BANANIA

We made some music for Jotta

2011-04-05T07:19:00.000-07:00

Art-collaborating-exhibiting company Jotta caught us stealing their delicious pies cooling on their Asplund oak finish windowsill, and in return for not telling our parents made us agree to compose some music for their series of videos. It was a no-brainer really- I don't want Mama Kingdom finding out about our transgressionin'.

Watch the video above. There are three songs on the soundtrack, two are ours. Guess which one is not. First correct answer wins a jpeg made by James.

Of course, if James answers correctly he'll send himself his own jpeg and the universe will implode.

DON'T GIVE ME A HARD TIME, BABY!

2011-04-05T02:54:00.000-07:00

This song is by a guy called Damian Aspinall, and it's a band favourite, so we thought we'd post it for you.

This record apparently is very rare; we couldn't find any info online about it. Not sure what that says about Mr Aspinall's music career. It's commendable that he even made it in the first place. The sleeve basically has a press release printed on it. The whole thing's pretty brilliant. His wiki page looks suspiciously self-written (PROMISE: I shall never write my own wikipedia page)- I love that there's a link to a European royal peerage website at the bottom of it.

If you came here via Fake DIY, then you've already read as much as we know about it. The b-side was a reggae song, which is probably best left unheard. Download it below:

Damian Aspinall - Don't Give Me A Hard Time, Baby!

Result

2011-03-29T14:45:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I wrote a candid post about how I felt now that my single has been released. For some reason, blogger didn't post it and now it's gone. But it was really great, honest.

It's strangely anti-climactic, when I think about how long the process was, from finishing recording and mixing the single (not to mention the 18 months over which the songs' writing gestated), to finally have it 'out'. It's out online, at least- if you go to the iTunes store or Amazon you'll see the three songs that make up the single (2 a-sides and a b-side) alongside an inexplicably blurry reproduction of the sleeve. I could have sworn my painting skills were sharper than that but jah well.

There's a kind of fog of war over the whole thing... There's been basically no press coverage of the release (except for that oddly hamfisted gutting I mentioned below). I met up with my manager today to assess the damage; 60% of the physical copies of the single were expected to be sent to Japan. This, due to recent events, isn't going to happen, presumably because the Japanese have more urgent issues to address right now. So now we have the very real possibility of hundreds of 7-inch DK records languishing in a stock room somewhere until they're eventually melted (is that what they do?) and turned into lino or something.

But something unanticipated happened yesterday evening. We noticed a curious spike in traffic on the facebook page, the website, the soundcloud etc. People from around the world had somehow been lead to our pages- hits had multiplied exponentially.

I was in the dumps this morning, so seeing this was extra special. When yesterday dawned and the single was released online, the DK team wasn't exchanging congratulations. We were 'putting this one down to experience', and coming to terms with the fact that we might have wasted the last six months. So even a few extra hits, and maybe a few purchases has made a big difference to me. None of it looks as bleak as it did this morning.

It took a while to work out why but my managar cracked it; Empire Of The Sun had linked to our facebook. People noticed and listened to us. Some of them liked it, so thank you Empire.

I could leave this episode here, and settle for the idea that Empire just happened to find us and were into it (which would be awesome), but I have a theory as to how they came across us, and I warn you, it's boring. But that word 'candid' is staring at me from the top of this post so I'll continue.

I'm an animator, and I sometimes work alongside a sibling of one of the members of Empire. We started talking about it once and I linked him to my stuff; so I'm thinking this is likely how they found it. I also met with Ministry in Australia a couple of years ago, who at the time rep'd PNAU so it may have happened that way as well. Either way I am very grateful. I want to get in touch with those guys and thank them in person. It was just a simple post for them but it made my day.

So... the SINGLE

2011-03-12T04:36:00.000-08:00

At long, long, long last, the first DK single is coming out. It's a double A-side: new song Vinyl, Skipping Ever Backward and old song that everyone's heard already Through The Ice. I think the digital release also comes with Amputee Spirit, which will be weird for me because the song has changed quite a bit since I recorded that version. Anyone who attended our last show at Queen of Hoxton will have heard the new version.

