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 from the music biz up in Lancaster, The Lovely Eggs have developed a refreshingly detached view of the world which they choose to express through the medium of unkempt pop songs. They’ve played gigs with Jad Far and Shonen Knife, both of whom are pretty good reference points for locating what The Lovely Eggs are all about - strange and fantastical images set to a load of scrunchy guitar fuzz. They love nothing more than to play in unusual places and they have performed all over the world from Amsterdam squats and Los Angeles scrap yards to steam trains in Ripley, charity shops in Leeds and tea parties in Manchester. They have slept in record shops in North Carolina, entered female arm wrestling competitions in Chicago and sang on the beach in Bournemouth. After the success of their debut album “If You Were Fruit”, The Lovely Eggs resurfaced in 2011 with their second album, “Cob Dominos” - preceded by the single “Don’t Look At Me (I Don’t Like it)” and its John Shuttleworth-featuring video.
www.myspace.com/thelovelyeggs
ANGUISH SANDWICH
Thunderingly fun reverbed up dance jams with terse lyrics and sit-down bass playing.
http://anguishsandwich.blogspot.com/
VIOLET WOODS
Some Cambridge bods out of various bands and such playing swirly jangly stuff.
ZUN ZUN EGUI + THEE LUDDS + LES ADVENTURES SOUS LA MER
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 melodies, switched-up rhythms and, above all, expect to dance yourself into a pulp. http://www.zunzunegui.org
THEE LUDDS
If John Dwyer was from Leicester and not Rhode Island then he might’ve formed Thee Ludds rather than Coachwhips or Thee Oh Sees. Primordial garage frugging of the highest order.
http://theeludds.tumblr.com/
LES ADVENTURES SOUS LA MER
Psychedelic New Wave electroanalogue skronk from Jellica and Man From Uranus www.myspace.com/mfujellica
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 and the stars rise. Trouble Books will provide the perfect sounds to fill an August evening.
http://www.barkandhiss.com/trblbks/
HONG KONG IN THE 60S
Contemporary pop music filtered through a kaleidoscope of 60s and 70s retro-fitted and bookish influences. Hong Kong in the 60s sound like Stereolab or Broadcast if they’d enjoyed wearing cardigans and listened to Belle and Sebastian, or Portishead if they’d enjoyed more evenings watching Top of the Pops. Having recently been reviewed, enthusiastically, in The Wire, a chance to see them for yourselves.
http://hongkonginthe60s.com/
an afternoon with MOUNTAINS + SIMON SCOTT + JOHN CHANTLER + YPSMAEL
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 explorers whose long history, shared philosophies, and love of sculpting sound, has resulted in some of the most densely layered and blissful music crafted in recent memory.The duo is known for obscuring the boundaries between acoustic instrumentation and electronics. New album,
“Air Museum”, comes out next month on
Thrill Jockey.
SIMON SCOTT
Formerly the drummer of Slowdive (a band all the cool kids are citing as an influence these days), Simon Scott now animates field recordings, tempers them with
larghissimo guitar, and colours with unexpected soft textures.
www.myspace.com/o3o3o
JOHN CHANTLER
Th UK-based arm of
ROOM40 Records and sometime Tenniscoats, Lawrence English and Maher Shalal Hash Baz collaborator, John Chantler has spent the last few years perfecting making grittily psychedelic tunes on modular synthesiser. He’s just released his first solo album in seven years,
“The Luminous Ground”, on which Chantler almost duets with his electronic setup, treating it as an expressive and occasional unpredictable partner in incremental improvisations.
http://inventingzero.net/home/
YPSMAEL
http://ypsmael.tumblr.com
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 clear nod to the Flying Nun scene, and the very British nigglingness of Wire. They hit the Portland in advance of the release of their second LP,
“Nursing Home” (
Full Time Hobby /
Merge), recorded with that Steve Albini.
http://www.myspace.com/letsfuckingwrestle
PIFCO
Pifco are a relentless kraut-garage duo from Harehills, Leeds, suitable for appreciators of Coachwhips and The Fall. Mary drums tenaciously whilst providing serious keyboard squelch at the same time. All the while Stevsie digs at his Rickenbacker and barks out brusque but kind-of hummable melodies. They’ve got a couple of albums out on
Run Of The Mill, both of which are ace.
http://www.myspace.com/pifco1
DIRTY COUSINS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUw5VsQZ7kI
(((Oh Dear had to cancel at the last minute. Sorry about that.
