2011

Hey,

first blog entry of 2011. Although late I hope everyone had a good Christmas, new year and all that bollocks.

FIRST UP

Since our last entry left us around October time last year I'll go from there. So November we did some recording with the infamous Jason Sanderson again. Shit went well and we've had the tracks mastered by Alan douches again also and for the moment we'll have to just assure you they sound savage, as they wont be coming out until September 2011 sorta time.

SECOND UP

December we had a limited new release come out. It's a four way split 7inch with ourselves, Black Mass, Hush and Prelude To The Hunt and was put out by Dead Dead Dead Music Records + Fuck Happy Endings Records under the alias of "Darkest Season Vol 1". Limited to 300, you can check that shit out bellow. We each put one exclusive track on, ours being "Shower Of Bastards". All the bands are good shit! Check them out.


We also played some Northern shows with Burning love, Gallows, Hush, End Reign, Black Mass and a few others to support its release which was cool. Big thanks to Neil and Rory for putting it out! Good bands, all good dudes involved, check that shit out.


THIRD UP

January we did some shows with Hush again, though in Scotland. Oh and we played with Ink and Dagger with Geoff Rickly on vocals which was pretty cool too. You've heard this before, though we actually began writing what will now be our debut album. Hahah I'm not gunna talk about this too much due to previously being jinxed, though all i will say is throughout this year whilst not touring we are gunna be on that like mother fuckers!


THINGS COMING UP

So the winter is nearly over and that only means its time to start playing more shows again! (Being a band 6 Years we have come to the conclusion that touring in the winter is never as fun, so we tend to take it easy October to March each year.) End of February we've got the Burning the Prospect (our drummer Gibbo's old band) reunion show in Boston at the legendary IQ. If your going to the show i don't mind for warning you that we will be massively intoxicated so don't expect real tightness. Following that just a show in March we are playing with Attack! Vipers! and Worn In Red from the U.S. Then April we're properly getting about again doing 5 or 6 shows with Crocus and the following amazing shows! (We are hugely excited for these shows like we cannot describe).




We've got a full UK tour on the cards for June time though I'll keep hush about that for the moment. Lastly though we are happy to announce the release of the Lavotchkin/ End To Empires Split 7inch via Thirty Days Of Night Records. The Arts by Tom Lacy and you can check it out bellow.

At the minute the release is planned for roughly April 2011 and I am over the moon to tell you that this will be our first vinyl that will be being done in colour. There isn't going to be pre- orders just straight to release with the Beecher show planned as the vinyls Release show. The tracks we are putting on are called "Ben Gardeners Head" and "Arkady".

We're gunna be test driving some new songs over the next year, so bare witness, shits about to get twice as heavy.

So for the meantime. As we were once told in Austria. DRINK AND DIE, HEALTH IS BUT A LIE.

2010 The Year Of Not Blogging

Hey

so this year i have completely neglected this blogging stuff. I'm shit at times i'll be the first to admit, though one intoxicated night 10 months after my last entry I've all of a sudden felt the urge to update it. I'll use this entry to just quickly catch up on whats happened in our camp so far this year.

1. Firstly unfortunately in July we had our first real line up change when our drummer of 5 years Poz left. No drama's surrounding it, he just wasnt enjoying it like he used to anymore. We're all on good terms and we'd like to say a massive thankyou to Poz for his deadication over the 5 years he served. We wouldnt be the band we are now without him. Hes playing in an indie pop band now that i'll put up a link to when they eventually get a name and something online. What we've heard so far sounds awesome though!

2. I'd like to introduce you to our new drummer Gibbo! He used to play in a sweet crust band called Burning The Prospect and hes been playing drums for us since July. Hes the one second in from the left in the picture bellow and is a power house.