I did the design myself! It took ages though. Lots of umming and ahhing betwixt the label and I. I was hamstrung by having adobe on one computer, having internet on another, and having to travel between each every time someone asked for a minor change. The image above is the back of the sleeve without the small print.

The promo copies have definitely been sent out, because Google Alerts notified me that a website called The 405 (yeah I hadn't heard of them either) has written a review! They hated it by the way, which lead me to think about what I am about to put myself through. I've been writing all these songs for two years, and now they're coming out, and being subjected to scrutiny, I'm going to have to weather it as best I can.

I may sound naive but I honestly didn't think people would hate these songs. Secluded within a rather convoluted piece of copy is a valid point from the reviewer - that songs that plagiarise other efforts aren't healthy. But his references in regards to Vinyl are a spectacular bevy of misfires, and he takes such pain to name drop an array of bands (and, bizarrely, the colonial 1800s? Dude, really?) that the whole thing resembles a student article and smacks somewhat of aspiration above his station.

People, upon hearing my music might level a similar trite evaluation at me, but I think that this would be stupid. Stupid, because by doing so one ignores why these songs are great, and they are great, biases accepted. I never claimed to be a great singer, and it's my job, not the critics', to come to terms with that and accept that people will find my voice too abrasive, or simply bad (although I am in tune, I'll have you know), especially when everything else about the production exudes pop, love it or hate.

I think, also, that it's too easy to hate on it. When I receive someone else's view, informed or nay, on my stuff I go back and listen to it with their opinion fresh in my mind. I have to admit, I leave myself wide open with these tracks. They're total, inoffensive pop, without an ounce of venom (at least not explicitly, although the subject matter for me is real enough), and it's a fine line artists like myself walk.

If you do pop music, with choruses and hooks and all the staples, do you hold out for a bigger deal or do you settle for a small indie release? Labels are hesitant, and the fact that we radiate between mainstream potential and a cult fanbase make any of these acts, be they Cocknbullkid, the now defunct Primary 1, Sunday Girl etc. an unknown quantity. There's a Venn diagram somewhere that shows how a less popular act will become richer releasing their work themselves than a much more successful act pushing their record through the major label grinder. Suffice to say there is an awful temptation to publish all of my work and as the saying goes, be damned, rather than wait for a label with the promotional machinery in place to come to me.

I can't really conclude this post because as yet there is no conclusion. Over the next few days I'm going to await the inevitable press response. They will, I expect, be few, as I think everyone knows that if I'd released two years ago I would be a hotter topic now. I have to accept that this was perhaps a mistake, and that much of the blame rests with me. All I can hope, if only for my own peace of mind, as that the reviews that are written about my double a-side single, Vinyl, Skipping Ever Backward and Through The Ice, radiate as much as I do between one end of the spectrum and the other, and don't all sit too far down the bottom end...

Micachu's new album

2011-02-02T03:31:00.000-08:00

So it's appeared. Hi. I'm in 2011. I'm back and my single is coming out soon and i'm trying to make music videos but it's hard work. I painted the sleeve design myself. Just you wait.

Here is a track from Micachu's new album because I like her stuff.

2010

2010-12-23T16:00:00.000-08:00

I have to come clean: I haven't even been on this site for at least a month. To be honest I was kind of scared; my last post was staring me in the face, because I looked at it and knew nothing had changed since then. The release date, for one reason or another, of my first single (finally, I know) has been pushed back to Feb. I'm taking the opportunity to redo the artwork for it. In January the band and I are knuckling down and revamping the live set. We'll be gigging again in Feb.

In the absence of a publishing deal I have a job; and that's kept me far too busy to energetically do more music for the last month or two. A recent flurry of live gig attendances has re-fired my resolve to write again, and my great new manager has been pushing me on. Leaving my old one and going with her has turned out to be a sound move.

