Crushing Death & Grief: Archive

JAMES BLACKSHAW + C JOYNES vs. 23 HANGING TREES +...

Wed 9th May @ Cambridge Unitarian Church Doors 7:30pm, tickets £8 advance from here JAMES BLACKSHAW James Blackshaw performs celestial and spirit-lifting guitar-led compositions. Meditative in quality, cinematic in scope, his music spirals gracefully across complex patterns, motifs and harmonics. He made his name as a 12-string acoustic guitarist, and his relationship with the instrument is...

Apr 7th

LAST HARBOUR + THE DOOMED BIRD OF PROVIDENCE +...

Sunday 25th March @ The Portland Arms Doors 8pm, £5 from here LAST HARBOUR Based in Manchester, Last Harbour are an expansive collective playing “swooning dustbowl baroque” (Plan B) that is “rich and foreboding” (Drowned in Sound) . From dusty laments to doom- filled rock, from starkly beautiful duets to drifting clouds of looped noise, the only claims they make for their music are that...

Jan 24th

PATTEN + THE SOFT

Thursday 1st March @ The Portland Arms Doors 8pm, £5 adv from here PATTEN With a debut LP at the sharp-end of many Album of 2011 lists, the elusive Patten is coming to Cambridge, crafting something fresh and new out of the debris of falling genres. Sketches of dirty electronica blend with industrial beats and dance floor breaks, but all heard through the post-dubstep industrial greyness of...

Jan 17th

STANDARD FARE + TIGERCATS + MODEL VILLAGE

Friday 20th January at The Portland Arms Doors 8pm, £5 adv from here STANDARD FARE Originally from England’s highest town, Buxton, the three members of Standard Fare are now based around the North, from where they produce freewheeling, autobiographical indiepop (though never twee) music. Jangly, Lemonheads-esque guitars, bittersweet, swooping twin vocals, and Orange Juice rhythms all...

Dec 5th

C JOYNES + ALAN WILKINSON + PADANG FOOD TIGERS

Wednesday 7th December at The Portland Arms Doors 8pm, £5 on the door C JOYNES The well-travelled Master Musician of Histon, C Joynes, has been the most enthralling and consistently excellent creator of leftfield music in the Cambridge area for a number of years. His considered and very English take on that whole post-Fahey Tacoma guitar thing is difficult to pin down without sounding trite or...

Nov 25th

HIGGS CANCELLED

Really gutted to let you know that Daniel Higgs has cancelled his entire U.K. tour, so the gig on Dec 7th won’t be happening. We may well be doing something to recognise the release of the new C Joynes LP on the same date instead.

Nov 23rd

FLOAT RIVERER + HALO HALO + PETE UM

Thursday 17th November at The Corner House Doors 8pm, £4 adv from here FLOAT RIVERER This couple of nefarious dweebs formed the group Float Riverer whilst hitching around Britain last year. Just guitar and drums, with a mix of barked and crooning vocals, are employed in the creation of super-catchy garage pop gems with dirt under the fingernails. Formerly found in Hotpants Romance and I Had An...

Oct 14th

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**CANCELLED** DANIEL HIGGS + C JOYNES + PADANG...

DANIEL HIGGS HAS CANCELLED HIS ENTIRE UK TOUR. FUCKING GUTTED. DANIEL HIGGS One-time lyricist and frontman of Baltimore, Maryland’s superlative holistic rock group Lungfish, Daniel Higgs have been pursuing a solo musical path since the mid-2000s. This latest work is far removed from the mesmerisingly grinding sounds of America’s last true folk band, though a common primal and...

Sep 28th

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KWJAZ + GRIEF ATHLETES + BRIDEBURGER

Monday 10th October at The Portland Arms Doors 8pm; £6 adv from here KWJAZ Mindblowing retro-futuristic jams from the ever-great Not Not Fun label. Structurally, this is all poetic meta-narrative, progressive juxtaposed psychedelic loop-art, globalist sound-collage, provider of the coolest and sweetest oceanic & tropical vistas, like what would have happened if Jorge Ben and Robert Ashley...

Sep 19th

LET'S WHISPER + TENDER TRAP + PLANTMAN

Monday 3rd October at The Corner House Doors 8pm; £5 adv from here LET’S WHISPER Let’s Whisper is the bedroom pop project for Dana and Colin from sentinels of the indiepop underground, The Smittens. Based in Burlington, Vermont the duo play heartfelt songs, somewhat melancholic compared to the Smittens’ sweetness and light, but still retaining an unknockable joy. Formed in...

