Tag Archives: Crayola Lectern

The ones that got away

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We wrote about loads of bands earlier this month in an arbitrary personal take on the year, but there’s been lots going on that we couldn’t include for one reason or the other. There were lots of bands who were just bubbling under, we didn’t write about any bands who were from Brighton – obviously – and we kept the list just to bands and didn’t mention venues or events or stuff like that.

We tried to have a bit of balance across our advent calendar, making sure we had big and small bands, so it was always going to be the case that there was going to be some we couldn’t fit in. As well as The Maccabees and Bat for Lashes hitting hard for Brighton, Blood Red Shoes and Orbital were troubling the charts. While we’re talking about big acts, Fatboy Slim‘s most recent Big Beach Boutique was a success not on the beach but at the Amex, where they apparently ran out of beer on the first night. On the subject of local bands in sports venues, hundreds of people braved the rain in July when Rizzle Kicks accompanied the entrance of the Olympic Torch to Hove Cricket Groung Saint Etienne were further down our longlist than the album “Words and Music by Saint Etienne” and their gig at the Concorde warranted, but with only Pete Wiggs living in Brighton, we had to prioritise bands with more local members.

Other bands with albums out in 2012 who we just couldn’t fit in were Tall Ships, Cave Painting, Ital Tek (referred to by one of my mates as possibly his album of the year), Sparrow and Negative Pegasus. When Todd Jordan isn’t being part of Negative Pegasus, he’s also one third of promoters One Inch Badge, who brought us the fantastic Sea Monsters festival at the Prince Albert as well as dozens of other great gigs, and is one of the people responsible for Bizarro World, a monthly covers gig which is so much better than it sounds on paper.

There’s a few bands who’ve caught our eye that we’re expecting big things from in 2013. Crayola Lectern‘s album is recorded and due to arrive in Spring sometime on Bleeding Hearts Recordings. We saw Dead Cars live a few weeks ago and really really liked what they were doing, but it was too late to squeeze them into our list. But if we were to be pushed to name one act whose year it could be then we’d have to say Anneka. We’ve only seen her live once so far (supporting Com Truise at The Haunt), but there was something about what she was doing that sounded so fully formed, that she’s bound to be huge.

Outside of Brighton, here’s our top ten albums and top five tracks of the year:

1. Melody’s Echo Chamber / Melody’s Echo Chamber
2. Beth Orton / Sugaring Season
3. Laetitia Sadier / Silencio
4. Toy / Toy
5. Raveonettes / Observator
6. Clock Opera / Ways to Forget
7. Best Coast / The Only Place
8. Black Reindeer / Real Life is Overrated
9. Scuba / Personality
10. Cornshed Sisters / Tell Tales

1. Mmoths / Heart
2. Blur / Under The Westway
3. Saint Etienne / Tonight
4. Minotaur Shock / Janet
5. Lee Hazlewood / Souls Island

Weekend Gig Picks

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So, we’ve got a veritable bonanza of weekend gigs for you this week. Last week I was musing that maybe things that might get a bit quieter in the run up to Christmas – how wrong I was.

Holy VesselsLet’s start this with Thursday – it is the start of the weekend after all. We’ll be heading down to the Concorde 2 to see Saint Etienne (with support from Scritti Politti – what a line up, eh?). Also on thursday night there’s Mr B‘s Chap Hop Christmas Ball at the Prince Albert. Holy Vessels play their album launch at the Blind Tiger, with support from Soccer96, Autumn Red, The Common Tongues and Songs For Walter. Last Orders at the Marshall Arms is out now and available from iTunes. Paul Diello plays his annual Christmas party at  the Brunswick, and Alice Amelia plays the Constant Service.

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Noise NightOn Friday British Sea Power return with a special Christmas Krankenhaus at The Haunt. Our friends over at Brighton Noise are putting on their second night at the Green Door Store. They were turning people away from first one, so get their early to see Traams, Bitches and the fantastic Negative Pegasus. Transformer are launching their single Dragonfly at the Blind Tiger. Check out the Facebook event for more details and a look at the video. The last gig on our radar on friday is at the Coach House in Kemptown (not the pub on Middle Street), where Crayola Lectern headlines a “veritable melange of auditory delights”.

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binge2posterOn Saturday The Impellers hold their Office Christmas Party at The Brunswick, which is cheap to get into if you’ve got a ticket for Craig Charles later that night. If you’d like to start things a bit earlier on in the day, Beatabet kick things off at 1pm. They’ve got twelve bands playing at their Betabet Binge – P for Persia, Spacenoid, Napoleon III, Colectress, Speak Galactic, Laboratoro, Old Man Diode, Scalar Fields, Duot, Operator, Temple Decade and Burnt Toast. Phew!

