Out now: Real Friends

Real Friends is out now

on limited edition vinyl on Club.The.Mammoth

and as a digital release, available from iTunes, 7digital, amazon, we7, spotify and play.com.

Online reviews for Real Friends brought to you by

The Ruckus

Dazed Digital

this message will self destruct

and, printed on real paper to cut out and frame (not really, we're not that self-possessed):

- The Webmistress

Myspace of Love...

well, that was a pretty surreal moment..

so I was aimlessly drifting on the internet, when I see Arrows of Love featured on the myspace front page, with a link to our video…

just took me a moment to register.....

So there we are......

just below My Chemical Romance,

to the left of Pirates of the Caribbean,

and a bit above Rihanna,

ha ha…just how I’d always pictured it!

www.myspace.com

XFM XPOSURE SHOW - THURSDAY

GIG ALERT

XFM XPOSURE SHOW

THURSDAY 16TH DEC 2010 - BARFLY CAMDEN

ANNA CALVI ALSO PLAYING

8PM STAGETIME

£3 CHEAPLIST if you mail us at arrowsoflove@gmail.com

REAL FRIENDS Video

ARTROCKER MAGAZINE Review

… and this is how Bob Weston of Shellac decided to master our Album …

we did a bunch of practice recordings for the album.

my friend Scott from Kasms comes over, hears one and asks “Dude have you heard Shellac?”

I say I’d always heard the band name but never actually checked them out.

He hears another song and says “Dude, you HAVE to listen to Shellac”.

He shows me songs on youtube…

the songs were ‘My Black Ass’, ‘Prayer to God’, ‘Squirrel Song’ and ‘Copper’…

It was like a revelation

like i'd been sailing a creaky ship in dark waters for ages and then i find out some NOrse guys had already mapped the nearby region 1000 years earlier

showed me what was possible in recording sound, what can be done

illuminated dark waters

super-evolved, super-advanced,

...and rocked very hard

2 days of obsessing about Shellac later … I’m chatting to my friend James, who was Seachange, and turns out when they were on tour with Mission of Burma a few years ago, he met Bob Weston, the bassist of Shellac.

And then he just pops an email address into the conversation where I can get in touch with Bob.

now I don’t usually do this kind of thing but I end up sending Bob Weston one of those random goofy emails your better senses tell you never to send… and when I ran out of things to say I ended up pasting a link to one of our practice recordings…

…and now, he’s going to master the album.

it's pretty faith-restoring that someone who has done and still does so much can still take the time and listen to a random goofy emailer and be open enough to get involved with their music.

Arrows of Love to support Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster

This Sunday

as a last-minute addition to the Tour..

Arrows of Love join one of their favourite bands, Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster, and their guests, Robots In Disguise, for a Halloween Gig at Heaven, WC2 6NG

Doors 7pm / Stagetime 7:15pm

Tickets here: http://bit.ly/TicketsAtTicketwerk

- The Webmistress

On Tour

Come come:

20 November - Moon Club, Venice (Italy)

venue: via Villafranca 28/d, Venezia, Mirano, Italy (http://www.moonclub.it/)

facebook event here

22 November - Central Station, Wrexham (UK)

venue: 15-17 Hill Street, Wrexham LL11 1SN (http://www.centralstationvenue.com/)

facebook event here

23 November - Night and Day, Manchester (UK)

venue: No. 26 Oldham Street Northern Quarter Manchester (http://www.nightnday.org/)

facebook event here

25 November - Camp Basement, London (UK)

venue: 70 - 74 City Road, London (http://www.thecamplondon.com/)

facebook event here

26 November - The JamCafe, Nottingham (UK)

venue: 12 Heathcoat Street City Centre, Nottingham (http://jamcafe.info)

facebook event here

- The Webmistress

Hey LoVeRS,

we're gonna shoot a video next Saturday

based around 2 people in the audience

it's a pretty fun idea.

We're gonna need some help making an atmosphere.

So if any of you are free Saturday 30th daytime 12-6pm, then come to Camp Basement, Old Street.

