Queens Hall, Leicester University, University Road, Leicester
Saturday 13 March 2010
£9 adv

in association with Mr Andy Wright

This show is going to be AWESOME!!!!!

www.myspace.com/wildbeasts

They said Wild Beasts’ 2008 debut, Limbo, Panto was an ambitious record. They were right. It was an album that sought to push the boundaries of modern-day art-rock/alt-pop and, for this writer, shifted expectations of what was possible from a new UK act. It was flawed, sure - Hayden Thorpe’s Associates/Antony/annoying (delete as applicable) falsetto grated slightly by the album’s end, and single cut ‘Devil’s Crayon’ was by far the stand-out track - but it was still a superb maiden recording.

In the space of just three songs, Two Dancers suggests itself a superior successor. They’ve ramped everything up a few notches, improving - rather than reinventing - Limbo, Panto’s expansive blueprint. The opening trio of ‘The Fun Powder Plot’, ‘Hooting & Howling’ and ‘All The King’s Men’ is one of the best you’ll hear all year, comprising a number of genuine mouth-open, fuck-me-this-is-good moments. The band’s ability to shift rhythms and tempos is one of their key assets, and the way lead single ‘Hooting & Howling’ ebbs and flows as the arrangement is stripped down and built back up again is simply masterful. Drummer Chris Talbot’s dynamic yet sensitive percussion is one of the track’s - indeed, the record’s - key ingredients.

Two Dancers, then, doesn’t so much follow up their debut as announce Wild Beasts as one of our genuinely special bands, one that can compete - in terms of both musical and lyrical ingenuity as well as sheer pop nous - with any US act you’ve seen talked up in the music press this year. Sunset Rubdown! Dirty Projectors! Your records just took one hell of a beating. Of course, it’s not really about that, but it is increasingly rare that fans of this sort of envelope-pushing pop can find satisfaction from records produced on these shores. And that’s just not cricket.

Drowned In Sound…

Erland and the Carnival

Erland is Erland Cooper, an Orcadian guitarist. The Carnival are guitarist Simon Tong (The Verve, The Good, The Bad, The Queen) plus drummer/engineer David Nock (engineer on Paul McCartney’s The Fireman). Well, that’s“the basic triangle and three headed monster of the group,” says Tong – keys/harmonium player Andy Bruce, vocalist Georgia Sands and bassist Danny Wheeler complete the extended line-up.

Together, they make a pastoral, psychedelic sound described by Tong as “Pentangle meets Ennio Morricone meets Love meets 13th Floor Elevators meets Joe Meek.” Their debut single, Was You Ever See, is fairly typical of the band’s style – it’s a traditional song brought new life by the unique band, who add dark tones, adapted lyrics and a propulsive beat. It’s the folk tradition: words change over time, but the song remains.

Erland grew up on the Orkney Islands, where passing folk musicians and troubadors were a common sight. In his early teens, The Verve and Bert Jansch inspired him to swap the fiddle for the guitar. Later, having moved to London, Erland sang at Tong’s What The Folk club night in Portobello Road, where he was introduced to Tong by the producer Youth.

“It wasn’t a regular folk night where people are quiet and stroke their chin,” says Tong. “It was a more raucous affair where the acts – as many as 15 a night – had to quieten a noisy baying audience by being good. We had a transsexual compere who would berate the acts and call them cunts even before they had begun, so it was tough for the budding performers – one of which was Erland – who definitely got people to shut up and listen.”

Originally, Nock and Tong talked about writing and producing an album with Erland. Instead, they all decided to form a band, and took their name from Jackson C Frank’s My Name Is Carnival, a cover of which appears on their forthcoming album.

The band’s progression since has been fairly unorthodox: they’ve played gigs at miniature railway stations and their debut EP was individually re-recorded for each of its limited run, meaning no two copies are the same. The forthcoming album, from which Was You Ever See is taken, was recorded at Studio 13 (owned by Tong’s The Good, The Bad, The Queen band mate Damon Albarn) and mixed at Youth’s garden studio.

