The Shadowcops

TNS Compilation (Volume 2)

2009-08-21T14:21:00.001+01:00

Our track, The Sleeper Awakes features on this new double disc release from our mates at TNSrecords. It is now available to buy from the website for £6.00.

http://www.tnsrecords.co.uk/webstore

Have a look at the website to see where you can buy a CD from an actual shop in your area.

There are some other super cool bands on there also (as well as us , obviously!). The track listing is as follows:

CD1

The Shadowcops - The Sleeper Awakes
Sounds of Swami - Bandwagon Hi-Jack
Revenge of the Psychotronic Man - Blackpool ROCK
Rising Strike - Force of Habit, Habit of Force
D'Corner Bois - Everything's a Mess
The Kirkz - Brain Dead
The Emos - Jason Bourne Ready
Dangerfields - Gimme Gimme Rock n' Roll
The Dead Reckoning - Heads Up
The Hyperjax - Talkin' New York City
The Great St Louis - Safe
The Nova Fives - Love Letters
Acid Drop - Polly Piper
Just Add Monsters - Discontent
Fair Do's - When It All Goes Wrong
The Dangerous Aces - Lock In
The Terrors - Disasters Only Get Worse?
SmackRats - Dead Men Don't Act Like Cunts
2 Sick Monkeys - Why?

CD2

Harijan - Portland Street
Cartoon Violence - Kite
Stand Out Riot - Speacesuit
John Player Specials - the Wilsonator
Jimmy the Squirrel - Seat Up High
The Hostiles - Bad Day For Shorts
The Hijacks - Greed and Fear
The Fractions - Down and Out
Sense of Urgency - Lowbrow
A War Against Sound - Premature Chokehold
Kickback UK - Reality Check
Faintest Idea - Why Don't Rich Kids Go War?
The Autonomads - Supermarket Sweep
Rasta4Eyes - Oscar and Arthur
Just Panic - Killer Fairytales
Los Salvadores - Empty Boxes
Bootscraper - There Will Be Blood
The Medicine Bow - This Side of Town (Train Song)

The release is also followed by an album launch which we're playing.

Nathan x

Two gigs this weekend (St. Helens & Halifax)

2009-08-20T00:17:00.006+01:00

So, we've got a weekend of staggeringly spectacular gigs coming up this weekend:

Friday 21st

THE Aponepunk WEEKENDER:

21-22 August, Fluid Live Lounge, Bridge St, St Helens.

FRIDAY 21st: The Distrakted, Geoffrey Oi!Cott, The Redneck Zombies, Flat Back Four, Pete Bentham and the Dinner Ladies, Brassneck, The Shadowcops, Dying for Toto, Glue Ear. 6pm Start. DJ Jeff's Rocknight downstairs.

SATURDAY 22nd: A Victory at Sea, A War Against Sound, The John Player Specials, Metro Manila Aide, Deterant, Paul Carter, Russel Can’t Drive, Rasta4eyes, Hummer, Straight Out of Moscow, The Crux, Chris Scotty & Friends (The Sprit of John), Cupboard Wolves. 3pm start.

PLUS music and CD stall from Shore Records (Blackpool), meet and greet the Rainy City Roller Girls, and participate in flump and pie eating races!

FREE entry all weekend.

Saturday 22nd

6 bands 1 night!
TNS records and Punk & Disordely present ::

* Harijan - Ska / Punk / Reggae

*Stand Out Riot - an elite 7-piece ska-punk-hardcore-gypsy horde from Manchester

*The Shadowcops - punk rock influenced by Therapy? and The Wildhearts

*Revenge Of The Psychotronic Man - Manchesters most idiotic punk band

*Sounds of Swami - Alternative / Punk / Rock

*Acid Drop - beer-swilled punk rock

and its all FREE!!!

Nathan x

Work that we do - cover songs

2009-08-15T16:45:00.009+01:00

Howdy,

Today I thought I'd take some time to give a brief history of all the songs that The Shadowcops have covered. By this I mean the ones we play in our regular sets, as opposed to the legion of songs we've done for karaoke nights, that Star In Their Eyes gig, and Lisa's birthday. Partly because that would take me an eon to write, but also because somewhere in that dense mix is a Wham cover, and I don't really want to go into detail about how that came to be.

