It's probably the appropriate time to announce that we're pausing for reflection, possibly by a stream or a lake, as pictured in the above Photoshop dramatisation. Although it is a massive wank to announce some sort of breakup or hiatus for a band like us, this is just a heads up to say if you have the burning desire to see us play you'd best come along to Yah Yah's next Saturday night (which is free), or find tickets to what will be our "last" show at Pony on December 1. We may never play again or we might come back with an amazing new album in the distant future. Currently there's no desire to lift things in and out of venues and no new songs coming, so there it is. Thanks.
We've been invited to play the last Pony show with Deaf Wish, The Onyas and our pals in The Thod, who we played our very first show with. Which was at Pony. Tickets $20 and very limited, more great bands still to be announced. We haven't got any plans after this show so if you wanna come see us, grab your tickets while you still can. (It's now sold out.)
You can also read some of Simon's memories of Pony along with those of some other folk over at Mess+Noise.
"Australia's rock n roll mecca The Tote will be host to the first Cup My Balls festival on 6th November (the other Cup Day). With a line-up consisting of Harmony, Baptism of Uzi, Yis, Wicked city, Spinning Rooms, Sun God Replica, Sheriff, Batpiss, The Jackals, Deep Heat and the Euphoriacs it's proof that Melbourne is a gigantic petri dish of talent, with dozens of superb bands growing in every crack like mould spores. All bands on the night will be recorded with one song from each set to be released on a live C.D by Spooky records. With the low, low entry price of $15 that's just a dollar and a bit for each of these incredible bands."
Our next show is helping High Fangs launch their debut LP at Yah Yah's on Saturday November 24. You can check the album out at all the regular places. Here's a Spotify link if you're lazy and use Spotify. I (as in Simon from YIS) play a bit of keys on one track ('Call Up') and might jump up on the night to do a couple of tunes. Also playing are Richie 1250 & The Brides Of Christ and Western Stars. I think we're on second last.
Also, we're selling some more pedals from the pile on eBay. Click here to view the auctions. Some cool stuff ending today (original Tym Human Fly, Tym Tatanka Tone Boost, Wattson FY-2 Shin-Ei Fuzz, Line 6 M5, Framptone Amp Switcher, Cusack Tap-A-Whirl Tremolo), as well as Bron's ancient Ibanez Double Sound Fuzz Wah ending next week. Bid away.
Finally, this Sunday, there'll be a short YIS interview on Bayside's Southern FM (88.3FM if you're in the area) on the 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' program sometime between 2 and 4pm. Live stream here.
So, Tuesday 28th of August at The Tote; Obits with Mesa Cosa and YIS. This'll be our first show in almost six months. Tickets are $22 on the door. Free BBQ out the back. Free shots of rum circulating. Doors at 7:30. We're on at 7:45.
Very happy to announce that our first show in six months will be at The Old Bar, Fitzroy on Saturday September 15 for a benefit helping Kids of Zoo get to Europe. Also playing are Udays Tigers and Rayon Moon. Should be a cracker.
However, we will be playing one show before that in the last week of August. Details announced next Friday. It's gonna be awesome.
Second installment of our Spotify playlist series.
Simon chose Trans Am, Harald Grosskopt, Donnie & Joe Emerson and Can, Andre picked Liars, Luna, The Besnard Lakes and Black Moth Super Rainbow, Matt selected Baptism of Uzi, Radio Birdman, Tom Waits and Earthless, and Bronwyn decided on Black Van, Huxley, The Juan Maclean and Vakula.
This week, for the first time since March, all four members of YIS will be in the same country, which means we can make a start on recording our second album. Hopefully out by the end of the year.
We've also started up a weekly "radio show" playlist for those of you on Spotify. Load it up here and subscribe, or listen below.
Simon is responsible for Young MC, Colonel Abrams, Bryan Adams and The Smiths, Matt for Paul Kelly, Action Bronson, Creedence and Hot Snakes, Bron for Tom Trago, Jacques Renault, Motor City Drum Ensemble and todd Terje, and Andre chose Gruff Rhys, Kids of Zoo, Jack Ladder and The War on Drugs.
We've got a pair of shows coming up in late-August and September at the usual venues; one TBA support slot and a fundraiser for some pals hitting the road overseas. Details when they're announced.
