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.

Back in April I got a new job, which meant that I started commuting to Wakefield every day. I will hold my hands up, before getting said job I had never visited the city before – and indeed barely knew where it was. Since that point I’ve obviously been spending a lot of time in the city, getting know a certain number of the fine ale establishments prety well, and am slowly but surely falling for a load of bands in the city at the moment. Wakey is traditionally best know as the home of The Cribs, and to be fair the Jarmans are pretty damn great. But there are a load of other bands to be shouting about, so here is said shout…

Runaround Kids

These boys are ace. If you came to any PYT nights at Common between about May and the time we left Manchester then there is a good chance you will have heard Can’t Lose Lover by Runaround Kids as it is one of my favourite songs of the year. Their debut record Linked Arms is a cracking piece of British pop music, with massive slabs of Johnny Foreigner, Los Campesinos!, Dananananaykroyd and Sky Larkin swimming around in the shouty, melodic, noisy songs. I really, really like this record, and would urge you to give them a proper listen and then buy it. There is also what I’m taking as a terrific pun on a The National lyric towards the second half of the album.

Mi Mye

I first saw Mi Mye playing with Sky Larkin years and years ago at a gig which revolved around cake and fun. They were ace. Since then I’d not really heard of them for a while, but it turns out that Mi Mye are actually another of the great acts knocking about Wakefield. I listened to their album Senc to the Shaking for the first time today and can report that it is bloody brilliant. There are hints of a bit of Neutral Milk Hotel in this for me, but done in a far more direct-pop style. I really like it.

The Passing Fancy

This weekend I managed to take in my first gig in the city. By the way, the upstairs room in The Hop is pretty much perfect as a small venue goes – think a well equipped Star & Garter, run by a real ale brewery. Anyway, I went there to see Glasgow’s Zoey Van Goey, who were supported by Wakefield’s own The Passing Fancy. You know that pastiche ‘charm’ that Gideon Conn used to get away with years ago before it became really annoying, well The Passing Fancy gets away with it because he doesn’t pile it on with a bloody tractor. Whimsical pop, which trips along very nicely on record, and involves a bit more dancing and shouty backing vocals live. Dead nice.

The Spills

I’ll admit that The Spills are still currently on my list of ‘bands who I really need to get round to seeing and indeed listening to properly,’ but they are high enough up on said list to make it into this roundup. A friend of mine went to see them recently and reported back that they were way better than they recalled them ever being before, and that they are definitely the kind of band I’d like. Listening to Summer Vibes, lifted from their new album Occam’s Razor, I think I agree. I’m getting a Cribs/Los Camp! thing going on, which seems to be a trend developing. It seems that Wakefield is currently a hotbed for bands making pretty direct, pretty noisy, but very pop intended records. Which is exactly the kind of thing I want to be listening to.

Rhubarb Bomb

Did you know that Wakefield is also a hotbed of rhubarb growing? The city has a festival to celebrate every year. No, I didn’t really either. In fact, the first I knew of it was when we did a PYT zine swap with Dean, who edits the quite brilliant Rhubarb Bomb zine. It’s a really nice little zine, with a far more busy design than PYT, but I think that is one of the things that I really like about it. Where we’ve got lots of blank space for words to swim in, RB has got stuff, everywhere. Dean is also one of the brains behind the Long Division festival, which saw local bands playing alongside The Wedding Present, Los Camp!, Emmy The Great and Darwin Deez this year. I had planned on going to see some bands after I finished work at 6pm on the Saturday, but the whole festival was sold out by 2pm. I know that he is well on with making plans for 2012 too, so keep an eye on things. You might just end up wanting to come watch bands in Wakefield some time soon…

Moustache of Insanity – Album of Death reaches Austria!

Since releasing their fantastic debut long player Album of Death earlier this year, Moustache of Insanity have been having a rather awesome time of things. There has been loads of great press for the album, especially from Europe. In fact, for the first time ever as a label we have sold significantly more copies of a release on the continent than in the UK, which is pretty exciting. So it only makes sense that Nik and Bill are packing up their keyboards and heading to Vienna for a show this week!

Moustache of Insanity – Lynn Lowry by pullyourselftogether

UPCOMING DATES

20th October – Club Weird Kong at Transporter Bar, Vienna, Austria
8th November – Solipsistic Pop Book Launch at Concrete, London
11th November – The Wilmington Arms, London with Kid Canaveral, The Understudies and The Give-It Ups
25th November – somewhere in Birmingham with The Lovely Eggs and Ace Bushy Striptease
1st December – The Lexington, London with Jad Fair and The Lovely Eggs
10th December – The Chameleon, Nottingham with Just Handshakes (we’re British)

Patterns – Lamacq, New single, Swn and more

MOI aren’t the only band on their travels this week. It is but a year since we asked Patterns to play our In The City showcase at Common, and since then we’ve seen them go from strength to incredible strength. Last week Steve Lamacq invited them onto his 6 Music show for an interview as his ‘New Favourite Band,’ which we listened to with an enormous sense of pride at PYT Towers. Patterns have a frankly bloody brilliant new single out this week on the excellent Melodic Records, and are playing a few dates around the country in support. If you are heading to Cardiff’s annual everything that is brilliant in music fest Swn, then make sure to fit Patterns into your plans for Saturday. After that the band are readying themselves to cross the Channel for a couple of big shows in France, including a great Manchester show in Nantes in November.