3. Well we said for ages we were going to put out an Album and then went back on all we said and released an EP called Widow Country. Hugely long boring story, though it worked best for us and I have definately learnt my lesson about shutting my mouth about plans, as I have felt a little stupid saying one thing and doing another. HOWEVER, our new EP Widow Country sounds amazing which is the most important thing. We released it on our own label Shark City Records and it got 9/10 in Rock Sound Magazine, 4/5 in Kerrang magazine, 8/10 in Metal Hammer and 4/5 in Big Cheese magazine in the UK which was like a child hood dream reached. The Art was done by the infamous Thomas Lacey and you can check it out at the top of the post. Support the cause and go buy yourself a copy!

4. We've done a load of weekenders and one off shows throughout year with loads of sweet bands, though in June we embarked on a 3 week Rock Sound Magazine Sponsored Uk tour with Throats and The JCQ which was sweet as fuck!

Lavotchkin & The JCQ

5. Something we never saw coming, though Si ended up in Front magazine for having to many tattoos. I'd like to think this page is over several dart boards across the Uk now :-D


6. We got to play Offset Festival, HellFire Festival and BrainWash Festival which were all sweet!

Hub Left & Martin Right at Offest Festival (nice and sweaty!)

7. Our split 7inch with Attack! Vipers! finally came out. So stoked to have a 7inch at last and especially with Attack! Vipers! Its limited to just 300 copies on Evil B Records so if your after one i'd pick one up sooner than later.

Thats pretty much it people, so consider this loosely up to date.

Massive thanks to the following people for making the last 10 months a lot more fun, be it helping us in someway, playing shows or showing us a good time. Jenna, Andy, Kon, Crocus, The JCQ, Throats, The Ghost Of A Thousand, Antaraes, Black Mass, Neil up in scotland, Rory in leeds, Eugene, Your Highness, Hush, Man Hands, Attack! Vipers!, End To Empires, Mike Evil B, all our friends and family that have been putting us up for the night whilst on the road and especially everyone whos come out to shows. We've played some of the best shows we've played in the history of our band in the last 10 months and dont take it for granted one bit.

Cheers

Martin + The Lavotchkin's

2009 is over for Lavotchkin

hey hows it going!

So we just finished our last show for the year in Leeds just the other day which was a fuck load of fun, so firstly big thanks to everyone who came out to that show. Since my last entry we have played some awesome shows, although at the same time have been a bit unlucky a fair few times over the last couple of months.

Firstly on the unlucky cards, we had to drop out of two shows in early October as Poz our drummer caught pretty bad flu (possibly swine flu though we will never know). Secondly we missed another two shows due to our van breaking down on the way to our first show in Kent. We broke down just outside of Toddington and over a period of 14 hours had to get toe'd back to Newcastle. The extra kick in the balls was our AA membership had just expired so we had to re-join and pay £2 per mile all the way back to Newcastle. So on top of paying for Mastering our album and our van insurance needing re-newed has once again left us poor poor guys. Its all getting sorted though, so all is far from lost, though being so poor over christmas is definately sucking for us all.




On the up side however! We have over the past couple of months played some sweet as fuck shows with bands such as Brides, Feed The Rhino, Errander, Antaris, Attack Vipers, Gay For Johnny Depp, Our boys Out Cry Collective, BlakFish and played two shows on the recent Lords (usa) tour. Check out some of the fliers bellow! If you havnt heard any of the mentioned bands i'd recommend you to check them out.










Other good news is we have nearlly the 100% art work for our massively long over due split 7inch with Attack! Vipers! Check it out bellow. Its definately going to press via Evil B Records at the end of January and we are just in the middle of confirming a digital label to support it.


I am also happy as a mother fucker to tell you that we have recieved the final master of our album and its in the very final stages of being mastered by Alan Douches @ West west side Music over in America. Its sounding un-real and we are so happy of the job Jason Sanderson has done recording it. We are also extremely happy to tell you that art work for our album is being done by our boy Thomas Lacey from the Ghost of a Thousand. The art is on its way to compeletion and what we have seen has all been perfect. We'll get some previews up when its fully finished.

