For this week’s gig picks, we’ve got tie-ins with two different festivals and some local media big hitters putting on gigs, as well as a few other odds and sods.
You may have heard that Brighton Digital Festival is on in town at the moment and as part of that Pop Up Brighton return with their Sound Screen event, bringing together local bands with international visual artists. On Thursday night at the Corn ExchangePhoria, Luo and The Hundredth Anniversary play to a backdrop of visual collaborations that the bands and video artists have been working together on for the last six weeks. Meanwhile Time for T headline at the Hope for Brightonsfinest, with Gypsy Switch, Paper Hawk and Prisoners Cinema also playing, and Monsters Build Mean Robots and Spacenoid are on the bill at Brighton Noise / Nice Weather For Airstrike’s Industroika gig at the Prince Albert.
On Friday Night Lloyd Williams and Ellie Ford launch their debut release at St Mary’s Church, Black Rooster Black Shag headline the Prince Albert, and Bad for Lazarus play Sticky Mike’s.
Saturday night is the third of The Haunt and Juice Brighton’s short run of weekly gigs. This week they have Them The Sky, Garden Heart, and Paper Hawk on the line up. It’s also the first of this month’s two Source New Music Nights (they’re hosting another on 20th as part of Brighton Digital Festival). This one is curated by Wildwood Promotions and is headlined by Alex White’s Interlocutor, with Red River Dialect, Octopuses and Herb Denton’s Last Dime playing too. Finally, it’s the Over The Moon Festival’s pre-party at the Blind Tiger, with a line up that includes Eagles for Hands, Mitch Wade Cole, Platypi, Eone and Murder He Wrote.
Here are the top tunes that were on the Brighton Music Blog stereo in August. As always, the diversity of the music being made in this city is impressive, from retro garage to chilled electronica and everything inbetween.
1) Spit Shake Sisters – Modern Drugs Make Aliens
Our most listened to track of the last month wasn’t a proper single, and was just put out to bring Spit Shake Sister’s output up to date following a change in personnel. Modern Drugs Make Aliens wasn’t even the lead song on the two track download. But nevertheless we’re big fans of this Hammond led hip swinger.
2) Electric Soft Parade – 1969
1969 is a popular year for songwriters. Serge Gainsbourg, Iggy Pop and, er, Bryan Adams have all taken advantage of writing about a year that recalls a time of free love, which also has a lot of rhymes. I’m sure the innuendo has nothing to do with it’s popularity. Now it’s Electric Soft Parade’s turn, putting out the summery guitar pop of 1969 as a free download from their label’s website.
3) Adolescent – Shy
Shy came out on an electronica compilation called Coast to Coast put out by Irish blog Believe In Sound. Call us biased, but in our opinion the Brighton track with the best thing on it. You can download the whole compilation for free on bandcamp.
4) Bon Iver – Wash (Foreign Skin remix)
Bon Iver’s not from Brighton, I hear you say. Well, no – but Flavia Aliverti, better known as Foreign Skin, is. We were won over by her set at Two Three Four at Green Door Store at the start of the month, and not long after this rather lovely unofficial remix turned up on SoundCloud and Bandcamp (see the links underneath the video on YouTube). Grab it before it disappears
5) The Hundredth Anniversary – Last Drive
The Hundredth Anniversary continue to put out high quality shoegaze, and Last Drive is no exception. Head over to the website they created to go with the track, play with the visuals, and download the track to listen to at your leisure.
6) The Raving Beauties – Oh Lover
At The Helm is a new Brighton based label from the guys behind Brighthelmstone promotions and Wildwood promotions, and the sunny Americana of Oh Lover is their first release
7) Phantom Runners – It Takes Me Away
We only heard this last week, but we loved it on first listen. We heard some very exciting news about who might be producing the Phantom Runners next EP, but we think it might be a secret so all we’ll say is keep your eyes and ears peeled.
8) Samuel Organ – E/\/\ER/\LD
The Physics House Band’s own label Kaleidoscope put out their second release this month, a three track solo EP called Y by Physics House Band member Samuel Organ. It’s not easy listening by any means, but neither is a lot of Aphex Twin’s output, which this track feels like it could be a natural heir to.
9) P For Persia – Uncanny Valley
Uncanny Valley got reviewed by Drowned In Sound, who described it as “a Twin Peaks remix done on an Atari by Fuck Buttons channelling their inner Kid606, before asking a bunch of shouty screamo kids to come in and do some vocals.”. They didn’t mention that it was just one track on a split EP with Speak Galactic, that the EP was called Aegis Arctic Alp, or that it was coming out on purple vinyl, all of which makes it an even more exciting prospect.
10) Flash Bang Band / Screw Come Loose
The second track in our top ten from At The Helm Records, Screw Come Loose, is the single that’s come out to promote the new Flash Bang Band album Bite Your Tongue. The album is out now and features some of their older singles (If You’re Driving and DananananaFreud). The launch party is at the Green Door Store on 15th September, where they’ll be joined by P For Persia and Clowns.
