Kate Bush Saved My Life (New Single)

artwork by Georgie Flood

Mid-winter. Nantes, France. There's talk of snow but some say the air is too cold. I hope for some white to give life to the grey. I see familiar faces and am mistaken. I am poorly from over-indulgence in the local drink. And my heart is broken. From the nothern entrance of the train station I board the TGV bound for Paris. I'm anxious about changing trains.  I take some ibuprofen and await partial relief. My journey will end with good friends across from the SIKA factory outside of Fribourg. Still I'm overcome by fear and there's a heaviness holding me down. I take my faulty mp3 player out of my bag and curse the person who sold it to me. I regard the songs with boredom and disdain. I reach K and choose the album “Hounds of Love”... The train departs...slowly builds up speed.... My head clears...the toms begin pounding the beat to 'Running up that hill'.
On the paper of my pain aux raisins I write...

“Ride this high speed train leave our pain
Tomorrow never came in the Great North
It was nothing like we thought.
Action brings good times and takes lives
The white sky bleached our dreams for that town
we're on a beeline for better days
Plown fields and naked trees pass by me
bid farewell and submit to the spell
feel a holistic human heart
Kate bush guides by thoughts of granduer
She takes her shoes off and throws them in a lake
she saved my life
as I flee on this TGV...
Beeline for Better Days”

Urbantramper - Kate Bush Saved My Life

Kate Bush Saved My Life (Listen and Download above -free for a week) is our latest single. It is part of a collection of work (to be released in early 2012) united by the concept of Utopia.

On receiving an email concerning the Canterbury earthquake of 2011

Urbantramper comes from Aotearoa, New Zealand- a small country in the southern hemisphere consisting of two large islands and numerous smaller ones. Christchurch is the biggest city in the most southern of the two large islands and also the biggest city in the region of Canterbury. It is the second largest New Zealand city in terms of population. On the 4th of September 2010 a large earthquake hit the region. Aftershocks followed. On the 2nd of February 2011 an extremely large aftershock took place. This quake had devastating consequences for the city and its people.



I got an email from my brother in which he recounted his experience of the event's aftermath. I was moved to make some sort of contribution. Since I'm a songwriter, I wrote a song. I thought I could post the song on my website with a link to the Christchurch earthquake appeal. And so...

Download/Listen here

Donate to the Red Cross

Et autre chose...

My friend Nina is organising an event in Paris to raise money for the people of Christchurch. Urbantramper will perform a solo set. Entry is by donation and you must RSVP.

vendredi 18 mars · 18:30 - 23:30
Mathilda's Bar, Australian Embassy, Paris
15 rue de la Federation, 75007
For more info & to RSVP click HERE (you may need to log into facebook)

Christmas Again.

With the news that sow crates will be banned in New Zealand by 2016 (obviously too long), and the coincidence of christmas, we thought we'd post Urbantramper's christmas carol from last year.

The song is about celebrating christmas without celebrating capitalism and having vegetables (and fake meat) on the bbq for the festive season.

Here's the song: A Sifter's Christmas

Here's the chords and lyrics: Lyrics and Chords for A Sifter's Christmas

The Clown's Smile

Below is a link to two 'b-sides' from the Rise & Ride Toward sessions.

The Clown's Smile

You can download them for free or 'pay what you want'.

Meanwhile: Urbantramper are currently writing songs for a new album to be released in late 2011. Lake, the principal songwriter, is living and performing solo in Nantes, France.

Be of good comfort...

The Workers' Album: "All that is solid melts into air"

Artwork by Josh Morgan (click to view larger image)

This album was written whilst Lake was working in Melbourne circa 2005. The songs were inspired by austere workplaces, meaningless employment, magnanimous workmates and disagreeable employers.

We'll be posting the whole album up here for free download over next while (feel free to donate using the paypal link on the right)...If you'd like, you can order a CD copy by emailing us at: urbantramper@urbantramper.com $5 + p&p

The disk is also available at Slow Boat records in Wellington.

