Tiny Ruins
Fawn
The Crescent, York
Monday 12th August, 7.30pm
Tiny Ruins are a band based in Auckland, New Zealand. Conceived in 2009 by songwriter Hollie Fullbrook to describe her solo output, the group now includes Cass Basil on bass, Alex Freer on drums & Tom Healy on electric guitar. Traversing early influences of folk and blues, Tiny Ruins’ sound draws on ethereal and grungy soundscapes alike.
Website / Watch / Watch
Fullbrook was born in Bristol, England, before moving to New Zealand with her family at the age of ten and settling in West Auckland. She learnt the cello from a young age, picking the guitar up and writing songs in her early teenage years. Asked to support Alasdair Roberts in Sydney, May 2010, she was signed to Australian indie label Spunk Records.
Tiny Ruins’ debut 'Some Were Meant for Sea' was released in 2011 and saw critical praise for its minimalist approach & lyrical flair. Recorded by Fullbrook and producer Greg ‘J’ Walker (Machine Translations) in a small hall in South Gippsland, the album was voted 2011’s Album of the Year by BBC World Service arts & culture programme ‘World of Music’ and was a finalist for New Zealand’s Taite Prize in 2012. Tours of New Zealand, Australia & Europe followed, with Fullbrook performing solo, and later as a duo with Cass Basil on upright bass, supporting The Handsome Family throughout the UK.
Joining forces with drummer Alex Freer, Tiny Ruins evolved into a three-piece, recording EP, 'Haunts', together in the Waipu bush, before working with Tom Healy at The Lab in Auckland on their second album, 'Brightly Painted One'. Championed by the New York Times, NPR and David Lynch, it won Best Alternative Album at the New Zealand Music Awards in 2014, and saw a joint release by labels Bella Union, Spunk Records and Flying Nun.
Tiny Ruins have undertaken several international headlining tours, both in a solo capacity and as a band, opening for Calexico on their 2013 Australasian tour, Sharon Van Etten across the USA in 2014, and an eclectic array of opening slots, from Beach House, Joanna Newsom and Father John Misty to Neil Finn, Ryan Adams and Leon Bridges. Fullbrook has recently collaborated with filmmaker David Lynch on a single, 'Dream Wave', released on 7" vinyl in 2016, and on EP 'Hurtling Through with drummer Hamish Kilgour of The Clean.
In 2019 Olympic Girls was released, a record which according to The Wire is 'Her most powerful album to date, both vivid and serene in its uncanny way of slowing the pace of time.' It's certainly a wonderful thing.
Olympic Girls press:
MOJO ★★★★
UNCUT 8/10
'Part of the charm of Olympic Girls lies in the layers of mystery in each song. Inspired by literature, science, nature and human experience, these mysteries lie waiting to be carefully unfolded…'
God Is In the TV 9/10
'An album confident in its vulnerability and luxuriating in a bigger sound.'
Loud & Quiet 8/10
'… a deeper listen to these eleven tracks exposes a breadth of influences that spans decades. Her most powerful album to date, both vivid and serene in its uncanny way of slowing the pace of time.'
The Wire
'She is always looking uneasily toward the next line, or moving toward mysticism. In sentimental contexts, she generates lines of wicked ambition.'
The New York Times
Tickets are £10 in advance (more on the door) and available from the venue in person, from our friends at Earworm Records or online via See Tickets.
Tickets for this show are £10 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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Aidan Moffat & RM Hubbert
John Mouse
The Crescent, York
Sunday 18th August, 7.30pm
“The album title has a dual meaning – sex and death.” These are common themes from Aidan Moffat; since his early days with Arab Strap, he has explored these subjects with a grace and grit that plunges deep into the human soul. But this is no re-hash of the past, rather a further leap forward for Moffat, now teaming up with fellow Scot, singer and guitarist extraordinaire, RM Hubbert, for this new project.
Watch / Watch / Watch
“It can be read as romantic surrender, but of course it’s also a phrase you’ll find on a tombstone,” Moffat elaborates. Equally multidimensional is the music contained within, weaving beautiful, spidery guitar work, haunting piano lines, lush strings, delicate percussion, fizzing 808 beats, synth pop, samba, and moments of jazz, while Moffat’s rich voice carries the narrative in rich grumbles, hushed whispers, and revealing spoken word.
The album begins with first single Cockcrow and a chance encounter of two old flames as they enjoy hen and stag parties in Blackpool – the album follows their story as it moves forwards (and backwards) with wit and wisdom, exploring themes of love, family, fortune telling, deceit, death, Schrodinger’s cat, the multiverse … and marshmallows. The narrative was influenced, Moffat says, by “an article I read about mothers who abandon their families, and how that still remains a pretty taboo subject in our times. When marriages break down, it’s almost always the man who leaves.”
The video for Cockcrow was directed by Paul Fegan, who made 2016's 'Where You’re Meant to Be' Scottish folk doc with Moffat and is based solely around a performance by Dundee ballet dancer Jack Webb. "It was inspired by a dance piece I saw performed last year by Scottish Ballet. Aidan, Hubby and Siobhan's song felt both tender and cold, vulnerable and hopeful. Jack Webb, Julian Schwanitz (Cinematographer) and I decided on a simple one-shot idea based on these conflicting emotions. Something dream-like. And we wanted to include a bed given it's a prominent element in the singles cover art. Bridging a traditional music video and a performance piece, it's lit in a way that makes the dancer appear like a living painting, specifically an old master, obscured by time - but fierce." Says Fegan.
We're chuffed to welcome John MOuse as support too.
John MOuse is a left of centre artist from Cardiff. John’s most recent album “The Fen Sessions” was written and released over a weekend and then deleted on the Monday. Collaborations with Sweet Baboo, Prince Edward Island, Los Campesinos! and TV’s Steve Jones have littered his 5 studio albums all of which have receive critical praise and garnered airplay and support from Steve Lamacq, Tom Robinson, Huw Stevens, Gideon Coe and Stuart Maconie.
John MOuse was born out of John’s previous band JT Mouse, which featured members of Zabrinksi, The Spencer McGarry Season and Steven Black AKA Sweet Baboo. John’s debut album released in 2006, on Crocfinger records was a collection of home tape recordings. It’s “A Universal” showed glimpses of the intriguing lyrical content that John MOuse future albums will become synonymous with.
Tickets for this show are £14 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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William Tyler
Heather Woods Broderick
Stained Glass Centre, York
Wednesday 28th August, 7.30pm
Some words from M.C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger:
I met William Tyler on a train going south out of London. He had a nervous and cryptic and welcoming aura and was the first Nashville native (there is such a thing) that I’d ever met. We both carried more than we could manage on that trip, and I realized later that his bags were full of books. Books about psychology, philosophy, the Civil War, and astrology. Books—I realize now as I write this—about measuring and deciphering the boundaries of kindness and cruelty. William Tyler is interested in the human capacity for understanding ourselves; this is what I feel I mostly know about him now, so many years later. He is one of the most profound autodidacts I know, and he seems to be chasing knowledge in support of something he feels sure exists in all of us. The notes beneath the notes. Empathy might be the closest I can get to putting a name to it. Listen to his music and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. Less -
William and I bonded early in our relationship over Barry Hannah, a hellraising writer from Mississippi who practically reinvented the way that words could be assembled on a page. Like Hannah, William Tyler knows the South—as a crucible of American histories and cultures, an entity capable of expansive beauty and incomprehensible violence, often in the same beat—as his native place, the place that holds him and that he runs from. In the music of William Tyler, the South is not apart from America; the South is America condensed. And like Hannah—and this part is important— William moved to California, where Goes West was written. We don’t know how long William will stay—Hannah lasted just a couple of years, writing in the employ of director Robert Altman—but the change of scenery seems to suit him.
William Tyler’s new record, Goes West, is the best music that he’s ever made. I’m sure of this because I know and love all of his music intimately, and this album moves me the most, and the most consistently. The first time I heard it was in the late spring in the Texas Hill Country, rolling between limestone and scrub. I was on a cleanse then—no alcohol, no drugs, no evil thoughts—and was astonished at the emotional clarity that the album held. It offered up a model for what I wanted my head to feel like. Goes West marks a sort of narrowing of focus for William’s music; it sounds as though he found a way to point himself directly towards the rich and bittersweet emotional center of his music without being distracted by side trips. Perhaps this is down to the fact that William only plays acoustic guitar on the album, a clear and conscious decision considering that he is one of Nashville’s great electric guitarists. The band that performs Goes West alongside William—including guitarists Meg Duffy and Bill Frisell, bassist and producer Brad Cook, keyboardist James Wallace, drummer Griffin Goldsmith, and engineer Tucker Martine—is the best and most sympathetic group of players that William could have assembled to play these songs.
Heather Woods Broderick
We're exciting too to host Heather Woods Broderick in support. Performing as a trio, with minimalist percussion, Heather will be showcasing songs from her new record 'Invitation'.
Website / Watch / Listen
Tickets for this show are £12.50 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from Earworm Records in York or online from here.
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Yama Warashi
Mayshe Mayshe + Amy May Ellis
Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds
Saturday 31st August, 7.30pm
Yama Warashi is formed by Bristol-based Japanese artist Yoshino Shigihara with eclectic band members. Her music has a dreamy evocative sound with a shadow of moon cake, inspired by Japanese folk dance music, Bon Odori(盆踊り), free jazz and African music with a slice of electric psychedelia. Yoshino plays keyboard, percussions and sings songs in her mother tongue about mycelium, nuclear power staion and broken O.
Yama Warashi (山童) means a small child-like spirit which lives in the mountains.
Press:
'This is dream pop from another realm entirely'
The Skinny
'Liltingly folky and malevolently unhinged'
Loud And Quiet
Acclaimed Bristol-based psych/art-rock outfit Yama Warashi released their second album in November featuring the arresting, folkloric and fanciful single “Kofun No Uta”.
Yama Warashi is the project of Yoshino Shigihara, a Japanese musician and visual artist whose past projects include erstwhile cult favourites Zun Zun Egui (Bella Union).Inspired by Japanese folk dance, free jazz and tribal African music, and heavily saturated in psychedelia, Yama Warashi’s songs are lyrically outlandish and charming, melodically addictive and mythical; the band name translates from Shigihara’s native tongue as “small childlike mountain spirit”.
Website / Watch / Watch
Building on the success of Yama Warashi’s 2016 debut album, ‘Moon Egg’ (Stolen Body Recordings), which picked up support including BBC Introducing, Late Junction (BBC Radio 3) and across BBC6 Music, as well as plaudits in The Wire Magazine, The Skinny, Loud & Quiet and beyond. Live, they have graced festival stages including Latitude and Green Man, to add to support slots with the likes of This is the Kit, Flamingods, Rozi Plain and Dakha Brakha.
On“Kofun No Uta”, Shigihara explores a fascinating part of Japan’s heritage. “I was very intrigued by the Japanese ancient graves called 'Kofun', in the Kofun and Yayoi period”, she says. “Many Kofun have distinctive keyhole-shaped mounds, sometimes with a moat around. There are many terracotta clay figures on the mound to guard the dead body (often an emperor or empress) and the treasure of the grave. I was imagining these terracotta warriors waking up in the morning and walking around on the mound. I find it's fascinating to think about all the rituals and beliefs in ancient Japan. I was imagining the grave in the twilight and the dawn – mysterious and beautiful
”With a fitting sense of ceremony, bold horn stabs introduce the track before a hypnotic vocal melody coalesces with propulsive bass and inventive beats to draw the listener deep into a shape-shifting, otherworldly groove. Alongside electric guitar, sax and keys, the song is shot through with spine-tingling flourishes of vibraphone and Koto (a traditional Japanese stringed instrument which Shigihara inherited from her Grandmother).
Originally from Ashiya city, near Osaka, multi-instrumentalist Yoshino Shigihara discovered her love of playing piano aged three, kicking off a lifelong musical curiosity. After a period of exploring other artistic avenues, she picked up the piano again on moving to Bristol and finding herself brimming once again with inspiration. Following the success of their early releases, in 2017 Yama Warashi were awarded funding from the PRS Foundation, and they recorded their new album with Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, M.Ward, Perfume Genius) at Toybox Studios; they have hit upon a truly unique and impactful sound that sees Shigihara taking major leaps in compositional complexity, songwriting and artistic freedom, backed by an impressive and close-knit ensemble of talent
Tickets for this show are £8 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the Jumbo Records or online from here.
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The Furrow Collective
The Crescent, York
Sunday 8th September, 7.30pm
We're extremely pleased to be working again with our friends at the Black Swan Folk Club to bring excellent traditionalist quartet The Furrow Collective to York in September.
