Thursday 19 January 2017

SJI: Assholopocolypse (2017)




Two track digital single, now available through Bandcamp:

Tracklist:
1) Bad Hombres
2) Take The Baby (And Rip The Baby)

Personnel:
g.w.lang (Vocals, Guitar, Organ, Various), Donald J Trump (Vocals).

Produced by Jimmy Buxton for Mario's Recording Services, Ashington, Northumberland.


SJI: Prohibition Bar, Gateshead. 12th January 2017




A tremendous night at the Prohibition Bar featuring alternating sets by SJI and Nev Clay, and ending with a combined runthrough of Cuddy's Cave.

Setlist:
Set 1
The Cover of NARC
Young and Miserable
I'm Funny That Way
Eight For A Fiver

Set 2
Uncommon People
It'll Be Alright
Living Beneath The Blue Star

Set 3
Cuddy's Cave

Personnel:
g.w.lang (Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards), Nev Clay (Guitar, Vocals).

Absolutely tons of photos on the Facebook events page HERE.

Watch Cuddy's Cave below:



Addendum:

Thanks to Lee Fisher for this great review in NARC.




Wednesday 11 January 2017

Next gig - Prohibition Bar, Gateshead. 12th January 2017



This should be a goodie - st james infirmary in solo gwl guise and the genius of Nev Clay.

Here's a lovely write-up by Lee Fisher for NARC:

"Two ludicrously talented and ludicrously overlooked musicians make for one special show

By Lee Fisher on Monday, January 9th, 2017

You don’t have to have been around the Tyneside music scene for long to realise that both Nev Clay and St James Infirmary are both ludicrously talented and ludicrously overlooked – taken for granted even. They’ve notched up the best part of 50 years of playing between them, and hundreds of gigs (including a few together) and are both spoken of in hushed tones by the likes of Richard Dawson, Cath & Phil Tyler and Kathryn Williams. The next of their gigs sees them both set to play Prohibition Cabaret Bar on Thursday 12th January.

Nev Clay trades in gentle, poignant, insightful acoustic music that he’d probably hesitate to call folk (although his love for metal shines through in the occasional bursts of shredding). Unassuming and modest to a fault, nonetheless his honesty and his ability to throw a spotlight on small moments of sadness or delight get you right in the feels. The man is a master.

St James Infirmary is primarily Gary Lang, the ‘Ashington Brian Wilson’ (although depending on the night, he could equally be the Ashington Steven O’Malley, the Ashington Klaus Wunderlich or the Ashington Father Yod). A veritable cottage industry, he self-releases a bewildering stream of music from his secret bunker at Mario’s Recording Services: everything from lush electro-pop to psychedelic jams, neighbour-sampling doom to baroque covers of Richard Dawson songs. It’s fair to say you never know what to expect from an SJI gig except something to remember. So this Tyneside titan, double-header, no-holds-barred, (no)-grudge match seems pretty unmissable, especially since all proceeds are being donated to the mental health charity MIND – particularly appropriate since both artists have had long careers in that field."

Source: http://narcmagazine.com/news-nev-clay-sji-prohibition-cabaret-bar/

Full details HERE

Buy your tickets direct from HERE

And check out Nev Clay HERE

Tuesday 3 January 2017

SJI: A look ahead to 2017.

After being very lax as regards updates, I've pretty much caught up with things. There'll be things I've missed, releases I've overlooked, photos and posters that I can't find on social media any more, even some set-lists here and there, but by and large we're where we need to be.

It's always worth while keeping an eye on the SJI Soundcloud page - tracks often get posted there first, and sometimes they don't become part of a larger project until much later (if ever). For example, if you weren't following the page you'd have missed sji's imagining if The Velvet Undergound had released a Christmas album:



It's also worthwhile following the SJI and Mario's Recording Services Facebook pages (the latter gets more updates than the former):

SJI Facebook Page HERE
Mario's Recording Services Facebook Page HERE

I also wanted to particularly point out that SJI were the subject of some impressive (boy) detective work courtesy of the Cloudberry Cake Proselytism V.3 blog, who gave us a lovely write-up HERE.

