[ ARCHIVE 2008 ]
[ Tuesday 23-12-08 ]
Sadly, our friend Mark Sprex has told us he can no longer be our agent in Belgium.
As a result of this we are cancelling our planned visit to Belgium in February 2009 - instead, we are trying to move the dates to May to allow more time for booking shows.
Fortunately, we have also been working with Franky of Stage Mania, who has agreed to become our main booking agent in the Benelux region now - so please direct any booking e-mails to him!
I'd like to say how grateful we are to Mark and Diane for all they've done for us over the past year - we've played some amazing gigs with some great bands, and Belgium feels almost like a second home to us now! They have become great friends of ours too! We wish Mark all the best with his own musical projects, the Rhumba Kings and Smooth And The Bully Boys. If you like rockabilly, check them out in our top friends!
[ Monday 22-12-08 ]
We've had an idea for a competition to tie in with our forthcoming album, Postcards From The Dark Highway.
It's something I've been thinking about for a while - it'd be really cool if Le Chat Noir fans from all over the world could send us interesting postcards, and we could feature these in some way in the artwork!
Obviously it'd be great if the cards could tie in with the themes of the album - it's going to be a noir road movie-type album, with a partly Bonnie and Clyde-influenced plot... so anything in that kind of area of imagery would be fantastic, as would anything black cat related, of course!
We've not decided exactly what we'll be doing prize-wise, but the best submission will definitely win a copy of the album, and everyone who sends us a card will get a mention in the album sleeve!
To enter, send us an e-mail at postcards@lechatnoir.org.uk and we'll tell you the address to post your submission to!
We're really looking forward to seeing what people come up with!
[ Sunday 21-12-08 ]
Progress on our album recording has been slow due to a busy period of local gigging, but things should speed up now as we performed our last gig of the year on friday. We've added a lot of new pictures to the Le Chat Noir website's live photo galleries - many thanks to everyone who has taken pictures at our gigs this year, particularly Mona and Stuart who have been truly dedicated fans, appearing at most of our local gigs this year and a few further afield too! We really appreciate all your help over the year, and all your wonderful photos, but most importantly we value your friendship!
2009 should be an exciting year, with debut tours in France and Scandinavia scheduled - also, the new album should be released sometime early in the year! We wish all Le Chat Noir fans a great Christmas, here's to a great year gone and another ahead!
[ Wednesday 03-12-08 ]
We have just begun working on recording our 3rd studio album, which is provisionally entitled Postcards From The Dark Highway. It's set to be a collection of songs in the form of a road trip through a semi-fictitious early 20th century Wild West-meets-film noir landscape. I've decided to do a little recording diary to let you know how we're getting on with it!
DEC 2nd & 3rd
We began recording yesterday in our studio, The Cat's Cradle. So far, everything is going to plan!
Over the past few months we did some major upgrades to the studio and we've been experimenting with various different recording techniques which will hopefully give this album a much more punchy, polished sound than Deadwood or Tales From Silver City. Of course, it's important not to *over* produce the album, as a raw, aggressive feel is essential for our music.
One of the biggest dilemmas has been 'bass or no bass?' Neither of our previous albums had any on them and I tend to try to keep things as similar to our live setup as possible, but this time I've decided that I'm going to add some bass. Live, I play through a bass amp with sub octave to flesh out the sound, so it's not really a huge departure to replace the bass amped guitar with 'real' bass in the studio. It also gives me an excuse to dig out my much-neglected bass, which has been rather underused since I've been in Le Chat Noir!
We were planning on recording the guitar and drums live together in the studio, but because some of the material isn't 100% set in stone yet we have decided to lay down the drums first with me playing a scratch guitar track along with Eileen through headphones, as this will allow me to experiment more with parts and keys when it comes to laying down the guitars.
We began recording the drums yesterday and Eileen actually finished the last of the 12 tracks today, so it's going very well so far! Eileen is a heavy hitter and in the past i've had problems controlling the wash of the cymbals in the mix, but a set of ribbon mics as overheads has done wonders for controlling the top end of the cymbals - everything is sitting really nicely.
