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.

New Music – Black Rooster Black Shag, Native Roses, Momotaro, Normanton Street, The Wytches

Posted on 19/11/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Here’s some new music for you all – a few tracks from albums due to land next year, a video from an EP which came out earlier this year and a rather interesting cover…

Black Rooster Black Shag – Run Baby

Run Baby is the lead track from Black Rooster Black Shag’s 3 EP, out this week on EOI productions. Run Baby rocks harder than their debut Amsterdam, and has a very cool video to go with it, filmed around the streets of Brighton. Both singles feature on the band’s upcoming album As Far As My Lead Will Take Me, due in March next year.

Native Roses – Mainline

Mainline is the first track that’s come out from Native Roses forthcoming album Montpelier Blues, out on the first of January. The album will also feature four collaborations with Birdy, who was once a member of the band, but has gone onto bigger things.

Momotaro – Dust

In another first listen from an album due next year, Momotaro have shared Dust with us all. We’re looking forward to seeing Momotaro playing on Friday night at this month’s Source New Music supporting IYES.

Normanton Street – Wednesday Night Champions League

Normanton Street put up a video to their track Wednesday Night Champions League last week, filmed disconcerting close to where I live. Wednesday Night Champions League is taken from their Moves EP from earlier this year, which can be downloaded for free from their soundcloud page.

The Wytches – All That She Wants

The Wytches new single Robe for Juda is out the week. We already wrote about that a few weeks ago though, so instead here’s their cover of Ace of Base’s All That She Wants. Obviously.

Weekend Gig Picks

Posted on 09/10/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Last weekend’s gig pick post was all about quality not quantity, and we promised we’d be back this week bigger than ever. We’re still not scrimping on quality but we’re probably featuring more gigs this week than we ever have done.

We’re going to kick things off with a couple of gigs happening tonight. Normally we treat Thursday as the start of the weekend, but when two of favourite bands are playing we’d be fools not to give them a mention. IYES play their first ever headline show at the Prince Albert, which we’re very excited about. We’ve been huge fans since we first heard Lighthouse at the end of the year, and they haven’t disappointed since. Best of all it’s a free gig! Elsewhere, down at the Blind Tiger, Brighton Music Blog favourites The New Union are supporting Let’s Buy Happiness.

Thursday night is where we normally start our weekend gig round up, and the weekend proper is starting strong with Calico headlining Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar. Support comes from 900 Spaces and Blackwell, and it’s four pounds to get in. Meanwhile, Normanton Street are playing at the Mesmerist.

On Friday some more of our favourite bands are supporting at the same gig. Pawws are supported by the fantastic GAPS and Dog in the Snow (as well as Saint Savanna, who are local and new to us). And it’s a free gig – Green Door Store, you do spoil us. There’s also a free gig at the Blind Tiger, headlined by Transformer, with support from Eagles for Hands, whose new EP we love.

Saturday night’s big gig is the Physics House Party taking place at Sticky Mike’s. As well as the awesome Physics House Band, AK/DK, Alphabets Heaven and Suffer Like G Did are also playing. Over at Fitzherberts, Speak Galactic and Soft Arrows are playing at a night called Ruff Stuff, where Owen from Speak Galactic and some of his old bandmates from Cinemascopes are unveiling a new project called Merlin Tonto.

Rounding off the weekend nicely at Sticky Mike’s, Esben & The Witch play the Brighton leg of their national tour promoting Wash The Sins Not Only The Face. At the Green door store, there’s an event to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Gram Parsons early death in 1973, aged only 26. There’s loads of local bands getting involved – the list includes The Self Help Group, Dollboy, and Amy Hill plus various members of Laish, The Repeat Prescriptions, Super U, The Standard Lamps, Woodland Blue, The Pooh Sticks, Lolly & the City of Flies, Redlands Palomino Company, Englemann Spruce, and Lost Dog. Get there early enough and you’ll also get to see Pete Wiggs from Saint Etienne DJing before the live acts.

Weekend Gig Picks

Posted on 15/08/2013 by brightonmusicblog

This weekend’s big gig pick from us is Playgroup Festival. Playgroup have been playing their cards very close to their chest, not announcing a line up or a location online at the time of writing. Previous festivals have had fantastic representation from Brighton Bands and I’m willing to go out on a limb and bet that this year will too. Their website says that their new location is less than half an hour from Brighton, and a few bands have let slip that they’re playing. Les Enfants Terribles are hosting a stage with Calico headlining, and Fox in the City also on the bill. I also saw a Facebook post from The Beautiful Word saying they were playing too. Other than that, there’s not much more that I can tell you. Keep an eye on their website for more updates

There’s a few other things closer to home that we’ve spotted. On Friday night Limbic System launch their EP which we mentioned a few weeks ago at Latest Music Bar. Normanton Street launch their new single Moves on Saturday, with a gig at the Green Door Store, and an afterparty at Brighton Arts Club. Then on Sunday there’s an all day gig at the Blind Tiger called Sausage Fest with Brighton acts Boneyards, Semper Teens and Theo Verney on a bill which also includes Traams and is headed by Cosmonauts.