Weekend Gig Picks

Posted on 04/12/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Normally December is a quiet time for music, but once again Brighton is doing us all proud by being as busy as ever. Here’s our picks of the best of the local live music this weekend:

On Thursday Night, GAPS launch their new single I Know It’s You with a gig at the Green Door Store. Support comes from Foreign Skin and Eagles for Hands. Thursday is also December’s Source New Music at the Dome Studio Theatre, headlined this month by Rum Committee, with Mok, Neon Saints Brass Band and Barcode also on the bill. Meanwhile, over at the Brunswick Tim Keegan & The Quiet Lifers are playing at the Brunswick. They’ll be previewing tracks from their forthcoming album The Long Game, as well as other material from their back catalogue, a tribute to Lou Reed and maybe something a little more festive. As if that wasn’t enough, at the Blind Tiger there’s a Beatabet takeover with Le Juki, Bryony Bird and Collectress.

Friday night sees The Electric Soft Parade play their Christmas Show at the Unitarian Church. The band will be playing two sets – an acoustic Electric Soft Parade set of rarities and covers, and an second set of Christmas songs with an expanded band. There’s promise of mince pies and mulled wine too. Normanton Street and Phoebe Freya are launching their new single at the Green Door Store, and carrying on with an afterparty at Brighton Arts Club after 11. Support at the Green Door Store comes from Alice Amelia, The Remedy and The White Bicycles. As if that wasn’t enough for Friday Night, Hypnotised are supporting the Godspeed / Silver Mount Zion side project Esmerine at Saint George’s Church.

There’s plenty to choose from on Saturday too – Eliza Jaye is playing at the Ranelagh, House of Hats, Jacko Hooper and Fiddes Smith are at the Brunswick, and Two Jackals are at Coalition. Finally, on Sunday, Sealings play at Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, supported by Shudder Pulps, Keel Her and Witching Waves.

In the meantime, we’re off to see Lion Bark at the Hope tonight.

Fear of Men Supporting Best Coast

Posted on 22/06/2012 by brightonmusicblog

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.

Gigs on Thursday 21st June

Posted on 19/06/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Living in Brighton is fantastic, because there’s always something happening. Sometimes though, it can feel that there’s not enough hours in the day to do everything you want to, and thursday is one of those nights. There’s three gigs on, at the Pavillion Theatre, at the Green Door Store and at Coalition that I’d like to be at. The one I’ll be going to will be the one I bought a ticket to before finding out about the others!

First of the three is the Source New Music Night at Pavilion Theatre. Sparrow are headlining, and they’re supported by Rain Eater, Arthur and the Irrational and Tyrannosaurus Dead. I normally do my best to get along to the Source Nights, because they’re great for new bands and an absolute bargain at only four pounds. Next month’s – headlined by Sweet Sweet Lies – is already in the calendar.

Then we’ve got The New Union at Green Door Store, who really impressed us supporting Clock Opera a few weeks ago. And that’s even more of a bargain, because it’s free! We’re big fans of the Peter Saville style posters – there are four different varieties each relating to a different band member.

The gig I’ll be at though, will be Best Coast and Fear of Men at Coalition. Here’s the video for their new single Green Sea. Expect a few words and maybe some pictures on the gig later this week.

Hopefully you’ll make it along to one of these, or one of the many other gigs going on all round town. You’re spoiled for choice!

New Fear of Men Single

Posted on 01/05/2012 by brightonmusicblog

It seems like forever since Fear of Men put out the debut 7″ Ritual Confession last year. It’s probably been barely six months, and in that time one of their early cassette released tracks, Doldrums, appeared on the Sea Monsters 2 compilation, but now the band are just about ready to put out their next single.

Green Sea is coming out on limited 300 only 7″ on June 18th on Sexbeat records, backed with another new track called Born, which they claim is “hook laden”. If you want to hear what Green Sea sounds like before then, you can because they’ve put it up on Soundcloud:

If you want to hear what they sound like playing it live, then they’re playing at the Great Escape Festival, Friday 11th May at 9.30pm at Queens Hotel, and they’re back again supporting Best Coast at Coalition on 21st June. Of course, there’s no guarantee that they’ll actually play the new single, but I can’t see any reason why they wouldn’t.