(openPR) Hallo Musikfreunde,
wir freuen uns, Euch mitteilen zu dürfen, dass wir die PR Arbeit für die folgenden PIAS Themen übernommen haben.
THE STANDS - Horse Fabulous - 18.07.2005 (waren Support der letzten JET Tour)
DIEFENBACH - Set & Drift - 18.07.2005
Nachfolgend alles Wissenwerte. Bitte kontaktet nun also uns wenn ihr Interesse an den Bands habt und nicht die PR Abteilung von PIAS.
Promotermine/Interviewmöglichkeiten
THE STANDS spielen das Hurricane und das Southside Festival und werden am 09.06. in HAMBURG für Interviews zur Verfügung stehen.
DIEFENABCH spielen die folgenden Clubshows und stehen natürlich an diesen Tagen für Interviews zur Verfügung.
06.06. Bochum - Bastion
08.06. Schwerin - Doktor K
09.06. München - Ampere Club
10.06. Leipzig - BPM-Club
11.06. Dresden - Scheune
12.06. Berlin - Frannz-Club
13.06. Hamburg - Weltbühne
Eure Ansprechpartner:
Print -
Online-
Radio -
Gruß,
Jörg Timp
THE STANDS - Biography
Liverpool, as Paul Du Noyer remarks in his definitive social history "Wondrous Place" , is a city where music isn´t so much integral to daily life as the reason for living it; a city with a heart full of soul where music comes naturally. And never has this been truer than with The Stands: (Howie Payne: lead guitar/vocals; Luke Thomson: guitar, Dean Ravea: bass; and new drummer Graeme Robinson), a group already acknowledged by both The Coral and "blood relatives" The Zutons as posses sors of a rare gift.
But The Stand´s history is far more complex and fascinating than the usual tales of trading Django Reinhart riffs during break-time at West Derby Comp. It´s a result as much of Howie´s teenage upbringing spending time between Liverpool´s melodic basements and the Columbian and Cuban rhythm´s of New York´s Queen´s district, soaking up the Irish folk bands and American funk blasting from neighbourhood sound systems almost by osmosis.
"I think people have got the impression we´ve spent every minute of our lives in Liverpool, but from thirteen and nineteen I lived between Liverpool and New York" explains Howie (a youthful mass of Dylan-esque curls blessed with a voice as thick as the sludge beneath the Mersey-sippi delta).
"you know, I´d deliver groceries in Spanish Harlem, then sneak into anywhere I´d hear music down in the Village. I´d try´d busking to get money to go out. I´d walk around, late at night,uptown, downtown, you know, wherever, limosenes, couples in fur coats and tuxedo´s, citymen in burberry mac?s,bums, hustlers, peep shows, I just watch it all going by."
If the streets provided a technicolour education, Howie got his inspiration to become a musician from the root source: Chicago Blues.
"I don´t know why, man but like that music just blows my mind, from the first time too, I go through lots of listening to different stuff but Chicago and rural blues/folk is why wanted to play guitar, before that I wanted to be a drummer"
In a rock industry creaking under the strain of calculating careerists, The Stands love of music shines through. Full of wit and wisdom, the songs on 2004's debut "All Years Leaving " reflected Howie´s express desire to make a grass roots record,´a band in a room playing songs´, polarised opinion instantly. Those that loved the band such as Mojo ("equistiely seasoned with phlegmy harmonies") and a besotted Noel Gallagher were staggered by their effortless amalgam of everyone from the Byrds to Bob and The Band.
Released in the midst of the "cosmic scouse" onslaught led by The Coral and The Zutons however, less open-minded types simply saw the Stands as perpetrators of pointless retro-activity, despite a series of mind-boggling skunk-fuelled rock-out tours supporting everyone from Oasis to The Libertines to Jet.
"It was irritating that some people could only see that far into it, it´s lazy man, everythings gotta have a label, retro rockers The Stands, zombie rockers The Zutons, rock´n roll rockers Jet, it´s nonsence man but you know, it´s gonna happen so you can´t let it get you down, I don´t care to put a name to what I do" explains Howie.
