It’s all going on for Fear of Men at the moment. They’ve got a new single out, and they’ve just come back from a national tour supporting Best Coast. We catch up with Jess Weiss and Dan Falvey to hear first hand how things are going for the band.
It feels kind of appropriate shooting the Bleeding Hearts Night on film, because aside from Hattie Cooke’s iPad adding a bit more reverb to her guitar, everything else onstage could have been from any point in the last fifty years, so why not record it in a similar way too?
Anyway, happy birthday Bleeding Hearts – ten years is an amazing achievement. Here’s to the next ten!
(click on the pics to view large)
There’s some more pics over at out friends Brighton Noise
If you picked up a copy of the new Source Magazine at the weekend, you would have spotted the Holy Vessels looking out from the front cover. The magazine proclaims them the “New Saviours of Country Rock”! Continue reading
Without giving Inner World a listen, you could easily be fooled about the sound of the Donna Fullman’s debut album. On her website she describes herself as “Indie Folk” and the scrolling text at the top currently tells you that it’s #4 in Reverbnation’s folk chart, and producer Simon Janes has worked with Mary Hampton. Even on opening track By The Fire, you could still be lulled into thinking that this is a folk album, with it’s acoustic guitar and haunting refrain.
When I spoke to Amongst The Pigeons about their album a few months ago, the conversation turned live gigs, and about how there wasn’t many opportunities to for electronica acts to play live around Brighton. Realising that nothing in this world is handed to you on a plate, he went and organised his own night, and very magnanimously didn’t put himself at the top of the bill. Continue reading
I haven’t got enough time to write loads about everything I get told about, but I do try and give as much stuff as I can a mention. So in this spirit, here’s a quick blog post about a few things that have dropped into the BMB inbox recently.
First up, tomorrow night is the next Vice Launch Party. No Problems are playing and ex-Pipette Monster Bobby is DJing. The facebook event with more info is here.
Then we’ve got Eliza Jaye’s new video for her single Big Tin Heart, which has a bit of a spoof of The Old Grey Whistle test at the start:
Sticking on a rock theme, Kid Capola have also put out a single for their new single Wolf & Cub:
And Peggy Sue have a video for Fools Rush In, from their new long player Peggy Sue play the Songs of Scorpio Rising which is coming out next month:
Finally, the video to Amongst The Pigeons’ latest single Jaffa Clown Dog, which got released yesterday. I’m off to see them, as well as BitBin, who’s just signed to Skint offshoot Under Fives tonight, so expect another blog post on them soon!
Sometimes a little bit of effort is all it takes to transform an otherwise normal gig or release into something special. You could just sell tickets on the door, or put your track up onto bandcamp, or with a little thought and imagination you could make things much more memorable. So with that in mind, we have to applaud Catherine Ireton who launched “Treasure Tracks” this afternoon. Continue reading
For a Brighton band* Fear of Men don’t play that much in Brighton. So far this year, they’ve played as part of the Sea Monsters mini-festival, and also played a set during The Great Escape, so their support set for Best Coast is the first opportunity of 2012 to see them on a decent sized stage. The band have been supporting Best Coast for most of their UK tour, which is a bit of a coup for a band with only a clutch of singles to their name so far, and the homecoming gig is also the final date of the tour.
Fear of Men
It was an early gig anyway, because of a club night later on at Coalition, and Fear of Men’s set started at a ridiculously early 7.15pm, but by then the venue was already getting busy. For about half an hour, they filled a few seafront arches with their melodic guitar pop – catchy, tuneful melodies with fuzzy guitar around the edges, owing as much of a debt to Sarah Records releases of the late eighties as it does to the wave of female fronted indie bands of the nineties – songs that might not fill stadiums, but that you’ll form much more of an emotional attachment to. It’s a similar trick to that played by Pains of Being Pure at Heart – the familiarity of alternative music from the past but pulled off with a modern style that they make their own. In no time at all, the band are closing their set with new single Green Sea. I reckon it’s about time they came back and played a headline set.
Jess Weiss of Fear of Men
Later on, Spectrals from Leeds plays for a bit (sad songs, because they were one man down, apparently), and then Best Coast headlined. They started nervously with the lead track from their new album The Only Place, but quickly hit their stride rattling through their back catalogue, finishing up with Spectrals joining them onstage for their last track – a tradition which apparently started last time both bands played in Brighton. A great night!
Best Coast
*well, partly Brighton – some of them are Londoners, but they’re that good that we’ll keep them for ourselves.
Jennifer Left’s debut single Black Dog came out a few weeks ago, and last night she held the launch party for it at the Blind Tiger Club. Support came from Cate Ferris and the Peppermint Beat Band.
Cate Ferris had a tricky job as opener of the night – Set times were already pushed back because of the football and when she took to the stage things were still quite quiet, but by the end of the set the venue was full and she had everyone eating out of the palm of her hand. Playing predominantly new material, some of which has been recorded by Tim Bidwell (who also produced Jennifer Left’s single) to be released as an EP sometime in the next couple of months, Cate played guitar, drums, flute, and keyboards, and used samplers to loop her sounds and harmonise with herself. Expect to read a lot more about Cate on the blog in the next few weeks as we get more details of her single and her flashmob on 1st July…
Next up were The Peppermint Beat Band, a tight five piece retro rock’n’roll group, originally from Northampton but who’ve been based in Brighton for the past few years. Their trousers were as tight as their harmonies, and their facial hair was quite something too.
The Peppermint Beat Band
Finally this month’s Source cover star hit the stage. The band’s songs bring together a wide range of influences, from folk to jazz to pop and back again, all underpinned by Jennifer Left’s distinctive smoky voice. Band members swapped instruments, picking up a variety of guitars and basses, a mandolin, some keyboard based instruments, including an accordian and a xylophone (which almost fell apart on it’s way to the stage), as well as trumpet. Despite not yet being released yet, the songs sounded accomplished and familiar – old yet new at the same time. Time flew by and before we knew it the set was being closed with the song that the whole evening was celebrating, new single Black Dog.
Jennifer Left
Slightly late to the party on this, the new Shrag single Show Us Your Canines came out last week. The single is the lead track from their forthcoming album Canines and shows the band in fine form, typical lo fi indie with boy/girl vocals. We can’t wait for the LP to come out, but in the meantime, the 7″ is in the shops now, and the video is on youtube:
Brighton Music Blog 