IYES at the Prince Albert / The New Union at the Blind Tiger live gallery

Posted on 10/10/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Last night The New Union supported Let’s Buy Happiness at the Blind Tiger and IYES played their first headline show at the Prince Albert. We were torn – we’re fans of both bands – which should we go to? And then we figured that since The New Union were supporting and IYES were headlining, we should be able to make it to both.

When we first heard about the New Union gig, we read that they would be on at 8.15. On the day, we read on Facebook that it would be 8.30. We turned up at the gig to see set times that said 8.45, but the support act who was on before them didn’t get onstage until 8.50. In the end The New Union started just after 9.30, so we only caught a few of their songs before we headed to the Prince Albert. But those few songs sounded fantastic. Every time the New Union head into the studio, they come out sounding even better, taking everything they’ve learned and improving their live sound with it, and just recently they’ve been recording at Metway Studios with Matthew Twaites (of Electric Soft Parade, Milk & Biscuits, etc).

The normal career path for a new band is first to get support slots with other local bands, then headline your own small gigs, then get supports with bigger touring bands that visit. It’s testament to the strength of IYES demos that they managed to skip the first two stages, with all their gigs so far playing before more established national acts. As sods law would have it, the IYES gig was running late too, but that meant we got to catch Londoners Rivieras from the back of a packed room. When they were done, we took the opportunity to get to the front so we could make up for all of the photos that we didn’t take at the New Union gig. IYES were on top form, showcasing the demos that the crowd was familiar with as well as a brace of new tracks including the first play of their upcoming single Infinity.

Click pics to view large:

New Music : Wytches, Yumi & The Weather, Alice Amelia, Prince Vaseline, Dizraeli

Posted on 09/10/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Here’s this week’s round up of the new music that has hit our inbox since our last update. There’s new singles from Wytches and Yumi & The Weather, free downloads from Alice Amelia and Prince Vaseline, and a mixtape from Dizraeli and Downlow featuring a new track of theirs.

The Wytches – Robe for Juda

Robe For Juda is the next single from this month’s Source cover stars The Wytches, and is out on the 18th November on Hate Hate Hate records. The Wytches are working hard on tour at the moment supporting Splashh, and as soon as that tour ends they’ll be supporting Metz, playing their hometown on 27th November at the Haunt.

Yumi & The Weather – All We Can

All We Can is the new single from Yumi & The Weather, out a week on monday on XVI records. It’s lush electronic pop with textured beats and subtle harmonies. Lovely stuff. You can hear pre-order the EP and listen to another track over on the XVI records bandcamp page.

Alice Amelia – #1000 Dreams

Alice Amelia is back with another gorgeous piano ballad, available as a free download from Soundcloud. Alice’s next Brighton gig is at Above Audio on 9th November.

Prince Vaseline – Island EP

While we’re waiting for the new Milk & Biscuits album, a couple of the bands members have got together and quietly snuck out an EP. Max and Eleanor’s side project isn’t a million miles away from their other band, but maybe isn’t quite as poppy. Their Island EP is a Name Your Price EP on bandcamp, so take a listen and see what you think.

Disraeli & Downlow – Everyone’s a Winner mixtape

Diszraeli, Brighton conscientious voice of urban poetry, has put out a hip hop mixtape with beats put together regular collaborator Downlow and additional rhymes from Dizraeli. You can download the whole mixtape from Bandcamp, or listen to the new Dizraeli & Downlow track which features in the mix on it’s own on Soundcloud.

Weekend Gig Picks

Posted on 09/10/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Last weekend’s gig pick post was all about quality not quantity, and we promised we’d be back this week bigger than ever. We’re still not scrimping on quality but we’re probably featuring more gigs this week than we ever have done.

We’re going to kick things off with a couple of gigs happening tonight. Normally we treat Thursday as the start of the weekend, but when two of favourite bands are playing we’d be fools not to give them a mention. IYES play their first ever headline show at the Prince Albert, which we’re very excited about. We’ve been huge fans since we first heard Lighthouse at the end of the year, and they haven’t disappointed since. Best of all it’s a free gig! Elsewhere, down at the Blind Tiger, Brighton Music Blog favourites The New Union are supporting Let’s Buy Happiness.

Thursday night is where we normally start our weekend gig round up, and the weekend proper is starting strong with Calico headlining Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar. Support comes from 900 Spaces and Blackwell, and it’s four pounds to get in. Meanwhile, Normanton Street are playing at the Mesmerist.

On Friday some more of our favourite bands are supporting at the same gig. Pawws are supported by the fantastic GAPS and Dog in the Snow (as well as Saint Savanna, who are local and new to us). And it’s a free gig – Green Door Store, you do spoil us. There’s also a free gig at the Blind Tiger, headlined by Transformer, with support from Eagles for Hands, whose new EP we love.