So yeah, new year etc. I sense the same things I told myself this time last year coming back. Will this finally be the year all this work reaches fruition? 2011? Yikes. I've been doing music for most of my life and have almost nothing tangible to show for it. That's not despair on my part; but simply that in the digital age you can work for years and have nothing to hold in your hands.

I started another blog with my friend Simon. It's mostly about comics but it'll inevitably include other things. We've recorded a few podcasts but frankly don't feel confident enough to put all of them out. I've also been making comics, lots of them. At the moment I'm filling up three of four pages a day with comics and illustrations. I need to scan them in and clean them up but even the Christmas holiday hasn't given me time to breath and get some of my own work done.

My job, by the way, entails animating a pilot for a new TV show for Channel 4. You'll have to wait until September I expect, but when it comes out the phrase 'FISH FINGER FOR LATER' will make a whole lot more sense.

I have been real busy

2010-09-04T05:31:00.000-07:00

We have done lots of recording and rehearsing and we are sounding real goooooood. planning video for our first single.

I did some drawings for a website

2010-06-28T09:30:00.000-07:00

called platform and you can see them here. nice to be doing some illustration that isn't GUYS WITH GUNS!

Messhof on Creators

2010-06-18T07:48:00.000-07:00

Mark Essen one of my fave game artists has a new feature on the Creators website. See the link below.

http://thecreatorsproject.com/en-uk/creators/mark-essen

Part Hideout

2010-06-09T18:47:00.000-07:00

now has a video, cha-pulnk!

OKAY

2010-06-03T08:17:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna be honest here. Yeah I spent half of yesterday making a 3D model of myself, putting it through photoshop, typing in reams of code and doing up the DK myspace.

But I KNOW it's no good. not for DK. It looks cool and I frakking love my 3D head, don't get me wrong, but it's not the right look for us. anyone can tell it isn't. so it'll be like that for a week or so i guess, and then i'll change it again; make it more tactile and less electronic. If anyone has a lo-fi electro band who needs a facelift though, you know who's html to steal.

peace

What happened

2010-05-30T09:30:00.001-07:00

to Economy Wolf?

I hadn't seen this until just now

2010-05-30T07:38:00.001-07:00

But it ain't bad

ANother day in the life of LOSERBAND

2010-05-28T05:50:00.000-07:00

wow, we played a smashing 'gig' last night, in camden, all three people there thought it was amazing. that's cos they were all MY MUM. hopefully we'll never play this bullshit again and we can die happy. fuck me, i fucking hate these shit promoters. i could do their job better...

watch this space for more on this story as it develops.

This Tuesday

2010-05-14T05:43:00.000-07:00

We're playing in Hoxton on Tuesday with The Good Natured and Naive New Beaters so it may well be good times.

The Knocking Shop

2010-05-11T04:56:00.000-07:00

There we are!

Also features an interview with me. Not my finest hour but everyone has their fifteen minutes of lame. Props to Ollie, Danny, Graham, Cilla, Sarah and the guys for being so welcoming.

Breathe and STOP

2010-05-11T03:50:00.001-07:00

Download at soundcloud
Breathe and Stop by Danimal Kingdom

I Hope

2010-03-17T15:34:00.000-07:00

That you are all paying attention to my soundcloud. Else you are fools!
http://soundcloud.com/danimal-kingdom

I See Plans WIthin Plans

2010-03-04T06:19:00.000-08:00

I See Plans Within Plans sound bite Dune sound bites

PS: Sign up to the DK mailing list

2010-03-01T03:12:00.000-08:00

For news and shows and graphics and bits of tissue and freshly minted songs straight out the hyperdryer

NEW SONG NEW SONG NEW SONG

2010-03-01T03:02:00.000-08:00

Amputee Spirit by Danimal Kingdom

This is a new song, see what you think. I'll upload tracks to Soundcloud on a semi-regular basis. But obviously I won't be neglecting the myspace either.