This also excludes the great number of songs that we have attempted to cover at practice and either completely failed to get right (Bronksi Beat's 'Small Town Boy', our only venture with keyboards), or decided that we're far too cool to try and play on stage (2Unlimited's 'No Limit').
So without further a do, the five songs that we have covered in our sets:

1) Chuck Berry - Johnny B Goode

This seems like a long time ago now, but for our first few gigs we used to end with a cover of Johnny B Goode. I was never that keen on playing this song, as I only had to play three notes whilst Nat and Owen plastered the room with indulgent solos (not that I'm bitter at all).

However it was still early days for the band, and this was quite unlike anything we were playing, so at least it put a bit of variety into our sets. It also brought a bit of humour as well as it gave us a chance to try and imitate Chuck's moves and the like. For me, the earlier material seems quite dark, especially when compared to the more light hearted material we're writing now (even if we are preparing to record a song called 'Carnage in Carthage'), so on reflection it was a chance for the band to show that we weren't under the funk, and didn't just get our kicks from wearing black shirts and thrashing down-tuning guitars.

2) Husker Du - Do You Remember?

One of our first gigs was a complete set of The Wildhearts covers for a Stars In Their Eyes charity night, and we got a taste for it. Without even having another SITE gig lined up we decided in typical industrious fashion to spend a couple of months getting a Husker Du set lined up. Sadly, most of the songs never saw the light of day, we have yet to play another SITE gig and so far only this song from the setlist we had prepared has ever made it to the stage.

When we were each compiling our list of Husker songs to play, it became apparent that this early number of theirs actually sounded like something we might have written, so it felt quite natural to cover it. Since then we've played it any number of times, but so far the responses we've had have been a bit mixed; that's just what you get from picking lesser known songs. However I love the video we have of us playing in at the Castle in Manchester for Nat's birthday (even though my bass is out of tune), as it's bursting with energy and highlights exactly why this song fits perfectly into our set.

I'm also quite proud that we never gave into temptation and changed the chorus lyrics to:

Do you remember
To check our myspace

Mainly because it's reeeeeally tacky, but also because it's a grammatical nightmare. That's where the line was drawn, people!

3) Replacements - Bastards of Young

Despite the current trend being set by Mr Tarantino, The Shadowcops heartily endorse spelling bastard with two a's. Just don't ask us to agree on a pronunciation of it.

Moving swiftly on, since as far back as I can remember in the band's history Nat has always suggested that we do a Replacements song. I believe originally the idea was to do Takin A Ride, although I've piped in with Dope Smokin Moron and Stuck in the Middle from time to time. However this was the song we finally picked, which actually came after a lull in our desire to cover this great band.

This has probably been one of our better choices as well, the people who know it seem to get a real kick out of it and it really has left me with some great memories: playing a sparsely attended gig in Glasgow and finishing the night with this to rapture from the remnants of the crowd, having Dr David Salmon call out for it at a gig in the Dog & Partridge in Bolton until we caved in, and (there's a video of this one on youtube) having Stu from The Medicine Bow/Dangerous Aces etc. come on stage to sing it and drunkenly ramble through it. It was especially impressive that he gave such a dishevelled performance, considering was that it was about 1pm. He's a man who likes his sauce, and so he's a fitting character to sing this song.

4) Queen - Tie Your Mother Down

This would be the other song I'd say has been our other great choice. Queen are a band that tend to divide opinions amongst people, so unlike some of our other choices this will at least get a reaction, but it's sometimes a shock as to how which way it'll go.

We originally started playing this as part of a set we were preparing for Punk Rock Karaoke (another charity gig with lots of covers, we're easily pleased), and I was arguing with the rest of the band as to how popular it would be. Needless to say we still disagree, but there was a great moment when were outside our practice room and we asked someone from another band to settle the argument for us. I asked him, as a recognised Queen fan, to name the first three Queen songs that came to him, assuming that he'd pick three songs from Greatest Hits Vol I and my case would be crowned victorious. However and the mother hubbard named Tie Your Mother Down as his third choice, much to the delight of the rest of the band.

Regardless of how it goes down with the crowd, I can assure you that everyone in the band is always happy to bust this song out. Queen appreciation is a cornerstone of what we do, and I wouldn't want it any other way. Well, I would have liked to win the argument about how popular the song is, but then I guess we wouldn't still be covering it.

5) Weezer - Buddy Holly

This is another number we originally learnt for Punk Rock Karaoke, but in another blatant attempt at populism we once put a list of ours songs on our local forum and asked people to vote for their favourites. I can honestly say we weren't exactly thrilled to have this win from our long, long list of covers but I guess that only goes to show that you should always ignore your fans, whatever the repercussions.

