May Top Five

Posted on 15/06/2015 by brightonmusicblog

Normally I do my Top Ten posts in the first day or two of the month looking back at the previous four weeks, but as you’ve probably noticed, I’m a bit late. You might have also noticed it’s just a top five this month too. There’s a good reason for the reduced nature of this post and me going a little bit quiet on the blog for the past couple of weeks – at the start of June I became a dad, which has given me something else to look after other than the blog. So while our newest writer catches a few minutes of shut-eye, hopefully I can squeeze out an overdue post of the tracks we enjoyed the most from May.

1) Milk & Biscuits – Towns are Concrete Holes

Brighton’s best kraut-pop band are back and sounding amazing. And that video. Lovely stuff.

2) Inad – He Will Disappear

Dreamy pop from a band we don’t know nearly enough about yet.

3) Sam Organ – Mirrors

One third of Physics House Band drops his Mount Bank moniker to make a lovely electronica instrumental

4) Momotaro – Orchids

Taken from their new EP Highest, Orchids shows that their Second Side album wasn’t just a flash in the pan.

5) Lion Bark – You and Me

I guess we ought to feature some music with guitars in picks from May. Lion Bark take things easy and make the perfect soundtrack for a summer’s day.

Saturday 13th June

Posted on 10/06/2015 by brightonmusicblog

Saturday night’s alright, we think.

Two choice shows in Brighton this Saturday.

Fiddes-Smith and Sharon Lewis

First up is an acoustic session by multi-instrumentalist Fiddes Smith and friends, featuring the beautiful singer and songwriter Sharon Lewis, formerly of the duo Pooka, and a singer who has collaborated with Orbital, The Leisure Society and most recently with Anais Mitchell in her folk opera, Hadestown.

Saturday, 7:30pm at The Basement, Kensington Street. Tickets are available here

Alternatively, the Bleeding Hearts Club have a rare Saturday night outting over in Hollingdean at the little Coachwerks venue, now home to Bartleby’s Brewery. Besides their excellent homebrew, on Saturday night they’ll be serving up a smashing mix of local acts – the soulful country tones of the Delta Bell, beat poetry from Gary Goodman, fantastic indie rock kids Grasshopper, and a rare solo show from The Pantomine Whore (aka Mum, from mum dad and the kids).

Doors at 7pm at 19 Hollingdean Terrace, Entry by donation.

Proceeds will go towards the bands’ lugging costs and the rest will go towards the cost of building the venue.

Friday 12th June

Posted on 09/06/2015 by brightonmusicblog

Two excellent things on for local music fans this Friday.

Hidden Trail Records are launching their charity compilation ‘Hidden Brighton #2′ on Friday 12th June at the Latest Bar in Manchester Street, featuring some exciting live music from three blog favourites: the rockin’ Black Rooster Black Shag and two superb electro-pop acts Curxes and Becky Becky, both of whom have released very well-received albums this year. Doors at 7:30pm. Entry is £8 on the door.

The album is the Hidden Trail label’s second compilation and features an excellent array of local acts: Curxes, Black Rooster Black Shag, Becky Becky, The Delta Bell, Matthew the Oxx, Clowwns, Cate Ferris, O. Chapman, Momotaro, Grasshopper, Elin Ivarsson, Garden Heart, Jetglo and Alex KP. If this is anything like their first compilation it is going to be really lovely.

The launch and album are raising money for an excellent local charity, The Clock Tower Sanctuary, a day centre providing support to young insecurely-housed or homeless people in Brighton and Hove. All profits from the gig and album release go to the charity.

+ + + + +

If that wasn’t enough, there’s also a wonderful celebration of folk-based music at The One Church, featuring poetic songstress Kristin McClement whose new album The Wild Grips has been getting excellent reviews, along with experimental music from Astra Forward, beautiful alt-folk from Philippe Nash and Hilary Repko‘s heartfelt vocals.

It should make for a beautiful evening of gentle music in a charming venue in Gloucester Place, just a few doors along from the North Laine Brewery Pub. Doors open at 7:30pm, entrance by donation.

New Brighton Music

Posted on 27/05/2015 by brightonmusicblog

Another week, another bunch of new tunes to share.Not quite as many as last week, so back to just the one post.

Before they head to Europe this summer to claim festivals across the continent as their own AKDK have shared a video for brand new track Atomic DNA:

Continue reading →

New Brighton Music

Posted on 21/05/2015 by brightonmusicblog

As promised yesterday, this week’s new music comes in two doses, and here’s the second.

Today’s post starts with the flip side of the record that started yesterday’s post. Pogo by Octopuses is the double A side that accompanies the new track from Milk & Biscuits, out on 1st June on Lick Music:

Continue reading →

New Brighton Music

Posted on 20/05/2015 by brightonmusicblog

Have you all recovered from The Great Escape yet? I think my trainers are still wet from thursday’s downpours. Anyway, here’s this week’s roundup of new music. There’ll actually be two new music posts this week because we’ve had so many bands contact us that there’s just too much for one post.

