collected shorts

Phil Dodd's excellent EP, Collected Shorts, is now available as a digital download. I had forgotten how much I liked this delicate and sensitively constructed collection of songs and short stories. Originally released as a CD with a booklet. When you download the digital version, you will automatically recieve a PDF. of the booklet. Bargain!

Dowry EP

The Dowry EP by Tiger & Panda is now available to buy. You can buy it here on 10" (including free download code) or as a digital download in any format.

Dowry was written as a performance piece, consisting of two medleys, in 2009 on Dowry Parade in Bristol. It was performed at the scout hut in the same year.

The music and artwork for Dowry are a collection of memories from the time surrounding Olly and Henry's year living together on Dowry Parade. It is deliberately simple and stark in places and the two sides of the record have distinctively different atmospheres. Side One is accompanied by a drum machine and has a pop atmosphere, which darkens as you reach the end of the side, while Side Two has a more natural blending of guitars and is more energetic.

1. matches
2. cross country
3. new year
4. scout hut
5. monument
6. oaf
   

Tiger & Panda: 'God Damn! Freezing Cold Hands!' and 'NVQ in Hangin' Out'

Tiger and Panda is the alias for Olly Watson and Henry Ireland's two-piece project. Reflecting their indecisive working relationship, live performaces sound drastically different each time. Their recording policy has a similar sense of flightiness and is limited to EP length, in order to maintain freshness.

God Damn! Freezing Cold Hands is their first recording, consisting of four songs: two instrumental tracks and a song each from Watson and Ireland. The mood is dark and gloomy and evokes a heavily live sound.

1. oaf
2. cross country
3. new year
4. black top

NVQ in Hangin' Out Was recorded over a longer period of time and is a collection of six songs (three each). The start of the summer is an obvious influence on these recordings.

1. nvq in hangin' out
2. jump hop scotch
3. september
4. holed up in a hedgerow
5. porcelain teeth
6. me now

'Mind Your Manners' - Compilation

A long time ago, when the first polite compilation 'Be More Polite' had just about broken even, I decided it was time to put out another, for some reason. I started collecting songs from people who I was friends with or liked the music of and had soon got most of them delivered to me. While I was waiting for the last few songs promised to me to arrive, however, I got distracted. It might have been by a dog with a poofy tail, or maybe just something shiny, or even writing a dissertation then starting a new career as a teacher. Whatever happened, it meant that until now the songs just sat on my hard drive unlistened to and seemingly unwanted. Then one day Henry just made me send them to him and said "I'll sort it out" and god damnit it he did! Within days, we can now present to you the second Polite Records compilation, entitled 'Mind Your Manners'.

This record is a real goodie bag, featuring songs from such illustrious people as: Rachael Dadd, Rozi Plain, Robin Allender, The Swede, Daniel Davey, John Doak and, of course the Polite regulars Olly Watson, Henry Ireland and Phil Dodd (collectively: Grizzly and the Bears). The CD comes packaged in Henry's revolutionary 'single sheet of A4' system (patent nowhere near pending) and will make a brilliant addition to the collection of any Compact Disc Connoiseur.

Buying button on the way...

'Spanish Tiles EP' - Sun

Sun was the recording name of John Doak while I lived with him a few years ago. During that time, he came down one day and handed me a CD of stuff he'd been working on, knowing I was looking for tracks for the first Polite Compilation. When I listened to the songs I instantly fell in love with their simple, pared down guitar parts and haunting double tracked vocals. John is now living in Bristol and has recently set up an online poetry magazine that you should probably take a look at.

£2

'Light Out!' - Olly Watson

Olly is such a quick songwriter it is often hard to keep up with him, and it is made even more difficult by his constant need to press on forward and never look back. When he does concentrate on a set of songs long enough to record, however, this is the sort of quality he comes out with -absolutely fantastic! This collection of songs sees Olly branch out a little, instrumentation wise experimenting more with keyboards and drums (played on keyboards).

£2

'Tape No. 1' - Phil Dodd

This small collection of songs was originally intended to be released on tape, but John Robinson (Sun) convinced Phil (Grizzly and the Bears) that this was a ridiculous idea, and that it was time to modernise, so here you have it, available on Compact Disc. The songs were all written and recorded in Phil’s bedroom at the beginning of his 2nd year of university but he felt they weren’t suitable for release by the Bears due to their more emotional, introspective nature.

£2.00

'Poppit Sands' - Grizzly and the Bears

The Bears’ debut album was recorded on a one week holiday they had in a cottage on the Pembrokeshire Coast (the record takes its name from the beach where they spent most of their time) and the recordings show it. The band are audibly relaxed and jokey when playing, just like at the best of their live shows, only without so much wittering and tuning-up. The songs themselves are brilliant, short slices of folked-up pop, with several hints of punk in some of the structures used. The album lilts from flippant and twee to heartfelt and soulful, all in one pluck of a banjo, or strum of a mandolin.

£5.00

'Be More Polite' - Compilation

This comp was our first proper release, and as such we love it like our firstborn. It features a somewhat eclectic (some would say haphazard) mix rangin from the lo-fi, very british folk-pop of Henry Ireland and Olly Watson, through the downbeat, often stark sounds of Pien Feith and …and the bloody hand, right the way to the expansive, Billy Corgan influenced Americana of Nick Gunzburg. With the earnest emotional songs of Phil Dodd and mooremusic, and the sometimes flippant (often true) tales of Sun thrown in. Of course, Grizzly and the Bears are on it too.

£3.50