April Top Ten

Posted on 30/04/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Here’s a new regular feature that I’ve decided to start on the blog. We write a lot of posts about a lot of bands, and quite often a blog post about something we absolutely love can easily drop out of view. On top of that, some things we write about are slow burners, and while we’ll write things up as soon as we hear about them, some tracks can creep into your consciousness weeks later. So here’s my top ten for April, based on my plays according to last.fm (although it seems to miss half my plays, so I reserve the right to use a bit of licence sometimes).

10. Interlocutor – Saturday (demo)

Alex White of Electric Soft Parade and Brakes has played a couple of gigs with his new solo project Interlocutor, despite the new ESP album due any minute now. He’s also quietly put up a couple of demos onto Bandcamp which we rather like.

9. Bat For Lashes – Laura (Vogue session)

A couple of months ago Natasha Khan did an exclusive session for Vogue.com. Two of the tracks from this session were released on 7″ for Record Store Day which was a nice reminder of what a brilliant track Laura is.

8. Pete Fij & Terry Bickers / I don’t give a shit about you

This track originally came out back in October last year so isn’t Pete and Terry’s new single. This track has crept into our top ten after being put up on Soundcloud as a free download.

7. Shrag / Sleeprunning

Officially the last track to be released by Shrag now that they’ve split. Sleeprunning is the b-side to On The Spines of Old Cathedrals, their final single to be taken from Canines.

6. Curxes / Further Still

Curxes put out their fantastic new release Further Still at the end of March as a free download, and then put up the video a few weeks later. We can’t wait to see them playing the Alternative Escape in a few weeks time (Thursday 16th May – Les Enfants Terrible stage / The Mesmerist at 18:55 or Southsea fest stage / The Black Dove at 20:50).

5. IYES / Lighthouse (Capsun remix)

We absolutely adore Lighthouse. It was one of those tracks that appeared from nowhere that was some brilliant and so unexpected. It’s spawned dozens of fawning blog posts saying how great it is but the problem was the only way to listen to it was on Soundcloud. Earlier this month though the track was remixed Capsun, which beefed up the beats and the bass and put up on Soundcloud which meant you could listen wherever you happened to be. IYES play the Alternative Escape on Saturday at the Mesmerist at 15:20

4. Black Black Hills / Red Cabin

Red Cabin, with it’s retro reverb drenched rock and roll and backwards video, was an immediate hit when we heard it a couple of weeks ago. Go download it now! Black Black Hills play Brighton Noise’s stage at the Alternative Escape on Saturday at 15:50.

3. Us Baby Bear Bones / You

You is another track which had been floating around for a while but got put up as a free download this month. You is going to be on UBBB’s debut EP due for release in July

2. Crayola Lectern / Slow Down

Slow Down is one of my favourite tracks from the new Crayola Lectern album The Fall and Rise of… The whole album is fantastic, but this is the track that we’ve played the most.

1. Electric Soft Parade / Brother You Must Walk Alone

From the moment we heard the new Electric Soft Parade single at the end of last month, it was inevitable that it was going to end up as this months most listened to track. Breezy guitar pop at it’s finest, that sounds even better now that the sun’s out.

IYES mystery video teaser

Posted on 29/04/2013 by brightonmusicblog

About a week ago IYES posted up a short video onto youtube, with the cryptic message “01.05.2013” alongside. What could it all mean? I’m guessing it was a date reference, so maybe all will be revealed on Wednesday…

The New Union – Staying Friends

Posted on 29/04/2013 by brightonmusicblog

As promised in our most recent post about the Boon Magazine launch, as soon as we’ve heard details of the forthcoming New Union single, we’re letting you know. Better than that we’ve got the video too. Staying Friends is another slice of cool guitar pop, and is released on June 3rd on Two Sisters records, coming out on limited 12″ and download.

Boon Magazine Launch headlined by The New Union

Posted on 27/04/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Thursday night was the launch of a new magazine for Brighton, promising music, fashion, art and culture. They heard a rumour that we like Brighton and that we like music so they invited us along to the Green Door Store where they had a whole host of local talent playing for them.

