When: 7.30pm on Thursday 14 August 2014
Where: The Castle Hotel, 66 Oldham Street, Manchester M4 1LE

We’re delighted to be bringing Ultimate Painting – featuring Jack from Mazes and James from Veronica Falls – to Manchester

Drop City was a community formed by a small group of American artists in 1965. It was the first real commune, pre-summer of love, inspired by the happenings of Allan Kaprow, Fluxus and John Cage. The artists’ most celebrated collaboration was a piece they called ‘The Ultimate Painting’.

Ultimate Painting are James Hoare and Jack Cooper. They’re a band. ‘James and I started talking about making music while we were on tour with our other bands,’ says Jack. ‘We’d known each other to say hello to for about four years and saw each other other regularly at shows in London. I’d always enjoyed seeing him and chatting, but I found him to be an tricky character; he had a habit of threatening to get me and being abusive. I took it as a sign of endearment.’

The seeds of the band and friendship were sewn in Europe whilst Jack’s band Mazes were on tour supporting James’ band Veronica Falls. ‘On returning, we began figuring out where we could take the whole thing and what sort of music we’d like to make,’ Jack continues. ‘Demos were exchanged and we hit on some synergy in the songs we were sending each other. After a fairly disastrous first attempt at recording, we reconvened and recorded what became the song Ultimate Painting, a vague theme song for the band… everything began to fall into place; us both singing and playing guitar, me playing drums and James playing the bass. Our ethos was; if it wasn’t working, don’t push it; so some sessions ended before they began… oh and the music won’t be touched by anything digital till it needs to go online or something.’

Initial plans to record a couple of tracks together became an EP and then a full album, which will be out via Chicago’s Trouble In Mind (Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin, Jacco Gardner) this Autumn. The album – five songs from James and five from Jack – is very much a product of their collective taste… obviously. That’s what records usually are right? Yo La Tengo, Red Krayola, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Stereolab, Townes Van Zandt, Velvet Underground… some sense of space and feel. ‘But really there’s no story apart from the fact we set out to do something and we did it.’

Main support comes from WAITERS. Their chiming, emotive guitars, rudimentary drums and minimalist arrangements have previously been heard on a string of releases on Comfortable On A Tightrope, Bijin Record, Birthday Tapes and Night School among others. Named in alignment with The Shop Assistants, Waitresses and The Servants, and taking cues from Guided By Voices, Yo La Tengo, Dead Moon and co. WAITERS deal in a kind of restrained abstract form of late 20th Century un-Popular music. This show is their first in over a year, the first with a reconfigured line-up and coincides with the release of a new 12-inch EP, WHAT FOR ART THOU, on C/F Records of Belfast and Comfortable On A Tightrope of Manchester.

Opening the show is Aldous RH, who plays rock/pop/blue eyed soul – sad/smooth love-maker music  – and always tries to keep things sensually spontaneous.

This show is a co-promotion with Comfortable On A Tightrope.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are available from Common (no booking fee), Piccadilly Records, Vinyl Exchange, Seetickets.com, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

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