Mary Hampton Cotillion supported by Crayola Lectern and Do You Feel What I Feel Deer at the Hanover Centre

Posted on 04/11/2012 by brightonmusicblog

This is my third visit to the Hanover Community Centre this year. Last time I was there was a few weeks ago for the Hanover Beer Festival, and back in the summer I was there for a non-Christian christening type affair. It’s not your usual live music venue. That didn’t put people off though, with the room full to the brim before anyone had even played a note.

First up were Do You Feel What I Feel Deer, a folk duo augmented with violin, a smaller arrangement than when I saw them supporting Mice Parade a couple of weeks ago. Their tight harmonies held the room, and the song themselves felt at the same time both progressive yet timeless. The audience was spellbound, as was I.

The second support was Crayola Lectern, whose album The Fall and Rise of Crayola Lectern is due early next year. Crayola Lectern don’t write normal songs – their tracks don’t follow a verse / chorus / verse structure, and can sometimes stretch for ten minutes as different turns are taken. There’s humour, but they aren’t a novelty act, and some songs convey an astonishing level of tenderness and emotion just with the music. There aren’t really words that can truly describe Crayola Lectern. They’re completely without comparison ; brave and individual, and while they confused some of the audience, they should be applauded for doing their own thing.

Crayola Lectern

Finally it was time for Mary Hampton Cotillion. She could call the additional musicians that joined her her band, but they felt a bit more special than that. Seeing Mary Hampton live is an amazing experience normally, but with a band she takes things to another level, bringing in rich harmonies and lush arrangements. Their set felt like it was over too soon, taking in around half a dozen folk songs which sounded like they could have been written at any point in the last five hundred years, including last years single Honey in the Rock, and a brand new track which the band spent the previous day recording. It was beautiful. And while it could be argued that it was a short set, nobody in the room could have felt short changed with such great night.

Mary Hampton

http://www.maryhampton.org/

http://www.crayolalectern.com/

http://doyoufeelwhatifeeldeer.bandcamp.com/

Catherine Ireton supported by Ed Prosek at the Green Door Store

Posted on 03/11/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Last night, Catherine Ireton played her biggest Brighton gig to date. Over the summer she’s been playing the most intimate gigs, at the Booth Museum, in a room tucked around the back of London Road station and most recently, as she put it last night “in your bedroom” (which is a nice way of saying it was a webcast). Before she plays her last Treasure Tracks gig in a couple of weeks time, she’s played a night at the Green Door Store, supported by Hattie Cooke and Ed Prosek.

Ed Prosek

We managed to miss Hattie Cooke due to a prior engagement at the Basketmakers, and arrived just in time for Ed Prosek and his band. Ed is an American who’s made Brighton his home and plies his musical trade in Singer-Songwriter stock. He made a bit of a splash this summer when his cover of Paul Simon’s Homeward Bound got used in an advert for cheese. Aside from the great voice and well crafted songs, Ed’s great strength last night was the lush instrumentation – As well as Ed’s guitar playing we was joined by a mandolin, piano and full string quartet. My only grumble was his song moaning about the south coast of England in favour of California. Ed – be mindful of your audience!

Catherine Ireton

Around half nine, Catherine Ireton took to the stage. Much like her Treasure Tracks gigs, the bulk of her set was just her and her piano – a simple setup, which didn’t need anything else. The songs got carried along by Catherine’s big voice, telling stories based on recollections of her experiences, of haunted rooms and half-remembered childhood memories. For the closing track of her set, she called on the supports to join her on stage for a rendition of the Stuart Mudoch penned Come Monday Night, recorded by Catherine when she part of the Belle & Sebastian side project God Help The Girl. If that made the gig feel very much like a family affair, then the encore made things feel even more intimate – Catherine had been singing with a radio mic, and for her finale wandered out into the crowd and sung unaccompanied. Breathtaking.