As for a label for our album, thats a whole different story. The short version of the story is this. We spoke to three labels out of a huge list and the jist we got was positive though they needed to hear the finished product. So we figured we'd wait for the finish before getting shit done pretty much so we can ask all at once. The wheels are in motion anyways and hopefully by the end of January we will be able to give you a release date. For now.......... its called "Widow Country" and its fucking awesome. All the delays are killing us, though we know its going to be worth it.


Meanwhile to waiting for our album and not being able to tour as much, this has lead us to actually begin writing again which has been really cool. However spending hours fucking round with midi drums has been a royal pain in the arse, although at the same time something i think i am going to have to get used to. When you hear our album, you will get to hear that once again we have gotten heavier/more intense (we like to think) and this new stuff now is even more heavier/ more intense than that. The rough thoughts being juggled round are to write an EP next due to never wanting to pay our selves for an album again hahaha though we'll see............ Very fucking early days.

Although its been quieter towards the end of the year for us, 2009 has been the first real real busy year we have had as a band. A roller coaster of Highs and lows all the way, though at the same time a fuck load of good times, parties, chances to see friends all over europe and generally avoid work. I always complain about poverty, though it does feel worth it in the end and we really hope that everyone digs "Widow Country" when it comes out so we can do some cool stuff next year.

Massive props to everyone who has helped us out, put us on and looked after us this year! We are back on the road in Febuary next year (when we should roughly be debt free) and doing some shows with our boys Crocus and Your Highness from Belgium. Dates are on our page! Stay tuned for more tour news though as we have some possible Gems in the pipe line.

Thanks for reading my shit. Come and see us play in 2010. Patiently wait for Widow Country!

Cheers

Martin + The Lavotchkin's

Lavotchkin/ Brides Sept Uk Tour

Alreeeeeeet

So once again i have been lazy as fuck with updating this, so heres a quick bit about the tour we did with our boys Brides. It was the end of September and Check yourselves out the poster!




Was cool to once again play with Brides, we are longtime lovers and its always a pleasure getting to see them. Thanks so much to all the promoters and people who came to the shows. As usual we got to catch up with loads of friends we dont get to see that often and made a few new ones along the way to. Heres some highs and lows to sum it up

Highs

+ Kinda high, bit was kinda weird. We did our first live radio interview on Total Rock radio in London. They played a few songs and it generally wasnt to crindgy so made an interesting london trip.
+ Martin saying Fuck within the first two minutes of us being live on air at 12 noon.
+ Rob D'Bank
+ Ant Brides being intoxicated pretty much the whole tour the trooper
+ Errander hang outs
+ Johnny Fucking Saville. Its always a pleasure.
+ We got played on the radio 1 rock show whilst on tour! They played You Were Dawn which we were really stoked about as we only found out by chance. Hahah granted again, we were played at 1:55AM, though its the thought that counts! Still sweet.
+ Lakes being Lakes
+ Seeing Aaron and Tom in Brighton. Its always a pleasure!
+ Gibbo the prospect being a bloody good roady for the last few shows

Lows

+ Brides van troubles
+ Poorly Tristan
+ Touring at the sametime as 3 similar/bigger tours


Unfortunately due to a lack of funds, it looks like we arnt going to be doing any other longer tours this year. Sucks, though at the sametime we are into sorting our personal lives out a bit better for when our album is due to release. We will however be doing some one off shows and probably a weekender or two before the year is out, so its not like we are fully dropping off the face of the earth for a while. As for news on our album, its looking like things are taking a lot longer than expected, as most things in the Lavotchkin camp do. I will do a separate thing about that when things firm up a bit more.

For the moment, check these pic's from the tour out!






















Cheers once again for reading my rambles.

Stayed tuned for more news regarding our album!

Martin + The Lavotchkin's

Back from Mainland Europe!

