Tigercats – Full Moon Reggae Party

It’s been around for a wee while now, but its worth saying that Tigercats’ debut album, Isle of Dogs, is a real treat; indiepop at its best, in turns toe-tapping, infectious, joyous and – if I’m allowed to get away with saying this – life-affirming. Full Moon Reggae Party is very much a party track, and the video, animated by the band’s own Duncan Barrett is a lovely bit of tropical, psychedelic loveliness.

tigercatsband.com

Allo Darlin’ – Capricornia

It shouldn’t really come as any surprise that Allo Darlin’s second album, Europe, is a bit of a blinder. More mature and assured than their debut, and yet still as tender and heartfelt both lyrically and musically. Capricornia is a perfect showcase of this, and the video – directed by ‘Friend of PYT’ Nik Vestberg, is rather super.

allodarlin.com

This Many Boyfriends – (I Should Be A) Communist

Well, Nik’s been a little bit busy really, as he’s also directed this little beauty for This Many Boyfriends, for their new single which is due out later this month. Anything that involves bear suits and the Brudenell gets our vote.

thismanyboyfriends.com

Standard Fare – 051107

Another one that’s been a while, but still worth revisiting as far as we’re concerned! A train into the Peak District provides a perfect backdrop to this singalong gem.

standardfare.co.uk

The School

Ahead of releasing their Bacharach-esque new LP, we are delighted to bring Cardiff’s finest popsters to Sheffield. Combining such influences as indie-pop and the brightest shimmering 60s productions, The School’s style is a Brit version of sunshine pop with moments of light and shadow, the kind of infectious, hyper-melodic pop you can simultaneously cry and dance to. Sophisticated, happy songs, with a little melancholy thrown in them, inspired by The Beach Boys (and the fantastic American Spring, produced by Brian Wilson), The Beatles, Phil Spector and girl bands from the 60’s. Not forgetting, of course, other current bands with whom they share references and tastes, bands that also wrap their sweet melodies in wonderful keyboard and string arrangements, bands like Belle and Sebastian, Saturday Looks Good To Me, Camera Obscura, Jim Noir, Lucky Soul, The Brunettes or Little My.

http://theschoolband.co.uk/

Standard Fare

In a year where indiepop records are coming thick and fast, Standard Fare set the standard (sorry, pun intended) right at the top to kick things off with their terrific second long-player Out of Sight, Out of Town. As ever, it is a delight to be able to put on one of our very favourite bands.

http://standardfare.co.uk/

The Sweet Nothings

You already know who The Sweet Nothings are right? They’re that Sheffield band that make the noisy but twinkly popsongs about accounting and socialism. They’re dead good. You’ll really like em.

http://thesweetnothings.co.uk/

Tickets £5 adv from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/165793

When we moved PYT over the Sheffield we always knew that it would take a bit of time to find a new home for the night, because we needed to find a venue where it felt just right. Well, after quite a lot of time spent drinking in lovely places around the city we have found the right one! Not only that, they want us to do a disco! So, we are absolutely delighted to announce that as the end of April the last Saturday of the month means only one thing - Pull Yourself Together at DAda!

Here at PYT we think that Saturday nights should be about having a great time with friends right? Well, what better place to do that than at an ace disco! Pull Yourself Together will be the place to combine these things, and have an awesome night dancing to some of your favourite popsongs. After three and a bit years soundtracking Manchester’s Northern Quarter, PYT are ready to carry on in just the same way in the Steel City – great popsongs, brilliant drinks and loads of fun. You bring the friends, we’ll do the rest.

For anyone who doesn’t know it, DAda is a cracking bar on Trippet Lane, which is one street down from West Street in the city centre. It’s got a lovely feel to it, and most importantly has room for dancing and a brilliant selection of drinks – it is a Thornbridge pub! We’re really looking forward to making DAda our new home, and hope that you can join us on Saturday 28th April to celebrate our first night!

The brilliant poster comes from the pen of Adam at Croatoan Design, and we think it is absolutely ace!

PYT-o-matic! presents…

Jack Lesser Lewis’ Awkward Energy
with support from The Middle Ones

Friday 15th June, The Redhouse

Tickets £4 in advance – http://www.wegottickets.com/event/165151

Jack Lesser Lewis’ Awkward Energy

Despite the self-deprecating moniker, Jack (the “lesser” Lewis in question) is in comfortable possession of a style every bit as noteworthy as that of his brother, antifolk magnet Jeffrey Lewis. Whereas the latter employs words by the deluge Jack and his band Awkward Energy tend to favor far more melody and far less vicious satire in their muttering indie compositions. This has made for a style so unassuming as to have gone halfway unnoticed in Jack Lewis’ adopted Portland hometown, but it’s much more an issue of lack of volume than lack of quality.

