Blogging all things FG..
This is a blog that I kept on our MySpace page up until 2007. It has its moments, especially the song by song stuff..
Tim
3rd Aug 2007 Wake Up
I recently dug out this old song and got Andrew to put it onto CD for me - its not a bad song actually, Paula plays bass and violin and Andrew played the drums. Its from our first ever session at the Terminal Electric Works - John Austin did the recording on the Beatniks old 8-track..
25 Jun 2007 First and Last
Current mood:drunk
I couldn't sleep tonight, so I recorded a song. It was one of the first Forest Giants songs ever rehearsed, but I never had all the words until today. So now its the last Forest Giants song ever recorded.
The words mean something, I'll write more about it on my other Myspace, for anyone vaguely interested..
31 May 2007 Dandelion Radio session
Current mood:blank
We've posted up four of the five songs that we recorded for Dandelion Radio back in January this year. Two of these songs were probably going to end up on the next album, Billy Boy and Let You Know, so these were works in progress really, but they turned out pretty well. The song that doesn't appear here was a new version of Planes Fly Overhead, which we'll maybe swap out for one of the others later on..
25 May 2007 SOLD OUT!
Current mood:exhausted
No,we haven't personally, but the first pressing of the new album has. We're debating whether the next run will have the "bonus" CD or not - what do you think?
ah bugger... just when I was going to buy it - any idea when the second pressing will be ready?
2 May 2007 Song by song by bleedin' song..
Current mood:weird
This has become one of my favourite parts of doing a new record - probably bores everyone else rigid.. Part II coming soon.
Goodbye/One for the Road
Goodbye was written specifically for Mid-West at a time when I was paranoid that there were too many fast, fuzzy songs on it. I tried to fit it in, but it just wouldn't go. Once I realised that it wasn't going to fit on the album, it got put aside for a while - the second half of the song came along one lunchtime when the idea just popped into my head - the song is a very sad one for me personally.
Tour of the Future
The original demo for this song sounds almost unrecognisable – it was written and recorded for the Honey, The Dog's Home compilation, but because of the delay in getting that album together, I decided to put it on "Things We Do" instead. Ironically, the two albums ended up being released a day apart! Lyrically, the song was inspired by a nutty Christian children's play centre near Bristol called Noah's Arc Zoo Farm, and by events like Waco..
Leave
This song was on the demo version of Mid-West and had been around for a long time, but didn't get properly recorded in time. I don't think it would have fitted anyway. Ruth wrote the bass line first, then the rest of the song followed…
At the Dog Track
One of the more optimistic songs in the repertoire. Andrew says this is a hit single, Tom says its rubbish. Who to trust, eh? Personally I like it, it was written one evening whilst watching a Galaxie 500 DVD and getting drunk on a bottle of red wine. Later on I sprayed my guitar with red spray paint, a decision I have regretted ever since as it is still sticky!
The Life I Have
Written and recorded for the Cherryade Christmas compilation. The song was finished by August 2006, yet due to sheer incompetence we didn't get it to Cherryade in time to make it onto the album, and so it was only available as a download from their website. The song is about someone having an out of body experience during an operation and taking the opportunity to assess their life so far... Of course, there are autobiographical elements to it as well...
Pick up the Pieces
First released by Cherryade as one of the b-sides to Planes Fly Overhead, which was available as a download single for about two days before the site went into liquidation! Story of our life… Again, the song was originally recorded for the Mid-West album because I was becoming paranoid that there wasn't enough weirdness going on.. The original demo was recorded on a dictaphone, but that was too lo-fi even for the Lo-Fi Underground…
Better World
Basically this song is saying "why on earth would you want to hang around with me?" Ever know how that feels? Again, this was on the demo version of Mid-West, with a full band, but every time we were due to record it, we ran out of time. It's a shame because the band version was fine, but in the end I got fed up of waiting and recorded this acoustic version, which also has its moments, to be fair..
Tina's Child
The music for this was written on the same day as "I don't think you understand", and it was intended for "Welcome to the Mid-West" but, unlike the other song, it wasn't finished in time. This recording was made as part of a session we did recently for Dandelion Radio, but this song wasn't broadcast because I decided to include it on the album instead. The words are meant to be funny – do the math..!
