...maybe longer.
Recording this current album has been difficult to say the least. Its
hadnt (up until recently) been that much of an enjoyable experience at
all...to the point that I, personally, needed to take a step away from
things and leave it to the others to carry the can.....so we've had a
pretty much unproductive period for quite a while....which became
increasingly frustrating....to the point where you have to question
whether its worth bothering with...

Well...fast forward a few months and a move into a new studio - once
again up on the mendips, somerset in the middle of nowhere - and
inspiration , and a light at the end of the tunnel has returned.
Finally we're enjoying things again and more often than not, we're all
in the studio at the same time and seemingly agreeing on whats what. I
could go on and delve deeper...i wont bore you...

Anyhow....its been a ridiculously longtime in the making, but we're
finally nearly there.... I think we have the final tracklisting
now....we have Sandy (on loan to us with great kindness from our good
friends, the Pirate Ship Quintet) coming in next week to add strings to
a few of the tracks and I'll also be doing final vocals....we're then
onto the immense job of mixing...which is where Corin will come into his
own....its going to be a mammoth task.

We've discarded some tracks and ideas already....we've uploaded a middle
section to 'seven' which we've opted not to use - find it in the myspace
player. Whilst on sabbatical ive also written some new tracks - along
with a couple of others we've written, we'll start recording next month,
which will make for an ep release that will come out not that long after
the album release....like a bus. Wait ages for one, and then 2 come
along...

Anyhow...ive rambled too long now...we'll be taking a lot more video
next week so will continue to update on all fronts....i think ben
uploaded a new studio video to blueneck.com (maybe myspace too?)
yesterday.

Cheers for your ongoing support...

dunk

New Year, New Studio

2009-01-16T05:45:00.001-08:00

Man, fresh paint makes your head funny...

Yes, we've resumed work in the studio – albeit at a slow pace. Our producer is two weeks on/two weeks off in the UK, so it's get in there while we can. We just made a start on working up a track which has gone through a few changes... a bit full circle on it now though... but it is slowly getting there. We all want different things tho, so we'll have to see what happens.

Anyway, new studio is nice – a far cry from recording in Corin's kitchen as we had been. And we can turn it up (to eleven) now, so all a lot easier. Hopefully, even though Corin's around less, we should make a faster progression.... hopefully. We're jsut really keen to get something out soon, but our situation is a little against us. Bah.

I'll post some photos when I get around to getting them of the camera....

BenG

News/No News.

2008-11-25T09:22:00.001-08:00

Album going a little slower than expected, so we're not quite at full mixing stage by now (as we'd hoped), but we are going forwards... kind of.

We will keep posting news, but at the moment there hasn't been too much to report... Essoben and I did a little work last week and pushed one track a lot further... there are some bits we're really pleased with.... we just need to be able to do more of it, but unfortunately our studio situation is against us a bit (ie it's moving so we can't get in there for while)... but once back up and running we hope to steam ahead (slightly) quicker.

Ben G

Steaming on....

2008-10-15T06:06:00.000-07:00

We're still progressing... I think every post here will pretty much be the same until we finish! We're recording piano tomorrow night on Dunk's new toy... finely tuned ready. We're getting to mixing stage with some tracks, and some of the experiments are coming together well, so it's looking like this album will have pretty varied moments, as with 'Scars'....

I bought a Harmonium recently which we want to try and use.... annoyingly tho, they're pitched differently to pianos... so not sure how we'll get around that....

Whatever, it should be good for some more Xmas tracks ;)

BenG

Album Update

2008-10-01T05:52:00.000-07:00

September came and went. we've been quiet. Badly so. I personally got to the stage where an end was nowhere in sight...which can kill momentum (and spirit) on a huge scale....dont know about the other guys.

We're sorted now...things have started progressing at a rate of knots now (however fast that might be) - and we'll be mixing the new album come November. Early signs i think are promising. we'll see.

We may be quiet for a while longer...our heads are buried firmly into this project....we'll surface again shortly with a bucket full of info ...
and there will be a short tour come february/march....preceded by a couple of low key shows showcasing the new album.....