Saturday night’s big gig is the Physics House Party taking place at Sticky Mike’s. As well as the awesome Physics House Band, AK/DK, Alphabets Heaven and Suffer Like G Did are also playing. Over at Fitzherberts, Speak Galactic and Soft Arrows are playing at a night called Ruff Stuff, where Owen from Speak Galactic and some of his old bandmates from Cinemascopes are unveiling a new project called Merlin Tonto.

Rounding off the weekend nicely at Sticky Mike’s, Esben & The Witch play the Brighton leg of their national tour promoting Wash The Sins Not Only The Face. At the Green door store, there’s an event to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Gram Parsons early death in 1973, aged only 26. There’s loads of local bands getting involved – the list includes The Self Help Group, Dollboy, and Amy Hill plus various members of Laish, The Repeat Prescriptions, Super U, The Standard Lamps, Woodland Blue, The Pooh Sticks, Lolly & the City of Flies, Redlands Palomino Company, Englemann Spruce, and Lost Dog. Get there early enough and you’ll also get to see Pete Wiggs from Saint Etienne DJing before the live acts.

Cold Crows Dead – Guardian New Band of the Day

Posted on 08/10/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Congratulations to Cold Crows Dead, who are the Guardian’s New Band of the Day. I’ll be honest and say that they weren’t on my radar until now, except for reading the name as one of the supports for Electric Soft Parade’s London gig on 23rd October. Neither their Twitter or Facebook profiles mentions that they’re local which is why they’d passed me by. Anyway, their new single I Fear A New World is out on 2nd December (which actually isn’t too far away now) and the band play The Hope on 15th December. Electric Soft Parade described the lead track from their debut EP Ghost That Burned Your House Down as their tune of the year:

Weekend Gig Picks

Posted on 05/10/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Normally we post up our weekend gig picks on a Wednesday, but got a bit distracted this week. So we’ll keep things short and sweet this week and just pick out one for Saturday and one for Sunday. We promise that next week’s post will be bigger than ever.

House of Hats

When the House of Hats started their Harvest Sessions earlier this year, we thought it might have been a little unkind to pull them up on the fact that it wasn’t harvest season. It is now though, and it’s time for this month’s gig, headlined and curated by the band. This Saturday they’re joined at The Brunswick by Swell and Woodland Blue.

Back in June, The Hundredth Anniversary and Tyrannosaurus Dead appeared on a three-band mini-album called GUTS, alongside London band Gum. GUTS has now grown into a one day festival at the Green Door Store, featuring all three bands and a fair few others from Brighton and London. There’s full details, including set times, over on the Facebook event page.

New Music

Posted on 01/10/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Here’s our regular round up of the latest Brighton music that we’ve come across, and if we can’t write about that with a blog name like ours, what can we?

Palm Springs – Could You Be Wrong

We took delivery of the 7″ of Could You Be Wrong a few weeks ago, but because of a bit of confusion on our part we put off writing about it until we thought it was out. Only we got the release date wrong. The track is four minutes of solid indie pop, well produced with catchy sha-la-la’s drawing you into the chorus. We liked it enough to put into our September Top Five blog post even though we hadn’t written about the track by then, and that should tell you how good we think it is. Flip Side ‘The Wake Of Us’ with it’s spoken word verses is pretty tasty too.

The Beautiful Word – Eating Me, Eating You

Speaking of tasty things, the video for the Beautiful Word’s new single is literally a food fight. Eating Me, Eating You has come out in advance of the band’s album Particles which hits the shelves in about six weeks time.

GAPS – Belong

At the moment GAPS aren’t putting a foot wrong. After the double A side Keep You / Cascade back in the summer, the duo have put out the more acoustic sounding Belong as a free download. GAPS are on the bill at the Green Door Store next Friday (11th October) supporting Pawws.

Eagles for Hands – Lisbon EP

Eagles for Hands put up their new EP as a free download today (after previously being for sale). We don’t know how long it’s going to be free, so grab it while you can. Head straight for the lead track Lisbon, or the blissed out House of track 4, Peaks.

Momotaro – Reverie

Momotaro’s new track Reverie is also available as a free download, in exchange for signing up to their mailing list. Fans of Momotaro’s r’n’b influenced electronic dub should head down to Above Audio on 16th October, when they headline, or the Green Door Store next Monday, when they support Landshapes

Maker – Hopeless (Champione Remix)

Maker posted up the original version of Hopeless about a year ago, but it’s been given a new electro lease of life by Champione, who impressed us with his Home EP earlier this year. Subtle synth pop has been transformed into effervescent anthemic house.