Alrighhhhhhht

So a week ago we got back from 10 day Europian Tour with our good mates Crocus. It was a totally sweet way to end the summer and we had amazing time. 75% of the shows gave us completely free bars and the other 25% still a considerable amount of free drink, so needless to say 10 guys on tour with that much drink made a fun filled tour. We only got pulled over by the german police and searched 3 times this tour, so i would like to give a hats off to them for once again prooving there doing a sterling job ;-) Heres some highs and lows to sum up the trip in a nut shell.



Highs

+ All the Promoters for treating us so well.
+ Our boy Calum from Joseph filling in on vocals and being fucking awesome every night. We owe him such a big favour!
+ our boy baby jason sanderson who came along to join the fun and being a dude
+ Playing with Darkest Hour, Rent to Kill, Sex Jams, We Had A Deal, Trash Talk and Bangers
+ Calum being drunk every night without fail
+ Calum's light packing
+ We Had A fucking Deal - Nicest dudes ever (extra props forJan and Micha for looking after us and being sweet tour guides)
+ The hugh party we had in payerbak
+ Breaking into swimming pools
+ Crocus being such lovelable cunts
+ Shot drinking competitions
+ Sex Jams being reallllllly sweet. Check em out!
+ All our friends at Club chili - Natalie, Marion, The kid from Jane Hoe
+ skater martyn (from augsberg)
+Kon of Yfere and Klangverhaltnisse Records fame being a total dude and looking after us so well.
+ Kon also Hitch hiking 7 hours to come catch up with us in Southern Germany!
+ Jan we had a deal driving 5 hours to come see us play in Germany!
+ Natalie and skater Martyn for also driving 4/5 hours to come see our last show! We couldnt believe how far some people had travelled to come to a show.
+ Martin for being a legend and printing more t shirt for us on tour also
+ Larry Yfere and his house mate for letting us arrive at his house at 7am, sleep all day and then insisted on buying us all breakfast. What a fucking dude!
+ The Flo'rider for being a fucking legend
+ The bangers dudes for being cool guys and a good band! Weird meeting in Germany rather than the Uk
+ Good crowds! Thanks to everyone who came out to the shows.
+ Our long friend moali catching up with us in linz
+ The fact we got home alive driving for 22 and a half ours solid
+ No Van problems

Lows

+ Greg Crocus cutting his hand up in austria
+ It being so hot but ourselves being couped up in a van all day
+ A lack of showers at times - led to us going to swimming to get clean
+ A 22 and half hour drive home
+ Hang Overs
+ Smoking far to much
+ Illness setting in by the end

If you havnt already, check Crocus out! Good guys, good band, fucking good live band and good good friends. We've released a split Cd, done 3 uk tours and a euro tour together now. Brothers from other mothers, www.myspace.com/crocusband

Thats all the touring for our July Release'd split record with Crocus done. In the Lavotchkin camp all focus is now full steam ahead with plans for our album! We are still in the mixing process at the minute, though i can assure you that the rough mixes we have already sound sweet as fun. Its definately looking like an early 2010 release is the soonest we are going to have it unfortunately, though is giving us plenty of time to prepair for its release. hahah doesnt mean the wait isnt secretly killing me, though thats something i am gunna have to live with at the minute. Meanwhile we are starting to speak to labels so keep your fingers crossed for us! We have worked so hard on doing our album and truely think its the best thing we have produced by a long shot all round. We are hoping we tracks start emerging in the more final stages you all agree.

So back to work for the minute unfortunately. However not for long as in just over two weeks from now we will be heading out on an 8 day uk Tour with our long time friends Brides (Visible Noise Records). Check them out if you havnt already and as always please please if your in the area come down to a show. Hopefully we will be playing near you :-D

Hope your dig the tour pics! They're slowely coming though check these out for the minute.

Till next time

Martin + The Lavotchkin's

Lavotchkin, Crocus, We Had A Deal And Rent To Kill
Stugartt Aug 09

The Kon'Dor

Birthday Jason - Augsburg

Greg Crocus - Clearly worshipping the riff ;-)