The Furrow Collective is an English/Scottish band consisting of four talented and individually prominent performers: Lucy Farrell (viola, voice & saw), Rachel Newton (harp, fiddle, voice), Emily Portman (banjo, concertina, voice) and Alasdair Roberts (guitars, voice). The group formed in 2013, drawn together by a shared love of traditional song and balladry of the England, Scotland and beyond and an open, intuitive approach to collaboration. In recognition of their innovative approach, The Furrow Collective were awarded the accolade of 2017 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 'Best Group', hot on the heels of the release in late 2016 of their second album, Wild Hog (also on Hudson Records).
Acclaimed folk group The Furrow Collective released their new album 'Fathoms' in November. Produced in Powys and Oxfordshire by honorary fifth-Furrow Andy Bell, 'Fathoms' was the group's third album and sees them build further on their substantial reputation for breathing new life into traditional songs.
The twelve recordings of which Fathoms is comprised capture typically innovative arrangements and set the four distinctive voices in a magical, captivating sound-world. As with their previous collections, the impression is by turns ancient, evoking the lines back to the earliest source, and then altogether unknown; fresh as tomorrow morning.
The Furrow Collective tours extensively throughout the UK as well as in mainland Europe, delighting audiences with their uniquely beguiling approach to traditional song. November 2018 sees the band touring England and Wales to launch the new album.
Press:
‘A bravely sparse and compelling new take on traditional songs... A quietly classy young folk band’
The Guardian
‘The Furrow Collective have an air of immeasurable antiquity, while at the same time making the songs vibrantly new.’
R2
'A mouth-watering collaboration'
**** 4 Stars Mojo
'One of the finest collaborative albums of the past few years'
Folk Radio UK
Tickets for this show are £15 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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Wildfowl & York Mediale presents
The Buster Keaton Picture Show
feat. Haiku Salut
Everyman Cinema, York
Wednesday 11th September
Doors 8.00pm, Show 8.30pm
The Buster Keaton Picture Show sees acclaimed instrumental group Haiku Salut perform an original, contemporary live score to Buster Keaton’s 1926 comedy classic The General.
Commissioned by Nottingham Contemporary as part of the BFI’s Comedy Genius season, Haiku Salut’s score combines electronica, folk, post rock, and neo-classical elements to cast The General in a new dramatic light.
The General was described by Orson Welles as "the greatest comedy ever made, the greatest Civil War film ever made, and perhaps the greatest film ever made", and is one of the last major films of the silent era.
The film is based on a true incident - the Great Locomotive Chase - with The General of the title referring to engineer Johnnie Gray's (Keaton) engine. Gray has been rejected by both the Confederate Army and by his fiancee Annabelle but when Union spies steal the General (and unwittingly, Annabelle), he gets a chance to prove his heroism by catching up with The General and rescuing his beloved. In this ambitious production, Keaton performs all his own stunts using his incredible comic timing and body language to create hilarious, near perfect entertainment.
Haik Salut perform to Cohen Media’s stunning 4K restoration of The General.
“Spearheading the BFI's Buster Keaton season is ths 4K restoration of his 1926 masterpiece, a jaw-plunging blend of physical dexterity and bravura moviemaking.” –Total Film
“The pioneering genius of Buster Keaton's 1926 silent film The General looks even more startling than ever…more or less invented the action movie.” – The Guardian
“Haiku Salut are a singular musical force.” Mojo
The Buster Keaton Picture Show was created and commissioned by Nottingham Contemporary’s The Screen at Contemporary and supported by BFI Comedy Genius Season.
This event is supported by XR Stories
Tickets for this show are £12 in advance, £8 for concessions.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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Black Swan Folk Club MNDA Fundraiser
W/ Martin Carthy & Wizz Jones
The Crescent, York
Tuesday 24th September, 7.30pm
Two legendary names on the British folk and acoustic music scene share this very special evening in tribute to Roland Walls, who has been the lead organiser of York’s award winning Black Swan Folk Club for over 30 years, promoting many hundreds of shows in that time. Roland is now seriously ill with motor neurone disease and has been receiving considerable practical and financial support from the Motor Neurone Disease Association. His many friends in the folk world have rallied round to offer their assistance and tonight’s fundraiser for the MNDA is the latest in a series of charity events. Martin and Wizz are both artists that Roland has booked many times over his long career.
Martin Carthy
For more than 50 years Martin Carthy has been one of folk music’s greatest innovators, one of its best loved, most enthusiastic and, at times, most quietly controversial of figures. His skill, stage presence and natural charm have won him many admirers, not only across the folk scene, but also far beyond it. He has been involved in trailblazing musical partnerships with, amongst others, Steeleye Span, Dave Swarbrick and his wife Norma Waterson and daughter Eliza Carthy. Whether in the folk clubs (which he continues to champion) or on the concert stage, there are few roles that he hasn’t played.
Martin is a ground-breaking acoustic-guitarist and an authoritative interpreter of newly composed material, but most significant of all are his settings of traditional songs, which have influenced generations of artists, from Bob Dylan and Paul Simon onwards, on both sides of the Atlantic.
`Arguably the greatest English folk song performer, writer, collector and editor of them all’ Q Magazine
‘Carthy is a master of the ballad of substance, songs that tell stories, whether they are traditional, his own or from contemporary writers.’ The Telegraph
Wizz Jones
Wizz Jones began his musical career at the age of 17 leading a Country and Skiffle band in his home town of Croydon, having been inspired to take up the acoustic guitar after hearing such luminaries as Big Bill Broonzy, Rambling Jack Elliot and Muddy Waters at London club The Roundhouse. After learning further guitar licks from Long John Baldry and Davy Graham whilst playing in the coffee bars of Soho, Wizz followed the time honoured trail and went busking across Europe with sundry other musicians (including at one point budding young blues singer Rod Stewart) before returning to Britain with a unique acoustic guitar style, an eclectic repertoire and a ‘right hand worthy of Broonzy’!
In spite of being mentioned as an important early influence in turn by such as Eric Clapton, John Renbourn, Keith Richards and Ralph McTell, Wizz has never made the big time himself, retaining a certain “musician’s musician” reputation and playing at intimate smaller venues up and down the country, including a dozen times at the Black Swan. He turned 80 this year and is officially semi-retired, but did not hesitate to offer his services for this special event.
Tickets for this show are £20 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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세이수미
Say Sue Me
The Crescent, York
Tuesday 25th September, 7.30pm
Cited as one of 2018's ‘break-out bands', Say Sue Me are a Surf Rock inspired indie band from Busan, South Korea. Members consist of Byungkyu Kim on lead guitar, Sumi Choi on vocals and rhythm guitar, Jaeyoung Ha on Bass and Sungwan Lim on Drums.
Releasing their first album “We’ve Sobered Up” in 2014, and EP “Big Summer Night” in 2015, on Korean label Electric Muse, UK label Damnably Records released a self-titled compilation that paired their first record and EP in 2017, marking the band’s first release outside of Korea, which served as their introduction to International audiences.
Say Sue Me
The Crescent, York
Tuesday 25th September, 7.30pm
Cited as one of 2018's ‘break-out bands', Say Sue Me are a Surf Rock inspired indie band from Busan, South Korea. Members consist of Byungkyu Kim on lead guitar, Sumi Choi on vocals and rhythm guitar, Jaeyoung Ha on Bass and Sungwan Lim on Drums.
Releasing their first album “We’ve Sobered Up” in 2014, and EP “Big Summer Night” in 2015, on Korean label Electric Muse, UK label Damnably Records released a self-titled compilation that paired their first record and EP in 2017, marking the band’s first release outside of Korea, which served as their introduction to International audiences.
Watch / Watch
The band released their sophomore album “Where We Were Together” in 2018, which won widespread praise from the likes of Pitchfork, Paste Magazine, NPR, Billboard, i-D, The Independent, Stereogum, MTV, Uproxx, Fader, Drowned in Sound, DIY, The 405 & more. Lauren Laverne, Tom Ravenscroft, Gideon Coe and Don Letts have championed the band as well as Elton John on Beats1 and KEXP. The band have embarked on tours across Europe and Japan and appeared as part of the line up at the first DMZ Peace Train Music Festival in Korea’s Demilitarized Zone. They count Yo La Tengo, Japanese Breakfast, Snail Mail, The Ravonettes, Speedy Ortiz, The Beths, and The Notwist as fans.
In 2019, Say Sue Me were nominated for 5 Korean Music Awards (and winning 2), making them the second most nominated act of the year just behind almighty K-Pop idols BTS.
2019 also sees them make appearances at OOTC festival in Luxembourg, Les Eurockeennes des Belfort, Green Man Festival and more.
Press:
'Really sweet, melodic rock that makes me feel like I’m in high school.'
The Fader
'…jangle-pop hooks, stunning vocal melodies, and intricate guitarwork that stands up proudly against some of their influences like Yo La Tengo and Pavement…'
KEXP
'…channels high emotions and journeys through hazy guitars that are reminiscent of Yuck and Daniel Blumberg's solo material'
The Line Of Best Fit
'The best pure indie-pop record of 2018 (so far) is not from Brooklyn or Glasgow or Melbourne or Olympia but Busan, South Korea… a perfectly paced fusion of jangling guitars, bouncing bass and sighed melancholy.'
Paste Magazine
'The seven-minute slow burn “Coming To The End” evokes late-album indie-rock epics such as Yo La Tengo’s “We’re An American Band” or Pavement’s “Fillmore Jive”…'
Stereogum
The band released their sophomore album “Where We Were Together” in 2018, which won widespread praise from the likes of Pitchfork, Paste Magazine, NPR, Billboard, i-D, The Independent, Stereogum, MTV, Uproxx, Fader, Drowned in Sound, DIY, The 405 & more. Lauren Laverne, Tom Ravenscroft, Gideon Coe and Don Letts have championed the band as well as Elton John on Beats1 and KEXP. The band have embarked on tours across Europe and Japan and appeared as part of the line up at the first DMZ Peace Train Music Festival in Korea’s Demilitarized Zone. They count Yo La Tengo, Japanese Breakfast, Snail Mail, The Ravonettes, Speedy Ortiz, The Beths, and The Notwist as fans.
In 2019, Say Sue Me were nominated for 5 Korean Music Awards (and winning 2), making them the second most nominated act of the year just behind almighty K-Pop idols BTS.
2019 also sees them make appearances at OOTC festival in Luxembourg, Les Eurockeennes des Belfort, Green Man Festival and more.
Press:
'Really sweet, melodic rock that makes me feel like I’m in high school.'
The Fader
'…jangle-pop hooks, stunning vocal melodies, and intricate guitarwork that stands up proudly against some of their influences like Yo La Tengo and Pavement…'
KEXP
'…channels high emotions and journeys through hazy guitars that are reminiscent of Yuck and Daniel Blumberg's solo material'
The Line Of Best Fit
'The best pure indie-pop record of 2018 (so far) is not from Brooklyn or Glasgow or Melbourne or Olympia but Busan, South Korea… a perfectly paced fusion of jangling guitars, bouncing bass and sighed melancholy.'
Paste Magazine
'The seven-minute slow burn “Coming To The End” evokes late-album indie-rock epics such as Yo La Tengo’s “We’re An American Band” or Pavement’s “Fillmore Jive”…'
Stereogum
Tickets for this show are £11 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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The Howl & The Hum
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Sunday 29th September, 7.30pm
In an age where individuality is key, where bedroom producers and Soundcloud artists can become overnight sensations, The Howl & The Hum were born through collaboration. Brought together in York, UK’s ‘60s Greenwich Village’-style open mics, folk nights and close-knit music scene, vocalist Sam Griffiths cherry-picked bass player Bradley Blackwell, guitar player Conor Hirons and drummer Jack Williams to create a band that doesn’t sound like a contemporary rock band.
Website / Watch / Watch / Watch
With a magpie mentality they cut their teeth playing in and learning from local bands and busking, with a strong songwriting core and an inventive, progressive view on what place guitar music has in today’s culture. Their inspirations ranging from Leonard Cohen and Phoebe Bridgers to Lizzo and Kendrick Lamar, and have been likened to Massive Attack, Radiohead and Alt-J.
With the support of influential tastemakers such as Radio 1's new music legend Huw Stephens, who recently handpicked the band to play on his stage at this year's SXSW and debuted the band’s new single “Hall Of Fame”, The Howl & The Hum have just inked a deal with AWAL/Kobalt. Now the band are heading into summer 2019 with everything in place. Having sold out London's Omeara at the start of the year and toured in support of Welsh wonders Boy Azooga, they're lining up the cogs for their own headline tour later in the year, with more music imminently on the horizon.
Tickets for this show are £10 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue, Jumbo Records and Crash Records in Leeds, or online from here.
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Sam Outlaw
Night & Day Cafe, Manchester
Wednesday 2nd October, 7.30pm
Sam Outlaw is a singer-songwriter living in Nashville, TN. Born Samuel Morgan in South Dakota, his stage name comes from his late mother’s maiden name.
Website / Listen / Listen
Working as an advertising executive in his twenties, he performed small bar gigs near his home in Los Angeles starting in 2009 but kept his marketing career until 2015 - when he finally left his job to become a full-time musician. Turns out that was a good decision.
