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.

Weekend Gig Picks

Posted on 16/10/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Tonight we’re off to see Momotaro supported by Faux Flux at Above Audio, but before we do, here’s this weekend’s gig picks:

The big gig on Thursday night is Passenger. The Let Her Go singer is playing a sold out hometown gig at the Concorde 2 (actually he’s playing two, with the second next Monday, which is also sold out). Thursday’s other gigs which caught our eye were The Resonators playing at The Haunt, and Foreign Skin supporting Jungle at Sticky Mike’s.

On Friday night, Ancient Times launch their new single Nightschool at the Blind Tiger. Support comes from Shudder Pulps, Morning Smoke and Hot Glass. It’s also this week’s Brighton Rocks at Sticky Mike’s, with The Dials, Cat Fire Radio, 1914s and Broadbay on the line up.

Finally, on Saturday night, regular Green Door Store night Drugs returns after a summer break with a five band line up. For less than a pound a band, you get to see Grasshopper, Twin, Bentcousin, Skirts and The Bright Ones.

August top ten

Posted on 02/09/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Here are the top tunes that were on the Brighton Music Blog stereo in August. As always, the diversity of the music being made in this city is impressive, from retro garage to chilled electronica and everything inbetween.

1) Spit Shake Sisters – Modern Drugs Make Aliens

Our most listened to track of the last month wasn’t a proper single, and was just put out to bring Spit Shake Sister’s output up to date following a change in personnel. Modern Drugs Make Aliens wasn’t even the lead song on the two track download. But nevertheless we’re big fans of this Hammond led hip swinger.

2) Electric Soft Parade – 1969

1969 is a popular year for songwriters. Serge Gainsbourg, Iggy Pop and, er, Bryan Adams have all taken advantage of writing about a year that recalls a time of free love, which also has a lot of rhymes. I’m sure the innuendo has nothing to do with it’s popularity. Now it’s Electric Soft Parade’s turn, putting out the summery guitar pop of 1969 as a free download from their label’s website.

3) Adolescent – Shy

Shy came out on an electronica compilation called Coast to Coast put out by Irish blog Believe In Sound. Call us biased, but in our opinion the Brighton track with the best thing on it. You can download the whole compilation for free on bandcamp.

4) Bon Iver – Wash (Foreign Skin remix)

Bon Iver’s not from Brighton, I hear you say. Well, no – but Flavia Aliverti, better known as Foreign Skin, is. We were won over by her set at Two Three Four at Green Door Store at the start of the month, and not long after this rather lovely unofficial remix turned up on SoundCloud and Bandcamp (see the links underneath the video on YouTube). Grab it before it disappears

5) The Hundredth Anniversary – Last Drive

The Hundredth Anniversary continue to put out high quality shoegaze, and Last Drive is no exception. Head over to the website they created to go with the track, play with the visuals, and download the track to listen to at your leisure.

6) The Raving Beauties – Oh Lover

At The Helm is a new Brighton based label from the guys behind Brighthelmstone promotions and Wildwood promotions, and the sunny Americana of Oh Lover is their first release

7) Phantom Runners – It Takes Me Away

We only heard this last week, but we loved it on first listen. We heard some very exciting news about who might be producing the Phantom Runners next EP, but we think it might be a secret so all we’ll say is keep your eyes and ears peeled.

8) Samuel Organ – E/\/\ER/\LD

The Physics House Band’s own label Kaleidoscope put out their second release this month, a three track solo EP called Y by Physics House Band member Samuel Organ. It’s not easy listening by any means, but neither is a lot of Aphex Twin’s output, which this track feels like it could be a natural heir to.

9) P For Persia – Uncanny Valley

Uncanny Valley got reviewed by Drowned In Sound, who described it as “a Twin Peaks remix done on an Atari by Fuck Buttons channelling their inner Kid606, before asking a bunch of shouty screamo kids to come in and do some vocals.”. They didn’t mention that it was just one track on a split EP with Speak Galactic, that the EP was called Aegis Arctic Alp, or that it was coming out on purple vinyl, all of which makes it an even more exciting prospect.

10) Flash Bang Band / Screw Come Loose

The second track in our top ten from At The Helm Records, Screw Come Loose, is the single that’s come out to promote the new Flash Bang Band album Bite Your Tongue. The album is out now and features some of their older singles (If You’re Driving and DananananaFreud). The launch party is at the Green Door Store on 15th September, where they’ll be joined by P For Persia and Clowns.

Weekend Gig Picks

Posted on 31/07/2013 by brightonmusicblog

In Brighton, the first weekend in August is associated with being Pride – probably the biggest party in the local calendar. We’re not going to include that in our weekend gig picks because of the lack of local acts on the bill, but we have got a whole load of other gigs to tell you about, including a very special couple of days at the Green Door Store.

Tomorrow night IYES and Yumi & The Weather are supporting MT at the Prince Albert. It doesn’t cost anything to get in, but to get hold of a ticket you’ll need to register online.

There’s quite a few gigs on Friday that have caught our eye. AMiTY and Jacko Hooper are playing at Neighbourhood on St James Street, and The Jargonaughts (featuring ex members of Los Albertos) are on at the Gladstone. Over at The Hope multimedia electronica night The Outer Church hold the launch night for their new compilation with live music from Pye Corner Radio, Kember Norton, Embla Quickbeam and Wrong Signals.

Over Saturday and Sunday Green Door Store are holding an event called TwoThreeFour. There are over twenty bands on the bill, mostly from Brighton, including The New Union, Kill Moon, Faux Flux, Spit Shake Sisters, Dog in the Snow, GAPS, Written in Waters, The Hundredth Anniversary, Tyrannosaurus Dead, Ed Prosek, Tigercub, Foreign Skin, Wildcat Strike and Demob Happy. It’s an amazing line up, and it’s free – You’d be a fool to miss it.

Sam Physics / KLDSCP[001]

Posted on 12/03/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Not content with being a third of one of Brighton’s best and busiest upcoming bands, Samuel Organ of Physics House Band is a man of many talents. The band also put on a monthly night called Kaleidescope at Sticky Mike’s which always features some of Brighton’s best electronica, and now Sam has started a record label – kldscp – whose first release is a seven track compilation of lovely, local downtempo beats:

kldscp[001] opens with Aadvarks which recently appeared on Luo’s lush Antidote EP. Next is a Written in Waters remix, completely transformed from the band’s more familiar sound. There’s also a Physics House Band demo on there, and a Samuel Organ solo track. There’s choral ambience from Coral ŸS and effervescent electronica Caveman Genius. The highlight for us is the track by Foreign Skin – a slice of gorgeous balearic chill out.

The full tracklist is:

Luo – Aardvarks
Written In Waters – The Fall (AZEDIA Remix)
The Physics House Band – The Underlying Fluctuation (Teratology Demo)
Foreign Skin – Hoi Sum
Coral ŸS – Lumi
Caveman Genius – Bone Machines
Samuel Organ – Tisno