A small sample of what we got up to in 2017. A collection of pals old and new. 

All available in various physical formats via our shop: www.artishardrecords.co.uk

2017: a sampler

PRE-ORDER 7" Postcard/card postcard: http://artishardrecords.limitedrun.com/products/584916-penelope-isles-cut-your-hair-pcc01

Our 2017 singles club will be taking the form of a monthly postcard from some of your favourite bands, and we're kicking that off right now with Penelope Isles.

Following their Comfortably Swell EP which we reissued to coincide with Cassette Store Day 2016, the Brighton via Cornwall foursome jump right into the new year with a fresh audible bowl cut in the form of Cut Your Hair.

25th Jan – Tooting Tram & Social, London
26th Jan – Cookie Jar, Leicester
28th Jan – Wharf Chambers, Leeds
30th Jan – Maguires Pizza Bar, Liverpool
31st Jan – Mothers Ruin, Bristol
2nd Feb – Woodlane Social Club, Falmouth
3rd Feb – Unit 23, Totnes
4th Feb – Green Door Store, Brighton
7th Feb – Old Blue Last, London

Penelope Isles - Cut Your Hair

BUY THIS SINGLE AS A POSTCARD WITH A DOWNLOAD CODE:
http://artishardrecords.limitedrun.com/artists/postcardclub

Factory Seconds are a four piece new wave band from London inspired by the likes of The Cure, New Order, The Feelies and Galaxie 500. Taking their name from factory in which they rehearse, Caught in the Layers is their first official offering and we're delighted to be releasing it.

Bassist and vocalist Katie Wilkinson on Caught:

I was I recovering from a bit of a mental breakdown and was starting to feel well enough to channel my energy into writing music again and this was one of the first songs I wrote. I’ve only been in angry punk bands until now so this is by far the most ‘pop’ song I’ve written as well as being the most personal.  It was almost like the mental breakdown was supposed to happen to soften me up a bit…perhaps.

I originally wrote what is now the lead guitar riff on a shitty software instrument synth with some equally as awful name like ‘Sawtooth XXX Lead Analogue’ or something and Michael used his magical guitar pedals / skills to transform it into the shoegaze beast that it is today. It’s safe to say it sounds much better. 

The song was recorded by the band in their studio and mixed by friends Angus and Oliver of the Death of Pop who share the space. The decision to keep this process within their ‘factory’ community was intentional one - owing to the feeling that the intimacy of the track was better captured amongst friends and giving them time to perfect their sound.

Factory Seconds are Michael Tomlinson (guitar), Katie Wilkinson (bass), Marta Milanese (guitar) and Gabi Woo (drums). Catch them live at the following dates…

31st March - supporting Cosmic Strip at The Lexington, London
22nd April - Lion Coffee and Records for Record Store Day, London
22nd April - Moth Club All Dayer, London
3rd May - Release party TBA

The Postcard Club

Factory Seconds - Caught in the Layers

BUY AS A POSTCARD SINGLE WITH DOWNLOAD CODE: 
http://www.artishardrecords.co.uk/products/589014-postcard-club-individual-postcards

Today we're delighted to unveil the fourth part of our Postcard Club, a brilliant new single from Cornish supergroup The Golden Dregs. A while back when we first released The Golden Dregs, I wrote the following:

"​​In terms of people I have met since I started the label, Ben Woods was probably one of the first. Having tagged along with The Black Tambourines to the release party for aih02, he drunkenly haggled me down to 20p for a New Years Evil shirt. Since that formative night our paths have crossed many more times and with each occasion he seems to make more of an impression."

​Although that was almost three years ago (for the release of The Life Aquatic), that last line still stands true. With each recorded output he exceeds what has come before and that is certainly true of new single 'Congratulations'. It was also an excuse to dredge back up the 20p story #notoverit. 