At age 33, Sam released his debut album “Angeleno" in 2015. Produced by Ry Cooder and Joachim Cooder, “Angeleno” introduced Sam as a distinctly assured voice in the Country and Americana scene. The album garnered awards and critical acclaim from Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, NPR and countless others. His follow-up album, “Tenderheart,” gave Outlaw his first foray into self-producing and further evolved his “SoCal Country” sound by introducing more elements of Pop and Rock music. Also a critical success, “Tenderheart” was heralded as one of the year’s best country albums, supported by a full tour of North America and dozens of shows in Europe.
With new music planned for 2019, Sam recently moved his wife and kids from LA to Nashville to seek a better environment for raising their two small children.
He’ll make his Grand Ole Opry debut on May 3rd, followed by a European tour in the Fall. North American dates to follow.
Press:
'(Sam Outlaw) has a wonderfully rich and mournful country voice.'
The Telegraph
'A legitimate contender to be the biggest country star L.A. has produced since Dwight Yoakam.'
LA Weekly
Tickets for this show are £16 in advance.
You can get tickets online from here.
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The Crescent, York
Sunday 6th October, 7.30pm
**RESCHEDULED DATE**
Tickets bought for the July date remain valid.
Powerful Irish post-punk band The Murder Capital are a blistering live band who've already more than held their own on stages opening for IDLES, Fontaines DC, Slaves and Shame. The imminent release of their debut album is gonna shoot them into much bigger venues than ours fast. Do not miss!
“Cacophonous noise and stage theatrics that could make them stars very, very soon.”
DIY on Eurosonic
Following the recent announcement of their new single “Green & Blue” and after a last month that has seen them fill The Electric Ballroom at just 7pm for an opening slot to IDLES, and a series of last minute shows that have swelled through word of mouth. The Murder Capital have now announced a new string of UK headline tour dates for July including a first visit to The Crescent in York.
Watch / Watch / Watch
The Murder Capital recently delivered their second single in the form of the 6 minute epic, “Green & Blue”. A tautly wound exercise in both darkness and light, the song has become an early favourite in their lauded live sets and is paired to a striking, foreboding video directed by Ethan Barrett and Tom Gullam:
The Murder Capital ended 2018 as that rare thing: a band tipped from all corners without having released a single song. In an age where people and bands overshare by default, The Murder Capital have been doing the opposite. If you wanted to know about The Murder Capital, you had to get to a show and see for yourself. That’s if you could get in. Based on the caustic strength of one live recording of “More Is Less”, which went viral on YouTube (watch), and feverish word of mouth from those who have been lucky enough to attend these early gigs, The Murder Capital have built a formidable reputation. In just over a year, they’ve sold out shows in their hometown of Dublin (to 400 people), played with Slaves, Shame and fellow countrymen Fontaines DC and seen the likes of the NME, Loud & Quiet, Dork and DIY back them already – with The Irish Times calling them out as Ireland’s best new rock band.
With debut single “Feeling Fades” the band fulfilled their early promise – delivering a propulsive slice of post-punk recorded with Flood (PJ Harvey, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Foals). In one of their rare interviews so far, the band have stated they are driven by the genuine desire to affect cultural change, and when front-man James McGovern repeats the lyric “the now elapsed ‘round you and me, and it kept us all together” on this, their debut single, you start to believe that they’re capable of achieving just that.
“The Murder Capital are as unstinting, honest and vicious as you’d expect the next great punk band torn from the streets of Dublin to be. They see the bar, clear it, and raise it dauntingly high.”
Discovery, The Line Of Best Fit
Tickets for this show are £8 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York or online from here.
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Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O.
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Monday 7th October, 7.30pm
The sprawling universe of that is Acid Mothers Temple was formed in 1995 by Kawabata Makoto. Originally titled the Acid Mothers Temple soul-collective and encompassing musicians, dancers, artists, farmers, channellers, ex-yakuza, mermaid researchers and professional vagrants, the collective has always had at its core a dedication to improvised music. Now with a history of over two decades, and a discography of over one hundred releases, which is not to mention the numerous solo and side-project releases which encompass everything from drone, acid-folk, acapella, to minimalist composition, the group show no signs of relenting in the pace of their creative energy.
In December 2017 Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO welcomed new vocalist Jyonson Tsu, and performed an initial show together in Tokyo at the Annual Acid Mothers Temple Festival. Sadly this era also marked the departure from the band of long-standing member Mitsuru Tabata. This new incarnation of the AMT collective, featuring founders Kawabata and Higashi, at the helm, plus the recently recruited rhythm section of Sakamoto and Uchida who joined the group in 2015. The band tour Europe in this new incarnation for the first time in Autumn 2018.
Website / Listen / Watch
Tickets for this show are £12 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue, Jumbo Records and Crash Records in Leeds, or online from here.
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Trudy & The Romance
Nature TV
The Fulford Arms, York
Thursday 10th October, 7.30pm
Somewhere, frozen in deep space, is a pop group. They’re called The Original Doo-Wop Spacemen and they make mutated 50s pop music – somewhere between the great American songbook and classic American jukebox tunes, then dipped in classic romance film scores before being lathered up with prog-rock, jazz and psychedelia.
Website / Watch / Listen
They’re the brainchild of Oliver Taylor, frontman of Trudy and The Romance. Or maybe they’re the characterised manifestation of several real life experiences. In either case, The Original Doo-Wop Spacemen are here, and they’re playing on Trudy and The Romance’s debut album ‘Sandman’ – a cosmic, kaleidoscopic, merry-go-round of a record that is bursting with bright ambition.
Really, this could be called a concept album, especially given the introduction of The Original Doo-Wop Spacemen. “I’ve asked people and they don’t think they would pick up on it. But you write it for the diehards, don’t you. Twenty years down the line someone will have this album on a Top 20 Concept Album list, and that’s how people will know,” laughs Olly, underpinning the inherent humour of the work.
However, while the intricate details of the narrative might be buried in the lyrics, under layers of fuzz or light-years away, there is certainly a story here – a specific conceptual idea. It involves the characters Little Johnny, frontman of The Original Doo-Wop Spacemen, and Sweet Emma, his love. We’re introduced to these two on opening track “My Baby’s Gone Away” just as Johnny skips town and dreams big, setting up his future career with the Spacemen.
Except, of course, the titular Sandman strikes, right away on the second track of the same name. He takes Sweet Emma and Little Johnny is doomed to keep thinking about her. “It’s about an artist’s journey to success, then asking for your innocence back. It’s a break-up album too, about going to a new place and looking for hope and new love,” says Olly. He describes the Sandman as "the little devil on your shoulder, a metamorphosis of the darkness that looms in the back of your mind.”
If you’re thinking this album is theatrical, then you’re right. But it’s firmly placed in the artist canon of the genre, taking cues from the golden age of Disney, back when they were making films like Pinocchio and Snow White. It’s also informed by Phil Spector. For example, Liverpool's very own Sense Of Sound Choir sing on every track on the record, lending the album its woozy, encompassing feel.
There’s also the inclusion of a keyboard player, strings, a harpist, a country pedal steel guitar player – a mate of Olly’s dad – as well as the three core members of Trudy and The Romance Essentially, if you wanted to hear a slightly stoned, camp opera, full of hopeless romanticism and day-dreaming, and with a 50s tinge, this is it.
By the time you’ve swayed from side-to-side and reached the album’s moonlit conclusion, there’s a clear message. And, Olly says, “you can never say goodbye to your first love, because it’ll always stay with you.” But the whole idea is that the album can be played on an infinite loop, forever, until the end of time, as the same story repeats itself over and over, the same mistakes made, the same highs reached.
Produced by David Pye (Wild Beasts, Egyptian Hip Hop), ‘Sandman’ is unlike anything you’ll hear in 2019, or the next lifetime. Look out for the Doo-Wop Spacemen the next time you enter the astral plane. They’ll be performing their mutated 50s pop for this generation, the one before it, and the rest to come.
Tickets for this show are £9 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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Snapped Ankles
The Crescent, York
Friday 11th October, 7.30pm
They came from the trees.
Now settled in fertile east London, Snapped Ankles maintain the feral energy of the forest. Fight or flight. Primal motorik rhythms, the rush of white noise and post-punk angles; an aural onslaught played out on homemade log synths, electrified guitars and sticks beating hell on taut animal skin.
Snapped Ankles have flourished in the sub-tropical climes of warehouse and squat parties, moving onto performance art collaborations with filmmakers and shows in unlikely locations such as barber shops, games arcades and the forests they once called home. They plough a singular furrow at improbable angles. The woodwose have discovered electricity and they’re not afraid to use it.
Snapped Ankles emerged from the woods clutching an album that feels simultaneously modern and ancient. Come Play The Trees is what dance music will sounds like when computers finally fail us. Log synths, bass guitar and sticks on taut animal skin coalesce to form fearsome primal rhythms. Fuzz guitars rubbing up against dirty rolling arpeggiated synthesisers to ignite wild white noise fires.
Snapped Ankles returned with second album Stunning Luxury in 2019.
Website / Watch / Listen
Tickets for this show are £12 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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She Drew The Gun
The Crescent, York
Tuesday 15th October, 7.30pm
Louisa Roach isn’t a protest singer. The ambitious, melodic psych pop this Merseyside artist makes under the moniker She Drew The Gun is too abstract for that label, more dreamy than didactic. But it’s fair to say this rising star – winner of Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent contest in 2016 – works adjacent to that tradition, taking inspiration from the likes of underground folk legend Malvina Reynolds, and contemporary poets such as Kate Tempest and Manchester’s Toria Garbutt.
“I’ve always felt drawn to music that says something,” explains Roach, “music that goes beyond simple love songs. As a songwriter, you’ve got the whole spectrum of human experience to draw from; half of that is the bigger picture stuff.”
It’s mostly the latter that drives Roach’s music, from her promising 2016 debut, Memories of the Future [“Junkyard Scouse soul, built ingeniously on a Wirral council budget” ★★★★ Uncut] to her brilliant, forthcoming follow-up, Revolution of Mind, to be released October 5th on Skeleton Key Records. If there’s a central theme to this new record, says Roach, it’s liberation, in various guises: “Empowerment; resisting; arming yourself with knowledge; questioning the status quo, questioning your own state of mind and how it’s affected by the systems we live in…”
Listen to Revolution of Mind, with its melodic choruses and stream-of-consciousness style verses delivered in Roach’s cool, Scouse-inflected vocals, and it’s clear where She Drew The Gun hail from – spiritually and geographically. “I love 60s music and Psychedelia, I’ve also been inspired by Liverpool bands like The Coral, The La’s and The Lightning Seeds. I think we’re somewhere along that continuum.”
Roach – born, raised and currently residing on the Wirral – brings a queer feminist energy to this rather male-dominated lineage. She was an ‘80s kid, raised by a hard-working single-parent mother and loving nan in nearby Birkenhead. As a kid, Roach was tomboyish, a footie fan with a competitive streak. She started playing guitar at 13 and was soon performing Oasis covers at friends’ parties. Music was a hobby at that point, a bedroom passion that fell by the wayside as teenage life and, a little later, motherhood took over [Roach has a 12 year-old son].
Domestic life was never going to be enough for this would-be rebel bard, and eventually Roach returned to academia, moving to Liverpool to study Psychology as a mature student. It was during this period that she picked up the guitar again, studying by day and strumming by night, in part-time bands or moonlighting at open mic nights. “I felt really free after the move. I met my now-girlfriend [Roach’s first, serious, same-sex relationship] about a year later; some of the first songs I wrote were about her.”
With new love came a new confidence. Auspiciously, the handful of tracks she’d sent to the BBC were singled out by DJ David Monks, who immediately booked Roach for a live session. It was that session that put She Drew The Gun on James Skelly’s radar. Impressed with Roach’s brand of proudly regional upstart pop, The Coral man promptly signed her to his Skeleton Key label, helping to release her debut.
Website / Watch / Watch
“I’ve learned a lot since I made Memories of the Future,” says Roach. “I’ve definitely grown as a songwriter; there’s more intention to the way I write now, more purpose.” It’s a quality that’s immediately obvious on the album’s thrumming, sure-shot opener, Resistor:
“All the underdogs, black sheep/Fighters of the powers that be/
In tenements, high rises/Freedom fighters, the outsiders…”
Roach has always been drawn to the Othered, from the outcast characters in the Irvine Welsh books she’d read as a teen, to the marginalised grafters and survivors of Theresa May’s food bank Britain. She sings from a place of kinship and empathy on songs like Something For The Pain and Between Stars. “I believe in questioning the rules and asking who they’re there to serve in the first place. I think some of that is down to being queer, and not conforming to rules around gender.”