The return of The Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster

Posted on 01/11/2012 by brightonmusicblog

After Nike used their track Chicken on an advert, The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster reformed for a few gigs, playing in Brighton on tuesday. Today they announced that their reformation was permanent. Here’s what they had to say on Facebook:

“AFTER STANDING ON STAGE TOGETHER AGAIN, SELLING OUT THIS TOUR AND RECEIVING SUCH AN INCREDIBLE RESPONSE FROM YOU ALL, IT’S BECOME CLEAR WE’RE NOW HITTING OUR STRIDE! THE EIGHTIES MATCHBOX B-LINE DISASTER HAS NOW TAKEN ON A LIFE OF ITS OWN AND MUSICALLY WE HAVE UNFINISHED BUSINESS TOGETHER. SO WE’RE GOING TO RECORD SOME NEW SONGS TO SET ALIGHT TO THE NEXT UK SHOW AT SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE ON FRIDAY 12TH APRIL. TICKETS ON SALE AT 9AM TOMORROW.
THE STORY CONTINUES!!!! MORE NEWS SOON.”

It’s good to have them back.

Brighton Bands nominated for the Artrocker awards – Maccabees, Dark Horses, Tall Ships & Fear of Men

Posted on 01/11/2012 by brightonmusicblog

All eyes are on the Mercury Music Prize tonight, but they’re not the only awards to be watching. It’s also a great year for Brighton acts in the end of year nominations over at Artrocker. On top of their Mercury nomination, The Maccabees are up for band over the year. Dark Horses whose album Black Music is out this week did well too, picking up nominations for best single for Radio, and Best New Band. Tall Ships and Fear of Men are also up for Best New Band too. Head over to the Artrocker website and get voting!

Moulettes / Uca’s Dance

Posted on 01/11/2012 by brightonmusicblog

The Moulettes have a new single out soon! In a few weeks time, Uca’s Dance comes out, and it’s classic Moulettes – fiddles, close harmonies, and stomping rhythms. It also features the talents of one Ted Dwane

The band are having a launch for the single up in London on 24th November at The Tabernacle up in London. Book your tickets from Communion, and you could be in with a chance of winning the EP. Book 6 or more tickets, and you could be in with a chance of Moulettes playing a gig at your house. How amazing would that be?

If going all the way to London seems a bit of a trek, The Moulettes are playing at the Komedia on 21st November, supporting Arthur Brown.

There’s a whole load more information over on the Moulettes website.

We Are One!

Posted on 31/10/2012 by brightonmusicblog

It’s been a whole year since we started the blog. We’ve written about dozens of gigs, videos, singles and albums, making over two hundred posts. In that time we’ve written about hundreds of bands – a hundred and seventy five, to be precise. So thanks for the music to all of the bands below, and here’s to the next year!

Black Black Hills at the Source New Music Night at the Pavilion Theatre 1/12/11

Cate Ferris in the Pavilion Theatre Bar at the Source New Music Night

Cate Ferris in the Pavilion Theatre Bar as part of the Source New Music night / Fuji Superia 1600

The Woo!Worths at the Pavilion Theatre at The Source New Music Night

Preston from the Ordinary Boys at the Juice New Music Night at the Green Door Store

Preston from the Ordinary Boys at the Juice New Music Night at the Green Door Store 30/11/11

For Marla /Source New Music Night / Pavilion Theatre / 1/12/11

For Marla, at the Source New Music Night at the Pavilion Theatre 1/12/11

Abi Wade at the Source New Music Night at the Pavilion Theatre 1/12/11

Jane Bartholomew at the Basement 6/12/11

Dominic Von Trapp of Sweet Sweet Lies at The Haunt 15/12/11

Steph Goodman of Shrag (taken at Green Door Store 17/12/11)

Jennifer Left at the Juice New Music Night at The Haunt 21/12/11

Kidda at the Juice New Music Night at The Haunt 21/12/11

Midfield General at the Juice New Music Night at The Haunt 21/12/11

Brighton Music Blog, a set on Flickr.