Which reminds me I need to scan and upload a great write-up that Pete Dale (Milky Wimpshake, Red Monkey etc) published in his fanzine A Love Letter For the Future. I can't find anything about it online, which is how it probably should be.

COMING UP IN 2017

The first gig of the year is with the brilliant Nev Clay at The Prohibition Bar, Gateshead, on the 12th January. Event Page HERE:


Releases
There will be a limited edition cassette of new material on Concrète Tapes. On their website they describe it as "truly uncategorisable".

There will also be a cassette release of a collaboration project with Cath Tyler (Cath and Phil Tyler, Fret!, Cordelia's Dad). Watch out for more details, it is called Blackdamp.


It's likely that this year we'll get around to releasing Artefacts: Sacred and Profane, as well as reissuing Ashington. The tracks are all mastered, we just need to do something with them. Here's a taster from Artefacts; it features Nev Clay on vocals and Richard Dawson on guitar:


Also this year, for the fifth time, there will be an Almanac project- an EP a month for 12 months. They'll go out to subscribers first and get uploaded to Bandcamp shortly thereafter. For details of previous Almanacs, head back through the blog. Almanacs 3 and 4 are all up on Bandcamp.


That's all for now, more as it happens. x


SJI: First Annual Report Cassette (2016)




SJI are proud to appear on the compilation cassette First Annual Report, on the Concrète Tapes label. You can find them HERE. You can buy the cassette HERE.


Tracklist
1) Portland Vows - Mobile
2) Stefano Leproto - Theme from Goblinvore
3) Field Lines Cartographer - Magnetic Anomaly (Impulse Array Remix)
4) Preston Field Audio - Finches Foray
5) Yehoshua - Corrections
6) St James Infirmary - Wooden Baroque
7) Hyberus - Accelerating Towards Synchronicity
8) Turantula - Harp Kino
9) Polypores - Sleep Logic
10) Otherchannels - Checkmate (live)

Personnel
g.w.lang

Wooden Baroque is a cover of Wooden Bag by the excellent Richard Dawson. Find out more about Richard HERE.

Recorded by Jimmy Buxton for Mario's Recording Services, Ashington, Northumberland.

Watch out for a new SJI album on Concrète Tapes in 2017.



SJI: Bad Hombres / Take The Baby (And Rip The Baby). (2016)




Two track single, streaming only.

Tracklist
1) Bad Hombres
2) Take The Baby (And Rip The Baby)

Personnel
g.w.lang, Donald J Trump

Subsequently released as Assholopocolypse (2017) - HERE

SJI: Northumberland Arms, Newcastle. 13th October 2016.




Northumberland Arms, Newcastle

Setlist
01) Pol Pit

One 16-minute doom-rock track.

Personnel

g.w. lang (Guitars, Loops, Effects)



SJI: Crisis Cafe, Newcastle. 9th October 2016.


Crisis Cafe, Newcastle

Setlist
Set 1
1) Young and Miserable
2) The Pigeon Men
3) 84a5r

Set 2
1) Gregg's Sausage Roll
2) Pity Me

3) Toledo

Personnel
g.w.lang (Vocals, guitar)

SJI: Oktoberfest House Party. 8th October 2016.



Oktoberfest-themed house party in support of the Star and Shadow Crowdfunder

Setlist
1) Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite (The Beatles)
2) Heino's Hair
3) Wooden Heart (Elvis Presley)
4) Matty Sauerkraut Haus
5) Falling In Love Again (Marlene Dietrich)
6) The Dammen Love Mark Herron

Personnel
g.w.lang (Vocals, Backing tracks). Mark Oliver - (Vocals, Guitar)

SJI: The Dammen Love Mark Herron (2016)




The Dammen Love Mark Herron - Limited edition CDR


Written for the Star and Shadow fundraising event. SJI put themselves up for sale, offering a house-gig and a specially written song for whoever bought us.

Tracklist
1) The Dammen Love Mark Herron

Personnel
g.w.lang

Recorded by Jimmy Buxton, for Mario's Recording Services, Ashington, Northumberland.




