New free download

The recording from the Inter:act India trip fundraiser at The Lot on March 20th is now available for free download, including the full sets from DLDown, The Northern Collective and Chasing Owls.

It even includes our original cover of Switchfoot's 'Redemption' in barbershop quartet style...

Point your browser here to listen/download for free/relive/catch up on what you missed!

Woah!

Just happened to have a look on our Internet Archive page (which hosts a few live DLDown shows you can download for free), and apparently one of the shows there has now had over 4800 downloads - crazy! Thanks people :o)

Live Downloads page is here.

Quality over Quantity, and the Christening of the Loop Frog

I had a gig last night. It was one of those ones that I wasn’t really looking forward to - uncertainty as to whether the night was actually on, coupled with the fact that they’d put me on at 10pm on a dark wet tuesday evening, meant I wasn’t really expecting much of a turn-out!

And there wasn’t. But, bizarrely, that didn’t matter - I had a great time with the minute but enthusiastic audience - made up of the sound guy, the barman, a few members of my family, and a few members of the previous band’s entourage (Man and Superman - good old-fashioned fuzzy noisy rock - showing the Ark’s expertise at matching and sequencing similar acts - not. Nothing like a bit of contrast...) - who whooped, danced along happily to odd time signatures, bantered away with me between songs, and generally had a great time. They even demanded photos with me afterwards.

In particular, one exchange which went like this:

“Wooooah, how do you DO that?!”
“Well, I’ve got this little pedal down here...”
“I think there’s a frog stuck in the keyboard!”
“Yeah, Loop Frog!”

So, in honour of Man and Superman’s groupies, who made an empty gig worthwhile: Pedal, I dub thee “Loop Frog”.



Setlist:
Part Trust
Insult Like the Truth (Charlie Peacock)
Economology
Icarus >
A/D Loop Jam
Lazarus
Since 3 Days Ago
Starmaker
Puzzle
Doubting Thomas (Nickel Creek)

Launch gig recording up for free download!

For those of you who missed out, the soundboard recording of the launch gig is now up here.

Most of you will probably want the mp3 files - right-click and hit "download linked file" to download them. (Audiophiles can grab the flac files and expand them to full CD-quality audio.)

Setlist:
Romans 7
Icarus >
Reba Loop Jam
Part Trust
Lilies & Sparrows
Come Awake (David Crowder*Band)
Since 3 Days Ago
Transformers
Economology
Farther Up and Farther In
Puzzle
Starmaker
Angels with Dirty Faces (The Beulah Band)

Happy listening!

p.s. Dan Glover Band?, who opened the evening so tastefully, have a couple of their tracks up here.

Halloween

Thanks to all to made it out the Halloween gig with davesnewbike and Fair Witness. A great time was had by all!

Don't forget the album launch gig on Thurs 12th Nov at the Lot - details here.
J

New album is out on Saturday 24th Oct - CDs and downloads! 3 gigs too!

Gigs! And a CD launch!

In excited anticipation announcing: 3 gigs!

1. A slot at Henry's Cellar Bar - 8pm, Fri 23rd Oct, £2

2. Supporting davesnewbike at The Lot - 8pm, Sat 31st Oct, £7.50 on the door/£5 in advance

And best of all...

3. Also He Made the Stars... album launch gig at The Lot - 8pm, Thurs 12th Nov, ticket price tba. With Dan Glover Band? supporting. It's gonna be great!

Keep an eye on our live page for more details!
J

Updates & Downloads

Hi guys,

If you missed the last gig...
...you missed out! We had a great time at The Art of Joy. For me, it was fantastic to dig out and re-learn my songs again, as well as taking up the challenge of learning some new covers and teaching my complicated songs to other people (who, incidentally, saxophonised and vocalled most agreeably). A quality venue (the Lot in the Grassmarket) and that rarity of a sound guy who really cares what you sound like made for a grand evening onstage.

Looking forward to the next one...

Also, you really ought to check out Calamateur, who put on a beautiful performance, showcasing songs from their (or, technically, 'his') super album Jesus is for Losers - which can be downloaded for free here (though I keep meaning to donate for it - it's certainly worth it).

Free Download
Some more exciting news is that DLDown's set is now available (free!) for your listening pleasure. You can download it here - audiophiles might want the flac files, but most of you normal people probably want to click the "VBR ZIP" link in the top left corner to get the whole set of mp3s. Alternatively, click the links in the setlist below to get individual tracks (right click and do 'download linked file').

