Joseph Coward

Sarah, Track Of The Day

2013-06-06T12:28:00.001+01:00

Clash have written very kindly about the first track from my forthcoming album today. They're streaming "Sarah, Plain & Tall" on their website, you can listen below.

They write: "His take on atmospheric post punk casts chiming shadows through an Echo & The Bunnymen shaped prism of multi-layered guitars and low-fi loops to impressive effect. With a voice reminiscent of obscure late 80’s indie troubadour Bill Pritchard, fragile yet attractive, he also channels the sound of Smiths-era underground British guitar pop, whilst an unfussy backbeat breaks the song up and down with weary panache." Read Libby Moné's full article here.

East End Live, Monochrome Set

2013-04-29T16:25:00.001+01:00

On July 13th I will be playing at East End Live, a new music festival from the brains behind the East End Film Festival.

I'll be supporting The Monochrome Set at Cargo, with another very exciting band to be announced over the coming weeks.

Last week I interviewed Bid from The Monochrome Set, here's what he said to say for himself

Evans The Death & me

2013-03-12T16:57:00.000Z

I love Evans The Death. Half of them are from my neck of the woods (Brentwood's neighbouring town of Chelmsford) and they've released consistently great pop music for about four or five years now, I think. I tried to book them for my old club night Construction House in 2010 but unfortunately they had to pull out at the last second.

Thankfully I've been given an opportunity to play with them next month at The Old Blue Last (RSVP here). Charlie & co are going to play some records again, it's going to be great.

Launch Party

2013-02-28T22:44:00.000Z

Thanks to everyone who came to see me, Happy Hooves and Bob Constant on Tuesday. I never knew I had so many friends hiding in so many different places.

Resonance FM Session

2013-02-18T15:53:00.005Z

On the 23rd March I'll be joining Dexter Bentley at Resonance, 104.4 FM to play a live session with my band. Resonance is the world's first radio arts station, showcasing diverse talent both local and international. They've featured early performances from XX Teens and Trash Kit as well as my friends from Flats and Electricity In Our Homes. Furthermore, one of my favourite comics Stewart Lee is a Resonance patron; of the show, he says "it's the only thing I listen to, really" which is a good enough endorsement for me.

Also joining me to play live will be legendary punk Vic Godard, of the seminal group The Subway Sect. Here's a session they did for John Peel in 1977. Anyway, tune in on the 23rd.

"Children's Bones" Video & Behind-The-Scenes

2013-02-15T16:39:00.000Z

Last month a small crew made up of extras, producers and camera operators embarked on a journey into deepest darkest Dalston to shoot the video for my forthcoming new single, "Children's Bones".

The finished product is now online, and we are all pleased with the result. Watch below; keep scrolling afterwards, though, because I've put together a small behind the scenes video to show you the vision that is me walking around in public, looking very pink and cold.

Anyway my sincerest thanks to Angelica Riccardi, Beniamino Barrese, Samir Eskanda, Peggy-Sue Cranney, Danny Stead and Rhiannon Thomas for making the production possible.

Let me know what you think of both, and I'll see you on the 26th.

Joseph Coward - Children's Bones from Joseph Coward on Vimeo.

New Single

2013-01-23T09:51:00.002Z

Last year David Blanco and Will Shutes started a record label called Blank Editions, and released a single by my friend Charlie Boyer as part of The Solo Series, a run of limited edition singles by soloists and single members of already-established bands. I thought it was a great idea so I went into the studio with a band, recorded a single and asked to be part of the project.

After hearing the record I produced, David invited me to be on the roster, and I'm happy to announce that "Children's Bones" (b/w "Fat & Ugly") will be released by Blank Editions on 25th February. You can order it here; the limited edition, 7" only release will also be available in selected UK record shops.

I also made a video with some friends of mine, have a look at the trailer below.

Questions For You (Yes, You)

2012-09-23T07:08:00.001+01:00

When I was 16 I started a fanzine called Construction House, a monthly tribute in print to the music I wanted to read about, so wrote about. It ran for just over two years, just after I left the band I was in to make music on my own. I mainly stopped distributing it to curtail the mad temptation to incessantly write about myself. (Though I suppose I only have this blog for that very purpose.)

Through the fanzine, I put on shows both in London and my home town of Brentwood, reviewed records and conducted interviews with bands from around the country, a few of which have gone on to have some notable success (hearing S.C.U.M's "Whitechapel" played over a trailer for Channel 4's My Transsexual Summer was an especially proud moment for me - they were issue #4's cover stars).

I used to love going from record shop to music bar to record shop to trendy pub to leave my lovingly crafted mixture of reviews, photographs, interviews and (admittedly crap) poetry with their proprietors. At shows I would glow with pride when punters picked up a copy of Construction House and reacted with anything other than outright disgust; I would practically vomit with delight when people actually appeared to be reading them.

In short, it was a blast. I loved receiving contributions from friends and strangers, I loved compiling the mailing list (at its most popular, CH went out to just under a hundred people a month, which isn't so bad, especially when you consider that NME now sells about minus two million copies each week), I loved individually stapling the fucking things together and inevitably shredding my hands with paper cuts, the wimpiest of all injuries.

Anyway, the questions I have are these: should I do it again? And if I do, which, let's face it, I'm going to no matter what your stupid opinion is, what should I call it? All suggestions welcome, though on matters of creativity are mostly wilfully ignored. Contributions and ideas on all topics are always welcome, relevant to this blog post or not. But you knew that anyway.

