Riots Not Diets Christmas Party / Shrag live at the Green Door Store 17/12/11

Posted on 20/12/2011 by brightonmusicblog

Shrag first came to my attention (musically at least) last year when I saw them supporting Pains of Being Pure at Heart at the Concorde. I fell in love with them immediately – they reminded me of loads of the bands I loved in the mid nineties – Prolapse, The Delgados, Bis and Heavenly. Funny then, that support at the gig was Tender Trap – fronted by Amelia Fletcher, who also fronted Heavenly all those years ago. For most of Tender Trap’s set, Shrag lead singer Helen King stood at the front transfixed. It must be quite an honour to have one of your heroes supporting you at a gig in your hometown. Since this is the Brighton Music Blog, not the Oxford Music Blog, so I’ll skip over Tender Trap’s support and head straight onto Shrag’s set. They played a roughly equal mix of tracks from 2010’s Life! Death! Parties!, earlier tunes and songs written for their upcoming album due to be released next year on Fortuna Pop. The band don’t really aim for professional – the start was delayed by a couple of minutes while the bassist was fetched from the bar, and when a string broke on Bob Brown’s guitar, he didn’t have another spare guitar to swap with, instead having to use keyboard player Steph Goodman’s, which was “impossible to tune”. But it doesn’t matter one jot – I’d rather see a band who are funny, and intense, and who I can relate to instead. Their set was over far too quickly – one of the downsides of fast paced punky indie pop. Let’s hope they play again soon when their album comes out in the spring.

Shrag

Christmas tracks from Munich and Rocker Switch

Posted on 19/12/2011 by brightonmusicblog

Christmas is only a few days away, and Brighton’s bands certainly haven’t forgotten. To help you get in the festive spirit, Munich and Rocker Switch have posted up a seasonal track, Munich covering a classic Christmas pop favourite, and Rocker Switch with a new track of their own. Grab yourself a mince pie and click on the links:

Munich – Last Christmas:

Rocker Switch – Hurry Hurry Christmas Come:

Metronomy / The English Riviera in the Album Of The Year round ups

Posted on 18/12/2011 by brightonmusicblog

As predicted when I wrote about Mary Hampton faring well in Folk Roots’ album of the year a couple of weeks ago, Metronomy’s fantastic The English Riviera LP is showing up all over the place. Drowned in Sound have placed it at number ten, and The Guardian have it at number seven. If you’ve spotted it anywhere else, let us know!

http://drownedinsound.com/news/4144241-dis-favourite-albums-of-2011–20-6

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/dec/08/best-albums-2011-metronomy-english-riviera

Sweet Sweet Lies Christmas gig at the Haunt

Posted on 15/12/2011 by brightonmusicblog

When is a headliner not a headliner?

For the gig I went to this evening, the answer could be that the listed band were on early, at 8.30pm. Or it could be that all three bands on the bill could easily be headliners in their own right. I’m quite sure I’ve probably seen all three of these bands headlining their own gigs over the past couple of years. The gig itself was only a fiver – which would be a bargain to see any of these bands, let alone all three, but it wasn’t until I arrived that I realised that also included a shot of Tuaca in the bargain too. Bonus!

First up were Kovak, on criminally early at 7.30. But what a great way to start – they’ve honed their electro pop over many gigs in Brighton over the past few years, and now know exactly how to get things warmed up. They even threw in their cover of Atomic which they’ve been playing the last few times I’ve seen them.

Next up were the band billed as headliners – Sweet Sweet Lies. After a few technical hitches with the keyboards, they kicked off their classic brand of guitar led pop. They’ve been secretly working hard since the last time I saw them a couple of years ago, and now everything seems even more polished and professional than ever. Like Kovak, if things go their way, they could be headed for big things.

Finally, we had Mean Poppa Lean. It’s impossible not to like Mean Poppa Lean. Even if you don’t like funk, you can’t help but be seduced by their silliness, their outfits, and the fact that they’re just a great band. So it’s best just to join them in their fun. It only took them a couple of songs before pretty much the whole band were just stripped down to their crazy home made pantaloons / boxer shorts. And that’s probably why they were put on last!

Macca-Brighton date

Posted on 14/12/2011 by brightonmusicblog

About a month ago, in one of our first posts we told you about the Maccabees heading off to tour in January, and I jokingly commented that there was no Brighton date. Well, of course they wouldn’t miss out their home town. More dates have been announced, and they’ll be playing the Dome on the 9th of March. Tickets go on sale this Friday, so make sure you’re queuing up outside Resident or Rounder when they open.

Live Review : Jane Bartholomew at The Basement 6/12/11

Posted on 11/12/2011 by brightonmusicblog

This was going to be a review of what was pretty much unanimously gig of the week in the local press – Meg Baird at The Basement last Tuesday. The focus wasn’t going to be Meg Baird – she’s an American folk singer – but the support, local singer songwriter Jane Bartholomew. I’d been given a heads up about the gig by Jon, who’s written a few posts for the blog, who told me it was going to be a good gig, but I hadn’t heard of Jane before the night.

And it was an amazing gig. I don’t really have the vocabulary to fully describe it – not being that into folk, I can’t make the meaningful comparisons with other artists and sub genres which would tell you that much about it, and my enthusiasm about the gig won’t make things much clearer either.

What I can tell you though is that the gig was exactly why I started the blog. I know quite a few local bands, but what I also know is that there’s some serious talent around town which deserves to be heard but so often goes unrecognised, which I want to find out about and shine a light on. For me, it’s all about the discovery of these artists, the pride that we live somewhere that generates such creativity, and the ongoing support.

