Art's Farewell

Thank you to each and every single person that came out last night to help us bid Art farewell. The crowd spontaneously singing "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow" was just incredible! 

Words cannot adequately describe how we all felt last night. So we leave you with this picture taken by our friend John Murray:



You're always on the guest list Art!

Posters & Gigs

Simon Tamblyn from Tape Hiss and Sparkle designed the poster for our 19th November show at Obz Cafe:

Adam Hill designed Art's poster for his farewell show on 1st December at Mercury Live:

Art has only 3 shows left with us, and Friday's show at Obz Cafe is the final opportunity to catch us with our semi-acoustic set this year.

Dear Johnny

My original intention was to quickly post an informative blog on where Dear Johnny is being held, and how the hell to get there - I myself had but a vague idea until about an hour ago.

However, I'm a procrastinator by nature and well prone to being sidetracked, so the result is this delayed post with a bonus update to our blog layout - which now includes a banner that people with poor eyesight / darker displays can also see, as well as a list of links to some of our favourite local things.

So on to the Dear Johnny information....

Dear Johnny is part of the Matt Black sessions - the DPK website has this to say about the sessions:

Celebrating Bilton’s easy-drinking “Matt Black” Bordeaux-blend, The Matt Black Sessions aim to change music events from clichéd, repetitive and formulaic, to unique, interactive and authentic experiences. Look out for a brand new, wildly innovative, absurdly affordable and insanely enjoyable session every month. With the best local musicians, fun themes for dress up, art & crafts, funky food, wine tastings, a cash bar, gourmet coffee and much more, Matt Black Sessions is the one party you don’t want to miss!

The Matt Black Sessions are hosted at the Bilton Wine Estate, which is on Annandale Road, Lynedoch. So you need to take the N2, take Baden Powell, turn left and keep going until you feel like you might be irretrievably lost. Bilton is then on the left just before the Spier hotel [which is just a smidge before Baden Powell joins with the R310 and goes into Stellenbosch].

Our two cover songs are well underway, including 4 part vocal harmonies and some possible shaker shaking! Music starts at 5pm, but you can get there at 1pm to enjoy the rest of what's on offer. We'll be driving back from supporting our friends The Sleepers at Synergy so will see you all in the afternoon :)

My only hope is that the wine drinking takes place post-performance, because wine and a reasonable hold on timing are not firm friends.

- Helen

p.s. the gig is on Sunday the 28th November

The line from wake to sleeping

We're still getting to grips with Art's leaving, but we're preparing in earnest for his last handful of shows with us.

Our next gig is the semi-acoustic set at Obz Cafe on the 19th November, which includes our rendition of Henry Lee! Simon on his own as Tape Hiss & Sparkle will be opening for us. We're trying to get things going a bit earlier than usual, so Simon's going on at 9:30pm sharp, get there early!

In addition to the gigs listed by Linda in the last blog post, we're playing the Bilton Wine Estate on Sunday 28th November for the Matt Black Sessions. The theme is "Dear Johnny" this time. Here's a link to the DPK website for some more information: http://www.dpk.co.za/matt-black-sessions/. We're doing two cover songs in keeping with the theme, so if you're interested in both Irish Folk songs, and depressing rock music, then we're your band ;)

Today is classic "coal weather" so I leave you with the video for Florence & The Machine's Cosmic Love, which is awe inspiring and can soothe any heartbreak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EIeUlvHAiM


xH

New adventures and sad goodbyes

It is with heavy hearts that we must announce the departure of our beloved drummer, Art. In a decision to take a break from the music scene as a whole, Art is going to have a well-deserved rest and devote his time to pursuing other adventures. He will be sorely missed for his refreshing input in jamming sessions, quiet strength, and infectious sense of humour – not to mention his superb drumming skills which showcased our music so beautifully.

Coal will be playing a few last shows with Art behind the kit:

• Friday 19 November at Obz Cafe (acoustic) with Tape Hiss and Sparkle.

• Wednesday 1 December at Mercury – a huge farewell show featuring some of Art’s bands, including Andy Lund and the Mission Men, V.O.L. and Three More White Guys.

• Saturday 11 December at Zula with The Sleepers and The Great Apes.

Be sure to catch one (or all) of these shows to enjoy Coal for the last time in its current format. As for us ladies, we plan to experiment a bit more with percussive elements in our songs and are open to various options going forward. We look forward to our future, and wish Artur all the best for his.

Waxing lyrical

Coming up with song lyrics is tricky. For an audience as varied as ours, they can’t be too soppy or poppy, must be meaningful without being emo, and should be recognisably hooky and easy to sing along to.

At our Monday night prac a couple of weeks ago, while we were jamming, sweet Cathy came up with the most lewd line. She crooned: ‘You float by me, still inside me’.

Well, that’s what the rest of us heard, anyway. This whopper (ahem) resulted in hours of sniggers, but it turned out her words were actually ‘You float by me, still and silent’. Much more poetic, wouldn’t you agree?

Misheard lyrics have always given us all a good laugh. Everyone remembers the famously shocking Jimi line, ‘Excuse me while I kiss this guy’. In the early noughties my friend K thought the words of ‘Leave me breathless’ by The Corrs were actually ‘Go-oh on, go-oh on! Tease me, Bradley!’ (Ja, I don’t know about that either.) And the father of one of Coal’s members used to sing along to R.E.M. in the family car, ‘That’s me in the corner, losing my erection.’

You float by me, still inside me? Perhaps not so bad after all, Cath!

