Issue 1: The Fightmilk newsletter

Greetings chums, and welcome to the first edition of the Fightmilk newsletter! Now you can enjoy all our fascinating updates without having to log in to a single social media platform and having adverts blasted into your eyes.

What we’re up to:

We’re going to be taking the summer off for the three R’s - Rest, Relaxation and wRiting new bangers. BUT if you saw news of our two Irish dates in March and got mad that we weren’t playing with Problem Patterns in either London or Brighton instead…GOOD NEWS!

Fightmilk & Problem Patterns: ReTOURning The Favour

Friday 26 September - The Hope & Ruin, Brighton: https://www.hope.pub/event/problem-patterns-fightmilk/

Saturday 27 September - The Cavendish Arms, London (Get In Her Ears 10th birthday all-dayer): https://dice.fm/event/oe5lly-gihe-10th-birthday-all-dayer-27th-sep-the-cavendish-arms-london-tickets

We’ll have some more gig news you can use in our next email…

We played an amazing gig at the Piehouse Cooperative with Dream Phone and Sunny Side Down

Thanks to everyone who braved the rain a couple of weeks ago to come and eat pies, watch bands, and sing karaoke. We loved Sunny Side Down’s stripped back set of sad bangers and the joyful chaos of Dream Phone, described by an awestruck audience member as ‘profoundly disturbing’. We also raised a good chunk of money for the Piehouse which will help it continue to host lovely events.

If you’d like to support this much-needed and well loved DIY venue, you can throw a few quid their way here.

Setlist: That Thing You Did / Yearning & Pining / Banger #7 / No Souvenirs / I’m Starting to Think You Don’t Even Want to Go to Space / Canines / Eating for Two / Summer Bodies // 30 / Walk Like an Egyptian

Fightmilk enjoy culture: stuff we’ve been listening to, reading, and watching

Lily: I’ve been on a big Baxter Dury kick, which is perfect for sloaming around in the sun like a sleazy old lizard, only with debilitating hayfever. I’m also still hammering the new Press Club album, To All The Ones That I Love. // I’ve got halfway through Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck and had to stop and read two other books before I continue because although I love the writing, I can’t stand the characters and am actively hoping things go wrong for them so I’m reading The Children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes by way of a break. // Tellywise, I’m just going to carry on telling everyone I meet that they need to watch The Studio. We’ve been ‘doing’ Star Wars chronologically recently which (unfortunately) has involved watching the Jar Jar Binks ones again, but then Andor, Rogue One, and now the big original three. If anyone wants to talk about their top ten Star Wars droids, I’ve got mine prepped and ready.

Nick: oh boy time for you all to realise how basic I am. I was reading One Hundred Years of Solitude for the first time and having fun with it but then I lost my bag in a taxi so I guess we'll never know what happens in the last 70% of the book. I'm also willing to sell the slogan One Hundred Years of Solid Tunes to any band or venue that's been around long enough. // In terms of listening to stuff, i'm going to Arctangent festival for the first time this year, so mostly been listening to the horrible, awe-inspiring bands that are playing that. // I also fill in for a functions band on occasion and am playing a wedding next week, so confusing the algorithm by listening to all of your aunt's favourites on repeat. // You should all do yourselves a favour and listen to the latest albums by our friends in flinch., Soot Sprite and Tugboat Captain too please.

Healey: I haven't stopped listening to Sun Urchins’ new album Glow in The Dark. Gritty emotional pop from Rhode Island that makes me feel like i’m back in 2015 drinking a warm Red Stripe at a house show. // I just finished reading (lol this is a lie, I do not read, I solely listen to audio books) Waist Deep by Linea Maja Ernst. It’s a great look at millennial friendship groups and how you navigate staying close despite being very different and going through different big life milestones. But I mainly read it because it was described as 1. Very queer and 2. a ‘Who done it?’ where you're not trying to predict a murder but you're trying to work out which characters are going to get it on. Basically horny Agatha Christie. I would not advise reading (listening to) this sexy book on the tube. // Oh and I watched all of Sirens so you don’t have to, it’s very bad. Tricked in to watching it from the premise ‘Julianne Moore’s character loves birds’ but they are actually talking about a falcon called Barnaby :(  

Alex: I hate rollercoasters. Cannot abide the fucking things in the slightest. But there’s a moment about two and a half minutes into ‘total euphoria’, the opening track from the new caroline album, where I have to close my eyes and brace for one of the most physical, heart-in-my-mouth drops I’ve ever heard in a song. On headphones, it swallows you. // RIP Sly Stone // RIP Brian Wilson // Lily’s long considered the man a personal hero, but I still wasn’t expecting to be quite so moved by Pee-wee as Himself, Matt Wolf’s incredible two-part documentary about the late, great Paul Rubens. Makes a convincing case for him as one of pop culture’s great subversive icons. // Recently finished Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled, the semi-forgotten, 500+ page novel he wrote between Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go. It’s a dreamlike ramble around a mysterious European city, through the eyes of a visiting concert pianist who isn’t quite sure what he’s doing there in the first place. You know, a proper beach read.

Other bands/gigs we're excited to go and see

• Glasgow power-sad legends flinch. are playing The Cavendish Arms in Stockwell this Thursday 19 June. They have some of our favourite song titles ever and have just released a gorgeous new album, Misery Olympian (another excellent title). Tickets here.

• Coming Up Roses are launching their excellent album, How Did We Fall So Far?, at Strongroom Bar in Hackney this Friday 20 June. Tickets here. 

• Soot Sprite, whose debut album Wield Your Hope Like a Weapon is absolutely beautiful, play the Victoria Dalston this Sunday 22 June. Tickets here.

• If you can hop on a train, there’s an absolutely stacked lineup at the Oast House in Rainham on 28 June including the phenomenal Tugboat Captain, Sassyhiya, Ski Lift, Caleb Nichols, The Love Family, and Tomboy Grandpa (more on them next!). Tickets here.

• Healey’s queer pop culture themed indie pop trio, Tomboy Grandpa, are also playing Paper Dress Vintage on 11 July. Tickets here.

• Our beloved pals with the best band name, Gay Skeleton Club, play the Hope and Anchor in Islington on 12 July. Tickets here.

AND FINALLY

Got a quandary? Stuck with a thinker? Need entirely unprofessional advice? We’re excited to have a go at Sounds Like a You Problem, our agony aunt section of the newsletter. Simply drop us an email (you could use the subject line ‘Dear Fightmilk’) or if you want to stay anonymous nip over to our instagram to share your woe via our highlights and we will do our best to solve your problem in the next newsletter.

The Small Print: Obviously please don’t send us any really bad problems because absolutely none of the four members of Fightmilk are qualified in any way, shape or form to give you medical, financial or legal advice etc. We did accidentally send someone to space once.

Until next time, hydrate!!!

Fightmilk xxx