Contrary to the impression of the title, this is not an angry post. This is, in fact, a very happy indeed and a not a little bit smug post, with some congratulations thrown in. If you pop over to the NoCarbon Records website you’ll see the following news item:

NoCarbon Records welcomes The Parish Music Box to its ever growing stable of artists.We first ran across the band on an obscure music blog site. It appears that plenty of others have ran across them too judging by their myspace following: www.myspace.com/theparishmusicbox. This is sophisticated laid back music with a country twist. Plenty of tales of love and loss. Fans of Morrisey, Lambchop & Richard Hawley will certainly enjoy their music.

That obscure music blog? Why this one of course, although I think Obscure Record Label NoCarbon Records could have described your favourite gin-soaked amphibious lush a little more flatteringly. Obscure, my arse! Actually, it’s a bit of a coup for Andy and the lads because NoCarbon are part of Universal music, so far from being small, they should have plenty of clout and facilities behind them as they start recording their album. Actually, The Parish Music Box have been really nice to me about this whole thing, giving me far more credit than I actually deserve. They were even kind enough to mention me in their press release:

The band were found by NoCarbon, busking on MySpace, via music fanatic and blogger Song by Toad (www.songbytoad.com) during a blatant attempt to emulate the much younger Arctic Monkeys and much more attractive Lilly Allen’s meteoric paths to fame

They even (slightly mis-)quoted my initial description of the group later on as well:

“Think 1 part Cousteau, 1 part Hawley and 1 part lounge croon and you won’t be too far away; simply, simply, lovely”,

Those comparisons are unmistakably mine and even if I didn’t actually say the ‘simply, simply lovely’ bit I certainly meant it so I’m not complaining. Anyhow, yes, so they’ve been signed which is superb. Someone from Universal music was apparently reading this blog which is equally superb. And I am going to see them play in a couple of weeks too, which is also, you guessed it, superb. “Song, by Toad in Being Useful For a Change Shock!”

Behold the songs (for t’was the songs, not the post) that got The Parish Music Box signed to NoCarbon Records:
The Parish Music Box – Heavy Drinkers
The Parish Music Box – Sand Apple