What a weekend – I saw over thirty bands over the weekend, many of which were local. Here’s a gallery of them all. We’ve got: Jennifer Left, Justin Saltmeris, Curxes, Kinnie The Explorer, Us Baby Bear Bones, Anushka, Fear of Men, Martin Rossiter, The Bobby McGees, IYES, Jacko Hooper, Kins and The Beautiful Word. As usual, click on the image to view large:
The Source New Music Night is the regular monthyl gig co-sponsored by Brighton Source magazine and the Dome and which features an array of excellent new local bands at a bargain entry price. Last month was psych night, and this month the event had a totally different atmosphere with tables and chairs and candlelight. It was a cool vibe, and the four acts were each different and superb.
Bella Kardasis
First up was Bella Kardasis, an act we’d never come across before but who was quietly impressive, playing some stunning atmospheric guitar tunes, with a variety of finger-picking, strumming and string-tapping style and an engaging in-between song story-telling banter.
Le Juki were a threesome comprising the previously-featured Bunty on vocals and rhythms, guitarist Lee Westwood and Jules Arthur on violin and keyboards. The Le Juki thing is a lively mix of experimental dance-oriented songs. The lyrics seemed to touch on capilleries, Star Wars, being buried alive, insects and food amongst other things. But the experimentation comes in the music, which included Bunty playing drums on an up-turned picnic box and Jules picking his violin like a guitar amongst other things. It was sonically inventive and interesting, and ended with the threesome getting their ‘name’ t-shirts in order to sing an acapella song out front of the stage.
After the break we had a solo set from Danny Green, without the rest of his band Laish. Laish are currently launching their excellent new album ‘Obituaries’ which has been garnering 4-star reviews from all and sundry. Danny opened with the brilliant song ‘Warm the Wind’ from the new album, and then played another, but the remainder of his set comprised new songs which have not yet been recorded. It’s a sign of how excellent Dan’s song-writing is, that these too sounded like long-time classics. Dan’s voice has a lovely authentic northern warmth and his lyrics are down-to-earth yet beautifully uplifting. Tonight he was on-fire with a gorgeous guitar sound that was well above the standard sing-songwriter. Laish are one of the finest bands around in Brighton and well-worth checking out.
We interviewed Danny recently and you can read his insightful thoughts on songwriting and music-making here.
Headliners tonight were another Source favourite Jennifer Left, the band fronted by northern chanteuse Jennifer Dalby. Starting out a little nervously for their first song, Jenn then decided to kick her shoes off and from then on the band came alive and played a set of cabaret-infused pop-folk full of great songs, including their singles Black Dog and Diggory, and their stunning interpretation of New Order’s Temptation.
So, four bands for four pounds and another great night of inspiring local music.
Next month we’ll be into a noisier selection of bands, and I doubt there will be candles. But it will no doubt be great all the same. Check their facebook page for more info.
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Words and photographs by Jon Southcoasting
Normally our weekend gig picks have events from Thursday night onwards, but with the weekend starting a day earlier this week thanks to Easter, let’s kick things off from today.
Tonight Rizzle Kicks headline the Dome in a charity fundraiser for Audio Active. We wrote about the opportunity for a local act to support them – congratulations to Frankie Stew and Harvey Gunn who won that honour. Alternatively, at the Green Door Store Abi Wade is support at the launch of Charley Bickers album Our Frail Hearts.
On Thursday, it’s the monthly Source New Music night with Jennifer Left, Laish and Le Juki. This month, rather than being at the Dome Studio Theatre, it’s at Church Street Bar, which will offer cabaret style seating. Our other pick for Thursday Night is The Beautiful Word, who are playing a hometown show midway through their national tour which is hosted by Communion.
We’ve also got two picks for Friday Night. The first is Les Enfants Terrible – a new monthly night being held at the Blind Tiger bringing you new Brighton talent. Bands on for their first night are We Spies, Lion Bark, Animal Language and Girlfriend. Our second pick takes us up to the Green Door Store, for their regular Pelirocco Platters night. New Street Adventure, Tiny Dragons and The Chances are on the bill.
