Weekend Gig Picks

Posted on 27/02/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Isn’t the weather meant to be getting better by now? And aren’t the days meant to be getting longer? It’s still dark when I get home from work. At least it’s almost the weekend, which means it’s time for us to flag up the local bands we think you ought to see over the next few days.

On Thursday night Clowns play at the Green Door Store, supported by Frank Melena Band and Victorian Hunter. As front men go, they don’t come much better than Clowns’ Miles Heathfield, so this comes highly recommended. And it’s free! Over in Hove at the Bee’s Mouth, Zoe Hazel Hedderwick headlines the first Lipstick & Picks night – a new monthly night showcasing female musicians, which is also free.

Friday night’s biggest gigs to mention are some musical legend supported by local bands – Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band headline the Concorde, supported Son Belly, and Damo Suzuki from Can headlines the Green Door Store. Not only is he supported by Sons of Noel and Adrian, Soccer 96 and Eyes & No Eyes, but members of each of these bands will also be playing with him for his set. Friday is also Lout’s next Brighton Rocks night at Sticky Mike’s, with Saint Savanna, The Dancers, Farrow and Pizzabones.

There’s also another Brighton Rocks on Saturday at Sticky Mike’s – Ham Legion, The Creaking Chair, The Evil Son and LSD-25 are on the bill. House of Hats host another Harvest Session at the Brunswick, with support from The Self Help Group and Katharine Rose. Later in the evening Kovak host Club Kovak at the Blind Tiger, where you’ll have one of your first opportunities to see them playing tunes from their upcoming album live. Support comes Paper Playground and a DJ set from Youth. I suppose we ought to mention that Woodingdean’s finest X-factor contestant Frankie Cocozza is playing at the Haunt too.

Just the one gig to mention for Sunday, but it’s one we bought a ticket for before we even realised that the support would be a local act. Melody’s Echo Chamber plays at The Haunt (not Green Door Store where tickets were originally on sale for), and we’re looking forward to see them almost as much as we’re looking forward to Fear of Men who are supporting.

Curxes at the Green Door Store / Milk & Biscuits at the Blind Tiger

Posted on 21/02/2013 by brightonmusicblog

As you may have gathered from our posts, we’re big fans of live music here at Brighton Music Blog. In Brighton, we’re incredibly lucky that there are so many great gigs and so much choice. Last night was no exception, so much so that we decided to go to two gigs. We headed to the Green Door Store where Curxes were first on the bill at Danger De Mort’s monthly night, and then moved on to the Blind Tiger where Milk and Biscuits were headlining.

Curxes

Danger De Mort first came to our attention in October last year when they put on a show that Nordic Giants headlined. Since then they’ve been putting on a gig every month with a mix of local and national bands, all with great line ups. Last night Brighton Music Blog approved Curxes opened the show. Where their first few releases had been very much in an industrial electro vein (they opened with Souxsie Sioux fronts Depeche Mode style single Spectre) they showed a new side with their Christmas cover of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and it was this that we were hoping to get get a glimpse of last night. The first part of the set was filled with the early singles – big belting synth epics which only went slightly awry when a lead fell out of the back of the laptop providing the visuals. Because it was cold, because it was midweek, because it was early – for whatever reason – it was a bit quiet, so Roberta took to the middle of the room as her stage, losing herself in the space, giving us an impression of the what the Curxes live show might be like when they’re playing bigger venues. Their new more reflective side was shown at the end of the set, when they closed on quieter aggressive song, showing off Roberta’s voice and showing the band’s newfound versatility.

