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I sing in a band called The Seven Inches in Leeds, England. We have a single out at the moment:

http://theseveninches.bandcamp.com/ (http://theseveninches.bandcamp.com/)

It's a double A-side, side A is "Peruvian Poncho", a true story about a favourite item of knitwear.
Side AA is "(Let's Learn Off By Heart) International Dialling Codes" which is an educational tool, an appeal for nation to speak unto nation, and my musical tribute to Shirley Ellis ("The Clapping Song" etc.).
You can listen to both sides at that link above there.

we have lots of other stuff, including more serious songs, but I thought I'd start by plugging our latest release.

I enjoyed "(Let's Learn Off..."

Thanks Luther (belatedly).

Our debut album is finally out, please listen to it here http://theseveninches.bandcamp.com/ (http://theseveninches.bandcamp.com/), even buy it if you're so inclined. 12 ultra-poppy songs, mostly written a LONG time ago. (Lots more in the pipeline).

And if you don't want to pay, the extracted single can be downloaded for free, together with its non-album b-side: http://theseveninches.bandcamp.com/album/the-little-things (http://theseveninches.bandcamp.com/album/the-little-things)

You can now watch us in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mus0Gg444Nk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mus0Gg444Nk)

Also, our brand new album is nearly finished and should be out later in the year.

Ha ha. How I overestimated our efficiency. However it will be out this May. And here is a video of one of the songs from the album, for your delight:

https://vimeo.com/154592246 (https://vimeo.com/154592246)

I'm the one pretending to play the accordion. There is no accordion on the track, in fact I don't play on this one at all, though I did write the lyrics as always. The opening skit is a re-enactment of a notorious moment in British weather (mis)forecasting.

I like you, Ian. I like what you do, Ian.

Thanks Josh

here is the album now for all to listen to, or buy.

https://theseveninches.bandcamp.com/ (https://theseveninches.bandcamp.com/)

If I buy a CD, will you sign it for me? :P

Of course!

Here's some more pics 'n' links for now:

front
(http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h162/iancockburn/promo%20artwork/img609_zpszkv2yj4t.jpg)
back
(http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h162/iancockburn/img606_zpsgdaow0pi.jpg)
review in Ablaze! zine:
(http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h162/iancockburn/img031_zpslbv8m7eu.jpg)

spotify
http://open.spotify.com/album/5lKUBhMX20bdwjFZ6q203g (http://open.spotify.com/album/5lKUBhMX20bdwjFZ6q203g)
itunes
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/seven-inches-test-their-mettle/id1113711788 (http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/seven-inches-test-their-mettle/id1113711788)

Nice band name!
That was my nickname in high school.

Since buying the album and waiting for it to arrive here at my door, I have been listening to a few of the songs. Something struck me as I was listening to "Everything's Sex," and I went and looked for this post:

Yeah, you got me there. These are the facts:

1) I was completely oblivious to any double entendre when I thought of the band name, I was only thinking of vinyl. Now I think it's a ridiculous bandname, especially for a band that never puts out any vinyl.
2) Everything's Sex is a really really old song I wrote when I wasn't getting any and didn't like to be reminded of the fact.
3) Though I am much more on board the sex fixation bandwagon now, I still think the lyric is a valid point of view.
4) I still don't like our band name. But I'm happy that Letsgoawayforawhile does.

Okay, I've been listening to Test Their Mettle these past couple of days, and here's what I think.

I think "Élodie" is a wonderful song and a great one to open with: it establishes some recurring themes and shows off the band's propensity for cleverness early on. It's a bit like a less depressing update of "The French Girl." I can feel the enthusiastic hope and frustration in the lyrics as the story moves along and we get to know a bit about the characters, but maybe that's because I recently lived my own version of this song with a classmate named Emily... "Emily"... "Élodie"... hmm... Back to the song, I know David Gedge doesn't own clever, British songs about love, but that's what usually comes to mind, and the scoff towards the end reminds me of the groans or grunts he is apt to include. The arrangement building up as the narrator falls increasingly for Elodie is a nice touch, as well. Anyway, it's a good song, and it's one of my favorites on this album.

