The Further Adventures Of Vodka Boy ALBUM

The Further Adventures Of Vodka Boy - "Triple Filtered"
Words by Phil W.

There’s a man; not an old man but maybe not such a young man either. He stands in front of the bathroom mirror and examines the faint lines creeping around the far edges of his eyes. He makes cocoa and reads a little by the light of the bedside lamp. It’s late and he is tired and he turns out the light and lays back in his bed and pulls the covers up close to his chin. For a minute he looks up at the ceiling where the orange light from the street lamp beyond the bedroom curtains make turbulent shapes out of the ceiling paper that seem to blend and swirl into each other as if the contours of a rolling Atlantic sea. As he closes his eyes he can still see the dark, burning sea rolling beneath his eyelids and far away across the ocean he can see ships like mountains that float on the sea breaking over the horizon….

The Further Adventures Of Vodka Boy's third album and first with drummer / percussionist James Türl begins with the gentle strum of an acoustic guitar, some distant percussive thumps and an understated horn section that literally carries you off with the tide into the dream-like world of Triple Filtered. It’s a feeling that infects the whole record, as dozens of disjointed images and ideas are played out in the lyrics of songs like Brady Flinched and Iridium Layer, creating the soundtrack for a dreamy night’s sleep. Even the more straight-forward songs here sound like they’re breaking through a dreamy haze only to drop back into it again like the more memorable episodes of a restless night. Obvious single April sounds like a collection of teenage memories all combined into the personification of a girl you’ve never met but miss when you wake. The song is beautifully balanced at the end of the record by Humanist Love Song that is perhaps one of the most honest love songs about love and being in love I’ve ever heard.

The dream-like world that The Further Adventures Of Vodka Boy have built here seems to have freed them to write some very honest observations of their world. Cleavers Avenue and the brilliant Cougar Bait both rock and both contemplate issues of growing older and moving on but both in very different ways. Cougar Bait sounds like comic relief on the surface but underneath seems to be making some shrewd observations about age and finding your place in the world. Awkward Much delivers up a painting of people who prefer to talk about themselves in the detached third person, who don’t feel they fit in with the world around them. But this also means Humanist Love Song sounds so completely honest – it’s humorous, clever and totally heartfelt. And by the end of the record Vodka Boy seem quite happy to wake up and quite at peace with themselves in Cheerful Is The New Miserable as Matthew tells everyone to turn left to the rising sun breaking over the horizon. The song starts with some angular punk momentum and stories of girls building spaceships in their sheds, before breaking into a cheery sing-along that turns Bob Dylan’s frown upside-down before clattering into the impulsive round of clapping that closes the album.

Guitarist Martin Ibbotson pens two songs on the record, both of which slot seamlessly into the mix, albeit with Martin’s trademark songcraftsmanship. Hold Out Your Arms combines some dark imagery with a broad uplifting sentiment and one of the catchiest choruses on the record. He also produced the album and the result is a record that sounds very cohesive and focused, and meticulous in a well assembled kind of way. Vodka Boy don’t sound like anyone else here and this album doesn’t sound much like the previous two records but this all works to their advantage as they forge out confidently on their own path. At times this is an album that can make you smile or frown, that feels at odds with the world but can still smile when the sun rises again. It is an album full of all the contradictions of the human psyche and gives no explanation or apology for the ideas that swirl around inside its insular, dreamy world. It’s not worried about making a fool of its self in the pursuit of something great, and that’s what actually makes it truly great. The xylophone solo on The Cats Of Queen Berúthiel and the goofy smiles at the end of Cheerful Is The New Miserable sound like genius next to wonderful pop of April, Humanist Love Song and Hold Out Your Arms, the dreamy Brady Flinched, Cleavers Avenue and Iridium Layer, the bold Cougar Bait and the dark Awkward Much. And for all these reasons, this may be the Vodka Boys’ finest record to date.

THE DUDEBOX CHRONICLES, Vol.2

Venue: MADCAP, Wolverton
Bands: The White Moths / Phil Sky / The Further Adventures Of Vodka Boy / The Baron Makabre Band / Harikiri Heartbreak
Words: MMT & Phil W.

