GDLI Poster

Yup, should be good.

Mervyn Peake & Bush Hall

Apparently this year is the centenary year of Mervyn Peake's birth. I've nearly finished the first book of the Gormenghast trilogy, 'Titus Groan'. It took some getting into, as it's quite dense and descriptive, and peopled with eccentric and bizarre characters, but it's worth it.

http://www.mervynpeake.org/gormenghast/index.html

The whole atmosphere of the books is humorous and sinister simultaneously, in that they present you with all these things that are sort of farcical, but then persuades you to take them seriously.

All this is unrelated to the fact that we played Bush Hall supporting Peggy Sue last night, we did alright I think, and they were amazing, they've got even better whilst they've been on tour. There was a good crowd too.

Goodbye GDLI

Our friend and one-time manager Anthony, who has been putting on shows in London for the last four years has decided to give promoting a bit of a break, and as a sort of goodbye celebration is putting on four nights of gigs at the Lexington in Angel. We're playing the penultimate one, on the 29th of December, along with Left With Pictures and Grant K Fennell.

http://www.goddontlikeit.co.uk/post/13249039745

http://www.facebook.com/events/279340265442839/

Bush Hall

This is the link for tickets for the Bush Hall gig on the 29th, next Tuesday infact. .Get involved:

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/136373

Also, I just finished this book, which is incredible: 'Diary of a Bad Year' by J M Coetzee. Very much recommended:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/aug/25/originalwriting.fiction?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

Tom and I went to see this lot at the Roundhouse in Camden on Wednesday night. They were great and played for about two hours. They also had a load of cool instruments (saw, pedal organ, and other stuff I don't know the name of) and there was some nice harmonising going on.

Peggy Sue support

We're supporting Peggy Sue at Bush Hall on November 29th, first on obvs. Exciting news, as you are probably aware they're great, so coming along would be advisable if you're free.

Here's a great video (it's part of a series of 12 from the album 'Let England Shake' by PJ Harvey):

Thanks to everyone who came to see us on Wednesday at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, there was a nice amount of people, and it all felt good. .Currently just discovering Arthur Russel and his great music:

Yep, Hero:

Fugazi

I've recently getting more and more into Fugazi. The combination of their inventive approach to a genre that can be quite formulaic and repetative (punk/hardcore), and the DIY approach they stand for, as well as the general total lack of ego or pretension they give off, all add to the music, which is great. This is one of the first songs by them that I got really into, a while ago. It's a bit more gentle than most of their songs.

Foxtrot Videos

This is somewhat humiliating. I wish I was cool and monosyllabic. Rather than uncool and awkward. Think I got away with it though. .

This is less awkward, and more good, I think. .

Foxtrot photos and review

pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/madrugadero/sets/72157627649493918/with/6164051035/

and words:

http://www.thankfolkforthat.com/2011/09/review-foxtrot-festival.html

This is pretty good. .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b008hs1m/The_Pink_Floyd_Story_Which_Ones_Pink/
Forgot how much I liked Pink Floyd. I thought for a long time that I didn't, because it wasn't very 'punk', but actually they're great.

Peggy Sue Tour

Was amazing. .very tired now, but wish it was carrying on.

We played Winchester, Bristol, Manchester and Leeds, with a little stop-over in Cirencester for Becca's birthday, and a warm up at the amazing Foxtrot in Brighton on the Sunday beforehand.

Also watched Peggy Sue's 'Acrobats' launch at the Lexington on Monday night, which was amazing.

This is a video of us at Foxtrot, playing 'Hidden Thieves':

Last Night was Great

So many amazing bands at Foxtrot, and also lovely people, these two things generally intersecting. .

Our set went ok, but I a pretty 'interesting' day regarding stage chat (ie. it was excruciatingly awkward). Everyone was pretty nice about it.

Watched Laish, Dancehalls, Lulu & the Lampshades and Alessi, as well as Peggy Sue, who were standardly great. Also, an amazing set by Emma Gatrill, who sings with Sons of Noel & Adrian and Mariner's Children, playing her own songs on harp, acoustically in a very quiet awestruck room.

