Last year’s eponymous album by Melody’s Echo Chamber was a bit of a favourite of ours, so we jumped at the chance to go and see them when tickets went on sale a few months ago. When we found out later that Fear of Men would be supporting, we were even happier.
When we previewed the gig before the weekend, we were thinking that with Fear of Men’s new album nearly ready this would be a showcase for their new material. In the end, the band only played one new track, instead focussing on their released material so far (recently collected on the fine Early Fragments compilation). Speaking to the band after the gig, the reason for this was that they wanted to be as good as they possibly could for their performances at SXSW festival next week and you can’t blame them for that. Their hard work is paying off, and they’ve never sounded better. You wouldn’t know that Jess was once happy to have her vocals low in the mix, nor would you know that this is one of the band’s first gigs with their new bass player. Where the band’s older material wouldn’t have sounded out of place on legendary 90s indie-pop label Sarah Records the one new song they played sounded bigger, louder, faster and more confident. Recording of their debut album is still taking place so who knows how representative this will be of what we have to expect later this year.
As I type, Fear of Men are on a plane on their way to America. They’re kicking things off with Festival NRML in Mexico, heading to Austin, Texas where they’ll be playing NINE shows at this year’s SXSW festival. Then they’re heading off to New York for another couple of shows there. Here’s the full list:
SXSW
3/12 – 2.45pm – Red7 (Terrorbird SXSW day party)
3/13 – 1pm – Hype Hotel 301 Brazos (Gorilla vs Bear x Yours Truly)
3/14 – 1.15pm – Hotel Vegas (Austin Psych Fest)
3/14 – 3pm – Flat Top Burger Shop (Music for Listeners)
3/14 – 9pm – Valhalla (Kanine/Fat Cat Records showcase)
3/15 – 3.30pm – End of an Ear (Instore)
3/16 – 1.30pm – Fader Fort (Fader)
3/16 – 3.15pm – inside House of Vans @ The Mohawk (AV Club/Flower)
3/16 – 4.40pm- Latitude 30 (British Music Embassy)
New York
3/19 – 8.30pm – Glasslands Gallery, Brooklyn (Headline show)
3/20 – 8pm – Pianos, New York (w/Field Mouse)
And if you didn’t make it to the gig last weekend, and aren’t in America, then here’s a new video for Seer, which was the previously unreleased track from Early Fragments:
A few weeks ago we raved about the Bent Cousin Everybody’s Got One EP. It’s still getting lots of plays at Brighton Music Blog towers, and now the band have released a video for lead track Bentpaperboy. MTV got the exclusive premiere but that was only a few hours ago, so it’s not like we’ve been caught napping. They haven’t even posted it onto their Facebook yet. Here it is:
With any luck, Bent Cousin will be playing live soon to make up for the fact that they had to cancel their single launch. As soon as we find out more, we’ll let you know.
Daniel Green of Laish played the Brighton Sofar Sounds gig in January with the full band in somebody’s front room and then went to the London one solo, and played this stunning version of Warm the Wind there. Absolutely beautiful and I defy you not to be moved.
Did we say the new Laish album is out shortly? Are you ready for it?
A lovely short video of the Sons of Noel and Adrian story. They’re playing in support of Damo Suzuki tonight at a SOLD OUT gig at the Green Door Store. If you were lucky enough to get tickets it’s going to be better than awesome. Get there early to see Soccer 96, and Eyes & No Eyes who kick things off at 6:45pm.
This is the brilliant beautiful new song from Black Black Hills.
I wasn’t expecting this – a soulful mournful love song, imbibing the spirit of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds but very much its own. Really gorgeous. Go listen.
Kovak are back with another new single. Radiate comes out on 11th February, but you can watch the video for it now. It’s another slice of classic disco pop, hot on the heels of recent singles Killer Boots (which got playlisted on Radio 2 – not bad for an unsigned band) and Living The Dream. The band were holed up in a studio in Spain at the end of last year to record their album, which is due to hit the shops this spring.
The Hundredth Anniversary have announced their first 7″ release The Jump. Following on from their split cassette (with Tyrannosaurus Dead and Gum), and October’s Pressure Shere / Slip download, Jump will be backed with a track called 34, and another bonus download track, coming out on March 18th on Tiny Lights recordings.
We’ve come across a bumper treasure trove of videos from Brighton Bands over the past few days. Maybe everyone was saving them for the new year, maybe it’s just coincidence that they’ve all turned up at the same time. No matter – here they all are:
The first new release we’re writing about in 2013 is the Self Help Group’s new single Needles. It’s out digitally tomorrow, being released by Lewes’ Union Music Store, and is a taster for their debut album Not Waving But Drowning which comes out next month.
We’re loving the high key video, which features a lot more choreography than you might expect from a folk band:
Woodpecker Wooliams has played a great second half in the game of her year.
Back in May we saw her play a beautiful short set in the tiny Fishbowl Pub to an audience of about a dozen blokes who probably hadn’t heard of her. However, her album ‘The Bird School of Being Human‘ was released in September and since then she has garnered an array of great reviews, including a great band-of-the-day piece in The Guardian, and much airplay for the album and its lead single ‘Sparrow’. It really is one of the most original and enchanting albums of the year.
The video for the single, by Gemma’s sister, involved puppets and a lovely cranky sound helped on by producer Marcus Hamblett of The Sons of Noel and Adrian. Watch it below. New single Gull is out now and another slam-dunk classic.