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 of numerous releases on both Olde English Spelling Bee and
Woodist. Everything’s covered in a murky, lo-fi sheen that may seem impenetrable at first listen, but soon reveals a warm and tuneful underbelly that appears, and sounds, bigger and bolder than his simple setup should suggest. Think pre-Matador Kurt Vile mixed with a sprinkling of Panda Bear’s blurred pop aceness.
http://www.myspace.com/ducktailss
JULIAN LYNCH
Recent love in the Avesta of online music, Pitchfork, has seen Lynch’s star shine high and bright. Latest long-player
“Mare” is a dense walk through the long history of American music. Mixes of folk, Americana, lo-fi and pop combine to provide a surprisingly complex sound. The acoustic guitars shine through, a counter-point to Lynch’s rather hushed and mumbled vocals. Music this impressive doesn’t come round very often.
http://julianlynch.bandcamp.com/
BIG TROUBLES
Soaring choruses of bon marché grandeur, Big Troubles carve a smooth, shoegazing arc through a cloud of static and fuzz. But, impressively, they don’t leave the hooks and catchy-tunes wanting, they’re the focus point, the light that shines through a heady brew of sounds.
http://www.myspace.com/inbigtroubles
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 Records). CAS collect sounds both musical and non-musical from a vast array of sources and fashion them into rich, organic and textured arrangements, pinned down by undulating beats that riff on the synthetic nature of drum programming. On top of this are layers of Anneke’s sweet and perplexing, crystalline Northern European vocals. Comparisons with the work of Björk are kind of obvious but pretty close to the mark, and there is much in common with folks like Hanne Hukkelberg, Grouper, Hot Chip and Múm.
http://conqueringanimalsound.tumblr.com/
KELVOX1
Haunted underwater glitchstep from Cambridge. Burial meets David Lynch meets
“Let’s Dance” meets Sega Megadrive.
kelvox1.bandcamp.com
EUX AUTRES + BETTY AND THE WEREWOLVES + HEAD OF PROGRAMMES
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 sparse instrumentation. Their music has been unfairly described as “fun.” But while the surface of the songs might seem nonchalant, the lyrics offer skewed observations and fierce barbs. Most of their songs are about a) military history b) being “done wrong” or c) sports. The band sounds like the unrequited love song Doug Martsch would have penned for Francoise Hardy. Their latest collection of downer-pop,
‘Broken Bow’, has just been released by
WIAIWYA.
www.euxautres.com
BETTY AND THE WEREWOLVES
Fuzzed-up Grrrl pop racing straight at you like Talulah Gosh on an careering night bus. BATW sing songs about getting dumped at tube stations and falling in love with proper pop stars and put them out on glittery vinyl – pretty twee, right? Yet is also no word of a lie that they are Fucked Up’s favourite band. Thinking about it, loads of punk bands seem to love them along with all the indie kids, it’s like the perfect storm. Whooping, howling, thrashy guitars, garage rhythms, moreish tunes and boozy party fun are all present, plus a few highbrow literary allusions.
www.myspace.com/bettyandthewerewolves
HEAD OF PROGRAMMES
Dark, bittersweet songs of an alt.country/indie rock persuasion from the West Country. File somewhere between Smog, Arab Strap and Tindersticks.
www.myspace.com/headofprogrammes
ANTA + CITY SEVENTEEN + BORING GIRLS + SQUEEZE ME MACARONI
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 classic prog, the more enlighted doom groups, with a bit of metropolitan smartness that keeps from navel-gazing inanity. Their limited edition debut LP,
“The Tree That Bears The Equine Fruit”, recently came out on a subsidiary of Geoff Barrow’s
Invada Records, and is an epic treat that, naturally, kicks off with a gong. Switched-on heads who made it down to see The Psychic Paramount back in ‘09 should find much satisaction in ANTA.
www.anta.me.uk
CITY SEVENTEEN
A Cambridge bass-free three piece creating instrumental music spanning myriad approaches: expect math rock, Morricone-esque desert scenes and post-krautrock drones & jams.
http://cityseventeen.co.uk/
BORING GIRLS
Fresh to our ears, three Cambridge lads making loud, thrashy, disenchanted scuzz. Not for nothing are they named after a Pissed Jeans tune.
http://boringgirls.bandcamp.com/
SQUEEZE ME MACARONI
Warmly overdriven, Grouper-like loops and laments.
http://www.myspace.com/thatsqueezemegirl
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, Deas’s sounds range from folky aggression to smoked-out bliss. Studious and endless emotional crescendos dipping in and out of ragas compete with prudent and considered amelody, all to the listener’s amazement. A slew of releases include some on the essential labels Blackest Rainbow and The Great Pop Supplement.
http://www.presenttimeexercises.com/
C JOYNES
Heavy thumb-led finger-picking techniques that hark back to traditional country-blues and early ragtime, venturing off to explore alternative melodic traditions inspired by a multitude of travels. One of Cambridgeshire’s greatest musical exports, Joynes is the modern-day Histon giant.
http://www.myspace.com/cjoynes
YPSMAEL
Audio detritus skilfully reassembled into washes of elongated cinematic soundcushions.
http://www.myspace.com/espenloup
