Artwork

The End Of The Pier will be officially released on Occultation in just one months' time.  Here's a taster of the stunning artwork that will grace the LP and CD albums:

 

Subtle magic

The last part of the Evertt True / Jerry Thackray's review of The End Of The Pier at Collapse Board:



Song of the day – 473: The Distractions
 
I have nothing from the album – called The End Of The Pier, due out in August – to play you.  Instead, you can find the album here.


This is an old song.  A favourite.  I can hear what you’re thinking, lonesome and lovelorn Collapse Board reader.  You’re thinking is the new album really as great as this?  No of course it fucking isn’t.  It is – as Au Pairs once sang – equal but different.  It resonates.  It bewitches.  It contains subtle magic, so subtle I can’t even begin to spot the glass.  The song that would be my Song of the Day is called ‘The Last Song’.  I like last songs.

(c) Everett True, Collapse Board, 2012.

What magic is this?

Here's part two of the first review of The End Of The Pier, by Everett True / Jerry Thackray at Collapse Board:

Song of the day – 473: The Distractions 

In the months since I was sent an advance promo of End Of The Pier, it’s found its way onto my iTunes playlist several times – shy and unannounced like a former drunkard of a friend – and each time, I stop what I’m doing momentarily and listen, surprised, caught unawares again, wanting more, wistful, wishing that I could stop this relentless chase, this thrill of the new when no one nears me gives a fucking second glance at what I do.  The music I make this days, when I make it, is clearly me: this hesitation, this clumsy renewal with the heart of pop music serves The Distractions well, very well.  

This isn’t from the album. This is ‘Lost’ from the ‘Come Home’ EP, released in 2010.

I’m stumbling here.  I know within my heart that I wouldn’t listen to this album more than once if I didn’t know The Distractions already but that’s not the point, is it?  I do know The Distractions already and, because I do, their already poignant music is imbued with additional poignancy – because they too are reflecting and stumbling and hesitating and looking back on life that never, never turns out like you’d expect – and it’s stupid and false to pretend otherwise.  I keep wanting to raise the water container to my lips, but it keeps remaining empty.  The mirror confuses the fuck out of me too.  This dead skin.  All this useless dead skin.  What’s that all about?  Listen too closely and the magic begins to dissipate – how can it be otherwise when it’s an echo, a shimmering reflection?  Move away for a few moments, though and the magic comes flooding back in.  How can that be?  What magic is this, as Professor Quirrell once yelped.  Does it matter if it’s a reflection, an echo, when it affects me this deeply?

This isn’t from the album either. This is an old song, re-recorded in 1995, the first Distractions recordings in 15 years.

(c) Everett True, Collapse Board, 2012.

Who’d have thought that coming back would be so hard?

Part One of Everett True's (Jerry Thackray's) early, idiosynchratic yet compelling review of The End Of The Pier at Collapse Board:

Song of the day – 473: The Distractions

I’ve been meaning to write about this album for a while. You see, it’s not nothing to me. A new Distractions album (the only other one came out in 1980, and it helped my lovelorn self survive two summers and the heat beyond). There’s no call for it to be good, to be anything other than a renewal of old bonds, a reiteration of the faith, a whisper of the past. And in many senses it is. And in many senses maybe that’s all it is. But maybe that’s enough for my fragile 51-year-old self, that it’s no use pretending this music doesn’t hold power over me, a power that is all the stronger because of the drip-feed of familiarity. I don’t want to lose my fondness for the new, the thrill of the chase – Peel alone knows I don’t want to lose that – but should I always be moving on? Do I always have to?

This new Distractions album is only their second in 32 years, and like the first is the least cutting of disappointments after the brace of singles that preceded it. This new Distractions album is so obviously, immediately The Distractions. I only saw them play live once – they were long-distance magic for me when young, and because of that I can welcome them back into my life again (as opposed to June Brides who I saw any number of times and hence can’t bear the thought of them reforming all grown apart and separate to myself). Yet how can it be, after 32 years, that these chiming plangent guitars and melancholy hope of Mike Finney’s voice are so recognisable? What are the chances of that? You could point to the slow-burning fuse of emotion that tapers and underpins each song. But how’s this not a nostalgia trip?

It’s like they sing on ‘Boots’, “Who’d have thought that coming back would be so hard?”

It’s like Sarah Jane said to the Doctor: “You never said goodbye”.

Maybe this is my chance. No, it’s not that. (Shakes his head impatiently.)...

(c) Everett True, Collapse Board, 2012.

The End

Here's the front cover of the new album, The End Of The Pier, out in late August (although copies will be available direct from the Occultation shop a week or two earlier than that).  The album will also be available to buy at Occultation's End Of The Pier shows, featuring Factory Star and The June Brides, at the Kings Arms, Salford, on Friday and Saturday at the end of August.  Tickets for either or both nights can be bought here, with savings to be made if you fancy both nights.

The End Of The Pier Show tickets

Some of the ticket-buying websites can be a bit confusing so, at Mr Finney's suggestion (a good one), Occultation have provided direct links to each of the three options for coming to the Occultation "End Of The Pier Shows" featuring The Distractions, Factory Star and The June Brides.

1) Click here if you want to come on Friday 31st August only (£12 advance, £15 on the night);

2) Click here if you want to come on Saturday 1st September only (£12 advance, £15 on the night);

3) Click here if you'd like to come on both nights, i.e. Friday 31st August AND Saturday 1st September (at the special reduced price of £20 for both tickets).

If you have any problems you can always drop Occultation a line at info@occultation.co.uk.

Word

In the news this week due to The Word magazine's sad demise, founder and editor David Hepworth was a fan...  From Smash Hits, 15th November 1979:

(c) Brian at Like Punk Never Happened.

THE DISTRACTIONS: Time Goes By So Slow (Factory / Island).

Manchester's newest entries into the sensitivity stakes are five guys old enough to be Sad Cafe but, thank the lord, they're anything but.  Their hazy, tuneful approach could very well have come from the late sixties and I have a feeling that these guys could prove to have real substance.

David Hepworth

 (c) Brian at Like Punk Never Happened.

And from 29th May 1980:

THE DISTRACTIONS: Nobody's Perfect (Island). Where to begin? Soft but sometimes angry, bristling with graceful touches but almost clumsy, naive but bitter, rooted as much in psychedelic bubblegum as in Mancunian new musik, this enchanting and vaguely disturbing collection of vulnerable pop could go straight over the head of the casual listener. Which would be a tragedy as this could well be the most attractive and hardest wearing debut album since The Pretenders. Get the picture? (8 out of 10).

David Hepworth

(c) Brian at Like Punk Never Happened.

www.wordmagazine.co.uk @TheWordMagazine

http://whatsheonaboutnow.blogspot.co.uk @davidhepworth