Day two of our Advent Calendar is one of Brighton’s finest live bands. Black Black Hills put out two singles this year and we’ve picked out the hip swaying rock’n’roll of Red Cabin.
As well as being a great song, Red Cabin has a fantastic video. We’ll let you watch it to work out just what makes it that little bit different. Things have been a bit quiet from in the Black Black Hills camp of late – no gigs since Playgroup festival and no social media updates since August. Hopefully there’ll be some more music from the band in the new year.
Somehow, suddenly, it’s December – That time of year when music magazines and websites take stock of the year gone by. Like last year, we’re not going to post up our whole list in one go. That would be far too easy. Instead we’ll be posting up one track a day, building up to our highlight of the year.
The first box in our advent calendar is a Brighton Band we don’t know a great deal about. We do know that we loved their debut single Goddess of War. The band were filming the video for their next single last weekend, so we look forward to seeing that very soon.
We’re posting up our favourite tracks from November a little earlier than usual because it’s almost time for us to start our Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar, where from December 1st we’ll be posting up a different band every day that we’ve enjoyed this year, culminating in our musical highlight on Christmas Day (to give you something to read while your parents are watching the Queens speech). Before then though, here’s what we loved this month:
1) IYES – ‘Til Infinity
IYES debut single proper is a corker. From the opening drums and hand claps (How long before live performances string out the intro and get the audience to the claps like Queen’s We Will Rock You?) through to Melis “Mmm-Hmm” at 2.10 it doesn’t put a foot wrong.
2) Black Rooster Black Shag – Run Baby
Run Baby is the kind of catchy, effortless rock’n’roll that’s as cool as ice. The black & white video for the track makes us love it even more
3) Nordic Giants – Dark Clouds Mean War
Dark Clouds Mean War is the closing track from Nordic Giants recent Dismantle Suns EP. It’s brooding and cinematic and packs in more emotion into one track than you’re likely to hear this year
4) The Beautiful Word – Coconut Hair
In a complete change mood, Coconut Hair, from The Beautiful Word’s new release Particles is silly and nonsensical and will put a smile on your face.
5) A Lily – The Sparrow In The Lemon Tree
The Sparrow In the Lemon Tree, taken from A Lily’s new EP Lupa, is a thing of fragile beauty – lush strings and gentle electronica combine for this lovely take on modern folk
6) Kins – Aimless
Kins new single starts off sounding almost jazzy, but soon settles into beautiful abstract guitar pop which feels familiar yet unlike anything you can put your finger on.
7) Plasticine – Dreamers Of The Day
We haven’t heard much from Plasticine since we first crossed paths with them back at Sea Monsters back in January. After nearly a year they’re back on the blog with a fantastic pop single.
8) Faux Flux – Week Long War
Faux Flux follow up this year’s earlier Come Alive release with new single Week Long War, which we like even more. We’ve posted the video here, but you can download the track and it’s b-side for free over on their bandcamp site.
9) bentcousin – Sunglasses In Winter
Bentcousin’s first proper release since their Everbody’s Got One EP is a track quietly tucked away on a compilation album. While it starts off with gentle guitar lines that echo I Think I Like You Girlfriend More Than You from their debut, the subject matter is much more hard hitting. Bentcousin are playing an unplugged gig at Revenge on Sunday afternoon at 4pm for World Aids Day.
10) Jipsy Magic – So Serious
Genre busting Jipsy Magic describe themselves as a disco / funk / pop band. There’s a fair bit of indie in there too as you see in their new single So Serious:
We’ve got five new releases for you this week – four you can listen to here, and one that you’ll have to click through to download
Calico have put up the first track from their forthcoming EP Nightowl up for download. It’s a cool slice of jazzy cinematic funk, and it’s free:
Man Ray Sky‘s new Coreless EP is now up for sale on Bandcamp. There are six tracks for three pounds, including two remixes of lead track Luma:
We’re still listening to Eagles for Hands Lisbon EP which came out last month. Since then, they’ve snuck out another track Peaches, which is up for download now.
Mitch Wade Cole‘s new release is out now on Shimmy Records. the producer’s latest instrumental is entitled Full Body and is available for download from the Shimmy Records Soundcloud page.
Finally, we haven’t got anything we can embed for the new Jennifer Left track Rebel, but it’s available as a free download from her Pledge Music page. Jennifer Left’s album is due to be released in March next year and will be funded by a Pledge music campaign between now and then, so keep your eyes peeled for updates between now and then.
