THOMAS WHITE BAND SUPPORT THE LEVELLERS - News from THOMAS WHITE OFFICIAL FACEBOOK
Thomas White is EXTREMELY happy to announce the Thomas White Band will be supporting the mighty Levellers on their upcoming UK Tour!! We'll be on the road with them from the 9th to the 28th of November, taking in Poole, Bridport, Kendal, Darlington, Bridgwater, Pontardawe, Falmouth, Tavistock, Southend, Wrexham and Stroud, among... many others!! Check the LEVELLERS MYSPACE for info and tixxx - Watch video from the BEAUTIFUL DAYS FESTIVAL
Video by jolyonholroyd Thomas White and his marvellous band play a set of tunes at the 2010 Beautiful Days Festival near Exeter Devon. Includes covers of Fairport Convention, Warren Zevon and Joe Brown songs. Also includes a rehearsal clip in Valvetastic Studios Exeter.
'ACCIDENTALLY LIKE A MARTYR EP' out now Label: Cooking Vinyl - Thomas White: Myspace - Facebook
Watch the video at Vimeo - directed by Matthew Lawes. Buy Links: amazon.co.uk - amazon.com - emusic
White's interpretation of Warren Zevon's tale of heartbreak, Accidentally Like A Martyr, leads a 5 track digital EP that features his take on artists as diverse as Louis Armstrong and Sparklehorse.
Tracks: Accidentally Like A Martyr Warren Zevon - That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate Mission Of Burma - We Have All The Time In The World Louis Armstrong - Little Fat Baby Sparklehorse - I'll See You In My Dreams Joe Brown.
Metro "The Electric Soft Parade man offers a gently beautiful cover of the Warren Zevon song - the perfect soundtrack to an old-fashioned odd-couple romance". More reviews at Drowned In Sound (scroll down) and The 405 who say: "The love Thomas White shows for all these artists and songs shines through - it is a heartfelt tribute to acts that have shaped his life and songwriting. A fascinating collector's item for his open-minded fans"
Official Video - Directed by Matthew Lawes: watch at vimeo.com
drownedinsound.com This Week's Singles: 05/07/10: Title track 'Accidentally Like A Martyr' is the first of five covers here, and it is about as Button Pushing Charity Single Sung With Loads Of Famous Ones In A Studio Singing With Their Hands On Their Headphones as a thing could be. And if, like me, you have ever stood - thoroughly unembarrassed, epiphanies tumbling into your ears and tears streaming - in front of Spiritualized, I suspect you will adore it too. I mean, it's easy to get cynical about this sort of thing, but sometimes you just want a grown up song about a hurt that 'gets worse' and a heart that 'gets harder'. You know, instead of all these fizzy pop younglings saying love makes it all better (the lying little sneaks). Basically, a triumph - should you be in the mood for one.
Review from thefourohfive.com "The love Thomas White shows for all these artists and songs shines through - it is a heartfelt tribute to acts that have shaped his life and songwriting. A fascinating collector's item for his open-minded fans"
The Maximalist is one of this year's great 'lost' albums. It showed Thomas White to be a polymath of musical enthusiasm and wonder, and covered pretty much every genre you can think of. On his tour to promote that album, he dabbled in a few covers including the centrepiece of the album - Warren Zevon's 'Accidentally Like A Martyr', and now he releases this as an EP alongside four other covers of songs by a range of musical legends.
'Accidentally Like A Martyr' is not a drastic departure from the stunning original but White does do it justice, his softer and higher but-no-less emotive vocals complementing the more orchestral backing he brings to the fold. The backing vocals in the chorus really add an element of conviction to his take. He doesn't try to modernise it, and still lets the track tug at the heartstrings as much as Zevon's did, and the striking guitar solo remains.
The next track on the album is a marked departure as White now goes on to tackle Mission Of Burma's 'That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate'. The original was a two-minute blast of in-your-face post-punk and again White takes the 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' approach, just it sounds a tad more progressive and definitely owes a lot to his band The Electric Soft Parade. Or maybe ESP owe a lot to Mission Of Burma. He's clearly having fun and it's nice to hear the song being sung rather than screamed, of which there was surely temptation to do.