Theo Verney – Heavy Sunn

Theo Verney’s Heavy Sun EP is out later this month on Hate Hate Hate records, but the lead track is up now for all to hear. Heavy choruses collide with deceptively pop verses. Flip side Count It Up can also be heard over on Hate Hate Hate records’ Soundcloud page.

Natasha Khan & Jon Hopkins – Garden’s Heart

Brian Eno protege Jon Hopkins has provided the score for upcoming film How I Live Now, and has roped in Bat For Lashes for the single that goes with the soundtrack. Garden’s Heart is out on Partlaphone next monday and as well as vocal and writing credits, Natasha Khan also directed the video.

September Top Five

Posted on 30/09/2013 by brightonmusicblog

We’ve been away for half of September, so this month we’re just doing a Top Five rather than our normal Top Ten. Any good stuff we like from the last week or two may well make it into next month’s list. Anyway, without further ado:

1) Dog in the Snow – Fire in the Sky

At the top of the pile this month is Helen Ganya Brown’s latest haunting offering, available as a free download through soundcloud, and with a video that just went up online today:

2) Palm Springs – Could You Be Wrong

We’re the ones who’ve got things wrong about the new Palm Springs single. Their label, Random Acts of Vinyl, sent us a copy a few weeks ago and there was a bit of a mix up with release dates and we haven’t got around to doing a write up yet, even though it’s been out for a few weeks. We’ll be giving it a proper write up soon, but in the meantime, let it be known that it’s one of favourite tracks of recent weeks:

3) Luo – Spiral Staircase

Luo keeps churning out great music, which he keeps giving out for free, and was awesome at Sound Screen at the Corn Exchange earlier this month. This is our favourite track from his latest EP Imprints:

4) Momotaro – Embers

We got turned onto to Momotaro care of the new Green Door Store fanzine which has been popping up all around town. They’ve got got a bunch of free downloads up on Soundcloud, and Embers has had a lot of plays at Brighton Music Blog HQ:

5) Nordic Giants – Violent Lights

We only heard Violent Lights less than a week ago, but we’re big fans of Nordic Giants so we couldn’t not include it. The Build Seas EP which it’s taken from is out tomorrow.

Nordic Giants – Violent Lights

Posted on 24/09/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Things have been a but quiet on the blog for the last week or so because I’m on holiday and have been off the internet, but the magical combination of an early rise brought on by jet lag, a hotel with wireless, and an exciting new track to tell you about has forced me to break my silence.

Violent Lights is the first track that’s surfaced from the Nordic Giants forthcoming Build Seas Dismantle Suns EP. It features vocals by Alex Hedley from Saturday Sun, who have been on the bill the last couple of times I’ve seen Nordic Giants, so if you were at any if those gigs you’ll have heard his tender, almost falsetto voice which suits the track perfectly.

The track is just what you’d expect from Nordic Giants – an ambient atmospheric beginning that builds to their trademark epic sound, with a breathtaking drop a minute before the end preceding an awesome aural onslaught.

The EP is being released in two parts, with the Build Seas half coming out next week on 1st October. Nordic Giants play a headline show at the Concorde 2 on 30th October.

Flash Bang Band album launch

Gallery

Posted on 16/09/2013 by brightonmusicblog

This gallery contains 3 photos.

Flash Bang Band launched their brilliant new album ‘Bite Your Tongue’ at a free gig at the Green Door Store last night. If you haven’t bought it yet, it comes very highly recommended. They were ably supported at the launch … Continue reading →

Gig Previews

Posted on 13/09/2013 by brightonmusicblog

We’re going to be out of town for a few weeks, so it’ll be a bit quiet on the blog, but before we go, here’s a few gigs that are on while we’re away that we think you ought to be at.

Friday 20th September – Brighton Dome Source New Music Special headlined by Bitbin

There’s already been one Source New Music this month but since Brighton Digital Festival is on at the moment, a second one is taking place. Headliner Bitbin will be collaborating with visual artists metaLuna. Champion Fever will also be performing a live set alongside DJ sets from Spacenoid, Alphabets Heaven and the Beatabet collective.

Saturday 28th September – RSPB Charity gig : The Bobby McGees supporting Grace Petrie at the Blind Tiger

A little while back the RSPB put on a charity gig headlined by Mary Hampton. It’s a great way to engage with a Brighton audience who are regular gig goers but whose main interaction with birds is seagulls waking them up at five o clock in the morning. The local contribution at this gig comes from The Bobby McGees, who would be worth going to see even if it wasn’t a charity gig.

Tuesday 1st October – Communion Records Night at the Haunt with Us Baby Bear Bones and George Ezra (and Teen Creeps DJs)

Communion Records are relaunching their club nights and are coming to the Haunt on 1st October. The full line up features live sets from Royal Blood, Fossil Collective, Us Baby Bear Bones, Trouble with Templeton and George Ezra in what promises to be a fantastic night.