Eileen headed off to work at 6PM, and I began working on my parts for one of the songs which we have debuted at recent gigs - it's provisionally titled Under Desert Skies, but we might not name the tracks on the album at all. I layed down double tracked guitar, bass and vocals on it - I like to get one mix complete before doing all the parts for the rest of the songs. A few hours of tweaking and swearing later, and I think it's sounding pretty good!
More soon as I press on with the recording... right now, I'm going to enjoy a pint of Black Pearl stout which my dad has just home brewed!
[ Monday 01-12-08 ]
Tonight at 1800 we were interviewed on BBC Radio Devon's 'Introducing' show, hosted by the wonderful Kevin Hutchings - we had a great time and also aired some exclusive acoustic tracks!
As an early Christmas present to our fans, we are making the two acoustic versions (The Scarlet Mistress and On The Run) available for free download until Christmas!
If you didn't hear it or would like to hear it again, it is available until 8th December on the BBC website:
You can download the tracks from LastFM via the link below!
Enjoy!
[ Saturday 22-11-08 ]
We have been approached by a booking agent in Scandinavia, Carto (http://www.myspace.com/cartoentertain) and have agreed to do a tour of Denmark, Sweden and Norway in May 2009!
We will post more information as we get it, but we have updated our gig list with a provisional schedule.
We're really looking forward to coming to Scandinavia, as we've heard that our kind of music goes down very well there!
[ Sunday 26-10-08 ]
Well, Camden last night was a mixed bag. The gig went well and it was great to see some familiar faces - including Federic, who came over from Brussels to see us!
We were really enjoying our set and it was great that a lot of people seemed to come into the venue when they heard us from outside - until the police turned up and said they'd revoke the bar's license unless we stopped playing! You'd think that before 11 in Camden, home of rock, loud music might be OK, right?? Sadly not.
"Le Chat Noir - too loud for Camden!" New t-shirt design??
Anyway, it was great that lots of people came and I think we definitely made a few new fans! We shall definitely try to get up to London again soon!
[ Saturday 25-10-08 ]
Tonight we play at Club Cuckoo @ The Earl Of Camden in London - we're onstage at 10.15. The address is 55 Parkway Road, London, NW1 7PN. Hope to see any Le Chat Noir fans from London there, it should be a great night!
In other news, our tour of Europe in February 2009 is shaping up well - we're really looking forward to plying in Berlin, we've heard it is a great city!
The current confirmed gigs are:
6 Feb 2009: La Mecanique Ondulatoire, Paris, FRANCE
7 Feb 2009: Le Hangar, Andenne, BELGIUM
12 Feb 2009: Bar Mondial, Antwerp, BELGIUM
21 Feb 2009: Beat!Club, Stuttgart, GERMANY
27 Feb 2009: Wild At Heart, Berlin, GERMANY
Lots more should be added soon, so we will keep you updated!
[ Tuesday 30-09-08 ]
After 2 years of people asking us to play in these two great capitals and us somehow never getting round to it, we have finally got gigs in central London and Paris!
The London show is a Club Cuckoo night at The Earl of Camden, 55 Parkway Road, quite close to Camden Town tube station - the date of the gig is the 25th October.
Hope to meet all you London fans there! More details can be found at the Club Cuckoo Myspace page - http://www.myspace.com/thecuckoobar
The Paris gig is a Sin City night at La Mecanique Ondulatoire (http://www.myspace.com/lamecanique), and will be on 6th February 2009. It'll be great to play in the city the inspired our name, I love Paris and Eileen hasn't been there yet! She's very excited as I've told her all about it!
The Paris date should be the start of a 3 or 4 week tour in Europe, with us also visiting Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany - we'll let you know more details soon!
[ Saturday 27-09-08 ]
We won the Torbay Artsbase award for best band of 2008 yesterday! We're proud that our local gigging efforts have been rewarded, as we do love playing down here in Devon as well as travelling across Europe! Thanks to everyone locally who has supported us, and to the venues and promoters who put hard work into making nights successful. Particular thanks to Mark and Aly, Kinky and Quirky, Stuart and the kids from Paignton Rock School!
[ Saturday 13-09-08 ]
If you have a Facebook account, please become a fan of ours on there!
