Records Store Day is less than a month away, and this week the list of exclusive records available was announced. There are six shops taking part in Record Store Day on April 20th – Resident, Borderline, Rarekind, Cult Hero, One Stop Records and RK Bass – each of whom will be getting a selection of this year’s releases in. The bigger shops will have more stock, but they’ll also have bigger queues.
We’ve spotted a few Brighton bands amongst the exclusives. So far we’ve seen from Bat For Lashes (a 7″ with different versions of Laura an Marilyn), British Sea Power (The Facts are Right on 7″), and Curxes (who remix Chvrches ‘Recover’), but the list isn’t final yet – There’ll be even more bands added over the next three weeks.
Over the past couple of months, our weekend gigs picks posts have got bigger and bigger, as I do my best to give the local bands playing each weekend a bit of a mention. This weekend I’m reigning it in a bit and just putting forward one gig, whose headliners also have some other news to tell too.
The Bobby McGee’s will be topping the bill at Sunday night’s Blazing Saddles Cabaret at The Brunswick. Other musical and non-musical treats on the bill include Team MUD, Cherry Bella, Zaz and Bambi Beats. The night is a fundraiser for Brighton Naked Bike Ride, but organisers have made it very clear that this is a no nudity event. I’d say it was still a bit cold out there for that kind of behaviour, but some people involved with the naked bike ride are a little bit keen.
On now to the Bobby McGee’s news – their next album has been finished. After a year of hard toil being written and recorded in the cellar underneath the Horse & Groom, Bon Bons (Je Vien Rechcher Mes) is finished. It won’t be out in the shops just yet though – it’s pencilled in for physical release in October. In the meantime the band will be releasing two download only tracks per month between now and then. The first two tracks – Biggest Smile and I Don’t Know Why – see the band developing their own “tweecore” style into something they call “Indie-Pop-Lindy-Hop”. It’s like the old Bobby McGee’s, but with a new swing direction. Most bands out there couldn’t pull off a new swing direction, but then most bands out there aren’t the Bobby McGee’s. If you really, really can’t wait until October for the album apparently “taster editions” will be available on Record Store Day (April 20th, if it’s not already in your diary). We’ll keep you updated with any more news we hear.
Normally when we see people on social media seeking out bands to fill support slots, we give them a mention or a retweet, but when we heard about this opportunity we thought we’d write a separate blog post, because it’s rather special.
Rizzle Kicks (copyright Jim Stephenson)
Audio Active are a local charity who work with children and young people providing them with musical and creative experiences. They’re putting on a fund raiser at the Dome on 27th March headlined by Rizzle Kicks and are offering a local band the opportunity to support them which, considering how big Rizzle Kicks are, is a bit of a big deal. Obviously this might attract a fair bit of attention, so there’s a few criteria they’d like people making an application to follow:
Aged 21 or under
Must have a 15-20 minute live set
Must be urban inspired (genres inc hip hop, rap, garage, r&b, dubstep, d&b, etc)
Must be available to audition on 21th March if shortlisted
And available on March 27th for the gig, obviously
Deadline for applications is Monday 18th of March, so get your skates on. There’s full details of how to apply in the Audio Active website. Alternatively, you could just buy a ticket for the gig, see one of of the biggest Brighton bands, and support a local charity too!
Time for our weekly round of up our local picks for the upcoming weekend. This week, one of our picks is not quite so local but we’re willing to make an exception for Shrag’s final gig. We’ll be escaping Brighton on Friday to head up to The Lexington in Islington where Helen, Bob and the rest of the group will play for the very last time. If the prospect of travelling to another town for a gig fills you with dread, then we suggest you get down to the Green Door Store where Hundredth Anniversary are holding a party for the launch of their debut single The Jump. The single comes out on Monday (March 18th) but the band should have some copies with them for sale.
Our top tip for Saturday is a matinee performance where Brighton Music Blog favourite Catherine Ireton is supporting Roddy Woomble. I wouldn’t expect to hear the likes of Idlewild in the Unitarian Church, but we’ve been assured that his solo material gets filed under “folk”.Finally, our other weekend tip is to head to the Green Door Store on Saturday and Sunday, where Tatty Seaside Town are celebrating 10 years of promoting gigs in Brighton. Bands playing include Demons, Disinfo, Epideme, Hamilton yarns, Hey colossus, I’m being good and Sealings. There’s full details over on the Facebook event.
We mentioned Radiate back in January before it was released. Now it’s been out, it’s also popped up in a few other forms. Here’s a remix by legendary producer Youth, and video that’s popped up on Youtube of an acoustic version from last year when they were recording their album in Spain:
We included Dog In The Snow in our Weekend Gig Picks post, on the bill supporting Hidden Orchestra alongside Calico at the Blind Tiger on Sunday. That was our first mention of the band though, so now’s a good time to introduce to you some of their music. Here’s their latest video for a track called Fear, which was produced by Steve Hillier of Dubstar fame:
Last year’s eponymous album by Melody’s Echo Chamber was a bit of a favourite of ours, so we jumped at the chance to go and see them when tickets went on sale a few months ago. When we found out later that Fear of Men would be supporting, we were even happier.