Lone Wolf signed to the very wonderful Bella Union

Lone Wolf began life in 2009 in various dusty rooms and tape studios around Sweden, songs and ideas slowly coming together through the eyes of singer and guitarist Paul Marshall and the ears of engineer Kristofer Jonson from Jeniferever.

After a month of various field recordings, sneaking into concert halls late at night to use the piano, setting up gear in small village churches, and other places they could find, the basic album tracks were done.

Paul brought all the recordings back home to England in September and together with James from Duels, started on the final stages of mixing the album.

The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed in last week’s NME that Wild Beasts’ singer Tom picked Lone Wolf’s album out as one of his hot tips for 2010.

Now complete, “The Devil and I” will be out on Bella Union on May 17th 2010 preceded by the single “Keep Your Eyes On The Road”, and you can see Lone Wolf support the wonderful Wild Beasts in March on all UK dates.

Thursday 25 March 2010

Firebug, Millstone Lane, Leicester

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7W9RSZosyc

The pair will launch the release of their first album together, “The Angel’s Message To Me” out in the UK in March!

They will play 2 alternating sets per show, featuring a magnificent journey through their combined back catalogues, culminating in material from the new album.

Expect to be awe struck!

Geoff Farina (Southern)

Karate/Secret Stars/Glorytellers

Geoff has not played in the UK for 7 years so this will be a rare treat! Geoff Farina fronts Glorytellers, but is probably best known for the abstract lyrics and jazzy, post-punk guitar style he developed over his 12 years with Karate, or as one-half of The Secret Stars, the seminal early-90s duo that passed around home-made cassettes of songs now covered by the likes of Ida and Death Cab for Cutie.

“Farina is an existential detective, dusting the surfaces of his life for traces of some deeper meaning, sifting through the ordinary to find some underlying connection.” Boston Phoenix

“Mellifluous jazz guitar, irresistible melodies, and heart-tuggingly understated vocals” Time Out London

“There’s always something warming about any record involving singer-guitarist Geoff Farina, with his blend of lo-fi indie and Steely Dan-influenced jazz-pop.” The Independent

http://www.geofffarina.com/
Chris Brokaw

The Chris Brokaw Band/Codeine/The New Year/The Thurston Moore Band/Dirt Music/Evan Dando Band/Steve Wynn band

Chris Brokaw is one of the hardest working musicians in America and known throughout as a true gentleman. A great guitarist also blessed with a deep soulful songwriting skill and dry smokey voice.

He was a founding member of Codeine; the band that started the Slowcore scene in the late 80’s, then he formed Come with Thalia Zedek, now drums in The New Year, plays guitar for Thurston Moore and Evan Dando and with a wealth of other high achieving acts. Chris Brokaw is a rare humble genius and one of the finest solo artists of our times.

“one of the best performers in the country” Time Out New York

“…ravaged but beautiful beyond belief, reflecting both the dark, blues-strung grief of Come, and the lean-lined, horizon-fixed heft of Codeine…” Time out London

“Brokaw proves himself as an intriguing, highly singular lyricist and vocalist as well as the most mesmerising indie guitarist since The Durutti Column’s Vini Reilly.” (4/5 Stars) London Evening Standard

http://www.chrisbrokaw.com

Sumo, Braunstone Gate, Leicester

in association with Mr Andy Wright

It’s taken a handful of years for Dagenham resident Devlin to take his deep, dedicated lyrics out of the confines of East London and prove his worth across the North/South border. It’s now not unusual to watch Devlin causing carnage on stage from Northampton to Amsterdam.

At 20 years of age Devlin has what can only be described as a cult following of supporters that value his intelligent and evocative lyrics, in a pool of MCs that all too often spawn monotonous and lacklustre rappers.

A diamond in the rough, Devlin’s road to success began at O.T. Recordings with Dogzilla,Deeper, Shotz, Syer, Rachet, and Deverlish amongst others.

