iCast: Bell X1

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  Jul 29, 07:27 AM

  Photies from Everywhere!

  A few more photies for your viewing pleasure.
  There's a story behind every photo, questions welcome, we will tell no lies!!!

  
  

  A few gig photos from America this year
  America

  
  

  Various different photos from travelling to ironing to what happens when we aren't on stage Backstage

  
  

  There's fun too, sometimes (and a rather odd picture of us being followed down a tunnel by a kid on a bike, a shinning moment!)
  Hilarity

  
  

  The 'lads in a van' series, cataloging every morning in the back of the van during our European stint with Nada Surf. There are plans to turn this into a book!
  Lads in a van

  
  

  Lads makin records, this is one we will expand on, we have tons and tons of pictures from various visits to various studios, this is a wee taster from the Album 4 sessions
  Makin Records

  
  

  We see a lot of the world, relatively speaking , and there are some fabulous places out there
  Places we see

  
  

  
  We are still experimenting with the format so this is a slightly fancier flash trial. Let us know what you think.

  
  

  The Bellies

  
  

   
• 

  Jul 21, 08:43 AM

  Live Performance on Mountain Stage to Air This Week

  Bell X1's performance on Mountain Stage will be broadcasting this week on radio stations across the country.

  
  

  The following is the lineup:

  
  

  Punch Brothers feat.

  
  

  Chris Thile
  Bell X1
  Tyler Ramsey
  Paddy Casey
  Brooke Miller

  
  

  Click here to find when your local radio station will be airing the show.

  
  

   

  
  

  Or you can click here to stream it online

  
  

   
• 

  Jul 18, 11:12 AM

  Fall USA Tour - All Tickets On Sale Now

  A quick note to let everyone know that all tickets are now on sale for the September tour with Stars and our headline show at The Paradise in Boston.
  
  
  
  Details and links below :
  September 2008
  17 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street - Tickets
  18 Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club - Tickets
  19 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero - Tickets
  20 New York, NY - Terminal 5 - Tickets
  22 Columbus, OH - Milo - Tickets
  23 Newport, KY - Southgate House - Tickets
  24 Chicago, IL - Riviera - Tickets
  25 St. Louis, MO - Pageant - Tickets
  26 Lawrence, KS - Granada - Tickets
• 

  Jul 15, 07:43 AM

  US Fall Tour w/Stars

  We're happy to be returning to the USA this September to tour with that lovely band from Montreal, Stars.
  
  More details to follow but we are eager and excited to be part of a Canadian and Irish invasion of America. Click now on links below to buy tickets.
  
  
  
  September 2008
  17 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street - Tickets
  19 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero - Tickets
  20 New York, NY - Terminal 5 - Tickets
  22 Columbus, OH - Milo - Tickets
  23 Newport, KY- Southgate House - Tickets
  24 Chicago, IL - Riviera - Tickets
  25 St.
  
  Louis, MO - Pageant - Tickets
  26 Lawrence, KS - Granada - Tickets
  
  We will also be playing a headline gig in Boston on this run. More details to come so stay tuned.
  
  

   
• 

  Jun 27, 09:54 AM

  Europe, from a van

  Here's a little something from the road...featuring an original soundtrack by Benny Ondaleuse

  
  

   

  
  

  
  

  http://youtube.com/watch?v=-v7aGCzpsO4

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
• 

  Jun 19, 11:52 AM

  Photos from North America March ’08

  We'd like to make photographs a more regular feature, so it took a while, but here are some from back in March...

