We Shall Overcome

Earlier this year, prompted by the Covid lockdown and the first #BandcampFriday, we made our downloadable music Name Your Price on Bandcamp with the proceeds going to charity. Our initial choice was the Trussell Trust which campaigns against food poverty and supports a national network of food banks, and we have raised over £1400 for them.

From tomorrow, under the We Shall Overcome banner, our Name Your Price download proceeds will go to support the work of Pauline Town at the Station Hotel in Ashton-under-Lyne, providing much needed food and assistance to homeless people in the area. Since 2013 she has helped hundreds of homeless people access the benefits system and find accommodation as well as providing daily packed lunches. In 2015, local musicians, artists and activists including Pauline formed We Shall Overcome, which has grown into a national network of groups and events campaigning against austerity and poverty while helping those worst affected.

More information:

Manchester Evening News profile

About We Shall Overcome

Pride Of Britain Awards

Is this… relevant?

WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON seems to be the perpetual question as we await the results of the US elections, enter a second Covid lockdown and wonder what difficulties await when we leave the EU’s single market and customs union in less than two months’ time. Strangely enough, our successive collaborations with artist and writer Adam Stone have touched on all three subjects: In The Year 2039 imagined a world ravaged by the consequences of a continued 45th presidency, while Retreat To Your Bunker (Lockdown 2020) now serves as a memento of the novelty and alarm of the original lockdown in spring: this time around it’s cold, it’s dark and it’s hard not to wonder where our supposed leaders’ priorities lie.

As for Brexit, well you’ll have to wait for our next record to hear about that amongst other things. But right now, you may be pleased to know that once again it’s BANDCAMP FRIDAY, starting at midnight US Pacific time, which is 8am GMT (UK time) and 9am Central European Time; during which not only does more of your money buying music and associated merchandise on Bandcamp go direct to the artists, but many are in turn donating these proceeds to worthy causes. In our case we are donating our download sales to the Trussell Trust food bank network, and all our downloads are Pay-What-You-Want. So please give generously if you can, and enjoy some Dead Sea Apes audio content to boot.

Meanwhile for fans of circular pieces of plastic, there will soon be exciting news concerning not only a new release but also various items of our back catalogue. Stay tuned, watch the skies, etc…

Thanks

A big thank-you to everyone who’s bought stuff from our Bandcamp, especially on #BandcampFriday. We’ve raised another £450 for the Trussell Trust from download sales. The next one is Friday 5th of June so hopefully we’ll see you then.

Food banks: update

Thanks to those of you who snapped up the For Nepal LPs which we sold in aid of the Trussell Trust. We have decided to also donate the proceeds from our download sales since making all our downloads Pay What You Want / Name Your Price on Bandcamp, and the total raised so far is almost £500. So if you’re looking to fill the gap in your Dead Sea Apes collection, please give generously. If you really want to maximise your donation, Bandcamp have another fee-free day coming up so stay tuned for news on that; and in general if you are buying several releases please use the shopping cart to collect them into one purchase, since PayPal’s fee has a fixed amount per transaction as well as a percentage. Thank you!

Onward!

Right then, enough nostalgia, on to the future. We have gigs coming up in Todmorden, London and Manchester, plus one with Adam Stone in Derby – details and links on the gigs page. First is Todmorden on 31st August as part of Tor Festival, and we will have some new stuff to play for you.

It was ten years ago today…

It’s 10 years to the day since Chris, Brett and Nick had their first practice together, a jam session which yielded the source material for several Dead Sea Apes numbers.
To celebrate this anniversary, for TODAY ONLY you can hear a specially codged together selection of extracts from that session.
Here’s where it all began, at the (now demolished) Greenhouse Studios in Stockport, 4th of August 2009.

(image from Cafe Saki, May 2010)

New Year, New Apes

A happy new year to all our listeners.  First of all, please welcome new bassist Jack (ex-Fishmongers) and keyboardist Alistair (also of Thee Windom Earles). We’re getting in shape to play live in 2019 and already have a couple of gigs booked in – more to follow.

Our next release will be The Free Territory – a double album which has been gradually coming together in the background over several years.  It began life as loop and drone tracks made using a 4-track cassette portastudio, but grew to include full band recordings influenced by the basic approach of 4-track recording and the spacious, meditative nature of the drone pieces, and features Nik Rayne of The Myrrors on two of the seven tracks.  Coming soon on Cardinal Fuzz!

More new music is in the works including further collaborations with Adam Stone and Black Tempest, and icymi, Chris and Brett guested on Black Tempest’s latest album Psyberspace.  We are also featured along with Adam in the new Optical Sounds magazine.

The end of year post

As 2014 draws to a close, our latest album High Evolutionary has turned up on a couple of Best Of The Year lists – Backseat Mafia, Dayz Of Purple And Orange – and we’re on lots of Mixcloud mixes too.  Thanks to all the bloggers and podcasters who’ve helped get our music out there this year.

If you’re at all interested to know what we’ve been listening to, here are Nick’s top 10 albums of the year, and Brett’s; and here’s Chris’s 2014 mix.

Looking ahead to 2015, we’ve done a remix for Sunwølf which will be released on their SWIII Remix LP, due out in January.  We have another album of new material almost finished and a collaboration with Maurice’s Hotel Death also in progress.  We also have a few gigs booked in –  we’re at Gulliver’s, Manchester on 27th April supporting Sunwølf; and one or two further afield which are presently TBC.  Follow this blog or find us on faceborg, twitter, songkick, etc. for the latest.

A happy solstice and merry Christmas to all our listeners.

2014

2013 was a great year for Dead Sea Apes, with our albums Lupus and The Sun Behind The Sun released on vinyl, and some memorable gigs including Supernormal.

As for 2014, we have a couple of gigs lined up so far and a load of new tracks in various stages of recording, so expect some fresh Dead Sea Apes releases before too long.

Happy new year everyone.

 

News…

A few small announcements:

– the Lupus double LP is now available from our Big Cartel site and Bandcamp, in a choice of black or gold vinyl. Buying on Bandcamp also gets you a download in mp3 or lossless formats.

– We now have the small size of our fabulous T-shirt back in stock. Buy now!

– We have sold out of The Sun Behind The Sun on LP and CD.  LPs may still be obtainable in good record shops.

– We’re playing at the Roadhouse in Manchester on Monday 2nd December with the excellent Cosmic Dead. More details to follow.