First up is Milk & Biscuits, who’ve been missing in action since the release of their Lick Tape in spring 2014. They’re back with a double A side split single on Lick Music with a track called Towns are Concrete Holes, which is out on 1st June. The flip is a track from Octopuses which we’ll feature in our other post we make this week.

Milk & Biscuits share a few members with Prince Vaseline, who have a whole album coming out in June. The album’s called A Naturally Coloured Pleasure and will be released on Sunhorse Records. Here’s the first taster of it, the psychedelic Radio On:

Atomic is the new track from Alphabets Heaven, featuring London vocalist Segilola. It features on King Deluxe’s latest compilation, and also got picked out by Bandcamp as one of their tracks of the week.

Time for T launched their new single Tom Tom at the Green Door Store last week and premiered the video on Spindle. They’re currently in Portugal on a mini-tour of Europe where they seem to play even more than they do locally!

Flash Bang Band are back with their first new material since their debut album. Spooky Action at a Distance is out on 14th June, and apparently forms a bridge between the lo fi sound of their debut and new material being recorded.

Bichon Frise is the new single from ElleKaye. I haven’t been provided with release dates or labels, but we’ll fill you in with more info as we get it:

Animal House are Australian originally, but have relocated to Brighton. In an effort to socialise with the locals, they’ve made a video featuring roller derby team Brighton Rockers. Figure It Out comes out on May 25th:

After a number of remixes over the past year or so, Kudu Blue put out their first self penned track earlier this year, a chilled pop number called Bones. Head over to their soundcloud page where there’s also a remix by Luo.

Great Escape / Alternative Escape Preview

Posted on 11/05/2015 by brightonmusicblog

In case you hadn’t realised, this weekend is The Great Escape festival, probably the most important musical event in the local calendar. There’s a few Brighton bands tucked in the main festival, but the bulk of the homegrown talent features in the line-up of the Alternative Escape – a sister festival that runs side by side where for most events you won’t need a wrist band, or have to shell out any money to see some fantastic live acts. There are literally hundreds of bands playing over dozens of events so to help guide you through the weekend here’s our pick of some of the BN postcode-based performers you can catch.

The fun begins on Wednesday night with Late Night Lingerie vs The Great Escape at Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, where can catch the first of Demob Happy‘s many sets of the festival as well as Skirts last ever gig. Inspired Artists Agency who represent quite a few Brighton bands are taking over Latest Music Bar on Thursday, and we’re hoping to pop in for The Slytones at 2.55pm and Moulettes who play at 6.30pm. There are 20 bands over 28 sets on at The Mesmerist on thursday, on the stages put together by Liberty Music PR, amongst others. If we had to pick one it would be Phantom Runners who are on at 9.40pm. Bleach is being taken over by Strong Island Recordings and Pic & Vinyl on thursday, where Brighton Music Blog favourites Curxes take to the stage at 5.40pm. Over at London Road’s newest cafe Presuming Ed, Cate Ferris tops their line up. Miamigo play their debut show at Patterns (formerly Audio) at 6.45pm.

Brightonsfinest are in charge at Latest on Friday, and they’ve got a cracking line up. You could pop in at any time and see a great local band, but we’ll be popping in for GAPS at 2.45pm and Spit Shake Sisters at 7.45pm. The Mesmerist also has a pretty good line up, with Black Honey and Oslo Parks catching our eye. One of Brighton’s most written about bands at the moment are The Magic Gang, and they head up the DIY / Echochamp showcase at Bleach, playing at 10pm.

Moving on to Saturday, Earworm events and Northbrook college are hosting proceedings at Bar Rogue where we’re tipping Flash Bang Band at 6pm and newcomers Bloom at 6.50pm. The Fiddlers Elbow are having a street party, which is a great idea since I couldn’t get in to see the bands I wanted to last year. If I were you, I’d be down there for Yumi & The Weather at 4pm and Tigercub at 5pm. Marwoods Cafe are hosting some more gentle gigs over Friday and Saturday, but expect things to get a bit more riotous when Black Rooster Black Shag take to the stage at 8.10pm on Saturday night. Tyrannosaurus Dead play their last ever gig in Brighton at Fitzherbert’s a part of Cupboard Music’s line up. They’re only playing one more gig after that, and that’s in London, so expect it to be rammed. Hotel Pelirocco also have an all Brighton line-up – Time for T headline at 10pm, but get down there for 3pm to catch grasshopper who are fantastic. Bleeding Hearts are putting on a gig on Saturday afternoon at the Rialto theatre, which will be the first opportunity to buy headliner Clowwns debut album. It’s not an official Great Escape gig, but it would be churlish not to give them a shoutout. Finally, one of the very last gigs of the weekend is KLDSCP’s party at Sticky Mike’s which doesn’t even kick off until 1am. Mount Bank, who’ve put out one of favourite EPs of the year so far are playing, so hopefully we’ll still be standing by the time they’re on.

New Brighton Music

Posted on 11/05/2015 by brightonmusicblog

Later tonight we’ll be bring you our Great Escape / Alternative Escape preview with our pick of Brighton bands to look out for later this week. Before then though, here’s our regular new music roundup.