Milk & Biscuits

While I had heard good reports of the rest of the bands on the bill they weren’t from Brighton, and there was another band playing in town who I was also looking forward to. I had only seen Milk and Biscuits once before, playing a low-key support slow at the Green Door Store around the time of their Balcony Times mini-album back at the tail end of 2011. That it’s taken until now for me to see them again isn’t to say the eight-piece took 2012 off – half of them are also in Restlesslist, whose concept album Coral Island Girl was one of our highlights last year. By the time I arrived at the Blind Tiger, the place was getting busy and I spotted quite a few local musicians amongst the crowd – Mary Hampton, Jennifer Left, Nick Hudson, Adam from Fragile Creatures, and probably a whole load more that I didn’t recognise. The Milk and Biscuits onstage yesterday were far more performance based than the band I saw over a year ago – they’ve transformed from a bunch of great musicians playing amongst each other to a fully fledged band who looked out towards the audience in a formation which showed them off well. Musically things had changed too and their set didn’t feature any tracks from their first release. To these ears their new sound isn’t quite so introspective as before. Last year’s single White Noise still sounds quite pastoral, but Milk and Biscuits rock harder than they used to. Local poet Gary Goodman joined them onstage for a few tracks, which added a different dimension to things, his sometimes-cutting observations showing that they’re more than just a band. Overall though, the gig was hampered with poor sound – there was a lot of feedback from the microphones, and the drummer seemed unhappy throughout, no doubt one of the issues of having such a large band. Let’s hope that next time there aren’t the same issues. Next time they’ve even promised an encore too!

Weekend Gig Picks

Posted on 20/02/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Normally our weekly post about which gigs we think you should go to to see some of our favourite local acts starts on a Thursday. Thursday has long replaced Friday as the start of the weekend in the Brighton Music Blog calendar. This week though, we’re starting things even earlier on Wednesday, because there’s two cracking gigs on tonight which we feel deserve a bit of a mention.

Tonight Milk & Biscuits play at the Blind Tiger. We loved last year’s epic White Noise single, and this is a great chance to see them playing their new material for their follow up to 2011’s Balcony Time’s mini-LP. Over at the Green Door Store, Danger De Mort are holding their third event. Their first night had Nordic Giants headlining, and we were gutted to miss last month’s event which had IYES and Us Baby Bear Bones supporting. This month’s local support are Curxes, who have promised to play the new tracks they they’ll be releasing later this year. I don’t know a great deal about the rest of the bill, headlined by a band called Cymbals, but we reckon it’ll be great just on the strength of their previous line ups.

Onto Thursday night, where we normally kick off our weekend. One Inch Badge are putting Doldrums at the Prince Albert. Doldrums are from Toronto, but the supports – Us Baby Bear Bones and Luo are two of our favourite local bands.

On Friday night we’ve spotted four gigs we like the look of. Written in Waters, IYES and Calico are playing at Brighton Electric, Speak Galactic and Cloud are supporting Antibang at the Prince Albert, Catherine Ireton is supporting Stu Larsen at Sticky Mike’s and Anneka is playing at live set at the Traumfrau night at the Haunt. We’re spoiled for choice!

Then on Saturday Professor Elemental is launching his new single at the Marlborough. The single’s called This is My Horse (Show Me Yours), and we’ll be writing a separate post about it sometime next week.

The New Union at the Green Door Store

Posted on 09/02/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Yesterday The New Union supported The 1975 at the Green Door Store. It’s the first time we’ve caught them in a few months and in that time they’ve been working hard on new tracks up in studios in London. You can hear the effect of working with a producer – Richard Jackson now uses two mics to bring more depth to the vocals, there’s more reverb all round making their sound even bigger, and where last year a New Union gig would be half an hour of urgent adrenalin filled songs there’s now some slower numbers too. The New Union are growing up and sounding bigger and better than ever.

click on the pics below to view larger:

Catherine Ireton supported by Ed Prosek at the Green Door Store

Posted on 03/11/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Last night, Catherine Ireton played her biggest Brighton gig to date. Over the summer she’s been playing the most intimate gigs, at the Booth Museum, in a room tucked around the back of London Road station and most recently, as she put it last night “in your bedroom” (which is a nice way of saying it was a webcast). Before she plays her last Treasure Tracks gig in a couple of weeks time, she’s played a night at the Green Door Store, supported by Hattie Cooke and Ed Prosek.