Motherhood and higher education have also shaped Roach’s worldview. “Having my son meant I had to try and get my shit together. Before that I’d spent time out of work and in low-paid shit jobs that I hated. I think part of wanting to do Psychology was to understand myself, and the bouts of depression I have. I was interested in learning about the mind, but again, I was drawn to the outside, the critical psychology side which examines how, historically, psychology has tended to pathologise aspects of human behaviour in the service of dominant power structures. Studying this stuff really opened my eyes.”
Tickets for this show are £12 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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Kris Drever
The Basement, York
Tuesday 15th October, 8pm
This show is now taking place at the Basement in York.
Kris Drever is a Scottish folk singer songwriter, who has won multiple awards including an incredible 7 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, two shortlist nominations for Scottish Album of The Year (with his trio Lau) and much acclaim for his solo recordings and concerts including glowing reviews from The Herald, The Guardian, Mojo and Q Magazine. His most recent (John Parish produced) album with Lau, Midnight and Closedown was released in February 2019 by Reveal Records to wild acclaim. Kris started the new year with sold out concert hall tours with both Lau and The Lost Words project https://www.thelostwords.org.
In January Kris played a 1,500 capacity, sold out, St James’ Theatre Glasgow with full orchestra re-imagining key songs from his career to date including his pro-immigration anthem for our times ‘Ghosts’. May 2019 is a chance to hear him up close and personal as he takes in many intimate listening rooms, performing solo across the UK before joining back up with Lau for summer festivals.
Website / Listen / Listen
Drever’s voice and guitar form a part of the backbone of today’s contemporary roots and folk scene. Hugely admired as a solo artist, collaborator, a phenomenal and prolific artist. Kris has collaborated with Cream’s Jack Bruce, Bela Fleck, Tinariwen, Joan As Police Woman, Jerry Douglas, Danny Thompson, Tim O’Brien, Sarah Jarosz, Shawn Colvin, Phil Cunningham, Rosanne Cash, Roddy Woomble, Eddi Reader, Adem, Kate Rusby, Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart, Seckou Keita and many more. One of Scotland’s finest and most in demand musicians.
Press:
‘Kris Drever is a serious talent’
Mojo Magazine
“The folk revival has a new standard bearer”
Q Magazine
“Folk Singer of The Year & Best Original Track Award Winner’’
BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2017
'Utterly stunning'
fROOTS
'Immense yet ultra-supple sophistication, musician-ship of the first order ...a breath of fresh air'
Songlines
'Guitarist with that bravely experimental trio Lau, Kris Drever has all the makings of a solo celebrity'
**** The Guardian
Tickets for this show are £15 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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Working Men's Club
The Fulford Arms, York
Thursday 17th October, 7.30pm
Madding crowds may have found their bounce to the beat of ‘Bad Blood’s post-punk groove but Working Men’s Club will defy all expectation with their eagerly anticipated follow-up. Forcing backs off the wall and deeper onto the dancefloor, electric stomper ‘Teeth’ possesses enough bite to set pearly whites on edge and induce a wildly ecstatic feeling that’s anything but comfortable.
“It is a metaphor,” teases the band’s singer, guitarist and beat-maker, Sydney Minsky-Sargeant. “It could be about going insane or what you see, what you think you feel inside, a lot of things… put through a drum machine… basically we just want to confuse the fuck out of people, in a good way!”
For Syd, alongside fellow Club members Giulia Bonometti, Jake Bogacki, and recently recruited bassist Liam Ogburn, the last 12 months has seen the 4-piece buckle up for a meteoric rise that’s been a hell of a ride. “Signing to Heavenly was a big deal for us,” offers Jake. “We’ve worshiped the label and its bands for a long time so it’s nice to be part of the family. It’s a culture; we’re all running in parallel.”
Shows with Fat White Family and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and a day of packed-out Great Escape appearance have paved the way for the band as they hone their rhythm ahead of Bluedot, Manchester Psychfest, Latitude and Manchester International Festival later this summer, before a tour with Bodega and their first headline tour though October and November.
After ‘Bad Blood’ received early support from Steve Lamacq, demand brought about a third repressing of their debut 7”, and it topped the vinyl charts; giving rise to a band subconsciously making us all slaves to the rave. “We do this because we love it.” says Syd. “But it’s not about us, we’re just faces. Working Men’s Club is about the music, the vibe, and that feeling, forcing you to move. Anyone can join.”
Tickets for this show are £8 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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Holy Moly & The Crackers
Snakerattlers
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Friday 18th October, 7.30pm
Holy Moly & The Crackers make riotous party music for the masses. Their third album, ‘Take A Bite’ (released April 5th 2019 on the band’s own Pink Lane Records), is concise, passionate take on folk, blues and indie rock. The sound of a band who have been searching and experimenting for several years; arriving at a place where they can say “this who we are and this is where we want to go”.
Website / Watch / Watch / Watch
Formed in Newcastle in 2011, the group began as little more than a laugh, an excuse to busk through some foot-stomping folk pop. They developed from a four piece to a six piece, with Ruth Patterson on vocals/fiddle, Conrad Bird on vocals/guitar/trumpet, Rosie Bristow on accordion, Nick Tyler on electric guitar, Jamie Shields on bass and Tommy Evans on drums/backing vocals. “When we started out we were a real ragtag folk band,” Conrad says. “We want to tell a different story now.”
The first taste from ‘Take A Bite’ that listeners will be treated to arrives in the form of euphoric lead single, ‘All I Got Is You’. Combining deft pop song craft with a stomping, four to the floor backing, it demonstrates the band’s commerciality and ambition, as well as their ability to tackle personal lyrical fare in a two-minute pop song.
Working once again with producer Matt Terry (The Prodigy/The Enemy), the recording process for ‘Take A Bite’ was marked by a shift in technique too. “For this album, we did it song by song,” Conrad explains. “Usually, you’ll record all the drum tracks and then all the bass tracks. But this time we recorded one song at a time and completely lived it”. The band even went one step further during the recording of the Byrds-influenced, folk-rock ‘Can’t Get Enough’, with producer Matt creating an immersive 60s experience in the studio. “Matt’s mad! And for that one he made us dress up in 60s clothes, bandanas, suits, flares,” Conrad laughs. “And it was really silly, but it really got us to live it.”
To that end, while the violin and the accordion remain, the whole thing feels rawer now. Riff-heavy, even. With melodic choruses more in the vein of American rockers such as The Black Keys and Jack White, than the tweed and waistcoats of traditional UK folk. It reflects the diverse tastes of a band, comprised of six friends with six individual music tastes, who come together to make a sound greater than the sum of its parts. “We’ve kept an element of the folk side but just kind of fused it together,” Ruth explains. “We all listen to each other, we all share stuff, but the music’s less about storytelling in the folk tradition now. It’s more observational. More about real experiences.”
“This album is asking the audience to take a chance on us,” explains Ruth. “Obviously we’ve got a bit of a daft name and we look a bit mad, but I think once people actually come to a gig, they’re always swept up in the music and the energy. We get kids, old people, Goths, hippies, whatever. Everyone’s invited, everyone’s part of it. And people seem to lose themselves. No one’s like, “Oh, how do I look?’ while dancing. They don’t care. It brings everyone together.”
“All roads lead to the stage,” Conrad continues. “The arguing, the loving, the making, the listening – it boils down into one manic, riotous party. That's where we connect with the audience and with each other and that’s what we're all about." It’s an all-systems-go mentality. “We’ve arrived at a place here, with this album, where we can start the journey that we want to be on. This is who we are now; this is what we’re doing.”
Tickets for this show are £12 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue, Jumbo Records and Crash Records in Leeds, or online from here.
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Rozi Plain
The Crescent, York
Tuesday 22nd October, 7.30pm
'What A Boost is Rozi’s best, most interesting and experimental album to date. It’s what happens when her introversions gather the worldliness and confidence to let others in. There’s all the same tenderness, all the same familiarity, but it’s never sounded this good before.'
9/10 The Line of Best Fit
The music of Rozi Plain has always felt like a freeze-frame. A colourful and graceful snapshot of the world, paused, suspended in time, and then gently toyed with, like stepping out of the linear world as we know it. Wide awake in dreaming. There have been three records over the past decade, each one just like this, alluring and beguiling in the delicate nature through which they exist, as if one wrong move could lead the whole thing to collapse in on itself, sending you tumbling back to the real world at any given moment.
Watch / Watch / Watch
Her brand new album, ‘What A Boost’, carries the same sense of exquisite elegance but is an altogether different, and distinctive, journey. One, in fact, that was inspired and informed by just that: of travel and passage, of the unique inspiration found in different and differing people and places. Of movement and motion. Of journeying.
Tweaked and refined during a year spent touring the world playing bass in This Is The Kit, ‘What A Boost’ nurtures its homely roots and then blooms into a record that isn’t strictly about life on road but is undoubtedly, and beautifully, shaped by it. Textural, repetitive, propulsive, the whole piece plays out like a soundtrack to the world flying past the window; all of the shapes, colours, sights and sounds, flickering fast as we try to take as much of it in as we can.
‘What A Boost’ is also the product of the singular spaces within which it was created. First there was the Old Dentist’s Studio around the corner from Rozi’s home in Clapton, where many of the initial ideas were first conjured. Then there was an RAF base in Suffolk where some of the songs began to come to life. A day off on tour in L.A enabled a fruitful days recording three songs (Swing Shut, Conditions and Trouble) with Chris Cohen (Deerhoof, Cass McCombs, Weyes Blood). Then back to London, where the album really came together at The Total Refreshment Centre, a somewhat legendary fixture in the flourishing London jazz scene. Rozi’s previous album, Friend, was the first to be recorded there. "Since then the TRC became part of my life. A great community of artists and musicians getting stuff done, making proactive moves," enthuses Plain. Naturally she returned there again for ‘What A Boost’, shortly before its closure as a live venue in 2018 due to intervention from Hackney council.
Suitably then, the record is imbued throughout with a sense of freeform adventuring, small seeds that grow into something far greater thanks to repetitive jazz-like patterns of the guitars, and gently shifting tempos that rise and fall and rise again, crafting a record that is both colourful and complex. Lead track Conditions sets a perfect tone, the song as magnetic as Rozi has ever sounded, blending shuffling, skittish percussion with sparkling guitar lines that drive the whole thing forward. Swing Shut is a gleaming concoction of heady groove and jubilant colour, while stand-out Dark Park offers something even more hypnotic, a shifting, fascinating ode to the “wafts of change that can suddenly hit you,” as Rozi herself explains it: “Like when the seasons change and you suddenly remember your whole life at that time of year. The record culminates with a studio recording of When There Is No Sun, Rozi’s much-loved Sun Ra cover; a staple of her live set for the past couple of years and a big influence on her more recent workings
Another key facet of ‘What A Boost’ is collaboration. Inspired by her invitation to participate at 2018’s PEOPLE festival, a week of one-off collaborative performances devised by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner of The National, Rozi opened up her new record to a number of different minds, each of them imbuing the work with little touches of their own magic.
“It's so great to work with other people that you like and trust, and allow yourself to let things be taken to places you wouldn't have been able to,” Rozi says of this process. “I think there's probably a lot of learning and trust you have to do with yourself before you can trust other people. Learning to be brave and not being too attached to certain things is all part of the collaboration curve."
Co-produced by regular drummer Jamie Whitby Coles, the record also features fellow live-band members Neil Smith, Amaury Ranger and Gerard Black. Elsewhere, Rozi opened up her new work to a host of friendly and familiar faces, with ‘What A Boost’ boasting informed playing from the likes of Sam Amidon, Rachel Horwood (Bas Jan, Trash Kit), Joel Wästberg a.k.a. Sir Was, Raphael Desmarets, Yoshino Shigihara (Zun Zun Egui, Yama Warashi) and Dan Leavers from The Comet Is Coming who rec-orded and played on experimental highlight The Gap. The album was subsequently mixed by Ash Workman (Metronomy, Christine and the Queens) at his Electric Beach studio.
Intricate and meandering, enigmatic and ambiguous, ‘What A Boost’ neatly sits alongside Rozi Plain’s past work, while opening up a whole new world to discover. One that sparkles and pricks at the senses. One that gently reveals more about itself with each passing play, rolling on and on through new vistas and pathways, through places to inhabit and leave behind; a succession of sequences that remind you to recall where you’ve been, where you are, and where you mean to go next. “Maybe this is a product of being away so much,” Rozi questions. “I feel like you do a lot of looking back, looking forward, looking at your life, and looking out of the window."
'Seductively off-kilter pop... lovely stuff'
Uncut
'Exquisitely blissed-out'
MOJO
Tickets for this show are £10 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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Willie Watson
(Old Crown Medicine Show)
The Crescent, York
Monday 28th October, 7.30pm
**CANCELLED**
'Due to unforeseen circumstances we regretfully have to cancel the show.'
Sorry everyone!