  http://bellx1.com/photographs/NorthAmericaMarch08/NorthAmericaMarch0
• 

  Jun 09, 07:59 AM

  Jetlagged and Waffling and America and All

  I'm home, and wide awake at half four in the morning. I can see two pigeons necking high in the branches of the tree outside my window. The water is thick brown and still on the canal.
  Where were we... yes, Philadelphia, sweet Philadelphia. We came here to play at the 2008 Non Comm radio convention, where people from the non commercial (mainly National Public Radio) stations all over the country meet up and talk and listen to music and laugh and drink and are merry. NPR stations are funded mainly by their listeners, who pledge say $50 a year to be a member of the station. We met some members at the convention, which was one of the events and gigs they get invited to as part of their membership. There seems to be a real sense of involvement with the station, as a supporter, and while people liken NPR to the BBC, people choose to support the former, and aren't forced to pay a licence fee.
  We're playing for twenty five minutes at midday in a hotel conference room - so on paper it's all wrong, but actually goes swimmingly and is really warmly received. We meet people from stations in Kentucky and Idaho who know our music and are glad to get to see us play. Quite mad.

  We now have two whole days off here! These will be the first proper days off all tour (when we're not driving for 10 hours), and there's a pool at the hotel and all...
  There is bowling (this time it's a little more bling than Atlanta- glow in the dark pins - and a little less brutal. Except for Tim, who was already hung over by the time we got to play), buying unnecessary electronic products, margheritas, and falling asleep by the pool - lobsterification. I really wanted to see the new Indiana Jones film here - opening weekend, in America - but apparently it's shite, so we didn't. The Roots are based here, and we went to one of their haunts, Copa Banana, in the hope of meeting the drummer Questlove and his magnificent hair. Alas, no joy.

  Washington DC is home to the 9.30 club, which boasts the most heplful and most together house crew in the land. With impeccable standards of personal hygiene too. This is our first time to play in DC (as the kool kidz call it) and it's a fine time, thanks so much to all concerned for making it so. On the way back to Philly we stop at a petrol station for refreshments. What is it with these flavoured coffees? French Vanilla? Sickly sweet synthetic awful. I do love those Reeses peanut butter cups though. But Hershey's chocolate is not good. Like yellow pack cooking chocolate. Anyhoo, each to his own, tomaytoes, tomahtoes etc. We have a litttle dance to the piped reggae music in the forecourt (I'm a little disturbed by how twitchy some of these gas station attendants seem to get in the small hours when our van pulls up and we the bedraggled spill out of it. All we want is to find more pointless shit like the soap-dispensing nail brush we found in Florida)
  Phil has made a playlist for late night van travelling, that starts mellow, but then gets to Money for Nothing via I Wanna Know What Love Is. It's a party. Sting, the guest vocal on Money for Nothing, has this scatted "Money for Nothin!" several times over the outro, which has us in stitches. You can just imagine him - "Can I do another one Mark??... ah go on... 'Money for Nothin'!'"
  Phil is jonesin' for a proper cup of tea and a sausage and white pudding (from Ken's of Inchicore) sangwich. Oh, man, me too

  New York City's irving Plaza has some great posters from shows gone by - Patti Smith, Radiohead, Willie Nelson. Its got chandeliers too. Gemma Hayes plays with us tonite, ably accompanied by Joe Chester on guitar and singing. Thanks too to Brooke Waggoner who's been with us on this whole tour, with Nathalie Prass and Hannah Schroeder. Breakfast is ours to make when you get over to our side...
• 

  Jun 04, 10:23 AM

  Tonight in NYC

  Sadly, all good things must come to and end....and tonight we will end the American tour @ the lovely Irving Plaza in NYC with our friends Gemma Hayes and Brooke Waggoner.
  
  
  We look forward to seeing some of you there!
  
  Many thanks to the kind folks in DC for a great gig last night.
  
• 

  Jun 03, 08:29 AM

  Go Penns!

  Athens Georgia! The South seems to have a lot of these arty college towns like Athens, Chapel Hill, Austin, and Asheville NC. Places where Slingblade would not have been set.
  We have good old time here, at the Melting Pot. It's attached to a hotel, where there are two weddings taking place. Some of the guests come to see us play, leaving their wedding party. Also strange is that the receptions are done by one o' clock, with everyone in bed. No stray cousins to chase. We head into town afterwards, to what we're told is Mickey Stipe's bar, called Go Bar. It really should be called Mickey Stipe's, like Paidi O Shea's in Ireland. The bit of GAA celebrity is good for business.
  
