The Alternative Escape – Alcopop & Big Scary Monsters Download

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So what are johnny foreigner upto these days?

One of the things we often get asked in our day to day Alcopop! lives is… What the fuck are johnny foreigner doing? Where are they?

To which the answer is, normally, in a practice room surrounded by clouds of smoke and excellent new hits. Our intrepid champ Aaron had a word >>>

You guys have been gone for what seems like forever, but you’re back to rock this earth with a huge Euro tour, visiting countries I thought were made up like Czech Republic and Slovakia, my friend also mentioned you guys may be heading to Malta if all goes to plan. Can you explain more about this tour and where you have been these past few month’s young man:
We’ve been gone like 2 months! We’ve been writing new songs and designing more arts and complaining about tories on the internet. The crazyass Eurotour stems from us realising there’s waaay too many places we’ve never been to, wheras Malta, these kids just called us up and asked if they could put us on. I wish everyone was so proactive.

What do bands like Johnny Foreigner miss the most about the UK when touring the world? Do you guys take a bag full of Yorkshire puddings around with you, or what?
nothing really? Orange lucozade mayhaps. And I guess, being able to speak the language, or rather, not being ashamed at having to conduct conversations in english. Mostly tho, we’re total tourists; anything that’s worse than back home gets a reprieve cos it’s foreign and strange and new. Cf; every gas station sandwich ever..

Will you guys be gracing us in the UK with your live shows at any point this year?
Yeh, no proper tour till autumn, but the usual festival circuit and a few odd shows scattered around.

One of the first things that drawn me to Johnny Foreigner was the close knit relationship with your fans, what’s it like sinking beers with fans and seeing your lyrics or the Johnny Foreigner ghost tattooed onto them?
The tattoos etc are flattering, but more importantly, kinda prove to us that we’re doing something that matters. Right, in our heads we have this possibly wrong, probably naive idea that mutal love of the same music equates with social compatability. That conciet is like, our religion. Sometimes I talk to dudes in other bands and they’re like, how do you have such a mental fanbase? And I think it’s sad cos the base level is us not treating people like “fans”; these are people who share the same record collection / shoes / hair / whatever as us; they’d be our friends if we lived there but as it is they just paid 8 quid to watch us, so the least we can do, as Good Humans, is go say hi thanks how are you. So to answer yr question, its the same as drinking with my friends, only I forget their names more often.

Anything else you would like to add for the readers of the Alcopop! blog before I leave you be?
BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER.

Doctrines stream their new album with Rock Sound Magazine

So Doctrines have put their entire record up to stream with those good, good people at Rocksound. Of its brilliance you (we imagine) have no doubt – so listen below, and read Jamies’ fine words about exactly what the hell is going on with it over here…. But make sure you’re wearing a strong hat – or this will blow your face CLEAN OFF! Pre-order here babez xx

Stagecoach ‘Say Hi To The Band’

We’ve been waiting for this moment for quite some years, and the band have been waiting a little longer than that… But finally, Alcopop! Records heroes Stagecoach are proud to announce Say Hi To The Band – their long awaited debut album which is out on May 13th – produced by Rory Atwell (Palma Violets, The Vaccines, Yuck).

Now obviously the album will be released digitally and on rather lovely CD – but we’re also doing it on 180g vinyl, and in some super special mega deals that are detailed in the shop, featuring tees, photos and limited edition personalized MiniDisc copies of the album. Mmmmm. Yeah!

Stagecoach have always been a really special band for us, kinda symbolizing (with My First Tooth) the first acts that came by the label not as one-off release acts, but as folk who stuck with us over time building something really special. Tours with Twin Atlantic, JoFo and Elephants cemented, Coach supported Jimmy Eat World, played at every festival going (that Reading show was pretty massive) – and a couple of ballistic EPs, loads of radio, TV and a brief spell at DIY all yelled of career highlights – and it still feels like its all just begun!

Luke says: “We decided to name our album Say Hi To The Band as after 10 years of writing together we finally have a full length record to present to the world. We wanted to introduce the band to new fans but also reacquaint with older friends. The title also reminds us of the warm friendly welcome of classic albums like Meet The Beatles and The Beach Boys Love You.”

So pop over to the shop (from midday), and pick yer bundle! It will be the best decision you make today (probably). The band are on tour in a week or two, at festivals all over the summer – and can be heard playing a session with our pal John Kennedy on XFM tonight. Tune in yah.

Track:

Tour:
May 10th – JT Soar, Nottingham
May 11th -The Labour Club, Northampton
May 12th – The Star, Guildford
May 13th -The Cellar, Oxford
May 14th -Birthdays, London (Launch with Joanna Gruesome & Tyrannosaurus Dead)
May 15th -The Zephyr Lounge, Leamington Spa
May 17th -The Great Escape, Brighton
May 18th –The Nags Head, Rochester
May 18th -Rough Trade West, London
May 30th -The West End Centre, Aldershot
May 31st -The Buffalo Bar, Cardiff
June 1st -Santiago’s, Leeds
July 6th – Alcopopalooza @ The Windmill, London
July 13th – 2000 Trees Festival, Gloucestershire
July 20th – Truck Festival, Oxford
August 2nd – Y Not Festival, Derbyshire