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Molly Tuttle
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Monday 28th October, 7.30pm
A virtuosic, award-winning guitarist with a gift for insightful songwriting, Molly Tuttle evolves her signature sound with boundary-breaking songs on her compelling debut album, When You’re Ready. Already crowned “Instrumentalist of the Year” at the 2018 Americana Music Awards on the strength of her EP, Tuttle has broken boundaries and garnered the respect of her peers, winning fans for her incredible flatpicking guitar technique and confessional songwriting. Graced with a clear, true voice and a keen melodic sense, the 26-year-old seems poised for a long and exciting career. When You’re Ready, produced by Ryan Hewitt (The Avett Brothers, The Lumineers) showcases her astonishing range and versatility and shows that she is more than simply an Americana artist.
Website / Watch / Watch
Since moving to Nashville in 2015, the native Californian has been welcomed into folk music, bluegrass, Americana, and traditional country communities – even as When You’re Ready stretches the boundaries of those genres. Over the past year, Molly has continued to accumulate accolades, winning Folk Alliance International’s honor for Song of the Year for “You Didn’t Call My Name” and taking home her second trophy for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Guitar Player of the Year (the first woman in the history of the IBMA to win that honor).
'...handsomely crafted melodies that gently insinuate themselves into the memory…'
NPR
'Impressive debut album.... The production, playing and songwriting coalesce into a striking statement that shows an already developed artist well on her way to the next level of her still nascent career.'
American Songwriter
'…a sort of high-wattage Alison Krauss-Taylor Swift hybrid — Tuttle effortlessly delivers a mélange of styles to accompany her powerful guitar licks throughout.'
Rolling Stone
Tickets for this show are £16 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue, Jumbo Records and Crash Records in Leeds, or online from here.
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Warmduscher
The Crescent, York
Friday 1st November, 7.30pm
Oh boy. A party not to miss at The Crescent fir for any Friday night!
Warmduscher return.
Heavy metals. Disco Peanuts. CCTV in the break room.
A little something to get you through the week. There’s enough to go around. Revenge is a dish best served bold. Melt in the mouth disco basslines on a fragrant bed of feedback. Try it with the boom bap tapenade. Here for a good time, not a long time.
If you made your way out of Whale City with your faculties intact, this one’s for you. Clams Baker, Lightnin’ Jack Everett, Mr Salt Fingers Lovecraft and The Witherer have been joined by Quicksand on cutting board and cheese wire and commis chef Cheeks on vibes. They’ve been cooking. Michelin stars. The finest ingredients money can buy: Kool Keith and Iggy Pop. Funk, punk, hip-hop and lounge rock. Love is real.
Band biographer and revered botanist Dr Alan Goldfarb describes the album as “a sample hole through which to taste another universe. A dramatic warning. A gilded aroma. It is a tale of wanton desire and limitless treachery. A tale of disillusionment – the refusal of exploitation.”
Tainted Love was recorded in just four days, with soupe du jour Dan Carey (Kate Tempest, black midi, Fontaines DC). Warmduscher continue to live on their razor-sharp wits. Or as Clams Baker puts it “there’s no way to stop now”. Delivering the goods you never knew you needed.
If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Warmduscher is:
Clams Baker III
Lightin’ Jack Everett
Mr Salt Fingers Lovecraft
Quicksand
The Witherer
Watch / Watch
Press for Whale City:
'Pure filth'
Lauren Laverne, BBC 6 Music
'This album has seriously got the goods. You owe it to yourself to listen to this one'
Irvine Welsh
'The oddest gang in town'
Mojo Magazine
'Like a grime-funk Sin City, ‘Whale City’ is peopled by a colourful cast of deviants'
NME
'The funkiest collection of speed driven drug tales you’ll hear all year'
GQ
Tickets for this show are £12 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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Holy Moly & The Crackers
Snakerattlers
The Crescent, York
Sunday 3rd November, 7.30pm
**ORIGINAL TICKETS FOR THIS SHOW AT FIBBERS STILL VALID. PLEASE NOTE NEW DATE AND NEW TIME!**
Holy Moly & The Crackers make riotous party music for the masses. Their third album, ‘Take A Bite’ (released April 5th 2019 on the band’s own Pink Lane Records), is concise, passionate take on folk, blues and indie rock. The sound of a band who have been searching and experimenting for several years; arriving at a place where they can say “this who we are and this is where we want to go”.
Website / Watch / Watch / Watch
Formed in Newcastle in 2011, the group began as little more than a laugh, an excuse to busk through some foot-stomping folk pop. They developed from a four piece to a six piece, with Ruth Patterson on vocals/fiddle, Conrad Bird on vocals/guitar/trumpet, Rosie Bristow on accordion, Nick Tyler on electric guitar, Jamie Shields on bass and Tommy Evans on drums/backing vocals. “When we started out we were a real ragtag folk band,” Conrad says. “We want to tell a different story now.”
The first taste from ‘Take A Bite’ that listeners will be treated to arrives in the form of euphoric lead single, ‘All I Got Is You’. Combining deft pop song craft with a stomping, four to the floor backing, it demonstrates the band’s commerciality and ambition, as well as their ability to tackle personal lyrical fare in a two-minute pop song.
Working once again with producer Matt Terry (The Prodigy/The Enemy), the recording process for ‘Take A Bite’ was marked by a shift in technique too. “For this album, we did it song by song,” Conrad explains. “Usually, you’ll record all the drum tracks and then all the bass tracks. But this time we recorded one song at a time and completely lived it”. The band even went one step further during the recording of the Byrds-influenced, folk-rock ‘Can’t Get Enough’, with producer Matt creating an immersive 60s experience in the studio. “Matt’s mad! And for that one he made us dress up in 60s clothes, bandanas, suits, flares,” Conrad laughs. “And it was really silly, but it really got us to live it.”
To that end, while the violin and the accordion remain, the whole thing feels rawer now. Riff-heavy, even. With melodic choruses more in the vein of American rockers such as The Black Keys and Jack White, than the tweed and waistcoats of traditional UK folk. It reflects the diverse tastes of a band, comprised of six friends with six individual music tastes, who come together to make a sound greater than the sum of its parts. “We’ve kept an element of the folk side but just kind of fused it together,” Ruth explains. “We all listen to each other, we all share stuff, but the music’s less about storytelling in the folk tradition now. It’s more observational. More about real experiences.”
“This album is asking the audience to take a chance on us,” explains Ruth. “Obviously we’ve got a bit of a daft name and we look a bit mad, but I think once people actually come to a gig, they’re always swept up in the music and the energy. We get kids, old people, Goths, hippies, whatever. Everyone’s invited, everyone’s part of it. And people seem to lose themselves. No one’s like, “Oh, how do I look?’ while dancing. They don’t care. It brings everyone together.”
“All roads lead to the stage,” Conrad continues. “The arguing, the loving, the making, the listening – it boils down into one manic, riotous party. That's where we connect with the audience and with each other and that’s what we're all about." It’s an all-systems-go mentality. “We’ve arrived at a place here, with this album, where we can start the journey that we want to be on. This is who we are now; this is what we’re doing.”
Tickets for this show are £12 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue, Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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Steve Mason
Pictish Trail
The Crescent, York
Sunday 10th November, 7.30pm
One of the founding members of The Beta Band, Steve has also recorded under the names of King Biscuit Time and Black Affair and since 2010 has released three acclaimed solo albums under his own name.
We've a special bonus too with one of our faves Johnny Lynch aka Mr Lost Map Records aka Pictish Trail in support!
Website / Watch / Listen
“Song writing since the Beta Band had become something I did entirely alone, from the original concept to the full demo and often in the studio it was just myself and a producer.
Although I enjoyed this purist approach for a long time, it really does not reflect who I am anymore and is not something that really excited me. So I decided with this album that I wanted to get my live band involved at every stage to break this cycle, and because I wanted to capture the energy that we produce when we play live shows.
Modern recording techniques often are a kind of piece meal approach to recording (which I have done a lot of) but the energy and excitement is often lacking, so this time the band and myself worked on a collection of 12 songs over the course of last year.
Around July I felt that it was going well enough to approach a producer and I knew very early on who I really wanted to work with. After an initial meeting with Stephen Street and playing him some rehearsal room recordings, he took the job. I have long admired his work, especially The Smiths and the Morrissey solo albums that Stephen wrote and produced.” Steve Mason
“Steve had been on the periphery of my musical knowledge for some time now. I was particularly impressed by his first ‘proper’ solo album Boys Outside back in 2010 and remember always liking his voice whenever I heard it on the radio. So, when he made contact with me in the summer of last year and asked if I would be interested in working with him on his new album I immediately agreed!” Stephen Street
“For this album, electric guitars, heavy brass and gospel backing vocals were the brew that I had in mind and Stephen was fully on board with that plan.” Steve Mason
“Steve explained that he wanted to make this album with his band playing more ‘live’ than on some of his previous offerings and also to augment the songs with Brass and female backing vocalists. I felt this approach of first stripping back the songs to a more ‘live’ feel to create more space for the more ‘soulful’ elements to breathe in was an interesting one and we got down to work!”
“A wonderful productive week of recording the main backing tracks with the band in Brighton was successfully achieved and then Steve and I continued recording his vocal parts up here in London.” Stephen Street
“When I listen to this album it feels and sounds like the first ‘legitimate’ record that I have ever made. It’s hard to explain but it sounds like a ‘real’ album. I think that is partly the production, the playing and the work that I did with the band for all those months in our rehearsal room on the South Coast. “
“Stephen did an extraordinary job with shaping the sound and he was everything that I hoped he would be behind the wheel.” Steve Mason
“I have to say, I was greatly impressed by the quality of the songs we recorded throughout the session and by the time we added the final overdubs of the brass section and backing vocalists, the album had really taken shape!”
“I hope we have managed to fulfil Steve’s vision of what this album would sound like. I certainly am very happy with the results and look back on the making of this record with fond memories!” Stephen Street
“It’s a beautiful, confident, positive, angry, loving and gentle album which once again moves what I do forward. David Bowie said that you should always be slightly out of your comfort zone if you want to achieve greatness, and for the first time perhaps ever; I deliberately pushed myself into that place. Who doesn’t want greatness?” Steve Mason
Tickets for this show are £20 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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Lankum
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Thursday 14th November, 7.30pm
Tickets go on sale on Friday 5th July at 10:00am!
The Dublin based four-piece present a new live show ahead of their much-anticipated 3rd album which will be released on Rough Trade late Autumn.
Lankum have an alchemical ability to combine traditional folk roots with contemporary undercurrents to forge music that is dark, mysterious and transcendental. Comprising brothers Ian Lynch (uillean pipes, tin whistle, vocals), Daragh Lynch (vocals, guitar) alongside Cormac Mac Diarmada (fiddle) and Radie Peat (harmonium, accordion, vocals), Lankum channel a diverse set of influences and histories to create a beautifully rare thing: a songbook from and for the people.
Website / Watch
Born of years criss-crossing Dublin's folk and experimental scenes, their two albums Cold Old Fire (2013, recorded under former name Lynched) and Rough Trade debut Between The Earth and Sky (2017) breath new life into ancient/modern rituals with urban punk fervour, rural psycho-geography and, underpinning it all, the eternal drone of the uilleann pipes.
'An object lesson in how to perform old songs in new ways'
The Independent
'The most convincing folk band to come out of Ireland in years'
The GuardianTickets for this show are £15 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue, Jumbo Records and Crash Records in Leeds, or online from here.
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BC Camplight
Porridge Radio
The Crescent, York
Thursday 21st November, 7.30pm
“You shouldn't have a tough time finding the angle to Deportation Blues,” claims Brian ‘BC Camplight’ Christinzio. “The past few years have been a fucking nightmare.” But what a fucking great record he’s made off the back of his nightmare. His second album for Bella Union, Deportation Blues is an exhilarating, dynamic document of calamity and stress, relayed through richly melodic and bold arrangements spanning singer-songwriter classicism, gnarly synth-pop, ‘50s rock’n’roll and various junctures between, mirroring their maverick creator’s jarred emotions and fractured mindset.
Watch
For the full story, you have to head back to before Christinzio’s Bella Union debut, 2015’s How To Die In The North. Born in New Jersey, but living in Philadelphia, Christinzio had released two albums while battling addiction and mental illness. Both albums won rave reviews and earned Christinzio a reputation as one of independent music’s most forward-thinking artists. Soon after, however, as illness rendered him unable to function as a working songwriter, Christinzio retreated to a life squatting in an abandoned church. Despite some notable appearances as a session pianist (Sharon Van Etten) and occasional live work for Philly faves The War On Drugs (Robbie Bennett and David Hartley were in the original BC live band) he knew a sea change was needed in order to regain his career and sanity.
Feeling he’d be “dead or in jail if I stayed,” he acted on a friend’s suggestion to cross the ocean to Manchester. There, Christinzio found new inspiration, new friends, a girlfriend, a dog, and finally a new album (his first in eight years).