http://awkwardenergy.bandcamp.com/

The Middle Ones

The Middle Ones are Anna Knowles (guitar, vocals) and Grace Denton (accordion, percussion, vocals) and both hail from the north of England, but formed the band whilst at university in Norwich. Over the last couple of years they have won fans from around the world, shared the stage with the likes of Jeffrey Lewis and Calvin Johnson, and toured with Rose Melberg and Best Friends Forever. Their debut album, It Is The Rehearsal That Will Make This (Stitch-Stitch/Discount Horse) is a triumph of melody and beautiful echoing tenderness. Vocal harmonies weave tender, honest songs that betray a knowing melancholie, as well as a care-free, starry-eyed joy for life – a joy for simply singing, for stamping feet, for shouting out loud.

http://themiddleones.bancamp.com

Ladies and Gents, Allo Darlin’ are coming to Sheffield TOMORROW NIGHT! HURRAH! To get you in the mood for the fun and games at Queens Social Club (you do all remember that the gig has been moved there right? More room for dancing!) on Friday night, here are some songs from all the bands who will be playing the pop for you to dance to! Tickets are only £7, and we would definitely suggest buying them in advance as it is going to be busy tomorrow night, so you don’t want to be wasting time queueing up with your pennies to get in!

Allo Darlin’

Allo Darlin’ – Tallulah from Will Botting on Vimeo.

Allo Darlin’ – Capricornia by Slumberland Records

Standard Fare

This Many Boyfriends

The Passing Fancy

When we booked Allo Darlin’ to play in Sheffield as our first gig in our new city we always knew it was going to be a popular show. However, we certainly didn’t expect it to be the first show on their tour to sell out and leave us with people getting in touch left, right, centre, over and above about the fact that they had missed out on tickets. So, due to overwhelming public demand, we are moving the gig to Queens Social Club.

Allo Darlin’ – Tallulah from Will Botting on Vimeo.

All original tickets will remain valid, you’ll just need to bring your confirmation as normal. The lineup for the gig remains the same, only now there is room to get even more people in to enjoy four of our favourite bands around at the moment, and more importantly – everyone has more room to have a dance to them all!

Tickets are now back on sale to anyone who missed out – just hit the link below. Tell all your friends that they can now join you for a good old dance to some ace music!

PYT presents…
Allo Darlin’

with support from
Standard Fare
This Many Boyfriends
The Passing Fancy

Friday 24th February. Queens Social Club, Sheffield.
Tickets – £7: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/143788

Well, not DEAD per-say, but not all that alive. We are very sad to share the following communication with you from Nik and Bill. We would like to shout from the rooftops about how wonderful it has been working with the band over the past 12 months or so since we started discussing releasing their music, and continue to be delighted every time that someone tells us how great they think the record is.

We first kind of heard about this crazy band when we put Allo Darlin’ on for the first time many moons ago, and this Swedish guy who was going around with Elizabeth gave us his CD. Jump forward to May of 2009 and we have just put the band on in Fuel, and are now back in Hannah’s flat looking at sexytime photos of Chuck Norris. A beautiful friendship was born. We’ve had some proper proud moments since releasing Album of Death, including seeing MOI smash Indietracks apart twice in a weekend, and of course their bloodgutsandall album launch show in that London.

Goodbye Moustache, maybe you really did overdo the cheese this time.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Hi all,

Yesterday, me and Bill decided to call it a day with the band. It was a hard decision to make, but it feels like the right one. I’m sure we’ll do something together again at some point in the future, but at the moment this just feels like a good time to stop. There are just too many other things going on in our lives that need to be prioritised.

We will play the remaining shows listed on our website, but then that’s it. A big massive thanks to all of you for the support over the past four years. It’s because of you guys we kept at it as long as we did.

The music will of course continue to be available, most of it for free. If you haven’t gotten yourself a physical copy of Album Of Death, you still can. But, you better hurry cause they won’t last forever. If sales continue at the current speed all CD copies will be gone by June 2034. You’ve been warned.

But, as I said…we still have some unfinished business to take care of…six more shows and we’re planning to bring some serious levels of awesome to each of them.

03/02/12 – Fever Dream single launch at The Others, London
04/02/12 – Ace Bushy Alldayer (with The Middle Ones, Standard Fare etc), The Victoria, Birmingham
10/02/12 – Silver Bullet, London
18/02/12 – The Victoria, Hitchin
01/03/12 – The Cellar, Oxford (with Allo Darlin’)
16/03/12 – Singapora Lounge, Rochester

And we won’t stop making music. Bill is going to be a busy bee this year with Allo Darlin’ and their forthcoming album would make Chuck Norris proud. It’s truly awesome.

I’m going to attempt to record a couple of songs myself, hopefully to be released as a cassette EP on Fika in the not too distant future. Expect endless film references and a lot of Game Boy J

And me and Bill will try to find some time to record one last song as Moustache of Insanity in the next few weeks. It’ll be a cover, but that’s all I’m allowed to say I think. Anyway, it’ll be a fitting way to say good bye.

I’ll leave you all with our live “video” for Cheese & Freckles, made back in October 2008, a week before we played our first ever show. It’s pretty cringeworthy, but it makes me smile.

Thanks for being awesome! Hope to see you at one of these final shows. Come up and say hi…or good bye.

