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...

http://www.kirstymcgee.com


http://www.facebook.com/kirstymcgeemusic


http://kirstymcgee.bandcamp.com


http://www.hobopop.com

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.

  

http://www.kirstymcgee.com

http://www.facebook.com/kirstymcgeemusic

http://kirstymcgee.bandcamp.com

http://www.hobopop.com

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

a UK tour, CDs in the post, special offers...

we just did our first show of the year, a low-key affair with our good friends at debt records in manchester. it was a great bill - we opened up as a duo, as a warm up before celtic connections next week, followed by the extraordinary paddy steer on his one-man noise machine, and topped off with a generous helping of louis barrabas and the bedlam six. it's great to be on bills like this with like-minded people who all sound so different, but come from the same place...

we're excited to get back out on the road (tour dates below). rehearsals with the band began in earnest this week, and we've been writing setlists etc...

our CDs finally came. loads of them. the mailout went out a day or two ago to all the people who were at the recording in october. they do look great, and feel fantastic, too - rough card, slimline gatefold. it was worth the wait this snow caused us. we've had a bit of feedback already, via twitter and facebook etc. people seem to like it a lot, which is always nice.

the plans are coming together for the show in glasgow at the weekend. as it's an album preview show we will be playing the album through from start to finish at the classic grand on saturday 16th january, from 7.30. we have ruth notman and john smith on the bill, too. we're happy to be back at celtic connections again - it's our favourite uk festival.

as we've already said, the CDs will be available for one night only at that show, where we're also planning some nice collaborations for you. they then go back into hiding until the official launch at contact on february 27th.

incidentally, steven finn has agreed to come up and open the album launch on the 27th, which we're really excited about... and contact are very generously offering HALF PRICE TICKETS to all their shows this season if you book early enough. book for ours before january 26th to benefit!


we have also finally announced our tour dates for the spring. you can see them on myspace and on the website, and there's a facebook event for the whole thing, so you can invite any friends you think would enjoy the shows. the dates are listed at the bottom of this post, too. our new tour posters and flyers are in now, and they look great. you should be seeing them around soon...

in the meantime we've been working on the artwork for the free download reissue of 'honeysuckle', to be released on the same day as 'No.5' (15.03.10). we're using an early sketch by manchester artist peter seal for the cover art of the lost album 'little things' from 2000, which was never released. we'll be including one track from 'little things' as a bonus in the download, too.

we've been writing and commissioning, too. not songs, but articles, for our week as guest editors of the sprialearth folk music website. we're working up a collection of artist-generated content for you - more details to come...

finally we need to check in once again on the wall of 5, as it continues to grow at an alarming rate. we're still accepting square jpg photos of the number 5 (any interpretation) to info@hobopop.com. the best ones win downloads...

no.5 spring tour 2010
all shows are by the kirsty mcgee duo except where stated)

january
08th - fuel, withington, manchester - debt records presents
16th - glasgow - celtic connections - 0141 3538000 (hobopop collective)

february
27th - manchester - contact theatre - 0161 2740600 (hobopop collective)

march
04th - boldron, teesdale - village hall - 01833 638210
05th - sedburgh, cumbria - people's hall - 015396 20788
06th - hallbankgate, cumbria - lacy thompson hall - 016977 46856
07th - penton, cumbria - nicholforest hall - 01228 577305
20th - rennington, northumberland - village hall - 01665 577185
21st - threlkeld, cumbria - public rooms - 01768 779038
25th - bellingham, yorks - BAA club - 07788 804784
26th - northwich - harlequin theatre - 01565 733197
27th - glossop - lift global music club - 01457 853821(hobopop collective)

april
03rd - bury - the met - 0161 7612216 (hobopop trio)
04th - penrith - plug and play theatre - 01768 867845
08th - durham - gala theatre - 0191 3324041 (hobopop trio)
09th - arlington - arts centre - 01635 244246 (hobopop trio)
10th - king’s lynn - arts centre - 01553 764864 (hobopop trio)
11th - camden, london - forge venue - 0207 3837808 (hobopop trio)
13th - amberley, sussex - the black horse - 01798 875476
16th - reeth, yorkshire - memorial hall - 01748 884759
17th - house concert, hebden bridge - oats royd barn (booking by invitation - please call 01422 881436 or email for info)
18th - bolton - the no name - email for info
20th - banbury - take thyme cafe - 01295 711444
21st - biddulph, north staffs - up in arms concerts - 01782 514896 (hobopop trio)
22nd - swansea - the chattery - 01792 473276
23rd - hornblotten, somerset - village hall - email for info
24th - torquay - the blue walnut - 01803 605995
25th - birmingham - kitchen garden cafe - 0121 4434725
27th - new milton - forest arts centre - 01425 619983
28th - islington, london - the old queen's head - http://www.themagpiesnest.co.uk
29th - bromsgrove - folk club -01572 833227
30th - fareham - ashcroft arts centre - 01329 223100

may
20th - bournemouth - centre stage - 01202 707498
21st - worth matravers, dorset - the square and compass - 01929 439229