The London Borough of Barking & Dogenham Mixtape was released in Feb. 2006 and received great feedback. One of the stand-out tracks on the CD was Devlin’s Ghetto Kyote Remix freestyle Produced by O.T Recording’s Deverlish. The track was played by dj’s right across the board, from RinseFM to 1Xtra and Kiss100. Devlin has performed live sets on commercial stations; with Tim Westwood (Radio 1), Logan Sama (Kiss100FM) and DJ Cameo at BBC 1Xtra to name a few. He has also appeared on a number of DVD’s including The Media Gang’s Practice Hours DVD and Target’s (1Xtra, Roll deep) Aim High, Risky Roadz, Rinse FM’s Rinsessions mixtape and F@k Radio.

Devlin had two releases in 2006; O.T Recordings mixtape and vinyl release, April Shower from O.T producer Shotz. Devlin also featured heavily on Broad Street Stories and the Shot City Mixtape from O.T producer Shotz.

Late 2006 Devlin joined The Movement; a group of some of the very best MCs and producers in the grime scene including long time friend Ghetto, Scorcher and Wretch32. Tempo Specialists was released in 2007 and proved that the best MCs in the scene had formed a strong alliance.

Devlin’s first solo mixtape entitled Tales From The Crypt was released in November 2006. It featured collaborations with O.T and The Movement members and was considered one of the best grime mixtapes of 2006. He followed Tales From The Crypt with the DEVZ E.P which was a four track free download, then in 2008 Devlin released The Art Of Rolling E.p which featured Tracks Like F.U, Life’s F@ked Up and Shot Gritty.

Devlin has worked with some of the biggest names in underground music and now the young MC is gearing up for his first album entitled ‘Bud, Sweat & Beers’which will feature the massive 2009 hits, London City which has clocked up over a 1,000,000 views on youtube and spent over ten weeks at the Number one spot on Channel AKA and Community Outcast.

Son of the legendary UK singer-songwriter Roy Harper, Nick was born in London and raised in Wiltshire. Having played the guitar from the age of 10 and surrounded by the likes of Keith Moon, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and Dave Gilmour as he grew up, it was no surprise when Nick made his recording debut on his father’s Whatever Happened to Jugula? in 1985.

Nick’s talent and energy entranced Roy’s fans and it was inevitable that he would begin touring and recording in his own right. The 1994 EP Light at the End of the Kennel was swiftly followed by his powerful 1995 debut long player Seed prompting The Independent to describe him as “hugely talented”.

In 1996 Nick met Squeeze frontman and songwriter Glenn Tilbrook. Tilbrook was so impressed that he offered Nick a job playing with and supporting Squeeze and promptly signed Nick to his own label, Quixotic Records. Following tours in the UK, USA and Japan, Nick recorded the 1998 album Smithereens with Tilbrook as producer. This album and subsequent 40 date solo tour, including dates in New York and Glastonbury, confirmed Nick as a formidable talent in his own right. “If imagination, energy and bags of talent were the only factors in making a successful pop career, few would deny that Squeeze man Glenn Tilbrook has backed a winner in Nick Harper…Splendid stuff” - MOJO magazine. He teamed up with Tilbrook again on 2000’s highly acclaimed album Harperspace. This is the album that confirmed his position at the forefront of a new generation of British Acoustic Performers. “Nick Harper has a quality that stands head and shoulders above anything else you are likely to encounter…The Verse Time Forgot from the new album ‘Harperspace’ is as close to a perfect song as you are likely to get.” Edinburgh Evening News

To call Nick a superlative singer/songwriter could put his highly lauded guitar talent in the shade, and to call him a guitarist’s guitarist might slight his distinctive, soulful voice and passionate songs. Not forgetting the wild ride that is one of his live shows - from personal introspection to biting political satire via a charmingly caustic wit that would make Groucho Marx proud. He often segues from his own compositions to well-loved covers he makes his own - he takes on Presley, Zappa, Jeff Buckley, Led Zeppelin, Monty Python and Public Enemy (yes, on an acoustic guitar). He also has the alarming ability to break guitar strings almost by sheer force of will… and then change them without dropping a beat. For over a decade, he has been dazzling audiences and reviewers alike with this heady mix of virtuosity, boyish charm, showmanship and sheer bravado. His talent and showmanship were recognised in 2003 with a (Glasgow) Herald Fringe Angel award for excellence in live music during his Edinburgh Festival run. “Harper has so much musicianship in him that it just leaks out all over the place.” The Times