Sep 9th

THE LOVELY EGGS + ANGUISH SANDWICH + VIOLET WOODS

Tuesday 29th November at The Portland Arms Doors 8pm; £5 adv from here THE LOVELY EGGS The Lovely Eggs are David and Holly. David plays the drums and things like the xylophone and bicycle bells and squeaky horns and slightly squeaky recorders and things like that. Holly sings and plays the guitar and a floor tom with a wooden stick with lots of thick wool tied around the end. Safely isolated...

Aug 8th

ZUN ZUN EGUI + THEE LUDDS + LES ADVENTURES SOUS LA...

Wednesday 26th October at The Portland Arms Doors 8pm; £5 adv from here ZUN ZUN EGUI Is there such a genre as everycore? It seems to be the only suitable one for Bristol via all over the place group Zun Zun Egui. No one else out there is mixing 90s emo guitar, highlife drum patterns, Magma-esque prog, a few metal bass riffs and whooping polylingual vocals. Expect heavy grooves, tropical...

Jul 27th

TROUBLE BOOKS + HONG KONG IN THE 60S

VENUE//CB2 basement (map) TIME//8pm TICKET//£5 adv from here TROUBLE BOOKS Hailing from Akron, Ohio, Trouble Books are currently on a roll having just finished an album with Emeralds and komische guitarist Mark McGuire. A perfect collaboration, as their starry-eyed, lo-fi blend of pop, electronica and folk feels as though it should soundtrack lazy days and evenings where you watch the sun set...

Jun 27th

an afternoon with MOUNTAINS + SIMON SCOTT + JOHN...

VENUE//Cambridge Unitarian Church, Christ’s Pieces (map) TIME//3pm TICKET//£7.50 adv from here Spend a lovely Saturday afternoon in the marvellous Unitarian Church, with some awesome blissed-out music. It’ll all be over in time to head to the Portland Arms for the Mick Flower and Neil Campbell gig in the evening. MOUNTAINS Mountains is Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp, two sonic...

Apr 5th

LET'S WRESTLE + PIFCO + DIRTY COUSINS

VENUE//The Portland Arms (map) TIME//8pm TICKET//£4 adv. from here LET’S WRESTLE Scrappy Londoners Let’s Wrestle are a classic power-trio with a bit of a Swell Maps-meets-Hefner vibe. Named after a David Shrigley book, the three lads seem to be mostly influenced by all those classic US bands of the 80s and 90s - like Hüsker Dü, Dinosaur Jr., Fugazi, Pavement, Yo La Tengo - but with a...

Mar 7th

DUCKTAILS + JULIAN LYNCH + BIG TROUBLES

VENUE//The Portland Arms (map) TIME//7:30pm TICKET//£7.50 adv from here In association with bad timing, a night of three of the best groups releasing music on the shit-hot Olde English Spelling Bee label, Ducktails, Julian Lynch, and Big Troubles. DUCKTAILS Homemade psychedelic pop by Real Estate guitarist Matthew Mondanile, a man whose love of the quirkier edge of the 80’s has seen the release...

Feb 22nd

CONQUERING ANIMAL SOUND + KELVOX1

VENUE//CB2 Basement (map) TIME//8pm TICKET//£4 adv. from here CONQUERING ANIMAL SOUND Conquering Animal Sound are the Glasgow based duo of Anneke Kampman and James Scott. The pair starting making music in late 2008, messing around with toy instruments and loop pedals, and a sense of playfulness has remained through to their recently released debut album, “Kammerspiel” (Gizeh...

Feb 14th

EUX AUTRES + BETTY AND THE WEREWOLVES + HEAD OF...

VENUE//The Corner House (map) TIME//8pm TICKET//£5 adv. from here EUX AUTRES Eux Autres are makers of exuberant, perky tunes with an alkaline heart. The band was formed by dislocated Nebraskan brother and sister Heather and Nicholas Larimer in San Francisco, and more recently they were joined by drummer Yoshi Nakamoto from The Aislers Set and Still Flyin’. Eux Autres write compact songs with...

Jan 28th

ANTA + CITY SEVENTEEN + BORING GIRLS + SQUEEZE ME...

VENUE//The Portland Arms (map) TIME//8pm TICKET//£4 adv from here ANTA Space-prog Bristolians ANTA are all about the heavy riffs. The instrumental four-piece follow monolithic licks with towers of psyched-out ostinato, all at preposterous volume. The resulting tunes sound a bit like Sleep jamming with Hawkwind after a good session of King Crimson and Oneida tunes. It’s all the best bits of...