Things have been a bit quiet in the Curxes camp since they put out Further Still and appeared on the cover of The Source earlier this year. Over the past couple of weeks though, a few mysterious teasers have appeared on YouTube. All five videos start off with the sound of a cheap Bontempi keyboard, but by the time you get to the fifth, it quickly morphs into something closer to Curxes trademark blitz-pop sound, albeit with slowed down vocals. Some of the lyrics that can make out “Sound and Vision is a privilege” were alluded to in a blog post about tour dates by the band back in September, and the text “Avant Guarded” flashes up. What could it all mean? Hopefully we’ll find out soon.
On Friday night we headed down to the Dome Studio Theatre for the Source New Music Night. This month IYES headlined, supported by Luo and Momotaro. We hoped it was going to be a good gig, and it didn’t disappoint. Here’s our pics:
Kins are on tour at the moment, promoting their new single Aimless. We went down to see them play at The Hope on Thursday night, where they were supported by The Hundredth Anniversary. Here’s our pics (as usual, click to view large):
There’s always a lot of great music to see in Brighton, which makes it easy to write this weekly feature. This weekend it’s even easier because some of our favourite bands are playing.
On Thursday night Kins headline The Hope playing a hometown show with their tour for their new single Aimless. Support comes from Francis Lung and The Hundredth Anniversary.
Friday Night is this month’s Source New Music featuring this month’s Source cover stars and Brighton Music Blog favourites IYES, who have just released their debut single ‘Til Infinity. Support comes from two other bands that we’re big fans of – Momotaro, and Luo, who will be joined onstage by members of Physics House Band.
There’s a couple of gigs on Saturday which caught our eye – Dizraeli and the Small Gods are playing at The Haunt supported by Le Juki, with an afterparty taking place at the Fortune of War. Meanwhile, The Blind Tiger plays host to King Porter Stomp, alongside The Allergies and Town of Cats.
Here’s some new music for you all – a few tracks from albums due to land next year, a video from an EP which came out earlier this year and a rather interesting cover…
Black Rooster Black Shag – Run Baby
Run Baby is the lead track from Black Rooster Black Shag’s 3 EP, out this week on EOI productions. Run Baby rocks harder than their debut Amsterdam, and has a very cool video to go with it, filmed around the streets of Brighton. Both singles feature on the band’s upcoming album As Far As My Lead Will Take Me, due in March next year.
Native Roses – Mainline
Mainline is the first track that’s come out from Native Roses forthcoming album Montpelier Blues, out on the first of January. The album will also feature four collaborations with Birdy, who was once a member of the band, but has gone onto bigger things.
Momotaro – Dust
In another first listen from an album due next year, Momotaro have shared Dust with us all. We’re looking forward to seeing Momotaro playing on Friday night at this month’s Source New Music supporting IYES.
Normanton Street – Wednesday Night Champions League
Normanton Street put up a video to their track Wednesday Night Champions League last week, filmed disconcerting close to where I live. Wednesday Night Champions League is taken from their Moves EP from earlier this year, which can be downloaded for free from their soundcloud page.
The Wytches – All That She Wants
The Wytches new single Robe for Juda is out the week. We already wrote about that a few weeks ago though, so instead here’s their cover of Ace of Base’s All That She Wants. Obviously.
Yesterday, The Beautiful Word released their new album Particles. The Beautiful Word were on my radar years before I even started the blog, and throughout that time they’ve always taken a more personal yet inventive approach to their marketing. All the emails I’ve exchanged have been with the band members themselves rather than anonymous PRs, and many of their gigs have taken a twist, from fancy dress to performing a gig on a bus driving around town. When they offered to send out their new cd to me, it came as no surprise to find some sweets in the jiffy bag as well when it arrived. Other bands, please take note!
Over the years, there have been some constants, but that doesn’t mean that the band hasn’t developed. The Beautiful Word will probably always be slightly twee folk pop with close female harmonies, but their newer material shows a higher level of musicianship, best displayed on recent single and album title track Particles, with it’s Vampire Weekend-esque African guitars. At the time it came out we said that it was probably the best thing they’ve done. After a couple of months of playing it, now we’re pretty sure it is.
We’ve heard a lot of the album before, with half of the tracks having had videos made for them already. The video for their most recent single, Eating Me, Eating You (a metaphor for devouring relationships rather than anything more literal, apparently) quickly descends into a food fight – while the music may have grown up, the band and their songs still have a wide eyed innocence.
Of the stuff we haven’t heard before, our favourite track is Coconut Hair – slightly silly but sweet lyrics to an infectious catchy pop tune, which sums up what The Beautiful Word are all about. If you want a bit of light in your life, Particles is the album for you.
Particles by The Beautiful Word is out now on bandcamp. The launch gig for the album is at Latest Music Bar on 28th November with support from The Common Tongues and The Emperors of Ice Cream.
