Us Baby Bear Bones

Posted on 18/12/2012 by brightonmusicblog

We’re huge fans of Us Baby Bear Bones here at Brighton Music Blog because they’re everything we think a band ought to be. In short, they’re the antithesis of four young men in check shirts and skinny jeans playing guitars. It’s like nobody told UBBB that most bands have a different member taking on drums, vocals, guitars and so on – musical duties are passed around the band without care for convention. But if it sounds like Us Baby Bear Bones are difficult or inaccessible, think again because all of these ingredients come together to make lush, bold pop tunes. If only they’d get around to releasing their debut single, originally promised for July last year! My sources tell me that it may be arriving in February, so watch this space.

Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar / Day 17 / Speak Galactic

Posted on 17/12/2012 by brightonmusicblog

The first time we saw Owen Thomas, at the Green Door Store supporting Laetitia Sadier, it was so loud we couldn’t stay in the room. Thankfully we persevered (and bought some ear plugs), because Speak Galactic are one of the most exciting bands in Brighton. Watching them live, ideas come faster than the audience can process them – there’s a guitar there, but it’s not making guitar noises because it’s wired through a box of home made electronics which makes the most amazing sounds. There’s frenetic vocals and drums too making for an incredibly visceral performance. Cupboard Music put out the album Severed – slightly slower paced than the live performances with woozy unsettling electronica and big crunching beats building their widescreen vision. The record finished off with the spectacular Solar Sail – a glorious seventeen minute long post-ambient epic. Amazing.

Speak Galactic

Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar / Day 15 / Catherine Ireton

Posted on 15/12/2012 by brightonmusicblog

It was sheer good luck that we found out about Belle & Sebastian collaborator Catherine Ireton. She’d moved down to Brighton around eighteen months ago and had kept quite a low profile, but some eagle eyes on twitter spotted a mention of a local designer reworking her website and passed the news onto me. An afternoon set at The Great Escape confirmed that the big voice heard on God Help The Girl was just as big when she was playing on her own. In June Catherine kicked off a series of concerts intended to make the audience make a bit more effort in return for something a bit more intimate. The Treasure Tracks gig were real highlights for us, and we look forward to seeing what Catherine has up her sleeve in 2013.

Catherine Ireton

Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar / Day 14 / Jennifer Left

Posted on 14/12/2012 by brightonmusicblog

It was a sad day when Gloria Cycles split up back in 2010, but this year Jennifer Left has burst back onto the Brighton music scene. Now fronting her own band, and with a brace of songs written with producer Tim Bidwell and Bonobo’s guitarist Ewan Wallace, Jennifer Left is back. Over the year, they’ve released two singles – Black Dog and Diggory – and grown in confidence with every show they’ve played. They’re also one of two bands in our calendar this year who’ve covered New Order – check out their gorgeous bossa nova cover of Temptation.

Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar / Day 13 / Bat For Lashes

Posted on 13/12/2012 by brightonmusicblog

The Haunted Man was Brighton’s other huge album this year, alongside The Maccabees Given The The Wild. It caused a stir before it’s release with it’s provocative artwork, but lead single Laura showed that Bat For Lashes didn’t need shock tactics to create attention for the album. Natasha Khan’s homecoming concert at The Dome was definitely one of the gigs of the year for us.

Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar / Day 12 / Your Explosion My Mind

Posted on 12/12/2012 by brightonmusicblog

We don’t know very much about Your Explosion My Mind at all. We do know that it’s a project by someone called Barney Douglas, but following him on twitter you’ll learn a lot about cricket and very little about his music. Eyeball Kick came out on a split 7″ with Sparrow’s Move back in August, so we looked it up on YouTube. It’s so good that we’d only got halfway through listening to it before we were on iTunes buying the whole “Under a Heavy Sun” EP that it appeared on. There was an accompanying free download EP of another five tracks too. Eyeball Kick is fizzing motorik kraut-pop that makes you feel alive, but the rest of the tracks across the EPs touched all bases. Your Explosion My Mind were one of those discoveries that make writing the blog so worthwhile for me, and Eyeball Kick is one of my singles of the year.

Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar / Day 11 / The New Union

Posted on 11/12/2012 by brightonmusicblog

The New Union have only had one single out so far, a guitar pop gem called Without You, released on 7″ back in September. You wouldn’t guess that it was their debut though – their demos on soundcloud sounded like fully formed tracks, they looked the part, and they’d got a Peter Saville inspired designer on board to give their artwork a professional feel which belied their time in the industry so far.

You can catch the band tonight supporting Kins at the Green Door Store.

Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar / Day 10 / Sweet Sweet Lies

Posted on 10/12/2012 by brightonmusicblog

This year saw the release of Sweet Sweet Lies’ fantastic debut album The Hare, The Hound, The Tortoise. Don’t just take our word about how good it was – Simon Price gave it five stars in the Independent. With their dark lyrics and sharp suits Sweet Sweet Lies proved that they were a force to be reckoned with.

Sweet Sweet Lies

Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar / Day 9 / Kovak

Posted on 09/12/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Today we applaud Brighton’s poppermost band – Kovak. Despite being unsigned, both their singles this year – Killer Boots and Living The Dream – got airplay on the BBC, on Radio 2 and 6Music. They’ve just come back to the UK after recording their new album in Spain – keep your eyes peeled for that next year!

Kovak

Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar / Day 8 / Abi Wade

Posted on 08/12/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Abi Wade’s And Blood And Air EP was one of the first things we wrote about when we started the blog last year, but we didn’t get to see her live until January of this year and it’s only when you see Abi perform do you truly appreciate her talent. You can pull off all kind of tricks in a studio, but to see them recreated in a live setup is breathtaking – the percussion, the cello played in every way imaginable (and some ways you probably wouldn’t imagine, like with a hairbrush), and the haunting voice, all coming from one person is nothing short of incredible.

Abi’s gone from strength to strength this year, putting out another release – Heavy Heart – and supporting Patrick Wolf on his tour, which is coming to St Mary’s Church on Tuesday 11th December. It promises to be a very special gig – As well as a homecoming for Abi, Patrick Wolf is playing an acoustic set. Tickets are still available (from Resident, via the Source website, etc) as of the time of writing.