Also something to check out is our friend Ben, under his alias 'Loud Like a Lion', who makes wierd and moving folk noises with a guitar from Argos and his voice:

http://www.the-monitors.com/2010/08/05/loud-like-a-lion/

Peggy Sue 'Acrobats' launch tonight, just so you don't forget. .

New Peggy Sue video

Great song and a video with dancers is always a plus. .Looking forward to tour. .

Peggy Sue - Song & Dance from Wichita Recordings on Vimeo.

Great New Ep by Mogwai

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/sep/07/mogwai-earth-division-ep-stream

Just thought I'd let you know. . .

Also, keep your eyes peeled for Foxswap, which will drop as soon as Danny wakes up and gets on the case. Excited about hearing Kristin McClement cover 'Dust Disturbed'. Very much indeed.

This is a preview of foxswap. .

http://www.forfolkssake.com/news/11851/exclusive-willkommen-foxswap-tracklist-and-free-mp3

Emma's song is amazing. .

We've done a cover for this:

http://willkommencollective.bandcamp.com/album/willkommen-foxswap

As part of the build up to this:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=254630684549478

Exciting. .

And this is good too. .

End of the Road..

. .Was amazing. Lovely festival, great line-up, lots of friends. Things that I saw include:

Caitlin Rose, Micah P Hinson, Tuneyards, Bo Ningen, Lykke Li, Beirut, This is the Kit, Phosphorescent, Wild Beasts, Mogwai, Twin Shadow, Austra, Timber Timbre, Emmy the Great, Tinariwen, Laura Marling, and Joanna Newsome. Actually that's everything I saw, but I was excited about it so I thought I'd list it all. This was pretty great:

Unfortunately from my point of view, Sunday night it got freezing, and I got a bit ill, and now I'm in bed watching Bill Hicks documentaries and sniffling.

Last night we played a Label Love show as a benefit for PIAS in the aftermath of the warehouse fire. Also playing were Dancehalls, Rachael Dadd, and Rozi Plain. We did a cover of this song, which is super catchy (I had some trouble with the ululating yodel bits):

Silver Bullet, EOTR, Foxtrot

General excitement as along with lots of other people I'm off to End of the Road Festival tomorrow morning, after an Eyes & No Eyes rehearsal tonight. It's the first time I've been, and the line-up looks awesome, so should be good.

The day afterwards we're playing a benefit in response to the PIAS warehouse fire, with lots of great bands who are also friends, such as Sons of Noel & Adrian, Rachael Dadd, Rozi Plain, and Dancehalls. The venue is the Silver Bullet in Finsbury Park.

And the weekend afterwards is Willkommen Foxtrot in Stamner Park near Brighton which should be beautiful, featuring Herman Dune, Peggy Sue and Sam Amidon, amongst others.

This is Sam Amidon and Nico Muhly being awesome:

Tom is a Flickbook Genius. .

Thanks to everyone who came to the roof park yesterday night, it was a really nice gig to play, and it was great to have sold out a headline show, for us that's pretty exciting!

Afterwards we watched Annie Hall, which is great. .

Watts Fest the Documentary

Tom made this, about when we played Watts Fest in Devon:

All Things That are Good . .

Some other things are happening apart from the exciting fact that we've changed our name. Our next gig is on the 25th August at the Roof Garden in Dalston. It's sold out, which is pretty great.

After that we're playing in Stamner House as part of the Willkommen Foxtrot, which also includes Herman Dune, Peggy Sue and Sam Amidon, all of whom are amazing:

http://www.forfolkssake.com/news/11155/herman-dune-peggy-sue-sam-amidon-for-willkommen-foxtrot-2011

http://www.willkommenrecords.co.uk/

After that we're going on a four date tour with our friends Peggy Sue, who are awesome,

and are going to be releasing their 2nd album 'Acrobats':

More stuff to follow . .

Eyes & No Eyes

Perhaps I should explain. Tristram (the person) is still alive, and writing. Tristram (the band) is now not Tristram (the band), and is instead something new called Eyes & No Eyes. All the people involved are exactly the same, so perhaps this is something of a deception, but we feel that our music has evolved a great deal since we first started playing together, and is now something that grows out of a collaborative effort from all of us, so it was getting a bit wierd for us to just have the name of one band member. When 'Tristram' was a new project, it was originally a solo folk one, which evolved into a slightly more fully orchestrated version of the same thing. The newer songs that we have been writing and have started performing are so far removed from the old ones that it doesn't really make sense anymore to be called the same thing.