My favourite anecdote with this song is when we were running through it one night at our practice room, someone from another room came in and said he absolutely loved what we had just done, and wondered what we called it. We figured that when we said Buddy Holly and mentioned the name Weezer, that the penny would drop, but no, he carried on without realising it was a cover. When he realised we weren't the almighty songsmiths behind the tune he went back to coaching the girl band he was with next door, class act.

There you have it, a comprehensive list of all the songs we've played in live in amongst our own material. To me it does seem a quite short list, because over the years we've been together we have learnt close to 50 cover songs for various gigs and ideas we had at the time, but only these select few ever made it to our setlists.

Peace.

Mike A

New album?

2009-08-15T04:51:00.005+01:00

Yes folks, a potential new album is looking likely and we're recording the first five (possibly six) brand new tracks with TimG starting 24th October.

Look out for one of our upcoming Manchester gigs being solely dedicated to the new stuff so it can get a good airing amongst a friendly crowd! We've already knocked out Fleet-footed Mankiller and Circles in front of some you and, I must say, they've had a very good reception.

The tracks being recorded are:

1. Circles
2. Fleet-footed Mankiller
3. Carnage in Carthage
4. Our Exit
5. Year Zero

As soon as we've nailed another 5 or so, they'll be another recording session rapidly followed by second album goodness and, at the rate we're writing, it shouldn't be a long wait at all.

Nathan x

Download 'A Big Pot of Hot' for £3.99!

2009-07-25T22:12:00.004+01:00

Click: Amazon.co.uk

The album will be available for a similar (if not the same) price from iTunes and many other online music stores very soon!

Studio Video Diary

2009-07-18T21:24:00.004+01:00

Part 1: A Big Pot of Hot (November 2007)

Part 2: A Big Pot of Hot (October 2008)

Both recording sessions have now been documented and uploaded. Here's to the next album!

In other news, do not forget to come and check us out at the Retro Bar tomorrow night for what promises to be an absolute cracking gig with our good friends Eureka Machines. We love 'em and so should you!

Nathan x

TNS Radio - Strummercamp Special

2009-07-06T16:55:00.005+01:00

The Age of Common Sense and a live version of Putsch are featured in the latest installment of the verily funny and silly TNS Radio series of podcasts; this time around introduced by Stand Out Riot frontman, Francis.

Check it: http://www.tnsrecords.co.uk/tnsradio

Also, I'd like to formally apologise for the shitty set we played at our last gig. To all those people who turned up especially to see us, sorry to let you down and we'd more than like to make it up to at this little shindig:

Nathan x

Satan's Hollow: 03.07.09

2009-06-27T18:26:00.003+01:00

We're playing Stans next Friday with the following bands:

BUTCHER AND BOLT
http://www.myspace.com/butcherbolt

DRINK AND DRIVE
http://www.myspace.com/drinkanddrivemusic

THE TWO-GUN TOMMYS
http://www.myspace.com/twoguntommysmusic

MARDIGRAS BOMBERS
http://www.myspace.com/themardigrasbombers

Pop down if you're free!

Nathan x

Studio Diary

2009-06-13T20:09:00.007+01:00

We had a bit of blast recording our debut album; however, it was documented with the kind of half-heartedness you might see in a 100 year old, arthritic giant tortoise attempting to climb Mount Kilimanjaro with a 1986 Ford Capri strapped to it's shell.

Here is the footage from part the first:

Enjoy!

Nathan x

Paint It Black

2009-06-08T12:20:00.004+01:00

Good news everybody...we're supporting medlodic hardcore favourites Paint It Black at Manchester's Satan's Hollow on 21st September.

Other upcoming gigs look a bit like this:

Nathan x

Strummercamp, new songs and Bolton gig

2009-06-01T18:04:00.025+01:00

Howdy!

Strummercamp

We recently had the good fortune to play at the Strummercamp 2009 festival in Cheadle last weekend which ended up with us all becoming rather pissed and certain members of the band partaking in mind altering tom-foolery.

A blast was had by all, including TNS favourites Revenge of the Pyschotronic Man and Stand Out riot.

Photos of the event can be seen here. Videos can be viewed here.