We think its criminal - given the amount of talent on show - that the recent MADCAP Fundraiser gigs have been so thin on the ground for audience. Not that we’re biased or anything, given that these gigs currently operate under the name of “The Dudebox Chronicles”! But if another one comes around, you really should check it out – whether it’s cos you dig the bands on offer, or just because it’s all for a good cause! And when you see the lights flashing and hear the sounds pumping, you’ll wish every night could be a MADCAP night!

The opening chapter of this second volume in The Dudebox Chronicles was written by THE WHITE MOTHS, who I hope won’t be offended if I describe them as having an impressively hard rock sound given that they all look very young indeed! Powerful bass and pummelling drums topped off with squalling electric riffs and very strong vocals which don’t like they should physically be able to come out of the body of the singer! I’d not seen them before, but I very much liked what I saw – definitely excited to see how they progress. Check out the live footage from this very gig on their Facebook group!

What The Dudebox Chronicles aim to do is mix together some of the best up-and-coming talent from the young bands who play in and around the MADCAP Music Centre along with some of the more established acts around. And I think the “lo-fi King of Milton Keynes” (© MK Citizen) PHIL SKY very much falls into that second category. Playing some totally new songs, the dude seemed totally at home framed by the beautiful old proscenium stage. I’m fast thinking his newish track “Supergirl” with its Evan Dando charm might be one of his best yet.

The second of the more established acts on this evening were none other than Milton Keynes's premier acoustic three-piece ‘man band’ THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF VODKA BOY, who this evening were also launching their third and probably best album yet – “Triple Filtered”. The band tore through a set of hits both old and new, plus a couple of covers reflecting the broad range of skills this band have accumulated over the last few years. I probably enjoyed the last two songs of the set best - a brilliant Eddie Cochran cover followed by their own new song “Cheerful Is The New Miserable”.

If you’ve never before seen Baron Makabre in action, I’m honestly not sure how to describe it to you! But if even if you have, if you’ve not seen him in action with THE BARON MAKABRE BAND then you totally have to! It makes the whole experience at least a thousand times better, if you can imagine such a thing! With a whole backing band of henchmen – sorry... Igors! – the songs become fully fledged monsters of rock. Literally! Plus the Baron’s use of stage props and his commitment to the role (he comperes the evening too) puts other acts to shame.

Final act of the night - HARIKIRI HEARTBREAK – seemed a little cross that their drummer couldn’t be with them because he’d gone on holiday! All sounds pretty rock n’ roll to me... We’ve seen them before as a full-on electric proposition, but it was actually interesting to see them perform as a duo, with just one acoustic guitar and a bass. The vocalist’s particular vocal technique was effective in a very different way stripped of the usual background sound. Intriguing!

All in all a fascinating night of musical variety – if you see a third volume advertised, get along. It doesn’t matter that you may not have read the first two in the series... it could still prove the read of your life! (yes... this metaphor is going to run and run!)

The Further Adventures Of Vodka Boy ALBUM

“Three Drinks Ahead”: The Further Adventures Of Vodka Boy

Words by Phil Sky

It’s June 2008 and I’m sitting cross legged in the thick grass at the bottom of Beacon Point. It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon in the pale sunshine, a peaceful moment sitting with friends and a picnic, a light breeze rustling through the pond reeds. It’s also the first time I heard Thistledown, debuted here on Vodka Boy’s “Back to the Land” tour. It was one of those fragile moments when everything feels right in the world. At the end of the year the tour was immortalised with a live LP and Dill from the Dudebox wrote a glowing article on the band, but for me that performance of Thistledown was the highlight of it all. Perhaps it was the same for everyone there, maybe that’s why Thistledown became an instant fan favourite; between the broken hearts, the loneliness, the lies and the regrets, there’s always something to smile about, something beautiful.

