Tag: #BandcampFriday

Howdy Ranchers,

Doc here with another EP for you.

This month our spirit animal, Magic Dave, slide player and vibe dealer, makes his Bandcamp ranch debut. Dave threw his hat in the ring for LP3 with this great wee demo for Belly’s Feed the Tree. One of these days Dave and me are going to do an album of two chord songs featuring endless multiple guitar licks and it’s going to amaze you. Some Girls II, basically. Anyway, this demo isn’t far from what happened on the album, but you can compare to hear the IC process of evolution. 

The practice room acoustic version of “International Bright Young Thing” features the usual unfair pressure and mocking I get around the stupid bloody ‘solo’ solo. The reason for the laughter is me indignantly pointing out I had recovered the situation this time and should be receiving praise, not being mocked. Unfair. 

Finally, my home demo of “Girl With the Loneliest Eyes” which is quite a bit different to how it ended up. I’m always pitching for a jaunty country waltz but I never get it. Also unfair.

Keep on truckin’, Doc. 

x

PS. These EPs are exclusive to members of The Independent Country Bandcamp Ranch, our Bandcamp subscription service. The advert below tells you all about that. Why not join today?

#supportyourlocalcountryband #bandcamp #bandcampfriday

Howdy Ranchers,

Doc here with another EP for you.

The demo of New Order’s ”True Faith” is pretty much exactly how it ended up on the 1st LP and when we play it live… and still sounds good to me. Harks back to the original concept, should you wish to call it that, of indie lyrics plus country tune equals IC. In this case, “Sunday Morning Coming Down”. After a while, that idea became too limiting for the songwriters in the band, so most of the tunes these days are written like new songs (albeit occasionally somewhat inspired ones). The Swede and me, Doc, also throw ideas into the pile and some just get forgotten. This version of Gene’s “Olympian” is a good listen in its own right. Finally my brother Ken Docherty and I did an acoustic album you used to be able to get on Spotify. All live in the studio, it was actually pretty great, he’s a brilliant songwriter (it’s not on Spotify anymore I’m afraid). This version of Clarence Ashley’s mysterious “Coo Coo Bird” shows a bit of where I’m coming from.

Keep on truckin’, Doc. 

x

PS. These EPs are exclusive to members of The Independent Country Bandcamp Ranch, our Bandcamp subscription service. The advert below tells you all about that. Why not join today?

#supportyourlocalcountryband #bandcamp #bandcampfriday

Howdy Ranchers,

Doc here with another EP for you.

This month’s selection offers two live tracks with 15 years between them, one holding a clue as to the musical direction your favourite cowboys would take.The rollicking version of “Rock ‘n’ Star” from the 2017 Shiine On Festival in an out of season Minehead. We’d a great time waiting to headline one of the stages on the Sunday afternoon… perhaps too good a time. Most of the band had stayed up to all hours partying with chaps from Cud. Anyway, for all that, we went down a storm. Our Coldplay at Glastonbury moment!The version of Teenage Fanclub’s “Star Sign” is not the one from our first LP but a version performed by me, the Doc, at Birmingham’s Glee Club in 2002. CHiPs and Bobby P were sitting in. This was back when I invented Ed Sheeran and those guys were in The Toques. You’ll hear CHiPs disloyally mock me for forgetting the words. Also included is the full band demo of House of Love’s “Girl With the Loneliest Eyes” from early 2017. I think this is better than the LP version.

Keep on truckin’, Doc. 

x

PS. These EPs are exclusive to members of The Independent Country Bandcamp Ranch, our Bandcamp subscription service. The advert below tells you all about that. Why not join today?

#supportyourlocalcountryband #bandcamp #bandcampfriday

Howdy Ranchers,

Doc here with another EP for you.

In the great cosmic battle between me and CHiPs, the first track on this EP is evidence of one I won. His demo of The Wedding Present’s Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft was beaten to the punch by my Brassneck so never saw the light of day. Next up is Tired, by The Swede and vocalist Clair Horton. The lyrics are original, but it makes the cut on account of the tune being borrowed from Billy Mahonie’s ‘I, Heston”, with their blessing. We finish up with my original demo of William It Was Really Nothing, which was what we worked up to be the opening track of our True Adventures EP.

Keep on truckin’, Doc. 

x

PS. These EPs are exclusive to members of The Independent Country Bandcamp Ranch, our Bandcamp subscription service. The advert below tells you all about that. Why not join today?

