The Brighton Music Blog Great Escape Special

Posted on 13/05/2013 by brightonmusicblog

This week is Brighton’s biggest week for music. As if there wasn’t enough going on in Brighton with the Festival and the Fringe we also have The Great Escape, when the music industry takes a weekend away from London and decamps to our brilliant city. I won’t go on about how criminally under-represented Brighton bands are in the main festival, because most of the Alternative Escape is made up of local acts, and most of the Alternative Escape is free. Don’t take this as a slur on the value of the Great Escape – with tickets available for less than fifty quid, it’s no wonder that it was sold out weeks ago.

Here’s a some of the Brighton based musicians playing this weekend. I don’t claim that this is an exhaustive list (although if you’re not on this list, it could mean that Brighton Music Blog doesn’t know about you, so get in touch). And being a festival, there’s definitely no promises about stage times! There’s plenty more info over on the Great Escape Website, and on their smartphone app, and it’s worth signing up to the text alerts over the weekend too. And if you can’t make it, we’ll be posting up some of our photos next week (once we’ve recovered!)

Wednesday

At Jubilee Square, there’s Abi Wade at 5pm, and Jennifer Left at 7pm
Latest7 are hosting an event at Latest music bar, obviously – Warsaw Radio are 8.15 – 8.45, Simonne & The Dark Stars are 9 – 9.30, and Nick Williams 9.45 – 10:15
Pull The Plug are at the Mucky Duck, headlined by Luke Sital Singh
Never Been Kissed promotions are at The Hope, with a selection of Brighton and Hastings bands, headlined by Plasticine who are on at 10.45pm

Thursday

Kinnie The Explorer take on a residency on Resonance’s stage – They’re every day at the Brighthelm Centre at 1.30pm
Noisescape is Brighton Noise’s all day event at Moshi Moshi – their line up is: 1pm Cat Fire Radio, 2.25 Monsters Build Mean Robots, 3.50 Black Black Hills, 5.15 Us Baby Bear Bones, 6.40 AK/DK, 8.05 Dark Horses, 9.30 Nordic Giants
Boon Magazine and Two Sisters Records are at Fitzherberts from 7pm : TigerCub 7.15, The New Union 8pm, The Red Lapels 8.45, IC1s 9.30 , Demob Happy 10:15
Spindle Magazine / Les Enfants Terribles are at The Mesmerist – TigerCub are on at 2.30pm, Curxes are at 6.55pm, with The Wytches headlining at 22:15
Fear of Men are on at Latest at 9pm at a night put on by London in Stereo and Fear of Fiction
Southsea Fest are hosting at the Black Dove, and Curxes are playing at 8.50

Friday

Emma Gatrill is playing at the Fountainhead for Neighbourhood’s all day event. No details of what time she’s on, but looking at the line up it’ll be mid-afternoon
The Wytches are on of the first bands on at Republic of Music‘s event at the Shipwrights Yard on Middle Street. They’re on at 12:55
The Line of Best Fit are hosting at the Unitarian Church – Luke Sital Singh is on at 9.45pm
Drowned in Sound at hosting three nights over the weekend. On Friday they’re at Saint Mary’s Church and Martin Rossiter plays at 8pm
Brighton Music Blog favourites IYES are on at the Blind Tiger at 8.30pm
The Wytches are at The Haunt at 9.15pm
Fiddlers Elbow have a few Brighton acts on – Luke Sital Singh is on at 4pm, Nick Williams is at 6pm
Beatcast and Dirty Bingo are at 10 Below (formerly The Jazz Place). Fear of Mean play at 9.15pm
Alcopop records host twelve hours of music at the Pav Tav. Tall Ships and Jumping Ships are amongst the bands playing
Then if you’re still standing there’s an afterparty at Brighton Electric – From 20pm there’s Dog in the Snow (acoustic), Jacko Hooper (acoustic), Wild Cat Strike, Hundredth Anniversary, Us Baby Bear Bones, AK/DK, Spacenoid, and Physics House Band DJs

