WILL VARLEY 'LIVE AT THE LIGHTHOUSE EP' OUT 4 MAY 2015 // STREAM LEAD TRACK 'WE DON'T BELIEVE YOU' // UK SPRING TOUR

Xtra Mile Recordings’ newest signing Will Varley unveils details of his forthcoming five-track digital EP, Live At The Lighthouse, which will be released on 4 May 2015.  You can preorder the EP now from the Xtra Mile digital shop, from Amazon or Google Play.

The EP includes new song 'We Don't Believe You', a timely look at the current political climate in Britain - “If we're after Britain First than we should probably be last, and before UK independence we should give back what isn't ours,” - taking on colonial history, globalisation and foreign policy all in the time it takes a pop song to say “I love you”. You can stream the track below.

Taken from the forthcoming digital-only EP 'Live At The Lighthouse' Pre-order here: Amazon - http://smarturl.it/LATL-Amazon Google Play - http://smarturl.it/LATL-GP XMR - http://smarturl.it/LATL-XMR

More live tracks from previous albums feature too, including the much-loved 'Weddings and Wars' (the history of the human race) and 'King for a King' (the story of a life from birth to death). There's hardly time to breathe as Will's viewpoint flows across the timeline of a mere moment, or an entire millennium.

Will signed to Xtra Mile Recordings backstage at the Royal Albert Hall just moments before he performed on stage supporting Frank Turner as part of a Teenage Cancer Trust gig at the end of March. He’s been named one of Time Out's rising stars of 2015 as well as “powerful, political and pertinent” by the Independent.

The 27-year-old rambling folk singer-songwriter from Kent is a self-made man who, on one recent tour, walked 500 miles with a guitar on his back, playing shows along the way. He makes his own music videos. He co-runs his own record label and music festival, Smugglers. As if mirroring his work ethic, his songs pack narrative detail. Each three or four minutes is earthy and punchy, rolling and rollicking upon barely-concealed anger, or blatant piss-taking.

The EP tracklisting is:

  1. Weddings and Wars
  2. From Halcyon
  3. We Don't Believe You
  4. King For A King
  5. I Got This Email

Will Varley is on tour during May. Tour dates and ticket links can be found, along with all other artists' shows, on our gigs calendar, or look below:

MAY
02 Nottingham @ Bodega Social Club
03 Salford @ Sounds From the Other City Festival
04 Edinburgh @ The Voodoo Rooms
05 Leeds @ Oporto
07 Winchester @ The Railway
08 Cardiff @ The Moon Club
10 Portsmouth @ Edge of the Wedge
15 Leicester @ The Cookie Jar
16 Brighton @ The Mesmerist (The Alt Escape)
20 St Albans @ The Horn
21 Bristol @ The Louisiana
23 Hay-On-Wye @ How the Light Gets In Festival
24 Cambridge @ Junction 2
27 London @ Oslo
29 Canterbury @ The Gulbenkian Theatre 

facebook.com/willvarleymusic / Twitter @willvarleymusic / www.willvarley.com

FRANZ NICOLAY REVEALS NEW VIDEO 'BRIGHT WHITE' // NEW ALBUM 'TO US, THE BEAUTIFUL' OUT NOW

Franz Nicolay unleashes the new video for track ‘Bright White’ in preparation for his forthcoming UK tour.  Taken from his latest album To Us, The Beautiful – out now through Xtra Mile Recordings on CD, clear and blue splatter vinyl, and download – this video was directed by friend and bandmate Andrew Seward (ex-Against Me!). You can watch the video below:

The video was recorded while on the road with the full band, exploring the brief but intense life spiral of a band on tour. Mostly filmed from the car dashboard as they travel across country, and in a homely, untidy motel room, we peek into the sleep- and-drive rigmarole of travelling musicians. Surrounded by the trappings of their lifestyle (like gaffer tape and bottles of water) it captures the essence of Franz’s hard-working but ultimately free artistry. ‘Bright White’ also spills over with this, rooted in riffs and combustible breakdowns but with Franz’s eloquent, eccentric vocals flung over the results. 

Photo by Andrew Seward

Photo by Andrew Seward

To Us, The Beautiful is Franz’s fourth solo full-length and his second with Xtra Mile Recordings, and provides newcomers with a refreshing burst of elegant, eccentric and elegiac songs with a deliberate rock bent. Long-term fans will find a more straightforward chapter in Franz’s story, still gleaming with banjo twang and his distinctive theatrical voice, so they won’t be lost among the distortion and melodic drive.

Franz will be live in the UK in March 2015, let him wow you at a show or two. Look at our gigs calendar.

Praise for Franz Nicolay:

“Natural-born star…really something special.” – Pitchfork
“A great storyteller and wordsmith.” – Punknews

Praise for To Us, The Beautiful:

"Nicolay could probably sing the phone book and make it sound like Dostoevsky." - Éclat
"Fantastic...all of the scope and grandeur we've come to expect from a Franz Nicolay full-length...Franz Nicolay is the complete songwriter and To Us, The Beautiful is undoubtedly the first great record of 2015." - The Ruckus
"Perhaps his most accessible record to date...At its heart, this is a pure punk-rock record...balance[d] between boisterous celebration and punk-rock anger...an album that lives with you after you've pressed the pause button...a bold and confident statement. 4.5/5" - Contact Music
"Exhilarating...It’s a staggering album, maybe the first truly great release of 2015. 4.5/5" - God Is In The TV
"Filled with huge torch songs, heartfelt acoustic numbers and buzzing three-minute pop songs. 4/5" - Already Heard
"Every track brings its own reward...Recommend[ed]." - Echoes and Dust
"Masterfully emotional song-writing. 8/10" - Toxic Online
"A ramshackle treat." – Stereoboard

www.franznicolay.com / @FranzNicolay / Facebook

ROB LYNCH SUPPORTS CHUCK RAGAN FOR A TRIO OF UK AND IRISH SHOWS IN MARCH 2015

London based indie-punk troubadour Rob Lynch plays a trio of special shows in March 2015, including his first trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland, as special guest of Hot Water Music frontman Chuck Ragan.

