we are pleased to announce the arrival of a new addition - a guitarist specifically - in the shape of mr rob bochnik (of polish descent no less!) who we met whilst working in the electrical audio studio in chicago. rob has been touring on and off in america, ireland and australia with the frames over the past year or so, and after a lot of flirting with him, we finally got round to asking him out in january and we're very happy that he said yes. rob has played with numerous bands over the past 10 years - more specifically the garden bower, the butcher shop quartet and nad navillus. he has also worked as a recording engineer at electrical audio for the past 8 years, helping steve albini physically build the studio and then work alongside him in the place til we came along and made eyes at him.....sorry steve..........david odlums shoes are big shoes to fill but we reckon we've found someone in rob who's the man for the job. we hope you will agree....and be gentle with him.....

as is ever the case though, one door opens and another one shuts - and we also have to announce the departure of dave hingerty, our drummer, this january. dave will be much missed i know by a goodly amount of folk, but i know that everyone will wish him well and bonne chance in all of his future ventures. binzer (the frames original drummer) will be helping out by coming over to america with us to do the dates this march and the rest of the lads have been working on some new material with graham hopkins (former of therapy? and currently of his own band 'hopper'). those of you that were wedged into whelans for glens gig on valentines day will have seen this particular line up, playing as a frames cover band called 'i have asthma', and showcasing some of the newer tunes..........graham is going to come to chicago in april and may with us to record and we'll figure out after that what happens drummerwise when we get that far.

heres some dates that we'll be doing over the coming month. the run in america is supported by the lovely josh ritter. be sure to come early to catch his show if youre coming at all, and i can recomend buying a ticket upfront as they are moving very swiftly up to this point...

FRI MAR 07 The Paradise, Boston
*Tix: http://www.nextticketing.com/paradise.html

SAT MAR 08 Knitting Factory, New York City
*Tix: http://www.virtuous.com/search/events_venue.php?venueid=KF074

SUN MAR 09 Southpaw, Brooklyn
*Tix: http://www.ticketweb.com

TUE MAR 11 Schuba's, Chicago
*Tix: http://schubascalendar.powerfulhosting.com/tickets.php
THIS IS BEING WEBCAST LIVE I DO BELEIVE BY www.dcn.com

WED MAR 12 The Hideout, Chicago

then the frames fly to austin texas for the sxsw festival.

SXSW
Date Fri 3/14/03
Market Austin, TX
Venue SXSW Convention Center (Austin Convention Center)
Address 4th St. at Trinity
City, State Zip Austin, TX
Age Restriction All
Time - 1.30pm - acoustic set of 40 minutes.

then later on that same day.....
Date Fri 3/14/03
Venue Club Deville
Address 900 Red River
City, State Zip Austin, TX 78701
Phone 512-457-0900
Age Restriction 21+
Doors Open 8:00 PM
OVERCOAT RECORDINGS AND SAD ROBOT SHOWCASE
Nicolai Dunger 9:00 PM - 1 x 40 min
Carissa's Weird 10:00 PM - 1 x 40 min
Boa's 11:00 PM - 1 x 40 min
Sin Ropas 12:00 AM - 1 x 40 min
The Frames 1:00 AM - 1x 40 min

----------------------------------
Then - the next day its a party....

SXSW Hideout/Metro party
Saturday March 15
at Pok E Jo's
1603 West 5th
check website for specific directions. (between MOPAC and Lamar)
http://www.hideoutchicago.com
we're on last at 7pm i do beleive.