Saturday sees Fragile Creatures at the Blind Tiger, supported by Garden Heart and Land of Youth, and on Sunday we’d recommend heading up to the Green Door Store where House of Hats and Jacko Hooper are supporting Tom Staniford, or over to the Blind Tiger where Sweet Sweet Lies are supporting Louis Barabbas.
It’s a bumper weekend for gigs as ever in Brighton with loads of local talent getting out there and playing live.
Late night on Thursday is the third Night Sweats even – a gig where the doors don’t open until 9pm and the headliner isn’t onstage until after midnight. It’s on at Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, and Royal Blood headline supported by Broker, She Crazy, Eager Teeth and Light Parade.
Friday Night is the Tiny Dragons single launch at Latest Music Bar that we mentioned in a post earlier this week. There’s also a Brighton Rocks night being held at Sticky Mike’s headlined by Jipsy Magic, and we’ve also spotted that Luo are going to be supporting Easter Island Head at The Hope.
On Saturday, we’ve got a rare afternoon gig to plug. The Blind Tiger has an afternoon of music featuring A-M-I, Southpaw, The Cotard Delusion, Grasshopper and Crisis Warning. If you’re after something to do in the evening you could do a lot worse than head down to the Physics House Band’s free monthly club night Kaleidoscope at at Sticky Mike’s, where Caveman Genius are playing live.
Sunday is all about the local support slots – Jennifer Left is supporting Polly and the Billets Doux at the Hope, meanwhile Calico and Dog in the Snow will be supporting the Hidden Orchestra at the Blind Tiger.
It was a sad day when Gloria Cycles split up back in 2010, but this year Jennifer Left has burst back onto the Brighton music scene. Now fronting her own band, and with a brace of songs written with producer Tim Bidwell and Bonobo’s guitarist Ewan Wallace, Jennifer Left is back. Over the year, they’ve released two singles – Black Dog and Diggory – and grown in confidence with every show they’ve played. They’re also one of two bands in our calendar this year who’ve covered New Order – check out their gorgeous bossa nova cover of Temptation.
Last thursday night, The Blind Tiger was the place to be in town as the great and the good of Brighton crowded in for the launch of Jennifer Left’s new single Diggory. Spotted amongst the crowd were other local artists, producers, record label bosses, magazine editors and photographers. Not bad for a chilly November evening.
The May Birds
Support came from The May Birds, one of the latest bands to pass through Tim Bidwell’s Clockwork Owl studio. Despite missing their piano player, a beautiful sound came from the stage – lovely harmonies and lush arrangements. I look forward to hearing their EP once Tim’s finished working his magic. If only the crowd had appreciated them a bit more though – In my opinion, the level of background chat was quite insulting. It might have been people not paying too much attention to the support band, or the acoustics in the Blind Tiger, or the May Birds being quite quiet, but if you’re at a gig have a bit of respect, eh? It’s not just me that thinks it’s bad manners – it was top of the list on the Source’s recent Gig Charter.
Jennifer Left
I mentioned last time I saw Jennifer Left that she’s had a bit of a transformation of late into more of a pop star. It could be the sharp bob haircut she now sports, or the more extravagant stagewear, or just the confidence from having your songs played on the radio, but whatever it is, she continues to get better and better. There’s more communication with the audience, there’s less fiddling between songs, the musicianship seems slicker – again, it’s not just a single thing that you can put your finger on that’s improved. The set opened with their first single Black Dog, and rattled through a whole load of tracks which will end up on the upcoming album Hushabye as well as their gorgeous Bossa Nova version of New Order’s Temptation. The cover is one of the b-sides to Diggory, which the band closed their set with.