SJI: CoquetFest, Druridge Bay Country Park. 4th - 6th September 2015.

UPDATE - Missed gig from 2015!

4-6 September 2015 - CoquetFest
sji vs Smartis

Setlist
1) The Boy Who Crossed The Street
2) Let's Wallow In Despair (Like We Did Last Summer)
3) Eight For A Fiver

Personnel
g.w.lang

SJI: Harvest From The Deep Festival, North Shields. 13th August 2016



Harvest From The Deep Festival

Setlist
1) Hello
2) Let's Wallow In Despair
3) Interlude
4) This Agitated World
5) Living Beneath The Blue Star
6) Interlude
7) All That Is Solid Melts Into Air

Personnel

g.w.lang (Vocals, Keyboards, Guitars, Backing Tapes)

This performance featured some specially-prepared video accompaniment:















Fret! Killing Nico EP (2016)




Fret! Killing Nico EP - Limited edition cassette (August 2016)

g.w.lang made a guest appearance on this cassette by the excellent Fret!

Tracklist
1) Killing Nico
2) Mexican Ting
3) Punch
4) Dark As A Dungeon

Tracks 1, 2 and 3 originally recorded, engineered and mastered by M.P Wood at The Soundroom, Gateshead (UK) on 26 June 2015. Additional mixing / mastering on 26 April 2016 

Track 4 recorded live at First Avenue, Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) on 2 December 2015. Arranged by G.W. Lang. Additional production by Jimmy Buxton at Mario's Recording Services, Ashington, Northumberland (UK), February - April 2016. Originally written by Merle Travis 1946. Inspired by Wall Of Voodoo 1985

Credits
released August 2, 2016 

Fret! on this recording are: 

Rob Woodcock - flails 
Cath Tyler - thrum / la 
Steve Strode - twang 
G.W. Lang - fauxbrass / harmonium 

Artwork by Tom McCarthaigh 

Design by James Watts 




g.w.lang appears courtesy of Mario's Recording Services of Ashington, Northumberland.

SJI: All That Is Solid Melts Into Air (2016)




All That Is Solid Melts Into Air - Limited Edition CDR (2016)

Tracklist
1) Whisht
2) Scar
3) Whistler
4) This Agitated World
5) Signals
6) (It's A Matter Of) Time
7) Wall
8) Overweight
9) Age
10) Stat
11) All That Is Solid

Personnel
g.w.lang (Guitar, Vocals, Keyboards, Electronics)

All songs by gwl. Recorded by Jimmy Buxton for Mario's Recording Services, Ashington, Northumberland.

Review by Lee Fisher, NARC Magazine:
http://narcmagazine.com/panic-carousels-july-2016/

"Northumberland musician and brutalist visionary G W Lang has been making music as St James Infirmary for decades now (there are releases listed on Discogs as far back as 1989 at least). Sometimes the recordings are the work of Lang alone, beavering away in his Ashington bunker, sometimes it involves regular collaborator Mark Oliver, sometimes a revolving cast of guests, including notable local musicians like Cath & Phil Tyler. SJI have a blog here, and various self-released projects are available. No one SJI release is the same (a recent highlight was Awaken / You Are Forsaken!!!, a brilliantly bewildering extended acid jam that had more than a little of Father Yod & The Source Family about it). The latest SJI release, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air, just out, is a gem – 11 tracks that veer from the wonky shuffle of This Agitated World to the plaintive Eno-sque ballad Wall to the epic, almost motorik title track. Lang played everything on this one, which is amazing in itself, but without songs it would just be a vanity project. Luckily, Lang has plenty of great songs. St. James Infirmary is like Northumberland’s Guided By Voices or Jandek or something, and fully deserves your attention."

Lee Fisher is also worthy of your attention.





Inner photo by Craig Puranen Wilson

SJI: Ashington Football Club, Ashington. 24th July 2016.


Setlist
1) New Ashington Song (aka Yet Another Ashington Song)
2) Let's Wallow In Despair
3) Game Of Soldiers
4) A Rave Thing
5) Eight For A Fiver

Personnel
g.w. lang