Thanks for your patience.
D

Hello

2008-09-02T00:51:00.000-07:00

Hello

I’m Ben the bass player from blueneck sometimes known as Essoben (though not very often nowadays) and I am ashamed to say that this is my first blueneck blog entry. Well, mildly ashamed anyway. I’m told that there were posts bad mouthing my lack of bloging but it seems they were so long ago they are now buried deep in the archive. So – apologies to all.

Corin is almost back from his massive holiday and we should be able to get quite a lot done in September! I also have to write a best mans speech which I will probably spend a couple or weeks worrying about and squeeze it into the night before. I’ve been looking at a few speaches online and they all have the same jokes in. Such as “during the service today I couldn’t help thinking its funny how history repeats itself, I mean it was 30 years ago David and Carol were sending their daughter to bed with a dummy………and it’s happening all over again today.” Boom boom. Best avoided.

I bought 4 Goblets at a reduced price from the local crystal shop only discover they smelled stoney when drank from. I then washed them many times in an attempt to erridaicate the stoney stench and left them in the dish washer as wash after wash went by. One of them broke which indicated that enough washing had been done and it was time to fix the broken one before tring to drink from them again. This is standard with Goblets I belive, and essential to get the smoking liquid effect!

Liverpool flawless on paper start is at odds with their woefull performances. Will me and Dunc manage to get up to a game this season? Last season was the first one when we didn’t manage to. Still we saw the Champions League semi final against Chelsea which takes quite a lot of beating.

Anyway I’m off to meet Ben (who’s birthday it was yesterday) and Dunc at the pub to talk about Blueneck a little but mainly to watch Liverpool beat Villa!

Essoben

X

(sorry ben, posted this a couple of days late for you!! ben g)

Summer?

2008-08-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

Hello

Yes... we've neglected the blog. Again. Sorry. We're having a bit of break from recording while Corins away, so we can take stock of what we have... and so far, we like it. You can see what we've been upto from the videos at Blueneck.com... the Alpha collaboration could be interesting – we just played to a loop, so I'm curious how Corin will fuse it with Alpha's sound... we shall wait and see...

We're also getting the ideas ready for the new album artwork... something to get our teeth into there methinks.

We should get back in the studio sometime in early Sept to continue work, so we'll keep you updayed with more stuff then.

TTFN

BenG

Oh, it's my birthday this weekend, so any presents will be gratefully received ;)

Beards. Thoughts. Anfield. Beards.

2008-08-08T05:23:00.000-07:00

We've now entered a short break period in recording due to Corin selfishly going on holiday for 5 weeks. Things had really started progressing over the last few weeks so I guess in a way its quite dissapointing to stop...although really, its probably for the best as we can take a step back, look at what we have and decide what is needed to complete the tracks...we at least have what I think is the basis to the whole album now...The last few days i've been working on some of the vocals...some pretty straight forward, others maybe not so...see the problem is that a couple of the latter tunes have been written on my piano at home...which is in a slightly different key to the actual piano we use (ie my piano is out of key!) so ive found myself gasping for air now its in the right key. Man I talk shite.

As you may have read we thought we'd toy around with a few covers ideas...theres been plenty of suggestions and ive come across some really good music through those thoughts and ideas... so thanks for those...feel free to keep adding them....the forum at present seems to get read the most...well...by me anyhow....we thought we'd record a couple initially straight to video...so within a month you should see something uploaded.

Football season starts next week....about time! Me and ben really should be getting ourselves up to anfield more this season... its good for inspiration...inital hope...and then just despair! ...maybe things will change this year....and the next blueneck album will be full of short 2 minutes pop tunes?

Enough from me...im boring myself here...I need more new music recommendations ...theres a thread in the forum for this...its amazing what amazing music you've missed out on...

Dunk
x

lost.found.

