Due to popular demand (well, one person said something that made us think it was a good idea), here’s the artwork for our debut album, A Head of Steam. Come to think of it, we’re not sure why we haven’t uploaded this before, as we know there are people out there who have bought our mp3s and want to have the ‘full package’. Perhaps some sort of gallery is in order in the future…

Anyway, here we go. These files are all 600dpi high quality jpgs made from the original tifs, so (a) they look great, but (b) they’re huge – bigger than our mp3s, in fact. First up, the front cover:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/archive/Front_Cover.jpg

Next, the reverse of the front cover (inside, to the left of the disc):

http://www.thehomeguard.info/archive/Front_Reverse.jpg

This is the inlay, which should be printed on the back of the front cover and the front reverse, forming a four-page booklet:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/archive/Inlay.jpg

Now the back cover:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/archive/Back_Cover.jpg

We used jewel cases with a transparent disc holder, so this goes under that (print on the back of the back cover):

http://www.thehomeguard.info/archive/Under_Disc.jpg

Finally, the disc itself. Here’s the picture:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/archive/Disc.jpg

If you use Epson Print CD, here’s the file, which includes the text around the outside of the disc (for some reason, three times the size of the picture). Right-click and “Save Target As…” to download:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/archive/Disc_Print_Image.ec3

Failing that, here’s a scan of the finished CD, though we can’t vouch for the colour discrepancies :

http://www.thehomeguard.info/archive/Disc_Scan.jpg

You may have seen our sleeve on other sites, but rest assured that these are the definitive editions. You’ll notice that someone along the line messed with the colours on iTunes and other sites, cleverly removing the over-saturated look we were going for. Ho-hum. We certainly put a lot of effort into our artwork, so we hope you enjoy the above (or at least find them useful).

A few weeks ago, one of our songs was chosen to be featured on MySpace Mars Planets Radio, and we’ve got the clip to prove it:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/archive/The_Home_Guard_on_MySpace_Mars_Planets_Radio.mp3

This is The Home Guard’s appearance on the weekly Alex Zane (of MTV TRL, Channel 4 Popworld and Xfm radio fame) show. It’s a bit mad, that show, isn’t it? Still, ‘Random’ is the new ‘Funny’, so who are we to complain? The programme is available in full here (scroll down on the Flash player to episode 5):

http://www.myspace.com/myspacemarsplanetsradio

or as a podcast from iTunes, here (when seeking episode 5, be aware that they’re listed in reverse order. You don’t want the fifth one down. We made that mistake):

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=282907500&lid=downloadPodcast

Walking Against the Wind is the penultimate song on the playlist.

So, more exposure for us (following on from Hastings Rock, BBC Radio 6 and Computer Music magazine), and a different song, too (it’s always been Champagne Socialist so far). Not for the first time we have no idea whether our music was particularly liked by anyone (the presenters didn’t pass comment, only getting as far as naming us as “The Home…” after the song). Still, the banners all over MySpace advertising the show with the slogan “Hear the best unsigned acts first” and suchlike give us a clue that perhaps we’re doing something right.

If you haven’t heard Walking Against the Wind in full, you can do so here:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/mp3/08_walking_against_the_wind.m3u

Our whole album can be streamed for free on this page:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/music.html 

Cutting straight to the chase, we encourage you all to check out the music of our good MySpace friend Variable on ReverbNation:

A quick look at this page will reveal that he has recommended our music on ReverbNation (http://www.reverbnation.com/thehomeguard), for which we are extremely grateful. Check it out, and feel free to embed players, banners and widgets on your MySpace/Facebook/blog!

It’s been a while, but here’s a brand new work-in-progress demo for you (left-click to stream, right-click and “Save Target As” to download:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/demos/Soldier_On_Demo_15-9-08.mp3

This song is called Soldier On and has lyrics which we hope, through imagery relating to literal soldiers, are encouraging and upbuilding to anyone and everyone who happens to be going through tough times of their own.

Considering this is the first time we’ve uploaded this song, it’s actually pretty full arrangement-wise. There’s going to be saxophone in places, and of course it’s missing the final vocals, but besides that only the long drawn out build-up section (starting at 1:47) needs fleshing out. This vocal-less part will be augmented with extra guitar and sax lines, meaning that each time the riff goes round a new element is added.

Soldier On was actually the last song written for our upcoming second album, and when Dan first demoed it, it ran to considerably less than two minutes in length. But what started as a bit of a filler has grown into what we think may be a very popular piece indeed. We hope you agree – as always, your comments are welcome.

(Incidentally, it turns out that Oasis have a song called Soldier On on their new album. Hopefully this mp3 being available before Dig Out Your Soul is released shows that we haven’t ripped them off. This is one of those things that inexplicably really irritates we musicians.)

As always, here are all our previous demos:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/demos/Turn_Me_Up_1-8-08.mp3

http://www.thehomeguard.info/demos/Other_People_31-5-08.mp3

http://www.thehomeguard.info/demos/Nothing_Can_Stop_You_Being_Mine_15-6-08.mp3

http://www.thehomeguard.info/demos/Year_Zero_Demo_16-4-08.mp3

http://www.thehomeguard.info/demos/03_Pseudonym_Demo_27-3-08.mp3

http://www.thehomeguard.info/demos/06_One_for_the_Road_Demo_27-3-08.mp3

Back in mid-June we made our debut on national radio, and we’ve got the clip to prove it:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/archive/The_Home_Guard_on_Tom_Robinson_Introducing.mp3

This is The Home Guard’s appearance on the snappily named “BBC Introducing: Fresh on the Net with Tom Robinson”. Thrilling as it was to get this airplay, Tom refers to us as a trio (we’re not – there’s only two of us) and, rather than offering an opinion on our song, he simply reads straight off our MySpace page. But we don’t want to come across in any way as ungrateful: we know a lot of bands would give their guitar-playing arms to get what we got. Check out the show’s official site here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/tom_robinsons_introducing

Incidentally, in case you’re wondering, the DJ whose voice you hear is indeed the Tom Robinson (“2-4-6-8, Ain’t never too late…”).