Saturday

The St Ann’s Well Gardens Festival is part of this year’s Alternative Escape – their bill includes Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer at 12.30, Jennifer Left at 1.40, Traams at 2.30, and Jake Shillingford playing a My Life Story set at 15:10
The Beautiful Word play Common Tongue‘s event at The Black Dove at 6.20pm
In ther afternoon The Fiddlers Elbow The Move Ons are on at 2pm, and Matt Carpanini is on at 3pm
The Recommender’s have their annual Blog Up Party at The Mesmerist. It’s not just and event for bloggers, there are bands for everyone and IYES play at 15:20
Kins play not one but two shows as part of the main festival on saturday, at the Green Door Store @ 15:30, and at the Brighthelm Centre at 20:30
Milk No Sugar cafe on Trafalgar Street sees Donna Fullman at 2:30, Warsaw Radio at 3:15 and Nick Williams at 4pm
Brighton Promoters Cable Club are at Sticky Mikes – Two Jackals are on at 2:10pm and Written in Waters are on at 3pm
Fools Paradise vs Bad Math is at the Pav Tav , and Tyrannosaurus Dead play at 8pm
The amazing Physics House Band are on at the Concorde 2 at 8.30pm, and then at 9.15 there’s Tall Ships
80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster play at 9.45pm at Coalition
Last, but by no means least there’s an Under The Influence Billy Bragg special at Fitzherberts, and The Bobby McGees play at 10.10pm

Gallery : Club Berlin – Das Fenster, AK/DK, La Momo

Posted on 10/05/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Last time we went to Club Berlin Jennifer Left and Dom from Sweet Sweet lies played at The Jive Monkey in Kemptown. Since then the Jive Monkey has closed down and Club Berlin has had to find a new home, which they’ve done in the Green Door Store where they were last night. La Momo (featuring Crayola Lectern on guitar) opened the evening, followed by half an hour of improvised synths from AK/DK before a headline set from Das Fenster. Fujiya and Miyagi were DJing between acts, but they were in the dark so they avoided my lens. Actually, for the most part AK/DK were in the dark too!

As usual, click on the images to view large:

Gallery : Noise Night #4 – Milk & Biscuits

Posted on 09/05/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Our friends over at Brighton Noise have been putting on nights at the Green Door Store for a few months now, but shame on us – this is the first one we’ve made it along to. The big draw for us was Milk and Biscuits whose new single Hairstyles comes out next month, and whose set was made up entirely from their upcoming album Spirit Nap.

Click on the images to view full size.

New videos from The Beautiful Word and Jacko Hooper

Posted on 08/05/2013 by brightonmusicblog

After a few days break for the bank holiday weekend, it’s back to the blog. Today we’ve got a couple of videos for you:

First up is The Beautiful Word’s new single Particles. The video’s out now, but the launch party is going to be on 3rd of June. More details as we get them. The song’s a lot more pop and a lot less twee than we’re used to from the Beautiful Word. It’s still unmistakeably them – it wouldn’t be a Beautiful Word track without Emily and Megan’s lovely close harmonies – but this could well be the best thing they’ve done.

We’ve also got the latest upload from Jacko Hooper, a very smooth, very classy cover of Fly Me To The Moon. He’s got another new track being uploaded soon, but until then, we’re more than happy with this. Jacko will be playing at the Great Escape Aftershow Party at Brighton Electric, alongside Dog in the Snow, The Hundredth Anniversary, Us Bear Baby Bones, AK/DK and Spacenoid.

IYES – Daddy

Posted on 02/05/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Brighton Music Blog favourites IYES have posted a new track online, which shows a new side to the band. Daddy is a seven minute long house number, which is a little bit baggy and a little bit balearic. It’s stripped of the vocals which characterised Lighthouse and Glow, but the one thing it has in common with the previous two tracks, one of the things that strikes you is how good it sounds. There’s something really clever going on with reverb and stereo, but don’t go overthinking about it, just enjoy it. You can hear it online by watching the youtube video above, or you can get a free download to listen whenever you like by signing up to their mailing list.

AK/DK – Dispatch #3

Posted on 02/05/2013 by brightonmusicblog

We wrote a preview of the AK/DK single launch which took place last week, at the Source New Music Night at the Dome Studio theatre, but we didn’t actually write anything about the release.

Dispatches #3 is coming out soon on download and limited cassette, with gorgeous packaging. The main track Battersea is up now as a free download – it’s a crazy lock groove analogue synth driven number which sounds like Stereolab’s ADHD kid brother, which captures a bit of the energy and attitude of their legendary live sets. The full track list of the release is:

Battersea
Punk Music Mass
Jello With Mimi
Battersea [Checked Slice’s Corrupt File Mix]
Battersea [Mechacoustic Mix]
Battersea [Man Ray Sky Mix]
Battersea [Champion Fever Mix]

Anneka – Deliver video

Posted on 02/05/2013 by brightonmusicblog

We don’t get to write about Anneka nearly enough on the blog, so we were pleased when an email dropped into inbox earlier today telling us about a new track of hers that has been posted.