For those who missed out on our gig at The Tote a couple of weeks back; here's a snippet of what it sounded like. If the rest of the tracks come out good we'll chuck them up too. But for now, here's Burning Well and Infin. You can stream it below or download it by pressing the little button that says 'download'.
Andre and Simon fly off to Europe tomorrow; keep track of where they are and what they're up to on the YIS Facebook page. They'll also be posting demos and sounds from the road up on the Soundcloud.
Okay, so, ever since Facebook upgraded our old group to a new group (and in the process deleted all the members), our number of 'likes' on the book o' face has looked pretty grim. Anyway, to rectify that, we're running a competition where you can win a bunch of really cool stuff just for clicking LIKE on our page.
So, here's what you can win.
Pretty cool, huh? And here's more detail...
Firstly, a full set of every YIS release so far: the YIS Live Mixtape #1 (number 4 of 40 copies, mostly given away at The Tote on October 31, 2009), the Trevor Block Rockin' Beats/Sex Beat single (number 26 of 30 copies, only given away at our show at The Birmingham Hotel on January 7, 2010), the Lizardman/Live at YIS Manor EP (number 12 of 30 only given out at The Old Bar in March 2010, but there are a few less as I didn't burn off as many as I numbered), and our first proper recording: Kingdom of Fuzz (number whatever of 500, of which we only have a few copies left).
Speaking of Kingdom of Fuzz, you also win the guitar strings off the Gibson Non-Reverse Firebird I used to record every guitar note on the entire album. (Okay, fine, I did use a couple of other guitars for little bits, and I did break one string on the second day (I think it was the G string), and that one ended up on the floor/in the bin, but the replacement string did see a lot of action as well.)
You also get a YIS shirt (but unfortunately sizes are limited to S, L, XL, 2XL or Girls Large), as well as the three Kingdom of Fuzz badges and a signed poster.
I'm trying to get Andre to donate one of his doodles for this too (like the ones he did for the gig on Sunday), so hopefully that'll be included too, as well as any other cool stuff I can dig up between now and next week.
Three runners-up will get a deluxe KoF set with a shirt, CD, badge and poster.
So, yes, all you have to do is go here and like the page. Or just click below! If you already like it, you're already entered. Winner will be chosen at random when the competition closes on Friday March 16th.
Work has begun on the writing and recording of our second album. It's being currently recorded at home, with the album to be released sometime in the next ten years.
You'll have two more chances to catch the band before we head to Europe; Saturday Feb 11 at The Old Bar for Russian Roulettes' LP launch, followed by a Brat Farrar + YIS double headliner farewell show at The Tote on Sunday March 4.
Also, a Simon Fazio solo set is happening at Bar Open on Sunday Jan 22 with Apple Time and Al Matcott. Free entry.
So, it seems like the next half-a-year is going to be a pretty exciting time.
First of all, next month, we've got three shows lined up. Our first show is at The Espy this Friday night, with Peabody, The Once Overs and Altyan Childs Alkan Zeybek. We're on second, so I imagine that will be somewhere around 10pm. After that, we're doing a last-minute fill-in job on Saturday night at Pony, 2am style. Last gig for the month will be a big Boxing Day in Ballarat; Yard Apes + YIS at Karova Lounge on Monday the 26th.
In addition, Andre and I will once again be backing up Brat Farrar on a few shows, including the Future of the Left support at The Corner on December 16. More Brat Farrar show info up on his Bandcamp.
After that, we'll be doing a couple more Melbourne shows (and maybe one in Geelong) and then putting a big fat line under the Kingdom of Fuzz-era of YIS, as after that, we're heading off to Europe to play a bunch of shows with Brat Farrar. Andre and I will hopefully be doing a few small YIS duo shows along the way, but you'll see us play Brat's songs of equal quality in the Netherlands, France, Spain, Belgium and Germany from March 22 until April 1. I will post the dates here when I've got them, but it looks like a big of shows.
I'm off to the UK and NYC after that, and Andre is going to spend some more months in Europe, while Bronwyn is finishing up study and does some important work type things, so, prior to that, hopefully we'll be able to pin Matt down for long enough to have one final hurrah at a venue that's yet to be decided. Hopefully on the other side we'll have something new, exciting and different to play for everyone.