2008-07-25T07:45:00.000-07:00

Aye...we've done it again....gone AWOL for far too long and neglected updating things online. Youre probably used to apologies for now...so i guess i neednt make one....i could make promises such as 'it wont happen again' and 'there'll be 23 updates per week from now on' but by now we all know it just aint gonna happen....just expect sporadic updates and you never know...essoben may actually grace us with his presence one day....ben?...ben???

ok...well as you may have read we HAVE actually been doing some work....and id say we're about 50 per cent complete now on the album...we're pretty sure we'll be finished by the end of the year as we now think we have the tracks that will feature on this record....

we've been playing around with some covers in our spare time and thought we'd record a few for free downloads whilst you wait for the album....and then somebody came up with the idea of asking you lot for any cover ideas that you think would work with blueneck doing....so....if you have any ideas chuck them into the blueneck forum...if we use any of them then we'll send over some free stuff from bens fridge or something like that.

this week we've been in working on a track called 'weaving spiders come not here' which has been a track that we've just worked from scratch on in the studio, corin's been playing drums on this with johnny due in on monday to add another layer of drums aswell....we'll chuck up a clip soon im sure.

jona from the pirate ship quintet popped in on wednesday to join us in the studio...apparently their next album will be ready around the same time as the blueneck release...which is rather convenient...anyway, it was nice to catch up on some pirate news and also good of jona to make the effort to stay up way past his bedtime. 13.

we've been taking plenty more video over the last few weeks so when ben actually gets around to it expect some more uploads in video form.

i guess im discovering why i dont do that many regular updates....this waffling is so bad its boring even myself to the extent that i think i'll stop now.

Slow go.

2008-04-26T04:57:00.000-07:00

Yes. More apologies. We're a bit crap at this blog stuff.

To be fair though, we've not been doing much to write about. In the midst of holidays from various people, studio work has been put on hold. Ben P and I did go in a week ago for him to tinker with some basslines to a couple of tracks...

It is beginning to shape up, albiet very slowly. But we're in no rush. I think "Low" has great potential....

I'm having a break with my family this week, so hopefully the others guys will get some more done whilst I'm away, for me to get started on when I get back. I'd wanted to have a stab at the Radiohead remix challenge, but with most things these days, I ain't got time. Bah.

I've heard the vinyl of 'Scars' is ready now, so I'm pretty excited to see it. It should be in our store in a week or so. Hooray, I hear you shout. (Maybe).

Until the next time.

Ben G.

quiet

2008-03-28T07:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, We have been.

We haven't been in the studio for a few weeks (well, essoben has, but we're buggered if we can get him to give us a rundown here), so not many posts. And we've been busy, some of us moving, some of us performing other things....

I've been trying to get my head around HTML. I want to learn. My brain is too small though. And it's a biiiiigg book. I must persevere....

We should be back in the studio in a week or so's time, so we'll get some more reports and clips up as soon as humanly possible.

until then

Ben G

bad head in the morning

2008-03-10T06:58:00.000-07:00

me and the boy Paget spent some time in the studio over the weekend just gone. We both had pretty bad headaches...I think we'd both like to think that it was down to a virus or just something going around...but the fact that we may have had a wee beverage the previous night probably didnt help....so recording some of the more extreme loud guitar parts wasnt really ideal....the initial plan was to record some nice soothing bass and for me to have a kip and drink coffee...but that went out of the window when ben's bass decided it no longer wanted to behave properly. We got extra guitar parts down to a couple more tracks but in all honesty i dont really remember how they were shaping out...most probably due to the numbness of my head that day.

we did see the farmer on his tractor about to spray shit everywhere whilst we had a short 'coffee break' - initially we werent sure that this act wasnt upon reflection of what noise he'd been hearing coming from the farmhouse.

oh...ive once again gotten behind on posting out orders from the store.....SORRY!!! it shall be done this week without fail.

dunk

cover me

2008-03-06T09:31:00.000-08:00

Dunk asked me the other night what my favourite cover version was. I honestly didn't know.

I can tell you which is the worst... My Chemical Romance's version of 'Song 2'. Absolutely fucking shameful. And NME thought it worthy of committing to one of their CDs. That's the last time I trust them.

BG

and another thing......