After 6 studio albums, a double live CD and 2 EPs (including Instrumental, a stunning display of his guitar talents), Nick’s work is still as fresh and vital as that of his first solo release in 1994. The recently released sixth studio album, Miracles For Beginners, is a return to a more stripped-down acoustic based style, from the folk tale of the meeting of King Henry 8th and Francis 1st in 1520 in The Field Of The Cloth Of Gold. to a beautiful latin tinged paean to the the Bolivian President Evo Morales in Evo. But, as with his highly personal 2004 “family album” Blood Songs, he still has time to sing about the most important things in his world - family, friends, love, life.

Between solo albums, Nick tours with a vengeance. In the first 8 months of 2005 alone, he’d traversed the UK from Devon to the most northerly point in Scotland, along with 2 dates in Holland and acclaimed sets at Glastonbury, Beautiful Days (with his band Sleeper Cell), Oysterband’s Big Session and other festivals including 2 tsunami benefit gigs in Thailand.

Plan 9 from Harperspace was the spring tour of 2007 promoting the new DVD ‘Love Is Music’ - a ‘rockumentary’ style film with a selection of Nick’s best loved songs recorded in 5.1 sound.

Also released this spring was Nick’s first single for download on iTunes. Taken from the new CD ‘Miracles For Beginners’ and called ‘Blue Sky Thinking’ it quickly went to no.1 in iTunes downloads. All proceeds from the single were donated to the Love Hope Strength Foundation. Nick has just returned from Nepal after setting a new world record for the highest gig on earth at Kala Pattar above Mt. Everest Base Camp on October 21st, whilst helping raise over £200,000 for the fight against cancer, before going on to play as part of the Love Hope Strength all-star band to approximately 20,000 people in Kathmandu.

+ guests

Wednesday 7 April 2010 - £9 adv. - Sumo, Braunstone Gate, Leicester

Mr Andy Wright presents…

This is not our show but we’re big fans

www.myspace.com/robotsindisguise

Looking at the evidence of Robots In Disguise makes you feel a little like a musical Loyd Grossman preparing to ask the question “what sort of person is a fan of a band like this?”

Think about it – the attachment to the Shoreditch set, the appearances in The Mighty Boosh, the oh-so-clever fake names of Dee Plume and Sue Denim; surely every right thinking music fan should hate them?

Yet, in We’re In The Music Biz, the Robots have produced an album that not only makes them pretty adorable, it also shows that they are more than capable of introducing a fine slice of electro into the bargain.

Maybe some of that is down to their producer, ex-Sneaker Pimp Chris Corner, but credit where it’s due, Sue and Dee are more than worthy of their place in, well, the music biz.

Combining tongue-in-cheek lyrics – see the autobiographical title track’s “stalked the journos round Reading/we got tagged in your mag as Britain’s worst band” or the brilliantly honest single, The Sex Has Made Me Stupid – with sturdy basslines and simple melodies, the pair have hit on a formula so ferociously simple and utterly addictive, it makes you wonder how you could have ever considered not loving them.

Most stunningly, they’ve even got two songs, The Tears and I Don’t Have A God, that a certifiable ‘proper dead serious’ band would saw off their arms for, coming as they do with just the right level of epic chorus, angry verve, resigning pathos and driven beat to make them more captivating than even the cover art (look carefully, you’ll suddenly get a shock).

So what sort of person does like a band like Robots In Disguise? Well, pretty much anyone who enjoys pop, doesn’t take life too seriously and is prepared to approach new sounds with an open mind – in short, any right thinking music fan. Chris Long

@ The Y Theatre, East Street, Leicester - 0116 255 7066
£16 adv.
Saturday 17 April 2010

in assocaition with Mr Andy Wright

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKWNitW01×0

WHAT ARE THE BAD SHEPHERDS?