There's going to be a bar serving drinks all day as well.

We're gonna have fun doing it.

We can only take 50 of you.

We might focus on a few people depending on features, clothes, body art, or ideas you might have.

& and feel free to bring any Halloween gear!

If you want to be part of it or have any ideas mail us - arrowsoflovemail@gmail.com

- The Webmistress

This...

This is a fucking great song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOt-669j_YA

ThiS FriDaY..

This Friday
Stagetime 10:30pm
presented by WEST ROCKS & NO TIME FOR HEROES

With our friend Ed Pearson of Islington Boys Club joining us on drums.
And other great friends on the same bill..
we play SHEPHERD'S BUSH BAR.
and then disappear back to the studio.

x

2 new dates: Portsmouth + London

Hey there,

Arrows of Love are locked up in the studio at the moment but coming out for 2 shows in September:

Southsea Fest

TOMORROW, 18th September in Portsmouth, Little Johnny Russell's

Southsea Fest on facebook

West Rocks V's No Time For Heroes

Friday, 24th September @ Shepherds Bar (Charecroft Way, Shepherds Bush)

event on facebook

- The Webmistress

SICK!

DO YoU People realise you are overusing the word SICK?....

The other day i was listening to THIS TUNE on my own and when the bass and drums kicked in it made my face wince up in a look that could easily be mistaken for disgust and i let out a proper drawn out Eugh! sound.....

And that happened …....
…my friends…....
……. because when that bass and drums kick in…
....IT IS SO FUCKING GOOD IT'S SICK.....

THOSE ARE THE ONLY TIMES YOU SHOULD USE THE WORD SICK.....

Not to be used about something you think is OK or nice, not to be polite or compliment something lame like the fact that your housemate has cleaned the fucking kitchen, and not for food (that’s just weird).

SO if it is the case that listening to this intro by Shellac becomes the benchmark for the word SICK then so be it…....

And if you ever get stuck or confused about whether it is the right time to use the word then you just have to mentally reference back to the bass and drums kicking in on this intro…..and if it is this good…then it is SICK!

http://bit.ly/Shellac-SICK-Intro

Hey,
a quick one about tonight's show at Proud.
The band is onstage at 10pm
there's a link on Arrows Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/ArrowsOfLoveMusic
which goes to the Smash & Grab event page.
If you go through and write your names on the wall you can get in for £3 before 10pm
find us
Arrows of Love

JUL 29 - SMASH & GRAB - PROUD GALLERIES, CAMDEN

with Sam McCarthy and DJs Sally Sexface & Mikey Spider.

MYSPACE / FACEBOOK / LAST.FM / YOUTUBE (2525 video) / BLOG

Any plans for the summer?

In case you are wondering what Arrows of Love are up to this summer, the new press release reveals it all. - Alex

Arrows of Love have, over the past several months, marked themselves as one of the most exciting and creative bands in London.

Their debut EP was championed by Zane Lowe (Radio 1), Huw Stephens (Radio 1) and John Kennedy (XFM), and their follow on single by Steve Lamacq (Radio 2) and Rob De bank (Radio 1). The single, a cover of ‘In The Year 2525’, was released as a limited edition of just 20 physical copies; each crafted by 20 different artists into individual work, exhibited, and sold on ebay.

Off the back of this unique release, Arrows of Love set out across Europe playing live. They played to 800 capacity audiences in Italy and danced on table tops at the Camden Crawl. This Autumn they will share the stage, and the road, with Kasms on a European tour. Such is their connection and shared ethos for creativity that Kasms frontwoman Rachel has confirmed as the first guest vocalist on the planned Arrows of Love single, ‘The Knife’.

The Arrows of Love method of attacking the norm will be reflected in the single which will find the steady, haunting track interpreted by a number of female guest vocalists from various genres, across versions of the song.