Nik and Bill xx

Rather late on the uptake here (please excuse our tardiness once again), but in case it has escaped your notice, Darren Hayman and Fika Recordings have been pursuing rather a delightful project throughout December, giving away free, Christmas-themed MP3s every day over at the Fika website.

This musical advent calendar includes tracks by the likes of Ballboy, Bill Botting (of Moustache of Insanity and Allo Darlin’ fame), Moustache of Insanity themselves, Standard Fare’s Emma Cooper, and a rare musical outing for Josie Long amongst others. Every day has brought a new delight and they are all available to play and download at fikarecordings.com/christmasinhaworth – we would thoroughly recommend that you get in on the action. Plus if you’re quick you may still be able to buy Darren Hayman’s Christmas in Haworth EP, which sparked the whole thing off!

We teamed up with Fika in the summer to release Moustache of Insanity’s Album of Death, and they have released many other fine (and beautifully made) records and cassettes by the likes of Amida and Red Shoe Diaries. And if that wasn’t testament enough to their status as all-round good eggs, they’re only going and releasing the debut album from Tigercats, one of our favourite new bands of 2011!

Here’s to a Merry, Music-Filled Christmas

PYT xx

In December of 2010, whilst driving back to Manchester from a weekend of excess at ATP in Minehead, Pull Yourself Together Records were trying to get enough 3G connection on a phone to listen to what was about to become the first release on their new label. Now, 12 months on from Patterns’ New Noise EP, via Christopher Eatough’s heartbreaking debut album and Moustache of Insanity’s noisepop monster, PYT Records are celebrating their birthday in the only way they know, by releasing a single from a band they love.

Advances In Mathematics formed in Manchester when guitarist Ben Ambridge advertised for a band to play his post-rock-meets-dream-pop demos. Ben’s previous effort at making post-rock had ended in a flurry of “jazz drumming and bad singing” and in the meantime he’d become drummer for indie-pop sextet Help Stamp Out Loneliness.

Guitarist Iain Mitchell answered an advert posted on a message board in a guitar shop, a method that seems almost less antiquated than Adam Comstive’s recruitment via MySpace. Ben had promoted a number of gigs for the bass player’s former band, who he knew had recently split. Having carelessly misplaced a third (or maybe fourth) drummer late in 2009 the band ended up with former Billy Mahonie guitarist Hywell Dinsdale in the hotseat. The frenetic, creative style of his drumming quickly added the missing ingredient to the band’s pot, and the finally-settled 4-piece set about building a live reputation in their adopted city.

By this time the band’s name had been selected at random from a list of scientific journals, and their range of influences expanded to reflect not just the shoegaze, post-rock sound of the early rehearsals, but a tighter, melodically-driven indie edge and dynamic guitar progressions owing as much to folk and country as the immediate genre cornerstones of Mogwai and Explosions In The Sky. Support slots with the likes of Vessels, Nine Black Alps and A Sunny Day in Glasgow followed, with 2010 seeing Advances feature as the opening act of In The City, playing to a packed-out venue alongside the hotly-tipped Patterns.

The Sad Xmas Present EP is the result of a year of writing and recording, playing a limited number of shows while figuring out how best to capture their live sound from the confines of windowless rehearsal room. The limited edition physical release of the EP will be the epitome of a Sad Xmas Present, with each CD individually wrapped, hand stamped and numbered.

Tracklisting
1. Border
2. Sad Xmas Present
“Advances in Mathematics have the curious distinction of being the only post-rock band that I’ve ever heard an indiepop edge to.”  – High Voltage

“A beautiful lament that manages to convey immense poignancy without needing words” – ManchesterMusic.co.uk

“ chiming instrumental indie-post-rock that’s as closely related to The Chameleons and I Like Trains as it is Mogwai…each tune simply flows beautifully, expanding and contracting, soaring and diving, crashing in a hail of drums and slipping away through the echoes of a delay pedal.” – ManchesterMusic.co.uk

FAQs about Advances in Mathematics

The ‘Sad Christmas Present’ in question is the Tremelo pedal Ben asked for 4 years ago. He got it, then felt like a bit of a loser. It features heavily in the song that carries its name.

The best excuse they’ve had for being late to a gig in 2011 has been “Sorry, I got drunk with my drums”.

The worst name they’ve given a new song, which was debuted at a gig in May 2011, was “It’s Ryan Giggs”. It seemed terribly clever at the time. The song has subsequently been renamed ‘Slow News Day’, thank God.

‘Border’ from the ‘Sad Xmas Present EP’ was the first song the band wrote as a 3 piece. It got the name because the chord progression means it borders on being a country song.

Given that PYT Records has a long association with the moustache, we felt that we should do something to help the fantastic work done by the Movember Foundation to promote awareness of male cancers and raising money to fight them. SO, every copy of Moustache of Insanity’s Album of Death which is sold through the PYT Shop until the end of the month will see us donate £1 to the Movember cause. You don’t need to do anything special – just buy the record, listen to the songs, and feel good about the fact you are supporting a very worthwhile charity.

Hit the link below to pick up your copy today.