The night kicked off early. When the gig was first announced Tiger Cub were second on the bill, but another commitment initially meant them pulling out, and then got rearranged for them to play a short set early on. I missed Tiger Cub though, cos I was having my dinner. I also missed Spit Shake Sisters, and most of Kill Moon, and when I arrived the room was already so rammed out I couldn’t get in and get a decent view.

Demob Happy

Demob Happy were great though – melodic indie rock which sounded fantastic at the Green Door Store, but I bet would sound even better when you’re sitting in a field in the sun at a festival.

The New Union

The New Union were the big draw of the evening, and one of the main reasons why the night was sold out. Every time I see them they seem to get better and better – Their sound is richer, the songs are stronger. They’ve got a few slow songs in their set now which I’m sure will be great when they’re recorded, but they were in danger of losing the crowd a bit when they played them. With their more upbeat indie numbers they had the audience in the palm of their hand and had the room jumping. They ended their set with last year’s single Without You, and what I guess is going to be their new single which is due in the next few weeks. We’ll hopefully be bringing you more details of that very soon.

The first edition of Boon Magazine is out on May Day.

Martin Rossiter Live album

Posted on 24/04/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Last November, Martin Rossiter released his debut solo album, The Defenrestration of St Martin, and we loved it, calling it “a thing of magnificent beauty“. The album was a long a time in the making and Martin was out of the spotlight for nearly ten years. His first step back was a concert at the Unitarian Church in New Road last May, which was recorded and has been released today, on sale for a mere six pounds.

The live album is made up of old Gene favourites as well as tracks from The Defenstration of St Martin, all played in the same style as the album with just piano and voice.

Martin will be heading out on tour soon, and plays Brighton on 14th June at Brighton Dome.

Weekend Gig Picks

Posted on 24/04/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Earlier this week we pre-empted our regular weekend gig picks by putting up a separate post about Thursday night’s gigs with a choice of Moulettes, AK/DK or The New Union. Here’s the rest of what we recommend this weekend:

Our choice for Friday Night is Clowns, who are headlining at the Prince Albert. Clowns are a real must-see band. If you haven’t seen them, then this should be your Friday night sorted. Support comes from Mum, Dad & The Kids, Little Bird and Downing Street Years.

We haven’t mentioned Tyrannosaurus Dead for a while on the blog, but they’re on the bill on Saturday night at the Green Door Store (headlined by the Bastards of hate). Also on Saturday at The Hope is Rotait, who we’ve been meaning to catch for a while, supported by Simonne & The Dark Stars, Mishkin Fitzgerald from BirdEatsBaby and Paul Diello.

The big gig on Sunday night is Physics House Band, who are guaranteed to blow the roof off at the Green Door Store. Watch out if you’re catching a train out of town! Support comes from Shrine and Ojo de Gringa. We also spotted that over the road at the Prince Albert, Pete Fij & Terry Bickers are launching their new single, with Al Chamberlain also on the bill.

Cate Ferris at the Blind Tiger

Posted on 22/04/2013 by brightonmusicblog

We’ve written about Cate Ferris loads of times, and we’ll continue to do so all the while that we go along and see her and be impressed as we were last night, when she played at the Blind Tiger in a double headliner gig with Londoner A Little Unsaid.

Cate Ferris

If I’ve understated the power of Cate’s voice in posts in the past, it was easily summed up by the reaction of one audience member, who audibly exclaimed “wow!”, when Cate hit her first big note. It’s not just about the power though – using looping pedals she’ll often harmonise with herself midsong and get the harmonies just right. As she noted herself, just a few years ago she was a technophobe and would seen onstage with nothing more than her guitar. These days she has an array of keyboards, pedals and percussion, none of which are overused, Over time these extra additions to her set have been used in more subtle ways, meaning that the song comes first rather than the gimmicks.

The performance left whole room in the palm of her hand, even those who had seen her before, so much so that there was a shout from the back of “Are you single?” (to which there was a very stern reply of “NO!” from Cate’s boyfriend who was also in the audience!).

