2 free songs for download over at our new last.fm page.
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The Nightowlers
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Nightowlers

When cabin fever sets in over Christmas holidays: Valen comes to town

Taken In
from the Boss Tuneage Album Only Souvenirs

While blowing the digital dust of my music library recently, I stumbled across many songs and rarities from my previous punk band Barefoot – songs mostly confined only to memory.  I had a great time and a lot of laughs playing, recording, gigging and touring the UK with the Glasgow-based band between 2003 and 2007 .

It was on listening to these songs again recently for the first time in ages, that I came to appreciate their quality, melodies, musicianship and energy a lot more.  Our music, labelled punk, melodic punk, power pop etc, was very much in the vein of bands like Leatherface, Mega City Four, Doughboys and (earlier) Greenday. High speed, driving drums and bass, a 2 guitar attack with melodic embellishments/solos and unique, song-defining vocal melodies and lyrics were order of the day.

Playing and working with these songs week-in week-out for such substantial periods obviously colours how you hear and feel about the songs.  It is all too easy to get lost in the minute details of something that from the outside may not be of any particular worth. Conversely, you can become completely sickened of something great when you play it repeatedly. Such is the dilemma when trying to both write and listen to songs.

Time away however, has rejuvenated these songs “in my ears’ eyes” and I can also look back nostalgically now with a clearer overview of the different musical stages in Barefoot’s short history: Early 3-piece pop punk gems like Taken In (above), Ten Past Broken and Punch Your Weight,

Ten Past Broken
from the Boss Tuneage Album Only Souvenirs

Punch Your Weight
from the Boss Tuneage Album Only Souvenirs

Via the beefed out, more jagged, 4-piece sound of the Undone and Done In songs such as Face First:

To the more updated, varied and intricate guitar sound from “Deliverance Sessions” such as On The Edge, Useless and Bitter.

On The Edge
from the “Deliverance Sessions”

Useless
from the “Deliverance Sessions”

Bitter
from the “Deliverance Sessions”

Amongst the trinkets and treasures of the clear out I also came across a markedly different side of Barefoot – a rare, more laid back, partly acoustic rock song called Secure. One that I think stands up as a great song all by itself. If Barefoot had ever wanted to be radio-friendly….

Secure
from the unreleased album Undone and Done In

Apart from this new found personal interest in the songs themselves, part of the reason for putting them up here on shanx.co.uk is because many of these songs have never actually seen the light of day. There is an album’s worth of completed songs that only those in the band or those who saw us live in our latter gigging days have ever heard. So let’s blow the digital dust off some of them…

The summer weather and Norway’s “Light at Night” at 1 in the morning allowed for some outdoor low-fi (because we know no other way) music with Stefan as part of  our “David and Me” project.  It was a beautiful evening – “one for the mind and not to be recorded” as a wise man once said.  We were visited by a curious beaver, some deer, jumping fish, a skunk (we think) and passers by.

Musically speaking for “David and Me”, melody and simplicity take precedence with bedroom noises from melodicas, ukuleles, glockenspiels and rhythm eggs also making appearances.  Magnetic fields and Herman Dune are strong influences.  Mostly though, the driving force is some sort of ode to our favourite, sadly departed all-too-young St.Thomas.  We hope summer will be kind and give us some recordings of our songs to put out.  For now, some roughness (we like roughness!)

- The Willow Tree -

David and Me – Sulking

While on the music front, Billy Spring Band have been busy in the studio recording rough demos for a full 8 or so songs.  We have quite a mixture of songs now ranging from a “skrangly” Neil Young rock sound to a smooth jazzy tune all the way to a waltz!  Check back here in the upcoming weeks for some rough demos.  BSB now have, in addition to our Myspace, an online home with the kind collective of bands @ Snotpope with whom we share practice rooms, studio and equipment.  Find it by clicking my banner design below.

Digitally, I’ve been particularly impressed with WordPress 2.8 publishing platform’s features that make running a blog  a LOT easier and much more intuitive.  Plugins, themes and widgets can all now be installed and activated directly through the WordPress Online Site Admin interface.  The sidebar widget housing your e.g. Twitter, Flickr and Last.fm feeds can be adjusted seamlessly using drag and drop thanks to AJAX.  Gone also are the cumbersome days of downloading your plugins/upgrades as zip files, unpacking them and uploading them via FTP.  One standout plugin is the  WordPress InstantUpgrade plugin by Zirona.  Once set up, WordPress is upgradable in one click – no more worries about file permissions or overwriting important files.