"I´ve never been part of any scene though I´ve passed through plenty, us and the Zutons, you know, were friends and my brother Sean plays drums for them. Same with Jet or Oasis or whover, we get along good so were friends, it happens, people read into that stuff a lot. If you play music you´ll probably know other people who play music too, if you like what each other does you might hang out, do some shows or something, musicions bounce of each other, pass stuff around and things. We all probably influence each other but maybe not in the obvious ways, it might be a type of amp or a way to mic up some drums or something, you know, but no one wants to do anything other than their own thing. You know when we made All Years Leaving I didn´t want it to sound like a Byrds or a Dylan record, the only records that I was listening to were Dusty Springfield and Burt Janch ones, I just wanted to record some songs I´d written in a studio, with a band, which is what I did. When I listen to it that´s what I hear, I´m very happy about that.
In a bid to reflect such catholic tastes Howie set out on a mission to recruit a producer who could achieve both the warmth of Al Green and the chilly atmospehrics of Jacques Brel.
"I didn´t want to produce this one, I´ve never worked with a producer but this time I felt it would be cool to have someone I could really work with. I wanted to get better sounds, strings, brass, girl singers and stuff, also I figured I´d kinda exhausted my knowledge of the studio on the last record, this record needed more sonic attention of the right kind so we started to meet some producers, met a lot of top guys as well. I wanted to get both the space of something like a Scott Walker record to co exist with a really tight packed rhythm section like say, True Love by Al Green, they wouldn´t understand what I meant. Couldn´t see the relationship between Nearer Than Green and Just Enough Love when there wasn´t one to see, I went to L.A to meet Tom, I´m sitting there saying all these contradictory things that I wanted to get in this record, he just sat and listening, when I got done there was a pause, then he hmm`d and said "cool", then started talking about how it might be done and reasons it would or wouldn´t work. I knew he was one of the best anyway but for me that did it."
Recorded over six weeks with Tom Rothrock (Beck, Elliott Smith, Foo Fighters ) in the legendary Sunset Sound Studios in LA, The Stands new album "Horse Fabulous" achieves this aim with erm, furlongs to spare. It is a record informed by, but never overpowered by Howie´s staggering musical knowledge. On tracks like "Mountains Blue" (replete with mandolin solo) it´s a voyage into shiver-down-the-spine bluegrass, on others, such as the haunting "I Will Journey Home" it´s as touching as anything from the soundtrack of "The Graduate". Elsewhere, on "Back To You" (´Secretaries trade tales of Spring holidays/On far foreign shores/ were waiters clutch straws/And hope they´ll come back again") and the lovelorn "When Night Falls In" (´While alone here in my room/ I revolve around the tune´) there is a tenderness and knack for observation that reflects Howies´ role as a natural songwriter drawn to document the world spinning past his window.
"I go through times when I´m pretty much an insomniac, and I love that time in the middle of the night when everyone´s asleep and I´m still up, reading or writing songs. I watch people go out and then see them on their way back home again."
The result is an album as touched by melancholy and yet full of warmth as any you´ll hear this year. Fact. And anybody doubting the Stands ability to mess with conventional song-structure should head straight for stunning psych-segue "Nearer Than Green". But what about that title, "Horse Fabulous" ?
"I got it from an old cicus poster, in a book of posters someone had left in a hotel room. I was flicking through it as I was falling asleep, the horse fabulous was a performing horse from when lots of circus´s would travel around, I fell asleep, restless kind of night, you know,crazy dreams, this horse found it´s way into one or two of them. Next day on the train trying to think of what to call the record, you know, I just rememberd it and well, it sounded good, explains Howie...."
Indeed. The Stands have proved that at the rock´n´roll circus, the best is always saved until last.
Roll up.
Paul Moody
DIEFENBACH - SET & DRIFT
In 1999, Diefenbach formed in Copenhagen, Denmark. They named themselves after Reiley Diefenbach, the mysterious character on the phone in the film Fargo.
Finding each other through adverts in the Danish music press, the band goes like this:
Kenneth Sarup (the band´s hyperactive comic on guitar and vocals)
Allan Mattsson (the half English, half Danish hippy on bass and vocals)
Lasse Lyngbo (the "brain" of the band on keyboard)
Stefan Gejsing (the drummer who literally has "rock" in his blood)
Nicolaj Stoyer Christophersen (the band´s "melancholic thinker" on guitar)
Since guitars always impressed the girls, Diefenbach set to work making a collection of brooding instrumental post rock guitarscapes, recording their first album live in the studio. In 2001, they released their debut album, "Diefenbach" through their own label, Display Records. Over the next few years, the band worked hard perfecting their live show whilst touring Scandinavia and England.