You will have heard this song if you have been to our last couple of shows.

Tearing at teh wals

2010-03-01T02:58:00.000-08:00

I was asked to submit a song for a man called Flyn's MA. He made a record and this is the cover. you can get a copy at http://tearingatthewalls.com/buy

Dalston Hyperstore

2010-02-23T04:42:00.000-08:00

Some friends of mine are doing a TV show called the Knocking Shop. Hopefully this will become a regular production. The pilot will be released on the 1st March. Trailer below. I get a small cameo, see if you can spot me.

The Knocking Shop from the knocking shop on Vimeo.

Do You Want More

2010-02-18T13:54:00.000-08:00

I heard that people have been chasing after the lyrics to the track i did with rad dudes The Aston Shuffle back some time last year, so I've put them down as best I can below:

Feeling fine, oh oh

It's just the sex (the only one thing you think about)
You never rest (the only one thing you think about)
You go out get wrecked (the only one thing you think about)
Do I protest (the only one thing you think about)

This lady that I know
she's lost all self control

Oh violent girl violent girl you could take on the world

It's just the sex (the only one thing you think about)
Make out undress (the only one thing you think about)
That's what you get
You are the best

You're leading men on to the floor
What you say? I've heard those words before
Your hospitality is ringing bells for me
And the boys know it well but we love kidding ourselves

Oh violent girl violent girl you could take on the world

And when the world ends when the world ends
You can say your time was well spent it was well spent
Chasing hearts like you were keeping score
Why do you want you want more?
Do you want more

Oh violent girl violent girl you could take on the world

SUITE

2010-02-11T05:30:00.000-08:00

www.linaekstrand.se

Entrepreneurs

2010-02-11T04:55:00.000-08:00

Damn.

Uv Been Robbed (Joking But Not) from Entrepreneurs on Vimeo.

We have been playing

2010-02-01T05:26:00.000-08:00

And you thought I'd never play live and I would sink without a trace without releasing shit. Well I still might so catch us while you can.

We played at Barden's the other day and we're playing at the Macbeth on Wednesday this week and the Stag on Thursday. Both shows will be good and the press are nice too.

Egyptian Hephopotep

2010-02-01T05:13:00.000-08:00

Heavenly (Danimal Kingdom Remix) by Danimal Kingdom

I can't really call this a remix, but last decade I did take vocal tracks from EHH and put new music underneath them. Download here.

GAME OF ETERNITY: Enviro-Bear 2000

2010-01-17T12:02:00.001-08:00

best game ever? everything about this included the semi-retarded feeling you get playing it is sublime. Get it here.

NEW YEAR

2010-01-13T14:42:00.001-08:00

New game: Hide From The Sea

Holiday Special

2009-12-06T19:13:00.001-08:00

I have recorded a christmas song! need to rerecord vocals, mix it and then i'll post it up. it's been a productive weekend.

Long time

2009-11-19T07:42:00.000-08:00

No post. New recordings up on myspace.

Making Armour part 1

2009-10-20T05:01:00.001-07:00

My background is in design and animation, so it was natural to take total control over the look of Danimal Kingdom. To this end, my friends and I are building props for a planned video and photoshoot. I'm not gonna give all of it away, but here's a look at our first project: making some special plate armour for a Danimal costume. My friend and neighbour Dan is also my art school buddy and once built a whole suit of armour out of cardboard so he seemed the right guy to get in for this. I had bought some industrial super thick corrugated card in West London from a packaging company and taken it back east on the overground. That was a fucking mission; there was this pikey family on the train that i thought were going to eat me, or perhaps eat one of their screaming kids. They were seriously on the brink of cannibalism.

First I made a 3D model based on my initial drawings, so from this Dan could see the idea from every angle and know exactly what to do.

We made maquettes (smaller scale models) of the design out of paper and then card, until we had worked out and cut out a net for the shoulder pads.

This is me with the finished shoulder pads, sizing up the neck guard that Dan fashioned. We added a lip to it so that we could work out how much of each side needs to taper to fit to the torso section.