Jan 28th

CAM DEAS + C JOYNES + YPSMAEL

VENUE//CB2 basement TIME//8pm TICKET//£5 on the door CAM DEAS Post-Blackshaw outer-shredder Cam Deas is a guitarist indebted not only to the whole Fahey Takoma school, as is all the rage, but also to fellow Sheffielder Derek Bailey. Veering between whirling cyclones and waves of traditional finger-picked 12-string blues and psychedelic freak-outs of clicking and scratching free improv,...

Jan 3rd

GATE + TALVIHORROS + LES ADVENTURES SOUS LA MER

VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//8pm TICKET//£6 adv from here / £7 o.t.d. GATE Cracked and dissonant mournful looped laments plus unlikely electronic rhythms from Michael Morley of New Zealand’s avant-rock masters, The Dead C. Morley has been working under the Gate guise for 20 years, but his gigs in December will be his first in the UK, coming off the back of the Dead C’s...

Oct 25th

HYPE WILLIAMS + HONG KONG IN THE 60S + PETE UM

VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//8pm TICKET//£5 adv from here / £6 on the door HYPE WILLIAMS Named after the guy who directed loads of pretty wild hip-hop and R&B videos in the late 90s/early 00s, Hype Williams are a somewhat mysterious duo of “illegal immigrants” based in Berlin. D. Blunt and Inga Copeland are resonsible for a series of very limited (and already sold out) vinyl...

Oct 1st

JAILBREAK + TIME + GLASS CELLO

VENUE//The Corner House, Newmarket Rd (map) TIME//8pm TICKET//£6 adv. from here / £7 on the door JAILBREAK A rare live outing for a collaboration between former Charalambides, Scorces and Taurpis Tula member and occasional Jandek collaborator, the future-blues pedal steel player Heather Leigh and free-drumming titan Chris Corsano, who’s been involved with Sunburned Hand Of The Man,...

Sep 7th

BRAINDEAD COLLECTIVE + GRIEF ATHLETES + KING...

VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//8pm TICKET//£4 on the door BRAINDEAD COLLECTIVE Dynamic, amorphous and ever-flowing mixture of electronics, free improv, and straight-up rocking out. The end result is that of a loose, ambiguous and messy F-ire Collective jam in a heliocentric world. Collective drones, horn stabs and skittering rhythms aplenty. Featuring, perhaps surprisingly, people from pop bands...

Aug 19th

FUZZY LIGHTS + YOU ARE WOLF + C JOYNES

VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//8pm TICKET//£4 on the door FUZZY LIGHTS Fuzzy Lights was born in 2004 and has since grown from a two-piece violin and electric guitar duo to a five-piece band. This gradual change in line-up has allowed them to build on their sound by weaving together elements of psych-folk, Americana and noise-rock. Their new album ‘Twin Feathers’ (Little Red...

Aug 4th

BETTY AND THE WEREWOLVES + THE MAI 68S + THE GIVE...

VENUE//The Haymakers, Chesterton High St. (map) TIME//8pm TICKET//£4 adv. from Wegottickets BETTY AND THE WEREWOLVES ALBUM LAUNCH GIG! YES! Betty And The Werewolves are definitely one of our favourite Cambridge bands - well, one of them lives here, does that count? Sod it, they are just one of our favourite bands, and our collective bosom swells with joy from the anticipation of them releasing...

May 25th

ALLO DARLIN' + THE SUNBATHERS + MODEL VILLAGE +...

VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//7pm TICKET//£5 adv. from Wegottickets Note the change of date! ALLO DARLIN’ Allo Darlin’ are a thing of indiepop wonder; one minute they’re melancholic, bittersweet balladeers, the next, frenzied, fun-filled, elastic joy-bringers. Somehow they manage to combine an earnest naivete with the heartbreak and weariness of grown-up life without...

May 13th

MARK TEMPLETON + GLOCKENSPIEL + GRIEF ATHLETES

VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//8pm TICKET//£6 adv. from Wegottickets IN CONJUNCTION WITH WE LIKE WILDLIFE MARK TEMPLETON Coming in to Cambridge all the way from Alberta, Canada, Mark Templeton is a master of electro-acoustic composition, fusing electronic drones and artificial soundscapes with organic textures from a variety of so-called “traditional” instruments: guitar, banjo,...

