Ex-Hefner frontman Darren Hayman set himself the unenviable task of writing, recording and creating a video for a song each day in January 2011. Having been available online for a few months and their respective videos on a January Songs tumblr, the time has come for a physical release, limited to 1,500 copies. Darren has designed each sleeve individually – he's somewhat a fan of setting himself tiresome tasks it seems. At 31 songs long, January Songs is a collection of bleak, downbeat tracks coming in at just over 90-minutes long. It's typical indie [...]
Darren Hayman is one of the true talents of British songwriting. His tales of drunkenness, unfaithfulness, teen obsession and uniquely English manners and social interactions have seen him brought to the bosom of a dedicated following, many of whom were won over initially by the mighty personal pop of Hefner. That Hefner were a band beloved by their fans and that many of those fans remain steadfastly faithful to Hayman's work, whatever form it takes, is a testament to his winning charm. That Hefner were the critical darlings and oft-tipped for stardom during [...]
Our sixth guest top ten comes courtesy of our very own Chris T Popper, a small but perfectly formed (and often irritating) younger sibling who has been stealing my records since he had invisible friends as a small child. Chris T Popper's Top 10 10. Little Barrie – Tip It Over The Nottingham trio start off my top 10 with the fabulous Tip It Over . Heavy guitar providing a great riff coupled with a momentum that creeps up on you. There's some [...]
Darren Hayman During January 2011 Darren Hayman wrote and recorded a song for every day of the month. All the videos and songs for that project can be found here On January 30th 2012 Darren will release 1500 copies of the physical 2CD edition of the record and every single one will have a hand drawn cover by Darren. Here is a short film about the making of those [...]
Darren Hayman On the December the 1st Darren Hayman and Fika Recordings will start their online Christmas Advent Project. You can find it here For every day leading up to Christmas Darren and Fika will release a split download single by two artists. The range of artists contributing will be broad and diverse and include The Wave Pictures, Terry Edwards, Josie Long, Tigercats, Ballboy [...]
" I put it on Vimeo so I don't become one of those dicks who cover songs on youtube. I became one of those dicks who cover songs on Vimeo instead. " Darren Hayman , à propos de sa jolie reprise du « Robocop » de Kanye West.
Frank Yang It's hard to believe it was only a month ago that I was roaming the streets of Reykjavik, getting ready to dive headlong into Iceland Airwaves . Not that long ago, but enough to welcome a reminder of how much fun it all was, which I got from the Toronto Iceland Arts Festival at the El Mocambo on Sunday night, which as part of its celebration of all things Icelandic included the importing of a couple of the country's finest up-and-coming bands. I had thought that being the [...]
Gary Olson claims to have been on stage as headliner or guest eight times over the three days, Kyle Forrester seems to perform as a member of every other band, and former Lucksmith Mark Monnone appears at least three times on stage although, being an Australian, he's probably serving behind the bar between sets. These familiar faces are marking the 15th birthday of the wonderful Fortuna Pop! label, celebrated over three nights at the Scala. It's a bit of a school reunion, with bands associated for Fortuna Pop for various degrees of time [...]
Already the Christmas lights are going up, Argos is flogging its seasonal tat and the novelty Christmas singles are arriving. And October's only just ended. What would Jesus make of it all? We make an exception to this criticism for St Darren of Hayman of course. Yes, there are sleigh bells on this record but it's not The Darkness and their choir of children; here, Christmas is simply a backdrop for his stories of dysfunctional relationships and getting lost out walking in snow. He recorded most of the EP in West [...]
To celebrate our downloads working again we thought we would re-post our best of the month mix from October - more than 20 great tracks selected from our October posts and six new ones too. This time you can download and dive in. Download The Minks – Araby mp3 (from Araby 7″) Endearingly gloomy slice of indie-pop. Download The Bloody Hollies – Dirty Sex mp3 (from Yours Until The Bitter End) The dark side of raw garage punk with touches of organ, violin and xylophone. Download Bare Bones – Hope [...]