Everyone knows 'We Have All The Time In The World' and it takes a brave man to take on Louis Armstrong, especially in a quirky Badly Drawn Boy-esque fashion... White's touching tribute to Mark Linkous with 'Little Fat Baby', one of his true idols and the frontman of Sparklehorse; understated, melancholic and beautiful but sparingly used piano - in every note he sings you can almost hear White welling up.
The last track on the EP is Isham Jones and The Ray Miller Orchestra's 'I'll See You In My Dreams', a classic used in the film of the same name from the 1920s. White is just the latest in a long line of performers to try his luck on this but his delicate and restrained delivery helps him stamp his own authority although never too forcefully. The love Thomas White shows for all these artists and songs shines through, and on the whole it is a heartfelt tribute to acts that have shaped his life and songwriting. A fascinating collector's item for his open-minded fans.
5 TRACK EP JULY 5th aaamusic.co.uk -- Live photos (scroll down)
Thomas White announces the release of a new EP available from July 5th. White's interpretation of Warren Zevon's tale of heartbreak, Accidentally Like A Martyr, leads a 5 track digital EP that features White's take on artists as diverse as Louis Armstrong and Sparklehorse. Track listing as follows: Accidentally Like A Martyr Warren Zevon - That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate Mission Of Burma - We Have All The Time In The World Louis Armstrong - Little Fat Baby Sparklehorse - I'll See You In My Dreams Joe Brown.
The highlight will be an appearance at this year's Meltdown on June 12th curated by Richard Thompson. TW: "What an honour to be invited to play. Richard Thompson's always been one of my favourite guitarists and Fairport Convention's Liege And Lief remains a groundbreaking classic to this day". For this special performance White will be adding choir, violin and cornet to his regular line up, beefing up a dazzling stage show that sees him resplendent in a brocade cape and the promise of much glitter. Personally he's looking forward to catching sets by "absurdly talented" jazz singer Krystle Warren and "one of the most innovative British rock bands working today" Field Music.
Interviews + Audio: Man Of Many Sounds - Thomas + The Boys on Radio 2 - "Guided by Thomas White tonight" on XFM
I'll See You In My Dreams at Guildford Boileroom on 31st March at Youtube Here (by mattytheduke) Audio from recent radio sessions at the Brothers Electric Blog (scroll to after the video) More links: Live Reviews -- Live Videos
Thomas on The Maximalist: These things come around so fast these days. It feels like only last week I was mastering the damn thing... and now it's out there in the cruel world, at the mercy of you hoomins. A good thing? I can but hope. Please take care of it. It is extremely fragile, and will break easily. Kid gloves, please... much as I've toured with a bunch of folk before, the band I have behind me right now is truly like no other. If you have any interest in what's going on with this record, please make the trip to see us play - the whole group is seriously, intensely amazing. I'm allowed to say that... I'm just the singer. Big fucking props to the guys. x
The Last Blast EP available at iTunes!!! Featuring a souped-up version of The Last Blast, recorded with Matthew Twaites and Damo Waters at Brighton's very own Metway Studios, and rollicking covers of Ary Barroso's classic, Brazil, and Mission Of Burma's Einstein's Day: Visit the Thomas White Myspace for his tribute to the late, great Mark Linkous.
Read 'The Last Blast' reviews in the Fan Blog Watch the video at MUZU.tv and the video for 'Einstein's Day' at youtube
Thomas White session on FlyTV - Guided By Voices medley: Watch at MUZU.tv here
11th Feb London show videos in the fan blog here Songs: Jerusalem Thorn, The Last Blast, The Runaround.
New drum track Demo at the Thomas White Myspace (scroll down on the player) Read the latest reviews in his blog.
