james
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Posts: 26
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Post by james on Jul 29, 2013 11:16:44 GMT
Anyone have any news on what the band are up to at the moment?
It all seems very quiet. I know we are in-between albums and the band took some time out while Juanita became a mother and Joel seems to be playing more and more Glass Maps gigs in Berlin, but compared to the break in-between Radio Wars and The Loudest Engine when we had all the Pledge Music stuff to keep us going this is very quiet.
Add to that the mini relaunch of the band's website (that seems to have disappeared now) and no gigs since the Guildford and Oxford ones back in Feb.
On a positive note though I had a chat with Glenn at the Oxford gig and he confirmed they were working on new stuff. The band also played a couple of new songs that night too.
(Apologies for not posting on here before. Howling Bells have been my favourite band since the week the first album came out in 2006 and I've visited this forum regularly since but never gotten around to posting).
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Post by riseandfall on Jul 29, 2013 13:00:58 GMT
I was wondering the same thing - it all seemed like something was happening when they performed the two new songs in Guildford. But I haven't heard a thing since then...
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Post by blade on Jul 29, 2013 18:29:32 GMT
Welcome James!
There's also Juanita's solo work to come (hopefully). Maybe politics are involved again, as they always seem to be.
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james
New Member
Posts: 26
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Post by james on Jul 30, 2013 8:41:30 GMT
Thanks Blade!
Do you mean record label politics? I remember they had a fairly acrimonious split with Bella Union and since then have moved labels a couple of times. I couldn't even tell you who they are with at the moment.
Hopefully not internal band politics. Though the Brendan departure was very quiet. I don't even recall any kind of announcement.
Anyway fingers crossed they come back soon with a killer album and big tour.
Any guesses on direction the band will take sound wise?
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Post by chrome3d on Jul 31, 2013 16:50:19 GMT
It's a bit strange how they vanish completely in between albums. It's like they always change labels and there is no continuation. It shouldn't be so hard to keep a decent website up these days. I'll wait but don't keep me waiting too long.
EDIT. Intrigued by the previous post, I bought the Glassmaps song Hypnotized from Bandcamp. That was quite good. Gimme more!
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Post by blade on Jul 31, 2013 17:15:40 GMT
Yes, I meant record label bureaucracy, which seems to follow them round like a stalker. I don't know whether the deal with Cooking Vinyl was for one album only.
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james
New Member
Posts: 26
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Post by james on Jul 31, 2013 18:30:24 GMT
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Post by incoasterble on Aug 4, 2013 18:24:57 GMT
Hello and welcome James! Also thanks for the link, Joel's stuff is really good, really do hope his obvious potential for great success in the music world gets realised.
I've been pondering things along similar lines to what's been mentioned in this thread myself; I like to think Juanita's really devoted as a mother and I don't doubt that the band will make their return in good time. I spotted a woman the spitting image of her with a tiny baby on her shoulders and a huge smile on her face in the crowd during the TV coverage of Tame Impala's rather brilliant set at Glastonbury, it made me think of them and how well I hope life's treating them.
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james
New Member
Posts: 26
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Post by james on Aug 5, 2013 13:38:50 GMT
Yeah, fingers crossed Joel's solo stuff is as good as we all hope and if so gets the attention it deserves. Likewise any potential Juanita solo stuff.
I was thinking about the band's progression and development of their sound the other day. The first album is, to my ears, perfect, in songs, atmosphere, style, lyrics and the feeling it evokes. As much as I love the band the second and third albums, while I appreciate the desire to grow and change their sound, didn't have the same impact on me. I enjoyed them both but neither stayed with me for too long. Both lacked the depth of the first album and the lyrics particularly were a bit weaker I felt. Strangely enough for a group that formed the Howling Bells to get away from the Waikiki sound, the second two albums felt much more similar to Waikiki.
They'll probably never make an album that sounds like the first one again, they probably don't even want to being such a creative bunch, but deep down, I'd love it if they did.
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Post by blade on Aug 5, 2013 14:04:51 GMT
I could have written that myself James - word for word!
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Post by chrome3d on Aug 7, 2013 9:57:23 GMT
I now have seen and heard it. Thanks. A bit different direction than I would have expected, which might be a good thing. Hopefully Joel gets his stuff together and album comes out some day.
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Post by mattchew on Nov 3, 2013 1:14:57 GMT
Here is some new material from Glassmaps that Joel's father Peter uploaded to his youtube channel. Some good stuff in here, I really love the first one alot, the beat and melody and guitar are especially nasty.
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