also - in america - we have put together a tour cd which should be available at the boston show onwards......its called 'the roads outgrown' and features the following songs which have been previously hard to get hold of in america: lay me down, headlong (ep version), rise, god bless mom (recorded with rob in electrical a while back), new partner, tomorrows too long, listen girl, sickbeds, fitzcarraldo (live-from the breadcrumb trail). those of you that bought the headlong or lay me down ep;s in ireland will have most of these tunes, but i think this is the first time that sickbeds gets an outing in a proper style... we should have a few breadcrumb trails with us too on the road and of course some for the birds..... if you want to order any of the above online in america (and i think this will work for abroad too) then go to
http://www.thrilljockey.com

before i forget - rosey (a singer from ireland who's going to be in america whilst we're there) has a bunch of shows too:
March 3rd Arlene's Grocery (8pm)
March 4th CB's 313 Gallery 10pm
March 5th Blooms Pub, Queens 10pm
March 6th An Béal Bocht, 9.30pm
March 8th The Living Room, 7pm
March 12th Instore at Tower Records, Austin
March 13th As part of South by SouthWest SxSW Day Stage, Austin, Texas 1.30pm
March 14th As part of South by SouthWest HardRock Cafe, Austin, Texas 9pm

oh yes - i dont think i have written since we got such a great placing in the hotpress readers poll -
NO 1 BEST GROUP
NO 1 BEST LIVE ACT
NO 2 SONGWRITER (GLEN)
NO 4 BEST MALE (GLEN)
NO 2 BEST MUSICIAN (COLM)
really cant grumble at that and THANK YOU very very much to everyone who bothered their arse to vote......nice one indeed! aparently its 11 years that U2 have held the best band slot........!

in australia we will be releasing an ep too with a few songs from the triple jjj recorded gig in melbourne.
i beleive the t/l to be: Headlong - taken from For The Birds, God Bless Mom (live), Pavement Tune (I Want my Life to Make More Sense) (live) , The Stars are underground (live) Headlong (live) Heyday (live)
you can apparently go to hmv in australia direct and order online there, or try www.soundworld.com.au if that dont work or try www.littlebigmusic.com if all else fails and as they are our record label over there, they should be able to sort you out good and proper.

other stuff quickly:

hmv in ireland should have for the birds album at €16.99 at the moment.

the live record is coming along very nicely, but will have to hold fire on the mixing til the lads come back from the states. lets hope it sees the light of day by mid may - thats where ill be aiming for anyway...

we are working on some footage that will hopefully be shown on no disco around the release of the live record. its stuff from witnness 2001 when we headlined the rising stage and its stuff that we were going to put out as part of the dvd - but it seems like a better idea to hopefully get a tv slot and then everyone can just record it direct themselves. dvd's are very pricey and it would seem that not too many people have em right now anyway. it will feature 52 mins of tunes and a good snapshot of that time - big hair and all.......ill let you know if and when we get a date so that you can set your vcrs. im also working on the idea of getting a pull out in the hotpress as a video cover for your home recordings of that show......of course i will let you all know when this happens, but it should be in late april fingers crossed. today fm are also making a 2 hour radio documentry on the frames which promises to be a very interesting show and will cover everything, including the kitchen sink, in the bands history from the beginning til now. again - i will let you know when it comes to fruition.

links of interest:

http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/archives/asc19/

http://www.splendidezine.com/features/frames/

Angela uploaded a nice PC background image.
It's available from: http://www.theframes.ie/v4/images/download/House_Star_Star.jpg (about 220kb)

also - dont know if any of you saw interference on the late late last week - twas beautiful - and ive been informed that the Interference album is available again and if you want one then contact DanDan FitzGerald at soundsound@eircom.net

oh, and if you havent noticed mark gearys around doing some shows in ireland to support the release of his 33 1/3 street album, then you obviously do not listen to the radio, watch tv or read any press.....he's been all over everything recently and well done to him...... if you want to see him on his first solo irish tour (and lets face it, youd be crazy not to), then you still can at roisin dubhs tonight, scholars bar in UL on tues, the lobby on weds and thurs and the blackbird in ballycotton on friday.....catch him in a nice little intimate setting before he starts playing the point depot due to popular demand......

now, grip the horse firmly between your knees and hold on tight....................
claire,
manager of them frames,
with love,
x
http://www.theframes.ie