Eyes & No Eyes is the name of a combined fiction/natural history book published in 1900. The rational behind the name is that everything alive either

has eyes or it doesn't, (another way of saying fauna or flora basically), and also maybe that if you have eyes you should use them to look at stuff and learn about it. . This is what the book looked like:

Panic On the Streets of London

So I hope everyone has been safe the last week or so. Living in Hackney has been a wierd experience, to put it mildly. Thankfully everything is now calming down. I don't know if I should begin talking about why it might have all happened here, as that's a lengthy discussion, with a lot of different stuff to add.

One thing that has happened is that some of our eps, as well as music by other artists on our label Broken Sound (Mariner's Children, Rachael Dadd) and on labels such as Domino, Rough Trade, Warp, Fat Cat, Rock Action, etc, were in a warehouse that was the centre of distribution for PIAS, which was burnt down on Tuesday:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14454359?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Pretty dark, and a nasty blow for all the independent labels involved. .

At least no-one was hurt, which is the main thing. Hope everyone's good, see you at the Roofpark in Dalston on the 25th August.

Hi, Sorry I've Been Silent

. . But my computer died on me, and I took a long while to get another one. Lots of things have happened and lots more are going to happen. Since we played Glastonbury, we played a festival called Watts Fest in Devon, with Rozi Plain and Rachael Dadd, both of whom are ace.

The weekend after we played the launch for Rachael's new album, 'Bite the Mountain', which is great. Our good friend Chris Lucraft, together with Rachael and her partner Ichi (who is also musically great), made a stop-motion video to go with the single, 'Balloon':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdR-rAr8D9U . .

Also, check out Rozi Plain's video for her song 'Humans':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAMKhomQFtU

Our next gig is on the 25th August, at Dalston Roof Park, as part of See/Hear Club, and afterwards we'll be showing 'Annie Hall' by Woody Allen, which is great. .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrxlfvI17oY

(I promise I'll sort out the video link thing soon. . .)

Glastonbury good times

So we had an amazing festival, and it was really good to play on BBC Introducing Stage, and a load of people were there, which was a really nice surprise. There's a track from our set (The Griffin and the Minor Canon) and an interview we did afterwards with Tom Robinson here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012brpg

We appear at around 1 hour 30 minutes. My deeply buried West Country accent seems to have chosen this moment to make an appearance, probably being in Somerset made it feel secure.

Also, this is our little page on the BBC website, with some pictures from the gig and suchlike:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/festivals/glastonbury/2011/artists/tristram/

Thanks so much to everyone who came down to see us.

Personal highlights of the festival for me were Wild Beasts, Battles, and the fact that Marcus and Emma played with Laura Marling on the Pyramid Stage (find it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/festivals/glastonbury/2011/artists/lauramarling/#p00ht602 ).

Glastonbury Countdown

3 days to go till we get to Glastonbury, which is exciting. .
We played the single launch for our friend Ollie's band Bronze Medallists song 'Mathematics' last night, which was fun, along with Dogtanion and Victoria and Jacob. This is the video for the single:

Also, been watching this documentary to get myself in the mood:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0079290/Glastonbury

Hopefully see you there!

Photos from the Slaughtered Lamb, supporting Moddi

Moddi's drummer, Jorgen Nordby, took these photos when we supported Moddi at their album launch at the Slaughtered Lamb. Moddi are ace, they make lots of amazing soundscape noises, behind Moddi himself, who sings these quiet beautiful songs that build and get louder.

Glastonbury!!

So our stage time at Glastonbury is 12.45 - 13.10 on Sunday, on the BBC Introducing Stage, which I believe is in the Dance Village (have it). .Anyone in the vicinity please come and say hi/watch us play, (yes I know, it's practically Sunday morning and you'll be comatose/hurting/eating breakfast, but come on, we'll make sure it's worth it).

Glastonbury ETC

This is what we looked like when we played the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition. More news about playing the festival coming soon. .

