Next Videotones installment! Major thanks to BorisB for nailing this one – seriously awesome job! There’s plenty more on the way, but still room for more collaborators, so get in touch if you want to join in…

Probably the most obvious pun I’ve ever used as a post header, but I’m sure you’ll forgive me as there is big news to impart!

Yup, that’s right, for the first time in quite a while, we’re off to the USA for a couple of shows in jolly California, by invitation of the good Bootie folks! Dates are:

Sat 27th March : Bootie SF @ The DNA Lounge, San Francisco
Fri 3rd April : Bootie LA @ The Echoplex, Los Angeles

Unfortunately Bootie residents A+D won’t be at the LA show (although fellow resident and all round man-of-awesomeness Paul V will be cloning himself especially), because they’ll be zooming their way about on their European Tour, but the upside of all that is finally there’s going to be a one-off Bootie London, featuring not only A+D, London host DJ Payroll and The Bootie Berlin Crew, but also Our Very Good Selves as special guests. Friday 9th April is the date for that one – remember it now, because it will end up in your grandkid’s history homework.

As if that wasn’t enough, assuming everything goes according to plan (get out clause ahoy!), at Cargo we’ll be debuting/previewing the Audio/Visual show that we’re currently putting together with the rather talented chaps at Butch Auntie. You lucky, lucky people!

If you’re within reach, there’s really no excuse – if you’re not, go find a convenient scout hut and drop us an email to let us know where it is – we’ll be there.

So… ultra-pleased to announce the Videotones project, the mission being to create a video for each of the tracks on “Uptime/Downtime“. We’re lining up a diverse array of visual talent, each of whom will be interpreting a track or two in their own inimitable styles. Below you can see Instamatic‘s ace take on “Welcome Back” – huge thanks to him for proposing the project and kicking it off in spectacular style!

More videos will be appearing over the next few months! We’re also on the lookout for more contributors, so if you’d like to participate, please get in touch and let us know – it would be great to have you on board!

A few additionals to the below!

First off, thanks for all the feedback, here, on facebook, on twitter, and around the blogs – very very much appreciated – please keep going – if you like what you hear, let people know – mates, radio DJs, promoters, whoever – every single bit helps, and we will be eternally grateful to you for doing so!

OK, Del Boy moment over, the full-length mix MP3s are now up on the download page, so if you like your Uptime/Downtime action uninteruppted, or simply want to drop them onto smooth-playing CDs for your gramophone, now you have the option.

We’re laying off the torrents for the moment, as the bandwidth seems to be holding up (although the speed isn’t the best, so sorry for keeping you waiting). We’ll see how things go…

Also, as you may have noticed below, we’ve put a fair chunk of the back catalogue up on SoundCloud, so you can now embed album players in your own pages – sweet! We’ll be adding some more trinkets on there soon, so keep an eye if you’re a cloud type of person.

Finally, the album tracks are almost nearly up on last.fm, though we’ve been having some grief with their uploader – hopefully that will be sorted very, very soon.

That’s it for now – Pip pip!

Happy new year to you all!!!

“Uptime / Downtime” download page

Hope you like it – feedback always welcome, either in the comments or by email

photography by Sam Javanrouh, made available under a Creative Commons licence.

(sorry this was supposed to autopost yesterday but I ballsed it up somehow – apologies! EK)

photography by Sam Javanrouh, made available under a Creative Commons licence.

Okay, here’s the long-awaited news – “Uptime / Downtime” is pretty much ready, and we have a release date! (Damn, it feels good to type that!) What’s more, as we didn’t get it finished in time for release for the end of this decade, we thought it highly appropriate that we release it at MIDNIGHT Greenwich Mean Time on 01/01/10, making it the first album released in the NEW decade (well, in the UK anyways – damn time zones!). That means that sometime around your New Year’s festivities, there’ll be a present for you waiting online, helping you to ease into 2010 in the manner to which you have become accustomed!

To celebrate the release (and by jove, do we ever want to celebrate it!), Eric will be playing at not one, but two events in MANCHESTER over the New Year’s celebrations, cunningly fashioned into an Uptime event and a Downtime event to tie in with the theme of the album. You see what we did there? Good.

First off, as you may already know, we’ll be at The Ruby Lounge on New Year’s Eve for what is being described as “the best house party in the world” – Yup, that’s right, the club will be transformed into the most perfect house party, complete with a booze stashes, bedrooms to sneak off into (complete with megadrives and bunkbeds!), a garden with a shed, and the best stereo in the world in the living room. Joining Eric on the stereo will be soundsmiths from The Whip, May68, Lost & Found, Same Teens, The Answering Machine and some very special guests that we’re not allowed to announce. It’s going to be a pretty special night, to say the least!

Tickets for NYE are £10 (+ booking fee) from either Ticketline or See Tickets online, or the esteemed Piccadilly Records in Manchester, but be sharp, as this is going to be a sell-out event.

On the flipside, the next day (New Year’s Day, keep up!), we’ll be heading for another Lounge, this time across town at Hatter’s Hostel, where, after grabbing a few winks (and there’s beds available from £18 too – only fair we give our fine hosts a plug!), we’ll be hosting a Downtime themed afternoon session, with free brunch and bloody marys for all to help the recovery and get into the swing of 2010. Coming along for the session will be some of our friends from Murkage Cartel (who will be following up their own NYE extravaganza at Sankeys), to swap stories and tunes, and compare hangovers. And being New Years, who knows who else may end up with us?… you’ll have to come along and find out!

