Mike TV are streaming their new album, ‘Sausage Hospital’, in full! Sausage Hospital was released on July 7th. You can grab a Digital copy at Bandcamp and physical copies are available at Big Cartel and at Banquet Records. You can give it a listen below:

Mike TV are streaming two new tracks from their upcoming album ‘Sausage Hospital’. The record is out on June 13th via Don’t Rush Me Records and you can pre-order a copy here: http://www.miketv.bigcartel.com/

Check out the tracks below:

Firstly, how are you today?

Hi Punktastic, we’re doing OK. I’m writing crap on the internet and getting paid for it. Domb is lifting up trees and wishing he was watching Green Day videos on the internet. Glyn is writing crap on the internet and not getting paid for it and Richie is taking pictures of his son making cakes (and putting them on the internet).

For those unfamiliar with Mike TV, why should they check you out and where should they start with you back catalogue

Punktastic once described us as ‘the best pop-punk band in the U.K’ – so that’s reason enough, although that was during PT’s ketamine days… the site wouldn’t get updated for literally minutes as the writers were rolling about on the floor with spinach soup for brains. We actually used to be called Pickled Dick but we changed our name to Mike TV as we wanted to make things a lot more difficult for ourselves. My advice is to start with the Pickled Dick stuff and work your way through until you’re up to date… kinda like a punk rock boxset. It’s really good punk rock with lots of harmonies… we offered get compared to a very ugly McFly.

Do you still classify yourself as pop punk?

I think that people take the whole genre thing a little bit too seriously, it’s way harder to pigeonhole bands these days. The pop bands are now rock bands, the rock bands are now emo and what gets classified as pop punk is usually a steaming pile of shit. We could be quirky and set up a new genre for ourselves… but we’ll stick with pop and punk coz that’s what we sound like!

Is is our understanding that a new album is in the works… where are you at with that?

As always PT, you’re correct! First, I must mention that we have another new guitarist (last one left to weave baskets for hot air balloons) and he’s called Richie. He’s a little bit fat but he’s a super chap and we don’t let his portliness get in the way of our opinion of him. We are recording a new album in January with Peter Miles… the songs are all written, we’re just demoing them so we’re totally organised. It’s gonna sound like a cross between the PD and MTV stuff… I’m actually even a little teeny weeny bit excited.

What took you so long?

After we recorded our last album in 2008 and we toured until 2010, we decided to have a little bit of a break. We didn’t make a big deal about it coz a) no one would give a fuck and b) hiatus is a horrible word for serious bands. We’ve started working slowly on the new album stuff as life stuff got in the way… cricket, football, ladies, kids, dogs, TV show fame, new members and the long distance between the band. Glyn lives in Stoke (never go there) and Domb and I live in the quaint market town of Petersfield.

To summarise: good things come to those who wait for five years for a band they’d long forgotten about to release something new.

Are you still big in China?

Of course, two of us are over six feet tall and as we all know, China is a country full of very small people. Casual racism aside, we went there in 2009 and 2010 and we’re planning to go back next year once the album is out. Hopefully the Chinese public will still dig our great music (they like any old shit) and breathtaking live performances (quality of air in the cities is awful).

Does Domb’s thumb actually still work?

Yes, Domb still has his magic thumb for playing bass. He’s a very talented chap. He’s let the thumb write the whole new album, so expect a concept album about hanging out with four fingers and occasionally visting the murky depths of his own rancid anus.

How are you feeling about the new Green Day records and their recent ‘Dookie’ setlists?

Domb went to the Emirates show but they didn’t play Dookie and he was annoyed. We all watched them play Dookie at Reading online and it did sound pretty fucking amazing. To be fair even the new songs sound good when they play them live. I think that last sentence answers the first part of your question. You can diss Green Day for writing shit albums but you can’t diss them for being a great live band. Wayyyyy-ohhhhhhhh!!!

Any tips for new bands to listen to?

Glyn only likes Scouting For Girls, he has a massive crush on the bassist. Richie only likes fast punk rock, he could crush a bassist. Domb has been listening to Green Day, he has a crush on them all. I’ve been playing cricket too much to listen to any bands but let’s go with Sons of Buddha, Masked Intruder, Teenage Bottlerocket, and the Duckworth Lewis Method. Who should we be listening to? [Ed: Whatever we recommend]

TOM AYLOTT

All profits from this release will go to the Macmillan in Midhurst and the Rosemary Nurses in Petersfield. Check it out below with a studio video the band made for the song.

http://www.facebook.com/miketvmusic

Hello one and all!

We’ve been fairly quiet recently due to Domb’s addiction to The Sopranos
and Rich making Christmas puddings but next year we have a fat old tour
with the awesome UNCOMMONMENFROMMARS who are from the country of France.

