Fear of Men Supporting Best Coast

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For a Brighton band* Fear of Men don’t play that much in Brighton. So far this year, they’ve played as part of the Sea Monsters mini-festival, and also played a set during The Great Escape, so their support set for Best Coast is the first opportunity of 2012 to see them on a decent sized stage. The band have been supporting Best Coast for most of their UK tour, which is a bit of a coup for a band with only a clutch of singles to their name so far, and the homecoming gig is also the final date of the tour.

Fear of Men

It was an early gig anyway, because of a club night later on at Coalition, and Fear of Men’s set started at a ridiculously early 7.15pm, but by then the venue was already getting busy. For about half an hour, they filled a few seafront arches with their melodic guitar pop – catchy, tuneful melodies with fuzzy guitar around the edges, owing as much of a debt to Sarah Records releases of the late eighties as it does to the wave of female fronted indie bands of the nineties – songs that might not fill stadiums, but that you’ll form much more of an emotional attachment to. It’s a similar trick to that played by Pains of Being Pure at Heart – the familiarity of alternative music from the past but pulled off with a modern style that they make their own. In no time at all, the band are closing their set with new single Green Sea. I reckon it’s about time they came back and played a headline set.

Jess Weiss of Fear of Men

Later on, Spectrals from Leeds plays for a bit (sad songs, because they were one man down, apparently), and then Best Coast headlined. They started nervously with the lead track from their new album The Only Place, but quickly hit their stride rattling through their back catalogue, finishing up with Spectrals joining them onstage for their last track – a tradition which apparently started last time both bands played in Brighton. A great night!

Best Coast

*well, partly Brighton – some of them are Londoners, but they’re that good that we’ll keep them for ourselves.

Jennifer Left single launch at the Blind Tiger

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Jennifer Left’s debut single Black Dog came out a few weeks ago, and last night she held the launch party for it at the Blind Tiger Club. Support came from Cate Ferris and the Peppermint Beat Band.

Cate Ferris had a tricky job as opener of the night – Set times were already pushed back because of the football and when she took to the stage things were still quite quiet, but by the end of the set the venue was full and she had everyone eating out of the palm of her hand. Playing predominantly new material, some of which has been recorded by Tim Bidwell (who also produced Jennifer Left’s single) to be released as an EP sometime in the next couple of months, Cate played guitar, drums, flute, and keyboards, and used samplers to loop her sounds and harmonise with herself. Expect to read a lot more about Cate on the blog in the next few weeks as we get more details of her single and her flashmob on 1st July…

Next up were The Peppermint Beat Band, a tight five piece retro rock’n’roll group, originally from Northampton but who’ve been based in Brighton for the past few years. Their trousers were as tight as their harmonies, and their facial hair was quite something too.

The Peppermint Beat Band

Finally this month’s Source cover star hit the stage. The band’s songs bring together a wide range of influences, from folk to jazz to pop and back again, all underpinned by Jennifer Left’s distinctive smoky voice. Band members swapped instruments, picking up a variety of guitars and basses, a mandolin, some keyboard based instruments, including an accordian and a xylophone (which almost fell apart on it’s way to the stage), as well as trumpet. Despite not yet being released yet, the songs sounded accomplished and familiar – old yet new at the same time. Time flew by and before we knew it the set was being closed with the song that the whole evening was celebrating, new single Black Dog.

Jennifer Left

Gigs on Thursday 21st June

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Living in Brighton is fantastic, because there’s always something happening. Sometimes though, it can feel that there’s not enough hours in the day to do everything you want to, and thursday is one of those nights. There’s three gigs on, at the Pavillion Theatre, at the Green Door Store and at Coalition that I’d like to be at. The one I’ll be going to will be the one I bought a ticket to before finding out about the others!