DOWNLOAD THE ALBUM BELOW (you can donate us some money using the pay pal button on the right)

Song 1: Marching Song

Song 2: For a 30 hr Working Week

Song 3: A Robot in the Seat

Song 4: Drinking Song

Song 5: Factory Song

Song 6: Ode to the Public Servant

Song 7: When Sarah Smiles...

iNSIDE JAUNISM: part V (The final instalment)

Thomas on his local throne.

Well the interview series with our manager, Thomas Jaunism from Te Kuiti(TK), has come to an end. We hope you've all enjoyed getting to know the complex and intriguing man who means so much to us. Should you like to learn more about Thomas, do not be afraid to approach him at one our gigs. He will invariably be wearing ripped jeans, an un-ironed 'retro' shirt, stubble, a hat of some description, and a come-hither smile...

Listen to/download the latest installment here: iNSIDE JAUNISM: part V

Update: Thomas is currently in negotiations with at least 5 top publishing houses. They all want to publish his autobiography 'From TK to TJ - Making A Name For Myself In The Big Time'. It's Thomas' inside view of the rise of Urbantramper. From the infamous two day benders to 'that show' at the Tug Boat last year -Thomas tells it like it was. Unforgiving and uncut -just like rock & roll memoirs should be.

Thomas wanted to request that fan mail be sent electronically: tjmusicmanagement@gmail.com

iNSIDE JAUNISM: part IV

Thomas talks up the quality of our new cd..

Happy new year...

We trust the festive season went well for you all.

2010 is to be a grand year for urbantramper. We head down south in a couple of weeks and then to Australia in March. We're also in the process of confirming UK/European festivals as well...

We can now confirm the date of the 'workers ep' release. May 1st. May day 2010. Venue is yet to be decided. Rest assured there will be tea, instant coffee and biscuits.

Here's episode 4 of our audio postcard series on our manager Thomas. One more to come...

iNSIDE JAUNISM: Part IV

Merry xmas & a happy new year...

Aubergines are great at xmas time...

So this is most likely our last post for the year...
We'll be back with a few more postcards in 2010.

We're also playing heaps of shows and will release the much anticipated 'workers album...'.

As a gift to everyone who's been keeping up with us this year, we are posting an xmas carol...It does feature on the 'cheese on toast compilation' so don't worry about downloading it if you already have that...

It's called: 'A Sifter's Christmas'

Enjoy.

2010 will be momentous for us all.

See you then.

iNSIDE JAUNISM: part III

To whom it may concern,

Here is the third installment of our iNSIDE JAUNISM series. There will probably be one or two more to be released over the coming weeks. There has been conjecture concerning the possibility of a christmas special and a DVD being released...But at this stage we cannot confirm any rumours.

iNSIDE JAUNISM: Part III

Band update: Urbantramper is currently confirming shows for their Australian tour in March 2010 and booking shows for their June/July/August 2010 world tour. Album out now, to get a copy check this: Rise & ride toward...

Always with love...

iNSIDE JAUNISM: part II

You can take the Thomas out of Te Kuiti, but you can't take the Te Kuiti out of Thomas...

Part two of our 'iNSIDE JAUNISM' series is here. We've commissioned someone to write a theme song for the series as we received some funding from the TK city council. They said the series is increasing Te Kuiti's exposure and the economic benefits are beginning to become apparent. There is talk of a statue being erected for Thomas and sales of his "I can manage, being from TK..." t-shirts are going through the roof. Hope you enjoy this installment. Another one coming very soon.

iNSIDE JAUNSIM II

Inside Jaunism: A series of 'audio postcard' style interviews with Urbantramper's manager

Thomas insists on having his face blurred.


A couple of months ago we wrote a post about how we were in the process of interviewing our manager Thomas Jaunism. Lake has finally got around to editing the 3 hour interview down to 10 minutes or so of usable audio.

The first installment of the interview is basically a discussion about the press release Urbantramper released a while back about recording under urgency. It seems the New Zealand Government have been using the urgency tactic to pass some more great legislation like allowing private prison management...

More audio with thomas to come.