Here’s four videos to keep you entertained. Two for new songs, two for some not so new songs. Jennifer Left and Abi Wade released their new singles yesterday (and Jennifer Left is having a launch party for hers at the Blind Tiger on Thursday). Mosaic by Fear of Men and Spectre by Curxes both came out earlier in the year, but the videos have only just appeared:
Jennifer Left / Diggory (itunes link)
Abi Wade / Heavy Heart (itunes link)
Fear of Men / Mosaic (Resident link)
Curxes / Spectre (itunes link)
One of the phrases we seem to be writing almost as often as “Brighton Music Blog” these days is “produced by Tim Bidwell”. He’s had a great year, working with a lot of our favourite local acts – Jennifer Left, Cate Ferris, House of Hats… We thought it was about time he got a bit more credit, so we popped round for a cuppa a few weeks ago to find out to find out how he got to where he is and the bands that he’s worked with.
Around ten years ago, Tim was half of dance act Hardkandy. They released a few albums to critical acclaim but there was a nagging feeling that some of their fellow Brighton peers – the likes of Will Quantic and Si Bonobo – were getting some of the fame that they deserved. Even when he was making dance music, Tim was into his folk, and in 2006 formed the Folklaw label with Fin Greenall, known to fans of Ninja Tune as Fink, and Elliot Richards. The first album Tim produced for someone else was the The Gin Club by Nikolas Barrell, released by Folklaw in March 2007, and around that time Elliot spotted Kate Walsh playing in a pub in Brighton. The resulting number one album, Tim’s House, ended up being self released rather than coming out on Folklaw but kick started Tim’s career as a producer.
“When I first met Cate Ferris, I was a bit terrified of just how talented she is. With her EP, I produced it, but I didn’t really, it was Cate just playing around in the studio and me giving her the space to play around and just capturing her because she’s so full of energy and musically talented. I’d seen of her is doing stuff with the loop pedal on YouTube, so I got in touch with her and asked if she wanted to talk about working with me.
She’s got an amazing voice and she’s a good songwriter, and she’s doing great things and working with great people. For the EP she wanted to experiment with more different things in the studio and get away from the whole loop pedal thing.
She’s a lot like me, she’s quite a control freak musically. I’m not so much musically, but I am with projects, or giving a sound to something and I like giving a sound and working on the artwork even, for things and stuff like that. I like getting involved, whereas Cate’s a little bit of a genius.
“The Cordelia Gartside EP sounds beautiful. I’m really chuffed with it. Some of the best stuff I’ve done. I got some of the best players I know to play on it. We’ve got John Smith on guitar – he’s one of the best guitarists in the country and he loves Cordelia’s stuff. She’s off to college now, so she’s going to be writing away and hopefully we’ll be doing some more recording at Christmas when she comes back.
I’m really excited about Cordelia, she’s got a lot of potential and she’s a whole package, and she means what she does. She’s not interested in doing pop stuff, she’s really into Bon Iver and Laura Marling and people like that and she wants to be a credible artist. She’s not going to sell her soul to the pop devil, which is really refreshing.
I did the video for Fathoms’s Deep. She was so brave doing the stuff in the water. That STUNK! It was one of those peat lakes, so when she got in it, it just kicked up. I woke up the next morning and I was covered in bites. It was shot near Uckfield, some ancient woodland with a lake in the middle, it was beautiful. We got chavs throwing stones at us while were doing that which was a nightmare, but we got there in the end.
“House of Hats are great guys to work with. I’ve just recently finished their EP. which has just been released. That was a real labour of love – that took quite a while. They’re real perfectionists, especially with the vocals. They know what they like as well. I always like someone to take the lead vocal, but they wanted all the vocals at the same level. They all write the material, so it was difficult for me as a producer as well, because sometimes I wanted Al’s vocals to come out more, or Noddy’s vocals, because that’s just my instinct as a producer. That said, Rivers Will Run, the title track of the EP, is very much Al’s track. And Noddy sang on Home is Where the Heart is, and that’s beautiful, so there are a couple of tracks of theirs that have got that prominent vocal.
As well as all of the other production work that Tim’s done this year, his big project has been with Jennifer Left, co-writing and producing her forthcoming album Hushabye. He originally approached her about working on a solo project back in the days when she sung and played bass in Gloria Cycles, and things have finally come to fruition this year.