Slaughtered Lamb Videos

No-One Else Saw It

Coelacanth

Rhyme or Reason

Post-Emerging Talent Competition

So, we played at the Emerging Talent Competition, and we didnt win, boo. . But Treetop Flyers did win, and they're great, and apparently we might get to play anyway. Dont know if im meant to tell you that, as we havnt been told where or anything like that, but you look like trustworthy people, so i'll take the chance.
After that, I went to Morroco and walked up and down some mountains with my family, and got rained on, which was definately not part of the plan. When I got back we played The Old Queen's Head in Angel, thanks to all our friends for coming and yelling nice things.
Also, this is a big tune:

So I haven't posted anything for ages but this is happening:

http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/news/emerging-talent-competition-shortlist-revealed?result_list=0&c=

We are part of the 8 band shortlist for this year's Glastonbury Emerging Talent competition. On Saturday we're going down to Pilton to play a 20 minute set, with the winner being announced at the end of the night. .
We'll be sure to let you know what happens . .
Also, tonight we're playing at Laura Hocking and the Long Goodbye's Ep launch at the Slaughtered Lamb in Farringdon. Come down early, (like 8pm), if you want to see us. Here's the event,
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=152691518124708
Finally, this is great:

Also, Im going to this later, very excited. .

http://www.roundhouse.org.uk/whats-on/productions/iron-and-wine

Sitting in the Waiting Room ..

I am a patient boy, I wait I wait I wait I wait. .
Excited about this coming on t'radio: Tune in on-line Wednesday 9th March @ 7pm GMT / 2pm ET. The Waiting Room.
It's an interivew and live session with us playing 4 songs and chatting in between. I hadn't realised until after this, and our XFM interview last year, just how soporific my speaking voice is, so apologies for that. Luckily the others all talked quite a lot, and they're all hugely witty and erudite people, so the end result is still pretty scintillating.

' . .Pitched through their surroundings like a flock of birds . .'

Review of Lulu and the Lampshades Ep Launch, which is nice:
http://klj3.com/mcup/?cat=46

As they correctly noticed, I was wierdly nervous that evening, but Im glad we merit comparison to Mogwai, Belle and Sebastian and Arab Strap. This is me singing and my shadow pulling some shapes.

Cardiff Undertone

The lovely Fra Beecher also filmed these three songs when we played in Cardiff on Thursday:

Coelacanth

Dust Disturbed

Rhyme or Reason

Utrophia Videos

For anyone who didnt make it down to New Cross for our gig with Laish and Kristin McClement at Utrophia, these are some videos of what it looked and sounded like:

Rhyme or Reason

Isolde

If No-one Else Saw It

Coelacanth

Dust Disturbed

Our tour with Laish finished yesterday in a blaze of sparsely attended glory in the Cellar in Oxford. Prior to that we played Utrophia space in New Cross, which is an ex-dairy warehouse space: freezing but it was full of friendly people, most of them yelling encouragement in appropriate places and some of them moving enthusiastically. That was a definate highlight.

Big thanks also to everyone who came in Cardiff, Bristol, Cheltenham and Leeds, and of course to Laish for being great on the road and for playing great songs every night. This is our slightly unsettling family photo, taken in Danny's parent's house:

Surfing Safari

Whilst I appreciate that I look by far the least like I am surfing, I was the 1st person to climb on the incongruous wall-mounted surfboard, so in that respect at least, I win. This was in Bournemouth by the way.

Thanks Lampshades, Hello Laish. .

Lampshades tour was ace, we had a great time, thanks to everyone that came to the shows.
This is us and them in front of a tree in my Mum and Dad's garden (it's a Wellingtonia, for anyone who's unsure and curious):

Our tour with Laish starts on Tuesday, in Leeds. Due to a recent adjustment of the venue, noise levels have to be limited, so we're going to play an acoustic set, for the 1st time in a while, which should be interesting. Laish are great,  I'm excited. .

Thankyou Bournemouth, Bristol and Brighton

We've had a great time in all towns beginning with B so far on tour, thanks everyone who came out to see us. Lampshades are ace, the tour bus is huge (by our standards). Got to run, the van's turned up, we're off to Manchester. This is us in Brighton last night:

LAISSEZ-VOUS SEDUIRE PAR LA FOLK DE TRISTRAM. . .