Ed Prosek

We managed to miss Hattie Cooke due to a prior engagement at the Basketmakers, and arrived just in time for Ed Prosek and his band. Ed is an American who’s made Brighton his home and plies his musical trade in Singer-Songwriter stock. He made a bit of a splash this summer when his cover of Paul Simon’s Homeward Bound got used in an advert for cheese. Aside from the great voice and well crafted songs, Ed’s great strength last night was the lush instrumentation – As well as Ed’s guitar playing we was joined by a mandolin, piano and full string quartet. My only grumble was his song moaning about the south coast of England in favour of California. Ed – be mindful of your audience!

Catherine Ireton

Around half nine, Catherine Ireton took to the stage. Much like her Treasure Tracks gigs, the bulk of her set was just her and her piano – a simple setup, which didn’t need anything else. The songs got carried along by Catherine’s big voice, telling stories based on recollections of her experiences, of haunted rooms and half-remembered childhood memories. For the closing track of her set, she called on the supports to join her on stage for a rendition of the Stuart Mudoch penned Come Monday Night, recorded by Catherine when she part of the Belle & Sebastian side project God Help The Girl. If that made the gig feel very much like a family affair, then the encore made things feel even more intimate – Catherine had been singing with a radio mic, and for her finale wandered out into the crowd and sung unaccompanied. Breathtaking.

Danger De Mort – Nordic Giants & Curxes

Posted on 31/10/2012 by brightonmusicblog

It was a good night for Brighton Bands last night. Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster made their live return at the Concorde in the biggest local gig in town, but we were showing our support for Nordic Giants and Curxes at the Green Door Store.

You wait all year for a Curxes gig, and then two come along in less than a fortnight. While they stole the show at the Source New Music Oxjam night, the Green Door felt much more suitable for them, with it’s exposed brickwork and stark decor. And while it probably wasn’t any louder than the Dome Studio Theatre, it felt a lot louder and less refined. The much lower stage gave Roberta the opportunity to get in amongst the crowd to try and get them dancing – Sadly they weren’t having any of it – It was a rainy Tuesday night, don’t you know! The crowd were wrong though – Curxes industrial electro pop should have got everyone in the room moving.

Curxes

The other support was a London act Jake Emlyn, which means I don’t have to write about them. I wasn’t so sure about them to be honest – in some respects androgyny has been a key aspect of pop over the years, from David Bowie through to Suede, but where they had an air of mystery about them, Jake Emlyn just had confusion. And two odd shoes isn’t a good look on anyone.

Jake Emlyn

Most of the crowd last night were there for Nordic Giants, playing we think might have been their longest set in Brighton this year. We haven’t seen too much of them round these parts in 2012, and their sets at Great Escape and more recently Sound Screen were shortened at the expense of a wider bill. With more time, Nordic Giants are bigger, better, and more expansive than ever before. They got to play their full repertoire. Let’s not forget that as established as they feel when you go to see them, they’ve only released one EP and one single, and both of those were based around the fantastic Shine featuring Cate Ferris. Despite only being a duo, the Green Door Store stage almost felt too small for them. Nordic Giants are epic, and have the staging, the lighting and the music just right for a stage that’s bigger than the one under the arches near the station.

Nordic Giants

The Next Danger De Mort is on November 20th at Green Door Store, and features Death Rattle, Dark Bells, My New Favourite Tribe and Heliopause.

