FRANZ NICOLAY

MARCH UK TOUR // NEW ALBUM TO US THE BEAUTIFUL 

OUT NOW!

The irrepressible Franz Nicolay is celebrating the January release of his latest album To Us, The Beautiful – out on Xtra Mile Recordings on CD, clear and blue splatter vinyl, and download - in his ever-inimitable way with a substantial UK tour in March 2015.

With a surging and eclectic new rock record to perform for the masses, as well as a back catalogue of his esoteric but joyous and twisted anthems, there’s sure to be parades of dancing shoes and a chorus of voices at every show.

To Us, The Beautiful is Franz’s fourth solo full-length and his second with Xtra Mile Recordings, and provides newcomers with a refreshing burst of elegant, eccentric and elegiac songs with a deliberate rock bent. Long-term fans will find a more straightforward chapter in Franz’s story, still gleaming with banjo twang and his distinctive theatrical voice, so they won’t be lost among the distortion and melodic drive.

See Franz live in March 2015
13 - Perth @ The Twa Tams (w/ Jon Shoe, Broken Stories)
14 - Dundee @ Buskers (w/ Jon Shoe, Broken Stories)
15 - Glasgow @ 13th Note (w/ Broken Stories)
16 - Belfast @ The Bar With No Name
17 - Edinburgh @ Banshee Labyrinth  (w/ Broken Stories)
18 - Huddersfield @ HDM Beer Shop
19 - Leicester - Soundhouse
20 - Manchester @ Star and Garter
21 - Peterborough @ Met Lounge
22 - Norwich @ Owl Sanctuary
23 - Plymouth @ Underground
24 - London @ Brixton Windmill (w/ Jon Shoe)
25 - Exeter @ The Cavern (w/ Jon Shoe)
26 - Bristol @ The Exchange (w/ Jon Shoe)
27 - Southampton @ Joiners (w/ Jon Shoe)

Praise for Franz Nicolay:
“Natural-born star…really something special.” – Pitchfork
“A great storyteller and wordsmith.” – Punknews

Praise for To Us, The Beautiful:
"Nicolay could probably sing the phone book and make it sound like Dostoevsky." - Éclat
"Fantastic...all of the scope and grandeur we've come to expect from a Franz Nicolay full-length...Franz Nicolay is the complete songwriter and To Us, The Beautiful is undoubtedly the first great record of 2015." - The Ruckus
"Perhaps his most accessible record to date...At its heart, this is a pure punk-rock record...balance[d] between boisterous celebration and punk-rock anger...an album that lives with you after you've pressed the pause button...a bold and confident statement. 4.5/5" - Contact Music
"Exhilarating...It’s a staggering album, maybe the first truly great release of 2015. 4.5/5" - God Is In The TV
"Filled with huge torch songs, heartfelt acoustic numbers and buzzing three-minute pop songs. 4/5" - Already Heard
"Every track brings its own reward...Recommend[ed]." - Echoes and Dust
"Masterfully emotional song-writing. 8/10" - Toxic Online
"A ramshackle treat." – Stereoboard 

www.franznicolay.com / www.xtramilerecordings.com 

BEANS ON TOAST

Bending Over Backwards Tour – May 2015

Beans On Toast is one of those artists who you know will never change. No matter how successful he gets. Louder Than War
Beans On Toast manages to create something honest, endearing and pretty damn catchy too. What’s The Ruckus
It’s insanely refreshing seeing an artist go about his trade in such a manner that radiates such enjoyment. 45 Magazine 

Having conquered his biggest ever headline show at Camden’s Electric Ballroom last month to rave reviews, everybody’s favourite drunk-folk raconteur, Beans On Toast, is heading back to the UK live circuit in May with a fresh string of 15 dates to places other artists might not reach. Starting in Harlow on 7th May and ending at London’s Tooting Tram and Social on 28th May, the ‘Bending Over Backwards’ tour will see Beans transverse the country with fellow acoustic music mate Benjamin Folke Thomas as worthy support. 

With his most successful year yet behind him, 2014 will take something to beat but with Beans being Beans, he’s got even more up his sleeve for 2015. This year, amongst other things, he will be visiting new territories, playing different venues and tackling new topics, as he takes his three-chord master plan to the masses. In spring, Beans will once again be exporting stateside for his most extensive US tour yet, which will see him play various clubs, bars, front rooms and even a luxury cruise liner as he performs intimate skiffle shows, headlines his own gigs, supports Truckstop Honeymoon and joins the Flogging Molly’s Salty Dog Cruise from Miami to the Bahamas! 

Tough life you say? Well Beans will also be playing his first ever show in Africa and indeed the Southern Hemisphere as he visits Afrikaburn festival in South Africa over the last weekend of April. From there he will embark on what is set to be his biggest festival season, trouncing his past record stretch and no doubt providing him with ample material for the next Beans’ album! 

