A brand new song from the album online here:

www.myspace.com/districtband
www.myspace.com/districtkickass

A new website online here:

www.districtband.co.uk

That is all

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DISTRICT
debut album
'GREAT EXIT LINES'
JUNE 19th, 2006
Golf Records

GET INVOLVED
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The album is now 100% complete! Woo-hoo!
Yup at about 8pm last night we finished the mix and I'm now sitting back at home in Brighton, listening to it very, very loudly. It sounds properly awesome. Like everything I could have hoped for and more. Cannot wait for the rest of the world to get involved now
x

SO..... THE ALBUM IS FINISHED!!!
Well, the recording part of it anyway.

After three long, hard working days in the vocal booth, I sung my last note for 'Great Exit Lines' at about 7pm last night - much to the
delight of my bruised and beaten vocal chords, which are now in need of much honey and lemon and general healing time.

I literally couldn't sing another sylable right now, but it matters not for my work is complete. It was a bit touch and go yesterday tackling the last few songs (I spent about 16 hours singing across Monday and Tuesday) but thanks to our producer John Mitchell's patience and my utter determination to get it done I pushed through the difficulties to get the performance these songs deserve. Although I did feel like I'd gone ten rounds with a enormous minotaur wielding some kind of throat grating weapon in one hand and a concrete block in the other afterwards... however, after a bit of tuck, some chocolate milk and a good session watching Debbie King on Quizmania back at the hotel I felt right as rain!!!

I put every last drop of heart and soul I had into these vocals and I'm very pleased with the results. Even in its raw and unmixed form, the album already sounds pretty magic! Well, to my ears at least!

So now myself and Ryan are seated in the Outhouse waiting to begin the long, inevitably tedious but utterly essential mixing process.... the final stage before the past year of our five lives converges into a nice shiny disc ready for the rest of the world to hear.

We literally cant wait to get this album out there now... the day we've been waiting for and working toward for so long is now just around the corner.

Hold tight....we're gonna rock your faces off

x

p.s If you have a spare second please visit www.popworldpromotes.com, go to our artist page and drop us a vote!
Cheers

So...long time no update. I know, I know... I throw around all these promises of regular updates and a studio diary, but alas have not found myself blessed with time or opportunity to make good on my rhetoric. Ah, the road to hell is paved with the best intentions...

Well, I'm here now and thats what counts. Right?
Ha!
Like any of you really want to read all this garbage anyway. Who am I kidding.

Anyway... where are we at...

Well, right now I'm seated in drummer boy Ryan's bedroom, surrounded by student style decor such as a pot noodle figurine, a baked beans sculpture, posters of spongebob squarepants, nirvana and green day and - the real show stealer - a rastafarian man ashtray.

Myself and rythym guitarist TC have just returned from a days slog at the studio. TC managed to get all the dirty guitars complete for the album, with only clean parts now left to track!

Lead guitarist The Snake finished yesterday afternoon after just 48 hours in the studio, whilst good ol' bass face Shirts wrapped up his shit in much the same time, having started nice and early on Monday morning.

So basically, where this week started with nowt but drums tracked, we find ourselves with like 90% of the pre-vocal instrumentation complete. And it sounds AWESOME. Seriously. I am VERY excited to start laying down my parts on Monday. Totally in the zone brothers and sisters. I AM THE ZONE. etc etc

As a sly aside... having said it sounds awesome (which it does), the music thus far sounds different to what I had anticipated. The songs are a little grittier, darker and a bit more biting than they sounded in rehearsals, which is kinda interesting. But they do sound just as massive as I had hoped.

Alice Shaw (www.aliceshaw.co.uk) is joining us in the studio on Sunday to contribute keyboards to this humble record o' ours, which will see the instrumentation complete and waiting for my dulcet tones like an expectant puppy or some equally self indulgent analogy.

Oooh... on our train journey from Reading to Ryan's gaff in Cobham this evening myself and TC bore withness to an enormous 20 chavs vs. 20 more chavs ruckus that spilled out of a train door onto a platform and involved much shotuing and cursing and cries of 'hand me the fucking bottle' and, bizarrely, 'calm down andy'.