Although led by Ben Woods, the project has always been collaboratively assembled as a recording project and that is certainly true of this latest cut. Ben gets by with a little help from his friends, notably Jake from The Black Tambourines doing some obscene things with the keys. The song unfurls with some wonderful couplets delivered like a red hot knife through a vat of room temperature butter and although the title suggests a celebratory tone the song actually strikes a much more somber reflective note. 
Whilst NME originally tried pinning the anti-garage tag on The Golden Dregs, a more accurate tag would be 60s tinged baroque pop (not quite as catchy is it?). Think the Proper Ornaments if they'd spent their youth drinking on a Cornish beach or Crystal Stilts if they spent less time noodling. 

Congratulations is released as part of our Postcard club and is available to order right now as a handwritten postcard with a download code, it'll also be available from all the normal digital places on the 28th April. Finally, for people who like parting with cold hard money, the single will be available at a couple of Golden Dregs shows coming up next week:

29th April - The Lock Tavern, London w/ Goddam Nobody
30th April - Sounds from the Other City, Manchester for Family Tree

The Golden Dregs - Congratulations

Self titled album due out 26/6/17. Pre order:
UK: http://www.artishardrecords.co.uk/products/588507-the-sea-life-the-sea-life-12
US: http://store.babecityrecords.com/products/587716-the-sea-life-s-t

These are turbulent times we’re living in. Sure, you can have someone ride a burrito to your house in a matter of minutes or use the internet to speak to anyone basically anywhere, but you only have to catch the smallest snippet of news to get the sense we’re rolling downhill with the brake chords cut. Washington punks, The Sea Life know this all too well. Their self titled album is full to the brim with themes of disillusionment and self-awareness, while still infused with a real push for something, anything better. The second single to be taken from the self titled debut is Blame, a fuzzy pop masterpiece that sounds like The National getting drunk with Pinegrove.

The album is set to be co-released on 12" by Art is Hard in the UK and Babe City Records in the US, both on May 26th.

The Nothing That Steals You

The Sea Life - Blame

Taken from the forthcoming album Penrose Winoa, pre-order here: http://www.artishardrecords.co.uk/categories/oro-swimming-hour

Today we're extremely excited to announce the debut album from Oro Swimming Hour; a magical two piece featuring Bristol's own Oliver Wilde and children's book illustrator Nicholas Stevenson (also of Lucky Shivers). The 16 track album mastered by Orchid Tapes Warren Hildebrand is full to the brim with freak-folk anthems, lo-fi bedroom pop and the sound of Elliot Smith summoned to a torch-lit seance. 

Penrose Winoa was recorded in the space of five short days in the living room of Oliver's shared house using analogue equipment. If you listen closely enough, amongst the hiss and crackle of the tape fuzz you'll pick up the comings and goings of various housemates as well as Sparklehorse the cat. With no track lasting longer than 3 minutes the album passes by in a breeze whilst inducing the feeling of a pleasantly sticky summer day. 

The album is due for release on 28th July on ltd edition splatter effect 12" and also on all the normal digital places, you can pre-order it now from our shop and you'll receive an instant download of two tracks. 

We'll also be hosting an extremely special release party in Bristol in At The Well Launderette on 21st July. Limited tickets are available for £5 and include a free risograph print designed and hand-numbered by Nicholas. There will also be a full tour announcement soon, but get in touch if you'd like Oro to play your living room, kitchen, garden or local launderette.

Oliver has always been a personal hero of ours, Nicholas has created some of the best art to ever grace an Art is Hard release and Warren from Orchid Tapes had added just the sort of magic mastering dust you'd expect from someone who had a hand in Alex G's DSU. We really can't wait for you to hear this one.

Penrose Winoa

Buy 12"

Oro Swimming Hour - Overthrown

Returning to the fold following a hearty absence after their 2015 LP, Birdskulls kick down the door with a pounding EP leaving little room for potato based sides; it's bangers only and business as usual for Jack Pulman and co. Shining with their most melodic and earnest tracks to date, Pulman wears his heart on his sleeve throughout. Touching on the first cut, he explains that "'Over It' is about the severe impact of relationships on your happiness in the best and worst ways. It's loving someone completely whilst finding yourself in trivial arguments about frozen peas."

