All tough country bands need a live recording from prison to be considered bone fide, and we’ll be joining that gang on March 23rd 2022 with the release of “Live Near Winson Green”. The album is available to buy from our Bandcamp page as a digital download and CD.
It features 14 tracks recorded live near HMP Winson Green, Birmingham, with songs taken from our first three albums. It’s a rootin’, tootin’ retrospective of everything we’ve done since our debut LP in 2016. The set was recorded in August 2020 at a point when the band were cooking with gas; this is your favourite Country band strolling into the prison yard on Day 1 and sparking out the biggest, meanest dude. You have to lay down a marker.
Get yourself a slice of Live Near Winson Green by ordering CD/digital today.
Until next time, keep a shank handy.
Love from, CHiPs, Doc, The Swede, Randy, Bobby P and Magic Dave.
Things have been hectic here at the Ranch, so we’re behind on the old Bandcamp EPs. We’ve just released June and July’s EPs in one go, bringing us up to date. 6 tracks across two EPS, available exclusively to our subscribers.
To join the gang, head over to: https://independentcountry.bandcamp.com/ranch
Welcome Ranchers. We have another subsciber-only EP out today over on Bandcamp.
The Swede’s “Oh My Love” was a 7” single on Where It’s At Is Where You Are records. He duets with indie-pop queen Amelia Fletcher (Talulah Gosh, Tender Trap, Wedding Present, Catenary Wires). In a related branch of the IC Rock Family Tree, I was in a band with future Suede keyboardist Neil Codling and we played “Our Love is Heavenly” by Amelia’s band Heavenly. It all connects.
The band demo of “Sabotage” is another one that rivals the album version, certainly it feels better paced maybe. Interesting band fact, Chips still thinks the “make no mistake” middle 8th of this song is just another verse despite the fact he arranged/wrote it and it clearly isn’t.
The Swede’s home demo for “Come as You Are” shows the musical gag is all his work…. and therefore all legal correspondence should be addressed to him.
There is a new Bandcamp subscriber EP out today. £25 a year gets you access to all this business. Get stuck in here.
Here are Doc’s notes on this one:
The “Flux” demo is interesting. This longer version is how we were going to record right up until the night before going into the studio, when we cut it back and made it the instrumental breakdowns different lengths. Less is more here for sure but this version has some nice moments.
Chips’ home demo of Death Cab for Cutie’s “I Will Possess Your Heart” is a throwback to how the band started, working on his home demos that are both simple but also replete with perfect melodies and harmony ideas. He always jokes on stage about the dubious protagonist of the song lyrics. It’s cute he thinks that’ll protect us from getting cancelled.
“Now or Never” is another “Cam Docherty” (me) song from 2000 recorded with my pal Neil Codling. This was going to be my big hit, had any of the requisite ingredients for that been available at the time. Another song with an outro trying to be the “Tumblin’ Dice” outro. It’s a Doc thing, ok?
The 16th in the series of band playlists is out now. This time, Doc selects the tunes. Featuring songs by Jonny Paycheck, The Kinks, Mott The Hoople, and more.
Get stuck in below, or visit the Playlists page to see what else is cooking.
Happy New Year Ranchers. We’ve added a whole new batch of recent demos, live tracks and some choice selections from band members’ previous projects to the vaults so this year’s selection of exclusives are going to be great.
EP#13 is here: https://independentcountry.bandcamp.com/album/bandcamp-ep-13, and here are the liner notes:
The live version of “Flux” is from our first post lockdown gig at Birmingham’s Hare & Hounds in May 2021. It was great, a bit weird to play to a smaller, seated crowd there but everyone was feeling their way back. We got considerably drunk to help with that.
The demo of “I Will Possess” is one of those occasions when the demo rivals the final cut. There’s a spookier vibe to this that fits the lyric although I guess I miss my piano part (because no one else will).
My home demo of MGMT’s “Time to Pretend” is an idea we never really progressed with, it’s pretty much a country soul version of the original tune although the lyrics are changed a bit. You be the judge. Suffice to say, this is the only version that’ll ever exist.
All tough country bands need a live recording from prison to be considered bone fide, and we’ll be joining that select gang on March 23rd 2022 with the release of “Live Near Winson Green”. The album goes on pre-sale today and is available to as a digital download and CD.
It features 14 tracks recorded live near Her Majesty’s Prison Winson Green, Birmingham, with songs taken from our first three albums. It’s a rootin’, tootin’ retrospective of everything we’ve done since our debut album in 2016. The set was recorded in August 2020 at a point when the band were cooking with gas; this is your favourite Country band strolling into the prison yard on Day 1 and sparking out the biggest, meanest dude. You have to lay down a marker.
We’re putting this out because it’s been hard to get out and play for folks over the last two years, so the record is a chance for us to come to you and deliver the energy of our live shows. All that’s missing is the chicken wire and the flying beer bottles, but you can supply your own.
This release also fires the starting pistol on a busy year here at the Independent Country Ranch. We’re currently finishing off some recordings that will see the light of day towards the end of summer. This batch of songs will be our first set of original material, and – without giving too much away – it’s a movie soundtrack. Once we’re done with that one, we’ll be moving swiftly on to tackle the pile of original song demos that CHiPs, Doc, The Swede, Randy, Magic Dave and Bobby P have been slowly adding to since we all got together. There are over 150 to choose from, so we’ve got work to do. More news on all that soon.
In the meantime, get yourself a slice of Live Near Winson Green by pre-ordering CD/digital today. You get the first track, “Freak Scene” as an immediate download.
Until next time, keep a shank handy and remember what happens to snitches.
Love from,
CHiPs, Doc, The Swede, Randy, Bobby P and Magic Dave.
PS: If you want to support the band throughout 2022, the best way to do that is to join the Independent Country Bandcamp Ranch. For £25 a year you get everything we’ve done so far, all new releases in 2022, discounts on physical product and merchandise, and a monthly EP of exclusive tracks. The 13th EP is landing later this week – you’ll get all 12 EPs released last year, plus all subsequent EPs. Get stuck in here.
