Happy new year from us all here at TPE Headquarters.

It’s been quite a year for us, as you all know, starting off with a bang at South by Southwest, and ending on a high note at the Bell House in Brooklyn. Funnily enough, we had some equipment challenges at both, but somehow it all worked out and the gigs were a blast.

Thankfully, courtesy of the incredible NYC Taper, you can hear for yourself. He’s made a great recording of the Bell House gig, and offers free high quality downloads at his awesome site. You can download good quality MP3 files, or even lossless FLAC versions of the entire gig, here.

A big shout out to NYC and everyone who came – you were great as always! Here’s looking forward to 2010.

Happy Christmas y’all! Here’s something else from the tour.

Before the Derry gig Steve was whisked off to Radio Foyle to talk to afternoon presenter Mark Patterson.

This is the broadcast:

 

 Steve on Radio Foyle [10:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Indeed!

We’ll post these as we find them, and try to post pictures and whatnot from the tour. So for now, take a look at the review on the Culture Northern Ireland web site.

That tour was amazing – New York, you are in for a treat!

Here’s just a brief little taster of what’s coming at you from Friday night at Koko

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Some of you may remember that the fans put together a list of questions to submit to the band last year after the first set of reformation gigs. Well, it has only been a year, and we’re finally getting around to it. The idea is to answer one of these every few days. Think of it as a sort of TPE Advent calendar, if you will.

As the list grows, I’ll put them all on a special page, but for now they’ll just be on the blog. So! Without further ado, let’s get this started:

5) – It’s general agreed that those gigs were incredibly tight considering the band hadn’t performed together for 14 years, do you think you’re better musicians now than in the TPE days of yore ?

Ciaran: While its not really for us to say ….I absolutely agree. Steve’s voice sounds stronger and the band don’t push quite as hard as we used to – i.e. we are still v. tight but there’s a kind of looseness happening which lets the songs breathe and groove a bit more. Probably due to a) getting a bit older; b)not playing all the time and therefore making a routine of it; c)listening to a wider variety of music over the years when we’ve been having a break. Every show since we reformed have been winners.

Steve: Aw shucks. It’s not just me – I think we’re grooving better as a band now than we ever did back in the day. Without wishing to sound too cliched, there is a certain power to maturity, knowing that less is more, that showing restraint can be far more powerful than losing control. Speaking of losing control,  there were a lot more stimulants involved back then, legal or otherwise. And finally, after having spent a decade and a half _not_ playing together, I think we’ve all come to realize the unique combination we are. The sum is much greater than the parts, and I think we’re all much better able to understand that now, and cherish it accordingly. By letting go and surrendering to the whole.

Enjoy.

UPDATE: This is US-only, I’m afraid. :^(

I’m sure most if not all of you already own it, but this is a big opportunity for us to get exposed to thousands if not millions of new potential fans. So if you have any blogs or email lists that you post to, send ‘em over to Amazon.com/mp3 or amazonmp3.com and look in the top right.

(In case you hadn’t gathered, there’s a free song every day here – it’s never a bad idea to visit!)

Cross your fingers for us – let’s hope some folks love the track, buy a few downloads, and come to the shows.

Hey All -

We’ve finally managed to get Fireproof and Final Flame released digitally. We’re working directly with IODA to make them available to all music sites, and can verify that they’re available on iTunes and Amazon. Woo hoo!

But there’s more. This release of Final Flame restores the original running order and full length of the original shows. Some of you may have heard these six unreleased tracks via the “unofficial” versions (I believe I may have sent some of these myself), but this is the first time they’ve officially been made available.

We will also be releasing physical versions of these two releases through a partnership with Amazon’s Disc-on-demand. More on that later.

In the meantime, we would absolutely love it if some of you wrote some reviews!

Check it out: Pennyblackmusic.co.uk

I remember that interview – we had a great time out on the patio of the Rescue Rooms. Oh – that reminds me. I promised I’d give Denzil’s CD a listen and a review! As a matter of fact I just found the handful of CDs I acquired on tour, so I had better give ‘em a listen.

Hey folks -

Culturedeluxe were kind enough to do an interview with us backstage at the Hop Farm Festival. We enjoyed chatting with them, as I think you’ll see.

See for yourself here.