2010-03-14

our best review ever?



we've had some great reviews already for 'no.5'. we mentioned some of them on this blog already. not that we're up for blowing the trumpet too much, of course, but we did just get this on a wonderful little website called a negative narrative, and it could be the best summation of what we do at the moment we've seen in a long time.







we thought we'd share it with you:

"maybe tomorrow i’ll want to settle down. maybe tomorrow i’ll just keep moving on. actually, maybe tomorrow i’ll just form a jazz collective, eat out of bins, ride trolley-cars and folk reality off for an altogether happier existence of artisanity, yoghurt and blissed-out tunes. what do you mean someone got there first. oh - do you mean the rogueish hipsters that I saw hanging out by the bottle bank? well, not only are they good recyclers, top people and virtuoso musicians, they've also just raised the negative narrative bar again.

the hobopop collective are (at the core) kirsty mcgee and mat martin, with notable contributions from such revered illuminati as james steel (the brute chorus), christopher cundy (guillemots) and clive mellor (richard hawley). they crank like a banged-out mustang ’57 pissing petrol the length of a winding scottish B-road. think corinne bailey-rae arm-wrestling sinead o’connor for a dram of whiskey at a disturbed banjo buskathon for burglars, blind folk and beatniks, then drop a few of those variables and cram in some of the bluest blues, the greenest greens, and the wobbliest wobbles. this is more sonic scurvy than calenture, in the best possible way. download this if you don’t believe us."





the site interviews bands by asking them 10 questions. they're only allowed to answer in photos they've taken themselves. if you ever wondered what we find sexy, what's in our pockets, or what we're prepared to smash up then this interview might be for you...

if you ever asked yourself similar questions about our friends and colleagues, such as the brute chorus or curtis eller, you might find your curiosity sated there too, by the way.
we've had fun popping up in the pages of clash, Q and rock n' reel lately too. the album comes out tomorrow morning (as does the re-release of 'honeysuckle') and we're pretty darned excited. we've managed to gether a fair few hobopoppers who were involved in either the recording or launch shows for 'no.5' for a little party tomorrow night, to mark the occasion.
then it's back to rehearsing as we await getting back on the road in a week or so...





2010-03-08

other happenings around our release

we have plenty going on right now. you'd expect us to, i guess, what with a new album coming out. we thought it'd be a good idea to let you know about it all.

plus we have some more great pictures from our album launch that we didn't put up last time.

(that's steven finn rocking the blues, for example).

firstly, there's the re-release of 'honeysuckle' to consider. this this the album that was nominated for a BBC radio 2 folk award in 2002, and that we have re-packaged and are about to offer for free download alongside the rest of the catalogue in the hoboshop. this is, in part, to mark the re-recording of 'bliss' on no.5 and celebrate the way the listeners and reviewers have all enjoyed discovering or re-discovering this older material. the two recordings are quite different, the new (live) version featuring the wonderful christopher cundy on saxello.

for the launch we were lucky enough to have mr will lenton of the caulbearers to provide some velvety tenor sax.

the album is a little shorter than its first release, but does feature a bonus track that's not on the original version. this is a recently 'discovered' rendition of the title track from the lost album 'little things', recorded for ugly man records in 2000 and never released. it makes for surprisingly good listening, we think.

the new artwork is related to this track. we went back to our good friend peter seal, who designed the original cover for 'little things', and he showed us some of his early sketches for the project, which we thought were just fabulous. a quick bit of editing on his part (he's a biro wizard) and we had the new 'honeysuckle' cover to sit in the window of your chosen media player.

our other activity of interest around release-time is the fact that we have been invited to edit the spiral earth music website for a week starting on march 15th. this is a site we've contributed blogs and articles to before, and who have run some great features, interviews and profiles on us and on other hobopop bands, so we're really excited about the project.

we don't want to say too much right now, but we can guarantee that there will be plenty of varied, interesting and eccentric things to wrap your eyes and brains around. the other thing we promise right away is that the guding principle of our editorship is that all content will be artist-generated, so expect articles from us, from k c mckanzie, myshkin, kreg viesselman, caulbearers, the little red rabbit collective, quiet loner etc, etc... all artists with an interesting and thought provoking take on their worlds, a sense of humour and a connection to what we do at hobopop.

if you don't already subscribe to the spiral earth RSS feed we'd recommend it, and not just for what we'll be putting up there in a week or so. theirs is a site with many hidden treasures.

will and rob turner (a drummer shared by the hobopop collective and caulbearers these days) having some down-time during the no.5 album launch soundchecks.

so as usual we're very busy, but of course that's a good thing to be. we're just getting into the first shows of the tour, too, and really enjoying ourselves. the sets and songs are feeling great right now.

we'll leave you with the final installment of our 'wall of 5' competiton. we're quite pleased with the way it turned out in the end, and by the sheer number of 5s in the world... we've got a modest 120 here. note that that's number divisible by 5, seems a good place to stop.


so the winners of the 'best 5' competition? they are hilly of hebden bridge for her scarf 5 in the snow, and susan esway, the dutch cat for her hand-painted effort. they each receive a copy of the new album.


  



2010-03-01

the no.5 album launch - a rogue's gallery



the release of the 'no.5' album is almost upon us. we've started getting the reviews in, and they're good so far. very good in fact. Q said the album was 'bewitching, exquisite and skeletal', gave it 4 stars, and selected 'stonefruit' as #24 in its chart of top 50 downloads for the month of april. maverick described the hobopop collective as 'one of the greatest groups in the current music scene'.

to celebrate, we're giving away that one track ('stonefruit') as a free download from the hoboshop, for one week only (01st to 07th march). please help yourself and tell your friends, we'd be delighted for heaps of people to hear it.

in the meantime, and in the spirit of celebration, we launched the album with what must have been one of the best hobopop collective shows we've ever had the pleasure to play, back where we recorded the album at contact in manchester. along with the usual suspects...

kirsty mcgee - vocals, guitars, mandolin











mat martin - banjos, tenor guitar, ukulele, vocal











rob turner - drums, percussion, watering can, washboard











nick blacka - double bass











we were happy to welcome some new and not-so-new faces to the fold...

clive mellor - harmonica extraordinaire, as heard on no.5











will lenton (caulbearers) - saxophones











pascal makonese - m'bira and vocal











steven finn (opening act and hobopop guest) - bottleneck and resonator guitars, harmonica, feet and vocals










and some awesome behind-the-scenes help...

julia roy-williams - jeweller, creator of the 5 pendants, brooches and key-rings, and admirable merch lady










ibrar 'ibs' haque - live sound engineer











we'd like to thank all these people very sincerely. they are all beautiful.




http://www.kirstymcgee.com
http://www.facebook.com/kirstymcgeemusic
http://kirstymcgee.bandcamp.com
http://www.hobopop.com