« October 2006 | Main | December 2006 »
November 30, 2006
Christmas stocking fillers..
More details of the very Biffy Christmas are emerging..
Drownedinsound.com are reporting that along with the downloadable single, 'Semi-mental', two further tracks will be streamable on December 25th, what those songs are or what their nature is remains a mystery.
It also reports that unlike previous download singles from the Biff, this one will be available through iTunes and most other paid download services.
Hark the herald Biffy sing "now i'm just sentimental"..
Posted by Johnny at 02:06 PM | Comments (0)
November 24, 2006
Download only single! Radio play! It begins!
Yes, the wheels are turning in Biffydom. News was posted on the official website describing details of the band's first single from the upcoming album, 'Puzzle', that song will be live favourite 'Semi-mental'. The song will get a world premiere on Zane Lowe's 29th November Radio 1 show.
The download-only single will be released on Christmas Day, presumably they're in cahoots with Santa as I know what was on my list.
Full details and specifics of the release are due to be posted within the coming weeks, so stay tuned.
Posted by Johnny at 12:54 AM | Comments (3)
November 14, 2006
Biffy to headline Kerrang Tour
At the barrowlands, no less.
An email from ticketmaster tells me that Biffy will headline the Kerrang Tour in January of next year, which will include them playig at the legendary Barras venue in Glasgow. Rock.
Edit: The full tour schedule is:
CARDIFF University - Sun 14 January
BRISTOL Carling Academy - Mon 15 January
NOTTINGHAM Rock City - Tues 16 January
SOUTHAMPTON Guildhall - Thurs 18 January
NORWICH UEA - Fri 19 January
MANCHESTER University - Sat 20 January
NEWCASTLE Carling Academy - Mon 22 January
LIVERPOOL Carling Academy - Wed 24 January
BIRMINGHAM Carling Academy - Fri 26 January
LONDON Astoria - Sat 27 January
There's also a Dublin Date.
Posted by Chris at 07:34 PM | Comments (7)
November 13, 2006
Rock Sound Interview
Where: The Warehouse, Vancouver
(Bryan Adam's Studio no less)
Recording: 4th Album
Producer: Garth Richardson
(R.H.C.P & R.A.T.M)
Title: Puzzle
Label: 14th Floor
Website: www.biffyclyro.com
Why did you want to record in Canada?
Says Simon Neil: "We thought of a bunch of people we wanted to work with and they were all over this side of the pond, so it was always going to be away from home. we spoke to all kinds of producers - Butch Vig (Nirvana producer of Garbage fame) was one - but garth was the one we had the best vibe with. There was a point when we considered doing it in LA too, but we thought there woud be too many distractions. But it's not so bad up in Vancouver - it's quite like Britain in a way. We're also going to be doing some recording in Garth Richardson's home studio which is up in the mountains just North of Vancouver and you have to take a ferry to get there, so it's virtually as isolated as you can get. It's the first album we've done that hasn't been produced by Chris Sheldon, so not having him there took a few days to get used to the way he works, but I think Garth's doing a great job and hopefully we're going to make the album of our lives together."
How many songs have you written for the album? "There are about 40 songs written, out of which we're going to record about 15 or 16. We actually had an entire album ready to go around this time last year, but due to our record company problems, we had to bin it because if we had done the same songs now, we would have been sick of the songs before they'd even come out. That's part of the reason we work so fast; we get bored with our own songs so easily. In an ideal world, this would actually have been our fifth album, but it wasn't meant to be.
For a band as prolific as you, having all that time off must have been hard, right? "Oh yeah; how can you be a band if you're not playing or recording? There was a period of about 6 months when we were just waiting on the lawyer's to sort everything out (BC were previously on Beggar's Banquet). It was a total pain in the tits and you start to worry that there's not going to be an end to all of it, but hopefully it will be worth it in the long run. The fact that we are doing the album probably shows that it was worth it already. It's such a cliche, but the business side of being in a band really does suck the life out of you."
What kind of direction do you think this album will take you in? "I don't know how much you might be able to hear in the album, but the fact that we've been listening to lots more different music than we usually do is probably significant somehow. We've had stuff like the Cars, U2 and the Police on recently, which is the sort of stuff you usually dismiss when your younger. I still think the album will sound totally like Biffy, but for the first time we've had the budget to really indulge our ideas, so there's an orchestra involved, a saxophone on one track, and parts of the album are pretty over-the-top. I think overall it's a darker album, too."
Biffy Clyro always seem to have great song titles, so what have you got this time? "Well, some of the best ones include 'Drop It, Dickhead', 'Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies', 'I'm Probably In Your Pocket', 'Semi-Mental', and '9/15'."
Why is the album called puzzle? "Because it's going to baffle everyone!"
Posted by Chris at 07:58 PM | Comments (0)
November 05, 2006
Jaggy Snake/ Jay-Z Mashup
I can't believe I forgot to put this one up.