So I guess I should write a bit about Jane Bartholomew, and the gig. Jane makes quirky, magical folk music, which was ideally suited to the small intimate environment of The Basement. Most of the time she played alone on the guitar or autoharp, but on some songs she was joined on accordion and violin, and on a couple of songs, the vibraphone. However, whatever the instrumentation, it’s Jane’s voice that really captivates. It’s almost childlike and brings something rather special to her songs. Musically, everything seems so accomplished and rich – far more than I would expect from a support band. It was all so good that at the end of the show, I bought the cd and it hasn’t left my stereo since. And I guess Meg Baird was pretty good too (she was fantastic), but she’s not from Brighton, and I know that there’s been plenty of other reviews written which will say how great the gig was and how ably she coped at the end of the gig when one of her strings broke.

You can buy Jane Bartholomew’s album on her website here.

Barbershop Trio

Posted on 06/12/2011 by brightonmusicblog

Brighton band Seadog kicked off their first national tour on Saturday with a gig in a barber shop. The Gloucester Road Barber has Elliot Smith inspired decor and apparently once had a man living upstairs named Elliot Smith (not that one).

It was the perfect venue for Seadog to mark the start of their first tour of the U.K. as the band are much influenced by Elliot Smith, having hosted a tribute night in the same venue in 2010. The new line up includes accordion which gives them a Decemberists-esque edge to their established harmony-laden acoustic jaunty sound.

http://seadogmusic.bandcamp.com/album/transmitter-ep

Seadog will be supporting Kenneth Ishak on tour, a delightful surprise of pop sensibilities with indie undertones from Norway, described as “where Big Star and Real Estate collide.”

http://www.kennethishak.net/

You can catch Seadog and Kenneth Ishak at:

3rd Dec – Brighton/Gloucester Road Barbershop
4th Dec – Northampton/The labour club
5th Dec – London/12 Bar Club
6thDec – Edinburgh/Medina
7th Dec – Edinburgh/Sneaky Pete´s
8th Dec – Glasgow/13th Note

Also supporting were Brighton band G-Minor, launching their first EP ‘Under No Illusion’. The band have come a long way in the last few months, combining melodic harmonies and engaging lyricism – definitely a band to watch.

http://www.myspace.com/gminormusic

Mary Hampton – #7 in Folk Roots albums of the year 2011

Posted on 05/12/2011 by brightonmusicblog

Congratulations to Brighton’s Mary Hampton, whose album Folly was voted 7th best of the year in the Folk Roots end of year critics poll! A special mention too to The Oysterband – who aren’t normally associated with Brighton but whose drummer Dil Davies lives in Hanover – their album with June Tabor, Ragged Kingdom, was voted top. You can read the full results of their critic’s poll here. We’ll be casting our eyes over other year end polls looking for other Brighton acts who have done well this year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Metronomy album cropping up here or there.

In the meantime, back to Mary Hampton. Here’s a video of one of the tracks from Folly; this is Honey in the Rock:

A Beautiful Christmas

Posted on 03/12/2011 by brightonmusicblog

It’s December now, so we can officially talk about Christmas. So to kick off, a couple of festive bits and pieces from The Beautiful Word. Firstly, they’re hosting a night tomorrow at The Blind Tiger Club. Their Winter Woodland Wonderland kicks off early at 6.30pm (well, it is a sunday night). As with some of their previous gigs, they’re encouraging fancy dress, and the theme is animals and trees. I asked them about this on Twitter (@BeautifulWord, if you’re interested), and they say that they need more trees. If you are thinking about fancy dress, and want to be judged for it (there’s prizes, you know!), then you’ll have to get there between 6.30 and 7. Set times are:

Zoe Konez 6.45pm
Common Tongues 7.30pm
The Beautiful Word 8.15pm
Nimmo and The Gauntletts 9.15pm

As if that wasn’t enough, they’ve also put out a Christmas single – Mirrorball. The video for it is here:

Finally, here’s a few links with more information about sunday night’s gig:

http://playgroupbrighton.org/events/2011/12/04/winter-woodland-wonderland-party/

https://www.facebook.com/events/290189141003032/

Not an Ordinary gig

Posted on 01/12/2011 by brightonmusicblog

Tonight (probably last night by the time you read this) was the November Juice New Music night at the Green Door store, which was their last night there before they move to their new venue, The Haunt. Ice Black Birds were originally billed as the headliners, but as the gig approached, some “special guests” were added to the bill, and the gig transformed into a hometown gig for The Ordinary Boys, who have got back together to do a proper farewell tour.

I only caught the last few songs by first act Elle Kaye. Maybe I’d come in too late, or maybe my tastes lie elsewhere, but they didn’t really push my buttons. Next up were BirdEatsBaby, who you may have spotted gracing the front cover of Unsigned Magazine which is doing the rounds around town. They had a much stronger look and a much stronger sound (in my opinion), but tucking away the frontwoman at the side of the stage didn’t do them any favours. I reckon they need to sign up a keyboard player to bring the band to their full potential. Next up were Ice Black Birds, who had the Ordinary Boys not been around, would have made great headliners. They sounded great, they had the songs, and they looked as if they needed to be in a band playing their music. Definitely ones to watch. And then The Ordinary Boys, who made it all look so effortless. Preston is much smaller in real life, but on stage he had so much presence. They had the advantage of songs that were familiar to some of the audience (although somewhat surprisingly, the crowd wasn’t packed with Ordinary Boys fans), and rounded off their set with Boys Will Be Boys.

As I mentioned, this was the last Juice New Music Night at the Green Door Store, and next month’s night – their Christmas Party – will be at The Haunt, and will be headlined by Kidda who are signed to Skint Records.