Arrows of Love maintain their “revolving” line-up, featuring past and present members of Hush The Many, Loverman, Jamie T, Courtney Love and Turbogeist. This is arguably what gives their live show such unpredictability in mood, and keeps fans assiduously interested. It matches the sentiment of their music, from shambolic hedonism and shoegaze 90’s alternative rock, to humid, melancholy blues which falls in line with The Doors.

More recently, the band recorded a track for Strummerville and played their Strummerville Sessions this June. They have begun a fresh recording process for completion this summer, scheduling to release an initial single in October, a second in December, and a third in February 2011 alongside their debut album.

As a band, Arrows of Love refuse to stick to the beaten track, opting to experiment with the way they create music, and the way people consume it. They’re just a few steps into what is a marathon of ideas, waiting to be unleashed into British pop culture.

Clashmusic.com, May 2010

Relentless Energy Session VII

Theatrical stage shenanigans this month were provided courtesy of sprawling London collective Arrows Of Love. Dirgy and shambolic, this metamorphic five-piece channel the angst-ridden spirit of the nineties with their shoegaze-esque outpourings and sudden explosions of instrumental intensity. And anyone who can play the cello is an instant hit in my book. Especially if it's happens to be of the electric variety. Casually swigging from a bottle of red wine, frontman Nima looked like a cross between Marc Bolan and Jim Morrison and ably embodied that grubby tortured soul vibe.

http://www.clashmusic.com/live-review/relentless-energy-session-vii

OK, so let's get the band connections out of the way first. Yes, Nima used to be in Hush the Many and Wim Eden is of Loverman fame. But, aside from their potential for leftfield indie schmindie supergroup status, Arrows Of Love are a lot more than a second hand golden touch: here we have a revolving door of a musical collective, a sprawling sonic mass, whose metamorphic line-up keeps their sound fresh and gives the band immunity from lazy genre classification (and some interesting stories to boot). And did I mention they have an electric cello...

Clash met up with guitarist and vocalist Nima to find out what we can expect from their Relentless gig tonight.....

In the beginning...
A bunch of us met just before Secret Garden Party a year and a half ago. We all had the same itch, i had some songs, and there was a show booked for my previous band that had just split up. we played for a few days and walked onto the main stage not knowing what the fuck we were doing. It was shambolic, and i wouldn't change a thing. I really don't believe in bands 'perfecting' everything in a rehearsal room for months and months before some grand unveiling. All my favourite bands learn as they go.

Earliest musical memory...
The first time music really hit me when when I was 14. Some friends were round my house in my room and everyone was ralking. 'Hey Joe' by Jimi Hendrix came on the stereo and everything else phased out. I kind of froze and could only hear this music sucking me in. I remember my head slowly turning left toward the stereo and i ended up across the room with my ears next to the speaker, blocking everything else out. Life took a pretty turn: I bought a guitar and tried to play like Jimi Hendrix for 2 years

Your sound in three words...
Something that happens.

Fantasy festival line-up
The Pixies, 80's Matchbox B-line Disaster, Leonard Cohen, Suicide, Pissin Boy, Kasms, Howling Bells, Sparklehorse, Low, Alela Diane,
HoneyWeazel, Tenebrous, Atomic Suplex, Josh T Pearson, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Mutant, Bela Emerson, and Kate Bush

The album is out...
We're recording it this summer. I think that means it'll be out sometime in the new year.

What we can expect from tonight...
Try not to expect anything. Just come as you are.

http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/arrows-of-love

War - a reminder

For some people…. 

WAR IS PROFITABLE 

WAR BRINGS SOCIAL COHESION 

WAR CREATES THE PERFECT ENVIRONMENT FOR THE PASSING OF LAWS WHICH TAKE AWAY CIVIL LIVERTIES & INCREASE STATE CONTROL. 

We are engaged in a ‘war’ against an invisible enemy and will be at ‘war’ for an indefinite period of time. 

For some people, this is a wonderful thing...

