the declining winter // haunt the upper hallways
a week today the new album 'haunt the upper hallways' from the declining winter will be released. not any ol' album, but a lovely 7 inch single along with a 10 track CD. i say it's lovely but i haven't actually seen it in the flesh, but i believe every word that the record label, home assembly music, says when it describes it as 'luxuriously packaged', i bet it sure will be. and i'm equally excited to get my mitts on a copy, cos it features one of my shots on the cover. snowy rooves...ya can't go wrong with snowy rooves...

a while back i did a photoshoot with the band and i thought it was an apt time to post some more of the shots from that session here now.





and one closing shot of the whole band in the firing line...



pre-orders being taken now here!

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fieldhead
i think it might be somewhat of a travesty that i have lived in leeds for almost nine and a half years now and until just under a month ago i had never been to ilkley moor. i blame this on the fact i thought ilkley moor was really isolated and thus not compatable with public transport. how wrong i was! a quick hop skip and a jaunt on a train and a ramble up a road or two and you are transported to another world, which is isolated and bleak and quite a landscape for countryside not 30 minutes (on a northern rail train) outside of leeds.

this outing was primarily for a photoshoot with the man (paul elam) behind the music (fieldhead), but it was also a chance for me to see the graffiti/engravings from 1852! wow, eh? (evidenced in the first pic here, although not sure what date the 'tom rhodes' graffiti is from). it was good to get out and have a bit of an explore. most of the time paul was up the hill ahead of me (as evidenced in the second pic).





there are gigs upcoming from fieldhead and recordings on the way too. more can be obtained from this here link here.

in reverse order: phosphorescent / deerhunter / cursive / the twilight sad
in the reverse order of gigs i shot last month, that is how this post is laid out. i seemed to take photos of a few bands, even though it felt like i went weeks without a gig. i managed to squeeze a trip to stockholm in-between the music (although unfortunately there were no swedish gigs) and also a promo shoot on ilkley moor - more on that another time.

so yes, on almost the very last night of may, the penultimate night in fact, i ventured to another city and a new (to me) rather wonderful venue. the deaf institute in manchester. with bird wallpaper, lots of old speakers above the bar and the most enormous glitterball, i had heard good things about this venue and i wasn't disappointed. the gig was phosphorescent who i had seen last year in a solo show in leeds (one of my fave gigs of last year). this time there were more beards and more of a country-feel (what with a recent album of willie nelson songs). an equally amazing gig with another awsome take on cocaine nights. quite a live experience. (more pics)

the week before it was the deerhunter gig at the brudenell with stripy visuals inducing wonderful shadows. a bit of an odd gig. both times i've seen deerhunter i can't seem to remember what the music was like and i wouldn't ever be able to describe it to anyone. i enjoyed the gig - i even enjoyed the banter that lead singer bradford cox was sharing with the audience, although i did get a bit bored by the end and (disappointedly) left before he called his mum from the stage... (piczellate)

and before that was the leeds leg of the stand and dagger festival. with some top line-ups at various venues around leeds, i only got to see two bands at the brudenell. the headliners were cursive who i last saw playing leeds met a couple of years ago. shame my friends had left before the end so i haven't had anyone confirm (or not) that i heard a beyonce riff at some point...and they aren't the sort of band you'd expect to be playing beyonce, hence needing the confirmation. (want more?)

and before them at stag and dagger was the twilight sad. the full set of photos is on flickr. here are two of the shots from the gig which are red-light-ridden and i surprisingly actually like them. my fave none-red-lit shot from the gig is probably this one.





note to self: do more blogging so that it doesn't end up with a whole months of gig pics in one post again! not that i'm expecting to see many gigs to get shots to talk about this month anyway - in fact, maybe i won't even get to one solitary gig - but i will have some photo news so i will be back.

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