Moulettes returned with their second album The Bear’s Revenge this year, which was even better than their debut. Sing Unto Me and Uca’s Dance were released as singles, and the highlight for us was their intimate gig at the Marlborough in April where they were joined on stage by Arthur Brown (who they would go on to support later in the year)
It’s quite rare for us to make more than one post in a day. It’s even rarer for us to post about the same band twice in one day. But that’s what we’re doing right now. This morning we made Curxes band of the day in our Advent Calendar – this has obviously put them in the Christmas spirit, and they’ve put out a festive tune for us all to enjoy (via our friends over at Breaking More Waves). It’s a bit quieter and calmer than their usual fare, showing a side to them that they’ve been hiding from us until now. They shouldn’t have been so coy – this is rather lovely.
Merry Christmas Curxes!
Is there something in the water that nobody’s told me about? After Friday night’s Miserable Rich gig being their last gathering for the foreseeable future, it seems that The Bleeding Hearts Club have also hung up their hat for now too.
Whereas most Bleeding Hearts have involved three or four acts, each only playing three songs, last night involved over a dozen bands, each only playing a song or two, with a rule that it had to be a Christmas related cover. I didn’t catch the names of everyone but Fire Eyes, Self Help Group, Nick Hudson, Ingrid Plum, Jane Bartholomew, Things in Herds, Clowns, Crayola Lectern, Tandy Hard and Seadog were amongst the bands who played, some onstage, some in amongst the crowd. Some bands embraced the Christmas theme more than others, and somehow we ended up with two versions of Brass in Pocket by the Pretenders. I’m sure the Pretenders’ Christmas song was 2000 Miles. It was some of the more leftfield covers which raised the biggest smiles. Clowns covering The Sex Pistols God Save the Queen was brilliant, and Crayola Lectern doing Bat Out Of Hell was a moment of warped genius.
We’re going to miss Bleeding Hearts every first Monday of the month, and we hope that it’s only a temporary break. This isn’t be the last we’ll hear of them though – they told me to pencil in the release of the Crayola Lectern album for next April.
Day four is Curxes. Glorious industrial electro-pop. This year they gave us a couple of fantastic singles – Spectre and Haunted Gold – and a some memorable live shows with awesome visuals. They’re also our local contender in the Blog Sound of 2013 poll, which had it’s longlist published yesterday.
Curxes next live date in Brighton is supporting Polly Scattergood at The Haunt on 10th December.
Curxes
Lawry Tilbury III, aka Birdengine, is a Brighton institution who’s been purveying his unique brand of gothic folk for more than five years now. His last album ‘The Crooked Mile’ is a masterpiece and essential listening. This year he’s been quietly gigging and working away at some new songs, in preparation for a much-anticipated new album in 2013. In the meantime, you should check out his website and take a look at the amazing video for the single ‘No Arms’ below.
Words and Picture by Jon Southcoasting
The format of the Source New Music Night changed a little bit this month, with the team at the Dome doing their very best to make sure that we all get to enjoy as much music as possible. Gone is the acoustic act in the bar downstairs, who never really got the appreciation they deserved, and instead a new mini stage was built to the side of the room. There’s still four acts, with the headliner hand-picked by The Source, and this they brought us the Miserable Rich’s last ever gig. For now at least – the band have decided that after five years they’re going to take some well earned time off.
If you got there early, you would have been lucky enough to have caught Ingrid Plum, who played a short set at 8pm. I say played, but Ingrid’s only instrument was her voice, singing her own acapella songs (and one by local legend Chris T-T), in the traditional unaccompanied folk style. It was a performance that captivated the room – a mean for the first act on!
Ingrid Plum
Next up, on the other side of the room on their new stage was Donna Fullman. We wrote about her album Inner World back in July, and have been kicking ourselves that we haven’t made it up to the Bull in Ditchling for one of her Sunday Night sessions, because Donna and her band’s set was lovely – a handful catchy, smooth folk pop songs.
Donna Fullman
Third act Cate Ferris has played Source New Music before, November last year, but back then she was the acoustic act downstairs who not nearly enough people saw. This time around she won over a whole room full of people who packed out the place for their last chance to see The Miserable Rich. What Cate does is nothing short of astonishing, using loops to build up beautifully told songs, and making it look effortless while doing so. And just when that’s impressed you, there’s the amazing voice. I’ve seen Cate many times over the last few years, and I reckon this is the best time I’ve ever seen her – the big stage really suited her. Next time, I reckon she’ll be the headliner.
Cate Ferris
Friday night was a special night not only for The Miserable Rich, but also for their fans, who had come from far and wide to see them for one last time. The songs they played were very much the crowd-pleasers – I lost count of the number of times I heard the words “this one’s my favourite” as I was angling to get a better photo. Tracks came from throughout their five year career, and they were re-joined by original guitarist Jim Briffett for some tracks. It wouldn’t have been right if there wasn’t alcohol involved and James was drinking whisky like it was water, and by the last song before the encore it was affecting his recall for lyrics. I guess he won’t need to be remembering them for a bit though! The night was closed was the band playing acoustically in amongst the audience – a magical moment to end this chapter of the Miserable Rich’s musical career.
The Miserable Rich
Second on our list is Dark Horses. The Richard Fearless produced Black Music was one of our favourite albums of 2012. It was greasy, it was dirty, it was dark and we loved it. In their review, Artrocker said “It’s never felt so good to be so devastatingly alone”. The launch gig at the Green Door Store felt electric.
Dark Horses
We’re going to kick off the list with arguably Brighton’s biggest act from the last year. Who would have expected them to have made the jump from the angular, spiky guitars of Wall of Arms and it’s hit single Love You Better to the ethereal, epic Given To The Wild. Pelican was a link to the old Maccabees, and Feel to Follow showed just how far they’d come.
Brighton Music Blog 