Victim of a Fashion Victim
The second song written during the "paint your guitar red" session, and completely different from "Dogs" – the red wine must have kicked in big time when I wrote this. We debated long and hard over whether the song is just too depressing, but in the end decided that it should get an airing, so if you find it too depressing, sorry about that. And in case you're wondering, we never did live together and now we never will…
Car Crash
One of my favourites on the album – it was written very quickly, on the day after someone broke into my car, pulled off the hand-break and rolled it down the hill and into someone else's house.. Again, originally slated to go on the Mid-West album but didn't get recorded in time. I particularly like the opening line about the baby sleeping with the dog – no idea where that came from! The timing on this song was changed after Ruth and I went to see the Go-Betweens live in Birmingham, shortly before Grant McLennan died. Ruth had never heard "Cattle and Cain" before and was impressed with the odd timing, so she said "we should do something like that" – we promptly did. The demo version on disk two is in the original time signature for you purists out there…
Play Your Trumpet
Mid-West was full of loud fuzzy songs with the vocals fairly low in the mix, partly because it was a very angry record and the words didn't suit being too up-front. This song is the complete antithesis of that. Belinda plays a great trumpet part and the keyboards underneath are great too. The trumpet was a birthday present for someone I am still very fond of, and I had high hopes she would play it on this song, but sadly one of the stops was a bit sticky and she never got it fixed…
17 Apr 2007 (New) LP (New) LP (New) LP (New) LP
Current mood:groggy
Our final album will be out on 30th April through the amazing International Lo-Fi Underground - the label that cares about Bristol's dogs..
Some of you who have grown attached to Welcome to the Mid West may take a while to come to terms with the fact that we believe the newie to be the better of the pair - and indeed they are a pair, twin albums which belong together in many ways.
But whilst Mid-West is the fast driving, hard drinking older brother, "Things We Do.." is the more reflective soul, the nice boy who will do creative things and, in the long term, turn out to be the nicer of the two..
Of course, that makes the lo-fi demos and outakes disc the younger little sister, always overshadowed by her boisterous brothers, but a person of distinct personality well worth getting to know too..
Next week we'll post up the traditional song-by-song guide, but for now, why not pop along to your local lo-fi Underground Myspace page and purchase a copy of the album so you can judge for yourself what its all about...
16 Mar 2007 Radio Live Transmissions
Current mood:busy
Dandelion Radio are doing a whole heap of nice stuff for us right now.
Firstly, if you listen to the Rachael Neiman show you can hear a recording of our recent gig at Cargo in London. To be honest, we don't think much of the quality or the mix (way too much vocals!), and some of the singing is pretty poor, (which I put down to the fact that the perfect on stage mix we had at sound check had unsurprisingly vanished by the time we played..) but the radio people seem to like it, so who are we to argue?
Secondly, we have just recorded a session for Andrew Mossison's show, which will be going out in April. The session includes three brand new songs which aren't on the forthcoming "Things We Do When We're Bored" double LP, and also a new version of Planes Fly Overhead, which we did just for fun....
So there you have it, just when you thought we were a lazy bunch of so and sos...
18 Mar 2007 Blow away those February blues..
Current mood:tired
Good news coming in from all fronts:
Last night we played our first gig in 18 months at Cargo in London - it went pretty well despite the fact that Tim slashed his fingers open with a bread-knife only a week or so ago, and we only had two rehearsals with Pete, our new guitar player.. the gig was recorded for Dandelion radio and should be going out in April..
Dandelion are also going to broadcast a session featuring five songs including three brand new ones, recorded just recently - the songs are "Billy Boy", "Let You Know", "Leave", "Do You Have the Energy?" and a new version of "Planes".. - more details on that when the session is broadcast, but we think that Billy Boy alone is worth all the money in your pocket!
And finally, our new album "Things We Do When We're Bored" will be out on the Lo-Fi International Underground label in April this year - the album features 11 "properly" recorded songs, and a bonus disc of demos and out-takes recorded between 2003-2006 - really lo-fi stuff to keep the purists happy!!
Oh, and we like the sleeve too..
21 Dec 2006 Fantastic New Song!
Current mood:rejuvenated
I just wrote a great new song. Its a sure fire hit, you will be dancing round the room like a mad thing with it on repeat all night. It sounds a bit like Stereolab meets the Chills. Can't be bad can it? It will definitely be the next single... Oh yes, and another thing, you can now buy UFO Stories from this site. Do it, you know you want to!!