Patterns – New Noise EP by pullyourselftogether

UPCOMING DATES

21st October – The Bowery, Sheffield
22nd October – Swn Festival, Cardiff
9th November – Basement Sessions, La cave du Lautrec, Paris
11th November – Stereolux, Nantes
18th November – supporting Neon Indian, Night & Day, Manchester

Christopher Eatough – Art, festivals, songs

Those of you who have a keen eye in Manchester may have spotted that Christopher Eatough took a couple of steps out of the shadows over the weekend. After taking a bit of break, Christopher played a terrific set at the opening of the current Manchester School of Art exhibtion, before joining the multitude of bands tearing around the Northern Quarter for the Carefully Planned festival. He’s not quite had enough sleep yet, but don’t worry, Mr. Eatough is coming out of hibernation properly soon.

Christopher Eatough – Shades of Blue by pullyourselftogether

Advances in Mathematics – New signings, new single

And finally, PYT Records are very proud to welcoming one of our favourite bands of the moment to the label, Manchester’s Advances in Mathematics. Advances make the kind of postrock that sends us off into a dream like state, and we have been itching to do something with them since putting them on with Patterns at last year’s In The City. Anyone who has seen them live before will know that ManchesterMusic.co.uk’s review of them as “flowing beautifully, expanding and contracting, soaring and diving, crashing in a hail of drums and slipping away through the echoes of a delay pedal” is pretty on the button. We will be releasing more details of Advances in Mathematics’ new single soon, but for now we’ll let you know that it is sounding great, and will be coming out before 2011 is over!

Advances in Mathematics by advancesband

UPCOMING DATES

20th October – Flat Field launch night, Platt Chapel, Manchester

First up it’s the first gig we get to go to in our new home of Sheffield, as Pop-O-Matic host Moustache of Insanity and the Heroes of the Mexican Independence Movement over at the Red House. Dan Pop-O-Matic certainly showed that his nights are a hell of a lot of fun at his Sunday night campsite disco at Indietracks, so we’re very much looking forward to our first proper experience of it! There’s also this pretty ace poster:

Then on Saturday we’re very excited to be heading down to London-Town for the official Album of Death launch party! Librarians Wanted have put together a bit of an all-out extravaganza for this one, with four whole support acts in the form of Fever Dream, The Understudies, The Cellophane Flowers and Lisa Bouvier and PYT will be assisting with the DJing into the wee small hours. This will also be a rare occasion to see Moustache of Insanity play as a five-piece! We’re not sure yet who’s joining Nik and Bill on stage but we’re very much looking forward to it! Come down to the Dog Star in Brixton from 7.30pm to join in the fun.

And then for those in need of a little rejuvenation on a Sunday afternoon, MoI will be playing an acoustic set at the Little Pad vintage shop in Stoke Newington at 3pm. Soothe away those hangovers with a good old shoutalong! This Indietracks video shows you what an acoustic Moustache set goes like:

And finally, if you like what you hear, head over to the PYT bandcamp page to order the album for a value-tastic £6!

The first time Dan (PYT) and Hannah (PYT) eyes met was across a crowded Arndale Food Court. Hannah was on her traditional Spud U Like lunch feast whilst Dan was over by a short run pretentious Greek food stall demanding service. Buzz band of the time ‘The Courteeners’ were playing on the shopping prescient’s PA system and as Manc God Poet Liam Frey crooned ‘You’re night 19 forever, pull yourself together’ Dan & Hannah fell in love. A love built on music, fanzines and generally fopping around town being lovely.

Try as I might, I’ve never got that rumour to stick about Dan & Hannah or the birth of their brilliant night/zine/label extraordinaire Pull Yourself Together. In fact, it was born out of Los Campesinos! gigs, Hefner b-sides and dancing like Gin’ed up twats in at the Star & Garter.

The fact that the everything has not only grown but got better is testament to PYT’s passion, enthusiasm and commitment to bands you’ve never heard of! The bi-monthly night at Common was a perfect mid week catch up. ‘You bring your friends, we’ll bring the soundtrack’ is a real nice ethos and has suited me and a load of satisfied punters for 3 years now.

The zine has also had some brilliant moments. The time I got to write a short column will of course go down in publishing history but I’ve also learnt and found out about heaps of great music and this has been nicely offset with PYTs overpowering love of tea and beer.

And finally the label…when Dan & Hannah said they were releasing some bands, I feared they were going to be the indiest, tiniest sounding piles of crap with names like “Cardigans, Candles and Foreman” or “Polaroid Photos of Puppies” but no! Patterns, Christopher Eatough and Moustache Of Insanity (actually that’s a name I kinda expected) have all brought us great great music.

It’s gutting to see PYT move over the hills. Not least because in Dan & Hannah, I have met two lovely brilliant people but also because I will miss drinking too much on a Wednesday night, pestering them to play the new Arctic Monkeys single and having a zine in my bag for train journeys.

Peter Jones works in education for an award winning company. He enjoys Leicester City Football Club, The West Wing and The National far too much.