T T N G

TTNG’s full set from their sold out show on  May 23rd with Tera Melos at The Echo in Los Angeles, CA. Thanks to TheeFerick for posting this on his youtube!

Here is the second of the three videos by Made of Chalk of TTNG live from Chicago performing “Left Aligned” from the new album 13.0.0.0.0.

The Made of Chalk Sargent House Takeover continues! Here is the first of three videos to come from TTNG who just released their second full length album titled 13.0.0.0.0 earlier this year. The band is currently on tour with Tera Melos in support of this release. You can check out the remaining dates here! and see Tera Melos and Native videos in the take over HERE.

TTNG performing the song ‘Adventure, Stamina & Anger’ and Interview with our friends at Stop the Silence -  shot on February 12, 2013 @ B2 Club in Moscow, Russia.

TTNG will be heading out on tour with Tera Melos in the USA & CANADA starting April 18th - SEE ALL DATES HERE

Ever-burned into our musical conscious through his affiliation with alternative heavy hitters TTNG (formally This Town Needs Guns), guitarist Tim Collis is renowned for his technical playing style and effortless, progressive technique. Having played in the Oxford-based band for countless years, with records released through Big Scary Monsters and Sargent House, we caught up with Tim off the back of an EU tour to talk about his playing style, his vintage Fender amp, and his inspirations as a musician…

What was it that made you want to start playing music?

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TTNG spent last year re-imagining themselves as a band, pushing on to tour with an altered line-up. Where other bands would fall by the way-side, they’ve evolved enough to be firmly looking forward to a great future, and their recently released new album is the perfect hard evidence for it. James Fox had a chat with guitarist Tim Collis on where they’re at, and what’s in store next.

You’ve got a lot ahead of you it seems this year. But yesterday you had your new album out, 13.0.0.0.0, your first one as a three piece after Stu and Jamie left. How was the creative process this time?

It was pretty different, as you might expect with both Stu and Jamie leaving. Jamie was around for the writing of that album actually, and some of the basic ideas and riffs we started with had actually been around for a couple of years. So it was a bit funny – we had little bits from up to 2 or 3 years ago, some bits that were more recent to when the album was recorded, and quite a lot of parts that were just experimentation in the studio at the time. It was a weird process that combined all three ways, compared to the previous record where we just wrote a bunch of songs together, tried to grab what time we could, and recorded them pretty much as they were in rehearsal. It was a bit freer this time and it was more intense and definitely more serious. We’d flown producer Ed Rose over from the states so we knew it was a bit more serious and things had stepped up for us in some ways. It was a good process though.

The instrumentation on the record seems a little bit more adventurous?

Yeah, definifetly. We had a bit more time and a little bit more budget which is great because you can then obviously do things that are a bit more experimental. You’ve got the time and the ability risk it, and you’ve even got in a better a studio the means to do that with better equipment or different equipment. There are a few different flavours on there, some different instruments we tried out. There’s some really random stuff like wine glasses with liquid in them and making all sorts of noises with those. There are a few more effects. With the previous record it was pretty clean and it was just vocals, drums, bass, guitar and that was it. It was nice to try some new stuff out this time for sure.

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TTNG are happy to announce their upcoming USA & Canadian tour dates with Sargent House label mates Tera Melos.

