Ascending b/w Stag - The Details

Stag b/w Ascending will be released on Monday 21st February 2011 as a strictly limited edition 7" on hand numbered, light green vinyl (500 copies - single pressing only). It comes in a beautiful, full colour, 300gsm, matte finish, card sleeve and will include a download code for high quality digital versions of the songs.

Additionally each copy will be screen printed by hand (by Pete from the band) with some lovely logo typeface designed by our friend Norman (www.wasteyourself.com).

To pre-order head here

EP Launch Party. April 9th 2010 @ Rescue Rooms.

We're having a big party to celebrate the release of Olympic Hits EP. Out on Hello Thor Records on March 29th 2010. Here's the poster and deets.





FISTS' sound is a sprawling, ever-shifting amalgam of DIY music genres spanning the past 50 years. From the skiffle punk of '6 5 Special' and the country twang goes indie-pop of 'Cockatoo' to the Stereolab/Velvets drone of ‘Skit’. Live, Fists are a woozy, kaleidoscopic and riotously fun affair. www.myspace.com/fistsmusic

SWIMMInG// have managed that rarest of things. An avant-garde left field approach to making music that incorporates experimental field recordings, binaural art, electronica and post-rock elements but remains accessible, uplifting and righteously pop. www.myspace.com/swimmingband

PILGRIM FATHERS have been described by someone else as: ‘a 50 million-year neo-psychedelic death trip through all the galactic touchstones: Orion’s Belt, Destiny’s Rainbow, Brocchi’s Cluster, Pegasus’ Great Square’ and by themselves as “The same sound as when you open a door and there is another dimension behind the door and there’s a band playing behind that door to the other dimension”, and finally by us as ‘awesome slabs of mind melting psychedelic post-rock’. www.myspace.com/thepilgrimfathers

ESCAPOLOGISTS have been on a weird secretive trip over the last 2 years. A trip that has seen the line-up shrink and expand again whilst their sound has undergone a radical evolution, from epic stabs of proggy, indie rock about the universe and science to a new, synth-heavy, drum machine backed, dark pop vehicle that segues oddly disparate touch stones like psychedelia, hip-hop and electro together in ways that absolutely work!!

PLUS...After-Party in the Red Room:

Frank’s Vintage Metal Disco playing: Budgie, early ZZ-Top, AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Edgar Broughton Band, Blue Cheer, that weird heavy metal Osmonds tune ‘Crazy Horses’, Judas Priest, Deep Purple, early Queen, etc.

AND...very special live guests!

Advanced tickets £5 available from the Rock City box office and at www.alt-tickets.co.uk. / more on the door.

Advanced ticket holders will receive a FREE copy of the brand new Fists EP (just swap your ticket stub at the merch stand on the night!)

Recording...Nov 2009

We've been back in the studio this weekend for the first time forever. This time we used First Love Studio in Nottingham which is run by musician, producer, teacher and father of two Pete Fletcher. Pete is a totally great, massively enthusiastic and extremely talented studio engineer and it was a real pleasure and relief having him around for the weekend. The studio is an off the chain, DIY labour of love filled to bursting with beautiful equipment such as a 200 year old harmonium, a harpsichord, xylophones, analogue synthesizers, a Selmer amp head, etc, etc. You can get a better look here

Also on board was our best friend Andy Wright who is producing as well as helping with the engineering and also mixing the record too. We should have the fruits of all our labour out on the 29th March through Hello Thor.

Here's Andy showcasing our new direction. More vid's to follow.

Marble Valley + Wonderswan + Red Shoe Diaries - Fists = This blog entry.

Unfortunately we've pulled out of the line-up for this because we realised it was total madness dealing with bands and food and money and stage times AND worrying about having to play to. Anyhow, this is what's happening minus us.

Fists Music Presents…
@ The Chameleon, Long Row (just above Clinton Cards), Nottingham, Friday 10th April. £4 (£3 conc.)


Marble Valley (ex-Pavement / Silver Jews)
Marble Valley is the multi-national (English/Dutch/American) sextet brainchild of former Pavement-er/Silver Jew, Steve West. They make music that’s been described as “together” and “out there” at once. Music that careens rambunctiously from krautrock to hip hop to psyche rock without a care in the world for sniffy purism or music industry trends. With two UK releases under their belts in the last 12 months alone including a re-issue of 2006’s ‘Wild Yams’ and the excellent brand new record ‘Slash & Burn’ they’ve decided it was about time they finally got round to a UK tour.

“Playing in the Valley is like hanging with a barrel of monkeys on crack. If we all hold together, it's a bit punk. If one lets go, it can get a bit punky, flunky and floppy.” Steve West
www.myspace.com/marblevalley
http://www.searecords.co.uk/
http://www.indikatorrekords.com/


Wonderswan
Leeds band Wonderswan are dab hands at turning out perfectly formed nuggets of pure 90’s noise pop nostalgia. Lately they've been gathering proper momentum with a slew of glowing reviews for their recent single 'Hey Nature' on Dance To The Radio and a number of high profile supports. If you like things loud, textured and ramshackle a la Dinosaur Jr or Urusei Yatsura then these guys are definitely for you.

"A beautifully shambolic fuzz laden racket...the sound of beautiful chaos" The Guardian
www.myspace.com/wonderswanband


Red Shoe Diaries
Nottingham favourites Red Shoe Diaries make sophisticated indie pop that joins the dots from Jacques Brel to Darren Hayman in epic, Morricone-esque broad strokes. We reckon they’re quite possibly the most exciting glittery-literary indie pop band to come from the city since Tindersticks. Catch them now in an intimate surrounding before they bolt the stable.
www.myspace.com/redshoediariesmusic

DJ's too but we're not sure who just yet.

J Mascis (1) - Nottingham (0)

Last night we played a great show with really good sound to an almost empty room which was the complete antithesis to our show on Sunday night where we played a half decent show with terrible sound to a room so packed with people that many couldn't even get in. And so goes the musical paradox of our fair city.

Our gig last night was as support to the excellent Thalia Zedek whose nigh on 30 years in the music underground has saw her graduate from the New York no-wave scene of the early 80's alongside Sonic Youth and Swans with her band 'Uzi' (and later with 'Live Skull') to the heady heights of the 90's indie rock explosion (or Grunge movement if you will) as part of the Sub Pop roster with her band 'Come'. In a nutshell Thalia has been central to some of the very biggest developments in the whole history of indie rock. J Mascis (Dinosaur Junior) is such a big fan that he's personally requested that she opens for Dinosaur Junior on their forthcoming US tour. Despite all these accolades she got to play to a grand total of just 15 people (including 5 members of Fists) last night. I really hope Nottingham's proud of itself. I found myself getting pretty down about this (partly because we'd only played to 15 people as well) and was planning on saying something after the show like "Forget it Thalia. It's Nottingham" (a'la Walsh to Jake Gittes in Chinatown) but quickly learned that I really didn't have to do this at all because she'd really enjoyed it regardless. It dawned on me at this point that this is how artists should be. Art before ego. This was a valuable insight into how this woman had survived and continues to survive the highs and lows of nearly 30 years as an artist in the underground. I went to sleep last night feeling pretty good in the end because despite the poor turnout I'd got to play and learn from someone who has actually lived through a large part of my record collection.

James