SOPHIA BACK CATALOGUE REISSUE

We are incredibly happy to announce that after years and years (and years) of out-of-printedness and, quite frankly, ridiculously high eBay/Amazon prices we have finally gotten the wheels in motion and are in the final production phase of having the first four Sophia albums reissued.

You can pre-order the cd's NOW at The Flower Shop Recordings Online
All reissues are £8.00 / €9.50 plus shipping.
Online orders ship 25.01.2010.
They will arrive in the better indie record shops 22/02/2010.

Check SOPHIAMUSIC.NET for more info.

Sophia on MTV Germany

A few weeks ago MTV Germany interviewed Robin Proper-Sheppard in Berlin.
The resulting footage is now available for your viewing on this MTV web page .
They also asked Robin to choose five favourite tracks, which resulted in a very eclectic selection. Some explantion and a video of each track are available on the same page.
Sadly, the video's are only available if you are located in Germany, Austria or Switzerland! Ach so!

Mercury Rev man joins Sophia on European tour

For those of you who are curious about who the new keyboard player is on the current Sophia tour, wonder no more: it's Anthony Molina From Mercury Rev. He had this to say about it on his blog:

"Well after some time now Robin Proper-Sheppard (God Machine, Sophia) and I are collaborating once again. I will be joining his band Sophia on tour throughout Europe this month.

It was back in 1998 when Robin came into the Brooklyn, NY rehearsal space of my band Blanco. With my brother Jason Molina (Longwave) on drums and Phil Schuster on Bass he produced & mixed 3 tracks that would make it on to our self-released Carnival e.p.

On this 16 date Tour of the EU I will be playing piano and guitar joined by Adam Franklin of Swervedriver on guitars as well as a full string quartet."

MotorFm Ohrspiel with Robin Proper-Sheppard

MotorFM is re-broadcasting their one-hour long 'Ohrspiel' show that was recorded earlier this year. Robin got to select 11 of his favourite songs and dubbed it his 'sadlist'.
The show airs Sunday and Tuesday at 19h00 and Thursday at 00h00.

More info and a link to the live-stream here.

Playlist:
Josh Rouse - Sad Eyes
Hank Williams - Alone And Forsaken
Stina Nordenstam - Winter Killing
Band of Horses - No One’s Gonna Love You
Ryan Adams - Winding Wheel
The National - Slow Show
Astrid Williamson - Run
Kristin Hersh - Your Ghost
Craig Armstrong - Let’s Go Out Tonight
Neil Young - A Man Needs A Maid
Jenny Lewis - Your Are What You Love

Bollnas Wolverines - Blair Hollands

Time for an update on some of the folks in Copenhagen.

Copenhagen singer Neil G. Henderson recorded a 14 track album with his new outfit Bollnas Wolverines.
The album is called 'Abandoned' and is available for free download at LastFM right about HERE.
This is an interesting excerpt from the release notes: "We're starting off with a rough diamond and over time will polish it. So like software we will have the occasional update. So view this as v1.0. Feel free to offer suggestions for improvements – maybe we're working towards the worlds first open source Album."

1.Bivouac
2.Meat
3.Two
4.At the Pass
5.Someone Else's Swimmer
6.Act of Being Polite
7.Glass Mountain
8.A Silence
9.The Wire Admission
10.Talkbook
11.It's S
12.Strict Time
13.Devoto'd
14.Stop the Music
All songs within the Wolverines camp except 6 by The Residents and 14 by Quentin Crisp.
Bollnas Wolverines are Neil G Henderson and Steve Escott. With additional vocal and graphics by Paul Gosden and Kirsa Wilkenschildt respectively.
All songs written and recorded Jan – May 2009.


And last year Robin Proper-Sheppard assisted Blair Jollands (from The Thin Men and also guitar in Copenhagen) with the recording of a solo acoustic album. The album is being mixed as we speak but you can already check out some of these tracks on Jollands' MySpace. His voice reminds me a bit of Finn Andrews from The Veils.

This Sunday on Radio Bremen

Robin Proper-Sheppard will be the central guest this Sunday on 'On The Tracks' on Radio Bremen. The two hour show will highlight his career and play songs Robin selected. Check the above link for a livestream between 22:05 and 24:00.

Adam Franklin & Bolts Of Melody

There's a new interview with Adam Franklin over on www.fogcityjournal.com.
I copy/pasted the part where he talks about Sophia below, but do read the rest of the interview as it's really great.

PS Adam is currently touring the US with his band Bolts Of Melody.


AF: I just got back from doing a ‘Sophia’ tour as well. I don’t know if I mentioned that band the last time. That’s a band I’ve played with on and off for the last twelve years. There was a Swervedriver/Sophia split release. This guy, Robin Proper-Sheppard, who is from San Diego but has lived in London for the last fifteen years, myself and Steve (Steve George) from Swervedriver played very early on in Sophia. But Sophia never plays in the States, does stuff in Europe mainly. It was cool, we used to tour in a bus. A string quartet on stage, about ten people onstage. It was cool.

FCJ: Did you arrange any of the stuff?

AF: No I don’t do any of the writing. I just come in and play Robins stuff. The funny thing with the strings early on when we toured with Sophia a few years ago, no members of the band were smoking Marijuana, but the whole string section was. It was sort of a reversal of what you might expect (laughter). The string section were the stoners (laughter).