  Onward to Nashville, where the gig is broadcast live on the wireless, on Nashville's WRLT. Afterwards we head to a strip of Honky Tonk bars downtown, which is kind of depressing. There are bands in these places playing for tips from 11am to 2am. It's tourist messy, like Temple Bar in Dublin. I meet a guy in the toilet who looks exactly like Biff from Back to the Future. We are taken on a brief tour of some of the landmarks down there by my friend Tony - The Ryman Auditorium, where the Grand Ole Opry used to happen (now it's out of town in a purpose built theme park, and has a presenting sponsor in Cracker Barrel, a chain of country themed restaurants what are shit), the Country Music Hall of Fame, which has amazing piano key features on the outside, and a great guitar shop called Gruhn's. It's closed, and we peer through the shutters with a child's excitement.
  
  Heading to Columbus, there is a code-red-urgent piss stop somewhere in Kentucky, and we decide to find food as we're there. Dom and I decide to give Arby's a chance, as they advertise fine roast beef sandwiches. They are anything but. Waifo style slices of reconstituted non-descript animal, salty synthetic bread, overdone sitting-there-for-ages curly fries. We are very angry, and join the others across the road, at an outlet called Country Kitchen (marginally better) where we calm ourselves with some passable apple pie.
  Columbus Ohio seems a bit of a ghost town, but we have one of the best shows of the tour there, and are buzzing after it. What it's all about.
  Dom and Brian learning all the state capitals to busy themselves (or stay awake) while driving, and have done so via word association. An example - New Hampshire. Ham - pigs - pigs can't fly! - what else can't fly?! - Concorde! ... Concord is the capital of New Hampshire. Giants among men...
  
  Last time we were in Chicago, we went to Gino's for deep pan pizza. We were ordering in a state of acute hanger (hunger + anger), so got far too much food. They're enormous swills of molten cheese, and we felt we had to bring them with us (Irish famine guilt...). I'm a bit queasy thinking about it now. We tried heating them up in the Comfort Inn microwaves...I set the fire alarm off in my room, as I had neglected to remove the cardboard. Good times. So we didn't go there this time.
  The Empty Bottle here has a resident cat called Radley. He's just turned 75, in cat years. He seems cool, but when we arrived there was a shit on the stage, by the drum monitor. He sleeps on the stage, and can be quite territorial about it. Evidently.
  The gig is an odd one. I don't think we really had the room, and there were people talking. I always feel if you have to ask people to shut up, then you've lost. That you should be able to unify the room and make it happen without resorting to that. I dunno...it didn't happen anyway. I think we're a bit knackered.
  
  The following morning Dave and I flew to Pittsburgh to play on the wireless at WYEP, and the rest followed on in the van. The lovely Melissa from the station drove us to the hotel, in bad traffic, and gave us the scoop on the Pittsburgh. Big sports town. Hockey team doing well. Go Penns!
• 