Fear of Men Mosaic Single Launch

Posted on 21/10/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Yesterday Fear of Men played the Brighton launch of their new single Mosaic at the Green Door Store, at an event put on by Be Nothing called HappyFest. It was an all dayer, and loads of other bands played – The Hundredth Anniversary, Feature, Wild Cat Strike, Flamingods, Furrow, Lovepark, Female Band, and Shudder Pulps. We could only make it for the end of end of the night and caught Boston’s Female Band and the headliners. Fear of Men make a point of not playing too frequently, making their live gigs more of an event, but have broken cover for their new single – which you can buy on 7″ from Resident here. I could tell you how much I enjoyed them live, how great the performance was, how their collection of releases so far sound like a really sold set of songs, how I can’t wait to hear the new stuff that they’ve been holed away writing this year, but rather than all that, here’s a few shots from their set (click on the pics to view large):

: female band

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Fear of Men / Mosaic

Posted on 10/09/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Normally I hold off on writing about things until close to their release date – it always frustrated me reading articles in music magazines about tunes I wouldn’t hear for weeks and weeks. And I figured that it’s better for the bands too – a reminder about their releases close to when they come out might improve their sales a bit, allowing them to make more music for us all to enjoy.

But I’m throwing all that out of the window today, because the new Fear of Men single has just dropped into my inbox, and I want to share it with the world. It got it’s premier earlier today on Pitchfork, and it’s up on Soundcloud for everyone to enjoy. Hot on the heels of Green Sea which came out in May, Mosaic is a bit brighter and airier than it’s predecessor, and is sprinkled with samples over the band’s now trademark guitar pop.

Mosaic is being released on the legendary Too Pure Records and comes out on October 15th on limited blue vinyl. You can pre-order it from Resident here. Fear of Men are having a launch party for the single at the Green Door Store on 20th October, supported by Hundredth Anniversary.

If you’re reading this outside of Brighton, and wishing Fear of Men would come and play near you, you may be in luck – they’re also playing the following dates:

15/09 Southsea Festival, Southsea
18/09 Borderline, London (supporting Best Coast)
30/09 Underground Festival. Gloucester
20/10 Green Door Store, Brighton
21/10 SWN Festival, Cardiff

Tyrannosaurus Dead / Lemonade EP

Posted on 26/08/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Tyrannosaurus Dead released their new EP last friday, called Lemonade, after the title track. The band haven’t strayed too far from their lo fi shoegaze sound of their previous releases, but have spent a bit more time working on the production, bringing things closer to the band’s vision of their sound. The EP was recorded at Lightship95 – a studio on a boat in the East End of London earlier this year.

To celebrate the launch the band played a free gig at the Green Door Store, which must almost be a home from home for them these days. Support came from Gum (who were also on the bands recent split-release cassette), Poledo and Ides.

The Lemonade EP is available to buy through Tyrannosaurus Dead’s bandcamp page:

Thomas White – I Dream of Black played in full at the Green Door Store

Posted on 20/07/2012 by brightonmusicblog

The phenomenon of playing a whole album live from start to finish isn’t a new one. Things really kicked off when All Tomorrow’s Parties introduced their Don’t Look Back series in the noughties, and the world and his wife have joined in, including Electric Soft Parade who got back together last year to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the release of their debut Holes in the Wall. Thomas White obviously enjoyed the experience because over the next few months he’s revisiting his back catalogue, starting last night with his 2008 solo debut I Dream of Black.

Support came from Red River Dialect, who launched their Americana / Country tinged debut album at the Prince Albert this Monday, and from local folk legend Mary Hampton, who would have been worth the ticket price on her own.

Thomas White and his band came out in their now trademark African gowns and played the album in full as billed, in the dark save for a b-movie* projection onto the wall behind them. There were some familiar faces in the band : his brother Alex on keyboards as well as assorted other people he’s played with in many of his other collaborations. Thomas explained towards the end that he writes his albums to be listened to as a whole, despite seeming a little embarrassed by some of the proggy instrumental interludes, which he attributes to the album being made when he was very stoned. It works as a whole too, thanks to the fact the record takes in a wide variety of styles and has stood the test of time. The band had learned the album and nothing more, so for an encore we just got the one song – a replay of one of the more upbeat tracks.

Thomas White

Thomas White is back on 9th August playing his second album The Maximalist, and again on 22nd September playing his most recent release Yalla.

*knowing my luck, it’ll turn out that it’s a really famous film that I should have spotted