2008-03-05T09:53:00.001-08:00

AOTB - aka 'Anything Other Than Breathing' - Ben G is WRONG...this track is going to be immense....Ben tends to get a little scared when the volume goes past 4 - and then sits in the corner refusing to play....He'll more than likely deny EVER liking this track (even if secretly he loves it) cos he's probably the most stubborn person ive met...very loveable at the same time mind.

dunk

pillow talk

2008-03-05T09:49:00.000-08:00

Last night I finally got around to commencing work on my own parts of the album that need to initially be put down...its been a while since ive put down any guitar parts in the studio environment and in all honesty I found it hard to get into the right frame of mind....which is basically an excuse for being piss poor to begin with! We spent the evening looking at a track which is still , as yet, untitled (its been that way for around 18 months or so) - and after some random experimentation, cider drinking, questions of a sexual nature regarding ben g and several tweaks of nobs here and there we finally came up with a majority of my guitar parts for this track....overall its sounding in pretty good shape and now just needs some mass explosion of BIG guitar to finish the track off....plus some extra blueneckness here and there....im waffling again arent i? anyway yeah...its gonna end up pretty much bonkers.

Corin's currently building a lovely new studio out in the middle of nowhere (again) which is going to be ready soon - so we'll currently be vacating the farm and all its lushous animals and will be finsihing off this record there. The new studio sounds immense, full of secret tunnels that lead to lands afar. this may be a slight exaggeration on my part. i dont really remember.

Oh...i've currently taken over responsibility for posting out the merch/albums etc sold through the blueneck store...I kind of forgot to post out the orders last week so apologies to all those that maybe received their albums a little late...i have some more to post out tomorrow...i WILL post it on time..sorry - its just the way i was made. We have a few of the signed scars promo copies still left and have now got the last few actual copies of the album. These ARENT being re-printed...just so that you know..

until next time
Dunk

?

2008-03-05T08:35:00.001-08:00

http://omnomnomnom.com

very weird.

om nom nom nom.

more morenesss

2008-03-04T02:40:00.000-08:00

Hallo.

Visited the 'farm' to do more guitar overdubs on saturday... i love the fact the studio is only a few minutes from my house. It really enhances my extreme laziness....

I managed to complete my parts to 'Low'(a demo of which is on the YouTube channel) which is sounding nice... and much longer... and also got Seven down (again, demo up on YT). Also got some bits down to AOTB which could be a monster to peice together... but we like a challenge... the others really like this one. I'm a little colder toward it, but I'm curious to see where it will end up. At 13 minutes, there a lot of scope (for kitchen sinks).

Dunks in tonight i think... I'll hopefully get there to get some more video and pics...

We will get Essoben to write one of these one day. One day.....

BG

Birdseye Potato Waffles

2008-03-03T08:31:00.000-08:00

Having watched Ben's latest video montage from the initial weekend in the studio I've come to the conclusion that my accent is indeed good enough to join Reef - I could obviously try to steer Blueneck in a musical direction to that of the aforementioned band but i fear that we'd just not be rock enough...Ben for one certainly has never raised his goblet of rock for anyone in the past....replace the r for a c and thats another story...

anyhow, I guess that this is a damn pointless post in all honesty - but then I thought it was better to chuck down a few random thoughts that were running through my head at the time rather than leave the 'diary' empty for yet another day....You;d have thought that essoben by now would have graced us with his poetic presence...but no.......

Well tomorrow night cometh the hour cometh the man...and indeed it is time for myself to be entering the studio to stumble my way through a few of the tracks - Ben's right....this is shaping up to be a slightly different record to that of Scars of the Midwest....i'm pretty sure we're moving in the right direction...but if for some reason it's not looking great then we can always pull out a cover version of 'Place your Hands' complete with authentic West Countryness......

Waffling...its what i do.....its the only way i know.

Dunk

YouTube vid

2008-02-28T05:48:00.000-08:00

Vid from the studio... watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/BlueneckUK

or here (if i can post this properleeeeee):

buzzzzzz

2008-02-28T05:42:00.001-08:00

Sorry. A little late with this one.

Went to the studio on my lonesome on monday night to get guitar overdubs down to, er... a track which has yet to be named... even thought it's been in the set for about 2 years now. It's the one we usually end on, for those who have seen us recently....

Anyway, got all the ebow down, with a nice buzz-saw like sound for the end bit. I suspect this will have everything and the kitchen sink thrown at it for measured chaos.

More time booked for saturday, with someone filling the time... weird how speedy this seems compared to recording 'Scars', That did feel like a lifetime. But then, i think this could be a very different peice to 'Scars'. That's probably intentional.....

