sleeps in oysters

• 2012-05-30

  

  Don’t Drum video screenings and performances!

  We are going on a little road trip to the south west to be part of two great multimedia events organised by Do. See. Sound. We’ll be screening our video ‘Don’t drum for other girls’ as well as playing a live set of material from the single including the terrifying ‘He Drummed’ - for which performance artist and savant The Strangest Pet will be joining us live onstage.

  As well as us there are film screenings, musical games, a community choir and other musical acts, and a raffle where you can win (amongst other things) Sleeps in Oysters prizes. It’s set to be a great couple of nights so come down if you’re in the neighbourhood….

  Wednesday 30th May - The Bell, Walcot Street, Bath (7:30pm)

  Thursday 31st May - The Golden Lion, Gloucester Road, Bristol (7:30pm)

• 2012-04-30

  

  New single ‘Don’t drum for other girls’ OUT NOW!

  John Oyster and I are very pleased to announce that our new single is out today! Last year we collaborated with the wonderful Spanish artist and director Carlos Saez and made a ‘techno erotic love story’ themed music video. Today the release which celebrates that amazing experience we had of running around in 40 degree heat with elaborately created synth simulating cardboard box costumes on our heads finally comes to fruition!

  This physical edition of 100 singles is not only a multimedia celebration of the international collaboration with Carlos, but was also an opportunity for us to work with our good friend - UK fine artist LustrousChemistry (Paul Hearn) who we commissioned to create the artwork for us.

  The single is presented in physical form as a data disc, giving equal weight to audio and visual elements. It includes the music video, a collection of digital collages by LustrousChemistry, and seven new audio tracks comprising previously unreleased songs, remixes, re-imaginings and spoken-word fiction from musicians Christ, Diasonic and writer, painter and performance artist, The Strangest Pet. Hearn’s zine-inspired and hand-crafted artwork package, which recycles ‘Other Girls’ existing sleeve art from junked mainstream pop finds in charity shops, epitomizes beautifully our appropriationist attitude to musical creation.

  This work is the last missive from the 2011 album ‘Lo!’, and for us represents a taking stock of  some of the diverse concerns that have previously shaped our music, including British folk and hauntology, melancholic electronic pop and glitch-inflected alt-techno. We deliberately aimed to try and explore new and different soundworlds, embracing more decisively some of the influences that have previously bubbled under the surface of our work - the brittle but joyous New Wave of X-Ray Spex and The Slits, the ‘80s-to-present lineage of girl pop from Cyndi Lauper to Robyn, and the apocalyptic film soundtracks of John Carpenter and Goblin. We hope you like it, and thank you for your ongoing support.

  You can find out more about the release HERE

  You can read a lovely review of the work from the folks at Textura HERE

  If you are press, the online press release is HERE

  You can buy the release HERE

• 2012-04-12

  We are very pleased to announce the release of the first Sleeps in Oysters music video!

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  The wesbite has had a make-over!

  Yes, John Oyster has been working his size 9 socks off, bless him, to re-vamp the Sleeps in Oysters website and it looks beautiful. It has all the usual pages you’d expect but much more fun that that - in the front page collage there are four hidden links. Click through from the image above and then happy link hunting!

• 2012-01-16

  

  Cow

  No 5 
  

  Article B - Mug shot

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  Cow

  No 5 
  

  Article A - Cross stitch

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  Wolf

  No 4 
  

  Article B – Mug Shot

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  Wolf

  No 4
  

  Article A – Cross Stitch

• 2011-12-04

  

  The wonderful Joe Muggs has featured our last single in a new piece he has written entitled ‘The Medium is the Message’. Check it out here - it’s a great discussion of our relationships with the media of music, in it’s physical forms, and what they can be and mean for us as music lovers. 

  In a shameless plug I should say that copies of this release are still available online at Seed Records, and in real life at Lik+Neon on Brick Lane and Arts at the Old Fire Station in Oxford.

