Marseille Figs


		Marseille Figs are a London-based experimental pop band: Tom Chant, Dorian McFarland & J. Maizlish.

The Dirty Canon is the Figs' first full length album, featuring 12 new songs. Produced in Hamburg by polymath artist and Pogues-founder Jem Finer and Louisiana swamp-pop legend DM Bob, and finished in London with Brian O'Shaughnessy (of Screamadelica fame), The Dirty Canon has big booming piledrivers, lost soul singalongs, flophouse ballads, epic screeching skronking songs, monkey grunts, thunder and lightning.

"The Figs roll. The Figs rock. The Figs take it to the bridge, over the bridge, across the ridge on the other side of the bridge, and onto that ledge on the horizon. You will believe a guitar strumming, sweet talkin', tub thumping three piece can fly. I wanna be in the Figs." Sean O'Hagan

A collection of The Dirty Canon's press clippings is HERE.

High res images and press kit stuff is HERE.

Memories are made of this.

Hamburg, February 2006

Viva Cake, Saturday the 26th of May 2007, at the St. Aloysius Social Club, London. Bake off, rollergirls, dance lessons, the works.

Click to Enlarge.

The Figs played The Black Gardenia on Saturday the 19th of May 2007. 93 Dean Street, London. Thanks to Denna and Zimon. Jolly nice place.

White Trash, Berlin, Saturday the 2nd of June 2007. €5 on the door. Figs played all night. It was a gas.

Stranger Than Paradise, Sun 4 September 2005. Drinking, dancing and carousing. Magic tricks too. Click to enlarge.

V&A Museum, Fri 26 August 2005
Marseille Figs performed as part of an event concerning art & money. Details at HOME.

Barden's Boudoir, Sat 11 June 2005
38-44 Stoke Newington Road, London
With Little Wet Horse. 10pm / £5.

Camberwell Pool, Fri 10 June 2005
The Figs played the pool in Camberwell again, in Marcia Farquhar's Pool of Fun & Games performance. Full documentation, with videos and all, is on Marcia's site. Info on the event is at the HOME site.

Stoke Newington Festival, Sun 12 June 2005. An afternoon event in Clissold Park.

Clärchen's Ballhaus, Auguststr. 24,
Berlin Mitte. 10 April 2005. Doors @ 9. Clärchen's Ballhaus is a splendid, big, boxy, old local ballroom in Mitte.

Cargo, 83 Rivington St., London
Monday, 7th of February 2005

On the 18th of June 2004 Marseille Figs provided musical accompaniment to Marcia Farquhar's To the Power of Ten performance in the Camberwell Leisure Center swimming pool in London. There's more of this on Page 2.

Marseille Figs have played in front rooms, back rooms, ballrooms, speakeasies and saloons, as well as museums, swimming pools, town halls, barn dances, holiday camps, working man's clubs and public parks.

Llanrwst, Wales, July 2005

Their arrangements include guitars, accordions, saxophones, vocals, melodicas, fake organ, flugelhorns, trombones, trumpets, ukeleles, banjos, bass clarinets, kazoos and an old Roland Space Echo machine.

Marseille Figs is an international contingency. Boom Boom.

Berlin, 5 November 2004

There are downloads and live stills and videos available on page 2. Some Figs miscellany and biographical information, as well as links and photographs, can be found on page 3.

London, February 2005

Full resolution images, PDFs and other such presskit material are available for download from a separate page here.

The Dirty Canon's press is assembled on this PDF.

A complete list of downloadable mp3s is available here.

Marseille Figs can be reached at:
.
Or by telephone on:
44 + (0)20 8133 8300 (London)
49 + (0)30 4737 4195 (Berlin)
34 + (0)677 388 110 (Barcelona)

Updated October 2008.

Me and My Monkey

Coming Up:

The Figs are busy working on new recordings. Live dates for winter and spring are TBC right now. Join the mailing list for more information.

Listen up people, the first proper Figs album is in stores now, released in the UK in November and distributed by Cargo. It can be got from all good UK record shops. Rough Trade, for instance. It can also be ordered directly from Cargo, or Stateside from Tower Records or CD Baby. Or you can download it from eMusic or iTunes:

Low Low Thing 2:36 ... 3Mb / mp3
Caesar's Revenge 4:00 ... 4.6Mb / mp3
Honey How You Like Your Eggs 2:49
Loser's Delight 4:37
Boxcar Charlie 6:34
Cradle Song 4:12
Eh Joe 3:21
Skin & Bones 5:35
Where the Night Begins 4:19
Dirty Little Monkey 4:02
Good Year 4:29 ... 5.1Mb / mp3
Don't Fall Asleep at the Wheel 5:09

Logos

Some good reviews can be found at The Financial Times and eMusic, and at The Line of Best Fit, Room Thirteen and Boing Boing.

Figs of London FOL 1

UK Distribution through Cargo UK:
     tel: +44 (0)207 731 5125
     fax: +44 (0)207 731 3866
     email: joe@cargorecords.co.uk

Press/Publicity by Hermana PR:
     tel: +44 (0)20 7733 8009
     fax: +44 (0)20 7733 0037
     email: alison@hermana.co.uk

Oh, shit! Lovely Figs shirts are now available in Mens', Womens' and Children's sizes. Get them here.

Just Gone:
The Figs' first U.S. Shows, mid-March:

Tue. 18 March. Parkside Lounge, New York.
317 E. Houston Street. 2 Sets. A grand time.