Response to 15th of October Press Release / iNSIDE JAUNSIM I

Olympic Theme 2012 (Free Download)

We were first approached by a certain retired sprinter in 2006. He was the new 'rogue' head of the Olympic artistic strategy team at that time and, needless to say, he has since been made redundant.

He spoke of the Olympics being about winning at any cost. 'The glory of the goal, the devastation of defeat'. I appeared to be listening intently, though verily, I was lost in a deep reverie...I pictured myself running like a Gazelle (I often compare myself to a gazelle) through crowded streets, arms raised to the sky as if to invite exultance.

I left him mid sentence and proceeded to write this song.


It was subsequently recorded in Shoreditch, London. It features: George (piano), Ian (Bass), Joe (Drums) and the usual suspects...

We hope you enjoy it.

Free Download: Olympic Theme 2012

Wishing Bliss Single 2008 (Free Downloads)

As part of our efforts to make Urbantramper music available from this site, here's the MP3s from the 2007 single: "Wishing Bliss". Other downloads are available from the 'free MP3 download' section in the contents tab on the right of the page...

Wishing Bliss (radio edit)

Wishing Bliss (X-rated version)

Can I be Dr Strangelove?

Audio Postcard...The Making of: Episode 2

Dresden, UT tour 2008

This postcard has taken a while to send, I bought it ages ago because i thought it looked cool. Since then it's just sat in my bag, getting dog-eared and stained...I only just wrote on it and it doesn't portray the vibe as well as i would have hoped. But you get the idea...We're just keeping on, trying not to get lost in the sea of superficiality -whilst still swimming in it when it gets too hot...Whoops, maybe too many metaphors...

There's a sample at the end from a track that will be on the new album. At the moment, it's called 'i live in shoe house'...

All the best.

UT.

The making of: episode 2.mp3

Tokon & the Colours...

Released in 2007 with the help of Maiden Records this is Urbantramper's 3rd album.

It can be purchased online at the following places:

CD Baby

Amplifier

Smoke CDs

i-tunes

Audio Postcard...The Making of: Episode 1

Hello,

This is Episode one in a new series of audio postcards. They will document the making of the new urbantramper album and the 'workers' album...They will be posted weekly and will follow the same rules as before (see http://urbantramper.blogspot.com/2008/04/audio-postcard-number-2.html)

They will also feature an unfinished snippet from the album...

All the best.

The making of: episode 1.mp3

New single...

Hello All...

Southern Hemisphere Blues...(download)

The Climate change issue as a social movement is important as it gives rise to
such questions as: Is economic growth a good thing? Should we consume less?
Do we need to produce so much? Is industrialisation and intensive agriculture good for people and the planet? How do our actions affect people and environments far from
ours?

Climate change need not steer effort away from ending poverty, rather, good causes are not mutually exclusive and to address these problems a holistic approach is needed...one is life.


Idealistic or just artistic? (download)

When are you going to grow out of your idealism Lake? It's obvious that idealism drives change and provides us all with a better future...This is a thank you song in a time of crisis. Thank you. Much appreciated.

there's some old tunes here...

I forgot all about this site:

some free mp3's

I want to be a public servant...

Late in the night I am woken by a recurring fear. All reason is overcome by a great sadness...And all is lost.

I chant past mantras to keep myself sane. A dialogue for everyone:

me: I am love and happiness

you: Am I love and happiness?

me: Yes you are love and happiness too...

them: And us? Are we love and happiness?

All: We are all love and happiness.

A small smile emerges in the dark, an inner warmth. It is fleeting... We are only animals who think too much...But we have this great capacity feel. So much feeling in a world without meaning. Then it's O.K. Once I remember it's all meaningless everything's sweet because nothing matters. But there's still the social responsibility thing and that's important. And then there's meaning again, as life becomes meaningful when one works with others for good. I have great admiration for public servants, one day I hope to be considered one. Here's a tune:
I want to be a public servant.mp3

Audio Postcard no: 4!!! "signor rudlando"

listen to postcard no. 4