Also, I'm pretty sure the announcer on the train was speaking in French/ Latin/ Klingon out of sheer boredom.

AND... if you're a scene/emo/modern rock kid... Reading station is apparently THE hang out on a Friday night. Literally it was like being at a gig. But, never fear, if Reading is too undesirable for you then may I also recommend churchill square, brighton, just outside borders/h&m on a saturday. TRENCHCOATS!!!! SKULL TOPPED CANES!!! FALL OUT BOY HAIRCUTS!!!!!!! I've never hung out there myself, but they all look like they're having a blast.

Anyway, thats enough, I'm getting tired of typing and fancy some mong out TV

Proper update that makes sense soon PROMISE

peace

L
xxx

I am now prepared for weeks of moodswings, stress outs, dramas, resolutions, problems, excitement, anxiety and panic. No, it's nothing to do with a woman.

Worse.

At 10am this morning our album recording begun.

I was not there to witness this monumentus commencement of musical labour as I have to work until next Tuesday, but Holster (drums), Shirts (bass) and The Snake (lead guitar) travelled to Reading and got things rolling.

From what I'm told, it all went pretty well. It took Shirts and Snake 4 hours to lay down all the guide/ghost bass and guitar to click, but Holster managed to squeeze in a take of 'Gentle' before the day was done, so we're currently running to schedule. Of course, that will change when the studio gremlins awaken and realise what we're doing, claw from their lairs and attack out intonation/ playing ability (all our problems tend to come from one of those two areas.

As of tomorrow Holster is on his own for a few days, tracking drums... poor fucker. If I could be there I would be... as dull as it is to listen to endless drum takes I like to witness every moment of recordings. Meh. Control freak/ musical masochist. Alas, it will be Saturday morning before I tread past the Outhouse threshold once again and begin my own interaction with our album.

Then i have to bust back to London to record episode 2 of my news show (Redemption News and Redemption Review... check it out on Redemption TV - sky channel 368 at around 10 and 11pm every night, do a presenter photo shoot and get my tattoo finished. Then, finally, on Thursday next week I'll be at the studio until the album is complete (April 4th). Wooop.

Paul Jackson (johnny truant / tanaxelove.com) is back from Canada tomorrow, so he will begin out inlay artwork, which is pretty exciting. I'm psyched to see what he comes up with. He truly is a superb artist... check his stuff out if you don't know it. I have about as much idea of how that will come out as I do on the final record itself... I guess I have a vague idea of the latter but when recording an album there are an infinite number of variables, last minute changes, in-the-moment decisions etc etc so you never really know how it will come out when alls said and done. Bizarrely if it goes well, I will no doubt claim that its exactly how I wanted/ envisaged/ imagined it would turn out. But thats my right as a singer/prima donna. Deal with it.

We decided on a provisional tracklist too... at last. This is one we all agree on, so not just my guesswork. Of course it may change again but I feel like this is a very likely version now...

1) Air
2) Goddess
3) City Hearts
4) Great Exit Line
5) 87
6) Flames In The BAck Row
7) Gentle
8) Kristen
9) The Surrender
10) Glory Undoing
11) Until The End

Oh yeah, I bought a video camera to document the studio in video diary/handycam style. Only £180 in the clearance at Jessops. Bargain!!! Its a very small one too, with flip out viewfinder and everything. Ooh the excitement of digital technology. So if all goes well, the endless reams of footage will be edited together at some point and will appear on our site or on a DVD or something... Should be fun. HWG never really documented anything worthwhile... and I wanted this time to be different.

While on this purchase bender I bought 2 pairs of shoes on Ebay today. Only £30 each. And theyre gonna be lush. But thats the 3rd and 4th pair of shoes I've bought in the last 4 weeks. I need to chill out or grow more feet.

I have also discovered the infinite comedy based joys of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Arrested Development. And David Cross' stand up. Why did nobody tell me how good this stuff was? Okay maybe they did, but I finally got round to checking it all out. Everyone needs to hear David Cross' albums... Shut Up You Fuckin Baby, It's Not Funny and The Pride Is Back. Biting, honest, politically charged social commentary. Worth it just for the HENDERSON VALLEY EGGS song. I laughed til I shit.