Posted by Chris at 11:32 AM | Comments (1)
November 04, 2006
Changes to Category System
I'm in the middle of recategorising the site, so you may get some screwy results from the menus on the right hand side for the time being.
The gist of it is that, under the original MT system I used, we had to have it set out like this, so that we could show the tours that supported each release:
Gigs
-Dates
--Justboy
--57
--27
as well as:
Singles
--Justboy
--57
--27
and so on, which meant that there was a lot of double counting. Now that I've worked out how to crosspost things between categories (! shocking, isn't it?)
It'll work like:
Gigs
-Festivals
Singles
-27
-57
-Justboy
And the gig will come under both 'gigs' and '27', where appropriate, so you'll be able to access it by clicking through either category, so if you want to see the tour dates associated with a particular release, you can get it by clicking on the single itself. :)
And so marks the start of another flurry of activity for Biffier!
Posted by Chris at 12:21 PM | Comments (0)
More youtube craziness...
Ben 'interview' on a trampoline
Posted by Chris at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)
List of Festival Gigs
Just trying to pull together a complete list of the festivals that Biffy have played at so that it can sit at the head of the section.
V Festival (Staffordshire): Sunday 20th August 2006
V Festival (Chelmsford): Saturday 19th August 2006
Leeds Millenium Square: 19th May 2006
Belladrum Tartan Heart: Friday 11th August 2006
Gosforth Gathering, Newcastle: Sunday 6th August, 2006
The Full Ponty: Friday May 26th, 2006
Carling Weekend - leeds: Sunday August 28th, 2005
Carling Weekend - Reading: Saturday August 27th, 2005
Compass Point: Friday August 5th, 2005
Oxegen Festival, Ireland: Monday July 11th, 2005
T in The Park, Sunday, July 10th, 2005
Truckfest: July 23rd 2005
Bukandskit, Sunday June 19th, 2005
Kerrang Day of Rock, London: Tuesday August 24th, 2004
Stockton Riverside Festival: Saturday July 24th, 2004
Plymouth Festival: Saturday July 3rd, 2004
Bukandskit: Sunday June 27th, 2004
Middlesborough festival: Wednesday May 26th, 2004
Live the Dream, Frome: Tuesday April 27th, 2004
Carling Weekend, Reading: Sunday August 24th, 2003
Carling Weekend, Leeds: Friday August 22nd, 2003
T in The Park: Saturday July 12th, 2003
Game On: Sat 21st June, 2003
Gig on The Green, Glasgow: Saturday August 24th, 2002
T in The Park: Saturday 14th July 2002
Carling Weekend - Reading: Sunday August 26th, 2001
Carling Weekend - Leeds: Friday August 24th, 2001
T in the Park: Saturday July 7th 2001
TMF: Friday 6th July, 2002
T in The Park: Saturday July 8th, 2000
Posted by Chris at 10:31 AM | Comments (0)
'Puzzle'
As you'll have seen from the previous entries, the new album is definitely going to be called 'Puzzle'. There's been a lot of new material played and distributed (by the band, largely, hurrah!), and a full list of songs, such as we know, is below...
This has wholeheartedly been taken from the sterling work of Mr James/Timbuckley on the boards. He's done that which I was going to have to, namely sift all the youtube and download sites to get names of songs.
1.Now I'm Everyone (Played at King Tuts '05)
2.Get Fucked Stud (Played at King Tuts '05)
3.Who's Got A Match (Played at King Tuts '05)
4.I'm Behind You
5.Scared of Lots of Anything/Living is Easy/Puzzled Communication/Living is a Problem Because everything Dies
6.To the west/A Sexual Meat Kitchen (Played at King Tuts, Belladrum, V festival.)
7.Love Has A Diameter (Played at Liquid Rooms '05)
8.The Conversation Is...
9.The Ghouls Of Bybombidor - Buddy Holly? (Ghouls is still there in a different form.Parts of the song are on Buddy Holly) And now it may have been changed to 9/15s (Ghouls of Bybombidor played at Tut's 05, Buddy Holly released on Kerrang compilation CD)
10.Drop It Dickhead (Released on Myspace)
11.As Dust Dances (Played on Radio 1 Session in Scotland, July 18th 2005
12.Help Me Become Captain (used to be Angels fall)
13.Semi Mental (Played at King Tuts '05)
14. A Whole Child Ago
Posted by Chris at 09:54 AM | Comments (5)
November 03, 2006
Album tidbits
As winter draws in the Biffy boys are nearing completion of their much anticipated 4th album.
As well as giving us a place to nosy at the goings on in Vancouver in the form of http://www.ilovebc.net, a message from Si has appeared on their myspace page.
"Moving To New York...
'hey there killers and lovers,
we are finishing off recording and are moving to new york to mix the album with motherfucking andy fucking wallace. our little minds are running around in circles with excitement at the prospect. it sounds fucking huge. me think you like.
very bravo. el si.' "
Andy Wallace, if you didn't know, is a legendary figure in music having worked with the likes of Rush, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Slayer to name but a few. His most recent project was actually mixing the mythical Chinese Democracy album. How about that?