2 Shows supporting the Pogues:
Thu. 13 March. Electric Factory, Philadelphia.
Sat. 15 March. Roseland, New York.

Fri. 29 February. White Trash, Berlin.
DJs Silke Thoss & Vicious Vroni.
Flyer and details here.

The Dirty Canon Late Launch Party:
Friday the 15th of February 2008, 8pm till late.
Upstairs at The George Tavern, London.
With guests Jem Finer, Andrew Ranken & John Edwards. A jolly good review in the FT is here.

Click to Enlarge.

This Just In:

01 October 07. Yes, the Figs have a Myspace page too, it's on this link.

01 June 07. There's a jolly good write up of the Figs in Die Tageszeitung here, for those who read German.

08 June 06. Tom Chant has a new website at www.tomchant.com, and a very good one it is too.

11 September 05. A nice review of the Figs' September '05 Stranger Than Paradise gig appeared in the Independent on Sunday.

03 June 05. Huw Stephens at Radio1 put the Figs on his playlist this week. And they put one of the Boum Boum tracks up on their site too. Thanks, fellas.
Hugo's Speaker Palace, 6 January 2005

23 March 05. Six new demos, recorded in London in January, are available on a 9 song cd. Ordering instructions are available on this page.

The CD also features a live Funiculi Funicula, and our Staggerlee from last year. The tracks are available for download on page 2. But the CD is nicer, and it comes in a handsome see-through carrying case.
As of January 2007, this CD is sold out.

Come and Gone:
30 Jul 08: Salle des Fêtes, St Aulaye, France
26 Jul 08: Magdalene College, Cambridge
18 Mar 08: Parkside Lounge, NYC
15 Mar 08: Roseland, NYC,
     Supporting the Pogues.
13 Mar 08: Electric Factory, Philadelphia
     Supporting the Pogues.
29 Feb 08: White Trash, Berlin
20 Feb 08: Bang Bang Club, Berlin
15 Feb 08: The Dirty Canon Launch Party,
     The George Tavern, London, with John
     Edwards, Jem Finer & Andrew Ranken
13 Feb 08: The Black Gardenia, London,
     with Jem Finer
31 Dec 07: New Year's Eve @ The George
     Tavern, London, with Jem Finer
19 Nov 07: The Dirty Canon CD release
02 Jun 07: White Trash, Berlin
26 May 07: Viva Cake, London
19 May 07: The Black Gardenia, London
May 07: Further recording & mixing for
     The Dirty Canon, Bark Studios, London
12 Jan 07: White Trash, Berlin
31 Aug 06: Gaz's Rockin Blues, Wardour St.
31 Aug 06: "Sounding Out", Resonance FM
27 Aug 06: Stranger Than Paradise, Favela
     Chic, Old Street
02 Jul 06: Waterlow Park, Highgate
01 Jul 06: East Dulwich Constitutional Club
Feb 06: Sessions for The Dirty Canon,
     The Art Store, St. Pauli, Hamburg
04 Sep 05: Stranger Than Paradise, South
     London Pacific, Kennington
31 Aug 05: Biddle Bros, Hackney
26 Aug 05: Victoria & Albert Museum
30 Jul 05: Owen & Lizzy's, Llanrwst, Wales
26 Jul 05: Biddle Bros, Hackney
22 Jul 05: Bethnal Green Workingman's Club
12 Jun 05: Stoke Newington Festival
11 Jun 05: Barden's Boudoir, Dalston
10 Jun 05: Camberwell Leisure Center; in
     Marcia Farquhar's Pool of Fun & Games
10 Apr 05: Clärchen's Ballhaus, Berlin
07 Feb 05: Cargo, Shoreditch
07 Jan 05: Hugo's Speaker Palace, Hackney
05 Dec 04: King Kong Klub, Berlin
02 Dec 04: Zentralberlin, Berlin
09 Oct 04: Hugo's Speaker Palace, Hackney
28 Aug 04: Colonie de vacances de St
     Gervais, La Rippe, Switzerland
18 Jun 04: Hugo's Speaker Palace, Hackney
18 Jun 04: Camberwell Leisure Center; in
     Marcia Farquhar's To the Power of Ten
Mar 04: Recording for Milo Waterfield's
     short film Stagger Lee, LMC Studios
May 03: Resonance FM/Clear Spot CD release
15 Jan 03: Martin King's, 53 Cross St.
07 Dec 02: Dorkbot, Limehouse Town Hall
09 Sep 02: "Clear Spot", Resonance FM
14 Jan 02: Twelve Bar Club, Denmark Pl.
14 Jan 02: BBC London Live
13 Jul 01: Reception, Cremer St.
14 Jan 01: Twelve Bar Club, Denmark Pl.
06 Jan 01: Martin King's, 53 Cross St.
29 Jul 00: Martin King's, 53 Cross St.
11 Jan 00: The Clinic, Gerard St.
08 Nov 99: The Clinic, Gerard St.
All venues are in London, except as noted.

You can see some stills or stream a clip of Milo Waterfield's work in progress film of Stagger Lee here:
Milo Waterfield's Stagger Lee

Or you could download the Figs' version here:
Staggerlee - Mar 04
(Trad., arr. Maizlish-Mole/Marseille Figs) ... 3.9Mb / mp3

Marseille Figs produced a CD of a radio show they did on Resonance FM in September 2002. They're for sale here, and there are downloads there too:
Resonance FM 9 September 2002

This site and its contents are © 1998-2007 J. Maizlish Mole/Marseille Figs. The content of this website and all downloads from it are owned
directly by the artists or indirectly through their affiliates unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved. Marseille Figs is an unlimited endeavor.