Forty-five miles north of London, the big sprawl of Milton Keynes spreads out across the Buckinghamshire farmland; in the 1960 and 70’s three existing towns and fifteen villages were swallowed up to build our mutual hometown. Matthew Taylor used to play the Winter Gardens and other long-disappeared venues back in the early 90’s with pre-Britpop groundbreakers Rhythmic Noise Pollution and then toured with Sebastian Windsor who briefly got back together in 2009 but I sadly couldn’t make their only tour date. Martin Ibbotson also played in Sebastian Windsor and I played with them both in short lived super-band Stone Circle. From Wolverton to Bletchley, I’ve toured with The Further Adventures Of Vodka Boy countless times, joining them for the ups and the downs. It was in the Sunset Lounge in Newport Pagnell in February 2008 that I first heard Tell Her Lies, a slice of riotous Latin infused punk. It was the week after Diane came back from New Zealand and two weeks after me and Matthew recorded Space Punk Goddess with Nikki on vocals for our soon to be released double album. It was also in early 2008 that Grahame got a gig down at the Living Room in the Hub and we all tried to get in and support him but the bouncers on the door wouldn’t let us in on account of our footwear and we all grimly retired to Wetherspoons and vowed never to step foot in the Living Room. But things change, time heals all wounds and months and years can find you seeing things in perspective. Nearly two years later Vodka Boy were on the other side of the Living Room doors, performing their new regretsong.

In March 2007 I was playing bass in the now legendary Stone Circle with Matthew and Martin. We played the Zaks club in Wolverton before it burnt down and at the end of our set Dan angrily put his drumstick through his snare and the next day he was out of the band. Down to a three piece we rehearsed in the backroom of the house in Pennyland where Matthew and me recorded Sick Of Stickney and next to the room we recorded Don’t Let The Winter In a year later and where Stone Circle played both their first and last gigs. It was hear that we first played I Want You along with the other Stone Circle rarity Mavis and Silas. 2007 was also the year Facebook swept the nation and got a word check in Vodka Boy song Knee Deep In New Leaves. I particularly remember the song being played at the legendary Korfstock 2008, probably most remembered because it was followed up that evening with the Vicarage Party. We played songs under a canopy next to the face painting stall and Brian and Cathy came along.

Summer 2009 turned out to be the one, the long hot summer of love we’d all been waiting for. Matthew and Simon and Helen and Diane and Brian and Caroline and Grahame and Cathy and me all headed off to France. Back home, our stage at the Waterside Festival was the most successful yet. We played two gigs together at The Enigma Tavern; we took it in turns to headline. It was here that Vodka Boy played Me And The Heron for the first time. That summer it felt as if our waterways were being invaded by herons, I couldn’t remember ever having seen so many. It was at Furzton Lake that I bumped into Matthew’s brother Chris and we commented on the abundance of herons standing sentry, motionless at the waters edge.

At some point in 2008 it seemed that ace Seth Gordon documentary "King Of Kong" was being watched by everyone. I had to borrow Simon’s copy just to see what all the fuss was about. The documentary is also almost my only contact ever with the shadowy world of Donkey Kong. I remember the song bouncing along at Vodka Boy’s afternoon set at Waterside 2009. 2009 also saw the debut of a new Martin song in the band. There’s only a few Martin penned songs in Vodka Boy’s back catalogue, one of them famously being former Stone Circle rocker I’m So. But when I first heard Close My Eyes it was in the Living Room toward the end of last year during a particularly tumultuous time in my life. The lyrics could have been about dozens of things but during the song I found myself thinking of the people around me and how much harder life would be without them and I like to think maybe that’s what the song is about.

One of my best Vodka Boy memories is of seeing Dakota Steps performed live at the Vicarage Party in July 2008, seeing Matthew and Martin bathed in red light on the stage that Wayne built in the grounds of the old Vicarage. We’d both performed at Korfstock that day where Vodka Boy had performed two sets for some indifferent korfers but their performance at the Vicarage Party turned out to be one of their greatest triumphs. We all sat down on the grass to watch and found we were ironically sitting next to the same girls who’d run the face painting stall at Korfstock.

It was in July 2007 that Matthew first brought to our attention on his blog the mysterious stickers that began appearing on lamp-posts all over Milton Keynes with the slogan Your Sister Stayed Over. It was nearly a year before any of us had any idea of their origin.

