The play a special show at the historic Madame Wongs venue tonight 29th and at the Echo tomorrow 30th. More details on http://www.theansweringmachine.co.uk

Rapids! play ‘dark indie’ in their own unique style. Hailing from the distinctly un-angular art punk town of Bournemouth, the band have quickly come to the notice of bands and radio alike. Opening shows for the likes of The Chapman Family and Errors, the band have a live show that transfixes audiences. Without any team around them in the early days, the band also gained notice from Steve Lamacq, John Kennedy and Tom Robinson with Steve Lamacq interviewing Matt Holliday on air on his 6Music show.

• Management – Trak Image Music – micks@trakimage.com
• Label: Heist Or Hit Records – theteam@heistorhitrecords.com
• Bookings – bookings@trakimage.com
• US Radio – mike.taylor@heistorhitrecords.com

A wave of excitement flowed through the normally calm cavernous halls of Heist Towers today as time came to tell a drooling world of the newest member of the Heist family, Rapids!
(And for once the exclamation mark at the end of a band’s name falls grammatically correctly at the end of our sentence)

Rapids! play ‘dark indie’ in their own unique style. Hailing from the perhaps un-indie town of Bournemouth, the band have quickly come to the notice of bands and radio alike. Opening shows for the likes of The Chapman Family and Errors, the band have a live show that transfixes audiences. Without any team around them in the early days, the band impressed by gaining notice from Steve Lamacq, John Kennedy and Tom Robinson with Steve Lamacq interviewing Matt Holliday on air on his 6Music show.

Expect the first release from the band in September 2010, in the meantime listen to them on http://www.myspace.com/listentorapids

Heist expects great things from Rapids! even if the exclamation mark does make a mockery of Heist’s previously perfect grammar.

Rumours that Heist signed a band from Bournemouth in the height of Summer just for the free holidays on the south coast are completely unfounded.

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/the-answering-machine/id379383212?mt=8

A special prize goes to the one millionth downloader……….

Oh and whilst we are getting all tech’ie on your ass, why not follow Heist on Twitter (@heistorhit) plus The Answering Machine (@theansmachine), LoveLikeFire (@lovelikefire) , The Crookes (thecrookes) and Pomegranates (@pomegranatesart)

The Answering Machine at the JD Set courtesy of Shirlaine Forrest

Fresh from completing the tribute to the Buzzocks JD Set on Channel 4 together with Tim Burgess, The Answering Machine are off to the mixing studio next week to start mixing their second album. The album, recorded in Manchester by the band themselves and produced by vocalist Martin Colclough, suggests a mature progression from their first album. The following are Martin’s thoughts on what the band were trying to achieve with their sophomore album.

We ended 2009 with a wonderful feeling in our hearts. We had created the debut album we’d been dreaming of since the band formed. It packed a punch and we believed it captured the boisterous energy of the infancy period of The Answering Machine. We spent the month of November 2009 hanging out in an apartment in Brooklyn, NY, feeling somewhat anxious as to the new direction of the band. As any band will say, the pressure placed on a second album is like nothing else. There’s a sense of finding some middle ground between the start and end product. We explored a few avenues, creatively. Beginning with a raw Sonic Youth-eque track called ‘Winter Without You’. The intensity and passion was there, but we just didn’t feel it reflected where we were at.

At this time, there was a certain sense of anxiety within the band. Not with each other, but more a reassessment of who we are and what we want to be. Something of a mid-mid-life crisis struck me, and the result was a song called ‘3 Miles’, the first track we completed as a band for the new record. It draws on emotions like we never have before in The Answering Machine, and is a ‘heart-on-sleeve’ account of where my head was at. It was also the creative spark we needed, and it triggered an outpouring of ideas and themes that would ultimately shape this second record.

I write this on the final day of tracking. We have produced the record ourselves, something which we felt strongly about. It means alot to me that we have full control over the finished product, as I want people to hear these tracks how we want them to be heard. No egos here, we are just extremely proud of what we’ve achieved.

The band will be assisted in the mixing process by the infamous Manics/Idlewild producer, Dave Eringa who produced their first album. The album is scheduled for release worldwide later this year.

Now at this point one might assume that the sky became dark and there was countrywide grief. Having lived through times, whilst incredibly sad, the importance of the contribution of Ian & Joy Division took longer to sink in to most people (other than those close friends and insightful writers like Paul Morley). It is perhaps only in retrospect that Ian & Joy Division became so important to so many; even important to those who perhaps had never heard of Joy Division prior to Ian’s death.

Ian was born two months after me and whilst I was brought up in the namby pamby South, Ian’s life and subsequent lyrics were inextricably linked to what is now fast becoming my spiritual home, the North West.

Two months after Ian’s demise, I remember sitting in a studio in Saffron Waldon with Rob Gretton as he produced a single for Repetition. Perhaps with some trepidation raising the issue of Ian’s death and in typical Rob fashion he said that Ian was a ‘selfish w*nker, he screwed up all my plans’. But even through Rob’s usual confrontational non nonsense approach, you could tell that he knew that even in those two months, Ian had already become an immovable reference to a generation.

It was my passion for Joy Division that subsequently led me to admire the Factory Records ethos so much, work closely with Annik at Factory Belgium and, many years later, start up a record label which in its own small way tries to adhere to that orginal Factory ethos. It is indeed strange that in 1980, we were then one year into Thatcher’s Britain with all the turmoil that this brought to the poorer parts of our country. Today, 30 years later, we are one week into what could be another austere Tory parliament. I just wonder what a 54 year old Ian would have made of it.

Even more of a reason for everyone to support Record Store Day on April 17th and pop in and buy some goodies.

As you all probably know Huw is the best DJ on Radio One and we are always really honoured when he chooses to play any of our records. The man has cracking taste in music and looks like a hotter version of Heist Or Hit’s very own Peter M Jones – what’s not to love?

To celebrate the occasion we have sent over a brand new track from The Answering Machine which is definitely a sign of the amazing things to come from the band in the coming months. They are currently locked away recording drum tracks for their sophmore album.  It’s gonna be amazing.