New songs

We have been busy beavering away in our practice room writing new stuff for a few weeks now and currently have ourselves five - count them - FIVE brand new spankers:

1. Cricles
2. Fleetfooted Mankiller
3. Carnage in Carthage
4. Our Exit
5. Untitled

It's not yet definite, but we hope to have another 5 or 6 and then hopefully begin preparing the recording of a new album. Keep checking back here and on the main website for updates and that!

Bolton gig

Also, DO NOT forget to come and check us out in Bolton this week, where we be playing with punk rock fools, The Emos and hardcore upstarts, The Distrakted (curse that rogue 'K') at the Dog & Partridge.

Nathan x

Album Reviews and New T-Shirts

2009-04-01T21:01:00.012+01:00

Evening all, only me again.

Just a quick note this time to mention that the first couple of reviews have been coming in for the "A Big Pot of Hot" album.

This same review appeared as both a half page spread in Student Direct (the student newspaper which serves Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan and Salford Universities with a readership circa 10,000) and also was awarded "Album of the Month" in Issue 3 of Second City Magazine (full glossy which you will find round most of the alternative drinking and shopping establishments in Manchester):

"This album really should carry a warning. If you’re besotted with music that tries to sound like it’s as present-day as possible, suffer from riffophobia or are generally just a little wuss, then this CD is not for you…

I’ll admit, I’m a gambling man, but either way I’d confidently wager that there won’t be an album that rocks this much in the whole of 2009. If you like your music sturdy and substantial, riffs by the bucketload and the sound of no remorse, then this uncompromising piece of polycarbonate is sure to please.

There aren’t many bands doing the Hard Rock thing these days, and certainly even fewer as well as these Salford gents (plus one from Hampshire). Someone once described them as ‘Like The Wildhearts and The Replacements jumping up and down on Bob Mould’s head’… That’s probably as accurate as you can get.

Namechecks nailed to a tee; the influence of Ginger & co. is apparent throughout. ‘Vaulted Sky’ and ‘Folie à Deux’ are short blasts of high-energy old school punk n’ roll, while tracks like ‘Recurrent Blockades’ and ‘The Age Of Common Sense’ could easily be considered ‘classic rock’ in years to come.

Like an already rabid bull in a shop specialising in bright red china, ‘Putsch’ tears into the blandness and short lifespan of a lot of popular music today:“I don’t need lessons in truth/My truth is based on opinion/Ephemeral tastelessness/Overriding my own soundtrack”

Album closer ‘Natura Naturans’ however, really does steal the show. The track itself is a haunting Metallica-esque number, but souped-up in production, it sounds as big as ‘Knights of Cydonia’ by Muse.

A simply excellent album that deserves to get the ‘Cops rightful
recognition. Not for the faint of heart, but instead for those seeking true rock music. Play this loud, as God intended!

FOR FANS OF :
The Wildhearts, Hüsker Dü, The Replacements,Therapy?

The Same issue also featured an interview with our good selves to compliment the release, so check it out if you can.

The album was also reviewed in this month's Rock Sound magazine which of course you can find in all newsagents... this is what they had to say:

THE SHADOWCOPS - 'A BIG POT OF HOT' 6/10.

The Shadowcops definitely won't be pigeonholed into one genre. This 12-track effort is rite with elements of punk and rock'n'roll, with even a taste of glam-rock-type vocals ('Vaulted Sky'). The quartet hail from Manchester and their sound screams of hectic live performances which, with the exceptions of the utterly catchy 'Folie A Deux' and 'The Age Of Common Sense', unfortunately fail to translate successfully to a studio recording.

While there's no doubt about their musicianship, there's little distinguishing their sound from others with the same garage band vibe. Maybe once they've established a singular sound there will be much more to attract the listening public. Based on this outing, they're not quite there yet.

FOR FANS OF:
Lagwagon, Husker Du, NOFX.

Now I'm not one to get all arsey about reviews, even in the slightest. But it does seem quite peculiar that someone who has supposedly actually listened to it compares us to both fucking LAGWAGON and NOFX hahaha. That's all I'm gonna say anyway. As a wise man once told me... One doesn't write music for journalists!

Anyway, I have spent the majority of this evening rolling up and labelling all of our new merch and stowing it away ready to take to Blackpool on Friday. We have some new T-Shirts anyway... they look a bit like this:

The ladies sizes are small and medium and come in red or black
Mens are green or black and come in S, M, L or XL.