Speaking of new and exciting, we did some other stuff this weekend; Andre recorded our pals in Bidet Mate, and then I whipped up this video. Enjoy, re-post, download, etc.
So, that's it for now. Hopefully see you at a show over the weekend. We'll be playing the favorites and some oldies from the vault. Until then...
In what most likely will be our last show of the year, we're playing our first ever gig on the other side of the river with Peabody, The Once Overs and Happy New Year at The Espy on Friday, December 2. It's a free show and we're on second, so, that'll probably be around 10pm. More info when I got it.
On the other hand, Andre and I have a heap of shows backing up Brat Farrar, including supporting Future of the Left at The Corner in December. Dates and details on Brat's Bandcamp.
Thanks to everyone who came out to The Retreat last night, and who came to shows over the last 1 and 3/4 years we've been playing out. We're taking a rest from playing live for the next few months so we can take stock and write and record some new stuff. Hopefully some new material will be ready before the end of the year. What that'll sound like, I have no idea. Anyway, thanks again. See you around soon.
So, as Google Analytics tells me, I get a lot of nerd traffic coming through the blog specifically to do with the gear related posts. So, yeah, here's another rundown of what I've been using lately.
My gain pedal section changes quite often. Never quite satisfied with what I've got, but this all sounded pretty good last gig. After the TC Polytune Tuner is my Foxrox Octron; still on the board because it sounds and tracks brilliantly. The first octave pedal I had was a POG 2 and I just couldn't get along with it because of the lag between playing and the note, and the fact it just sounded crap in a lot of ways. I don't really dig that Jack White-organ-guitar octave sound. It's just a crap sound. The sounds Future Of The Left pull out of the POG are orrite though. Anyway, this is about the Octron. Sounds great. Tracks great. Feels great. Good pedal.
Next up is my brand new Tym Guitars Big Mudd that I picked up in Brisbane a few weeks back. Sounds brilliant. I always end up running an overdrive after any Muff or Muff-type fuzzes because it gives a little more cut and presence. This one is one of the Ramshead series Mudds and they have a little trouble sitting in the mix usually but this sounded pretty good on Friday night so it'll probably stay a while.
The Lovepedal COT50 runs after that. This one is just a great pedal, but not all Lovepedals are the same by any means. The older stuff is great. The newer stuff is hit and miss. I've sold more Lovepedals than I've kept, but the ones I've kept are some of my favourites. Can be a bit tricky to match up with some guitars because of the single knob (sometimes playing guitars with hotter pickups tend to mean that gain pedals can sound quieter than the clean signal) but it always sounds great.
Last is a Fulltone Fat Boost 3. I like this pedal a lot. I click it on for a bit of a boost when I need it. Yep.
After that is pretty much the same as a while back: the Moog Freqbox is now the FORBIDDEN PEDAL as Mum said I hurt too many ears when I woosh this one. Note to self: be more considerate towards others re: square-wave. After that is the A/DA Final Phase, Cusack Tap-A-Whirl Trem and Earthquaker Disaster Transport Delay. Finally is a TC Electronic Hall-Of-Fame Reverb. It's a solid reverb that's small and tweakable. Not mindbendingly spectacular but it sounds good enough and it's small. Can't really ask for much more than that. I have an Eventide Space for home and that sounds better, but is the size of my face.
Vocal pedals are now a Line 6 M5 and a Pigtronix Keymaster. The old DL-4 got booted off the board for being too damn big. This M5 goes fine. Keymaster allows me to run XLR in and out of the M5 and there's a bit of a boost stage too. Got that running at 24 volts from the Pedal Power 2. Have got all my old DL-4 patches in the M5 and they sound pretty much the same. Plus now I can do other cool stuff on vocals that's not delay. Like this, maybe.
A special thanks to everyone who attended our second anniversary show. It was an excellent night; all the bands were on fire and the packed house made us feel very warm and fuzzy indeed. If you missed out, we got it on tape thanks to our awesome pal Kris on the desk and Jacqui behind the camera (who also gave me Animals on vinyl for my birthday), so hopefully we can put those two things together and chuck it up online at some point in the next week or so. But here's the best bit anyway.