Deliver was recorded at Brighton Electric, and features a lot less beats than those who’ve seen her live might expect, although it feels like it might burst into a huge dancefloor track at any point. The backbone of the track is what sounds like a looped vocal sample, but is actually played live on pads. I’ve compared Anneka to Bjork before, and Deliver is another track worthy of that comparison, sounding like it wouldn’t be out of place amongst some of the more experimental tracks from the Post era. We love it!

Levellers 25th Anniversary show (updated)

Posted on 02/05/2013 by brightonmusicblog

UPDATE – CHANGE OF VENUE

Following on from all of the tickets selling in the blink of an eye, the gig has been moved to a bigger venue – The gig will now be held at The Dome, and further tickets have been released.

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In a roundabout way, The Levellers are partly responsible for this blog. No, really. They were the first band I saw live who were associated with where I was living. I grew up on the suburbs of London and while there might have been bands who associated themselves with London, seeing them in London would have still been an hour’s journey on public transport.

In the summer of 1993 the band headlined a night at a free festival in Stanmer Park, just a walk over the fields from Sussex Uni where I was studying. Eighteen year old me thought it was very cool that a band who I’d heard on the radio, whose cds my friends from other parts of the country owned, would be playing a free gig in their hometown, my hometown. It would be another eight years before Fatboy Slim did something similar with the first Big Beach Boutique.

Fast forward to 2013 and the band are celebrating their 25th birthday. The Levellers don’t play much in Brighton these days but to commemorate the landmark they’re playing a one off show on Friday 19th July at The Dome ~~St Barts church just off London Road~~ – the closest suitable venue to The Level which was one of the inspirations for their name (We could mention that The Levellers was also the name of a political movement in the Civil War, but we’re Brighton Music Blog, not the Seventeenth Century History blog). Pre-sale tickets sold out when they were announced last week, but more tickets have been released and are available seetickets.com.

More details are available on the facebook event page.

Weekend Gig Picks

Posted on 01/05/2013 by brightonmusicblog

May’s a funny months for gigs. One one hand it’s quite possibly the best month in the year – The Great Escape comes to town and there’s so much going on for Brighton Festival and Fringe. But on the other hand there are so many distractions that a lot of bands lay low until there’s a chance that they’ll be heard. So even though this weekend is a Bank Holiday, things are starting to look a little bit thin on the ground.

On Thursday night Rich from Heliopause is putting on a gig at the Hope. His own band and Ingrid Plum act as support from Canadian Ingrid Gatin. Meanwhile, at Sticky Mike’s, BrightonsFinest are putting on Fragile Creatures.

Be Nothing promotions are celebrating their second birthday on Friday night at the Blind Tiger. There are five bands on the bill headlined by Girl Band, with local representation from Tourist and Adolescent.

Our pick for Saturday night is another gig at the Blind Tiger – Brighton’s King Porter Stomp are joining forces with Bristol’s First Degree Burns for what promises to be a fantastic ska / hip hop collaboration.

New music from Mary Hampton’s Cotillion

Posted on 01/05/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Well this is an oddity. A new track out of nowhere from Mary Hampton and her gang of players, the Cotillion. Mary is always a treasure, so anything new from her is worth paying attention to.

But this is a strange, dramatic and sometimes haunting, sometimes disturbing musical setting for the epigraph from the opening of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel ‘The Great Gatsby’. The lyrics are sung passionately from the dark inards of the singer, whilst the music swirls around in careless abandon in some parts and a cool dispassionate plinkety plonk of Mary’s piano in others.

The words (which are Fitzgerald’s, not Mary’s) in some ways summarise the novel and are worth repeating just for the hell of it

Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her;
If you can bounce high, bounce for her too,
Till she cry “Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover,
I must have you!”

Is this track in some way related to the forthcoming film of the Great Gatsby? I don’t think so. Was it prompted by it? Hard to tell. Is it trying to cash-in on the movie? I doubt it very much. Is it a precursor to more Mary Hampton music? We hope so, although it left me wanting more tunes and more songs.

So what do you think of it? Do tell.