At a recent gig at the Sno! Bar, James who used to drum with Sebastian Windsor joined Vodka Boy on stage with a beat box. I remember James’ wedding in 2007, Matthew got me into a conversation with a mate of his who’s also an avid reader of his blog and we soon got into a conversation about James’ stag do, a trip to Krakow that neither of us were at. But it was Matthew’s description of the fading summer sun setting behind the trees at Birkenau that lived with me the longest, finding beauty in such surroundings proving there is always something to smile about, something beautiful.

So what about the new album I’ve completely forgotten to review? It’s awesome! It’s a lo-fi masterpiece; great songs, great music. Check it out dudes! ;-)

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF VODKA BOY

Venue & Support: Various throughout the Summer of 2008
Reviewer: Dill

Despite Phil confidently predicting on a sunny Saturday morning that it was the first day of summer, my chronometer (with the handy calendar function) told me we were well into September already, and that, wishful thinking and global warming aside, Summer was now Over. A good summer, all told, as I took to behaving like an uncommitted student with a line of credit and generally did Grand and Noble things (at least in my eyes, especially after four or five large quaffs of the regular, please, landlord). However, the highlight of the Summer of 2008 has been without a doubt having the privilege and pleasure of following The Further Adventures of Vodka Boy on their travels around Milton Keynes. They’ve been creating a bit of a stir...

In simple terms Vodka Boy are, as they tell us in their eponymous, autobiographical track, Martin on guitar and Matthew on voice, and simplicity is certainly part of the duo’s charm. Each a composer of particular parts of their oeuvre, they seem to resonate best when pared down tunes match thoughtful, mainly wistful but oddly hopeful lyrics, with the odd finger click. While the chords are sparse and clean, the singing is powerful and pure. The diction is so good there is absolutely no need for lyric sheets, while each strum of Martin’s guitar is delivered with Swiss timing. It’s catchy. First time listeners have been known to sing along to choruses at the first repeat.

But it isn’t all simplicity. There really is something about these guys, something that captivates. Martin broods into his guitar, and amazingly keeps himself to himself on the stage. It seems to leave Matthew with sole possession of the stage, onto which he graciously invites all to partake of the experience. The man has chutzpah, huevas, balls. Listen to him singing ‘Blonde Girl on a Summer’s Day’, or Bon Jovi’s ‘Blaze of Glory’ and you get a sense of the fun that these two have together – it leaks out toward the audience. Matthew has a stage presence that seems to amplify ‘Essence of Band’ by a factor of 10. Used as headliners, they wrap up an evening so comprehensively, you know they were meant to be, were born to be, the headliners of that particular show. On their ‘Back To The Land Tour’ this summer (the resultant ‘Live’ CD is due for release at sometime in the near future), they’ve played without support, in fields, in woods, in corners of poetry stages, but always Convincingly. Festival season in Milton Keynes was continually augmented by their presence. Their music was mixed up with a few catchy covers, and a new track ‘Thistledown’ getting it’s first airing. But throughout, the delivery was a matter of professional consistency. This is Milton Keynes ‘Premier Acoustic Duo’. But they already know this. They’ve added in the lyric to their story track.

But the highlight for me was as a warm up act at a vast July evening party where the drinking and socialising had not yet begun. Everyone was in their own little groups, minding their own business, and wondering what the night was going to bring them. Vodka Boy took the stage to murmuring, chatting little groups, uninterested in any entertainment they could not provide themselves. Matthew greeted them to little effect. Martin hit the first chord meaningfully, Matthew hit the sing button and scores of heads snapped round, suddenly, unwillingly, unavoidably hooked. The party was a Great Party.

If there are any criticisms of the band I have to make it’s that Vodka Boy still play locally, unfazed by their burgeoning reputation, just seeming to ‘want to get the music out there’. There are rarely large crowds, but a large crowd would add to the magic. It’s charming, but the talent is obvious and you are left to wonder what the hell they are still doing here. Not that you’ll complain. I’ve yet to see anyone do so who has come across them. They are even starting to get together a ‘Stable’ of acts together and putting ‘Evenings’ on. Not that they need it. You have every opportunity of getting to see them. The Monkey Kettle editor is well apprised of their movements and should be able to tell you of their next appearance. I advise you to see them. They really are that good.