First up is Momotaro with a video taken from one of the tracks from their new Highest EP. Featuring lots of lips, and made by their regular live visuals collaborator, here’s Orchids:

Slum of Legs new single has been put out by Brighton based DIY feminist label Riots not Diets. In their own words, Doll Like is “a call to action. A battle against oppression. A fight for gender identity and acceptance. When all seems shallow, set in stone and unintelligible, we decode the answer: ‘I am doll like, I will make this my show’.”

Mitch Wade Cole‘s Electric Duck EP came out last month, and now some remixes have appeared from the second track This Is When We:

Hot on the heels from a show at The Gladstone where they were turning people away at the door, here’s the new King Porter Stomp track This Way, which also happens to be a free download over on their bandcamp page. If this floats your boat or you were one of the disappointed people at the Gladstone last saturday night you can catch them again at the Green Door Store supported by Normanton Street on 18th June.

BirdEatsBaby‘s new single is a cover of the Muse track Muscle Museum. It’s out two weeks today on 25th May with a launch party this Friday up in London.

Web Spin Time is the first taster of Son Belly‘s new album You Still Do As You’re Told, which is available to pre-order on Bandcamp. The whole album will be out next week on limited cd and download.

Here’s the new single from Oslo Parks. Fiction comes out on X Novo records on 8th June.

Finishing up this week’s roundup is the new single from Aniseed Treats. Silhouette is the follow up to Glue which came out earlier this year.

Gig previews – The Go! Team, Brakes, British Sea Power

Posted on 06/05/2015 by brightonmusicblog

In the next couple of months some of Brighton’s biggest bands are playing hometown gigs and rather than just mention them in passing we thought it was worth making a bit more of a song and dance about things. After all, that’s what the bands will be doing.

On Saturday 4th July The Go! Team bring the tour for their new album The Scene Between to town. The tour features some of the key members of the old Go! team live line up including rapper / vocalist Ninja and guitarist Sam Dook, and they’ll be playing at The Haunt, with support yet to be announced.

Brakes are also playing their first Brighton gig in years, not to promote a new album, but to celebrate the tenth anniversary of their debut Give Blood. Frontman Eamon Hamilton will be back in town for the gig bringing together the classic line up with the White brothers and Marc Beatty for the first time in years. Support at the gig at the Concorde on Friday 19th June comes from Rose Dougall, formerly of The Pipettes who provided backing vocals on Give Blood track Sometime Always.

British Sea Power didn’t celebrate the tenth anniversary of their debut album The Decline of British Sea Power two years ago (it originally came out in June 2003), but they’re making up for it now. The album is getting rereleased in a variety of formats from a double cd, taking in the b-sides from the album’s singles, to a deluxe box set which has four cds, a dvd, the album on double vinyl and a glossy large format book. They’re also playing three gigs to celebrate, in London, Manchester and, obviously, Brighton. And with Eamon Hamilton in the area for Brakes gig the following week, he’ll also be joining his previous band onstage at the Concorde on Wednesday 10th June, two days after the album is reissued.

April Top Ten

Posted on 03/05/2015 by brightonmusicblog

Here’s our top ten tracks that we’ve been listening to in April:

1 Sea Bed – Caves

Technically this came out last month (and we included Haunted in last month’s top ten), but their Rosso EP hasn’t left our stereo, and their debut gig at the Prince Albert supporting Them The Sky was awesome.

2 Momotaro – Roots

Momotaro’s new EP Highest actually came out yesterday which made it May, but since the band put up Roots from the EP on Soundcloud, it’s been on heavy rotation around here.

3 Fiction Aisle – Each and Every One

It was actually Each and Every One’s joint double A side that we wrote about a few weeks ago, but it was this track of the pair that really caught our attention.

4 Curxes – What You Want

Curxes debut album is out in just a few hours time! We’ve been a big fan of the band’s retro electro (or Blitz Pop as they like to call it) for ages, so can’t wait to hear the rest of the record.

5 The Go! Team – Ye Ye Yamaha

Where so many bands put out re-releases or remixes for Record Store Day, The Go! Team put out two brand new tracks. That’s how it should be done.

6 Black Honey – Spinning Wheel

Spinning Wheel is our favourite track that should have been in a Tarantino film this month and deserves to be played LOUD. We’ve not caught them live yet, so we’re hoping to get to see them at the Great Escape in a few weeks.

7 Clowwns – Idiot Bouncing

The Artful Execution of Macho Bimbo, the debut album by one of Brighton’s finest live bands Clowwns, has been in gestation since before we started the blog so we’re pleased that it’s finally getting released soon. Idiot Bouncing is the free download put up to persaude us all to buy the record.

8 Ambassadeurs – Can’t See You

Can’t See You is another track which we haven’t actually featured on the blog, having posted up other tracks from the EP, but for our top ten we had to post the release’s title track.

9 Miamigo – Hard To Love

DIY mag wrote “Bands could spend decades figuring out how to write the biggest hooks and they might not get close to this” about Hard to Love, and who are we to disagree.

10 Gazelle Twin – Love and Mercy

After doing her best to give us nightmares with last year’s Unflesh, Gazelle Twin is doing her best to gain our affections again with her cover of Brian Wilson’s Love and Mercy.