Another month, more than 20 great tracks selected from our October posts and five new ones too. Download and dive in. Download The Minks – Araby mp3 (from Araby 7″) Endearingly gloomy slice of indie-pop. Download The Bloody Hollies – Dirty Sex mp3 (from Yours Until The Bitter End) The dark side of raw garage punk with touches of organ, violin and xylophone. Download Bare Bones – Hope & Feather mp3 (from Bare Bones EP) Gallops along on the back of perfectly [...]
Best known as the singer-songwriter of the phenomenally successful and much-loved Hefner, Darren Hayman is now six albums into an increasingly idiosyncratic career path; writing the theme tune and staring in a Spanish Sitcom, playing a 30 people capacity show in a 100 year old paper mache observatory and playing possibly Britiain's most remote festival on the Isle of Eigg. Read more »
Perhaps best known as the singer-songwriter of the phenomenally successful and much-loved Hefner , Darren Hayman is now six albums into an increasingly idiosyncratic career path; writing the theme tune and staring in a Spanish Sitcom, playing a 30 people capacity show in a 100 year old paper mache observatory and playing possibly Britiain's most remote festival on the Isle of Eigg. It could also be said that Darren is writing the best tunes of his career; increasingly complex and mature songs. In the latest incarnation of the constantly morphing Secondary Modern he [...]
Darren Hayman Darren Hayman and Cinema Red and Blue have releases lined up on Fortuna Pop. Darren's I Taught You How To Dance EP is released on 7 November and is taken from The Ship's Piano, his latest album. The ten inch EP also contains covers of 'Come Dancing' by the Kinks, 'I Don't Wanna Dance' by Eddy Grant and 'Dance Away' by Roxy Music. You see [...]
Michele Civetta You would be forgiven for assuming that you had Ladytron figured out. It's all right there in last year's career-spanning compilation The Best Of Ladytron: 00-10 ; the Ladytron formula. Thick synths, robotic yet danceable beats and above all, the duelling icy vocals of Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo (though the edge in detachedness usually went to Aroyo on account of her stern Bulgarian accent). It's a sound that was perfectly in style when that which they called "electroclash" crested in the early part of the [...]
For a good two or three years up until the turn of the millennium, if London had a house band it was Hefner . Championed by John Peel and beloved by a cult following, Darren Hayman and his bandmates built up three albums and innumerable EPs' worth of indie goodwill with their folk-tinged and acid-tongued brand of guitar pop. On 2000's We Love the City LP, the four-piece enjoyed something of a commercial breakthrough while Hayman sang acerbic tales about meeting girls in the Wig and Gown, moving to Hackney, and channeling his [...]
Here's another beautiful video for you. This time, it's Darren Hayman and Elizabeth Morris (Allo Darlin') with "I Know I Fucked Up" , one of the songs Hayman wrote for his January Songs-project. The song will be released on a limited edition seven inch single, as a co-release between BELKA RECORDS and Fortuna POP! on the 20 September. The B-side will feature "Who Hung the Monkey", performed by Darren Hayman with the Wave Pictures . Every copy of the single will come with handpainted cover-art made by all the artists. The record [...]
Darren Hayman You can see and hear the results of Darren Hayman 's latest spin-off project Vostok 5 very soon. The art exhibition/music project features four other artist musicians, Duncan Barrett/Tigercats, Robert Rotifer, Sarah Lippett and Paul Rains from Allo Darlin/Hexicon. The work is based upon the theme of People and Animals in Space and the exhibition takes place from 1st to the 7th September at The Outside World Gallery, Shoreditch, London E2 7DP. [...]
Facebook For the longest time, conventional wisdom about The Radio Dept. said the Swedish three-piece hated to play live, preferring to record, throw out and re-record albums of gorgeously forlorn synth-pop in the safety and comfort of their studio. As such, I undertook a pilgrimage of sorts to New York two Summers ago to see them play what I assumed would be an incredibly rare show. Even when their long-awaited third album Clinging To A Scheme broke them open to a much larger audience (relative [...]
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