The page is relatively new, we're still getting to grips with it, but I think the discussion board could be a great tool for connecting our fans - please sign up, add us and get chatting! :-)
Teddy
-x-
[ Sunday 07-09-08 ]
Thanks to everyone who came along to The Hub in Exeter yesterday! We're having a nice relaxing Sunday, but we have also finally set up a mailing list - please join up, it'll really help us to stay in touch about upcoming gigs and releases!
In other music-related news, I (Teddy) have started up a Deviantart profile for the photos I've been taking occasionally of other bands we've gigged with. If you fancy a look, go here - lechatnoirband.deviantart.com - and if you have a Deviantart account of your own, feel free to add me!
[ Tuesday 02-09-08 ]
We have a fairly quiet few months coming up gig-wise now - we're working on new material currently and taking a well-earned rest before hopefully hitting Europe again early next year!
However, we'll keep adding some more local gigs to our calendar to keep us tided over through the winter.
We haven't played a show in Bristol for some time, so some good news for the lovely people we know up there - we've got a gig at Area 81 on the 13th December. You can find more details of the venue at www. myspace. com/area81_rockclub - would be great to see some of our Bristol fans and friends there!
[ Tuesday 26-08-08 ]
We have decided to sell off 100 copies of Deadwood on Ebay to help raise money for a local charity, Animals In Distress - it's a home for unwanted and abused pets that looks after them and tries to find a good new home for them.
We're asking £9.99 for the album with two free stickers - £3 of that price goes straight to the charity, so we're hoping to raise a total of £300 for them! We'd really appreciate your help - if you have any friends who you know like the band but haven't bought deadwood yet, this is the ideal opportunity to get a copy and help out a deserving cause too!
The link to the Ebay auction is below:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180282074164
More details of our chosen charity can be found here:
http://www.animalsindistress.uk.com
Many thanks for your support!
Teddy & Eileen
-x-
[ Sunday 24-08-08 ]
We had a good gig at the Aeon Festival last night - photos of our set are up in the photos section! Thanks again to Niki for inviting us back, we've thoroughly enjoyed both of our appearances at the Aeon Festival and hope it continues to go from strength to strength! We have quite a few more local gigs coming up over the next week or so, so please check out our gig listing if you're Devon-based and fancy coming along to see us!
[ Friday 15-08-08 ]
I've just overhauled our online shop - we've got more t-shirts in, as well as lovely new badges, stickers and more! I've implemented a basket system, so you can buy multiple items easily, and we are now charging a flat fee of 2.00GBP per order. Check it out here - www.lechatnoir.org.uk/shop.html!
[ Tuesday 12-08-08 ]
We're back in England now - tired, but happy! We're about to get a bunch of new merchandise, so watch this space. Also, exciting news on the musical front - we have a brand new song, Gallows Hill, which we tested out during our Belgium tour and will record in the next few days, so you'll have a new LCN song to listen to shortly!
The next few weeks will be spent working on new material, and then we have a few local gigs - it'll be interesting to do some shows down this way again, we've spent a lot of this year over on the Continent!
[ Sunday 10-08-08 ]
It's been fan-effing-tastic so far here in Belgium...tonight we're at the almighty Ace Cafe in Rumst. Should be a good'un! :) Then, it's off home. Then, it's my b-day Wednesday. Party on, y'all!!!
I want to give a HUGE thank you to the lovely Mr. and Mrs. Sprex for taking care of us for the past few days and feeding us frites. We love you guys!! x
We played at the Roadkill Festival in Waarschoot last night and boy, lemme tell you...never have I seen such craziness in a crowd before!! Moshing, some dude climbed up on the PA system right off the stage, another dude jumped up on stage for a bit of improv hamonica sesh with Ted and I, more moshing...cool. Ted and I were just very happy that it went well, all that stuff was an added bonus! So, to those who were there at Roadkill: THANK YOU FOR A ROCKIN' EVENING!!!
But there was a problem at the end of the night: we totally ran out of t-shirts. Which is good in a way, but kinda bad. If you know what I mean. Anyhoos, we do still have ladies shirts in the SIlver City Saloon design; but I don't think any guy would want to squeeze into a female size shirt. Or do they...?!