The threads of the new song will hopefully come together tonight to form a beautiful tapestry – or least a comfy crocheted knee rug – and I will share with the rest of the band my terrible dream from last night. Coal was on stage in front of an awful audience of youngsters, most of them resembling those monsters I used to teach. It wasn’t going well: we had to stop mid-gig because our new mystery member (a tall, gangly chick I don’t know in real life) was useless and kept forgetting her guitar parts. I was so embarrassed I just picked up a newspaper that was lying off stage and stood there reading it, feigning nonchalance. *cringe*

I hope the ‘spring’ weather improves soon, and we will see you all at ROAR for Halloween on Saturday 30 Oct. With no useless new members in sight, promise. (Only the old ones. Nyah hah.)

Yours in lyrical productivity and nocturnal brain-activity,
Linky

Inspiration & Respiration

Yesterday we hauled our [mostly] sick selves down to Bush Radio for The Unhappy Hour with Johan Hugo & Toast. Vera unfortunately had to stay home in bed because the black death is going around! We managed to motormouth our way through the hour without her though.

Johan asked us a great deal of interesting questions so hopefully you tuned in to hear us talking about Art's "wasabi nut overdose", how we resolve creative headbutting [not by headbutting, alas] and that Linda apparently started off as the keyboardist for A-ha!

We also got to play some songs that we've drawn inspiration from. Of course not all of them received airplay, so here's our full list of songs, in no particular order:
Blonde Redhead - By Spring and Summer Fall
Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
NIN - Just Like You Imagined
Sidecar Fire - Despot
Alison Krauss - The Scarlet Tide
Dead Can Dance - Sanvean
Depeche Mode - In Your Room
Kate Bush - Jig of Life
Loreena McKennitt - Bonny Portmore
New Model Army - Green and Grey
PJ Harvey - Down by the Water
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
Bat For Lashes - Glass
The Arcade Fire - Tunnels - Neighbourhood #1

There were others, but we were so over zealous they wouldn't all fit on one CD! Art had some Explosions in the Sky, Deftones and Alice in Chains. Art also nearly convinced the Bush Radio production assistant that we were a Norwegian Death Metal band, very nearly.

Hope to see you all out tomorrow night, because we're being joined by Simon for a beautiful 3 part vocal harmony version of The Ruse, and Yuri is playing sitar for us again on Stroke.

Simon will also be strumming his guitar solo, serenading your ears with some Tape Hiss & Sparkle songs.

We're welcoming winter back for the final push before summer burns our retinas again and makes us forget that rain ever existed!

- H

Before the rocks melt into the sea....

We'll have a full batch of merchandise available soon [including t-shirts!], right now we have an array of embellished badges and some limited edition live recordings of a show we did at The Waiting Room in May. Some of these songs are available to listen to on our fanpage, but the entire set is on the audio CD including higher quality mp3s. The tracklisting includes Tractor, Stroke, The Ruse, Train, Ghost, Mister Fox v2 and our cover of Henry Lee.

If you would like a copy of this CD email us at embersofcoal@gmail.com and we'll arrange to hand over possession for R40. Of course you could just come to one of our gigs and ask us personally for it, we are legitimately all quite friendly and personable!

Recently we've had the opportunity to play with some amazing bands, and also have been getting out to see a lot of interesting live acts. Witness to Wolves, We Set Sail & Irvine have all pricked up our ears!

Speaking of inspiration, we thought we'd let you know what we've been listening to lately.
I've been overdosing on Blonde Redhead [ inside secret: the backing vocals that Vera sings in Train were particularly inspired by "23" ]. Also, I can never get enough of Tweaker [ the video for Linoleum ] Chris Vrenna does some really lovely collaborations with Will Oldham too! And while we're on things NIN related: A Drowning by How To Destroy Angels is so beautiful. While I'm not a huge fan of Fever Ray, the video for If I had a Heart is beyond description and I really love that song.

Hope to see you all at our next show, which is with Sidecar Fire on the 25th August at Mercury Live. Vera is off to croatia for about 2 weeks so we're taking a minor hiatus. We'll definitely be playing some new songs!

- Helen

Coal dinner

Every now and then, when we need to chat about admin stuff, the Coal ladies and gent get together and have a meeting over dinner. This is the usual (delicious) deal:

Ingredients:
Ciabatta rolls
Basil pesto
Ripe, creamy avos
Grated pecorino or parmesan cheese
Cherry tomatoes
Fresh rocket and or basil leaves
Freshly ground black pepper and sea salt.

Directions: (really tricky, so pay attention)
Warm the rolls in oven (two per person), open them up and generously smear them with pesto and avo. Top each half with leaves, tangy cheese and sliced tomatoes (otherwise they roll off), then season.

Hmm. I foresee us needing to have many more meetings this winter.
*wink*

Captivation

Our most recent gig at Obz Cafe (oh how it pains me to write that with a z) was wonderful for us, kind of like cruising in 5th gear. Despite Vera’s lovely epi deciding to take a leave of absence and some rather peculiar sound issues, the lights were pretty and the crowd was perfect. Thank you to the talented mister Simon Tamblyn (http://soundcloud.com/simon-tamblyn) for sharing his songs with everyone, and to all the peeps who braved the wet streets (again) to come see us in high-heeled action.

Our next show is at the Waiting Room on Tuesday 25 May. (See our FB page for details.) We love this venue, not least because of its awesome 70s wood panelling and golden orb lights, and are looking very much forward to strumming our strings and tapping our toes up there. We also will be handing out some girly merch to sweeten the deal. Do pop by!

Meanwhile, behind the scenes we have been working on a new ditty with a bit of a twist (for a change) and hope to unveil it soon!

Keep warm and listening to locals and we shall see you other side the rainclouds.
Linky x