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:
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Here’s the last new music roundup of April. We’ve got a Brian Wilson cover, a free download, and something brand new up today in this week’s tunes.
First up is a tune from Curxes debut album due out next week. What You Want is a taster of what’s to come from Verxes, and the band’s first track as a three piece, treading a path beaten last year by La Roux – cool eighties electro pop kicked into shape for modern times. We can’t wait to hear the rest of the album. Next up is Gazelle Twin‘s Brian Wilson cover, recorded especially for the season finale of The Walking Dead. Love & Mercy doesn’t strike fear into you heart like some of the tracks from Unflesh though given the nature of the program it was recorded for maybe it just needs a bit of context, and it’s certainly a lot more ethereal that Brian Wilson’s 1988 original. The Clowwns is almost ready to be released to the world. To celebrate they’re giving away Idiot Bouncing for free over on Bandcamp. Clowwns are headlining Bleeding Hearts recordings not-actually-a-Great-Escape Great Escape show at the Rialto Theatre on Saturday 16th May, where vinyl copies of the album will be on sale. Miamigo are a new Brighton Band who haven’t even played their first gig yet (you’ll have to be at Patterns – what used to be Audio – on 15th May for that). Hard to Love is five minutes of bombastic synth led pop which is taken from their debut EP which is being released on Indian Hop Recordings on 14th June. Dancefloor Troubadours are also pretty new on the scene, but have already shared quite a few tracks on their soundcloud page, the latest of which is the acoustic, dreamy He’s Not Me, She’s Not You: Closing this week’s post is the latest installment from Normanton Street run of videos of tracks from their Much Respect EP. The video for Rakim (The 26th Year) features some familiar spots around Brighton mixed in with some vintage footage:
Another week, another nine new tracks for you to hear, so there should be something for everyone. The first two tracks came out especially for Record Store Day. If you’re lucky you might still be able to pick them up on down at Resident.
The Go! Team‘s RSD release was a new 7″ called Ye Ye Yamaha, which came out on yellow translucent vinyl. Both sides of the record were brand new tracks which weren’t included on their new album The Scene Between.
We posted the lead track from Demob Happy‘s Young & Numb EP back in February. Last saturday they got truly into the spirit of Record Store Day, playing an impromptu set outside Resident and then playing an afternoon set at the Spectrum gig at the Dome. They also put up another track from the 10″ they put out for the event, and you can listen to Fizz below:
We were very please to read about the return of Momotaro. They have a new EP called Highest out on 2nd May, and the first track online from it is the housey Roots:
Rooster Cole released his debut EP last week. The More Than You EP is available to download via Bandcamp and iTunes and opens up with Up To The Teeth:
Fickle Friends have been teasing about some news to be announced on Radio One later this evening over on their facebook page. It’s exciting times over at Fickle Friends HQ because yesterday they also shared a video for their new track Could Be Wrong:
Last week Astrid’s Tea Party shared the audio of their upcoming single Black Swan. The dramatic electro pop single comes out on May 18th:
Red Deer People have just released a couple of new tracks on Bandcamp (with a physical cd release to follow). Fire Fire Blister Blister is backed with another track called Pull Out Your Dagger Pull Out Your Gun.
Eighties Matchbox B-Line distaster offshoot Krak Krak release the follow up to their debut single on 18th May. Grave Dohl will be coming out as a digital download on Sonic Anhedonic Recording Company and will be playing a couple of shows at the Great Escape a few days before to celebrate:
Finishing up with something a bit quieter than the Krak Krak track is Jack Watts, whose new EP Red Shortbread comes out on 17th May. Here’s EP opener with Push Blue:
With the regular Spectrum events at the Dome being co-sponsored by Resident it was no surprise that they had big things planned for Record Store Day. We were up with the birds queuing up outside Resident, and we had other things planned for the day, so we didn’t get to see TRAAMS, Our Girl, The Academy of Sun, Ellie Ford, Robb Johnson, Merlin Tonto, Aaamouai, Bernholz, The Delta Bell or Elin Ivarsson. We did see Grasshopper, Object Object, Demob Happy , Delta Bell, Faye Houston, AK/DK, The Fiction Aisle and Foreign Skin though, and took along our camera to record things for posterity. Click on the pics to view large:
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