Well, two weeks isn’t too long. To be fair – we’ve been rather busy.

One of the cherries on top of our month was a lovely mention in Drowned in Sound along with a few more reviews of the EP posted about the Internet. We’re really thrilled to finally be able to have this EP out there. Oddly enough, it’s on iTunes now too and will be on Spotify, Amazon, and a few other sites in time.

Last night we played our first gig outside of Leeds in lovely Sheffield. When Bryan first moved to the UK he lived in Sheffield for a few months so for him it was a bit of a home-away-from-homecoming show. We had a blast and want to thank Matt & co at SOYO for putting us up and putting up with us. Fantastic people there.

Some photos have recently found their way online showing us looking very well-lit and moody. We were going to keep quiet about it but the cat’s out of the bag: We’ve just done a music video for an upcoming unreleased song and that’s we’re going to say about it for now.

We have a show coming up on 11 March at Oporto with So Many Wizards and The Horn The Hunt. It’s a free show (always nice) and the lineup’s definitely a fun one. We’ll go on first and will find out the set times soon.

xxxxx

First off, we want to thank everyone who came out to the launch at Nation of Shopkeepers last night! We’re amazed so many of you could squeeze in!

We were very lucky to be able to put on a show with such an incredible lineup! The White Album kicked things off in stunning fashion – expect to hear about these guys again in the very near future – and without any surprise, Buffalo Bones were frisky as ever! Their feisty riffs and swagger really livened up the venue!

As for us, well, we’ve never had so much fun performing! It’s a bit of a blur but the fact is, we’re all so ecstatic and proud to have been able to launch our EP like this. To have a turnout of such a large, positive crowd is beyond what we could have ever expected.

It’s more than fair to say that we have had a very delicate day after. A late night of discount mulled wine, cocktail sausages, flapjacks, dips, and whiskey after the gig really hasn’t done us any favours. The proof lies in the fact that it’s taken over a day to post this. Expect more photos, video, and more to follow!

Backyards xxxxx

Its true! That thing we’ve been insistently trying to sell to you is finally floating around out there in the digital world! Even though the pre-order has finished, the EP is still begging to be listened to at backyards.bandcamp.com.

We spent this momentous evening at Rock & Roll Circus with a gruelling 4-hour rehearsal of new song ideas, old material, and mutilating perfectly good songs with insane, unnecessary tempo-changes. To mark the occasion, we shared a £3 bottle of fizzy British wine (splashing out!) in red plastic cups. There are before-and-after photos showing us being let down frame-by-depressing-frame. It really was vile; think of bitter Shloer with overtones of rotten egg and wet dog. Matt even said that the wine smelled like The Cockpit. That really says it all.

Shitty wine aside, we really are thrilled to finally release this EP. Loads of hard work has gone into every aspect of it’s conception and making, and we’ve not stopped there. Along with the EP is a digital booklet with the artwork, lyrics, and acknowledgments.

2012 is going to be a big year for us with lots in store – this is only the beginning! We’re really looking forward to the launch party at Nation of Shopkeepers on the 15th which is shaping up to be quite an event. Thanks for your support over the last few months! We honestly couldn’t have done any of it without you!

xxxxx

In 24 hours our EP If You’re Scared will finally be released on BandCamp! If you haven’t pre-ordered the EP yet you’re reading this page then we’re obviously not doing this promotion thing very well.

This is beyond exciting for us. We’re not going to lie – we’re total geeks and this whole record release thing has us giddily grinning like idiots. We’ve got some very exciting plans following the release and can’t wait to put the rest of our work out there!

Thanks to a recommendation by Sarah from the wonderful Leeds-based Shark Teeth our song ‘Statues’ was played by Tom Robinson on his BBC Introducing programme on Radio 6! Click here to listen to the programme on BBC iPlayer (we’re in at roughly 1 hour and 17 minutes).

Click here to read a review of the EP from AltSounds.Com – “Everything is incorporated into Backyards’ sound… to conjure up music that is atmospheric; contrasting between dark and light, upbeat and melancholic.”

It’s one week to date for our debut EP – If You’re Scared – to be released into the world like an ex-convict. Sure its done time, but it has paid it’s debt to society and promises never to expose itself to a busload of elderly churchgoers ever again.

Pre-orders of the EP and Poster EP can be made at our Bandcamp page. The posters are in from the printers and they really are stunning. If you really can’t wait until the 1st to have a listen to the EP, it will be streaming on SoundCloud until the actual release.

In other news – this weekend we’ll be recording at Loom Studios in Birstall… but we can’t really say much more about that. We’re pretending to be mysterious.

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Some more reviews of the EP have come in this week:

“It’s a truly magnificent record.” – Joe Scrase, Leeds Music Scene – 4.5 out of 5 stars – LMS Review

“…boasting danceable rhythm sections, warm reverbs and progressive composition; their sound is satisfyingly minimalistic.” – Ross Gallagher, Music Broke My Bones – 7/10 – MBMB Review

“Coming in with a massive score of 76/100 this weeks glorious winners of The Leeds Review are Backyards with their track ‘Statues’” – The Leeds Review on Leeds Student Radio

With 10 days to go before we release our first record, we want to say thank you for all your support –
and what better way than to let you hear it! On the Bandcamp site we are offering our debut EP
in only the finest digital formats – if we may say so.

If you’re the type that wants something tangible that you can feel (or taste, smell, or whatever
you wish to do with it once you have it – seriously go nuts), we also have a high-quality poster
beautifully designed by Jenny Evans.

Have a listen, have a look. Thank you for making this such an incredible project for us!