30lbs Of Bone, 900 Spaces, Adolescent, Alice Amelia, Amongst The Pigeons, Anneka, Apples & Eve, Astro Physics, Augustus Caesar, Jane Bartholomew, Bat for Lashes, Beat Express, Beautiful Word, Becky Becky, BirdEatsBaby, Bitbin, Black Black Hills, Sebastian Blake, Blood Red Shoes, The Bobby McGees, British Sea Power, Bunty, Call Me Jolene, Nick Cave, Cave Painting, Caveman Genius, Celebricide, Al Chamberlain, Chris T-T, Cinemascopes, Clowns, Hattie Cooke, Christine Cooke, Cousin, Crayola Lectern, Curxes, DA-10, Deadbeat Descendent, Dear Prudence, Diamond Family Archive, Do You Feel What I Feel Deer, The Droplets, Electric Soft Parade, Eliza Jaye, Elk, Elle Kaye, Steve Elston, Emy Lou Harris, Esben & The Witch, Fear of Men, Cate Ferris, Fire Eyes, Flash Bang Band, Stuart Flynn, For Marla, Foxes!, Fragile Creatures, Fujiya & Miyagi, The Galleons, Cordelia Gartside, Emma Gatrill, Kate Daisy Grant, Grinderman, Mary Hampton, Ian Hannah, Hatful of Rain, Heliopause, Hiawatha Telephone Company, High Rankin, Amy Hill, Holy Vessels, House of Hats, The Hundredth Anniversary, I Am Ampersand, I’m Being Good, The Impellers, Catherine Ireton, Ital Tek, Jackson & the King Kickers, Daniel James, Jetglo, Jumping Ships, Junior Electronics, Tim Keegan, Keel Her, Kellar, Danny Kendall, Kid Capola, Kidda, King of Cats, King Porter Stomp, The Kingsmiths, Kinnie The Explorer, Kovak, Krill & Captain Kelp, Laish, Jennifer Left, The Levellers, Lux Harmonium, Maccabees, Maff the Rom, Man Ray Sky, Conor Maynard, Mean Poppa Lean, The Men Who Fell To Earth, Metronomy, Midfield General, Milk & Biscuits, Minor Sounds, The Mojo Fins, The Moulettes, Moya, Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer, Mudlow, The Muel, Munich, Native Roses, Negatitve Pegasus, The New Union, Nimmo & The Gauntlets, Nordic Giants, Nullifier, Omega Male, Orbital, Ordinary Boys, Adrian Oxaal, P For Persia, Pact, The Peanut Albinos, Peggy Sue, The Peppermint Beat Band, Pete Fij & Terry Bickers, Physics House Band, Ingrid Plum, Pure Conjecture, Nick Pynn, Red River Dialect, The Repeat Prescriptions, Restlesslist, Rizzle Kicks, Rocker Switch, Saint Coltrane, Saint Etienne, Scribe Tribe, SeaDog, Sealings, Shrag, Silver Brazilians, Smart Phone Orchestra, Soft Arrows, Sons of Noel and Adrian, Sparrow, Speak Galactic, The Squadron Leaders, Robert Stillman, Sweet Sweet Lies, Tall Ships, Tandy Hard, thedealwasforthediamond, Thee Mouldous Hypotenuse, Tigercub, Time & Space Machine, Tiny Dragons, Twin Brother, Tyrannosaurus Dead, Us Baby Bear Bones, Conrad Vingoe, Abi Wade, Whiskey Whores, Thomas White, Wild Cat Strike, Kate Williams, The Woo!Worths, Woodpecker Wooliams, Your Explosion My Mind

A taster of the new Esben & The Witch album

Posted on 30/10/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Esben & The Witch release their new album Wash the Sins Not Only the Face in January. “That’s ages away!” I hear you say! Well, it’s not that far away, but if you really can’t wait that long, you can head over to the Matador Records Blog, where there’s a whole host more information, and a free download of the track Deathwaltz.

Restlesslist / Source New Music / Brighton Dome Studio Theatre

Posted on 27/10/2012 by brightonmusicblog

This review of this months second Source New Music Night I’m afraid to say isn’t up my own personal standards. Normally I do my best to write about all of the bands on the bill (if they’re from Brighton), but I’m just going to focus on Restlesslist for this write up, so I apologise to Oliver Welby, Them The Sky and Phoria. I’ve been sick with a cold this week which, meant I was lethargic and slow, which led to me arriving late to the evening, which led to me missing a big chunk of the proceedings, and then when I did arrive I bumped into quite a few people I know, which was great but meant I wasn’t giving the attention I should have to the musicians that were onstage. And then at the end of the evening Restlesslist played their album Coral Island Girl in full, and it’s going to take something incredibly special from any band to stand up to comparison to that.