This is where it's at...

x

Club The Mammoth and Sexy Houmous Time present:

Arrows of Love at The Stag's Head

Friday 2nd July ------ FREE SHOW

with support from:

The Homosexuals

and dj sets from:

Rachel Bevis (Vice)

Waynes Girls

Kasms

Doors 9pm - 1pm

Football on at 7:30

The Homosexuals on at 9:30

Arrows of Love on at 10:30

Facebook event link -- http://bit.ly/FreeArrowsGig

So Saturday....
We're playing at No Time For Heroes with Uterior
It's at Queen of Hoxton

We're playing at 10:30pm, but come enjoy the whole night.
The bill is below
and here's the Facebook Event - http://bit.ly/SaturdayShow

see you there

x

Arrows of Love
print your own gig poster - http://bit.ly/SaturdayPoster


No Time For Heroes is glad to present

LIVE:
ULTERIOR live (http://www.myspace.com/electricityisblood)
ARROWS OF LOVE (http://www.myspace.com/arrowsoflove)
DISCONCERTS (http://www.myspace.com/disconcerts)
ISLINGTON BOYS CLUB (http://www.myspace.com/islingtonboysclub)

DJs:

THE APARTMENT C GIRLS (Samantha Valentine & the girls)
R O M A N C E dj set
BLUE ON BLUE dj set
CECE
YOZ
AGE-EMILY (No Time For Heroes)

Doors from 8pm - 2am
Entry £5

1 Curtain Road, Shoreditch, London
EC2A 3JX

Tel: 020 7422 0958
www.myspace.com/inbag
time.for.heroes@live.com

SATURDAY - FREE SHOW & FREE BAR

YEP!

we're playin Legion's last night on Saturday

with a FREE BAR

They're shutting down, giving away all their booze, and smashing the place up.

It's gonna be a riot.

They just asked us to play 3 songs at 10pm

we're doing it as a part-band cos it's only 2 days away

but it's not about the gig, it's about the stinkin messy fun we're gonna have

So come down early, get the free booze, and go frickin nuts

Here's the Facebook Event - You have to SIGN UP TO GET ON THE LIST

http://bit.ly/FREEGIGandFREEBAR

see you there LoVers

x

Tour 4 of 4

Ok so by the time it got to Florence I realised I’d cracked my rib from the fall on the first night. Biggles’ medical advice was that there’s nothing doctors can do about it anyway and they just heal up after a month and a half, so it wasn’t too worrying, just a bit annoying.

WE drove the van up this steep gravelly hill with a churchtower on top of it, next to where the venue was. Every Italian show meant amazing food before we played...In fact everything about an Italian show is pretty different to a London show. In Italy you get paid, fed, have a free run of the bar, play to crowds that are hungry for music, and get put up in hotels. In London you get a few cans of Red Stripe and a packet of pitta bread, play to people that are usually too cool to clap, and maybe get petrol money. Sometimes you also get a boiler cupboard to sit in.

Ok not every venue’s like that, but most.

I love London tho.

Don’t knock it.

We’re just a bit spoilt for music here.

It turns us into cunts.

This is meant to be a blog about the last gig in Italy, but really I don’t know...i don’t really want to bang on and describe the show like a step by step thing, or tell you about our “oh-so-rockstar” episodes afterwards...(altho the one with 4 policemen after this show and a close call with Italian jail is interesting enough to tell...but too incriminating anyway)..so I’ll just wrap it up by saying that as a band we are the most physically unfit careless self-injuring bunch of weaklings. We were totally destroyed; stiff necks, cut hands, sleep-deprived, bruised over, and living on borrowed money. We would never last a whole tour.

Even our van we were having to push start everywhere and at one point would only go 15 miles an hour on the motorway. that was kinda worrying…but it all worked out.

It all ended with a 25 hour drive from Modena in Italy to London (2 hours was just a ferry ride tho) ...but yeah, somehow we managed it. And like all tours they end without any excitement, when you’re all too tired to even recognise eachother, the van spits you out in front of your house at 4am, minimal goodbyes, pretty much numb to all emotions and sensations, and no adventures to look forward to the next day.....

tour pt 3 of 4 - roamin in rome

Rome…. It’s one of the great centres of modern civilisations and for some reason all I can remember about it is just stuff to do with driving...