Apr 28th

GOLDEN DISKÓ SHIP + C.J. BOYD + THE DOOZER

VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//8pm TICKET//£5 adv. from Wegottickets IN CONJUNCTION WITH WE LIKE WILDLIFE GOLDEN DISKÓ SHIP Golden Disko Ship is Theresa Stroetges - a one girl band from Berlin. Her music is a journey through exciting sonic landscapes that appear to be sampled with heart and ear irrespective of the medium used and traverse pretty much everything from a viola to sticky tape and...

Mar 17th

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QUACK QUACK + THE SAILPLANES + LES ADVENTURES SOUS...

VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//8pm TICKET//£4 adv. from Wegottickets QUACK QUACK Quack Quack were due to play in January, but had to pull out at the last minute due to a family emergency. Fortunately, they’re back! What is Quack Quack? A Yorkshire-based party-prog, post-jazz, guitar-free, polyrythmic instrumental rocking trio. They take simple, cheap keyboard melodies, add driving bass and...

Feb 19th

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POSTPONED - VOICE OF THE SEVEN THUNDERS + C JOYNES

VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//8pm TICKET// Unfortunately, this gig has been postponed. Keep watching as we try and sort out a new date. VOICE OF THE SEVEN THUNDERS Voice of the Seven Thunders is the latest moniker, taken from a 19th Century book of lectures on the apocalypse, for the work of master finger-picker Rick Tomlinson, previously trading under the name of Voice of the Seven Woods - his...

Jan 29th

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GANGLIANS + LA LA VASQUEZ + PETE UM

VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//8pm TICKET//£5 adv. from Wegottickets GANGLIANS Californians Ganglians sound like Pet Sounds recorded in a freaked out forest next to a swamp, or if Fleet Foxes went feral on a tropical island in some kind of Lord of the Flies scenario. That is, except when they’re on a totally liberated garage rock tip. Overall, we’re looking at some positive,...

Jan 15th

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LAST HARBOUR + THE PONY COLLABORATION + P.P DOG

VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//7:30pm TICKET//£4 adv. from Wegottickets LAST HARBOUR Last Harbour are a Manchester-based band playing rustic, cinematically atmospheric songs that rattle and loom, at once epic and intimate, harsh and beautiful. Using instrumentation that might traditionally be associated with folk music, the band instead hammer and sculpt their music into unusual and beguiling...

Dec 30th

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SIR RICHARD BISHOP + LASH, MILTON & THOMAS +...

VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//7:30pm TICKET//£7 adv. from Wegottickets SIR RICHARD BISHOP Sir Richard Bishop was, for over a quarter of a century, part of the legendarily perplexing and mysterious experimental trio Sun City Girls. Extraordinarily prolific, releasing over 100 albums, SCG took absurdist jazz-punk ethno-improv music to sublime and unimaginable heights until the death of drummer...

Dec 17th

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FAIR OHS + MAN FROM URANUS

VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//7:30pm TICKET//£5 ***UPDATE*** Sadly, a family emergency means that Quack Quack can’t play. Our best wishes are with them. Instead, it’ll just be Fair Ohs + Man From Uranus, for a bargain £3. Will still be a fun way to spend your Sunday evening. FAIR OHS It seems that a handful of bands of late have been having a go at mixing punk or indie rock with...

Nov 30th

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LIBRARY TAPES + WOODCHUCKER + TALKINGMAKESNOSENSE

VENUE//CB2 TIME//8pm TICKET//£5 adv. from Wegottickets In conjunction with We Like Wildlife LIBRARY TAPES Library Tapes is the nom de plume of David Wenngren, resident of Sweden’s Steel City, Eskilstuna. In contrast with the heavy industry of his home town, the sound of Library Tapes is always beautiful, subtle and affecting, somewhere between classical, ambient and experimental. Primarily...

Nov 26th

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P JØRGENSEN + GARETH HARDWICK

VENUE//CB2 TIME//8pm TICKET//£4 P JØRGENSEN Copenhagen-based composer and sound artist p jørgensen creates harmonious and highly luminescent ambient drones by digitally restructuring field recordings and the sounds of acoustic instruments. Recalling an early experiment at the age of twelve that involved overdubbing worn cassette tapes so many times that several recordings were heard on top of...

Oct 10th

SIC ALPS + ROCK WITH ELECTRONICS + INTERNET...

VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//8pm TICKET//£5 adv. - from here. SIC ALPS [audio:http://thedecibeltolls.com/mp3/Sic_Alps_-_L_Mansion.mp3] Around about this time last year Sic Alps stacked up some amps, turned on the echo and whipped the Portland Arms into a wide-eyed frenzy with half an hour of perfect, ripping, psyche tunes, so we’re more than a bit pleased that they’re coming back....