Providing the perfect high-spirited and infectious foil to Ragan’s warm, earthy growl, Rob Lynch’s melodies will no doubt capture the hearts of fresh ears supporting Ragan’s Till Midnight tour.

Following the release of his debut album All These Nights In Bars Will Somehow Save My Soul in September 2014 on Xtra Mile Recordings - which you can buy from our web shop, Amazon, and iTunes - Rob has toured extensively in the UK and Germany, including a January stint successfully co-headlining with the excellent Allison Weiss. He continues to impress and garner followers with each show and has also caught the ears of some renowned and respected acts. Ragan is most definitely one of those.

The three dates, stopping in Dublin, Belfast and Inverness, are in March and can be seen on our gigs calendar and synced to your Google calendar too. .

Recently Rob released a free download of previously unreleased track 'Lord Knows I Have Tried'.

www.facebook.com/roblynchmusic / @TheRobLynch

MULL HISTORICAL SOCIETY 'THE BEST OF' AND NEW SINGLE 'KEEP FALLING' OUT 27 APRIL 2015 // FULL BAND 'LOSS' TOUR // COLIN MACINTYRE'S DEBUT NOVEL OUT 14 MAY 2015

Colin MacIntyre – best known as Mull Historical Society – will mark the 15th anniversary of his debut single ‘Barcode Bypass’, with a best of compilation on 27 April 2015, through Xtra Mile Recordings. Preorder the CD from our web shop. 

A special, double-vinyl format of the album will also be available on 18 April as part of 2015's Record Store Day celebrations. 

The Best Of gathers material from all six of MacIntyre’s albums to date, including Xtra Mile release City Awakenings. In addition, the album also features the brand new single ‘Keep Falling’ - also out 27 April - which was produced by the Grammy-winning Dom Morley (Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson, Grinderman), who MacIntyre previously worked with on City Awakenings.

“I can recognise now that the past two years has been one of the biggest creative surges,” says MacIntyre. “It reminds me of the period leading up to my first album Loss, where I first found an authentic sound and voice.”

This spring will also deliver a new MHS full band tour where Q Magazine's 'Best Debut Album of 2001' Loss will be played in full for the first time, alongside other favourites from MacIntyre’s rich back catalogue. He adds: “This will be a celebratory tour. Playing Loss will be an emotional life-flashing-before-my-eyes journey, but I can’t wait.”

Tour dates and tickets for the April Loss tour can be found on our gigs calendar.

MacIntyre has also recently announced his debut novel The Letters of Ivor Punch which is now available to preorder and will be released on 14 May 2015. Hilarious and heartfelt, rowdy and true, The Letters of Ivor Punch is a novel about fathers and sons, secrets and lies and how, sometimes, you have to leave home to know what home is. A MHS track of the same name will be released to coincide with the book’s publication.

www.colinmacintyre.com / @colinmacintyre

SKINNY LISTER'S NEW VIDEO FOR 'CATHY' PREMIERES TODAY

Following last week's stream of new single 'Cathy' from Skinny Lister's second album 'Down On Deptford Broadway' - out on 20 April 2015 through Xtra Mile Recordings, preorder CD and download from out digital shop - you can now watch the brand new video for the single on Vevo. Watch it here. Or feast your eyes below.

Purchase the new album 'Down On Deptford Broadway' featuring 'Cathy': http://smarturl.it/Skinny-DODB-Digital http://smarturl.it/Skinny-DODB-XMR http://smarturl.it/Skinny-DODB-Banquet http://smarturl.it/Skinny-DODB-AmazonCD http://smarturl.it/Skinny-DODB-AmazonLP 'Cathy' is the second single to be taken from Skinny Lister's forthcoming album 'Down On Deptford Broadway' out on 20th April 2015 on Xtra Mile Recordings.

BEANS ON TOAST MAY UK 'BENDING OVER BACKWARDS' TOUR

Beans On Toast, is heading back to the UK live circuit in May with his ‘Bending Over Backwards’ tour with fellow acoustic music-mate Benjamin Folke Thomas as worthy support. Tickets (on sale Friday 23/01/15) and full dates can be found at our gigs calendar.

With his most successful year yet behind him, having conquered his biggest ever headline show at Camden’s Electric Ballroom in December to rave reviews, 2014 will take something to beat but with Beans being Beans, he’s got even more up his sleeve for 2015.

In spring, Beans will once again be exporting stateside for his most extensive US tour yet, which will see him play various clubs, bars, front rooms and even a luxury cruise liner as he performs intimate skiffle shows, headlines his own gigs, supports Truckstop Honeymoon and joins the Flogging Molly’s Salty Dog Cruise from Miami to the Bahamas! Beans will also be playing his first ever show in Africa and indeed the southern hemisphere as he visits Afrikaburn Festival in South Africa over the last weekend of April.

In 2014, Beans On Toast smashed an extensive arena tour supporting folk-punk friend Frank Turner, broke America with his first ever-stateside shows and kept crowds entertained at over 18 festivals throughout the summer.

In addition to these milestones, his sixth studio album The Grand Scheme of Things was hailed as his best and most mature yet, taking in meatier subjects such as chicken farming, terrorism and the home cooking of new wife Lizzy Bee, which ensured over a third of his December live dates were complete sell outs. With life certainly on the up for Beans On Toast, there are still some things that don’t change and that’s his self-deprecating witty style, which has been anything but lost along the way.