Everyone in the city drives round like they’re pumped full of amphetamines. Our van was fucked beyond the point of legal and we were trying not to get in any scrapes. It was hard. The police were standing on every corner like plumped up fascist peacocks.

We get to the the ‘free car parks’ and they turn out to be run by gypsies, each with their own little patch. You pay them 3 euros so they don’t smash your windows while you’ve gone. There was no space for the van, so we do the whole ‘when in rome’ thing and ram some trash containers out the way to make a space. Reverse, ram, reverse, ram, park, pay 3 euros, go to venue.

Venue was cool. One of those rooms with no distance between stage and audience. I like that. A sweaty business. My finger cut even wider and my guitar was grizzly smeared with blood, thick drops of it all over the stage, and the set lists, and maybe some of the people at the front. There was a 20 piece brass orchestra before us and a metal band after. It was busting with people. occasionally I saw stef stick his guitar over his head and wander into the mob.

On the way back to the hotel we dropped the guys off, and the van wouldn’t start. It was 5 in the morning. Things were a bit confusing. We were in the middle of the road, drunk, and didn’t really know what to do. We left it there. After 3 hours sleep we came back and it still wouldn’t start. I was hoping it would have fixed itself somehow, so I felt a little disappointed, not really sure what to do, how to get to Florence, or back to England, when there’s no parts for an ldv van in mainland Europe. We decide it’s a good moment for a cigarette. I ask for a light from a bunch of drugfucked drag queens that were sprawled out on the pavement still havin the dregs of their night before. I think they took a shining to the green and purple colours I was wearing. When I went back to the van they came over a few minutes later. After another minute or two it was happening….we were being push started by 5 drag queens, all giving our van their almighty strength. I thank them for that. Not just cos of their help, but mainly because it was one of those things that is never gonna happen again.

It was nice to hear the engine running.

We had to get to Florence to play a show.

It was late.

we decided not to switch the engine off anymore and keep it running.

For the next two days we pushstarted the van all round Italy.

Tour stories pt 2 of 4

Not really sure how I fell. It was the first song, rising pretty hard. Huge sound in this place. Guess I lean too hard over the monitor and go straight over. Must’ve taken the mic stand with me. It was about a 10 ft drop. I don’t remember the fall but I open my eyes on the ground at the audience’s feet. I’m surrounded by feet. The band’s kickin into the end chorus. Got to play. Guitar’s making no sound. The mic turns up in my hand. that’s all I need. no time. I start screaming everything into this last chorus,..making up for the dead guitar… like my whole fucking existence is this last chorus. The back of my head’s hitting people’s shoes. There’s a crazy Italian wolf man lying on top me. he’s roaring in my face. literally ….Roaring..In..My..Face. how he got there. he’s lying on top of me, at everyone’s feet, grabbing my collar with both hands, and roaring. And I’m screaming back. In another language. In His Face. I could be shouting any old shit, and he’s ditched words altogether all tarzan, but there’s a weird recognition that shit’s pissed us both off and it’s the same shit. My face is wet. Someone’s pouring beer onto my face from above. So now I’m squirming around trying to avoid the beer killing the microphone before the song is out, lying there, at everyone’s feet, mouth bleeding from the fall, screaming as loud as I can, and there’s an Italian wolf man with crazy eyes I’m never gonna forget lying on top of me roaring into my face…
…and that’s how the song plays out.

I walk back onto the stage holding my mic stand and guitar out like they're weapons and I’m maximus decimus meridius or something stupid like that. What a dick. But the Italians were going nuts. pretty much more than any audience I’ve known. We start playing again.

I only remember flashes from here.

I remember glimpses of Stef charging through the crowd with his guitar. Guitars can be pretty dangerous in the wrong hands. He looks fucking crazed. A space clears like a fight starting but I think it was just people getting out the way of this lunatic throwing around a half-working guitar.

I remember someone climbing onto the front of the stage and stagediving into crowdsurf.

