Bleeding Hearts Club again

Posted on 06/03/2012 by brightonmusicblog

It’s that time of the month. First Monday.

Bleeding Hearts Club featured in this blog not so long ago, but seeing as it’s a regular monthly event upstairs at the Price Albert in Trafalgar Street, and inevitably excellent, it is not that surprising that it features again.

This month we had four acts, each playing about four songs each and some excellent sounds from the house DJ in-between.

First up was the bizarre yet memorable King of Cats, a man in shorts who went from quiet twee to slash-and-burn hardcore within a verse of a song. He also did something very strange with a second microphone which gave him the ability to detour into these strange sonic interludes which made him sound a bit lie, er… well, a king of cats. He also had some CDs for sale, in home-made sleeves shaped like underpants with a picture of female genitalia on the front.

It was never going to be a normal night.

Next up was Al Chamberlain, apparently playing only his second ever gig. A little shy and self-depreciating he played a series of charming songs telling stories of love and adolescent innocence which completely charmed the audience.

He was followed by Lux Harmonium, a sometimes two piece with – you guessed it – a Harmonium, but also some of the most exquisite guitar-playing by Devonian Luke Jones which just got better and better as their set progressed. Fortunately, the night’s host Chris Davies called Luke back for a fourth song which was absolutely outstanding. Worth the pittance of an entry fee alone. Wish I’d remembered what it was called, but you can buy a CD and no doubt it’s on it.

Finally, headliners Fire Eyes played – drum machine, guitar and violin fronted by some quirky vocals. Apparently slightly under-rehearsed they strung together an assortment of sort of Mazzy Star influenced songs, battling with their equipment but managing to fascinate and rounding off a fine evening.

There was the usual candles-on-tables, a joke from a Christmas cracker that was as stale as old cheese, and something about every record label that wasn’t the Bleeding Hearts record label being rubbish. Suffice to say, we all went home very very happy.

Lovely.

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Photographs by Southcoasting

Electric Soft Parade play Holes in the Wall

Posted on 05/02/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Brighton’s favourite indie band The Electric Soft Parade played The Haunt last night for the tenth anniversary of their classic Holes in the Wall album, released on Feb 4th 2002.

Support came from two local bands – Another Costume Party, who play good energetic indie rock; and Whiskey Whores, who are a bluegrass-country band, and a lovely one at that.

The White brothers seemed to have mixed emotions about their tenth anniversary gig. Happy to celebrate ten years of their much-lauded first album that still sounds brilliant today, they also seemed keen to see the back of it and consign it to history.

The songs are still strong, and the band itself – Tom and Alex White augmented by Damo Waters on drums, Matthew Twaites on bass and Andrew Mitchell (of the Hazey Janes) on second guitar – sounded amazing. Tom and Alex swapped keys/guitar from song-to-song, and the ‘hit’ single Silent to the Dark, played out in its full length noise-filled long version which seemed to go on for a mesmerising 15 minutes was worth the entrance money alone. Tom even managed to get the audience to sing the opening lines, before the band launched into its sonic assault. Empty at the End, Somethng’s Got to Give, Biting the soles of my feet were also highlights.

But things were obviously not quite right with the band, with Alex in particular having a fit and throwing his toys out of the pram. By the end of the gig he was bemoaning the fact that his keyboards had died, perhaps not helped by his trying to play it with his heels earlier in proceedings, and saying this would be the last time he ever played live. That would be a shame because on the evidence of tonight, it’s hard to see how these boys could eve play a bad gig.

The Hazey Janes at the Green Door Store

Posted on 13/01/2012 by brightonmusicblog

The scottish power-pop band The Hazey Janes came back to Brighton last night for a gig at the Green Door Store.

Support came from the Pure Conjecture, a Brighton supergroup of sorts featuring members of Electric Soft Parade, Brakes, British Sea Power, Tenderfoot and Restlesslist.However this was no rambling indie rock in the usual style of those bands.

When lead man Matt Eaton nervously started what was only the band’s second gig you could be forgiven for thinking that he was a terrible singer fronting a makeshift soul band. By the third song the audience was convinced that not only were this group a completely brilliant funk machine in the style of the Dap Kings but that Matt Eaton was one of the finest soul singers on the planet. As he grew in confidence the sound just got bigger and punchier. This was foot-tapping stuff of the top order.

Matt covered Barry White with some verve, and then broke down the show-stopping I love My Car with a long joke about black boxes and working in tele-sales told over a rumbling beat and which made him completely own the stage, working a treat.

Pure Conjecture have an album in the can, apparently recorded in four days featuring a full line-up of 14 people including a horn section. On the basis of this gig it should be brilliant.

Headliners The Hazey Janes had a lot to live up to, following their support.

A big beaty four-piece playing power pop in the style of early 90s American bands such as Velvet Crush, they started in Scotland more than a decade ago but still carry a lot of youthful energy and passion in their music. When they let rip, as they did every other song, the waves of energy were felt around the room. This was garage rock of the highest order. They have a new CD to sell, but if you get the chance to see them live don’t miss it.

Happy New Year

Posted on 03/01/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Happy New Year from Brighton Music Blog! It’s that time of year when pretty much the whole media is looking back at the past year and forward at the year ahead. We only started the blog back in October, so let’s just look ahead. Already it’s looking like a good year for Brighton Music – The Maccabees new album Given To The Wild is out next Monday, with Foxes! eponymous debut album out the following week, and Brakes have posted on Facebook to say that they’ll have an album out later this year too (although they have since tweeted to tell us not to get our hopes up!).

Maccabees - Given To The Wild

There’s also a lot of great Brighton-based gigs around town over the next few months. Here’s a few that caught my eye:

6th January : British Sea Power at The Haunt
23rd – 28th January : Sea Monsters 2 gigs at Prince Albert
31st January : Juice New Music Night (Bobby McGees headlining) at The Haunt
4th February : Electric Soft Parade (10th anniversary of Holes in the Wall) at The Haunt
16th February : Source New Music Night (headliners tbc) at Pavilion Theatre
23rd February : Shrag at Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar
9th March : Maccabees at Dome
13th / 14th March : Rizzle Kicks at Concorde 2

I’m sure that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We’ll have reviews and photos from some of those gigs in the coming weeks.

And as if that’s not enough, Brighton Music Blog contributor Jon Southcoasting is DJing his All Time Top 100 at the Coopers Cask this saturday. Jon knows a thing or two about music, so it’s bound to be a good night.