Watch this space for more music from David and Me and BSB.  And, above all, god sommer!

As those pictures and drawings come down, I’ve put up 12 new line drawings up on flickr.  The drawings date from the end of summer to yesterday evening and the themes are somewhat disparate rannging from Kissing to Kerouac to Cancer Research to Leonard Cohen to Ikea and The Dance.  You can also browse my pics using this very nice flash gallery by airtightinteractive.

They Said Repent Repent

Beauty And Comfort In A Twisted Logic

Yet When He Called Out Not Even An Echo Replied

Facebook event link
Info/Price List

As of today I have a selection of my pictures and drawings on display in Godt Brød ecological bakery/café, Trondheim.

Godt Brød Trondheim
Thomas Angells gate 16
7011 Trondheim
73 53 61 40
Click here for a map

Opening hours are 8am-6pm everyday except Sunday.
It’s an excellent bakery/café right in the city centre so please drop in, have something to eat, take a look around and leave a note in the guestbook!

The exhibition is a mix of things old and new.  On display are my previous black & white photographs from France and Scotland, a more recent surreal/dark series on loneliness and solitude and also a few of my line drawings that are fresh off the press.You can also look at/buy postcards and my collection book Times Beyond the Tree.

You can browse my photos and drawings here

If you are interested in buying any photos/drawings/prints just get in touch for a price and details on size and framing: davidmichaelshanks@gmail.com

Thanks,

David

Times beyond the tree is a short portfolio selection of my recent photographs, line drawings, texts and song lyrics.

Loneliness, solitude, emptiness.

Awareness, connections, excitement.

Beauty.

A tiptoed journey that turns dead-end glances to next door’s shadows

An awkward, onward struggle that can never be as expected

A couple lie in bed and listen to one another breathe

An old woman is reassured as a flag signals her death

Two strangers find out they have already met and spoken without words

And a windowsill sunset somehow connects it all together in perfect harmony

The title is a reference to Chris Marker’s photomontage La Jétée . A man travels back in time to save civilisation and find his former love. While in a park, the couple stare at a cut cross-section of a giant sequoia tree that is marked with historical dates. The man points somewhere beyond the tree and says “This is where I come from”.

• Preview a low quality selection of the book directly here

All of my pictures on display are for sale so if you have any price/sizes/framing queries just email [ davidmichaelshanks @ gmail.com ]

Look Up Look Out

Look Up Look Out is opening the 18/01/08 @18.00 in Baklandet Skydsstaion, Trondheim, Norway tomorrow. Morten and I are both very excited! Click here for a map & Click here to see my exhibition pics

If you have arrived here after seeing my work in Skydsstation and want to browse my portfolio please go to my Flickr page. For purchase/print size/framing questions please email [ davidmichaelshanks @ gmail.com ]

Here is our press release in Norwegian on Morten’s blog: press release

Here are links to some supplementary documents that are on display in the exhibition:
My Photographer’s Biography (for more of an idea on what this exhibition is about)
My image blurbs
Look Up Look Out Expo Booklet
Press Release Text Doc (Norwegian) (again thanks to Morten)

If you are interested in purchasing any of the images you see on exhibition or else on my site, please contact me via my email [ davidmichaelshanks @ gmail.com ] for prices/prints/framing information.

I have also opened a flickr photo account to complement and possibly replace this website over time. Given its great community/comment/extra features Ill be mostly updating my flickr account with my past and present photography: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidmichaelshanks/

I have also had some of my pics accepted by PhotoShelter stock photo collection. Here my pics are live and for sale, including several that were awarded the “editor’s choice”.
http://my.photoshelter.com/davidshanks
“Created by photographers in 2005, PhotoShelter has quickly become one of the professional photography industry’s most trusted brands”

In January I will be having an exhibition of my photos in Skydstation, Trondheim, Norway with Morten Oddvik. More details to follow.

For the new year I will be changing webhost and my site. I hope to have a more comprehensive photography section as well as more of my music content online.