The set was made up of mostly new songs, from her recent Get Set Ready Go EP, and some which are going to feature on an upcoming Live EP, and closed with jazzy trip hop future classic “Fly”, which I recommend you go and look up on youtube. It’s a fantastic tube and was a real high to end her set on. If you haven’t seen Cate live, don’t miss out next time!

Cate Ferris

Three new videos

Posted on 18/04/2013 by brightonmusicblog

I can barely keep up with the amount of new Brighton music at the moment. Here’s three videos that have come to our attention this week.

First up is the debut single from Rubylux. The World Goes Quiet is released on 12th May, but the video is doing the rounds already. The anthemic rock single is also the title track from their upcoming album

Speak Galactic‘s album Severed came out last September, but there wasn’t a video for Precautionary Measures which was the single at the time. Owen Thomas has now put together a video for the album’s opening track – Hyss. The track is five minutes of wonky analog prog electronica, and has a video which perfectly matches the song:

I’m going to be writing another blog post about The Levellers in the next day or two, but in the meantime, here’s the video for their new single The Recruiting Sargeant which is out 5th May, with all profits going to the WarChild charity:

Amy Hill – Place of Mind album launch

Posted on 17/04/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Last Thursday Amy Hill invited us along to the launch of her debut album Place of Mind. On the door as we arrived everyone was given a copy of the album, and I was hoping this write up would be a review of both the album and the night. Unfortunately, every time I put the cd into my computer iTunes freezes up, which is why this blog post is both a little delayed, and a little incomplete in terms of what I was hoping it would include.

We arrived at The Brunswick a bit too late to see Jacko Hooper, but did catch most of Choice’s folky set, which involved a multi-instrumentalist using looping pedals alongside a live drummer. By this point, it was good to see that the venue was already full.

Amy Hill has been hosting the monthly Brighton Folk night for years. Every month she plays a song or two inbetween acts, solo and acoustic, but it’s a rare treat to see her playing a full set. On Thursday some songs were stripped back to just Amy and her guitar, but others were played with a full band who included Phil and Beth from The Galleons – regulars at Brighton Folk. This extra dimension shows an added depth that you wouldn’t see at one of her regular nights and is a welcome addition, elevating her sound above folky singer songwriter fare to something somewhere between Beth Orton and Sheryl Crow. Amy sung about life’s simple pleasures – friends, music, nature – and it’s safe to say that everyone in the room was sharing in that pleasure. At the end of the gig, after she had performed all of the tracks on the album, Amy was called back on stage an encore where she played a b-side from an earlier EP. Apparently it was her first ever encore, and it was obviously a very special moment – a fitting end to a great night.

The next Brighton Folk takes place this Sunday night at the Brunswick and features Mike Newsham, Donna Fullman and Sam Green.

Weekend Gig Picks

Posted on 17/04/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Before we get onto this weekend’s gigs, we’re going to remind you all about Record Store Day. Hopefully you all know about this Saturday already, but did you know that as well as Resident getting involved, Borderline, Rarekind, Cult Hero, One Stop Records and RK Bass records will also be stocking some of the RSD exclusives. It’s sad that Rounder are no longer around to fly the flag, and a warning that you shouldn’t just go and support your local independent shops just one day of the year!

Anyway, onto the gigs. On Thursday we like the look of Tiny Dragons and Rotait on the support bill for Johnson and the Believers at the Green Door Store. If you fancy a bit more of a grand setting, Mountain Firework Company are on at Saint Georges Church in Kemptown.

Friday night’s pick is Brighton Music Blog favourite Laish, who’s headlining the Prince Albert supported by Emma Gattrill and Martha Rose.

Saturday Night we suggest you head down to the Blind Tiger where Flash Bang Band will be bringing their unique brand of indie pop to the party. Alternatively Cloud, Becky Becky and Kellar play at the Green Door Store.

We’ve also got a couple of picks for Sunday night – We’re very much looking forward to seeing Cate Ferris back in town at the Blind Tiger. She’s been on tour for a while and it seems like ages since we caught up with her. Over on the other end of town, it’s Brighton Folk night at the Brunswick, with Mike Newsham, Donna Fullman and Sam Green.