When Lee bashes his guitar in a fit of frustration our bodies pulsate with the shock of discovery. When Stuart sprints from drums to keyboard and yelps almost incomprehensibly, we sway to their coiling melodies. The Longcut continue to surprise with every note. We then pile out like zombies, not quite comprehending what had happened. Recollection of the emotions that follow will serve as an echo of what must have taken place.
“It was kind of trying to get over the live thing,” explains Jon about recording their new album ‘A Call And Response’. “It’s really weird when you’re doing the record, because you are trying to get the energy of you live, but still you’re still trying to get something which you can sit down and just listen to in your living room that sounds good.” Dave Sitek from TV On The Radio helped them to accomplish the perfect balance of swooning electronica and scuzzy beats, deeper and richer than the EPs. “It basically sounds like we wanted the EPs to sound, but didn’t know how to get the sound.”
After putting together a list of ‘sensible mixers’, they only added Dave Sitek as a ‘just in case’. But he replied curtly, ‘Yes.’ “He kind of tied it altogether, compared to the original monitor mixes. He’s mental, but he’s ace!” says Jon, adding sheepishly, “He is really, really good, he’s just crazy.” Stuart describes Dave as; “The guy at the back, looking like a proper nerd, but then you meet him in real life and he’s about this tall,” he flashes his palm at his chest.
During their most recent tour, they gave out a free 7”of two live tracks to all who attended the gigs. Stuart says, “We hadn’t released anything in ages, since ‘A Quiet Life’, we wanted to get something solid that people could get that wasn’t necessarily a single off the album, something a bit different.” The Longcut have been touring almost non-stop for almost a year. People who say they have been away for too long, “haven’t don’t their research,” Lee points out. “We recorded [the album] in about 6 weeks, but the mixing process took a lot longer.” The album was being mixed, whilst the guys were touring America, Japan and UK. The fruit of their labour is worth any sort of wait.
This is a diary, from the horse’s mouth, of what happened on their most recent jaunt of the UK:
It was kind of trying to get over the live thing
Friday 5th May 2006
Liverpool EVOL
Our amazing stoner roadies manage to get lost trying to find Liverpool city centre. Several times.
Friday 12th May 2006
Wookey Hole Caves, Bristol.
It’s our day off so in true rock ‘n’ roll fashion we head for Wookey Hole Caves in Wells (Britain’s smallest city).
Thursday 18th May 2006
Newcastle Uni Global 3
We’re unable to find a single open pub in Newcastle, so we go for the saner option of drinking the massive amounts of Jamesons we’ve built up on the rider with Jim Noir and his band (who has also had a gig in Newcastle tonight) back at the hotel. Jim is smoking Salvia Divinorum which he’s been assured is like mushrooms but somehow legal. Many huge almost-spliffs and a makeshift bucket bong later Jim is still lucid but unable to have logical conversations. As Jim is like this at the best of times we can’t tell if he’s been ripped off or not. Friday 19th May 2006
Tour Bus Hell
We drive for 8 and half hours from Newcastle to Brighton. Madness sets in.
Saturday 20th May 2006
Brighton The Great Escape – sheer genius
Tonight’s crowd were absolutely amazing, and not just for fact that we couldn’t get off stage very quickly because there were too many girls dancing in the way after ‘Quiet Life’. Lee is engulfed at the end so we leave him to his fate. Good to see the mighty Shitdisco again too (were earlier support for us), who are still starting every gig with Buckfast.
Sunday 21st May 2006
Nottingham Social
A bit of a come down after Brighton, with the city’s annual rainfall pouring on the city and an absolutely mental pair of fans at tonight’s gig. Not mental in a good way, in a ‘trying to pull Stu off the stage and terrifying the rest of the audience’ way. Lee also had comedy guitar strings for most of the gig, breaking three during all the bits in ‘Transition’ they were needed for, and the whole thing was recorded for Japanese TV. Great.
Monday 22nd May 2006
Lamacq Live session with The Long Blondes and Brakes.
Any spare time today is spent wondering why our song titles are rubbish compared to Brakes’ (‘Porcupine’ or ‘Pineapple’) and why The Long Blondes changed outfits for a radio session…
Tuesday 23rd May 2006
Northampton Soundhaus
More fun with Dude Where’s My Tourbus? as we drive straight through Northampton and out again while trying to find the venue.
Thursday 25th May 2006
Manchester Academy 3
We’re knackered but we set off at 6am for the first of today’s interviews (including one with The Smith’s ex-drummer Mike Joyce, which is surreal) though still really happy to be back in Manchester for the first time in a month. The gig is unbelievably hot and we can barely keep hold of our instruments but everyone has fun, especially the lighting engineer who’s apparently just worked out where the strobe button is. We talk to everyone we know then collapse in braindead heaps.