I have my boys Architects supporting Bring Me My Sisters Jeans tomorrow night at the Underworld, so that should be entertaining. And Crowbar/ Will Havenm on Saturday, None Fucking Heavier. Oh Yes.

Anyway, I've rambled enough... I'm off to watch the latest 2 episodes of 24 season 5. My prediction for the Jack Bauer bodycount? 67. The man is insatiable. Its the only show where a federal agent could fly to safety on back of a winged blue elephant and I'd be like "dude that was so realistic." AWESOME SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF ITEM

Na night
x

So... shortly after I posted my last ramble, we had ourselves our penultimate rehearsal and tackled the 'problem' songs from the demo recording. 'Hope Rebellion' bit the dust as expected, and 'Glory Undoing' was healed... again, as expected. However, a surprise awaited me in the form of 'Motives'... we addressed our issues with the song and bounced ideas around for a while, eventually stumbling upon a fresh, new set of ideas for the verse and chorus.

After much talking about theramins (don't ask), spooks, ghouls and a general overuse of the word 'haunting', a new song rose Phoenix-like from the scattered, disjointed ashes of 'Motives', with only the mid 8 of the original song in tact. This was, however, most pleasing, as the song that emerged - which will probably be titled '87 or eighty seven - is much much much stronger than I could ever have imagined it turning out in its original incarnation(s). So basically we're back on for an 11 song recording session. Which, as I predicted, undoes the sweeping foresight I had made previosuly...but in this instance I'm more than happy to eat humble pie!

It's just 7 days now until we commence our recording... final preperations are in the works, with just one more vocal-centric session and one rehearsal left. I've got a really good feeling about this record peeps. Can;t wait to get it finished and out there for your listening pleasure.

We've had a great response from a potential manager too... Too early to reveal details yet, but suffice to say if it all pans out then we could be in for a very prosperous partnership.

Watch this space yeah

Out

x

YO

So from listening to the demo we have ended up in a dilemma of sorts. Nothing major, but its made us decide to chop the album down to 10 tracks... as a couple of the songs seem pretty incidental compared to others. We're pretty set on making this record all good and cutting out any chuff. Make every album like its the only one you'll ever make, right? Thats the idea anyway, and there's no room for filler tracks in that equation.

However, the dilemma is... which songs to cut huh. We are all agreed on which 3 songs are the weaker ones, but we can only cut two.... And I think we're slightly on different pages about which 2...

The songs in question are Motives, Hope Rebellion and Glory Undoing... I personally would like to keep Glory Undoing and can the others. But I know some folk in the band like Motives. of course, at this time, this is all meaningless twaddle as to anyone reading this these are just song names utterly out of context...BUT in the spirit of documenting this record and its process I feel you - the reader, the collective you - should at least be involved on a reading based level!

Plus, once the record is unleashed. it will all make a sortof sense... I hope!

Anyway... here's what I want our records tracklisting to look like, at this moment in time:

1) Air
2) City Hearts
3) Flames In the Back Row
4) Gentle
5) Kristen Bell
6) The Surrender
7) Great Exit Line
8) Glory Undoing
9) Goddess
10) Until The End

Perhaps, when I'm holding the finished product I'll look at this tracklisting and paff at my foolishness, at my hypothesised song order. I will laugh heartily at my own ridiculous presumption and sever the part of my mind dealing in foresight. Perhaps I will be so humiliated by my own schoolboy errors that I will fire myself from the band and emigrate to distant climes, the cries of 'Presumptious Buffoon!!!' still ringing like sirens in my ears.

Or maybe, just maybe I'll be bang on the money...

x

Did the demo yesterday. Turned out as a bit of a palava/fiasco based item in the end.

Studio had very dry acoustics and a not very good PA, just as I had remembered... and the engineer... well, he was "interesting". Earned his money and put in the hours, sure. But his mixing and general people skills left a little to be desired. Told us to "chill out" because we were having a joke argument. Plus he wore an army helmet during the mix. For no apparent reason and, most preturbingly, without any humour based motivations. I think he'd had his sense of humour gland removed surgically.