This is an interview we (actually just me) did for a French blog called 97 Rue du Rock. .
Why does everything sound better in French:
http://www.97ruedurock.com/laissez-vous-seduire-par-la-folk-de-tristam-658/
 We've also been having fun putting it through internet translators, which has yielded gems such as:
'There are some groups with which we already played and which one feels near musicalement speaking: Mariner' S Children, Peggy Sweat, Sons off Christmas and Adrian, Laish, Lulu and the Lampshades.'
and also:
'Until now, I write the words and I pose base melody. Then, one spends the hours to test above, with bidouiller the structure and everyone takes part in the writing. One would like to compose like that, while jammant together. It is not yet really the case, but it is it towards what one tends.'
Also, Lulu and the Lampshades launch on Wednesday at the Lexington is sold out! Good news! Hope to see you there. .

Manchester Scenewipe

This is us, on a fire escape in Manchester, playing 'Song for Laurie', wrapped up in a load of layers. It was filmed for Manchester Scenewipe blog, whilst we were on tour with Mariner's Children in October (or was it November by that point?). The fire escape belonged to a pub called the Dulcimer, which I'd thoroughly recommend.

Tristram from MCR Scenewipe on Vimeo.

On a related note, our friends The Mariner's Children are playing at an event at Cecil Sharp House tomorow (saturday 22nd) night, which is called 'Shhh', and is billed as a festival for quiet music. They aren't actually particularly quiet, but I think the venue really suits them: it was founded in memory of Cecil Sharp who was a pioneering collector of old British and American folk songs, which he preserved by traipsing around the countryside talking to people in pubs and the like and notating all the old songs they remembered. 

Also playing is Stuart Braithwaite, of Mogwai fame, and Tasseomancy, who used to be called Ghost Bees. I haven't heard this newer incarnation, but Ghost Bees songs are great ('Sinai' is really good), and lots of other people are playing as well. This is the link to the Local's site, (the promoters), with the details:

http://www.localism.org.uk/main/shows?m=show&id=149

Tours! Hooray!

So Im going to announce two tours at once, double excitement. .

The first is the Lulu and the Lampshades tour that we're going on as support, including the launch for their new Ep, which is released officially on Valentines day (aaahhh). The launch is a bit earlier, on the 2nd Feb, at the Lexington in Angel. After that the dates look like this:

February 4th – 60 Million Postcards, Bournemouth

February 6th – The Louisiana, Bristol

February 7th – The Hope, Brighton

February 8th – Night & Day, Manchester

February 9th – Bodega, Nottingham

February 10th – The Railway, Winchester

If you dont know Lulu and the Lampshades, they're amazing, this is them in a shop window:

Right, tour number two is a co-headline tour with our friends Laish, who are part of the Willkommen Collective based in Brighton. These are the dates, venues, places, etc:

22nd Feb - Oporto. Leeds
23rd Feb - Canteen. Bristol
24th Feb - Undertone. Cardiff
25th Feb - Slak. Cheltenham
26th Feb - Utrophia. London

Laish are also ace, this was their London launch for their album at Notting Hill Arts Club:

They just released the album on Willkommen's record label, it's very good, I speak from experience because I own it. If you live anywhere we're coming to visit, come to a show, it would be nice to see some friendly faces on our way round the country. .

God is in the TV

God is in the Tv gave us a nice review:
http://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/content/content_detail.php?id=4890&type=Albums

Goodbye Greg. .

So Greg Griffin, our bassist, ukulele and harmonium player, singer of epic backing vocals and squeezer of harmoniums, has decided that much as he loves the band, he needs time to work on solo projects that he's planning, and so won't be playing with us anymore. Which is sad.
On a positive note, our friend Marcus Hamblett, of Mariner's Children, Sons of Noel and Adrian and Alessi's Ark, is standing in on bass, where and when he's free, (given that he plays in a lot a lot of bands). The four of us supported Joe Gideon and the Shark at the God Dont Like It Christmas party at the Lexington (both Joe Gideon and the Shark are ridiculously good), which was pretty fun.
This what it looked like:

Folk that doesnt send you to sleep . .

that's what we were going for. .
http://trustmeonthis.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/double-review-accidents-artifice-and-someone-told-me-a-poem-by-tristram/