Sep 16th

TENDER TRAP + THE PUNCTURE REPAIR KIT + MODEL...

VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//8pm TICKET//£4 TENDER TRAP Tender Trap is the most recent vehicle for venerable indie-pop icons Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey. Amelia was originally lead singer with C86 legends Talulah Gosh, who were joined by Rob just before the band’s break-up. The pair went on to play in the seminal bands Heavenly and Marine Research. Tender Trap were formed in 2001 when...

Aug 28th

**CANCELLED** DEBUTANT

DEBUTANT Unfortunately we’ve had to cancel this gig. Hopefully Debutant can make it down another time. Soz.

Jul 7th

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KALBAKKEN + C JOYNES + MOLEPAWS

VENUE//CB2 TIME//8pm TICKET//£4 KALBAKKEN [audio:http://littleredrabbit.co.uk/MP3/Kalbakken_Hvem_Kan_Segle.mp3] Kirsty & David Birchall Nyhuus are half-Norwegian siblings who started playing music together in 2005. Both had played in various punk and improv bands in Manchester (including Our Beautiful Ridiculous Plan and Stuckometer) but for Kalbakken went back to their roots -...

Jul 6th

SLEEPINGDOG + SIXTOES + CITY SEVENTEEN

VENUE//CB2 TIME//8pm TICKET//£4 SLEEPINGDOG Chantal Acda has been performing and recording under the name Sleepingdog since 2006. ‘Polar Life’ is her second album following her debut ‘Naked in a Clean Bed’ which was released on Zeal back in 2006. On both these records Chantal has worked with Adam Wiltzie (Stars of the Lid/Dead Texan). Adam has become an essential part of the music, bringing his...

Jun 23rd

POCAHAUNTED + SUN ARAW + HELHESTEN

VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//8pm TICKET//£6 adv POCAHAUNTED Blinding rays of blissed-out hypnotic drones from Los Angeles. After starting off as a duo, Pocahaunted is now Amanda Brown on vocals / dancing, Sun Araw main-man Cameron Stallones on organ, Diva Dompe on bass / vocals, Britt Brown on guitar, and LA staple Ged Gengras on drums. Amanda co-runs the totally exciting Not Not Fun...

May 8th

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GROWING + KOGUMAZA + BARNEY BROWN

VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//8pm TICKET//£6.50 adv / £8 door GROWING Thrumming, multi-hued, sinusoidal drones, loops and jittering crescendos from Brooklyn, New York. Growing’s percussive delays and wall of shimmering kaleidoscopic noise are like super-slow rave meets wide-eyed and positive doom...

Apr 28th

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IFF TRANSPONDER RECORDINGS FÊTE: CITY SEVENTEEN +...

DATE//14/04/2009 VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//8 TICKET//£4 A selection of three of IFF Transponder Recordings’ artists: CITY SEVENTEEN Cambridge’s City Seventeen are a three piece creating instrumental music spanning myriad approaches: expect math rock, Morricone-esque desert scenes and post-krautrock drones & jams. http://www.myspace.com/cityseventeen THOMAS J Genre-defying pop music...

Mar 27th

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THE PSYCHIC PARAMOUNT + SUNSHINE REPUBLIC + CITY...

VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//8pm TICKET//£5 adv THE PSYCHIC PARAMOUNT Superlatively massive-sounding instrumental rock formed out of the the demise of Laddio Bolocko. Heavy, heavy riffs played in a lithe experimental fashion. Only English gig outside London! www.myspace.com/thepsychicparamount SUNSHINE REPUBLIC Massed low-end noise and bloody-minded offensiveness from the South...

Mar 23rd

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THE SHITTY LIMITS + BETTY AND THE WEREWOLVES +...

DATE//10/05/2009 VENUE//The Portland Arms TIME//7:30pm THE SHITTY LIMITS 60s garage + 70s punk + 80s hardcore = 00s awesome. 90-second blasts of livid fun. www.myspace.com/theshittylimits BETTY AND THE WEREWOLVES Fuzzed-up pop racing straight at you like Talulah Gosh on an out-of-control night bus. Fucked Up’s favourite band, no...

Mar 2nd

TWO MINUTE NOODLES + MAN FROM URANUS + RIPPING...

Coming Soon

Feb 19th

BLAKLAVA + MEN OF UNITUS + CANAVERAL

Coming Soon

Feb 19th

PETER BRODERICK + C JOYNES & THE RESTLESS DEAD +...

Coming Soon

Feb 19th