“Hushabye was all recorded here. I co-wrote it with Jen and a guy called Ewan Wallace. That took over a year to record, just taking our time. It was nice to write again actually. Both of them very talented and it was nice to do that. I’ve been producing for so long you don’t really get to write any more. It was nice to give Jen a sound too. Jen gave us a list of influences and we sort of forged the sound. To be honest the eleven tracks on the album were the first eleven tracks we did. A lot of people you have to write ten tracks to get one good one, but we were just quite pleasantly surprised by how it all came together. Obviously there was a couple of duff ones here and there that we got rid of, but overall we were really chuffed how it all came together. And it was that thing of giving her a sound that was kind of new but then sort of had elements of the Beatles, Django Rheinhardt, swing and jazz elements, but there’s also Grizzly Bear stuff and weird little elements here and there that just make it a little bit different with Jen’s voice. She’s mad as a box of frogs though!
Diggory is released on 5th November, and is backed with a couple of remixes as well as Jennifer’s gorgeous take on New Order’s Temptation:
The launch party is at the Blind Tiger on 8th November, where Jennifer Left is supported by The Maybirds – another band produced by Tim!
Cate Ferris and House of Hats EPs are out now, and Cordelia Gartside’s EP will hopefully be out before the end of the year.
In case you haven’t seen it, the video for the new Jennifer Left single has landed. Diggory is the second release to come from her forthcoming album Hushabye, which has been produced by Tim Bidwell, and the video has been made by Thom Undrell, who also put together the fantastic video for Black Dog earlier this year. Diggory hits the shelves on 5th November, and Jennifer is having a launch party at the Blind Tiger on the 8th November. See you there!
Not every event in Brighton can boast an Amy Winehouse impersonator as compere, but then not every event is Club Berlin, a new live night at the Jive Monkey which had it’s second outing this week. If an Amy Winehouse impersonator is a bit drunk and can’t remember all of the words to the likes of Rehab or Valerie, does that ruin the experience or make it more authentic? And was the drunkenness part of the act?
As I arrived, Dominic Von Trapp from Sweet Sweet Lies was performing a solo acoustic set. Accompanied on ukulele and guitar, Dom sang a host of tracks, most of which were familiar from his band’s album The Hare, The Hound & The Tortoise. The songs stood up well – the songwriting is solid and Dom’s distinctive voice and delivery is one of the things that makes Sweet Sweet Lies special.
Next up was Jennifer Left, also playing with a pared down band to fit onto the tiny stage. No bass or drums this time around, but she was joined by her guitarist and incredibly talented multi-instrumentalist Helen, who played keyboard, trumpet, accordion and xylophone. Jennifer Left looked more like a pop star than ever, with her heavy eye make up and cool new bob making her look like a dark haired Dusty Springfield. To cope with the reduced set up the band played up the jazzier elements of their songs, which worked especially well on their cover of New Order’s Temptation, and rounded up with a preview of their new single due in October which I’m sure we’ll be writing more about nearer the time.
Finally we had Call Me Jolene, who appeared the most band-like with guitar, bass, drum and vocals, but were still reduced in numbers. Rather than play a stripped down set as the other bands had, they played to a backing track – rather disconcerting when a piano track starts playing mid-song with no keyboard player on stage! Despite the presence of ex-Gene frontman Martin Rossiter on bass, Call Me Jolene are very much about Sophie Pointer: her vocals are the centrepiece of each of the songs they played and she was the only member of the band to engage with the audience. The songs themselves are slick adult rock songs, one pitched as a future James Bond theme, and another pitched as Jolene’s response to Dolly Parton’s song that the band took their name from. Some of the band’s songs I’ve heard on Soundcloud have a bit of a country feel, but this wasn’t especially evident live – I’d love to hear more of that coming through.
Club Berlin returns to the Jive Monkey on Thursday 20th Sept and features IDC, Bela Emerson, Das Fenster and Saffron Reichenbacker.