You can purchase these for a meagre SIX POUNDS from any of our gigs, or by visiting either http://www.theshadowcops.co.uk/ or http://www.myspace.com/theshadowcops and following the links from there.

Thanks for reading and see you soon lovelies.

Mike P x

Welcome, Big Album News, Big Gig News & Merch News

2009-03-25T22:22:00.017Z

Evening all.

Looks like I've found my way onto a new contraption in the interworld... if they keep making them we'll keep using them I suppose.

Anyway, welcome to the new Shadowcops blog. This will be updated as and when is necessary (a.k.a. when I can be arsed - although we all know that I keep on top of everything anyway haha), mainly if we've got news or something we wanna share anyway!

so, what's new? Well... the big news I suppose is that the back end of February saw the release of or debut full-length album through TNSrecords, which was seen on its way by an awesome launch party at Satan's Hollow on Saturday 28th, so thanks to everyone who came down to that and made it so great. There are a shitload of pictures and videos knocking about too, so if you were unlucky enough to miss out you can catch some of the action at the following places:

PICS:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=504057472&ref=profile#/album.php?aid=70377&id=504057472

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=504057472&ref=profile#/album.php?aid=71052&id=504057472

VIDS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdJmyHya_4s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZEZcjGWkck

So this album then. By all accounts it's not bad. 12 tracks recorded in 2 sessions over the space of about a year (we're poor struggling musicians dontcha know ;)) chock full of the usual riffs, choruses and solos you might have come to expect. There are some tracks on the myspace, and as always we'd love to hear your feedback. It can now be purchased through a number of avenues as follows:

Rockers - Manchester / Piccadilly Records - Manchester / Action Records - Preston / Vibes - Bury / Jumbo Records - Leeds / Crash - Leeds / Probe - Liverpool / All Ages - London / Banquet records - Kingston / Spillers - Cardiff / Punker Bunker - Brighton / Selecta Disk - Nottingham / Guitar and Son - Stafford / Good Vibrations - Belfast.

On the interweb at:http://www.tnsrecords.co.uk/

http://www.punkrockorder.com/ - In Germany

http://www.interpunk.com/ - In the U S and A

http://fishbowlrecordings.info/ - USA

http://www.punkrockshop.co.uk/

and of course at our lovely website http://www.theshadowcops.co.uk/ (If you buy it from here then you can rest assured in the knowledge it was hand packaged by my good self and with all the love and attention it deserves ;))

Speaking of the Shadowcops website though, Nathan's given it a good old revamp, and I have to say it does look rather spiffing! So have a gander on over there and check it out. There's a bit of a video diary thing there too, I believe, with a sneaky preview of us playing two brand new songs in our practice room.

Okay now to some more big news for us gig-wise...

Our next Manchester gig will be on the 17th April 2009 at The Hop & Grape (or Manchester Academy 3 for the young or uninitiated) opening up for The Supersuckers and Nashville Pussy. This promises to be amazing... in support of two excellent international bands, and also the first time we've graced the stages in the University (and it's not even one of those shitty pay to play things that all the indie bands do! haha!). Here's to there being several more occasions.

Another notable gig will be happening 2 days later at Satan's Hollow where we celebrate the launch of new local music website http://www.ilovemanchestermusic.com/ With the demise of the old MancPunkScene and what looks ot be the end of ManchesterMusic we wish this venture all the best in its efforts to help reignite the local scene. The gig itself will be headlined by our practice roommates, Rock demi-gods, The Freezing Fog, and will also feature many of our other friends including Revenge of the Psychotroic Man and Stand Out Riot. More details can be found here:

http://www.ilovemanchestermusic.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=7007

Finally on the gig front our first festival appearance of the year has been confirmed at the Strummercamp which runs from 22nd-24th May 2009, at Manchester Rugby Club, Cheadle Hulme. As always this festival is to celebrate the memory of the late great Joe Strummer, and this years will be headlined by The Damned and Billy Bragg. Tickets are £59 for a top weekend (which is also slap bang in between mine and Andy Psychotronic's birthdays... I can see this one getting messy, haha).

Pop on over here for more info http://www.strummercamp.co.uk/

I think that just about concludes all the news I've got for the minute. I'll keep this updated, like I say as when there's summat new, but cheers for reading and keep in touch.

Right, I'm off to get my last beer out the fridge, and then see what havoc I can wreak on this new twitter thing everyone's banging on about.

See you soon.

Mike P x