When we previewed the gig before the weekend, we were thinking that with Fear of Men’s new album nearly ready this would be a showcase for their new material. In the end, the band only played one new track, instead focussing on their released material so far (recently collected on the fine Early Fragments compilation). Speaking to the band after the gig, the reason for this was that they wanted to be as good as they possibly could for their performances at SXSW festival next week and you can’t blame them for that. Their hard work is paying off, and they’ve never sounded better. You wouldn’t know that Jess was once happy to have her vocals low in the mix, nor would you know that this is one of the band’s first gigs with their new bass player. Where the band’s older material wouldn’t have sounded out of place on legendary 90s indie-pop label Sarah Records the one new song they played sounded bigger, louder, faster and more confident. Recording of their debut album is still taking place so who knows how representative this will be of what we have to expect later this year.
As I type, Fear of Men are on a plane on their way to America. They’re kicking things off with Festival NRML in Mexico, heading to Austin, Texas where they’ll be playing NINE shows at this year’s SXSW festival. Then they’re heading off to New York for another couple of shows there. Here’s the full list:
SXSW
3/12 – 2.45pm – Red7 (Terrorbird SXSW day party)
3/13 – 1pm – Hype Hotel 301 Brazos (Gorilla vs Bear x Yours Truly)
3/14 – 1.15pm – Hotel Vegas (Austin Psych Fest)
3/14 – 3pm – Flat Top Burger Shop (Music for Listeners)
3/14 – 9pm – Valhalla (Kanine/Fat Cat Records showcase)
3/15 – 3.30pm – End of an Ear (Instore)
3/16 – 1.30pm – Fader Fort (Fader)
3/16 – 3.15pm – inside House of Vans @ The Mohawk (AV Club/Flower)
3/16 – 4.40pm- Latitude 30 (British Music Embassy)
New York
3/19 – 8.30pm – Glasslands Gallery, Brooklyn (Headline show)
3/20 – 8pm – Pianos, New York (w/Field Mouse)
And if you didn’t make it to the gig last weekend, and aren’t in America, then here’s a new video for Seer, which was the previously unreleased track from Early Fragments:
It’s a bumper weekend for gigs as ever in Brighton with loads of local talent getting out there and playing live.
Late night on Thursday is the third Night Sweats even – a gig where the doors don’t open until 9pm and the headliner isn’t onstage until after midnight. It’s on at Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, and Royal Blood headline supported by Broker, She Crazy, Eager Teeth and Light Parade.
Friday Night is the Tiny Dragons single launch at Latest Music Bar that we mentioned in a post earlier this week. There’s also a Brighton Rocks night being held at Sticky Mike’s headlined by Jipsy Magic, and we’ve also spotted that Luo are going to be supporting Easter Island Head at The Hope.
On Saturday, we’ve got a rare afternoon gig to plug. The Blind Tiger has an afternoon of music featuring A-M-I, Southpaw, The Cotard Delusion, Grasshopper and Crisis Warning. If you’re after something to do in the evening you could do a lot worse than head down to the Physics House Band’s free monthly club night Kaleidoscope at at Sticky Mike’s, where Caveman Genius are playing live.
Sunday is all about the local support slots – Jennifer Left is supporting Polly and the Billets Doux at the Hope, meanwhile Calico and Dog in the Snow will be supporting the Hidden Orchestra at the Blind Tiger.
A few weeks ago we raved about the Bent Cousin Everybody’s Got One EP. It’s still getting lots of plays at Brighton Music Blog towers, and now the band have released a video for lead track Bentpaperboy. MTV got the exclusive premiere but that was only a few hours ago, so it’s not like we’ve been caught napping. They haven’t even posted it onto their Facebook yet. Here it is:
With any luck, Bent Cousin will be playing live soon to make up for the fact that they had to cancel their single launch. As soon as we find out more, we’ll let you know.
Us Baby Bear Bones have announced details of their debut EP. “What Starts with a U, Ends with an I” is being released on 10th June on Brighton Based label Love Thy Neighbour (who have also put out Abi Wade’s releases so far, as well as putting on countless great gigs around town).
The EP will be limited to 216 copies, the covers of which are a segment of a massive picture painted by band member Puff Gandolfo (have we mentioned how much we love the revival of proper rock star pseudonyms?).
The band gave us a taster last year uploading You to YouTube, and the EP will also include Rain which was previously available on the Sea Monsters 2 compilation. For now, you can grab Rain as a free download over on bandcamp:
Us Baby Bear Bones next gig is supporting Fiction at the Green Door Store on 19th March.
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