So, imagine his mood when he fell foul of UK immigration. “I’d had such high hopes for How To Die In The North, and I was told I was being deported two days after it came out, and banned from the UK. The next thing I know, I’m playing Pac Man in my parents’ basement, thinking, this is my life now.”
Occasional gigs in Europe, where his Manchester-based band could meet him, and extended sojourns in Dublin and Paris, broke up the monotony, but it was still “living in a constant panic attack.”
But then the cavalry arrived! Courtesy of his grandparents, Christinzio secured Italian citizenship. It cost time, money and a portion of his sanity, “but after a year and a half I could finally shove my Italian papers in their faces at the airport and return to sunny Manchester. The thing is, despite being American, I feel Mancunian, and I couldn’t think about making another record, until I got back.”
To add insult to injury, “Brexit happened, like a day after I got back. Can I get a fucking break here, please?”
Once the dust had settled, Christinzio realised, “I didn’t feel any better, I had so much anger, I felt destroyed. The demons were back and had lost me friends, I’d drunk too much, and I felt nothing but dread and disease. I thought, I can’t wait to hear what this next album is going to sound like.”
Recording in Liverpool’s Whitewood studios, Christinzio locked himself in the windowless studio and recorded almost exclusively in the dark. “The thoughts and sounds that began to flow out of me were pretty scary. I’m pretty sure the engineer started carrying a shiv in his pocket after about the 2nd day. Nothing playful sounding came out. If the last album had elements of whimsy, the thought of any on this album made me want to vomit.”
“A couple of months later we had finished Deportation Blues and emerged from the studio like mole-people”. Christinzio recorded the album mostly on his own, plus drummer Adam Dawson, occasional guitar by Robbie Rush, and a couple of session horn players. The lead track is ‘I’m Desperate’, “an ominous synth burner,” says Christinzio, with a Suicide-style throb and a haunting female vocal counterpoint that underlines the album’s manic, careering edge, fantastic hooks and instrumental verve.
It’s an uncompromising way to introduce Deportation Blues, likewise the album’s title-track opener. Bookended by metallic power chords, cascading synths and a gorgeous downbeat mood lead into slower doo-wop complete with howling falsetto. “It’s instantly a different, darker record than How To Die In The North,” Christinzio notes.
Deportation Blues is also noticeably more electronic than its predecessor. “I was feeling cold so every time something sounded pretty, I replaced it with something that sounded like an ice pick. The apocalyptic nuclear feel really appealed.”
Throughout, Christinzio sounds as if he’s walking a knife-edge. Take second track ‘I’m In A Weird Place Now’, a heady conflagration of Spector and Springsteen, with Christinzio confessing “And there’s something about Manchester town / And the silly little things she makes me do.” “I like the oppressiveness of the weather in Manchester, it brings everyone down to my level” he explains.
The fried mood continues on ‘Hell Or Pennsylvania’, splicing woozy noir jazz lounge-drunk cabaret by way of ‘50s legend Jerry Lee Lewis - Christinzio’s entry point to music through his mother’s record collection. “It’s the first time I’ve reflected that on a record,” he says. “Jerry Lee was this guy bashing at a piano who didn’t give a shit, and I didn’t give a shit.” The lyrical reference to “lemon twirls” meanwhile, represents Brian’s struggle with substance abuse: “The big choruses are a celebration of cocaine whilst the jazz sections represent the lament, the familiar loathsome aftermath.”
The sudden changes of mood and style are also metaphorical. For example, ‘Am I Dead’ embraces cinematic horns, broody pop and synth-bass afro-funk. “I go through highs and lows and have trouble staying entertained,” he admits. “A musical part can state its purpose in fifteen seconds, sometimes it doesn’t need repeating. The trick is tying everything together without it sounding confusing.”
‘Am I Dead’ is segued between ‘When I Think Of My Dog’ and ‘Midnight Ease’, two plush, heart-aching piano ballads with rippling saxophone. After ‘Fire In England’, a greasy, nervy rocker, is a bitter ode to British PM – and former immigration controller (as Home Secretary) Theresa May (“dresses like a bus seat, doesn’t she?”). It’s a complex, bleak record I guess” Christinzio concludes. “As dramatic as it may sound, this album was made by a dude who wasn’t sure he’d be alive the next day. Nothing is there for any other reason than it’s the truth. It’s not trying to sound cool or get on the radio.”
Though Christinzio points out “this is no redemption I-saw-the-light story,” he is allowing himself a little bit of hope for once: “I’ve never been as pleased with where I am artistically as I am right now.”
On top, his new band, “is phenomenal.” Alongside trusted drummer Dawson is Luke Barton (guitars, synths), guitarist Tom Rothery and multi-instrumentalist/ backing singer Ali Bell. Leading them is a man that a bartender in Manchester recently described as, “like Mozart and Tony Soprano had a kid." Brian Christinzio, and BC Camplight, genius and pain, may be here to stay at last.
Tickets for this show are £12.50 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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Big Joanie
The Fulford Arms, York
Friday 22nd November, 7.30pm
Big Joanie are a black feminist punk band. They’re like The Ronettes filtered through 80s DIY and 90s riot grrrl, with a sprinkling of dashikis.
Listen
Based in London, UK, Big Joanie formed in the summer of 2013 to play at First Timers (a gig where each band plays their set for the very first time) at the close of the year. The band also functioned as a space where its members (Stephanie Phillips, Chardine Taylor-Stone and Estella Adeyeri) could be completely themselves as black women, and within it discover their own power in creativity.
In 2014 Big Joanie’s Sistah Punk EP was released on Tuff Enuff Records, and in 2016 they self-released their haunting single 'Crooked Room'. Establishing themselves amongst London's thriving DIY punk scene they have since toured the UK and Europe supporting acts such as Downtown Boys, Shopping, Parquet Courts and more.
One evening in June 2018 Big Joanie were discovered by Thurston Moore, Eva Prinz and Abby Banks whilst supporting seminal Dutch punk band The Ex. Numbers were exchanged, a coffee date was set - and by the next morning the trio had confirmed they would release the band’s debut album Sistahs, and that they’d be launching a new label imprint called ‘The Daydream Library Series’ in order to do so.
Big Joanie recorded Sistahs over several sessions from November 2017 to January 2018 at Hermitage Works Studios with producer Margo Broom (who has also worked with Fat White Family, Goat Girl and Meatraffle). It’s a bold record about friendships, melancholy memories, and hope for the future. It was released on the 30th November 2018 to wide acclaim from Rolling Stone , Pitchfork , The Quietus and more, along with copious airplay on BBC Radio 6 Music and KEXP-FM.
Outside of the band all three members have strong community ties, from helping run the festival for punks of colour Decolonise Fest , coaching new talent at Girls Rock London , or launching the ' Stop Rainbow Racism ' campaign which works to stop racist performances in LGBT venues.
Black feminism is at the heart of Big Joanie's music and actions, and with the release of Sistahs the band hope to spread their message even further.
Tickets for this show are £8.50 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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!!!
(Chk Chk Chk)
The Crescent, York
Thursday 28th November, 7.30pm
Pre-sale begins via the !!! (Chk Chk Chk) website here on Tuesday 25th June and any remaining tickets will go on sale on Friday 28th June.
Doesn't it seem like everyone's freaking out lately? !!! know the feeling well. The NYC dance-punk lifers have been chronicling the perpetual meltdown that is American society for nearly 20 years now, from the clattering full-band thrust of their instantly iconic 2003 single "Me and Giuliani Down by the Schoolyard (A True Story)" to the dark disco of 2017's wonderfully eclectic Shake the Shudder.
Their eighth full-length, Wallop, follows in the band's grand tradition of plugging straight into our collective nervous system and sending funky, rubbery shock waves through the body politic. If you've found yourself rubbing your temples while contemplating the collapse of everything around us? Well, !!! are bringing the soundtrack to your next nervous breakdown.
Watch / Watch
Like an apocalyptic jukebox, Wallop is jam-packed with various sounds and styles from dance music's rich history—from the pie-eyed psychedelia of Madchester-era English dance-rock to tunnel-vision techno and the flashy, bomb-dropping sound of UK grime. The candy-coated sounds of '90s rave loom large in Wallop's playful darkness, a callback to another era when everything felt like it was just about ready to fall apart. Diving into '90s retro nostalgia is good for us," frontman Nic Offer explains while discussing the sonic rediscovery at the beating heart of Wallop. "I know all the '80s stuff already, so it's like, 'What did happen in the '90s?' Because in the '90s, we were just listening to James Brown."
Wallop was recorded over the past year in Offer's Brooklyn apartment—a first for the band, as !!!'s latest was rife with experimentation throughout the creative gestation: "Our process was to get loose and get into uncharted territory," he puts it succinctly. This meant messing around with gear they didn't quite understand, conjuring new sounds and bringing in familiar friends to contribute vocals—including Liars frontman Angus Andrew, Maria Uzor of British dance aesthetes Sink Ya Teeth, and Glasser's synth-pop wizard Cameron Mesirow, who all join Offer and !!! co-vocalist Meah Pace on this barn-burning party of a record.
"We were sitting on these instrumentals that we liked, so we started sending them around to random people," Offer states while discussing the collaborative process streaked across Wallop. "We overwrite and overrecord, and send them out to our friends to vote. We don't know what we're making until it's done. This record could've been completely dark or completely pop."
"We're not the kind of band that sits down and says, 'Let's make a record now,'" producer and multi-instrumentalist Rafael Cohen continues. "We just keep going, which is good because it leads to less of a narrative for each album." With an array of producers lending a hand—including Cole M.G.N. (Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Julia Holter), Graham Walsh (Holy Fuck), and longtime collaborator Patrick Ford—Wallop was eventually stitched together to reflect the colorful, body-moving tapestry that its end result represents.
Work on Wallop took place in understandably different sociopolitical circumstances than what surrounded Shake the Shudder—but addressing those circumstances head-on was initially harder than Offer and Cohen thought. "Every political song we wrote kind of sucked," the former admits, while explaining that the wide-eyed societal paranoia embedded within the record was naturally occuring. "When we stepped away from politics, it seeped its way back into the music.”
Indeed, Wallop chronicles these strange times through !!!’s personal lens, capturing the mere act of existing amidst so many shifting paradigms; the skipping IDM of “Domino” zooms in on the conflicting emotions that come with experiencing gentrification first-hand, while "UR Paranoid" throbs with the type of intensity reserved for existential spiraling and late-night k-holes alike—an urgency that also speaks to !!!'s admiration for club music. "We're always trying to make pure club stuff—that's where we get our sonics," Cohen states, while Offer elaborates, "We're very much classic songwriters, but the music that turns it on is club music. It's always moving, and it's a good well for us."
Meanwhile, "Off the Grid" ripples and pulses in a way not unlike XTRMNTR-era Primal Scream, “Slow Motion” dives headlong into the ecstatic energy of 1990s UK trip-hop and beat-driven rock, “This Is the Door” radiates crisp and effervescent disco, and “Couldn’t Have Known” is pure urban clatter topped off by Cohen’s soothed-out vocals. The splashy beat of "Serbia Drums" in particular comes from a surprising source: an iPhone recording that drummer Chris Egan captured while the band was touring in Serbia. "Chris is from D.C. and so am I, and that groove is so go-go," Cohen marvels on the song's propulsive sound.
Overall, Wallop is a testament not only to the rocky, worldly times it reflects, but !!!'s artistic lifeblood—a constantly-creating ethos that's kept the band going for so long and enables them to constantly innovate their sound. "We just work really hard and try to make the best records we can," Offer proclaims. "We have a strict policy of challenging ourselves—'What haven't we done?'" And if that sense of self-discovery resulted in Wallop's jam-packed, kaleidoscope world of sound, let's hope !!! never stop challenging themselves.
Larry Fitzmaurice
June 2019
Tickets for this show are £15 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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Penelope Isles
The Fulford Arms, York
Tuesday 3rd December, 7.30pm
Like breaking open a rock to discover a crystal inside. Shimmering, intimate and beautifully destructive, this is the experience of Penelope Isles. Siblings Jack and Lily Wolter make music that reveals a curiosity and sensitivity to the world around them. The four-piece band from Brighton via the Isle of Man have a sound that unfolds both dramatically and softly. Nostalgic, but undeniably new, Penelope Isles’ debut LP ‘Until The Tide Creeps In’ is released March 2019 on Bella Union Records. For the lovers of early Arcade Fire, Grandaddy and Mogwai.
Website / Watch / Watch
Tickets for this show are £7.50 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York or online from here.
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Her brand new album, ‘What A Boost’, carries the same sense of exquisite elegance but is an altogether different, and distinctive, journey. One, in fact, that was inspired and informed by just that: of travel and passage, of the unique inspiration found in different and differing people and places. Of movement and motion. Of journeying.