Free download of 'The Last Blast' (album version) Visit thomaswhiteonline.com An alternative version of 'The Last Blast' forms part of a Digital EP available from March 1st. It includes The Last Blast (Joyballoo Megamix) Einstein's Day (Written by Roger Miller, performed by Mission Of Burma) Brazil (Written by Ary Barroso, performed by Joao Gilberto)
BBC 6Music session: Transcript + audio in the fan blog here Thomas is on bass, Alex on keyboards/percussion, Damo Waters on drums and Andrew Mitchell (Hazey Janes) on guitar. They played: Jerusalem Thorn, Accidentally Like a Martyr and The Weekend Individual tracks here (fan recordings) Originals appear on the new album: Pre-Order
The Pipettes - 'Our Love Was Saved By Spacemen' - Official Viral Video at youtube here featuring Alex White on drums. Produced by Martin Rushent, 'Our Love Was Saved By Spacemen' is a three minute space pop teaser from the Pipettes as yet untitled forthcoming album. Download the song for free now at: thepipettes.co.uk
Thomas White Update (click link) Gorgeous live video from Midwinter Picnic, an interview in which he announces Electric Soft Parade are recording a new album over the next 6 months... Jan 28th Prince Albert reviews and he inspires an excited blog at The Fly.
New cover and blog: Free Track / Rehearsals / Giglets: Thomas White Myspace
Hell, O! Firstly, the album version of 'The Last Blast' has been added to the Myspace page. It's fairly radically different to the version which will be coming out as a single in early March. However, it's a pretty good example of the production, if not the writing, of much of the rest of 'The Maximalist'. In addition, I thought I'd say a little thank you to everyone who's been following me the last few months/years with a little freebie - my home-recorded updating of John Barry's luscious 'We Have All The Time In The World'. You don't have to enter an e-mail or anything, just enjoy.
In other TW news, the live band is now up and rocking once again, having had our first few sessions late last year. Rehearsal today sounded astoundingly good, and I'm in seriously good spirits for these upcoming dates. For the unitiated, the band consists of myself on lead VOX and rickenbacker 4001 fuzz BASS / Andrew Mitchell (of Dundee's The Hazey Janes - great band, check 'em out) on harmolodic GUITAR + b.vox / Alex White (my dear good bruv) on soaring MELLOTRON strings + percush / and the almighty Damo Waters (of late-period ESP and his own Muddy Suzuki solo project) on the POTS AND PANS. As previously mentioned, the shows will feature us lot banging away, accompanied by a bunch of eye-watering projections. See you there....! TWX
Here's what E.S.P. drummer Damo Waters had to say about Thomas's upcoming album and single in his blog.
(blog post) "I should be getting very involved with helping out Thomas White in his live shows to promote his second solo album 'The Maximalist'. In fact I was asked to drum on the forthcoming single, a re-recording of 'The Last Blast' from the aforementioned album. I haven't heard the finished version yet, but I know that it's a damn sight faster than the album version!"
(blog post) "As it looks like I'll be playing in Thomas White's 'solo band' I had the great pleasure of hearing a pre-release copy of his second album 'The Maximalist'. I remember some time back he had a version that was a bunch of songs that he didn't do any singing on, passing that instead to guest vocalists such as Stuart Flynn, but that idea seems to have been replaced in favour of something very 'personal', remarkably varied, expansive, melodic, and rockin', with shit-loads of great drumming!"
The Fly have been playing his new album on their office stereo... They also recently delved into the past with memories of their 2 ESP covers (read more here)
Thomas has updated his Myspace: Influences... are a waste of time. Best make your own kind of music, as the great Mama Cass once said. The new Field Music album's pretty fucking miaow though... Despite my penchant for jangle and all things harmonious, at the moment my secret love is for sludge of any kind really - RTX, Sunn 0))), Part Chimp. The Dandy Warhols have been, and continue to be, a massive influence on how I build a groove, guitar sounds, vocal production, etc. Likewise the work of Broadcast, Wire, Saint Etienne, Joni Mitchell, Elliott Smith and Mission Of Burma has spurred me on in a big, big way. I'll not get into everything else (un-musical) here - there's a huge list of artists, directors, architects, comedians and general people who have influenced me and Al over the years right here (ESP Myspace) ...Enjoy!
More news on 'The Maximalist' as it becomes available...