Thursday 10 March 2011

New Dan Sartain album out April 25th


Part-companion to last year’s ‘Dan Sartain Lives’, part document of Dan’s recording career to date, ‘Legacy Of Hospitality’ is Dan’s very own ‘Basement Tapes’ containing alternate versions, outtakes and unheard tracks of arcane provenance, pre-dating Dan’s earliest self produced and self released albums ‘Crimson Guard’ (2001) and ‘Romance In Stereo’ (2002). Exhumed for your listening pleasure are songs lost and/ or forgotten - of (the track) ‘Crimson Guard’ Dan concedes, “I don’t know what the hell this is!” and of his cover of ‘Telegram Sam’, swears ‘I thought Bauhaus wrote it!”

Accompanying the album is the ‘Dan Sartain: Lives’ DVD documentary; a glimpse into the underground world of Dan Sartain as he does battle with the Serpientes – pieced together by the man himself in glorious lo-fi-o-vision, complete with commentary from Dan and sometime video-maker and friend Matt Whiston.

Tracks 1-3, 6, 22 Dan says: “I convinced the record label to let me try producing the follow up to ‘Join Dan Sartain’ (‘Dan Sartain Lives’ 2010) myself, and they went for it. I figured I’d been in enough studios and worked with enough people who knew what they were doing, that I would give it a shot. OLI fronted some money and I went to Nashville (used music paradise of the Southeast U.S.), bought a 2nd hand 8 track Tascam 388 Quarter Inch tape machine. I started doing some recordings at home and it sounded pretty darn good. We recorded about 9 songs, and then went to Shane Lowlers studio in Tuscaloosa, Alabama (Old Capitol) to polish things up. I sent the stuff off to the Powers That Be and they said (to quote them loosely) “We like it but no one will be interested in this. Call Liam.” We called Liam (Watson) and the result of that was the “Dan Sartain Lives” album. I really love the album we did with Liam but still…I think there is a certain charm to the recordings we made. I’m glad both are getting to see the light of day.”

Tracks 8, 16-18 Dan says: “These are from the first (self-released) album I ever made (‘Crimson Guard’ 2001) and tried to get out to people. Only 200 copies of this 12” record were pressed. I still have about 20 of them but don’t expect them to show up on the merch booth any time soon. Some of the material off ‘Romance In Stereo’ was recycled for the “Dan Sartain vs the Serpientes” record put out by Swemi in 2003…OK so here’s the story as best as I can remember. In the 1st week of September 2001, our grandmother Joyce Sartain died. It was a sad loss - she was my friend. Very graciously, Joyce (she insisted we all call her by her first name) left me some money in her will. I got a chunk of dough and a 1991 Chevy Lumine with only 30k miles on the odometer. I spent the cash on a 4-track cassette recorder, some microphones and started the recording process. I’d been fucking around with 4 tracks since I was about 13 but this was the first time it sounded like something worth a shit.” [Dan’s complete sleeve notes are available on request]

Dan is back on tour in the UK! – supported by The Two Tears (more dates to be announced)

April 2011             
25    LONDON         BUFFALO BAR
26    BRISTOL       THEKLA
27    CORK             CRANE LANE THEATRE
30    MANCHESTER     DEAF INSTITUTE

May 2011             
01    GLASGOW           CAPTAINS REST
02    NEWCASTLE            THE CLUNY
04    LEEDS             BRUDENELL CLUB

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