Bonjour.
We are going to be touring mainland Europe next Easter, between the 6th and 17th of April 2009 to be precise.
If you are a promoter and would like to book us, please email Bjoern at Under The Stars, Me!:
Download a full Dartz live gig… for free!
October 31, 2008We played at The Luminaire in London last month and as I kind of mentioned in my previous post, a website called BeastCast TV came along and filmed it.
You can download the full gig, for free, via their website:
It sounds good, and it looks good, so it’s probably worth getting on the go.
They’ve also got gigs up the likes of Johnny Foreigner, Tubelord and Pennines. Phwoar.
And then there were four.
October 31, 2008If you didn’t already know, we’re now a four piece! Isn’t that exciting? After 3 and a half years as a trio, we’re now a quartet. Our good friend Nico has joined us for second guitar duties, I like to think of it as a bit like when Charlotte joined Ash.
Here’s a video of us playing live, avec un Nico, at our recent gig at The Luminaire in London courtesy of the fine folks at BeatCast TV:
A tremendous addition, I’m sure you’ll agree.
The Sad Review of the Village of Alnerique.
October 31, 2008So, our eight track mini-album/EP/concept-disc/whatever ‘The Sad History of the Village of Alnerique’ was released last month.
A few people really didn’t “get” where we were coming from with it, but thankfully, a fair few people did! Steve Lamacq was one of the ones who did and he made it his ‘Album of the Week’ on BBC Radio 1 which was very kind of him. Thank you Steve.
Here’s a few scans of some reviews in popular music magazines such as NME, Kerrang!, Rock Sound, Plan B and Big Cheese. If they don’t fully fit the screen, they’re all on the “press” page on our website or in the photos section on our myspace page.
Personally, I liked being described as “oddballs” and “an acquired taste” by Kerrang!, especially considering they had Trivium on the cover the issue we were in. Come on now, would you dare be Trivium!?
The less said about that NME review the better, eh!? I like how they criticise William and Philip for going to Uni and then spell Teesside wrong. Isn’t ironic, don’t you think, like yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahehyeah. I never went to Univermersity so if my spelling is nads, it’s not my fault is it.
Away from the real life, “The Sad History” received some kind reviews from various webzines. Some webzines weren’t so kind. But you know, don’t care do I.
http://www.subba-cultcha.com/article_album.php?id=8275
http://www.thisisfakediy.co.uk/articles/albums/dartz-the-sad-history-of-the-village-alnerique
http://www.theskinny.co.uk/article/43862-dartz-the-sad-history-of-the-village-of-alnerique
http://www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk/MagSitePages/Review.aspx?id=6063
http://www.music-dash.co.uk/releases/release.asp?item=5685
http://drownedinsound.com/releases/13699
I’ve saved the best for last here – check out our thoroughly marvellous 2/5 review on Punktastic:
http://www.punktastic.com/reviews/3061
I have no problem with people giving us bad reviews. Each to their own ‘n’ all tha’, especially with this record as we tried something different for us and I can see why it perhaps won’t appeal to as many people as some of our old releases did… although hopefully after a few listens it starts to make sense.
BUT!
Mr Punktastic saying “I’ve never really got everyone’s love of Dartz! and I find them bemusingly overrated” eighteen months after he said “this is a really fun, and a really good, record… Stop reading this review and go and listen on their myspace and then buy their CD. It’d be a better way to spend your time” when giving our debut album 4/5 seems pretty ridiculous to me. Clearly a doyle.
Fair enough if he doesn’t like the new record, but pretending he never liked us at all is a bit low isn’t it?! Down with that sort of thing. Careful now.
If you’d like to decide for yourself if you like our new record or not, you can buy it from all of the usual suspects although, as always, we recommend our friends at Banquet Records:
Read all about it.
October 31, 2008This blog has been a bit neglected, sorry. There’s been lots of reviews and stuff I should have probably put up here, but never got a round tuit. I’ll do it tonight though, yeah?
It’s not going to be neglected for much longer though because from now on, we’re going to use this blog as the news page on our website. The website is tricky to update, thanks to its archaic hosting, but this here blog allows each and every member of Dartz to easily add stuff. Hopefully we’ll keep it as up to date as it needs to be.
A casualty of this change is that the website itself no longer has the news page. If you want to see the old news, click here - you probably don’t need to bother though, it’s more for my own benefit really.
Cheerio.
H
Free download…
August 29, 2008On Monday (1st September) you’ll be able to download one of our new tracks ’The End, Moving On’ for FREE! from the Xtra Mile Recordings myspace page:
www.myspace.com/xtramilerecordings
The download will only be available for 24 hours – from 12 noon on Monday until 12 noon on Tuesday – so make sure you don’t miss out!