And this is Dan equipped with the finished design. It's become extremely rigid, transcending its papery roots by being reinforced with strong glue. Looking awesome I hope you'll agree.

NEXT WEEK: texturing and painting.

Been playing this

2009-10-14T07:24:00.000-07:00

Bosses are RAD

2009-10-13T19:21:00.000-07:00

The dudes over at the Video Game Atlas have compiled the backgrounds, level maps and game worlds of hundreds of different games. While looking at a video game's entire world laid out before you may well make you realise just how lazy some of these level designers were, there are some that are simply staggering in their beautiful awesomeness. Pixel art has been so done, sure, but this is the real deal so you shall not criticise.

New Song

2009-10-12T15:30:00.001-07:00

Hey I have a new studio setup so I thought I'd stay up until 3 and make a new song with it. Hence the new song on my profile. Enjoy Tranchier.

Cardiacs

2009-10-06T11:03:00.000-07:00

Tim Smith of Cardiacs had a heart attack (ironically? Or is that bad form?) last year, so touring in any form, according to the Alphebet Business Concern is unlikely. So instead watch their stuff on youtube and be inspired for sure.

VG like totally don't like douches

2009-09-30T19:58:00.000-07:00

Dirty Laundry Presents: Vivian Girls from Dirty Laundry on Vimeo.

Ladies with Appliances

2009-09-30T06:01:00.000-07:00

Girls and machines, ladies love appliances.

In Dispatches: BALLOONS

2009-09-28T12:13:00.000-07:00

The 02 in Liverpool is much like venues across northern England; what were once powerhouses, literally, of industry are now clubs and flats. And thus the dressing rooms at the 02 are made of bare brick, with iron pipes that run up the walls doubling as pillars. For a southerner, the austere architecture and people that may as well, frankly, be foreign, are alien enough, but when I started hearing sounds coming out of said pipes, that took the tasty rider biscuit.

Following the sound's trail I came upon Balloons (listed as 'Ballons', the fools) who were playing the second room underneath the main stage. There's something about them that yells "Dream band, we're your dream band". Maybe the singer was singing those exact words. He could have been certainly. They have Junos which is always a plus and their tracks have a warm quality which is something I aim for in my own recording. They're urgent and angular and flirt with the zeitgeist without actually being in it.

myspace

Be sure to check out sister band Indica Ritual too.

Just bought

2009-09-28T11:45:00.000-07:00

one of these

It was so heavy, I carried it out of the depression-era council estate (replete with children playing stickball and motorcars and lads in flat caps) I got it from and managed to lug it to the Premises which was nearby. Will pick it up on Wed when I'm back in London and shall play merrily.

Incal & Arzach

2009-09-28T08:41:00.000-07:00

On the subject of Moebius:

This is what he did after Dune. Again, a fail but the surviving footage looks rad. Any video with pyramids firing lasers is a good call.

Jodorowsky's Dune, an exhibition.

2009-09-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

If there's one thing you should know about me it's that I like Dune, or more accurately, I like what people have done with Dune. The book is of course awesome; with its complex themes of geology, theology, and its feudalism-in-space plot. But the best thing about it is how David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky and their respective creative teams interpreted the source material and gave it their own visual stamps.

Lynch had production designer Anthony Masters (who did Kubrick's 2001)and Emilio Ruiz Del Rio.

Jodorowsky had H.R. Giger, Chris Foss, Moebius and Salvador Dali on board for his failed attempt to get the book on screen. BUT WHAT A FAIL

So I went to the private view of the exhibition of the concept work for Jodorowsky's failed Dune. It's got some good stuff there, but alas not as much as I would have liked. It could have provided more info and been more on the 'art as a technical process' side rather than the 'art as just art' in terms of presentation. But anyway it's cool to see it all.

Go here for info on the exhibition.

So I made a blog

2009-09-28T07:52:00.000-07:00

Hello.