I’ve raved about Restlesslist before. The blew me away when I first saw them at Sea Monsters back in January, and then confirmed all of my expectations when I went to their album launch in September at the Haunt. There are so many individual elements to love and yet the sum is greater than the whole. One of the first things that strikes you is the music. It’s not just that they skip around genres, it’s that they don’t it clumsily, with the transitions being aided by Mark Campbell’s narration of the story. And what a story – I’ve listened to the cd over and over since I got hold of it, and it still makes me smile. Then there’s the light show provided by InnerStrings, a little bit trippy, a little bit retro and one more thing that make the band so compelling to watch.

The key thing for me though is that fact they’re all loving being stage so much : You can see that all of the band (I counted nine onstage on thursday) love all of the music that they’re playing. You can see the affection for the influences in all of the songs, and for their fellow bandmates. You can see that it matters to them to put together something that gives them the opportunity to share the things they love – so much music, as well as their friendship with each other – with the wider world, having a great time while doing it.

You can listen to Coral Island Girl in full on Soundcloud:

Oxjam Brighton Takeover / Source New Music / Brighton Dome Studio Theatre

Posted on 22/10/2012 by brightonmusicblog

We mentioned last week that yesterday saw the Oxjam Brighton Takeover taking place across town. As promised we went to report from the newly renamed Brighton Dome Studio Theatre.

Minor Sounds

It was a bit of a quiet start for Minor Sounds. Who knows whether this was a reflection on the weather, the fact that there’s so much on, the Sunday night effect, or the fact that we’re spoiled in Brighton by so many free gigs, but it would have been nice to have seen a bit more support. It’s a real shame because Minor Sounds set was quite a joy to hear. The band make a kind of amplified folk, and played a set mostly from The Humming – their album which came out earlier this year – as well as a few new songs, which pointed to a more experimental direction for the band, with a lot more atmospherics going on.

Curxes

As much as I enjoyed the headliners, it was second band Curxes who stole the show for me. We’ve featured their two singles Spectre and Gold this year on the blog, which they opened and closed their set with. In between we were treated to a confident set of industrial electro pop, sounding like a female fronted mid-period Depeche Mode. I’ve managed to miss Curxes every time they’ve played this year before now, and didn’t disappoint when I finally did see them. They’re back on stage again next week, supporting Nordic Giants at their “Danger De Mort” gig at the Green Door Store, where you’ll get another chance to hear the band and see what Roberta described as her “Nan on acid” dancing.

P for Persia

It seems like only a few weeks since P For Persia were onstage at a Source New Music night. That’s mainly because it has only been a few weeks – when P for Persia played on the Beatabet hosted night back in September. They were great then, and they were great last night, playing angular wonky synth punk, combined with with some of Beatabet’s cartoon visual projections. Daniel McNally is one of Brighton’s most compelling frontmen, and I challenge anyone not to enjoy themselves at a P for Persia gig.

Source New Music is back again this Thursday, headlined by the brilliant Restlesslist, who will be performing their album Coral Island Girl in full. Support comes from Phoria, Them The Sky and Oliver Welby.

new media from Al Chamberlain, Omega Male, Ital Tek and The Maccabees

Posted on 21/10/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Before we head out to the Dome Studio bar for the Oxjam Brighton Takeover tonight, here’s a few bits and pieces for you to listen to and watch.

We mentioned Al Chamberlain’s Train Song in our review of september’s Bleeding Hearts Club, and since then it’s turned up as a free download on Soundcloud. Go and grab it now – it’s one of my favourite tracks of the year.

Next is a new video by Omega Male, half of whom is Fujiya & Miyagi’s David Best. Take a look at Testosterone here:

Then we have Ital Tek with the eponymous title track from their new album Nebula Dance, which comes out tomorrow:

Finally, we have beautiful, trippy video Ayla by the Maccabees