It didn't help matters that we were all feeling the pressure a little bit. After all, this is the first time we've properly 'demoed' any of our songs, outside of home recordings and the 'Flames In The Back Row' studio session last July!!! Our expectations are so high of these songs and this album that I don't think any of us were mentally prepared for the reality check of a rushed recording job in a distinctly average studio. We all think of and hear our stuff in technicolour, in the way it will sound when we record it properly. We don't hear it as raw and rushed, so it was a bit of a shock to the system I guess. A much needed one though (silver lining, yeah?) - cos as flawed as the demo is, its highlighted which songs shine through even the worst context and which ones still need a bit of tweaking over the next couple of weeks.

It also didnt help that I awoke yesterday morning with a twinging throat, tight chest and croaky voice. Typical. So doing vocals - 10 songs in an hour and a half no less - was a bit of strain. I felt utterly drained afterward, and to not much of an end given that my actual peformance was below par thanks to the throat drama.

Nevertheless, I am remaining philiosophical about things... A shitty demo is a rite of passage before you record properly. Makes you see your material at its worst, at its most vulnerable and raw... warts and all. And thus, the band is granted a kick up the ass in terms of focus and motivation to improve. Certainly wards off the demon known as Complacency and puts a spiked whoopee cushion on our laurels. I think it will, in the grand scheme of things, help us make a better album.

So in one sense - to come completely full circle - the demo has been a total success. And I think our album will be even better for having recorded it.

Must dash, off to see Architects play in Brighton with Johnny Truant, Centurion and The Ghost Of A Thousand!

x

So we're demoing the album tomorrow... at a little studio in Brighton called Ground Zero. Havn't been there since the dubious HWG days of yore.

My last memory of the place is a classroom styled practice room (actually what do I mean 'styled' - it was literally a classroom) and another little box room which had the worst PA of all time in it.

We tried this gaff out attempting to get away from our regular place at the time - Playback - which was run by a crazy rich eccentric somehow related to Arthur Conan Doyle and this other guy who looked like he was related to him called Kieran. This dude, Kieran, used to have the biggest hairy arse crack on display the whole time. Bad times. He's also come into our room every week, boast about how many fags he'd smoked that day (no joke) and then ask one of us if we had a spare cigarette. There was another guy there that we called Crazy James, who was this spaced out, drugged up maniac. But he was pretty funny. He was one of those guys that really doesnt give a fuck you know. And he'd smoked SO much weed that he didn't really know what day it was anymore. He got arrested once for getting caught trying to saw the clamp off his car.

ANYWAY Ground Zero sucked so hard that we opted for the Playback loons, even despite the fact that the staff from GZ dilligently pursued me for a while trying to win back our business. Very weird. But, allegedly, the place has been revamped and rennovated, and is actually a pretty good studio. We'll see...

But regardless of what mishaps and tribulations await us tomorrow, I am well looking forward to hearing all the songs back to back on a disc for the first time. Its gonna really help us get a sense of this album and hopefully help us tracklist it!!! All we know right know is what the first and last songs are gonna be... everything else in between could be any order! God knows.

Anyway... the final list of songs for the record... TAA DAAAA!!!

Air
Flames In The Back Row
Great Exit Line
City Hearts
Motives
Goddess
The Surrender
Gentle
Kristen Bell
Hope Rebellion
Glory Undoing
Until The End

I was looking at it this morning and spotted a predeliction in the titles toward the letter 'G'. And the album title is Great Exit Lines. So thats another G.

What the hell is that about, I ask myself. Literally. How did I end up with so many songs starting with the same letter. Ill wager thats the most amount of G's on a contemporary british rock record.... anyone care to prove me wrong/ right?

On a personal level, I just saw the first cut of the TV show I'm presenting. Was pretty weird, but some of it really worked. Not bad for a first time in front of the camera... Well, as a presenter anyway. Done lots of miming of course.... In music videos. Not as a mime yeah

x