Stay tuned for more news as we get it!
Posted by Johnny at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)
November 02, 2006
Kerrang Interview
Biffy Clyro front man Simon Neil has revealed to Kerrang! That their forthcoming major label debut marks an exciting, fresh new chapter in their career.
Neil and his band mates – brothers James (bass) and Ben (Drums) Johnston – have spent the last two months in Canada, working on their follow up to 2004’s ‘Infinity Land’ with producer Garth Richardson (RATM, RHCP). Titled ‘Puzzle’, the new album sees Biffy Clyro putting personal difficulties of the last couple of years behind them and moving forward.
“We’ve had a rough few years,” confesses Neil. “After our last album, we went straight on tour and a lot of stuff happened in our personal lives. We didn’t really have time to assess it all because we were away all the time. It’s only recently we were able to deal with it.”
The band have split their time between two studios during the making of ‘Puzzle’, which isn’t due for release until next spring. Many of the tracks were recorded at Bryan Adams’ Warehouse Studios in Vancouver, which played host to Slayer when they recorded their 2001 album ‘God Hates us All’, and where AC/DC made their last album ‘Stiff Upper Lip’, in 2000. Most recently though, they’ve set up camp at Richardson’s secluded Farm Studios, 40 miles from Vancouver. Kerrang! Caught up with the frontman to discuss the latest Chapter in the Ayrshire trio’s career…
WHAT’S IT LIKE RECORDING YOUR ALBUM IN VANCOUVER?
The people are really cool and it’s a great place. We stayed in the city for about three weeks and we’re now in the mountains, which is miles away from anywhere. It’s a completely different vibe. On the way to the studio in Vancouver, you could see the smackheads dancing around in the street as the kids are going to school!
ARE YOU ENJOYING WORKING WITH GARTH?
He’s great, he’s very Canadian and is a great laugh. He’s really on the money! There’s also another guy working with him called Mike Frazer, who’s worked with AC/DC. They’ve both done so many cool bands. Mike has just worked on the Satyricon album, and he says we’re slightly more upbeat than they were. We’re doing the album as old school as possible, getting all the takes on tape and choosing the best performances. It’s been quite liberating.
IS THAT A NEW WAY OF WORKING FOR YOU ALL?
In previous situations, we’d have everything planned down to the last detail because of time constraints in the studio. We’ve been given a lot more time in the studio this time so we’re taking our time. We could easily have recorded four albums in the time we’ve been here, but we just want to make sure we’re taking full advantages of this and thinking things through a lot more than we’ve done in the past. We’re working with songs we’ve had written for a while and new songs we’ve written here. We don’t know yet how the album will take shape because there’s lots to do and lots of different things we want to try. We’re really focused and enjoying the way it’s coming together. It’s a really exciting time right now and we’ve got so many ideas we can go with.
WHAT HAS INFLUENCED THE LYRICS ON PUZZLE?
Because of what’s happened in our personal lives, the lyrics weren’t so much influenced by stuff I’d or seen, but it’s been more a case of pouring my heart out. I’ve tried hiding that stuff behind metaphors and phrases in the past, but now it’s personal and (xx). It’s a bit uncomfortable. I’m on the verge of changing certain things because they might be too intense for my relations and people I know.
HAVE YOU GOT A FAVOURITE SONG?
There’s a couple I’m really enjoying at the minute, they’re really rocking and simple. One song is drums and bass, with a tiny bit of guitar called ‘Love Has a Diameter’. We’ve reworked that and changed the rhythm and it feels amazing when we play it. There’s another called ‘Living is a Problem Because everything Dies’ and it’s one of the most complex songs.
“PUZZLE” WILL BE YOUR MAJOR LABEL DEBUT. HOW HAS THAT CHANGED THINGS FOR BIFFY CLYRO SO FAR?
We had a great time at Beggars and now we’re with Warners. It’s been really liberating. Any idea we’ve wanted to try, they’ve been able to help. We’re getting an orchestra in for ‘Living is a problem…’ and will use it on the song ‘9/15s’. We got a guy in to play sax and we were able to pay him! We’ve hired in an accordion and violins, and it’s exciting to be able to use different instruments instead of relying on just what we had in the studio at the time.
HOW WOULD YOU DECRIBE “PUZZLE”?
I would say less sarcastic, more triumphant! Some of the songs are going to be quite over the top and theatrical. As our albums do, we touch on all bases,. We have straight up pop songs, heavy songs. We’ve just honed what we do . I think we’re getting better at it as well. We’re making the weird stuff work, rather than weird for the sake of it. We’re really excited. We’re sitting in Vancouver making an album so why the fuck wouldn’t we be!? It’s unbelievable.
Posted by Chris at 07:13 PM | Comments (0)