In 2009, we will mostly be...(Part I)

In 2009, we will mostly be...

1. Trying to use blogs, bulletins, and email to tell more people about what yesboyicecream is up to during the year with releases, bands and positive lifestyle choices. Effective communication shall be the bullseye on our personal development dartboard for 2009. We had previously bet the house on the internet being a fad - predicting it would be overtaken by wireless etch-a-sketch by 2007 - but it seems it's here to stay. So, we're now trying to smoothly sidle up to it without coming over too desperate.

Obviously, maintaining a blog represents quite a departure from our previous corporate communication policies - we only acquired our first mobile phone two months ago and that still feels very wrong. However, if this exercise helps more people get their listening gear around the music we believe you really should be listening to, then it's a sacrifice worth making. Nonetheless, if it becomes clear that no-one's actually reading anything we've written, we reserve the right to get bored very quickly, pack up our things and go home.

Firstly, we are particularly excited about the following yesboyicecream release....

The Bats - The Guilty Office (March)

The Guilty Office (the Bats' seventh full-length album) is already out in New Zealand but is due for release in Europe in March. Little Teddy is releasing it on vinyl in Germany and yesboyicecream is releasing it on CD in the UK and Ireland. It should be available for pre-order in February. Undertheradar (NZ) dubbed it "some of The Bats' finest work". If you were smart, you'd pre-pre-order it now. Still can't believe we're putting out a record by The Bats...

Secondly, there should - really, really should - also be a new EP from DC's finest The Positions at some point in the new year on yesboyicecream. This will, hopefully, present itself as a perfectly-formed 10" EP. What we've heard so far suggests that this may be the release that finally secures Ivan Ramiscal the Nobel Prize for Pop. And not before time.

Thirdly, even though it's not out on yesboyicecream, we are delighted that there is finally some new Suburban Kids with Biblical Names material coming out (#4 EP on Labrador in February).

The cover looks like this:

Confirming our belief that no one makes better-looking records than SKWBN.

We have been listening to the EP for the last few weeks and are now firmly convinced that Johan and Peter have been sent by angels/aliens to safeguard the future of pop for us and our children. Not that we really believe in angels or aliens. Or have children. We just wanted to emphasise how much we like it. You can hear a couple of tracks from it on their myspace:

www.myspace.com/suburbankidswithbiblicalnames

You might recognise some of the songs from the gigs they played on their UK & Ireland gigs in 2007, where a lot of the material for #4 and #5 was played for the first time, before being rewritten, revised, refined and perfected in the SKWBN pop factory.

Here is some more "records not coming out on yesboyicecream that we want to do well" news.

Quite rightly, everyone adores The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, whose self-titled album is out in February on Slumberland in the US and Fortuna Pop in the UK. As a favour to Fortuna Pop's el presidente, we offered the band an unswept and unyielding floor while they passed through Dublin on their recent jaunt through Ireland and Great Britain. They are as polite as they are pretty. They write the kind of noisy love songs we like. Buy their record.

In Part II of "In 2009, we will mostly be...", we will have lots more news about releases in 2009 (or at least spreading unfounded rumours of a new record by Phil Wilson) and a review of yesboyicecream's performance in 2008. Expect this sometime in 2010.