I end up in the audience again and the wild man is still there roaring. I think that’s all he does now.

Seven guys dressed in monkey suits turn up at the front of the crowd. I wave them onstage and they rush it. I turn round and there’s bouncers bundling them away.

My finger’s bleeding pretty badly from the guitar. I feel my guitar picks slipping around, but then realise it’s stuck to my finger from all the blood.

Halfway through Trust I look over and Bryony’s climbed the scaffolding of the speaker tower on my right. She’s got this glazed look in her eyes, swinging left to right, staring out over the stage, holding the scaffold in one hand and a mic in the other, singing the song’s mantra. she’s gone to a different place. You can see it. She’s somewhere else. Some wild dusty land out there. Photographers scrabble around at the base of the tower trying to get a shot.

I got off the stage before the band finished the last song. I was trying to get to the exit. It was a thick mass of people and a long route out. Hands grabbing. Words I didn’t understand. Head down. Get out. Need air. Some girl holding her boyfriend’s hand grabs my head with her other hand and tries to kiss me. I pull out the way and she grips harder trying to turn my head and force her tongue into my closed mouth. There’s no inhibitions here.

I hear the electric guitar still playing the whole time I’m slowly trying to squeeze my way out through to the other end of the room through six or seven hundred people. I was thinking how Stef must’ve been thrashin around way longer than usual. I found out later he’d given his guitar to someone in the audience.

Tour Blog pt. 1

Paris was the first show. we booked it for the drive to Italy. We got a trusty red van about a month before. It was the maiden voyage. The venue in Paris was a scuzzy little basement room at the back of a bar. kind of place I like. We played with half a drum kit, an amp that died early, an acoustic guitar that cut out when you strum, and an electric guitar with 2 broken strings. They fed us alcohol all night. We drove home and a government truck scraped our van as it overtook. not so great. There were a few reasons why we could do without any official involvement.

Something flew off from the collision.

The truck stopped in front.

I figured whoever was driving probably didn’t need official involvement either.

He got out his cabin.

The wing mirror was bent out of place so I walked up to it like it was the only thing wrong, pushed it back and told him there was no problem.

He said “desole”, got back in his truck, and gone.

I felt happy about that.

I went to see what had flown off from the collision. Looked like a piece of his truck, cut clean through metal by our wing mirror. weird. I took it as a souvenir. i think I’ve lost it now.

The next morning our other wing mirror was lying on the road next to the van, broken. Someone hit us it in the night. There was a weird balance to it.

We had to figure out a new mirror before driving to italy and 6 more days in Europe. Turns out noone’s heard of an LDV van in Paris, so we get a mirror cut at a local hardware store and tape it to the side of the van. Works ok.

Wim tapes up a hole in the roof that seems bigger than we remember.

windscreen wipers stop working. Another thing to sort out.

Wipers cost a lot in Paris and things were starting to get expensive.

We drank a coffee and ate the kind of sweet bakery things only the French could make.

I got asked for money in the street and gave the guy 3 euros before seeing his 4 gold teeth and realisinghe was way better fed than me. I am a sucker.

It’s started snowing. like a blizzard. or a snowglobe. We got out of ..Paris.. and drove to Italy, for 14 hours, through the alps at night. The same thing that makes those roads beautiful is what makes them dangerous. Wim slipped onto the wrong side of the road with a lorry coming the other way.

we nearly died.

We kept driving through tunnels that went right through mountains. Some went on for miles. I kept imagining being in the middle of one with no electricity, total pitch black, walking for miles trying to get out. You mind would go wild… and you’d be a sitting duck for rage-virus zombies.

motorway tolls burned us for more money.

At a garage in Padua we were told our tyres were different sizes and could have blown on the motorway. our spare had a hole the size of a thumb. We had to buy two new tyres. Money was beginning to be a worry.

Our rest night in Padua turned into a night at a bar that brewed its own booze. We ate and drank like happy travellers. should have slept more. i managed an hour and a half. We started the drive to Perugia.