In 2003, Diefenbach released their second album, "Run Trip Fall" on Display in Denmark. The band had moved on considerably, resulting in a more accessible album than their instrumental debut. With the help of new electronics, Diefenbach were able to do what they did best; experiment with genres, sound and structure. Whilst recording "Run Trip Fall", Diefenbach also tried experimenting with vocals. They found that quite by chance Allan and Kenneth could harmonise almost as well as their Californian 60?s rock heroes, resulting in a new Diefenbach sound.
The band´s influences are as varied as the band´s five characters:
Allan is the indie kid who spent his childhood in England before moving back to Denmark when he was 9. He started lots of bands in his teens but became disillusioned by them and decided to turn his talents to making music for films.
Kenneth is the self confessed "pop" guy who in his teens discovered bands like Nirvana and Faith No More but now loves everything from 50 Cent, The Streets, Deftones, The Knife and Alison Krauss.
Lasse´s influences include Janes Addiction, My Bloody Valentine and the Pixies. Now his huge music collection includes Johnny Cash, NWA and African world music.
Stefan grew up listening to The Cure and used to be in a ska band signed to a German label. He will happily listen to Scissor Sisters next to Slipknot.
Nicolaj is the brain scientist who always comes up with new ways to approach songs long before everyone else in the band catches on.
In February 2004, Diefenbach´s manager sent a demo marked with ?the five bastard children of Brian Wilson and Prefuse 73´ to London where it found itself on the office stereo at Wall of Sound (home to fellow Scandinavians and platinum selling artists, Röyksopp). Wall of Sound´s indie offshoot, We Love You promptly licensed "Make Your Mind" to appear on the "We Love You..So Love Us Three" compilation. Diefenbach performed an acoustic show in London for the album launch party and the next day, they became We Love You´s newest signings, following in the footsteps of The Bees and I Am Kloot.
Since signing their record deal, Diefenbach performed live over the summer in Denmark at Roskilde and a packed out show at the Spot 10 festival which the Danish press flocked to see. The band also flew to England in October to promote Run Trip Fall, playing to a London crowd filled with music industry people eager to hear We Love You´s new band from Denmark.
Since releasing Run Trip Fall to UK audiences in Autumn 2004, the band have finally received attention from the media outside their native Denmark. BBC Radio 1´s specialist shows, The Blue Room and One World both showed their support whilst London´s best independent music radio station XFM also aired a live session.
The UK press were as equally impressed by Diefenbach; NME described them as "fucking awesome", Q likened the album to Godspeed You! Black Emperor and The Flaming Lips, Uncut suggested "great promise", Loaded called Run Trip Fall a "work of bloomin´ genius" and The Guardian compared Diefenbach to Four Tet and David Crosby.
Diefenbach have been in constant development over the last 6 months whilst they record their brand new album at the Sweet Silence studios in Copenhagen. The new album is titled "Set And Drift" and is being produced in the UK by Tom Elmhirst who has engineered for Manic Street Preachers, Sugababes and Goldfrapp.
With the band´s new found skill in using vocals, their latest songs are all about melody and love and sound like the kind of classic 60´s song writing that their heroes The Byrds and Simon and Garfunkel would come out with, but with a Diefenbach twist...
Reiley Diefenbach might be the annoying character on the phone in Fargo but, according to Nicolaj, he is the one who persistently rings to achieve his goals and never accepts no as an answer. After five years, now is the time for Diefenbach to achieve their goals and they should without doubt be on your list of bands to watch out for.
2005 brings an exciting start for Diefenbach. They have been selected alongside 150 other rising bands from all over Europe to perform live at the Eurosonic festival. The festival is one of Europe`s prime event for showcasing new talent.
Diefenbach have also been confirmed to support Mylo, one of the best selling UK acts of 2004. They will be touring the UK throughout January and February (see dates below).
Diefenbach have recently taken time out from finishing their new album to write a special festive song, Christmas Mourning for the Various Artists Yule Love Us single.
A Diefenbach remix EP, "Re Make Your Mind" features tracks from their recent album Run Trip Fall remixed by Lindstrom, Vector Lovers , Nick Faber and Hot Chip.
www.diefenbach.dk
www.wallofsound.net
www.piasrecordings.de
STARKULT PROMOTION
Merowingerstr. 57
40225 Düsseldorf
Tel: 0211 - 30 21 17 - 0
Fax: 0211- 30 21 17 - 66
