Crikeymiles.com

A sad day indeed, but it will soon be time for me to leave the band I have committed creative juices to since late 2004. That’s five years, three albums, three music videos, one single, half-a-gazillion demos and 54 gigs!

So the new Thumpermonkey record finally got finished. It is entitled “We Bake Her Bread Beneath Her Holy Fire“. Here is the artwork that I prepared for it. The look I was aiming for is bold and striking – an attempt at a classy and “iconic” feel (whatever that means!). The bird-headed woman speaks to the Aztec imagery that Mike Woodman enjoys so much, the birds are a nod to HP Lovecraft’s soul-snatching whippoorwills (as mentioned in Whateley, track 2), and the toaster is, well, an incredible looking toaster (and matched to the imagery in Proktor Cylex, track 4).

I have re-built the Thumpermonkey site in Drupal. Tthe site is now entirely dynamic and super-easy to keep up to date by any of the guys in the band. This is good because (a) we have a bunch of gigs coming up and (b) I’m leaving Thumpermonkey at the end of the year, so I can hand over the admin of the site to the rest of the guys knowing that the site will always look fresh and alive.

Whilst I was recording my parts for the upcoming Thumpermonkey album, Ben Wren shot a little video on his new camera, and I look reasonably well dressed in it. Here, more to feed my personal obsession for self-archiving than anything else, is the session from December 2009.

Bass Recording for Thumpermonkey ’08 from Mike Hutchinson on Vimeo.

Bunch of shows with the new line-up; including a costumed Halloween show and a gig with the charming Astrohenge.

Thumpermonkey, now Thumpermonkey Rises!, are playing a secret show with the new line-up ahead of our triumphant relaunch at the Tooting Bizarre night in July.

Here are a couple of video clips of Thumpermonkey Lives! playing tracks from the album “Bring Me Sun For Breakfast” live at Storm, London in March 2007.

Thumpermonkey – My Reality Is Stronger (Live)

Thumpermonkey – Slug City, Part 2 (Live)

Thumpermonkey are going on a little South London sortie:

Full album artwork for my prog-metal group, Thumpermonkey Lives!. Bring Me Sun For Breakfast is our second full length release in this line-up, and I’m very proud with the artwork.

We took the Tooting Bizarre on tour back to the old Alma Mater. It was the first time Riley and I have graced a stage together in Norwich since the heady days of Stonasaurus and The Devil Ship Pirates, and the first time Thumpermonkey have ever had whirling dervishes out front of the stage (thanks Al!). Superb night!