Not to fear, my dear friends!! When we get back to Ol' Blighty, we will get more done...as well in some new exciting designs that will tie in the theme of our new album. I'm keeping that one a secret. :) We are rather excited about the upcoming months; we have a few plans in the pipelines and we can't wait to sit down and get cracking on new material.
As I say, WATCH THIS SPACE!!
Eileen
-x-
[ Friday 25-07-08 ]
Eileen is very ill in bed today and so we're pulling out of the Twang festival in Andover tomorrow. We hate to let people down like this at short notice, but it's unavoidable sadly!
In happier news, our two festivals in Belgium went really well, we played two solid and well-received sets... it was great to rock alongside such big names as The Dwarves, The Bellrays, Wanda Jackson and The Kids!
We have been asked to play another festival in Belgium on the 9th August - the rather awesome Roadkill Festival, also in Belgium.
[ Thursday 10-07-08 ]
We have a few very exciting gigs in the next week or so - firstly, we're playing a burlseque evening in Torquay on Saturday! Please visit KINKY & QUIRKY for more details!
Then we're straight off to Belgium for the amazing SJOCK FESTIVAL, where we will be playing on the main stage just before The Dwarves, the Bellrays and MC5!
The following weekend, we're doing another festival in Belgium - the NONSENSE STADSFESTIVAL in Peer.
In the meantime, please check out our WEBSHOP - we only have a few of our Silver City saloon t-shirt left to sell, and we've halved the price to only 6.00GBP! Get them before they've gone, this is a limited edition design of 100 and we won't ever print more!
[ Sunday 06-07-08 ]
Over the past few weeks we've been upgrading our studio, "The Cat's Cradle". We recorded both of our previous albums with very low budget gear and we decided it was time to invest in some new equipment and acoustic treatment for the room.
It's only all finally come together over the past week and it's taken a day or two to come to terms with the new gadgetry and mic placement in the newly treated room, but the initial results are pretty spectacular compared to what we've done before I think!
Here's a track we just layed down today, it is a brand new version of Teenage Suicide - check it out at Last.FM for a nice high quality, full length streaming version!
http://www.last.fm/music/Le+Chat+Noir/_/Teenage+Suicide
[ Wednesday 26-06-08 ]
It seems people keep injuring themselves when listening to our music! There were several casualties at the festival we played in Mid Wales the other week, and now this:
http://www.orangeamps.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=28772
We're off to play the wonderful Bear Rock festival in Belgium this Friday, hope to see some of our Belgian fans there! But remember - when you jump around to our music, be careful! ;)
[ Monday 16-06-08 ]
Over our time as a band, many people have expressed an interest in buying vinyl from us. The only reason we haven't released any so far is that the cost of production is really high on vinyl!
However, I've come up with a possible scheme for making it happen. If we can get a list of 250 people who would be willing to buy a beautiful 7" single off us with full-colour sleeve etc for 3.00GBP including shipping to anywhere in the world, then we would just about cover the costs of production!
So - if you're interested, please send an e-mail to band@lechatnoir.org.uk, and once we've collected enough names we'll get in touch with everyone! This way, we know whether demand is high enough and whether we can quickly recover the costs of production - everyone wins!
[ Thursday 12-06-08 ]
Sorry we haven't been on here so much recently - we've been doing a lot of stuff behind the scenes!
Currently, we are clearing out our band space and preparing for a major upgrade to our studio, The Cat's Cradle - I'm very excited about this, as I think we'll be able to get some fantastic results from it. We are also still working on album number 3, some really good tracks are coming through.
In other news, we may finally be coming to the US for some shows in October - we'll keep you posted on that. Obviously we're very excited, especially as so many people have asked us about coming over!
We finally have 2 videos online that do our live show justice - please check them out! They're uploaded on our Myspace video channel, but for best quality please check out these links:
Carpe Diem @ 4AD Muziekclub, Diksmuide, Belgium 07-03-08
Her Wicked Smile @ 4AD Muziekclub, Diksmuide, Belgium 07-03-08
Teddy
-x-
[ Saturday 31-05-08 ]
Our laptop just died, won't power up at all - apparently it's a common problem with this particular model, which I didn't know until now. Great! I just hope we didn't lose all the stuff on there. I have to wait until Monday to ring HP's customer service line (they're only open 5 days a week), then presumably have to wait a week or two whilst they get it sorted. Sigh.