We had big plans for Friday night – we were going to head down to the Blind Tiger for Les Enfants Terribles which I’d read was an early gig, then catch Yumi & The Weather headlining Juice FM’s night at the Haunt. But then it turned out that the Juice night was an early gig too which put pay to that plan. We also wanted to pop into Brighton Electric on the way home for their all night, but that didn’t seem like such a great idea with work in the morning.
So we only made one of the three gigs we wanted to, but it was a good one. My New Favourite Tribe have only just put out their first single, but judging by the rest of their set there are great things to come. I would probably have enjoyed Salt Ashes set more had it been a PA in Audio at 2 o clock in the morning, but what a voice! I’ve been wanting to see Bent Cousin since I first heard them earlier this year and they didn’t disappoint. They’ve got catchy songs which work even better live than the recordings, and on top of that they’ve got heaps more charisma that most local bands.
Saturday night was more of a success, mainly because we had much more achievable ambitions for the evening. We only wanted to see the one band – The Space Agency – who were launching their new single Bombay Potatoes at the Horse and Groom in Hanover. The Space Agency are another band who’ve been on my wish list of bands to see for a while, and they were fantastic. I don’t get to write about Surf Rock nearly enough on the blog, and the band – who also rotated instruments midway through the gig and played a set as their alter ego The Get Smashed – had talent and tunes in great abundance.
Here’s out pics from the gigs. Click through to view large:
It’s barely been a week since we updated you with the new music that we’ve heard about, but our mailbox has been overflowing with loads of tunes and videos. Here’s what we’ve heard:
We heard about the new Phantom Runners just this afternoon. It Takes Me Away is lovely jangly late 80s / early 90s sounding indie, and is probably our favourite out of this post’s selection:
New State Masses are a new band formed from the ashes of previous projects foiled by the machinations of the music industry. So far there’s only a few tracks up on Soundcloud, and we rather like the mournful Somehow, Someday which we’re featuring here, but they’ll have a single out later this year called Keep The Love which we’ll tell you more about as we hear it.
Last Heir‘s new video was filmed down on the beach, and it looks like it was on the nudist beach, although they’re all fully clothed. Monkey Heart is a catchy slice of guitar pop, which is available as a free download if you follow the link underneath the video.
We wrote about Gudjohr‘s last EP back in February. In Tandem is his new seven track mini-LP, which is a bit less acoustic, but no less endearing. It’s available as a name-your-price download on Bandcamp.
Wake Up by My New Favourite Tribe was released this week and is out on iTunes and the other usual suspects. It’s wonky electro pop, not a million miles from Hot Chip, or early nineties synthpop band Beloved. My New Favourite Tribe play at Les Enfants Terribles at the Blind Tiger this friday.
Bright Lightbulbs is King of Cats’ contribution to a new split single with Ides coming out on 9th September on Reeks of Effort. It’s a bit lo fi and a bit like marmite – you’ll either love it or hate it. You can go and watch the video over at The Line of Best Fit – As much as I try I haven’t been able to embed it here!
Finally we have a video from Flash Pan Hunter. Overcome Love With The Devil is a stripped back acoustic version of the original which is on his new album Quick Way To Enemy which came out a week or two ago. The video was filmed at Tim Bidwell’s Clockwork Owl Studios up in Kemptown.
It seems a bit early in the week to be posting up our regular weekend gig picks post, but we normally do it on a Wednesday, so here we are.
Tomorrow night’s gig pick is House of Hats, who are supporting alt folk legend Mark Mulcahy at Latest Music Bar.
There a loads of great gigs on Friday night – Les Enfants Terribles put on one of their regular gigs at the Blind Tiger with Salt Ashes, My New Favourite Tribe and Bent Cousin. Juice FM also have an all Brighton bill at The Haunt, with Yumi & The Weather, Astrid’s Tea Party and Bella Feud playing. Meanwhile Brighton Electric are holding a summer party, with Dog in the Snow, Jungfrau, Momotaro and Dissonants.
Saturday night’s choice is The Space Agency who are launching their new single Bombay Potatoes at the Horse & Groom.
Standing out from the crowd is an age old dilemma. It’s not too many years ago that a digital release was a novelty, but now it’s the default. To get a bit more attention for their new single, The Hundredth Anniversary have set up a website. You can play the track, download the track, show the lyrics and create your own video by cycling through a series of visual loops.
Last Drive is slow motion shoe gaze, with thick slabs of guitars and desolate vocals. You can download it at lastdrive.thehundredthanniversary.com (along with everything I described above)
This is not a live album. But this might just be the best album of songs you will hear all year. It’s certainly one of the most fun and enjoyable.