#supportyourlocalcountryband #bandcamp #bandcampfriday

Howdy Ranchers,

It’s that time again, three more deep reaches to the back of the IC barn.

We start off EP7 with another of ChiPs’ wall-of-sound demos. If memory serves, this version of The Longpigs “On and On” was intended for LP2 – but slipped through the net. I like this a lot but I really need to have a word with ChiPs, in what planet is Todd Rundgren country?

“Monkey Gone to Heaven” sees CHiPs once again take the lead in our private war as to who gets to a particular band first. He’d already done “Here Comes Your Man” you see. I’m so pleased you get to hear this though. It’s always the same when I start investigating a new tuning – this is Open D – the first thing I do always turns out nicely and then… that’s the end of it.

Finally is The Swede’s demo for Jesus Jones’ International Bright Thing. Typically simple but oven ready demo from the Black Country Kenny Rodgers. I always enjoy playing this one live, although we decided to have a stop-start guitar solo before the middle 8 which I’d estimate I get through with no f*ck ups once in every 5 attempts.

Next time friends

Take care, Doc x

PS. These EPs are exclusive to members of The Independent Country Bandcamp Ranch, our Bandcamp subscription service. The advert below tells you all about that. Why not join today?

#supportyourlocalcountryband #bandcamp #bandcampfriday

Howdy Ranchers,

It’s that time again, three more deep reaches to the back of the IC barn.

First is my version of Fiction Factory’s “Feels Like Heaven”, a one off 80s hit from Perth post punk band Fiction Factory. I worked this up in 2015, when IC was still just an idea, just because I loved the tune so much. 

Spider is a great banjo piece from The Swede’s 2009 solo album “Everything is for the Best” – sounds like a hoedown in an eastern European principality that doesn’t exist anymore. 

Finally this month is an acoustic version of our cover of the Artic Monkey’s “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor”. If you’ve seen us live a few times, you’ll know this is a mainstay of our set. But this version, straight from the IC Ranch clubhouse – it’s like Elvis’ Jungle Room with less astroturf  – has a great skiffle vibe. 

Next time friends

Doc x

PS. These EPs are exclusive to members of The Independent Country Bandcamp Ranch, our Bandcamp subscription service. The advert below tells you all about that. Why not join today?

#supportyourlocalcountryband #bandcamp #bandcampfriday

The fifth of our Bandcamp EPs is released today.

A choice selection this month folks. First up we have the original version of our take on Primal Scream’s “Rocks”. We played it this way live for about a year before recording it on our second LP with some fairly big changes. It made a big difference but listening back to this band demo, the original had plenty of charm.

Next up was a very late entrant into the batch of songs we did for the second album. In the end, we didn’t finish during the sessions, adding everything in our home studios instead. Thi allowed us to get a warmer acoustic vibe than would have been possible in those LP2 sessions which were intentionally capturing the band live and loud.

Finally, another live cut from our gig at the Midlands Art Centre in 2018. New Order’s True Faith is one of my favourites from the first LP but it’s not had too many live outings. This version is pretty sweet though. Nigel Darville’s Hammond organ is perfect.

Take care

Doc x

These EPs are exclusive to members of The Independent Country Bandcamp Ranch, our Bandcamp subscription service. The advert below tells you all about that. Why not join today?

#supportyourlocalcountryband #bandcamp #bandcampfriday

The third of our Bandcamp EPs is released today!

These EPs feature unreleased songs, home demos and live versions of songs from our albums and singles, along with remixes, alternative takes, and some other odds and ends from the vaults.

This particular EP features a demo of Dodgy’s Good Enough from the LP2 pile of songs, CHiPs original demo for Made of Stone from LP1, and a live version of Oasis’ Rock and Roll Star.

These EPs are exclusive to members of The Independent Country Bandcamp Ranch, our Bandcamp subscription service. The advert below tells you all about that. Why not join today?

The second of our Bandcamp EPs is released today!

These EPs feature unreleased songs, home demos and live versions of songs from our albums and singles, along with remixes, alternative takes, and some other odds and ends from the vaults.

This particular EP features something from The Swede’s solo back catalogue, Doc’s home demo of You Made Me Realise, and a live version of The Smiths’ William It Was Really Nothing

These EPs are exclusive to members of The Independent Country Bandcamp Ranch, our Bandcamp subscription service. The advert below tells you all about that. Why not join today?