Last year was a complete game changer for this hero of counter-culture, as alongside side kick Bobby Banjo, Beans On Toast smashed an extensive arena tour supporting folk-punk friend Frank Turner, broke America with his first ever-stateside shows and kept crowds entertained at over 18 festivals throughout the summer – notably racking up a 5 star review for his main stage show at Camp Bestival! Phew. But that’s not where it stops for Beans. In addition to these milestones, his sixth studio album ‘The Grand Scheme of Things’ was hailed as his best and most mature yet, taking in meatier subjects such as chicken farming, terrorism and the home cooking of new wife Lizzy Bee, which ensured over a third of his December live dates were complete sell outs. With life certainly on the up for Beans On Toast, there are still some things that don’t change and that’s his self-deprecating witty style, which has been anything but lost along the way.  

07/05 Harlow, The Square
08/05 Norwich, Epic Studios 
09/05 Sheffield, Rocking Chair
10/05 Preston, The Ferret
12/05 York, Fibbers
13/05 Hebden Bridge, The Trades Club
14/05 Chester, The Live Rooms
15/05 Bath, Moles
16/05 Cheltenham, Frog and Fiddle
17/05 Salisbury, City Hall
18/05 Southampton, Engine Rooms
19/05 Reading, Bowery District 
20/05 Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach 
21/05 Bideford, Palladium Club 
28/05 London, Tooting Tram and Social 

For more information and tickets please visit www.beansontoastmusic.com

You can check out more of Beans On Toast via the following links: 
www.facebook.com/beansontoastmusic 
@beanstoast
 www.soundcloud.com/beans-on-toast 
www.youtube.com/user/beansontoasttube

Mineral - UK AND EUROPEAN TOUR STARTS THIS MONTH

UK AND EUROPEAN TOUR STARTS THIS MONTH

Legendary emo-pioneers Mineral are gearing up for their first ever tour of Europe and the UK at the end of this month. Following a sold out tour across the States that was rapturously received by critics and fans alike, the Texan four-piece finally make it across the pond for their long awaited and highly anticipated run of shows. Support at all shows are label friends the Solemn Sun. 

FULL TOUR DATES

UK and Europe tour dates ticket sales: http://www.songkick.com/artists/443248-mineral

JANUARY 2015

31 Milan, IT @ Live Forum

FEBRUARY 2015

1  Rimini, IT @ Velvet Club

3  Berlin, GER @ Bi Nuu

4  Cologne, GER @ Gerbaude

5 Paris, FR @ Glazart

6  Southampton, UK @ Joiners

7  Bristol, UK @ The Exchange

9  Nottingham, UK @ Bodega Social Club

10 Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club

11 Glasgow, UK @ Stereo

12 Manchester, UK @ Ruby Lounge

13 London, UK @ The Underworld SOLD OUT

Last year Xtra Mile Recordings proudly reissued Mineral’s two seminal albums The Power of Failing and EndSerenading, each on double 45 RPM vinyl, as well as ‘Mineral – 1994-1998’ a 2x CD compilation of both albums with bonus material and previously unreleased tracks. 

Check out Mineral’s page on the Xtra Mile Recordings to purchase: http://bit.ly/1llnh7y

Since the band announced their reunion after they disbanded 17 years ago, they’ve enjoyed a renaissance as fans new and old have flocked to the shows and purchased the albums. Their shows in New York back in September sold out in record time and our very own Frank Turner flew out especially, declaring they sounded “impressively good, powerful, loud and clear” in his review for Noisy. 

Mineral formed in 1994 and came to untimely end in 1997 just before the release of their second album EndSerenading. Despite a surprisingly small amount of time together, they’ve been cited as inspiration by a host of bands and artists, including Jimmy Eat World and of course Frank Turner. 

Taking the baton from mid-nineties emo band Sunny Day Real Estate, they crystallised the slow, melodic loud/quiet dynamic that wax sealed the genre, crafting an eternally distinctive and beloved sound. Their debut album The Power of Failing is a passionate paen to spirituality and love, bathed in crescendos of hollered guitar, while posthumous follow-up Endserenading – finished after the official split of the group - broods and simmers with patience, pain and redemption. Both albums are recognised as essential, packed with trailblazing cuts which have since informed plenty of peers and imitators, while never being bettered. 

QUOTES:

“Packed crowds have left ecstatic and the band’s influence and legacy- achieved with just two albums” - Big Cheese Magazine 

“ The first album, as raw and roughshod as ever, remains a pure explosion of cathartic emotion, while the second presented a cleaner, slightly more refined version of their sound.” Record Collector

QUOTES:

“Packed crowds have left ecstatic and the band’s influence and legacy- achieved with just two albums” - Big Cheese Magazine

“…the songs from EndSerenading that stand out most, mainly because the band broke up before it even came out. Both For Ivadel and A Letter brim with youthful energy and spirit, and actually sound more tender and moving than they were on record.” – Team Rock, Verdict: 8/10

“ The first album, as raw and roughshod as ever, remains a pure explosion of cathartic emotion, while the second presented a cleaner, slightly more refined version of their sound.” Record Collector