The Bad Shepherds play punk songs on folk instruments. Not as a gag, but because we really like the noise. We think the songs are better than people remember. We love folk instruments. It works. We do songs by The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Stranglers, The Jam, Sham 69, The Undertones, The Buzzcocks, The Ramones, The Specials, Talking Heads, Squeeze and others, even Kraftwerk! Alright, they’re not all punk, but they come from roughly the same era. We’ve mostly given the songs a kind of Celtic feel, and we’ve stuck in the odd reel and jig here and there. But occassionally we just thrash! I’ve always thought the excitement of a reel taking off is the nearest thing to the excitement of watching punk live in the 70’s.

I love the songs of 76 - 82. I was 19 in 76 when punk arrived.  Those songs were the soundtrack to my life as I went through Uni and started pretending to be a comedian. I loved the noise, the faces and the attitude. I love making music. Got my first guitar when I was 13 and along the way I’ve picked up ten other guitars, a banjo, a ukelele, two trumpets, a banjolele, a mandolin, an autoharp, a charanga, two pianos, a tenor guitar, a triangle and even made myself some Coconuts (strangely enough - from a coconut). I also love folk music, I love the noise - at its live best its the most exciting music to be in the same room with. It occured to me that punk was the folk music of its day.

I decided to form a band to reflect all of the above. It would be great if you came along for the ride.

Cheers, Adrian

+ Autohype

Monday 19 April 2010 Sumo, Braunstone Gate, Leicester LE3 5LG £8 adv £10 door

This is not our show but we’re big fans

Mr Andy Wright presents

Oh no, not another glibly titled electro-pop outfit? Not more bedroom wannabees bringing tinny tunes and boring beats? More synth-geeks who have inexplicably managed to persuade a pretty lady to voice their Moog masturbation sessions? Well, oh no, actually, it’s not.

Unlike Kitsune label mate La Roux, you won’t be embarrassed to have Chew Lips in your record collection by September. Simply by being, y’know, interesting, they have attained perhaps the highest accolade this brand of electro-pop has to offer, in that no songs on this album will ever become ringtones and it would all sound faintly ridiculous emanating from anything with a spoiler; too subtle for subwoofers, thank god.

That’s not to say Unicorn won’t take up residency in your head; it’s just that it will be a welcome guest. And that’s primarily because of the biggest gun in the Chew Lips armoury, their own weapon of mass devotion: the lungs of leading lady, Tigs. We can say she can sing.

Over the dreamy opening bars of album and the track, ‘Eight’, her vocal comes on like the sullen lovechild of EBTG and Alanis Morrisette. A bit weird therefore, but then that’s the point of this eerie opener. The beats kick in around halfway through, allowing you to exhale and perform a comedy swipe of the imaginary sweat on your forehead. For it is over these beats that Tigs really shines, where she can begin to belt it out a bit. The sullen little girl suddenly becomes Sexy; it’s oh so sultry and comes from the same school as Miss Mossheart and Karen O.

But what about those boys - James Watkins and Will Sanderson - and their beats? Play Unicorn at half volume and it just sounds weird; turn it up to til your ears bleed and it all makes sense. Some producers seem to forget that dance music needs to at least hold your attention; a bare minimum even if it’s mainly for dancing to. If - like ‘Play Together’ - it can grab you by the cojenes and drag you bodily on to the floor then all the better. There’s so much going on in this track – a seriously big bass line, whirling synth washes and dirty electronic sprinklings – it’s hard to say what exactly has that hold over you, but everything has its place and, either way, it’s anything but ignorable.

There are, however, times when you’ll begin to wonder, hmm, what’s the point of all this exactly? “A high speed chase on a wedding day, give and take it’s all the same”? Whose wedding day? What does this nihilistic nonsense even mean? ‘Karen’ – an ode to the short and tragic life of Karen Carpenter it turns out - could be about any old chick of the same name – indeed, it’s so vague that it could apply to anyone or any situation. You get the impression that the actual words are mere foils to the mouth from which they’ve sprung forth and the beats which carry them along so well. But, if you can countenance a lack of lyrical cohesion, then perhaps it doesn’t actually matter; it has a sense of abandon and maybe that’s enough. Who needs deep from hands-in-the-air-grinning-like-an-idiot-music, anyway?

