SNH Advent #4 - Art is Hard

Hiding under door number 4 is a SNH favourite label, Art is Hard. We've put on a good number of their bands, and they seem committed to releasing quality records, what's not to like.

What were your highlights of 2012?
There's been SO many, it's always a bit like internet dating emailing these bands for weeks organising a release and then you finally meet and you're really worried they're going to be massive weirdos, but it all turns out ok and you end up going back to your parents house together and eating lots of pizza...dreamy. Getting to put out Joanna Gruesome, Playlounge, Keel Her and Gum all on one 7" was probably the most fun part.

What can we expect from you in 2013?

We're getting ahead of the game and we've already announced our first release for 2013. It's also our very first album release and is from Flamingods, it's definitely the most interesting album I've heard in years and I'm just hoping this translates into $$$ so we can put out lots more albums - there's already a few in the pipeline. We've also got a new idea for a singles club that is hopefully going to make people think digital downloads were a distant nightmare.

Flamingods, hoping for big things and more hats in 2013 

Go on, give us a link to a Christmas track that you like please?

Why this track?
Nothing says Christmas like angsty gang vocals, just ask Bono. In all seriousness this is great song and I feel Tiny Lights should receive a commendation for managing to put together a 19 track charity Christmas album before the calendar even hits December. It also features tracks from other AIH favourites Playlounge and Fawn Spots and also a track from the Futureheads!


Can we have a link to one of your tracks please?
Here's the first track from our first album which is also Flamingods first album


 Flamingods - Quesso by Art Is Hard Records 

Announcing Extra Life (US) + Gum Takes Tooth + Playlounge - Old Blue Last - 30/05/12

We’re thrilled to announce that Brooklyn’s experimental art-rockers, Extra Life, will be performing for us, in conjunction with Pink Mist, on May 30 at the Old Blue Last. Support comes from fearsome psych-noise duo Gum Takes Tooth and woozy punksters Playlounge. We also have Artrocker and New Heavy Sounds on the decks to spin some killer tunes.

The New York group, Extra Life, is fronted by guitarist/vocalist Charlie Looker, who has played with ZS, Mick Barr, and was a member of Dirty Projectors.

The band’s two first albums (‘Secular Works’ and ‘Made Flesh’) received wide critical acclaim, landing them on countless end of year Best Of-lists.  These were accompanied by split singles with Parenthetical Girls, Nat Baldwin and Larkin Grimm, and remixes by artists including Xiu Xiu, Justin Broadrick and Tyondai Braxton. 

The band are soon to release their third album, ‘Dream Seeds’, which builds on the avant-garde rock, and enthralling post-punk, sound of the first two offerings, but sees a shift in terms of a musical level. ‘Dream Seeds’ is set to be EL’s most clearly defined concept album. With seven songs dealing with themes for dreams and children, the band moves away from the morbid, dark lyrics of their former offerings; instead purveying lyrical focus centred around innocence and meaning.  

'Gum Takes Tooth, a thunderous rampage of noise tempered with an aptitude for precise rhythms and splintered melody, is a single-headed beast with two bodies: a duo of Thomas Fuglesang on live acoustic drums, physically wired into home grown electronic instruments and bare circuit boards, tweaked, molded and mangled in real-time by Jussi Brightmore.

The group decisively bring together their wildly varied influences of out-there noise, metal, primeval rhythms, spacious psyche, pan-ethnic oddities, primal punk, acid house and vintage electronics on their debut album, 'Silent Cenotaph'. Their incredible live set has found them in high demand, with storming festival sets including Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party, Supersonic and British Wildlife Festival in 2010-11, plus supports with luminaries such as Napalm Death, Melt-Banana, Acid Mothers Temple and Otto Von Schirach.' (Tigertrap)

The chilled out post-rockers from Playlounge provide a hazy backdrop of hooky riffs and bold drums, shrouded in euphoric, dreamy vox. Think 90s baggy shogazers a la Smashing Pumpkins. Jolly good stuff. 

You can buy tickets in advance here and join the Facebook event here.