In the meantime, here are a couple of fun vids of us being interviewed on PhonicFM the other day - they cut out the songs, but you can hear those on our LastFM page - CLICK HERE.
LE CHAT NOIR PHONICFM INTERVIEW PART 1
LE CHAT NOIR PHONICFM INTERVIEW PART 2
[ Friday 23-05-08 ]
Tonight we will be heading to the PhonicFM studio in Exeter for an interview and also something special - we've got 3 exclusive session tracks to play! Don't miss out! We will also be chatting and playing a few songs that have influenced us.
For more info, visit PhonicFM's WEBSITE or MYSPACE.
Our merch is selling well currently, but we have decided to relist everything in GBP - we had the prices in euros, and due to the strength of that currency things were getting dearer for anyone outside of Europe. In the interests of fairness we have reduced the prices too, so now it'll be cheaper for everyone!
Postage is still FREE to anywhere in the world!
T-shirts are now 11GBP, and a Deadwood CD is 7GBP - or for a limited time, buy both with a free vinyl sticker for just 15GBP!
Please visit the shop section for more details.
[ Thursday 15-05-08 ]
We are finally back in England after 3 weeks on the Continent that saw us travelling through 7 countries and playing some great gigs - as you can imagine, we're very tired and spaced out today, so apologies to anyone who we don't reply to personally right now - we have a huge backlog of e-mails and messages and we'll do our best to get on to them ASAP!
Our priority now is to finish working on the large number of half-finished songs we have, so expect to hear some new sounds on our Myspace player shortly!
Whilst we were in Belgium we picked up a new run of shirts, and I personally think they're brilliant - very good quality printing and I hope you'll like the design too! the shirts can be had for 15 euros each with free P&P, or alternatively as part of our new special offer - a t-shirt, Deadwood CD and a nice vinyl sticker for 25 euros, also free P&P!
We still have some of our other t-shirt design available too, and if you like you can do the deal and take that t-shirt instead - it's up to you!
Please look on our Myspace page for more details.
I'll write more very soon when we're a bit more awake - expect lots of photos and a tour diary update soon!
Teddy
-x-
[ Friday 11-04-08 ]
On 6th April, Le Chat Noir signed a contract with Jason Jarman at Hold 'Em Management. We're very excited to be working with Jason and we have lots of big and exciting plans for the coming months. When we return from our trip to the continent in mid May, we are planning to go to a studio and record three tracks, one of which will be selected to have a video made.
Jason can be contacted via e-mail - jasonjarman666@btopenworld.com - or via his mobile (07973479389).
Here's to a productive and exciting few months ahead!
[ Thursday 03-04-08 ]
We are thinking of going into a decent studio to rerecord 3 tracks for promotional purposes.
We need to decide which 3 tracks are best for this - we have a fairly good idea of our strongest tracks, but I thought I’d also ask the opinion of the people who matter most - our fans!
We’d really appreciate it if you could message or e-mail us telling us your 3 favourite LCN tunes.
Thanks a bunch, we look forward to hearing your responses!
[ Tuesday 01-04-08 ]
We’ve not been very active since coming back from Belgium, and with good reason - Eileen has been in the USA for 2 weeks visiting her family and taking a much-needed break. I’ve also had a bit of a chest infection, so all in all it was a good chance to take some time out from the hectic world of music.
Now Eileen is back and raring to go and I’m on the road to recovery, so things will be back to normal shortly!
We’re working on new material and some other exciting news up our sleeve, so keep checking back and stay in touch!
I was trying to think of a good April fools joke to play on everyone, but didn’t come up with any good ones!
[ Saturday 15-03-08 ]
We have new t-shirts for sale in a limited run of 100! Check out the shop section - when they're gone, they're gone!
[ Tuesday 11-03-08 ]
Well, after being stuck in Dunkirk overnight due to the terrible weather, we are finally back home - tired, in need of food and showers, but happy! We had a great tour of Belgium, we played in some great venues to some great people and made lots of new friends along the way!