• 2011-11-27

  Seed Records Winterville Sale

  … is well worth a peruse here. Not only can you purchase cut-price Sleeps in Oysters discs but also in the sale is work from some truly excellent artists including Cursor Miner, Antoni Maiovvi, Eyes, Nightwave and the completely original (and I NEVER use that word lightly) Dagger Brothers.

• 2011-11-10

  

  ‘I heart sleeve art’

  Anyone who knows anything about Sleeps in Oysters will know we are huge geeks about music sleeve art, and how much care we take over designing our own packaging for our musical releases. I guess this stems from a love of both beautiful, tactile objects but also just getting down and dirty and making things with our hands.

  This fascination manifests itself not only in our own work but in my project, Editions of You. My latest endeavour with Editions of You is ‘I heart sleeve art’ - an open workshop which invites you to embrace hand crafted music sleeve art, by customizing your own record sleeves or creating entirely new ones. Whether it’s for that well loved LP that’s long lost its dog-eared sleeve, an insert for your favourite mixtape, or a beautiful package for your own musical release, join the crafty ‘I heart sleeve art’ table to make a unique musical edition.

  I am debuting this workshop at the The South East London Zine Fest this Saturday at The Amersham Arms in New Cross. I am taking the Editions of You distro along too so if you like handmade DIY music then some along with a purse-full of pennies. Find out more about it here and come down to say hello and see a fine selection of stalls, art on exhibit, workshops and more! 

• 2011-11-08

  

  I wrote and published my first zine y’all! It too is related to the Lo! album and is succinct guide on how to cross stitch. The fantastic cover illustration is by none other than our very own John Oyster.

  I am selling them through my Editions of You distro, but from now on anyone who buys a copy of Lo!, either regular or special edition, from me through the distro, at Sleeps in Oysters gigs or via the Seed Shop will receive one free. If you already own a copy of Lo! and would like one then please send me a picture of you wearing your animal mask and an address to lisa@sleepsinoysters.com and I’ll happily post you one! 

  L

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  John has blogged and facebooked about my Editions of You project before but my recent activities with the project have been quite Sleeps in Oysters orientated so I wanted to spread the word some more.

  Editions of You is a project which celebrates and showcases self-publishing and self-releasing musicians and the handmade editions and releases they create. We aim to support independent artists and small labels interested in handmade and bespoke musical releases by putting on events and running a distro. You can find out about our activities in general and more about how to be part of the wonderful collections of work we have at both Oxford Brookes and Goldsmiths and our distro if you are an artist working in this sphere, here.

  Since the release of Lo! I have not only been cross stitching the animal mask patterns included in the hand-bound album insert as an ongoing personal project, but, as part of the Editions of You activities at zine and craft fairs I have been running cross-stitch workshops to celebrate the release too. My first outing was to the Alternative Press Festival, as part of the closing-party-zine-fair-BBQ at The Sassoon Gallery in Camberwell, surrounded by the wonderful show ‘Holy Shit! Visions of the Walworth Jumpers!’ Later the same month my workshop was one of the numerous festivities at the 2011 Women’s Zine Fair at The Women’s Library in London. Most recently I ran a workshop at the O3 Gallery’s Ethical Craft Boutique Day, and as you can see from the shot here Mask04 – Wolf is well underway. You can check out all the photos from these workshops here.

  I plan to continue to run them, and these casual ‘drop-in’ style workshops are suitable for those who can already cross stitch or complete beginners, for children and adults alike. I will post any future workshops here on the blog so keep your eyes peeled and if you fancy it drop in to have a bash at stitching from a selection of existing patterns or have a go at designing your own. You can even bring along your own Lo! pattern book if you have the album and join me in stitching from it. Feel free to wear the relevant mask whilst stitching – participants in the past have!

  L

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  Elephant

  No 3 

  Article B – Mug Shot

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  Elephant

  No 3

  Article A – Cross Stitch