To mark the occasion and as a throwback to their first ever release (shout out to you Rolling Tongue fans), we've got a super limited run of custom embroidered baseball caps. We're only selling these for ONE WEEK, so snap em up!

S/T was recorded with Theo Verney at Verney Recordings (https://www.facebook.com/verneyrecordings) and will be released in Autumn 2017. 'Over It' is the opening track.

The band are in the middle of a UK tour, catch them at the following dates:

12th July - Northampton, The Garibaldi
13th July - Exeter, Cavern
14th July - London, The Waiting Room
15th July - Brighton, East Street Tap
16th July-  Bristol,  Exchange
27th August - Bristol, Hardly A Party

Birdskulls - Over It

St. Bernadette / Haunted

Pale Kids - St. Bernadette

Today we're delighted to introduce the dream pop fuzz of Londoners Worst Place.

Having formed in early 2016, Worst Place have spent several months propping up basement bills, sharing a smattering of psych-tinged jams and receiving support from 6 Music's Tom Robinson. With the weather's poor attempt at convincing us that it is indeed summer, Worst Place are perfectly poised to bring the rays. In 'Dreamer' Worst Place deliver three minutes of perfect shoegazing pop taking shimmers of inspiration from Alvvays knack for an earworm chorus and Fear of Men's ability to enshroud something slightly darker amongst perfectly pleasant fuzz pop. 

For the artwork the band decided to create a classic American-style postcard with each of the maps inside the letters representing places that they grew up or have links to. Worst Place will be celebrating the launch of the single with a release party at The Shacklewell Arms this Friday. It's free entry and support comes from Meal Deals and Scab City: https://www.facebook.com/events/1748199365210175/

Worst Place - Dreamer

PRE-ORDER ON LTD EDITION 7": http://bit.ly/2xjj9Xq

Following their well received debut single - the 10 minute long Alternative Facts released in June as part of Too Pure's singles club - Mush have returned with a new AA 7" due for release on the 17th November.

Whilst their previous single called out the bullshit of the White House press department, this time round Mush have set their sights on those despicable creeps; the people who exclusively live their lives in the comments section of online articles. Meanwhile on the flip-side 'Luxury Animals' is a call to arms to "sack off work and go lay down somewhere instead".

The tracks were recorded with Matt Peel at The Nave and combine clever Television'esque interplay with the slacker-rock of their previous singles. Since forming early in 2016, the Leeds four piece have recorded an EP with MJ at Suburban Studios, been invited by Marc Riley for a BBC 6 Music session and supported the likes of Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever and Happyness. You can catch them live at the following dates with a longer tour to be confirmed shortly…

10th October - Soup Kitchen, Manchester (w/ Ulrika Spacek) 
12th October - Oslo, London (w/ Ulrika Spacek) 
15th October - Oporto, Leeds (headline) 
21st October - Hug and Pint, Glasgow (Massive Sanctions all dayer) 
9th November - Shacklewell Arms, London (w/ Drahla) 
11th November - Rough Trade West (instore)
12th November - The Old England, Bristol (single launch).

Pressing Information
Ltd to 300 copies. First 50 pre-orders come with a very limited floppy disc containing hidden content. You'll also get an instant download of Luxury Animals when you order.

Comment Section Creeps / Luxury Animals

Buy 7" record

Mush - Luxury Animals

Buy 7" flexidisc: http://www.artishardrecords.co.uk/products/604383-various-artists-7x7-7-or-postcard

To celebrate the seventh birthday of the label we asked one band from each year of our history to record a 50 second song. Here is the surprising, exciting and earworm'esque results.

Buy ltd edition 7"

The Death of Pop - Slime

Samuel Stacpoole (The Black Tambourines) - Low Flyin' Bird

DIY label based in south west England releasing great music on weird things.

You can stream all our releases in full over on our bandcamp - http://artishardrecords.bandcamp.com

2017: a sampler

Art Is Hard Records