We’re back in Leeds this weekend and it coincided with us seeing Carson Wells for the very first time live last night, they played in the Fox and Newt along with Pop Raft, Blood Sport and Baton Rouge which was put on by our dear friends at Fancy Claps.

We picked up some of their new t-shirt so we’ll be placing them in the shop as soon as we get back and just so you know we are running very low on their LP. They are off to London tonight closing out the Baton Rouge tour at the Buffalo Bar and joining them on that bill are Plaids!

There are plenty more with gigs coming up so here’s a little rundown:

Staying in Leeds this weekend, September Girls are playing at Baby Jupiter tonight and then crossing the Pennines to play in Salford for the Sounds from the Other City festival.

If you’re in Dublin, The #1s are opening for Thee Oh Sees in Whelans tonight, doors are at 8pm. Next week you can catch them at Sweeneys, on Dame St, playing with a rake of other great bands.

Speaking of Plaids earlier, the 7” is finally ready and the band will be doing an instore show at Nottingham’s Music Exchange to release it on 17 May. They will be hitting the continent in August for a two week tour and playing a few more gigs around the UK before they cross the channel so be sure to catch them!

We’ll be taking orders for the record as soon as we get back to Cork, you can stream it over on our bandcamp still for the time being.

That’s it for now, enjoy the weekend. x

The September Girls latest offering is here, their third outing on vinyl and first with Art for Blind is a two track EP of noisy garage-pop. The five piece have delivered another reverb laden slab of layered ethereal vocal harmonies, jangly guitars and energetic drums. On the title track Talking it is the synth that comes to the fore with a brooding swirling menace setting up a what is probably their darkest song thus far. It’s backed with Some For Me which contrasts nicely with it’s upbeat summery vibe.

The EP is released post Records Store Day, on Monday 22nd April and is currently available for streaming and to order from the AFB bandcamp

The record is also available from Rough Trade and Norman Records in the UK and also from The Stone Records in Japan. More stores and distros worldwide will be carrying it in the coming weeks. For those on Irish shores the record will be stocked in the following fine independent record stores:
Plugd, Cork
Elastic Witch, Dublin
Freebird, Dublin
Tower, Dublin
and the Wingnuts of Athlone, Galway, Limerick, Tralee and Waterford

We’re about to land in the capital as this post goes out with a large delivery of records and ofcourse to check out some of the Record Store Day fun taking place across the city this afternoon and tonight.

Any shops or distros interested in stocking the 7” please get in touch with us at artforblindATgmailDOTcom

This year has been one of the busiest since I started the label back in 2004, all of which has coincided with me upping sticks and moving over to Ireland. By the end of the year we will have released 7 records.

First up, in January was the long awaited LP from Facel Vega, “The Body”, which was closely followed by fellow South Wales pals Saturday’s Kids second 7” on the label “Grey on White”. In spring, we released a 6 song 7” by the short lived but awesome garage punk outfit Little Ease from Brighton.

The summer saw us embark on another collaboration with Bombed Out records to release the debut album for Wooderson, a band who we have known for a long time and were delighted to get involved with.

Towards the back end of the year we came together with a bunch of UK DIY labels to put out the first full length record for Aberdeen post punks Carson Wells, a band who we worked with to release a CDep two years previous. Winter also saw us release our first records by Irish bands, the first being The #1s Self Titled 7” and coming very shortly the Wölfbait album on Cassette.

We have loads of releases planned for the new year, with several bands new to the label as well as some familiar faces returning. First up are the Plaids and September Girls 7”s which will be with us by February.

Finally, here’s my favourite non-afb records of 2012:

1 - Coke Bust / Vaccine Split 7”
2 - Total Control - Scene From a Marriage 7”
3 - Wild Nothing - Nocturne LP
4 - Cold Pumas - Persistent Malaise LP
5 - Grass Widow - Internal Logic LP
6 - Síoraí Geimhreadh Tape
7 - Thread Pulls - You Melt Words 12” EP
8 - No - s/t LP
9 - Japandroids - Celebration Rock LP
10 - Nope - Revision LP

We’re starting a record fair in Cork under our other guise of MISC. with the help of The Hobo Convention, it starts tomorrow, running once a month and takes place at Mother Jones Flea Market.

Things are about to get busy round here. We have a slew of new releases coming out over the next couple of months. First up is the long awaited 7” from Dublin melodic punks The #1s. You can stream and pre-order the 7” here. This marks our 5th release of the year and our 1st by an Irish band. The #1s will be heading out on the road for a few shows around Ireland in October/November and will hit the UK early next year, get in touch if you are interested in putting them on (artforblind(at)gmail(dot)com)

We have also put together a free digital sampler featuring 12 tracks from records released on the label over the last few years. The sampler includes tracks from our latest release, the Wooderson LP, Let the Man Speak, and Facel Vega, Little Ease and our earliest still-in-print record Carson Wells CD EP.

Speaking of Carson Wells, their follow up LP, Wonderkid, will be our next release after The #1s, it’s currently still at the plant but we have a preview streaming here on our bandcamp.

If that’s not enough we will also be putting on our first live shows in Ireland with hosting the Cork dates for both The #1’s and The Art of Burning Water/Wolfbait tours respectively.

So it’s all go, but we don’t mind :)