SEE ALL SHOW DETAILS HERE

TERA MELOS & TTNG TOUR 2013
Apr 18, 2013 - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
Apr 19, 2013 - Seattle, WA  @ The Crocodile
Apr 20, 2013 - Vancouver, BC  @ The Media Club
Apr 23, 2013 - Fargo, ND @ The Aquarium
Apr 24, 2013 - Minneapolis, MN  @ First Avenue 7th Street Entry
Apr 25, 2013 - Appleton, WI  @ Lawrence University
Apr 26, 2013 - Chicago, IL  @ Subterranean
Apr 27, 2013 - Detroit, MI  @ Majestic Theater/The Magic Stick
Apr 28, 2013 - Toronto, ON @ The Garrison
Apr 29, 2013 - Montreal, QC @ Il Motore
Apr 30, 2013 - Hamden, CT @ The Space
May 1, 2013 - Allston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
May 2, 2013 - Brooklyn, NY @ Knitting Factory
May 3, 2013 - Philadelphia, PA  @ The Fire - (early show) SOLD OUT
May 3, 2013 - Philadelphia, PA  @ The Fire - (late show) SOLD OUT
May 4, 2013 - Washington, DC @ DC9 
May 5, 2013 - Raleigh, NC @ Kings Barcade
May 7, 2013 - Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
May 8, 2013 - Jacksonville, FL @ Jack Rabbits
May 9, 2013 - Miami, FL @ Bardot
May 10, 2013 - Ybor City, FL  @ Crowbar
May 11, 2013 - Orlando, FL @ Will’s Pub
May 13, 2013 - Nashville, TN @ Exit/In
May 15, 2013 - Baton Rouge, LA @ Spanish Moon
May 16, 2013 - Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s
May 17, 2013 - Dallas, TX  @ Club Dada
May 18, 2013 - Austin, TX @ Red 7 
May 19, 2013 - San Antonio, TX  @ The Korova
May 20, 2013 - El Paso, TX  @ Low Brow
May 21, 2013 - Scottsdale, AZ @ Pub Rock
May 22, 2013 - San Diego, CA  @ The Casbah
May 23, 2013 - Los Angeles, CA  @ The Echo
May 24, 2013 - Santa Ana, CA @ The Constellation Room
May 25, 2013 - San Francisco, CA @ The Bottom of the Hill
May 26, 2013 - Fresno, CA @ Star Palace Ballroom

Though it’s been quite a while in coming, there’s no doubting that the new This Town Needs Guns record is worth the increased wait. The band could very easily have called it quits after the departure of Stuart Smith and Jamie Cooper in 2011, but they’re still here, albeit as a slimmed-down three-piece. There’s nothing slimmed-down about the sound of ‘13.0.0.0.0’, though - it’s as full-on as anything else the band have produced up til now, and as usual it tends to veer in rather unexpected directions, focusing on acoustic beauty with ‘2 Birds, 1 Stone and an Empty Stomach’ and ‘Nice Riff, Clichard’ (the latter of which throws some glitchy rhythms into the mix), and seeing the band let their hair down with the extended outro to ‘I’ll Take the Minute Snake’. Their technical mastery remains undiminished, even if their second album is, on the whole, less frenetic than 2008 debut ‘Animals’, and the band veer into pop-like territory more often than before (especially on the brilliantly-titled ‘+3 Awesomeness Repels Water’). We don’t want to resort to cliché and call this a ‘maturation’ of the TTNG sound, but the more accessible approach taken on the album works wonders, and should bring them a whole ton of new admirers.

Since the departure of the previous members in 2011, the remaining members of This Town Needs Guns have had a fresh album on the horizon, ’13.0.0.0.0’, which is due out next year, and tonight will be a good insight as to what to expect from it.

Once the custom made speakers have been set up, This Town Need Guns decide to open with ‘Chinchilla’, where it’s clear that Pennines singer and guitarist Henry Tremain has taken the reigns well as new vocalist. After, he moves the band on quickly to introduce newer songs, ‘Cat Fantastic’, and later ‘I’ll Take The Minute Snake’, both of which show they’re taking a newly adapted approach to songwriting with the altered instrumentation in mind. Lead guitarist Tim Collis’ slippy and slidy guitar lines are all still present and correct, played with the accuracy and dexterity they are known for, whilst drummer Chris Collis is on powerful form behind them.

As their set comes to a close, they end with the classically TTNG twiddly ‘Baboon’ which, despite going down more than well, is followed up with jovial calls of six, seven or eight more songs. More realistically, the band take the novelty of heading to the back of the room before setting up in front of the merch table, book-ending their set with an acoustic version of fan-favourite ’26 Is Dancier Than 4’ whilst the audience sit around them quietly like children at a campfire.

This Town Needs Guns have persevered as a three piece for about a year. However, this is by no means a band bringing in other musicians to hold the cracks together, resting on their laurels by only playing their material of yesteryear without moving forward to something new. Nope. The fact the band can still manage to wow an audience like they have tonight is a testament to how, a year on, they’re still going solid and strong.  by - JAMES FOX