BG
x

Johnny's Report....

2008-02-21T08:48:00.000-08:00

1st day of recording: 16/02/08

We arrive at Corin's......early (10am is early!) to a waft of cow dung in the air. Smells like home!
Set-up doesn't take long and after I've wiped the sleep out of my eyes and slurped on my coffee we're ready for action.

It's a drumming frenzy to begin with.....and with the Aga to keep me company I must have lost some well earned pounds after 4 or 5 (?) takes of the first track! It's one we've played live so the drum part is down pretty quickly.

Next is a Stomperthon and after some blood (well a bruised thigh!), sweat and some tears (on my part!) we're two down. The 3rd follows and after some discussions on tempo, feel and the 'A and B' game we're pretty happy with the take on 4.....I HOPE!!

It's been a pretty intense and tiring day......but a giggle all the same!

Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Johnny
x

more from the weekend....

2008-02-20T06:32:00.000-08:00

hello...

Just to add to Dunks comment... a good weekend's work all round... nice country air... and close to where I live, which is dead handy...

Only at guide stage at the moment so difficult to say how it's shaping up, but one track has broken the 13 min barrier, which is quite an acheivement. Roar.

Nice to be back recording again. My favourite bit of it all. Piecing it all together. We do seem to eat an awful lot while doing it tho... so expect some weight gain. Kettle chip anyone?

More soon. And video clips.
Here are some photos for anyone interested....

BG

the Somerset countryside.... aahhhhhhhh

Farm wildlife. Not to be crossed.

This caged environment does funny things to me.

The secrets out – our new direction reference material revealed....

Dunk tuning. A rare occurence.

At last....

2008-02-20T05:44:00.000-08:00

Well finally we've managed to return to the studio to start recording the follow up to Scars of the Midwest! Its taken far too long to get back to this stage, and in all honesty I think theres been times since we released scars that it probably looked like we wouldn't actually release anything else again through one reason or another.

I'm very much hoping that this recording doesn't take anywhere near as long as the first album took - there was a lot of messing around and over experimentation that took place that time...and a lot of tracks that we just gave up on - im pretty confident that that wont happen this time. We already have johnny's drum tracks recorded to what we think will be over half of the album, and ben is due in this week to start putting down the basic bass initial bass parts.

It looks like you can probably expect a slightly heavier sounding blueneck this time around judging by the VERY early stages - I wont elaborate too much more on that yet - but you 'll be able to see snippets that we're uploading to the youtube channel during the recording sessions.

Oh..Corin has moved the studio too....we're now in a farmhouse...overlooking the Mendip hills...with ducks, geese and the occasional pig and dog wandering around...its an ideal opportunity to re-create the Pet Sounds cover art... ;-)

We'll try and keep you updated regularly with random thoughts of whats going on and with a bit of luck we'll get ben and johnny offering their mutterings soon.

Until then...

D.A x

We're not dead.

2008-02-12T05:57:00.000-08:00

Hello.

Yes, we are still alive, and apologies for not updating the blog as much as we should. We are lazy. No excuse. I'm sure you'll understand.

Anyway, good news is we're heading back into the studio this weekend as a last-minute decision... Corin Dingley with be dealing with production and recording duties again, and it's fair to say we're all pretty excited... We've got new tracks to be going back in with, some which you may have seen on the YouTube page... some stuff might grow along the way. We'll add video diaries and stuff as we go along, snippets of tracks and general tomfoolery.

It's gonna be a little while before anything comes together, but hopefully we won't take as long as we took on 'Scars'....

Until then....

BG

PS

We've found some limited promo-sleeved albums, which we've all signed and now added them to the shop on the site.... there's only 18, so if you want one, you know what to do.

sorry...

2008-01-21T05:02:00.000-08:00

we will update soon.

we – well, I – have been a bit lazy.

HNY!

2008-01-02T05:52:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all, and to start the new year off we thought we’d give you an update to what will be happening in the Blueneck camp over the coming months.

We’re about to start working on new songs again, which we will record live sessions of and upload here to the site – the first set planned for February. Then the next batch after that, possibly March – all depending on how quickly they take shape. Hopefully then these may possibly form the next album….