Dan

2012-08-28T13:54:00.001+01:00

EIOH and Me

2012-08-08T08:48:00.000+01:00

I'm very much looking forward to playing with the esteemed Electricity In Our Homes next week at Stoke Newington's Birthdays. It's been almost a year since we shared the stage; far too long, in my opinion.

If you're unfamiliar with the group (pah), watch this video for "Appletree", produced by my friend Tim Burgess.

Show Cancellation

2012-08-07T10:43:00.001+01:00

So, yesterday I was in the studio rehearsing for this

with these people

but due to promoter Ross Roberts being ill we've had to cancel. Apologies to anyone who bought tickets to come and see me (contact ROPE. for information on refunds, etc), Ross promises he and I will do something big together very soon.

Watch this space.

Fanzinery, again

2012-07-25T14:49:00.001+01:00

Just received the latest issue of Woodnote; I gave them an interview recently. Also featured are Factory Floor, Carter Tutti Void and Tim Burgess.

Rentboy

2012-07-24T12:27:00.002+01:00

I've had Marry Me Tonight by @HTRK_ on a loop for days now. I learned to play a crude cover of "Rentboy", my favourite song from the album; here it is.

Preparation

2012-07-10T21:34:00.000+01:00

1234 Announced

2012-06-12T06:12:00.001+01:00

I have been confirmed as one of the many exciting artists (or "acts" as morons insist on calling us) to grace the stage at this year's 1234.

Festivities begin on the 1st September, for a list of all the newly announced groups, visit: http://thefourohfive.com/news/article/1234-shoreditch-2012-unveil-new-acts-including-deap-valley

Cura Album

2012-05-31T10:28:00.001+01:00

The band I sing for with my old producing buddy Daniel Lea, Cura Machines, have just finished a debut album. Everything else is currently a secret but there is exciting news to come. Stay tuned.

Artist Of The Week: Bobby Pyn

2012-05-25T15:15:00.000+01:00

This week I'm extolling the virtues of one Bobby Pyn, the musical alias of Danny Stead, guitarist and vocalist of psych weirdos Miss Cosmos.

He currently plays solo with a beaten up guitar and is yet to play a show, but his Syd Barrett inspired folk-isms are marvellous and I'm going to bully him into joining me onstage very shortly. Listen below.

More Fanzine Writing

2012-05-23T11:07:00.001+01:00

I recently wrote a piece on Sarah Johns for Abigail Gillibrand's fanzine, Woodnote. It's out now, look Abi up on Twitter to request your copy.

Artist of the Week

2012-05-18T20:16:00.000+01:00

On Fridays, instead of doing an FF hashtag or whatever, I've decided to have an 'artist of the week', someone I like that you may not have heard of before.

This week's is Holly Herndon, find her on Twitter and listen to her music below. It's noisy, compelling stuff.

The Emperor Of America (Video)

2012-05-15T13:31:00.000+01:00

To mark the release of my latest track, "The Emperor Of America", available for free from my Facebook page, Tim Garratt has uploaded his video of me singing in-studio. Here I am:

Please re-blog, share and re-use this video as much as possible; I'd like everybody to be able to see it. Thank you.

Free Song, Free Film, Free Date

2012-05-10T19:51:00.000+01:00

So the stuff I've been hinting about over Twitter etc recently has all come together rather nicely. Here's the rub:

I was approached by a small film company called PGXism and asked to be the first artist to feature in one of a series of shorts about, uh, bands and artists. It looks pretty good to me, you can watch it here. I talk about my new band and living in Brentwood; there's some live footage too.

As part of the whole package, I decided to give away a new song too. You can download "The Emperor Of America" by going to my Facebook page, clicking on the download button at the top of the page, and then clicking like to get a private link to the song. Easy. Please write to me and tell me if you love or hate the song, or if you couldn't care less.

To celebrate this multimedia bonanza (not really, we're getting paid to turn up), the band and I will be appearing at a free show at The Old Blue Last on Great Eastern St, London. The date is May 19th, that's Saturday next week.

We'll be on the bill with Breathe Out, I reccommend you show your stupid little faces and come and say hello to me. I'll say hello back.

Enjoy all the stuff.

Pencils II

2012-05-05T11:15:00.002+01:00

I got home today after having been in South London for the past few days - I saw Zoetrope play in Brixton, they were great - and found a present waiting for me on the doormat. It was a package containing copies of the first issue of Pushing Too Many Pencils, which features a drawing of me, by me. I did it with a biro, you can look at it at the previous post on this blog. The fanzine is free, visit the PTMP Facebook page to find out how to get yourself a copy.

I've been sent spares to give out to you, ask me if you want one. I'll also have some copies at the next show I'm playing (announcement to come very shortly, keep checking).

Look at the artwork on this thing, it's excellent. The first issue also comes with 2 limited edition prints and a Mowbird badge. You can't say much fairer than that.

Pushing Too Many Pencils

2012-05-02T15:03:00.000+01:00

A self-portrait of mine has been featured in the fanzine Pushing Too Many Pencils. Find them on Facebook to order a copy, it's free. My drawing is below, it's called "Twenty Years (And Growing)".

More Writing

2012-04-30T00:41:00.000+01:00

I've been scribbling again, this time for Abigail Gillibrand (my ear to the ground in the North: she keeps things ticking over for me) and her fanzine, Woodnote. I was asked to write about a band or artist that I like, so I did. I chose Sarah Johns, who I heard only recently but she's excellent, do listen to her.

The fanzine and my article will be available in May, Abi will be giving them out at Tim Burgess's book event on the 11th in Manchester. Look out for her!

Fun

2012-04-18T18:12:00.002+01:00