First of the three is the Source New Music Night at Pavilion Theatre. Sparrow are headlining,  and they’re supported by Rain Eater, Arthur and the Irrational and Tyrannosaurus Dead. I normally do my best to get along to the Source Nights, because they’re great for new bands and an absolute bargain at only four pounds. Next month’s – headlined by Sweet Sweet Lies – is already in the calendar.

Then we’ve got The New Union at Green Door Store, who really impressed us supporting Clock Opera a few weeks ago. And that’s even more of a bargain, because it’s free! We’re big fans of the Peter Saville style posters – there are four different varieties each relating to a different band member.

The gig I’ll be at though, will be Best Coast and Fear of Men at Coalition. Here’s the video for their new single Green Sea. Expect a few words and maybe some pictures on the gig later this week.

Hopefully you’ll make it along to one of these, or one of the many other gigs going on all round town. You’re spoiled for choice!

 

new single : Shrag / Show Us Your Canines

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Slightly late to the party on this, the new Shrag single Show Us Your Canines came out last week. The single is the lead track from their forthcoming album Canines and shows the band in fine form, typical lo fi indie with boy/girl vocals. We can’t wait for the LP to come out, but  in the meantime, the 7″ is in the shops now, and the video is on youtube:

New Videos : Jennifer Left, Fear of Men, Nimmo & The Gauntletts

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Here’s a few new videos for you to watch, including two bands who are both playing in town next week. We’ve written about the first two before, but when we did, the videos weren’t ready yet, so here they are now.

First up is Jennifer Left with her new single Black Dog (which we wrote about here). Jennifer is having a single launch at the Blind Tiger on Tuesday, supported by Cate Ferris and The Peppermint Beat Band

 

We wrote about the new Fear of Men single Green Sea ages ago, and it’s finally released on Monday. Fear of Men are supporting Best Coast on tour at the moment, and they play Coalition on thursday.

 

Finally we have Nimmo and the Gauntletts, with the lead track from their debut EP Young Light. The EP came out in January, but the video’s only just been made:

New free Munich download / Just Like You

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Have you downloaded the new track that Munich are giving away yet? Because if you haven’t, you ought to. We gave it a re-tweet last week, but it deserves a post all of it’s own, because it’s such a great track. It starts off with beautiful cascading guitars, like Doves or Vampire Weekend on a good day, but like all the best Munich tracks it morphs into a huge epic tune by the end. A true anthem for the summer!

 

Kovak and Heliopause at NXNE

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Congratulation to Kovak and Heliopause, who are representing Brighton at this year’s NXNE festival in Toronto. This might not sound like a big deal, but there are only ten bands from the UK out of the 780 who are playing (and here’s something for the people from The Great Escape to think about – about half the bands playing are from Toronto)

Heliopause are performing here:

14th June – 10pm Czehoski

15th June – 4:15pm Six2Seven

15th June – 10pm Cameron House

Kovak are performing here:

15th June – 10:00pm El Mocambo

16th June – 7:00pm The Mod Club

Hope it all goes fantastically!

Fragile Creatures debut single

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After spending the last few months honing their sound, today Fragile Creatures unleash their debut single onto thje world today, released digitally through DNVMusic.

The single is a double A-side – Dear Michael is laid back, shuffling indie pop with organs, brushes on the drums and lush harmonies. She Makes Me Nervous is a more up-beat affair, and off kilter stomper which switches tempo between verse and chorus. The video for the single isn’t out there just yet, but I’ll update the blog when it is.

Fragile Creatures have just been to Normandy to record their album, which they’re hoping will be out by the end of the year. Between now and then, they’re playing at Latest on 29th June, Brighton People’s Day on 14th July, and if recent activity has been anything to go by, dozens of other dates too.

new single : Moulettes / Sing Unto Me

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Back in April The Moulettes had their single launch at The Marlborough. Two months on, it’s about time they actually released it. Held back by a combination of trying to tie things in with their multitude of festival appearances, and pressing plant delays caused by bank holidays, Sing Unto Me finally hits the shops next monday.