Apologies to those who were waiting for the first podcast back in December – we ran out of time. Sorry. Thanks to all those who downloaded the ‘Twelve Days EP’ – we hope you enjoyed it. We’ll leave it up for a while longer for those who missed it.

Enjoy the new year….

Ben

Twelve Days EP Now Online!

2007-12-11T09:36:00.000-08:00

Yes. It's finally up.

Navigate over to blueneck.com's Media page where you can download the homemade seasonal EP.

We hope you enjoy it.

Don't forget to tell your friends....

BG

Nearly there

2007-12-06T09:06:00.000-08:00

Hello.

We're in the final throws of mixing those Xmas tracks... they sound pretty good for home-made efforts. Would have been good to have had more time on the recording, but thems the breaks.

Once we've tweaked our last tweak and done all we can with them, we'll upload them.. or do something with them.

And we can sit back and get fat eating mince pies. Again.

Xmas has already started for me. Had an Xmas party the other week. Spent the evening getting 'festively merry'... ahem. Nice of everyone else to fill in the blanks the following monday.

BG

Rain.

2007-11-20T04:56:00.001-08:00

Cold. Wet. Not nice.

BG

All in a days work....

2007-11-19T05:50:00.000-08:00

Updates....

Friday.... spent all (well, most) of the day holed up on the cellar working on the festive stuff. Hopefully we won't be bored of it by the time Xmas actually comes around. It's sounding nice. Even if we did spend ages on a xylophone takes that neither Dunk or myself could perfect. For ages. And ages. (Dunk nailed it in the end).

Not sure how we're going to get these tunes out to you yet. They might be the podcast. They might be on the site. We don't know yet. They will get out somehow though (unless they turn out reeeally badly, in which case we'll just forget it ever happened.)

The cellar isn't a very nice place to spend toooo long in. You do tend to pick up the damp smell all over. I think the mince pies definitely helped the day go along though....

We're mixing said recordings now, so if/when they're ready, we'll update y'all.

TTFN.

BG

this week...

2007-11-07T05:58:00.000-08:00

....is more recording type stuff... just Dunk, Mike and I last night/// getting some piano down to some more 'festive' type songs for the coming joyous season... ace.

A candle, yesterday.

Not easy trying to be quiet... obviously not our strong point (much to Micheals annoyance... heh)... but whatever. It's Christmas soon. And we'll have some of our very own tunes to pleasure your ears with. Don't want to say too much now, as it'll spoil all the surprises...

mmm... Christmas. Big jumpers. Mince pies. Yum.

Ben G
x

(Dunk playing piano.)

(Me.Drinking.)

(Some people or other.)

...

2007-11-02T06:49:00.001-07:00

Sparse on updates this week. Apologies.
Blame esso. Blame johnny.
We'll be improving the sound quality of the clips on the youtube
channel. Soon. Very soon.
New ltd edition merch will be in the store. Even sooner.
Quick 'get well soon' to johnny...the boy had a small back operation
this week. He's doing well. And resting. As usual.
That. Is . All
D

vid.....

2007-11-01T02:09:00.000-07:00

....

2007-10-30T14:35:00.001-07:00

oohhhh... bit messy last night.... not much more to say than that.

Johnny had his op today. Lets hope it went wellll and no drumming will be affected....

BG

2007-10-26T13:30:00.000-07:00

Hello. Again.

Ahh.... both Ben P and Johnny were back this week.. seems like the first time in ages we've been together like that.... Ben's been away... France I gather.... no doubt sampling some fine vintages en route.... Johnnys back's holding out... not long til the op'...

Anyway, it was back to getting the new stuff going. It's sounding okay – but then I would say that. But it is. If you go to blueneck.com there is a live demo clip of 'Low'... a new track.....
I tried to embed it here.... but it didn't work.

We've got more stuff in pipelines, with a 'festive' feel (as it is nearly the season to be jolly) but I don't want to spoil anything....
so again, keep checking in for news.

Thats's about it for now.....

BG

The old and the new....

2007-10-26T05:39:00.000-07:00

This now the new web log home.... this is where you can find those first few posts....

http://blueneck-diaries.blogspot.com/