You can hear them at http://www.uncommonmenfrommars.net and
http://www.myspace.com/uncommonmenfrommars.

All the Mike TV/Pickled Dick stuff is now back on iTunes and Spotify as
well as http://www.miketvmusic.bandcamp.com – which is a FREE DOWNLOAD!

We’ll be doing a new album in 2011 with Peter Miles and a single with Ellis
Slater who was in The Misnomer/Atom Gang/New shit band etc, if they ever
reply to their messages. Losers.

So check the tour dates out and make the effort to come along as we’ll be
playing all the Pickled Dick stuff, Mike TV stuff and some new songs to
boot.

February 2011 w. Uncommonmenfrommars

4th Nenzig – Join (Aus)
5th Arlon – L´entrepot (Bel)
6th Sittard – Fenix (NL)
8th Mons – On Air Studio (Bel)
9th Lüdenscheid – Alte Druckerei (Ger)
10th Duisburg – Steinbruch (Ger)
11th Kronach – Struwelpeter (Ger)
12th Terneuzen – The Pit(NL)
13th York – Stereo (U.K)
14th Glasgow – Captain’s Rest (U.K)
15th Newcastle – Trillians (U.K)
16th Southampton – Soul Cellar (U.K)
17th KIngston – Hippodrome New Slang (U.K)
18th Bridgewater – Cherries (U.K)
19th Petersfield – Foggy’s Bar (U.K)

It still feels like only yesterday Pickled Dick was playing the UK toilet circuit. Technically it was April 5 2008, but really it was only yesterday. Sure it?s a new name but it?s the same band, the same music, a few new songs, and the same jokes (pretty much anyway). Tonight it feels like very little has changed. And that, my friend, is a good thing.

Mr Kamikaze does not feel like an opening band. Not in the slightest. It turns out the Hampshire quartet has been doing this for ages but this is the first ?big? London show. It?s a shame then that so few are here to see 30 hasty minutes of synth-laced pop goodness so absorbing it cries out to be seen over and over. ?Astronaut? sounds like Bowie after too many sherbert dips, well, if he was obsessed with animals and robots that is. Fantastic offering that will hopefully move up the billing sooner rather than later. (4/5)

A slew of technical difficulties hinder the opening moments of Wolverhampton?s Showdown City but once these are out of the way momentum starts to gather. The quintet improves with each visit to the capital and tonight?s bill seems made for the band?s catchy choruses and high-octane pop-punk performance. Think Paramore but with a little more grit and a lot more Midlands. (3/5)

Punktastic Recordings alumni Over And Out puts on a quintessential set of summertime punk-pop that warms the cockles on a horribly winterish evening. There are technical difficulties here as well, but the Brighton quartet sees them off in time to impress with some new material. ?Here She Goes? is still the stand out though. (3/5)

The Fight initially appears to have some issues with the onstage sound and subsequently starts rather lankly. In fact there seems to be little life in the band at all tonight, which is only compounded by the energy-filled earlier performances. You can?t help but feel that this is a far different band to the one that held the world in its collective palm in 2003. There?s a fair whack of newer material tonight, one song of which has a definite ska feel to it, and hints that there is life in the band yet. However, it?s going to take a bigger performance than this to extract it. A special mention for Nick Reynolds of Mike TV for expertly filling in on drums. (2/5)

So a little over nine months on and here we have Mike TV headlining the Underworld for the first time under the new moniker. In those nine months the band hasn?t given birth (unless Mr Kamikaze is considered the bastard son of) but it has improved in leaps and bounds to the extent that maybe this is a rebirth. Or maybe not.

Don?t be fooled, this is still Pickled Dick but tonight?s performances, like many during the second half of last year, seems a lot more tighter and the song writing much stronger. All of the staples are on offer: fast, bouncy pop-punk (the UK?s answer to Green Day, perhaps) mixed in with comedy interludes and pearly white smiles. There?s even a Jhon Cosgrove impersonator complete with vulgar sloganed t-shirt (quite a disturbing prospect really).

Forthcoming single ?Lie Low, Lilo? proves an example of the strength of material from last year?s self-titled album, and as you look around it?s safe to say as many lips are mouthing along as there are to the likes of the more established ?Ship Ahoy? and ?Salamander?. The newer material, simply put, is an improvement and well worth picking up.

The big thing tonight though is the crowd. The band manages to entice involvement from a pack that has been noticeably uninvolved all evening, and whilst the audience is certainly not substantial in number, it goes a long way to displaying the pulling power Mike TV now has. This band deserves to be headlining the Underworld and it deserves a few more people coming through the doors. (4/5)

Alex Hambleton