Tweaked and refined during a year spent touring the world playing bass in This Is The Kit, ‘What A Boost’ nurtures its homely roots and then blooms into a record that isn’t strictly about life on road but is undoubtedly, and beautifully, shaped by it. Textural, repetitive, propulsive, the whole piece plays out like a soundtrack to the world flying past the window; all of the shapes, colours, sights and sounds, flickering fast as we try to take as much of it in as we can.
‘What A Boost’ is also the product of the singular spaces within which it was created. First there was the Old Dentist’s Studio around the corner from Rozi’s home in Clapton, where many of the initial ideas were first conjured. Then there was an RAF base in Suffolk where some of the songs began to come to life. A day off on tour in L.A enabled a fruitful days recording three songs (Swing Shut, Conditions and Trouble) with Chris Cohen (Deerhoof, Cass McCombs, Weyes Blood). Then back to London, where the album really came together at The Total Refreshment Centre, a somewhat legendary fixture in the flourishing London jazz scene. Rozi’s previous album, Friend, was the first to be recorded there. "Since then the TRC became part of my life. A great community of artists and musicians getting stuff done, making proactive moves," enthuses Plain. Naturally she returned there again for ‘What A Boost’, shortly before its closure as a live venue in 2018 due to intervention from Hackney council.
Suitably then, the record is imbued throughout with a sense of freeform adventuring, small seeds that grow into something far greater thanks to repetitive jazz-like patterns of the guitars, and gently shifting tempos that rise and fall and rise again, crafting a record that is both colourful and complex. Lead track Conditions sets a perfect tone, the song as magnetic as Rozi has ever sounded, blending shuffling, skittish percussion with sparkling guitar lines that drive the whole thing forward. Swing Shut is a gleaming concoction of heady groove and jubilant colour, while stand-out Dark Park offers something even more hypnotic, a shifting, fascinating ode to the “wafts of change that can suddenly hit you,” as Rozi herself explains it: “Like when the seasons change and you suddenly remember your whole life at that time of year. The record culminates with a studio recording of When There Is No Sun, Rozi’s much-loved Sun Ra cover; a staple of her live set for the past couple of years and a big influence on her more recent workings
Another key facet of ‘What A Boost’ is collaboration. Inspired by her invitation to participate at 2018’s PEOPLE festival, a week of one-off collaborative performances devised by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner of The National, Rozi opened up her new record to a number of different minds, each of them imbuing the work with little touches of their own magic.
“It's so great to work with other people that you like and trust, and allow yourself to let things be taken to places you wouldn't have been able to,” Rozi says of this process. “I think there's probably a lot of learning and trust you have to do with yourself before you can trust other people. Learning to be brave and not being too attached to certain things is all part of the collaboration curve."
Co-produced by regular drummer Jamie Whitby Coles, the record also features fellow live-band members Neil Smith, Amaury Ranger and Gerard Black. Elsewhere, Rozi opened up her new work to a host of friendly and familiar faces, with ‘What A Boost’ boasting informed playing from the likes of Sam Amidon, Rachel Horwood (Bas Jan, Trash Kit), Joel Wästberg a.k.a. Sir Was, Raphael Desmarets, Yoshino Shigihara (Zun Zun Egui, Yama Warashi) and Dan Leavers from The Comet Is Coming who rec-orded and played on experimental highlight The Gap. The album was subsequently mixed by Ash Workman (Metronomy, Christine and the Queens) at his Electric Beach studio.
Intricate and meandering, enigmatic and ambiguous, ‘What A Boost’ neatly sits alongside Rozi Plain’s past work, while opening up a whole new world to discover. One that sparkles and pricks at the senses. One that gently reveals more about itself with each passing play, rolling on and on through new vistas and pathways, through places to inhabit and leave behind; a succession of sequences that remind you to recall where you’ve been, where you are, and where you mean to go next. “Maybe this is a product of being away so much,” Rozi questions. “I feel like you do a lot of looking back, looking forward, looking at your life, and looking out of the window."
'Seductively off-kilter pop... lovely stuff'
Uncut
'Exquisitely blissed-out'
MOJO
Tickets for this show are £10 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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Willie Watson
(Old Crown Medicine Show)
The Crescent, York
Monday 28th October, 7.30pm
**CANCELLED**
'Due to unforeseen circumstances we regretfully have to cancel the show.'
Sorry everyone!
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Molly Tuttle
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Monday 28th October, 7.30pm
A virtuosic, award-winning guitarist with a gift for insightful songwriting, Molly Tuttle evolves her signature sound with boundary-breaking songs on her compelling debut album, When You’re Ready. Already crowned “Instrumentalist of the Year” at the 2018 Americana Music Awards on the strength of her EP, Tuttle has broken boundaries and garnered the respect of her peers, winning fans for her incredible flatpicking guitar technique and confessional songwriting. Graced with a clear, true voice and a keen melodic sense, the 26-year-old seems poised for a long and exciting career. When You’re Ready, produced by Ryan Hewitt (The Avett Brothers, The Lumineers) showcases her astonishing range and versatility and shows that she is more than simply an Americana artist.
Website / Watch / Watch
Since moving to Nashville in 2015, the native Californian has been welcomed into folk music, bluegrass, Americana, and traditional country communities – even as When You’re Ready stretches the boundaries of those genres. Over the past year, Molly has continued to accumulate accolades, winning Folk Alliance International’s honor for Song of the Year for “You Didn’t Call My Name” and taking home her second trophy for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Guitar Player of the Year (the first woman in the history of the IBMA to win that honor).
'...handsomely crafted melodies that gently insinuate themselves into the memory…'
NPR
'Impressive debut album.... The production, playing and songwriting coalesce into a striking statement that shows an already developed artist well on her way to the next level of her still nascent career.'
American Songwriter
'…a sort of high-wattage Alison Krauss-Taylor Swift hybrid — Tuttle effortlessly delivers a mélange of styles to accompany her powerful guitar licks throughout.'
Rolling Stone
Tickets for this show are £16 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue, Jumbo Records and Crash Records in Leeds, or online from here.
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Warmduscher
The Crescent, York
Friday 1st November, 7.30pm
Oh boy. A party not to miss at The Crescent fir for any Friday night!
Warmduscher return.
Heavy metals. Disco Peanuts. CCTV in the break room.
A little something to get you through the week. There’s enough to go around. Revenge is a dish best served bold. Melt in the mouth disco basslines on a fragrant bed of feedback. Try it with the boom bap tapenade. Here for a good time, not a long time.
If you made your way out of Whale City with your faculties intact, this one’s for you. Clams Baker, Lightnin’ Jack Everett, Mr Salt Fingers Lovecraft and The Witherer have been joined by Quicksand on cutting board and cheese wire and commis chef Cheeks on vibes. They’ve been cooking. Michelin stars. The finest ingredients money can buy: Kool Keith and Iggy Pop. Funk, punk, hip-hop and lounge rock. Love is real.
Band biographer and revered botanist Dr Alan Goldfarb describes the album as “a sample hole through which to taste another universe. A dramatic warning. A gilded aroma. It is a tale of wanton desire and limitless treachery. A tale of disillusionment – the refusal of exploitation.”
Tainted Love was recorded in just four days, with soupe du jour Dan Carey (Kate Tempest, black midi, Fontaines DC). Warmduscher continue to live on their razor-sharp wits. Or as Clams Baker puts it “there’s no way to stop now”. Delivering the goods you never knew you needed.
If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Warmduscher is:
Clams Baker III
Lightin’ Jack Everett
Mr Salt Fingers Lovecraft
Quicksand
The Witherer
Watch / Watch
Press for Whale City:
'Pure filth'
Lauren Laverne, BBC 6 Music
'This album has seriously got the goods. You owe it to yourself to listen to this one'
Irvine Welsh
'The oddest gang in town'
Mojo Magazine
'Like a grime-funk Sin City, ‘Whale City’ is peopled by a colourful cast of deviants'
NME
'The funkiest collection of speed driven drug tales you’ll hear all year'
GQ
Tickets for this show are £12 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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Holy Moly & The Crackers
Snakerattlers
The Crescent, York
Sunday 3rd November, 7.30pm
**ORIGINAL TICKETS FOR THIS SHOW AT FIBBERS STILL VALID. PLEASE NOTE NEW DATE AND NEW TIME!**
Holy Moly & The Crackers make riotous party music for the masses. Their third album, ‘Take A Bite’ (released April 5th 2019 on the band’s own Pink Lane Records), is concise, passionate take on folk, blues and indie rock. The sound of a band who have been searching and experimenting for several years; arriving at a place where they can say “this who we are and this is where we want to go”.
Website / Watch / Watch / Watch
Formed in Newcastle in 2011, the group began as little more than a laugh, an excuse to busk through some foot-stomping folk pop. They developed from a four piece to a six piece, with Ruth Patterson on vocals/fiddle, Conrad Bird on vocals/guitar/trumpet, Rosie Bristow on accordion, Nick Tyler on electric guitar, Jamie Shields on bass and Tommy Evans on drums/backing vocals. “When we started out we were a real ragtag folk band,” Conrad says. “We want to tell a different story now.”
The first taste from ‘Take A Bite’ that listeners will be treated to arrives in the form of euphoric lead single, ‘All I Got Is You’. Combining deft pop song craft with a stomping, four to the floor backing, it demonstrates the band’s commerciality and ambition, as well as their ability to tackle personal lyrical fare in a two-minute pop song.
Working once again with producer Matt Terry (The Prodigy/The Enemy), the recording process for ‘Take A Bite’ was marked by a shift in technique too. “For this album, we did it song by song,” Conrad explains. “Usually, you’ll record all the drum tracks and then all the bass tracks. But this time we recorded one song at a time and completely lived it”. The band even went one step further during the recording of the Byrds-influenced, folk-rock ‘Can’t Get Enough’, with producer Matt creating an immersive 60s experience in the studio. “Matt’s mad! And for that one he made us dress up in 60s clothes, bandanas, suits, flares,” Conrad laughs. “And it was really silly, but it really got us to live it.”
To that end, while the violin and the accordion remain, the whole thing feels rawer now. Riff-heavy, even. With melodic choruses more in the vein of American rockers such as The Black Keys and Jack White, than the tweed and waistcoats of traditional UK folk. It reflects the diverse tastes of a band, comprised of six friends with six individual music tastes, who come together to make a sound greater than the sum of its parts. “We’ve kept an element of the folk side but just kind of fused it together,” Ruth explains. “We all listen to each other, we all share stuff, but the music’s less about storytelling in the folk tradition now. It’s more observational. More about real experiences.”
“This album is asking the audience to take a chance on us,” explains Ruth. “Obviously we’ve got a bit of a daft name and we look a bit mad, but I think once people actually come to a gig, they’re always swept up in the music and the energy. We get kids, old people, Goths, hippies, whatever. Everyone’s invited, everyone’s part of it. And people seem to lose themselves. No one’s like, “Oh, how do I look?’ while dancing. They don’t care. It brings everyone together.”
“All roads lead to the stage,” Conrad continues. “The arguing, the loving, the making, the listening – it boils down into one manic, riotous party. That's where we connect with the audience and with each other and that’s what we're all about." It’s an all-systems-go mentality. “We’ve arrived at a place here, with this album, where we can start the journey that we want to be on. This is who we are now; this is what we’re doing.”
Tickets for this show are £12 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue, Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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Steve Mason
Pictish Trail
The Crescent, York
Sunday 10th November, 7.30pm
One of the founding members of The Beta Band, Steve has also recorded under the names of King Biscuit Time and Black Affair and since 2010 has released three acclaimed solo albums under his own name.
We've a special bonus too with one of our faves Johnny Lynch aka Mr Lost Map Records aka Pictish Trail in support!
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“Song writing since the Beta Band had become something I did entirely alone, from the original concept to the full demo and often in the studio it was just myself and a producer.
Although I enjoyed this purist approach for a long time, it really does not reflect who I am anymore and is not something that really excited me. So I decided with this album that I wanted to get my live band involved at every stage to break this cycle, and because I wanted to capture the energy that we produce when we play live shows.
Modern recording techniques often are a kind of piece meal approach to recording (which I have done a lot of) but the energy and excitement is often lacking, so this time the band and myself worked on a collection of 12 songs over the course of last year.
Around July I felt that it was going well enough to approach a producer and I knew very early on who I really wanted to work with. After an initial meeting with Stephen Street and playing him some rehearsal room recordings, he took the job. I have long admired his work, especially The Smiths and the Morrissey solo albums that Stephen wrote and produced.” Steve Mason
“Steve had been on the periphery of my musical knowledge for some time now. I was particularly impressed by his first ‘proper’ solo album Boys Outside back in 2010 and remember always liking his voice whenever I heard it on the radio. So, when he made contact with me in the summer of last year and asked if I would be interested in working with him on his new album I immediately agreed!” Stephen Street
“For this album, electric guitars, heavy brass and gospel backing vocals were the brew that I had in mind and Stephen was fully on board with that plan.” Steve Mason
“Steve explained that he wanted to make this album with his band playing more ‘live’ than on some of his previous offerings and also to augment the songs with Brass and female backing vocalists. I felt this approach of first stripping back the songs to a more ‘live’ feel to create more space for the more ‘soulful’ elements to breathe in was an interesting one and we got down to work!”
