Time for one of my occasional blatant plugs masquerading as an update I think!

For anyone vaguely interested in Clearlake that hasn't visited the site in a while, it's currently all go... they've got a single out on 5 December and finally... FINALLY!... the album out on January 16 2006. This is good because nobody releases albums in January so a half-decent record (and this is a VERY decent record) should get a bit of attention.

Anyhow, go visit the site if you feel so inclined, whereupon you'll find six demos of tracks from the record and more good clean fun than you can shake a stick at!

I also got Domino to update the news on their website, so stuff about Clearlake shares page space with an item about the recent number 1 success of Arctic Monkeys. Nice.

Message ends.

http://www.clearlake.uk.com

This band just added themselves to Clearlake's Myspace group:

http://www.myspace.com/monstercrackingshipper

I'm not often left speechless but...

Incidentally, it's going nuts on the Clearlake stuff at the minute! It is taking a great deal of my time... which is good.

Well, I've just spent one of the most random (yet highly entertaining) nights I've had in a while. Basically it was my birthday, an invite-only Clearlake gig, an argument with a hotel security guard (and I never argue with anyone), four hours' sleep, some time in the Levellers' studio and... oh, there was a club night in there too.

That doesn't even scratch the surface of it. It was great.

Happy belated birthday! Sounds like you had a great time indeed.

After going up in my estimation for saying such nice things about Immediate, Mark Beaumont has only gone and wrecked it again by slating the Clearlake single. Bad man. Bad.

Got set a 500 word limit this week for this thing... that was a challenge...

http://the-art-of-noise.blogspot.com/2005/...of-music-c.html

Didya spot the single review in the Guardian's tv pullout thingy? Made for intersting reading. Not sure whether the reviewer actually liked the song or not, but hey, it made the Grauniad, which is more than SS did!

Yep - saw that. They did like it, but described Clearlake as being old-school indie, whatever that means...

Have you seen the album review in this weeks NME ???

Yes. It didn't make me terribly happy.

If they didn't like it, and gave some constructive criticism on it, I could deal with that (it has mostly had excellent reviews, but a couple of average ones at least explained themselves) but what they wrote (especially the last bit) bordered on offensive to me. I know that at least one band member has said he'd rather never read it...

The NME has been going down the pan for years anyway - this was my final excuse to stop buying it. I used to buy it to find about about live gigs (I can check ticketing sites), news (the web does that now), new music (the web and digital radio combined now)... and finally, the writing. They don't have any decent writers left and they now patronise their readership something rotten. Plus the current editor is a reprehensible idiot.

Still, I'll miss the crossword.

This is the first time iv'e bought the NME in years, the only reason I did is my mates band Tiny Dancers get a mention and must admit upon flicking through the pages I had to do a double take and make sure it wasn't Smash Hits I'd just bought.....

I've been busy, so I kept forgetting to mention that!

Beware though... it's another example of lazy NME journalism. They've grouped them and lots of other bands from round that area with another of their silly titles... (cough)... "New Yorkshire".

Which means the same as with "Britpop". That is, when they decide it's over, then so is everything they grouped under that umbrella, whether it be good, bad or indifferent. Which doesn't mean the band disappears, but the press coverage will...

There's loads of bands from Yorkshire getting publicity at the moment, it seems to be the next area they've chosen. Of course we've had Kaiser Chiefs, then there's !Forward Russia!, The Research, Send More Paramedics, The Cribs....I was also surprised to hear a band from Leeds we played with a few months ago, The Sunshine Underground, on Lamacq Live for a few hours.

As far as i can tell NME is sort of an indie version of gossip magazines, rather than concentrating on music. it's actually been a while since i picked one up, i think it was when what'shisname from the futureheads mentioned silver sun. there was something else i was going to say. The way they make up movements, then build them up, and then just give up on them is rubbish.

The nme is just the musical equivalent of a trashy tabloid like The Sun.

I heard a Clearlake song somewhere and it was good.

Don't know what it was or where I heard it, so this is probably no more than a token entry to say that I've posted something in this topic.

I'll go now.

Fairly middling review in the Grauniad today

Aye. It's doing alright, can't be too downhearted. Four stars in Q and Mojo, four and a half in The Fly...

Interestingly, those who give it average ratings tend to either like the quiet stuff or the loud stuff but not both. But they all like Neon. Just as well they're going to put that out as a single!

Album's out today! Woo hoo!

Mine arrived in the post last night. It's so long since I ordered it that I'd almost forgotten about it! I'll listen tomorrow, as I've got the day off.

i love days off! i usually don't have to go into college on fridays until after lunch, but tomorrow i need to use the computers there. And it's my friend's birthday, so my other friend and i are buying goat's milk and cake for him :D

Clearlake featured on Tom Robinson last night (Thursday) at 9:16 pm, very favourably too!!

It was clear from their appearance in The Hub that Tom was quite taken with them... did you hear it that night? I managed to embarrass myself utterly in a highly amusing manner!

Ah... some more Clearlake loveliness for anyone who needs some:

http://www.dominorecordco.com/site/minisites/clearlake/

Here I go again...

I've updated my signature on posts, and I need a small big favour. Clearlake's new single "Neon" (out March 27) is now on the MTV2 chart playlist. If you could every now and then click the link (or this one) and put in a vote (or two or three or four or five) I'd be really really grateful... thanks! It takes all of a couple of seconds...

Oh, the video in question:

Windows Media (broadband)
Windows Media (slow connection)
Real Player (broadband)
Real Player (slow connection)
Quicktime (broadband)
Quicktime (slow connection)

Cheeky plug ends.

It's been a while...

For anyone who still wants a bit of Clearlake in their lives, they are - literally as I speak - in a studio in Brighton recording a new track, "One Of A Kind". On Friday (May 9) it'll be available via the website.

Hope people will give it a pop. Helping out a band you get a real insight into just how hard it is to be in one these days if you're not U2 - I really can't understate that. I hope they shift a few...

Sales pitch ends!

That sounds very Britpop to me.

Another Clearlake single comes out today! Hopefully a little less Britpop sounding to Mr Alex H... :D

It'll be available through the website before the day's out and there's a preview on Myspace right... now.

The fact that both bands whose sites I run have releases today has made this a busy evening. I'm now going to bed now before my eyes fall out.

That sounds 90s too, it's not a bad thing though. :P

I think I'll be buying the album when it's out.