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art noiseIf you’ve still got any energy left come Sunday, then our top pick is Cate Ferris at The Neptune. There’s also an art event at the Blind Tiger called Wonderland, where Amongst The Pigeons, Them The Sky, Tiny Dragons, and the Elevators and Ribbon play in the evening. In yet another night in town with an above average number of bands on the bill, there’s also Club Criminal at Sticky Mike’s, starting from 5pm, with Trip to Dover, The Flip Flays, The Kut, Thieves by the Code, The Trophy Hearts, Childbrain and King Mews.

Bleeding Hearts Christmas Party

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Is there something in the water that nobody’s told me about? After Friday night’s Miserable Rich gig being their last gathering for the foreseeable future, it seems that The Bleeding Hearts Club have also hung up their hat for now too.

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Whereas most Bleeding Hearts have involved three or four acts, each only playing three songs, last night involved over a dozen bands, each only playing a song or two, with a rule that it had to be a Christmas related cover. I didn’t catch the names of everyone but Fire Eyes, Self Help Group, Nick Hudson, Ingrid Plum, Jane Bartholomew, Things in Herds, Clowns, Crayola Lectern, Tandy Hard and Seadog were amongst the bands who played, some onstage, some in amongst the crowd. Some bands embraced the Christmas theme more than others, and somehow we ended up with two versions of Brass in Pocket by the Pretenders. I’m sure the Pretenders’ Christmas song was 2000 Miles. It was some of the more leftfield covers which raised the biggest smiles. Clowns covering The Sex Pistols God Save the Queen was brilliant, and Crayola Lectern doing Bat Out Of Hell was a moment of warped genius.

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We’re going to miss Bleeding Hearts every first Monday of the month, and we hope that it’s only a temporary break. This isn’t be the last we’ll hear of them though – they told me to pencil in the release of the Crayola Lectern album for next April.

Weekend Gig Picks

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In what’s almost becoming a semi-regular feature of the blog (well, this is the second post of it’s type in as many weeks), here’s a few gigs happening this weekend that have caught our eye.

On Friday, Mean Poppa Lean play their last ever gig at The Haunt, before they call things a day. Support comes from Mean Poppa Lean – the original line up – before the current line up play a headline set. Once things finish at The Haunt, the evening moves on to Sticky Mike’s where they’re holding the afterparty and where no doubt the craziness will continue into the early hours. If you want something a bit folkier, Mountain Firework Company are at the Green Door Store, and for those with more esoteric tastes, Crayola Lectern are at Hotel Pelirocco.

 

On Saturday, there’s a triple EP launch at the Prince Albert. The Evil Son headline, launching their eponymous EP, and support comes from Dead Cars launching their Good People Have White Teeth EP and They Might Swim, whose My Cardiologist EP is just out. We’ve also just been told (after asking about a copy of the fantatic poster to use), that there’s now a fourth band on the bill too, called Leyez. A bargain, and only four quid on the door. Bands from 8pm, apparently.  And if after everything else, you prefer a bit of hip hop, this weekend’s Brighton Rocks night at Sticky Mike’s has Astro-Physics at the top of the bill.

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

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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/

May Bleeding Hearts Club at the Prince Albert

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This month’s Bleeding Hearts Club fell on a bank holiday, which threw me a bit off kilter. Normally the timings work out quite nicely for me to come home from work of an evening, have a spot of dinner, and then head out to the Albert, but what with it feeling like a Sunday my timings were all out, and I missed out on all of this month’s first act Tandy Hard and most of Davo. Oops!

Thankfully the last two acts of the night were both amazing. Jane Bartholomew was positively magical – Beautiful yet fragile tunes backed with lush arrangements on accordion, violin, drums, guitar and autoharp, with a voice reminiscent of Joanna Newsom stripped of the cloying annoyingness.

Jane Bartholomew

Headliners Crayola Lectern are cut from a different cloth to most bands. Disregarding the normal constraints of verses, choruses, and for the most part vocals, Crayola Lectern are more a contemporary pianist act than a traditional band. Piano is augmented by trumpet, sometimes played normally, and other times used to create the effect of heavy breathing or snoring. Piles of percussion are spread across the stage and played seemingly at random, although I suspect that actually everything is perfectly choreographed. The rule book was left at the door. As wilfully independent as the setup of the band is, it’s not at the expense of accessibility – their songs are warm and engaging and intelligent and funny. By the end of the evening the whole room was smiling – entertained and inspired by a band who are prepared to be a bit different.

Crayola Lectern

http://www.crayolalectern.com

http://www.janebartholomew.net

http://www.bleedingheartrecordings.com