Sing Unto Me is the lead single from the Moulettes new album The Bear’s Revenge. In a bit of a departure from most of their tracks, lead singer Hannah Miller takes on guitar rather than ‘cello duties, but the overall sound is very familiar – tight female harmonies sung in the round, and a folk rhythm section made up of guitar, fiddle, bodhran, and any other bits of percussion that come to hand as well as double bass from Ted Dwane from Mumford and Sons.

Being the generous sorts they are, the single comes with a bumper six tracks – as well as a single edit, there’s a remix, a cover by fellow Brightonians The Muel, and a handful of b-sides including live favourite Are You Going Away To Sea, which is probably the track that made me fall in love with them in the first place.

The band are going to have a very busy summer. If you happen to be at any of the following festivals, I heartily recommend you go and see them:

  • 07/06 Irish Cultural Centre, Derry, Northern Ireland
  • 08/06 Marlboro House, Bundoran, Donegal
  • 09/06 ‘Gentlemen Of The Road’ Salthill Pk Galway – w/Mumford & Sons
  • 10/06 The Slate, Cork – on at 5.30pm, *before* the football!
  • 06/07 Nova Festival
  • 21/7 Secret Garden Party – Three gigs in one day! 5pm @ Onetaste, 8-ish @ Small World, 11.30pm-ish @ Cut-A-Shine
  • 29/07 Cambridge Folk Festival (Den Stage)
  • 03/08 Playgroup Fest – 5pm Main Stage
  • 04/08 Nottingham Riverside Festival
  • 12/08 Greenwich Summer Festival
  • 25/08 Purbeck Folk Festival
  • 26/08 Rhythm Festival
  • 02/09 End Of The Road Festival
  • 07/09 Bestival Isle Of Wight
  • 29/09 Life Centre, Bournemouth
  • 06/10 Musicport Festival, Whitby
  • 21/10 Lewes ‘Apple Festival’

Anneka supporting Com Truise at The Haunt 5/6/12

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It was a British Bank Holiday, therefore it must be raining. It seems to be raining nearly every time I go to the Haunt. But last night it was definitely worth braving the weather, as new-in-town promoters TEA put on Com Truise with support from Anneka, who’s a local artist who we haven’t written about on the blog yet.

Com Truise

Com Truise was fantastic, filling the room with big crunchy beats. But Seth Haley, as his mum calls him, isn’t a Brightonian so let’s devote the rest of this blog post to the support. There’s a chance you may have heard of Anneka already – She’s collaborated with the likes of Falty DL, Starkey, Ital Tek, Vex’d and Blue Daisy on records that have been all over BBC 6Music, Radio 1 and XFM, and now she’s starting to perform on her own.

So many solo female electronic artists get compared to Bjork, and often it’s a very lazy comparison on the journalists part and one that doesn’t tell you a great deal about the artist either, so let’s refine it a bit and then justify it: Anneka’s music sounds like Bjork’s around Post / Homogenic – Music that would sound as good on the dancefloor as it would on the radio, or through headphones. The sound is heavy on the bass, but the rest of the musical spectrum isn’t ignored, nor are melodies or song structures. Vocally, Anneka isn’t so much like Bjork – she doesn’t attempt the vocal acrobatics or growls – but her voice does have strength, warmth and character.

Anneka

In a live environment Anneka didn’t just hide behind her computer and augmented the those sounds with live vocals, extra keys and percussion making for a far more interesting experience, and the sound setup in The Haunt deserves a mention for sounding so good – loud but without being overbearing. In her short twenty minute set as well as half a dozen of her own tunes Anneka also covered PJ Harvey’s Electric Light, using the original as a base, transforming PJ’s simple mantra into something epic:

Anneka is definitely an act to watch out for. Go and see her somewhere with great sound sooner rather than later because before long, if there’s any justice, she’ll be too big for anywhere in Brighton.

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