  Jun 02, 12:35 PM

  Southern Bellies

  So we're driving from Lake City, Florida to Athens, Georgia and we've just heard that Munster have beaten Toulouse 16-13 to win the Heineken Cup. Phil sound engineer has been receiving text message updates during the game. This would be rugby (the oval ball), and yes, it's kind of a big deal.
  The road is bedecked with massive advertising hoardings - pecans and all manner of related baked goods seem to be widely available. Lots of law firms advertising their services in the event of "accidents or wrongful deaths", with accompanying photo of ambulance-chasing asshole. The hard shoulders are littered with shreds of truck tyres from blow-outs. Must be the heat. Just passed a sign for an erotic goods store - "Love Stuff wants to thank our troops!", with a big lipstick kiss on the stars and stripes. God Bless America.
  We started this tour last wednesday in New York, playing at a Rolling Stone/Men's Journal presented event to celebrate Bushmill's 600th birthday. Lesson learned - never compete with a free bar. On my way through customs at the airport, the officer went though my bags and guitar cases, asking all manner of questions as to the purpose of my visit. He seemed unconvinced, and asked me to sing him a song. I took his hand and sang the opening bars of "Carrickfergus". He, being Greek (name ended in "...opolis") blinked in bemusement and told me to go on through.
  The next morning Dave and I played some songs on the CW11 morning news. There was a segment .. us by this doctor dude taking about some remedy for a yeast infection... straight out of Dr Steve Brule (http://www.videosift.com/video/Dr-Steve-Brule-on-Wine). I didn't like how my hair looked on TV. Kinda dirty. On the drive to Boston we stopped for a sandwich from Antonees in Mont Vernon, New York. It was like being in Satriale's Pork Store in The Sopranos. I believe somebody actually shrugged their shoulders and said "What you gonna do?" while we were there. We had been to Annapolis before, to visit the radio station WRNR there, and it's truly like something from Pleasantville or The Truman Show. There's a big naval academy here, and on this saturday night with the navy boys out on the town in their fine whites, ladies on their arms, it brings to mind An Officer and a Gentleman. As the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles spring forth in New York...
  The gig is a dinner-and-cabaret-show kind of vibe, and very pleasant it is too.
  
  Onward to West Virginia (have to stop singing "Take me home, country road..."), and to Charleston, where we take part in a broadcast of a radio show called Mountain Stage (http://www.mountainstage.org/mtnstageevent.aspx?id=1652). It's very like a show called A Prairie Home Companion (http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/), which Robert Altman made his last movie about, a wonderful old time variety show that tours the country, broadcasting on the wireless. Paddy Casey is on the bill today, as is an amazing math-folk outfit called The Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile (http://www.myspace.com/christhile). It's a good time. Chuck Yeager, who flew the Bell X1, is from Charleston, and we make hay with this fact. Though apparently, he's an asshole
  
  Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is where our American record label, Yep Roc, is based and it's good to play a stinky rock show in their home town. Good peoples.
  
  We have an evening off in Atlanta, and head for Fatt Matt's Ribshack. Most excellent. Ribs, pork sandwiches, spicy beans, brunswick stew... meal of the tour. Afterwards we head for Midtown Bowl, and get ourselves a lane. It's got those diamond shaped light features on the outside, like the place in Lebowski. Yes!!
  We are out of our element. With no frame of reference. Pretty brutal. The occasional flash of knocking-down-all-the-pins, but wildly inconsistant. We've all got these distinctive ticks, too. Like Brian looks like he's curling, gently sending the ball slowly down the lane, finishing up kneeling, with floppy hand. Dom is a farmer, making the most noise, throwing the ball up before it clatters onto the lane. Very uncharacteristically inelegant. I have this kind of mincing shimmy going .. releasing the ball feebly, to watch it worry a couple pins into maybe falling. Very fustrating. Tim has an occasionally good gait and style, finishing nicely with right leg swung back behind left. But gutters quite a few. Only Tony, who's keeping it all together on stage on this tour (and a native), has got it going on - always scoring well on his first throw, and trying some fancy shit to make the split on his second. An All American evening.
  Elton John lives in Atlanta. Dom wants to be his pool boy for a day. After his success as Cher's pool boy in Hollywood, why not??
  
  On the drive to Florida, we see some great signs outside churches - "Under the same Management for over 2000 Years!", "Going in the Wrong Direction? Jesus allows U-Turns!"
  It's mental hot down here. Opening the van at yet another poor roadside eatery, the blast of heat is quite something. The gig in Orlando is in the hot nitespot part of town, afterwards it's Krazy with a K. We had coffee in a Cuban cigar place earlier. They specialised in prohibition era whiskies and other booze. I should have tried a Seagrams from the 20s, but they were stupid money, so maybe not. We get to the motel at 4.30am and have a meaningful silent cigarette in the car park before retiring.