This aside, Chew Lips clearly have respect for their audience; a respect which lends Unicorn more longevity than - on paper, anyway - it should have. The whole record comes in at almost exactly 30 minutes - a nice round number that allows for ten songs of in and around three minutes each - which keeps it punchy and makes the whole thing move: no time to get bored, here comes the next song, anyway. It also shows a certain humility - no need to over-cook it, now is there? There’s no lack of confidence though; leaving previous singles ‘Salt Air’ and ‘Solo’ off their debut, despite their success, shows a dedication to the creative process and an originality which sets them apart from yer average synth-pop pretenders. In short, it certainly has swagger but not so much you’ll want to punch it in the face: Chew Lips have planted a carefully selected crop and, for that, they deserve to reap the rewards…Drowned In Sound

www.myspace.com/autohypeuk

“There’s a fair bit of interest developing behind this dance-rock collective after a few good local support slots. the throbbing electro synths and angular new-wave stylings are one thing, singer Seb Twigden’s all action, audience invading showmanship (and curious fashion sense) quite another.”  The Fly

“A contemporary, up-tempo mixture of Indie-Rock and Dance; with catchy riffs, sharp dancey beats and atmospheric synths all combining for a sound that sits somewhere between Does It Offend You Yeah?, Elle Milano and The Editors. A strong performance at The Rainbow saw them go down well with the crowd, and flagged them as a band with some real potential.” Stephen Hudyba (BBC)

@ The Musician, Clyde Street, Leicester

+ We Three and the Death Rattle

£8 adv £10 door

www.myspace.com/shonenknife

Shonen Knife consists of three young Japanese women who play some of the happiest, snappiest rock & roll ever to bounce off a satellite dish. Mostly they sing in their native tongue; when they try English, it’s tough to make out the words, but what needs no translation is how their awkward humility mixes with their irrepressible vivacity. These girls may well constitute the most unpretentious guitar band on the planet, but what’s more exciting is that they obviously derive some kind of perfect joy from making music.

On Shonen Knife, a compilation of two EPs originally released in 1984 in Japan, this feeling comes through everywhere: when the harmonies reach for the treetops in “Miracles,” when the group shuffles atonal horns and tiny percussive clangs over a “Land of 1000 Dances” rhythm and then leapfrogs toward a stunning shouted climax in “Burning Farm.” It’s in the girl-group Morse code, in the bongo solos and counted-off chants and fuzzy grunge and baby-talk syllables. These sounds never pretend to be “experimental”; guitarist Naoko Yamano sees them instead as “different toys in [a] toy box.” The album also includes songs about food (”Cannibal Papaya”), animals (”Elephant Pao Pao”), hobbies (”Insect Collector”) and dreams (”Parallel Woman”). In “Twist Barbie,” set to a riff swiped outright from “We’re a Happy Family,” by the Ramones, the group dreams of having “blue eyes, blond hair, tight body, long legs,” of being glamorous and sexy and “welcomed by boys.” Lured into music by the punk noise of X-ray Spex and Iggy Pop but in love with radio pop’s beauty and beat, Shonen Knife is fearless.

In February, Giant Records released a two-album tribute, all cover versions of Knife numbers by combos from Sonic Youth on down. What such scene-makers admire is how tunelets like “Twist Barbie” reveal an innocence that jaded Western postpunks have worked years trying (and failing) to win back. These Little Evas of the East see decades of U.S. pop culture through wide-open eyes, then give it all back with wide-open hearts. (RS 586)

CHUCK EDDY

www.myspace.com/wethreeandthedeathrattle

Recorded live over just three days in Liverpool with one guitar, theremin, drums and a howl that would spook Allen Ginsberg their debut album is a thrilling black hearted voodoo record that sucks Royal Trux , Drugstore Cowboy, Patti Smith and George Clinton into its wheezing lungs.