Entry for NYD is strictly by invite only, so if you want to come along email us – again be sharp, as the list will fill up pretty quickly!

So… all sounds rather good, yes? Well, in true not-only-but-also style, we’re even having a COMPETITION to win tickets! Not only tickets for the winners and a mate each for the two events, but also accommodation for the night at Hatter’s (I know, there probably won’t be much sleeping done, but it’s good to have somewhere to dump your stuff and chill if you need it, without having to get an expensive taxi home, no? Also there’ll be breakfast waiting for you when you rise!). That’s your New Year’s sorted then!

To enter the competition, just email nyecomp@kleptones.com, giving us your contact info and telling us who, in an perfect world, would headline YOUR ideal “Uptime” night out and “Downtime” recovery session (apart from us, obviously, hemhem). The THREE best answers picked will win tickets to both events & accommodation for themselves and a friend!

Closing date for the competition will be Midnight on Xmas Eve, and we’ll email the winners on Xmas Day, which should make for a pretty decent bonus Xmas present! (Sorry we won’t be able to gift wrap it ;).

If you’re not lucky enough to win the comp, you can still pick up tickets for NYE (details above) and Guest List for NYD (email us!) if you’re quick…

Phew! It’s going to be a pretty crazy couple of days, and a fine way to celebrate the album and New Year’s in one fell swoop. Don’t be glum if you’re not near Manchester though, as we’ll be hosting more Uptime and Downtime events all over the place in 2010, so watch this space!

Okay! Album – New Year’s – Competition – Win. I think that’s it – better get back to work.

…but there’s more to life than crappy weather. Hey, welcome back after the break! And now here’s Eric with the news…

Couple of new gigs to announce – First a loooong, long long overdue return visit to Manchester, and on New Year’s Eve to boot! Yes, our good friends in the town, previously of the mighty Birthday Party, now ensconsed behind the reigns of Same Teens and XOX Magazine, are taking over The Ruby Lounge to throw the house party you’ve always wanted to have, but have never felt like cleaning up after!

In their own words… “The Ruby Lounge will be transformed into the best house party you ever went to – we’ll have a kitchen with a fridge full of beers, bedrooms to sneak off to, and the best stereo you ever heard in the living room – we’ll even have music in the garden shed and it all goes on to an unseemly 4am with no chance of the neighbours complaining.”

Long time fans will know the combination of lunacy and attention to detail these folks are capable of, and we’ll be gracing the living room stereo alongside The Whip, May 68, Lost & Found, The Answering Machine, Same Teens and some genuine secret spesh guests. Really, I can’t think of a better place on this isle I’d rather be doing New Years, so get your asses down/up. Full details here. I’m trying to talk ’em into a New Year’s Day meltdown session too, so watch this space…

Second in order only, in the new year Eric will be heading out across for a debut performance at Bootie Berlin, by invitation of the mighty fine DJ Morgoth, who will be providing backup along with the splendid Dr.Waumiau. Friday 15th January is the date for your diaries, my German friends (and anyone else that feels like a weekender!), and with the Bootie seal of quality, you know this is going to be a spectacular show!

Last and most definitely not least, the fine US VJ DJ Tripp has put together a videomash for “Voodoo Sabotage” – Many thanks to him. Check it out below and hope to see you soon – more shows in the pipeline as always!

The Kleptones – Hiding In The Bayou (extended live jam mix)

Thanks for all the positives on Voodoo Sabotage – Appreciated! – Here’s something that’s fresher than fresh, so new that one of the contributions was only officially released yesterday, and the other is not that old either! Bit of a stylistic departure from previous also – so, come take a ride down the river…

Quick one! As a taster for the weekend’s festivities in Budapest, we’ve passed Simon Iddol an exclusive mp3 “single” cut of Voodoo Sabotage, which you should already know from the Hectic City “Plinth” mix – now isolated and sent scurrying into the world, especially for you shuffle-heads. You can grab it over at Audio Porn Central!

Gig update time again – got a few mighty fine shows over the next couple of weeks…

As mentioned below, it’s the Aliens and Demons party this weekend (23/24 October) – details are in the previous post – Eric’s playing on Saturday evening, but the whole weekend will be chock full of insanity. I think it’s pretty close to selling out, but all the info and so forth can be gleaned from Fex Projects.

Next up on Thursday 29th October, Eric is back at Idle Hands @ The Pelirocco in Brighton, following the mighty fine time we had last month with Pete Wiggs of Saint Etienne (even got to play the new Richard X version of “Only Love” with blessings – thanks Pete!). This month Eric’s going to be teaming up with the very esteemed Gary Yay from Brighton megastars The Telegraphs for a trawl through the uncharted ends of their record collections – starts at 7.30, it’s free and the cocktails really are the best in town (and 2 for 1 at the start of the night too!).

Finally, on Saturday 31st October, it’s off into the realms of Central Europe, as Eric beams down to Budapest to play Mashup Central, one of the finest current hubs of audio cut and paste activities, hosted by the one-man promo inferno, producer, designer and all round good egg Simon Iddol. Really looking forward to this one obviously – details can be found at Audio Porn Central.

Hope to see you out there!