The setlist was as follows:

01. Lazarus+
02. Part Trust
03. Reasons Why*!@
04. So Many Ways*!^
05. Left to My Own Devices*
06. Icarus+ >
07. Loop Jam (youtube clip here)
08. Lilies & Sparrows+
09. Come Awake%
10. Farther Up and Farther In+!

* 1st time played
+ with Fiona Earl (saxophone)
! with Iain McIntyre and Jack Wilson (vocals; Jack on keys on FU&FI)
@ Nickel Creek cover
^ Lies Damned Lies cover
% David Crowder*Band cover

Website
Um... yeah... so it hasn't had much attention lately - mainly due to not being able to access it except from my parents' computer - which I now live in a different house from. Working on it...

May your hovercraft be ever full of eels,
J

A new gig; a new download

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much to everyone who made it out to last night's gig - was my first in ages, and I had a very nice time. Got a good recording of it too, including the debut performance of new song Hide & Seek/Found You.

The whole show is now available for free download here.

Happy listening!
J



Setlist:
Lazarus
Missing
Puzzle
Lilies & Sparrows
Icarus >
Loop Jam
Part Trust
Hide & Seek >
Found You

For your alternative listening pleasure...

Here's a couple of great Edinburgh bands I've had the joy of sharing the line-up with over the last wee while. Both have tracks up on their sites which are well worth checking out, or better still go, and catch one of their gigs. Excellent stuff.

The Vacant Tourists
Cancel The Astronauts

J

Are you still alive?!

Well, you may be wondering what's been going on with DLDown in the last wee while... well, here's some idea of what I've been up to anyway...

• A spot of recording! - studio versions of Romans 7, Icarus and Missing are all at various stages near completion, so look out for one or two of those on myspace soon.

• A wee bit o' songwriting. I'm sure everyone has different ways of going about this. My method (for want of a better, less precise word) usually involves lots of scribbled ideas on lots of random bits of paper lying around in my room.

Sometimes, the whole song grows and expands out of a sentence or phrase that I've heard in another song, or have subconsciously picked up somewhere else, the obvious examples being Farther Up and Farther In (from a line in C.S. Lewis' The Last Battle) and Icarus (which began as an extrapolation of a line I heard in a Phish song, The Squirming Coil). Others are an attempt at a different angle on a Bible story or passage, and still others are more closely related to emotions or circumstances I'm going through at the time.

Occasionally, some of these make it to the consolidation-into-something-coherent-and-singable stage, from which point the best ones pretty much write themselves, usually in the middle of the night when I really ought to be sleeping. Lilies & Sparrows is coming along nicely, and I'm hopeful that a couple more will be on their way shortly!

• Looking forward to tonight's gig - the first in a wee while. Should be grand!
J

Alright, who unleashed the frog?

Hi folks, we're delighted to announce the latest addition to our ever-expanding catalogue of live show downloads: Last week's gig at the Merlin, Edinburgh.

Thanks so much to everyone who came along for making it such an enjoyable experience for us - definitely our favourite gig so far! We loved playing for you. Download the show for free here.
J

Setlist
Icarus
Romans 7 ->
My Mind's Got a Mind of Its Own (Butch Hancock)
Loop Jam (as yet untitled)
Part Trust+
Frustration
Fly (Moxy Früvous) ->
Baker Street (Gerry Rafferty)
It's All In Your Mind

----set break----

Hitchhiker's Guide Theme* ->
Infinite/Intimate ->
Lazarus
Missing+
Puzzle~ ->
Ghostbusters Theme (Ray Parker Jr.) ->
The Final Countdown (Europe) ->
Puzzle
Farther Up and Farther In ->
Amazing Grace
Puzzled?

*first time played
+Jo solo
~contains section from Phish's "Twist"

Download available

Update: Tuesday's gig is now available here.

Drunk dancing woman, you made our day.

Great fun gig at the Tunnels on Tuesday night, despite their usual utter confusion over the arrangements... Thanks so much to all of you who made it along, and stayed around until we finally made it onstage! We got a good recording, so working on adding it as a download now - will keep you posted - setlist available on our gigs page.

Another Aberdeen Gig

We're pleased to announce we have another wee gig lined up at the Tunnels in Aberdeen on Tues 27th March. Doors open at 8pm, and we expect to be on at about 10pm. Costs £3 on the door. Hope to see you all there!
J