My two other favorites are "Music for Travel Agents" and "I Just Heard the News." The former is a lovely song about vacation, and, dare I say it, superior to the other recent song imploring you to "sail away with me." The chorus is great and clever, and I occasionally find myself singing it while doing other things. The trumpet is used to great effect in general on this album, but I love what it does here during this song. The solo is well done, and it sounds great backing up the chorus when it comes around the last time. The latter is, as should be expected, a clever love song. At the start, the song may seem trite, but that joyous chorus is irresistible. This song, not content to be boring, goes on to be brilliant. And that middle eight! These two songs are too short.

"Blessing in Disguise" was another one I enjoyed greatly. After a lifetime of swallowing cliches for comfort, an event causes the singer to reject these ideas and revel in his bitterness, subverting old cliches with lyrics like "every cloud has a silver razor blade." Another song, "Here Comes the Storm," has instrumentation that aptly creates the feel of grey clouds rolling in overhead. The chorus is beautiful. Lastly, "Everything's Sex" plays like a Buzzcock-ian blast of sexual frustration--a more compact "Orgasm Addict."

I think the weakest songs on the album are "Best Job in the World" and "Once We're Out of the Way." BJitW has a similar sound and feeling to other songs on this album, but I don't think it necessarily matches up to them. OWOotW is just a bizarre little song about mother nature reclaiming the tortured earth after everyone has perished.

I would hate to end on a negative note, so I won't. I really enjoy listening to this album, and it's completely worth the money I spent on it. My favorite moments from this album include the brass, the interplay between the male and female vocals, and your lyrics. As I've said before in this thread, I am a fan of yours, and I'll be sure to give some time to your previous album soon. I'm sure I'll genuinely enjoy listening to that one too.

As a side note, I love the impressionist art that adorns the packaging for both albums.

Thanks for sharing your music, Ian.

It's the band's name that has put me off until now. (Which probably says more about me that about you.)

Suffice it to say that I've now bookmarked Test Their Mettle and will listen to it sometime next week...   

Thanks so much, Josh!
Hope you like the other album.
I hope you like our stuff too, John.

"Best Job In the World" was an attempt at a sixties soul kind of thing, which obviously is very hard to pull off considering how great the musicians were on those Motown records and their ilk. Though I didn't attempt a soul vocal!

I like the use of the trumpet and the interplay between vocalists. My favourite track so far is "Here Comes The Storm":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-0_pC6yGLg

"Happiness" has a nice ISB feel to it. It makes a great start to the weekend!

Thanks John! Had to think for a moment what the abbreviation meant. Incredible String Band, right?
High praise indeed.

I'm playing my first solo gig in ages tonight, at Wharf Chambers in Leeds (UK) if any locals are reading this.

We'll try and do another video soon.

How did the gig go?

Very well thanks! Nice to give my more recent, unheard songs an airing.

Glad to hear it. Are some of these songs to be found anywhere?

Sadly not! Planning a series of albums to use up my big backlog of songs but not got there yet. Thanks for asking.
Here's an old album of mine (very lo-fi) https://iancockburnandthewholeworld.bandcamp.com/ (https://iancockburnandthewholeworld.bandcamp.com/)

Thanks. I've bookmarked it. (I have a few other albums to listen to first.)   

Lo-fi's the word! It took until "Bop Bop Shu Wap" for it to take off for me but it was a blast after that. :=) 

Ha! Thanks very much for persevering John. I'm actually surprised you liked it, as I had an idea you disliked music where the lyrics were given more emphasis than the music (or was that somebody else?) I'm not much of a musician, so I feel like my friends think of me primarily as a lyricist, though I always try to have a really good tune to sing as well. For this album the concept was to collaborate with lots of different people, though because I was too bashful to ask for too much help, (and probably 'cause of my ego) I still ended up doing a lot of it myself.
There are intentional Beach Boys references (in "Hey Shauny Day") and one unintentional reference: A slight musical echo of "We're Together Again" in "We Said We'd Never Wear Beige".   

It's true, I'm not really a lyrics person but I liked the album's vibe. To say nothing of all that crazy stuff about ba(n)d names! :lol

I'll give "WSWNWB" a closer listen to catch that BB echo... 

Ian,  Been listening to these tracks for a while now, and following along as you put them together.  Just watched the Oporto, Leeds show again to compare to the newer album versions.  I've always loved "Peruvian Poncho" and It's video too!  Keep up the hard work.  Well, easy work when you enjoy what you're doing.  Does Emily post here?

I'm leaving notes and another review is soon to show. -Will

Thanks very much to you both!