Bingo Records news
Latest from the label and its community.
Hello everybody. Lloyd from Bingo Records here.
What’s this? It’s a bid to extract our communications from the bindings of social media - something that’s unpleasant to be overly tied to and also something that is increasingly useless at getting information to people who want it.
We’ll not overdo it. It’ll be once a month, max, and will include everything relevant to what Bingo Records is up to: releases, pre-orders, events, maybe a few thoughts on goings on in the music world, some recommendations. I think it’ll be exclusively on here that I offer out any copies of ‘sold out’ records that I find by accident, which happens from time to time because the Bingo Records office is a complete tip. There’s an incentive to keep your eyes peeled, I guess.
You’re here because you opted in to our mailing list when buying from our Bandcamp. We’ve moved this mailing list to sending via Substack as it’s easier to use. Unsubscribe button’s at the bottom if you’re not interested. You’ll remain on the bandcamp list for the auto updates it sends out.
Anyway, now that’s said…
Releases/pre-orders from June
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Small Forms - the debut album from Good News
Really chuffed to be putting out the debut album from Good News, whose EP last year sold out dead fast. It’s right up my alley - think Delta 5, ESG, Gang of Four. It was recorded in the studio they’ve built in their attic, with Zac at the controls during the winter wherer 2023 turned into 2024. Artwork somewhat indebted to the fine work done north of the border at Fast Product and Postcard. Ben and I had a laugh making a newspaper to go with this. Go on then. Comes out Sept 13.
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Like Dancers Do / Robin Hood’s Bay - Adam Hopper & the Wimps
The debut 7” from recent Bingo addition Adam Hopper & the Wimps. Gentle, classic songwriting. Good lyrics - you ever fit the word palaeolithic into a verse and made is rhyme (well, half-rhyme) and scan? The second track, Robin Hood’s Bay, came out this month and does that. This was recorded at Delicious Clam in Sheffield by Zac on a cold and Guinnessy weekend in January. John, the guitarist, had chips for every single meal. Came out June 18.
Tours/gigs
Adam Hopper & the Wimps have some dates coming up. Do you want to be charmed by a man who spent years working as a ‘potato boy’ in the eastern reaches of Yorkshire? Yes, of course. Here’s where to do that.
Good News tour in support of Small Forms. This is their first headline tour - they’re really great live - good enough for The Bug Club and Kid Congo Powers (Cramps, Gun Club, Bad Seeds) so they’re good enough for you. Get down to a gig near you to support them!
Restocks
There’s a few bits back on the webshop now, having dwindled in quantity until lately.
Small Wide World (LP) - Mr Ben & the Bens
Good Day For Drying (LP) - Mr Ben & the Bens
Mr Anyway’s Holey Spirits Perform: One Foot In Bethlehem (live LP) - The Bug Club
Rare Birds: Hour of Song (double LP) - The Bug Club
Wild Garlic (EP) - Wesley Gonzalez & Wild Garlic
Happy Gathering (EP) - Melin Melyn
Convenient Things (book) - Sydney Herds
Non-Bingo recommendations
Thought it might be nice to spread the word on a few bits I’ve found lately…
Music
Buffet Lunch has a new album coming out. Their previous, The Power of Rocks, was great. This one - For Display Purposes Only - is also great (I’ve heard it). This is the first single. It’s got Jayne from Me Lost Me on it, which is an added bonus.
Langkamer have also pulled another goodun out the bag. This is from an album that’s coming out in October on their label, Breakfast Records. I went down to Bristol recently and we stayed at Dan Langkamer/Breakfast’s new flat. Lovely people making lovely music in a lovely city.
I found K.H. Mirth last week, four years to the day since their album came out. Spooky. They’re from Leicester; they don’t exist anymore. They seemed to sneak this decent record out under everybody’s noses and we all missed it, didn’t we.
Writing
Dare I say it - possibly my favourite topic. So I’m including it. Anyway, not too long ago I went to Argentina, where I learned about two authors. One dead and one alive.
Dead first: Rodolfo Walsh. There’s too much history around him to do a proper job of digging into here, but he was quite an important bloke around the time when the country was run by a violent military junta. Walsh is perhaps undercredited in the sense that, with Operación Masacre, he pretty much invented the journalistic novel - something often attributed to Truman Capote and In Cold Blood. The best journalistic-cum-novelistic (aka ‘New Journalism’ although all its practitioners kind of dismissed that term, really) writer is Joan Didion, in my opinion, but Rodolfo’s great too and worth a go.
Now for the alive one: Cesar Aria. This one’s brilliant. He’s published more than 100 books, all dead short, all put out via tiny small presses. He sometimes gives them to his mates to publish for free. It’s the indie label mindset in literary form. The books are pretty bonkers. I’m starting with El Pequeno Monje Budista. He does this thing where he starts a book and never edits it until it’s completely done, which gives his writing a sort of free-for-all sense of forward momentum. Where his imagination leads he goes, no exceptions. It pushes a lot of the buttons Richard Brautigan did for me in terms of surreality as well as its use of brevity as an artistic device.
Ok, that’s all for now I reckon.
Thanks everybody!