Radio.
August 29, 2008John Kennedy is a lovely man. He’s played us on his radio show since pretty much our very first demo and he’s written some very kind things about us in various magazines too. If we had a Christmas card list, he’d certainly be on it. In fact, this year, I think we should probably have a Christmas card list and send him one. But anyway…
He’s been giving “The End, Moving On”, the last track from ‘The Sad History of…’ a spin recently on his XFM radio show and he rather delightfully described it as “poptastic” too. Told you he was a lovely man.
If you happen to be listening to his show or if you happen to be listening to the likes of Steve Lamacq, Huw Stephens or Colin Murray on Radio 1, text/email them and tell them you’d love to hear “The End, Moving On” by Dartz. I’m sure they’d love to hear from you and hopefully they’d love to play it too. That’d be good, wouldn’t it?
More pressing matters.
August 29, 2008Whilst Philip has been over in Hong Kong and China, the promotion of the new record has been left to William and I. Last week we headed down to that London place to do the guest single reviews for the next issue of Rock Sound Magazine.
Rock Sound is pretty much the only music magazine that I still read on a regular basis, so it’s very enjoyable to do stuff for them. We had a good afternoon at their office and reviewed the latest singles from the likes of Sigur Ros, Johnny Foreigner, The Dodos, Funeral For A Friend and various others. I’m starting to feel a tad apprehensive because we didn’t give particularly favourable reviews to some bands. And I am nice. So I feel mean. Not to worry though eh!?
I think the magazine will be on sale around the 12th September-ish, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
Other than that, so far most of the press for the new release has been on a regional basis – interviews with Bob Fischer on BBC Tees, NARC magazine and The Yorkshire Evening Post for example, be sure to keep your eyes and ears peeled for all of them!
The first review of ‘The Sad History of the Village of Alnerique’ appeared this week too, courtesy of none other than The Northern Echo. Who’d have thought it. Give it a read, if you like:
“With a more mellow approach to the music and by placing emphasis on the lyrics the music this band create is even better. The album has a mixture of fast, slow, poppy tracks which are easy listening and Dartz manage to inject enough power and joyous pop melodies into the songs… “The Sad History Of The Village Of Alnerigue” unfolds like a sachet of treasured music collections in a wonderful manner.“
Can’t say fairer than that. Hopefully there’ll be lots more where that came from! And if there is, I’ll do my best to remember to post them up here…
Instore…
August 29, 2008I’m pleased to announce that we’ll be doing an instore gig at the legendary Banquet Records in Kingston on Monday 22nd September 2008 – the day that ‘The Sad History…’ is released. Hows about that.
If you’re in the area, make sure you get yourself along – can’t beat a good ol’ instore shindig!
Banquet Records instore
Visit http://www.banquetrecords.com/index.jsp?section=38 for more info and for how to get yourself a ticket… and don’t forget, it’s FREE!
Speaking of sad…
August 29, 2008Sadly we’ve had to cancel the few European mainlan dates that we had booked (Lille, Antwerp and Luxembourg) – can’t be helped unfortunately but we promise we’ll do our very best to make it back over ASAP, probably early on in 2009 all being well. We’ll see.
We will, however, still be playing these rather splendid gigs in the UK – hopefully see you there:
Wednesday 17th September 2008 @ The GRV in Edinburgh.
Dartz + Cry Over Billionaires + Super Adventure Club.
8pm. 18+. Tickets £5 in advance from Ticketweb.
Thursday 18th September 2008 @ The White Rooms in Sunderland.
Dartz + Gullich + U-U.
8pm. 18+. Tickets £2 on the door.
Friday 19th September 2008 @ The Cockpit in Leeds.
Dartz + Wintermute + Itch.
7pm. 14+. Tickets £6 in advance from Lunatickets.
Saturday 20th September 2008 @ The Luminaire in London.
Dartz + Tubelord + Pennines + Targets.
7pm. 14+. Tickets £6 in advance from Banquet Records.
Sunday 21st September 2008 @ Chinnerys in Southend.
Dartz + Redtrack + super secret special guests. Mikey Get Cape’s birthday bash!
7pm. 16+. Tickets £5 in advance from Seetickets.
It’s probably a good idea to get advance tickets bought for the London and Leeds gigs as they look like they may well sell out.
Apologies again about Lille, Luxembourg and Antwerp, but as I say, hopefully we’ll make it back over to mainland Europe sooner rather than later.