This is not a live album although it was recorded live in a single 5 hour session at the home of Dave ‘the Well’, somewhere near St Ann’s Well’s gardens in Hove. Danny Green’s band had just come off the road after a successful tour and were on the top of their game, sounding as tight as tight can be. So basically, what you get here is a top band with an inventive neu-folk sound running through their full live set, ostensibly for a Simple Folk Radio session but without the annoyance of an audience or sub-standard recording normally necessitated by the ‘live’ environment. In fact, with Dave ‘the Well’ at the controls you’re getting a totally crisp and fresh re-working of a terrific collection of songs, some of which haven’t made it on to a Laish release before. I guess this is what recording the Beatles First LP was like (yep, and the sound here is definitely that good).
And it really is a terrific collection of songs.
The set starts with a reworking of ‘Visions’ from their new Obituaries album, and like many of the songs from that excellent album it is sounding new and refreshed here, clearly benefitting from time on the road and the crystal clear recording facilitated by the Well’s studio.
Second song ‘Warm the Wind’ is a Brighton Music Blog single of the year – a brilliant and hilarious song about a desperate man’s attempt to warm his partner’s heart, to little avail. Love is an object it says, something to make.- and he wants to make some. The ironic soft soothing backing vocals from the girls in the band are joyful, the playful whisps and turns of the backing musicians immaculate. Where else do you get to hear James Joyce mentioned in song?
And so it goes on. You get ‘Carry Me’, the song of the brilliant video about the penguin and the horse and Danny Green as some sort of guitar-playing hedgehog. Other songs from the Obituaries album (Vague, Discipline etc) have been reborn through touring and sound fresh and original in Dave’s recording. From the first album, ‘In the morning’, one of the most perfect love songs that wasn’t written by Neil Young. The marvellous ‘A Happy Accident’, about the chance in birth and life (that song about a hole in a condom) with the reaffirming refrain “I don’t know what to do with myself, I should probably just give up and try somethng else” (but no, don’t).
‘I am enraged’ which has featured in the Laish live set for some time but never made it onto a recording until now is probably the best song about Lewes or rather anti-Lewes, as a symbol of the compromises we have to make in life. The interplay between the band is electric. And then there’s the beautiful ‘We Speak the Mantra’, a perfect song for today’s austerity times, about being poor and staying strong. I guess Danny thinks he doesn’t do politics, but this is a very good political song, wrapped up in warmth and love and (as the song Vague declares, typically of Green’s songwriting) “full of pathos”.
The last song ends on a note of optimism, with a reminder that “we always have a choice”. You have a choice. Listen to this album or miss out on one of the most vital vibrant songwriters currently at work in Brighton or anywhere.
Robin Coward and his band yourgardenday launched their new EP ‘flat stream’ at St Andrew’s Church on Friday night. They were ably supported by an array of extrordinary Brighton talent in the form of Sophie Reid, Zoe Hazel and Bella Kardasis.
Brighton Music Blog was there to witness a celebration of new local music.
Next Monday Flash Bang Band release their new album Bite Your Tongue on At The Helm records. We’ll be doing a full write up on that in full course, and with any luck interviewing the band too. In the meantime though, here’s their new single, Screw Come Loose, complete with retro green screen effects. The single is out now digitally, available via the usual suspects.
It’s a bank holiday weekend, so we’ve got a bumper round of gigs to tell you about this week, extending all the way out to Monday.
On Thursday night Juice FM return to the Haunt for a series of gigs showcasing local bands that they’re calling IntroJuice-ing. On the first of these DrDr launch their new EP with support from Dirty Damn Humans and Vaude Villains. It’s also the first night of Fragile Creatures residency at The Blind Tiger, and they’re joined by Mynie Moe. As well as that, TigerBiteFever launch their Love Is Strange EP at Latest Music Bar.
There’s another two launches on Friday night. Speak Galactic and P For Persia launch their split 12” at the Green Door Store, and yourgardenday launch their Flat Stream EP at St Andrews Church.
Late night on saturday at Sticky Mikes, The Repeat Prescriptions play their last show for a while, supported by The Space Agency.
At The Edge of the Sea is a festival curated by The Wedding Present which has been running at the Concorde over the August Bank Holiday Weekend for a good few years now. This year The Wedding Present play George Best on Saturday and The Hit Parade A-sides on Sunday. Support comes from his 90s pop incarnation Cinerama playing the two sides of their debut Va Va Voom across both nights, and a whole host of supports including Brightonians Dog In The Snow, Pete Fij & Terry Bickers and Monster Bobby.
Finally, if you’re still standing come Monday night, get down to the Green Door Store where Kill Moon headline, with Puppet Kings, The Hunger Pact and The Downing Street Years also on the bill.
On Friday Night Lloyd Williams and Ellie Ford launch their debut release at St Mary’s Church, Black Rooster Black Shag headline the Prince Albert, and Bad for Lazarus play Sticky Mike’s.
Brighton Music Blog 