Thanks again to Mark and Diane for really making us feel at home, we can't wait to see you guys again in April.
Videos, pics, tour diaries etc to follow, once we've slept for a few days!!!
[ Monday 25-02-08 ]
2 days ago we played a new venue called Tiggas in Exeter. It was a fun gig, with lots of familiar faces present - great to see so many people we've met locally through our music all in the same place, as well as some old friends! It'll be our last local gig for some time, as we're off to Belgium in 2 days and when we come back Eileen is off to the states to visit her family for a while. When she comes back, we will return to Italy and Belgium again, so it's going to be a busy few months for us overseas.
Our gallery section has undergone a revamp, with some new photos from our opening gigs of 2008 added. Once again, we're indebted to Stuart Gardner, our good friend, photographer and one of our most dedicated fans - personally, I feel the photos he took at The Hub in Plymouth on the 13th are some of the best yet. They really capture the dark, pseuo-gothic B-movie flavour of our live show! I also have to compliment The hub for being one of the few venues at this level who really know what they're doing with lighting and stage atmospherics! I wish every gig could be so well-lit.
In other news, last week I engineered and produced some demos for some good friends of ours at The Cat's Cradle - please check out Cara's Crimson Chords, who are also labelmates of ours on Garage Sale Records. I'm quite proud of the job I did, very vibey recordings in the vein of PJ Harvey's 4-Track Demoes!
This may be our last entry until we return from Belgium, so goodbye for a while and we will be back with lots of stories and photos soon!
[ Friday 08-02-08 ]
We played in Exeter (The Hub) and Torquay (The Rock) over the last few days, after not doing any local gigs in a long time. Both gigs were a lot of fun, with decent crowds and a good atmosphere!
At the Hub it was great to share a stage with our friends Supenik again, as well as the wonderful Akiakane - the first time I've seen a Japanese punk band live, after listening a lot on the internet! They were everything I expected and more - energetic, joyful 70s punk fused with 60s pop harmonies. It was hard not to grin! Supenik had one of the fattest sounds I've heard from them yet, credit to Alex at the sound desk for another sterling job.
The Rock last night was our first ever gig in Torquay - the 'English Riviera', replete with its incredibly tasteful concrete cows and plastic palm trees! Not your first choice rock'n'roll destination, but we were pleasantly surprised by the venue - a great setup, good stage, and there was a nice crowd. The only downside was constant monitor problems that plagued all the bands who performed. We had a lot of fun, cheers to George from The Rowmance for inviting us at short notice!
Lastly, thanks again to Stuart for being our superfan1-cum-roadie-cum-photographer, and most importantly, friend!
Here's hoping next week's gig in Plymouth will complete the triumverate of good gigs in our local cities!
[ Tuesday 22-01-08 ]
"If you like your Pixies in a crunched-up cowboy hat and Hank Williams on speed..."
I love the internet and its profusion of wonderful podcasts - if you look hard enough you can find one for the most obscure crossover niche... looks like we found ours (or were found BY them - can’t remember how actually!)
Click here and check out the OUTLAW PUNK COWBOY PODCAST - episode number 75 opens up with The Bone Collector!
In other news, we're now confirmed for a return tour in Italy in early May - keep checking back for new dates!
[ Monday 07-01-08 ]
It's 2008! The early part of the new year has so far been taken up by frantic recording!
After much thought, we decided we'd revisit our debut limited edition album as the source for our next release. Loty of people have asked over the past months whether Tales From Silver City will be releleased ever, but we have decided that an entirely new version of the album would be more exciting.
Over the past week we've put down all the drum tracks for the all-new recording, which we are probably retitling Return To Silver City for this new release. Although it will feature the same tracks as the original, the rerecordings are shaping up to be quite different - a lot has changed in a year, we've both grown so much as musicians. We've played those songs at 100 gigs so unsurprisingly we made a few adjustments along the way!
We're excited about how it's coming along, I promise we'll let you all know as soon as we get some of the new versions online! We are hoping to have the album ready by the time we go to Belgium in late February, but if not then we'll definitely release it in March.
[ Click here to see an archive of news from 2006-07 ]
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