Our friends over at Brighton Noise have been putting on nights at the Green Door Store for a few months now, but shame on us – this is the first one we’ve made it along to. The big draw for us was Milk and Biscuits whose new single Hairstyles comes out next month, and whose set was made up entirely from their upcoming album Spirit Nap.
Click on the images to view full size.
After a few days break for the bank holiday weekend, it’s back to the blog. Today we’ve got a couple of videos for you:
First up is The Beautiful Word’s new single Particles. The video’s out now, but the launch party is going to be on 3rd of June. More details as we get them. The song’s a lot more pop and a lot less twee than we’re used to from the Beautiful Word. It’s still unmistakeably them – it wouldn’t be a Beautiful Word track without Emily and Megan’s lovely close harmonies – but this could well be the best thing they’ve done.
We’ve also got the latest upload from Jacko Hooper, a very smooth, very classy cover of Fly Me To The Moon. He’s got another new track being uploaded soon, but until then, we’re more than happy with this. Jacko will be playing at the Great Escape Aftershow Party at Brighton Electric, alongside Dog in the Snow, The Hundredth Anniversary, Us Bear Baby Bones, AK/DK and Spacenoid.
Brighton Music Blog favourites IYES have posted a new track online, which shows a new side to the band. Daddy is a seven minute long house number, which is a little bit baggy and a little bit balearic. It’s stripped of the vocals which characterised Lighthouse and Glow, but the one thing it has in common with the previous two tracks, one of the things that strikes you is how good it sounds. There’s something really clever going on with reverb and stereo, but don’t go overthinking about it, just enjoy it. You can hear it online by watching the youtube video above, or you can get a free download to listen whenever you like by signing up to their mailing list.
We wrote a preview of the AK/DK single launch which took place last week, at the Source New Music Night at the Dome Studio theatre, but we didn’t actually write anything about the release.
Dispatches #3 is coming out soon on download and limited cassette, with gorgeous packaging. The main track Battersea is up now as a free download – it’s a crazy lock groove analogue synth driven number which sounds like Stereolab’s ADHD kid brother, which captures a bit of the energy and attitude of their legendary live sets. The full track list of the release is:
Battersea
Punk Music Mass
Jello With Mimi
Battersea [Checked Slice’s Corrupt File Mix]
Battersea [Mechacoustic Mix]
Battersea [Man Ray Sky Mix]
Battersea [Champion Fever Mix]
We don’t get to write about Anneka nearly enough on the blog, so we were pleased when an email dropped into inbox earlier today telling us about a new track of hers that has been posted.
Deliver was recorded at Brighton Electric, and features a lot less beats than those who’ve seen her live might expect, although it feels like it might burst into a huge dancefloor track at any point. The backbone of the track is what sounds like a looped vocal sample, but is actually played live on pads. I’ve compared Anneka to Bjork before, and Deliver is another track worthy of that comparison, sounding like it wouldn’t be out of place amongst some of the more experimental tracks from the Post era. We love it!
UPDATE – CHANGE OF VENUE
Following on from all of the tickets selling in the blink of an eye, the gig has been moved to a bigger venue – The gig will now be held at The Dome, and further tickets have been released.
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In a roundabout way, The Levellers are partly responsible for this blog. No, really. They were the first band I saw live who were associated with where I was living. I grew up on the suburbs of London and while there might have been bands who associated themselves with London, seeing them in London would have still been an hour’s journey on public transport.
In the summer of 1993 the band headlined a night at a free festival in Stanmer Park, just a walk over the fields from Sussex Uni where I was studying. Eighteen year old me thought it was very cool that a band who I’d heard on the radio, whose cds my friends from other parts of the country owned, would be playing a free gig in their hometown, my hometown. It would be another eight years before Fatboy Slim did something similar with the first Big Beach Boutique.
Fast forward to 2013 and the band are celebrating their 25th birthday. The Levellers don’t play much in Brighton these days but to commemorate the landmark they’re playing a one off show on Friday 19th July at The Dome St Barts church just off London Road – the closest suitable venue to The Level which was one of the inspirations for their name (We could mention that The Levellers was also the name of a political movement in the Civil War, but we’re Brighton Music Blog, not the Seventeenth Century History blog). Pre-sale tickets sold out when they were announced last week, but more tickets have been released and are available seetickets.com.
More details are available on the facebook event page.
May’s a funny months for gigs. One one hand it’s quite possibly the best month in the year – The Great Escape comes to town and there’s so much going on for Brighton Festival and Fringe. But on the other hand there are so many distractions that a lot of bands lay low until there’s a chance that they’ll be heard. So even though this weekend is a Bank Holiday, things are starting to look a little bit thin on the ground.
On Thursday night Rich from Heliopause is putting on a gig at the Hope. His own band and Ingrid Plum act as support from Canadian Ingrid Gatin. Meanwhile, at Sticky Mike’s, BrightonsFinest are putting on Fragile Creatures.
Be Nothing promotions are celebrating their second birthday on Friday night at the Blind Tiger. There are five bands on the bill headlined by Girl Band, with local representation from Tourist and Adolescent.
Our pick for Saturday night is another gig at the Blind Tiger – Brighton’s King Porter Stomp are joining forces with Bristol’s First Degree Burns for what promises to be a fantastic ska / hip hop collaboration.
Well this is an oddity. A new track out of nowhere from Mary Hampton and her gang of players, the Cotillion. Mary is always a treasure, so anything new from her is worth paying attention to.
But this is a strange, dramatic and sometimes haunting, sometimes disturbing musical setting for the epigraph from the opening of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel ‘The Great Gatsby’. The lyrics are sung passionately from the dark inards of the singer, whilst the music swirls around in careless abandon in some parts and a cool dispassionate plinkety plonk of Mary’s piano in others.
The words (which are Fitzgerald’s, not Mary’s) in some ways summarise the novel and are worth repeating just for the hell of it
Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her;
If you can bounce high, bounce for her too,
Till she cry “Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover,
I must have you!”
Is this track in some way related to the forthcoming film of the Great Gatsby? I don’t think so. Was it prompted by it? Hard to tell. Is it trying to cash-in on the movie? I doubt it very much. Is it a precursor to more Mary Hampton music? We hope so, although it left me wanting more tunes and more songs.
So what do you think of it? Do tell.
One of my favourite young Brighton bands Time for T have a new video out as a precursor to their new EP and it’s really rather wonderful. One of many highlights from their live set, if this song doesn’t convince you that Spring is here and Summer’s on it’s way you may be half-dead. Best to check.
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