“A wonderful productive week of recording the main backing tracks with the band in Brighton was successfully achieved and then Steve and I continued recording his vocal parts up here in London.” Stephen Street
“When I listen to this album it feels and sounds like the first ‘legitimate’ record that I have ever made. It’s hard to explain but it sounds like a ‘real’ album. I think that is partly the production, the playing and the work that I did with the band for all those months in our rehearsal room on the South Coast. “
“Stephen did an extraordinary job with shaping the sound and he was everything that I hoped he would be behind the wheel.” Steve Mason
“I have to say, I was greatly impressed by the quality of the songs we recorded throughout the session and by the time we added the final overdubs of the brass section and backing vocalists, the album had really taken shape!”
“I hope we have managed to fulfil Steve’s vision of what this album would sound like. I certainly am very happy with the results and look back on the making of this record with fond memories!” Stephen Street
“It’s a beautiful, confident, positive, angry, loving and gentle album which once again moves what I do forward. David Bowie said that you should always be slightly out of your comfort zone if you want to achieve greatness, and for the first time perhaps ever; I deliberately pushed myself into that place. Who doesn’t want greatness?” Steve Mason
Tickets for this show are £20 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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Lankum
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Thursday 14th November, 7.30pm
Tickets go on sale on Friday 5th July at 10:00am!
The Dublin based four-piece present a new live show ahead of their much-anticipated 3rd album which will be released on Rough Trade late Autumn.
Lankum have an alchemical ability to combine traditional folk roots with contemporary undercurrents to forge music that is dark, mysterious and transcendental. Comprising brothers Ian Lynch (uillean pipes, tin whistle, vocals), Daragh Lynch (vocals, guitar) alongside Cormac Mac Diarmada (fiddle) and Radie Peat (harmonium, accordion, vocals), Lankum channel a diverse set of influences and histories to create a beautifully rare thing: a songbook from and for the people.
Website / Watch
Born of years criss-crossing Dublin's folk and experimental scenes, their two albums Cold Old Fire (2013, recorded under former name Lynched) and Rough Trade debut Between The Earth and Sky (2017) breath new life into ancient/modern rituals with urban punk fervour, rural psycho-geography and, underpinning it all, the eternal drone of the uilleann pipes.
'An object lesson in how to perform old songs in new ways'
The Independent
'The most convincing folk band to come out of Ireland in years'
The GuardianTickets for this show are £15 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue, Jumbo Records and Crash Records in Leeds, or online from here.
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BC Camplight
Porridge Radio
The Crescent, York
Thursday 21st November, 7.30pm
“You shouldn't have a tough time finding the angle to Deportation Blues,” claims Brian ‘BC Camplight’ Christinzio. “The past few years have been a fucking nightmare.” But what a fucking great record he’s made off the back of his nightmare. His second album for Bella Union, Deportation Blues is an exhilarating, dynamic document of calamity and stress, relayed through richly melodic and bold arrangements spanning singer-songwriter classicism, gnarly synth-pop, ‘50s rock’n’roll and various junctures between, mirroring their maverick creator’s jarred emotions and fractured mindset.
Watch
For the full story, you have to head back to before Christinzio’s Bella Union debut, 2015’s How To Die In The North. Born in New Jersey, but living in Philadelphia, Christinzio had released two albums while battling addiction and mental illness. Both albums won rave reviews and earned Christinzio a reputation as one of independent music’s most forward-thinking artists. Soon after, however, as illness rendered him unable to function as a working songwriter, Christinzio retreated to a life squatting in an abandoned church. Despite some notable appearances as a session pianist (Sharon Van Etten) and occasional live work for Philly faves The War On Drugs (Robbie Bennett and David Hartley were in the original BC live band) he knew a sea change was needed in order to regain his career and sanity.
Feeling he’d be “dead or in jail if I stayed,” he acted on a friend’s suggestion to cross the ocean to Manchester. There, Christinzio found new inspiration, new friends, a girlfriend, a dog, and finally a new album (his first in eight years).
So, imagine his mood when he fell foul of UK immigration. “I’d had such high hopes for How To Die In The North, and I was told I was being deported two days after it came out, and banned from the UK. The next thing I know, I’m playing Pac Man in my parents’ basement, thinking, this is my life now.”
Occasional gigs in Europe, where his Manchester-based band could meet him, and extended sojourns in Dublin and Paris, broke up the monotony, but it was still “living in a constant panic attack.”
But then the cavalry arrived! Courtesy of his grandparents, Christinzio secured Italian citizenship. It cost time, money and a portion of his sanity, “but after a year and a half I could finally shove my Italian papers in their faces at the airport and return to sunny Manchester. The thing is, despite being American, I feel Mancunian, and I couldn’t think about making another record, until I got back.”
To add insult to injury, “Brexit happened, like a day after I got back. Can I get a fucking break here, please?”
Once the dust had settled, Christinzio realised, “I didn’t feel any better, I had so much anger, I felt destroyed. The demons were back and had lost me friends, I’d drunk too much, and I felt nothing but dread and disease. I thought, I can’t wait to hear what this next album is going to sound like.”
Recording in Liverpool’s Whitewood studios, Christinzio locked himself in the windowless studio and recorded almost exclusively in the dark. “The thoughts and sounds that began to flow out of me were pretty scary. I’m pretty sure the engineer started carrying a shiv in his pocket after about the 2nd day. Nothing playful sounding came out. If the last album had elements of whimsy, the thought of any on this album made me want to vomit.”
“A couple of months later we had finished Deportation Blues and emerged from the studio like mole-people”. Christinzio recorded the album mostly on his own, plus drummer Adam Dawson, occasional guitar by Robbie Rush, and a couple of session horn players. The lead track is ‘I’m Desperate’, “an ominous synth burner,” says Christinzio, with a Suicide-style throb and a haunting female vocal counterpoint that underlines the album’s manic, careering edge, fantastic hooks and instrumental verve.
It’s an uncompromising way to introduce Deportation Blues, likewise the album’s title-track opener. Bookended by metallic power chords, cascading synths and a gorgeous downbeat mood lead into slower doo-wop complete with howling falsetto. “It’s instantly a different, darker record than How To Die In The North,” Christinzio notes.
Deportation Blues is also noticeably more electronic than its predecessor. “I was feeling cold so every time something sounded pretty, I replaced it with something that sounded like an ice pick. The apocalyptic nuclear feel really appealed.”
Throughout, Christinzio sounds as if he’s walking a knife-edge. Take second track ‘I’m In A Weird Place Now’, a heady conflagration of Spector and Springsteen, with Christinzio confessing “And there’s something about Manchester town / And the silly little things she makes me do.” “I like the oppressiveness of the weather in Manchester, it brings everyone down to my level” he explains.
The fried mood continues on ‘Hell Or Pennsylvania’, splicing woozy noir jazz lounge-drunk cabaret by way of ‘50s legend Jerry Lee Lewis - Christinzio’s entry point to music through his mother’s record collection. “It’s the first time I’ve reflected that on a record,” he says. “Jerry Lee was this guy bashing at a piano who didn’t give a shit, and I didn’t give a shit.” The lyrical reference to “lemon twirls” meanwhile, represents Brian’s struggle with substance abuse: “The big choruses are a celebration of cocaine whilst the jazz sections represent the lament, the familiar loathsome aftermath.”
The sudden changes of mood and style are also metaphorical. For example, ‘Am I Dead’ embraces cinematic horns, broody pop and synth-bass afro-funk. “I go through highs and lows and have trouble staying entertained,” he admits. “A musical part can state its purpose in fifteen seconds, sometimes it doesn’t need repeating. The trick is tying everything together without it sounding confusing.”
‘Am I Dead’ is segued between ‘When I Think Of My Dog’ and ‘Midnight Ease’, two plush, heart-aching piano ballads with rippling saxophone. After ‘Fire In England’, a greasy, nervy rocker, is a bitter ode to British PM – and former immigration controller (as Home Secretary) Theresa May (“dresses like a bus seat, doesn’t she?”). It’s a complex, bleak record I guess” Christinzio concludes. “As dramatic as it may sound, this album was made by a dude who wasn’t sure he’d be alive the next day. Nothing is there for any other reason than it’s the truth. It’s not trying to sound cool or get on the radio.”
Though Christinzio points out “this is no redemption I-saw-the-light story,” he is allowing himself a little bit of hope for once: “I’ve never been as pleased with where I am artistically as I am right now.”
On top, his new band, “is phenomenal.” Alongside trusted drummer Dawson is Luke Barton (guitars, synths), guitarist Tom Rothery and multi-instrumentalist/ backing singer Ali Bell. Leading them is a man that a bartender in Manchester recently described as, “like Mozart and Tony Soprano had a kid." Brian Christinzio, and BC Camplight, genius and pain, may be here to stay at last.
Tickets for this show are £12.50 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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Big Joanie
The Fulford Arms, York
Friday 22nd November, 7.30pm
Big Joanie are a black feminist punk band. They’re like The Ronettes filtered through 80s DIY and 90s riot grrrl, with a sprinkling of dashikis.
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Based in London, UK, Big Joanie formed in the summer of 2013 to play at First Timers (a gig where each band plays their set for the very first time) at the close of the year. The band also functioned as a space where its members (Stephanie Phillips, Chardine Taylor-Stone and Estella Adeyeri) could be completely themselves as black women, and within it discover their own power in creativity.
In 2014 Big Joanie’s Sistah Punk EP was released on Tuff Enuff Records, and in 2016 they self-released their haunting single 'Crooked Room'. Establishing themselves amongst London's thriving DIY punk scene they have since toured the UK and Europe supporting acts such as Downtown Boys, Shopping, Parquet Courts and more.
One evening in June 2018 Big Joanie were discovered by Thurston Moore, Eva Prinz and Abby Banks whilst supporting seminal Dutch punk band The Ex. Numbers were exchanged, a coffee date was set - and by the next morning the trio had confirmed they would release the band’s debut album Sistahs, and that they’d be launching a new label imprint called ‘The Daydream Library Series’ in order to do so.
Big Joanie recorded Sistahs over several sessions from November 2017 to January 2018 at Hermitage Works Studios with producer Margo Broom (who has also worked with Fat White Family, Goat Girl and Meatraffle). It’s a bold record about friendships, melancholy memories, and hope for the future. It was released on the 30th November 2018 to wide acclaim from Rolling Stone , Pitchfork , The Quietus and more, along with copious airplay on BBC Radio 6 Music and KEXP-FM.
Outside of the band all three members have strong community ties, from helping run the festival for punks of colour Decolonise Fest , coaching new talent at Girls Rock London , or launching the ' Stop Rainbow Racism ' campaign which works to stop racist performances in LGBT venues.
Black feminism is at the heart of Big Joanie's music and actions, and with the release of Sistahs the band hope to spread their message even further.
Tickets for this show are £8.50 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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!!!
(Chk Chk Chk)
The Crescent, York
Thursday 28th November, 7.30pm
Pre-sale begins via the !!! (Chk Chk Chk) website here on Tuesday 25th June and any remaining tickets will go on sale on Friday 28th June.
Doesn't it seem like everyone's freaking out lately? !!! know the feeling well. The NYC dance-punk lifers have been chronicling the perpetual meltdown that is American society for nearly 20 years now, from the clattering full-band thrust of their instantly iconic 2003 single "Me and Giuliani Down by the Schoolyard (A True Story)" to the dark disco of 2017's wonderfully eclectic Shake the Shudder.
Their eighth full-length, Wallop, follows in the band's grand tradition of plugging straight into our collective nervous system and sending funky, rubbery shock waves through the body politic. If you've found yourself rubbing your temples while contemplating the collapse of everything around us? Well, !!! are bringing the soundtrack to your next nervous breakdown.
Watch / Watch
Like an apocalyptic jukebox, Wallop is jam-packed with various sounds and styles from dance music's rich history—from the pie-eyed psychedelia of Madchester-era English dance-rock to tunnel-vision techno and the flashy, bomb-dropping sound of UK grime. The candy-coated sounds of '90s rave loom large in Wallop's playful darkness, a callback to another era when everything felt like it was just about ready to fall apart. Diving into '90s retro nostalgia is good for us," frontman Nic Offer explains while discussing the sonic rediscovery at the beating heart of Wallop. "I know all the '80s stuff already, so it's like, 'What did happen in the '90s?' Because in the '90s, we were just listening to James Brown."
Wallop was recorded over the past year in Offer's Brooklyn apartment—a first for the band, as !!!'s latest was rife with experimentation throughout the creative gestation: "Our process was to get loose and get into uncharted territory," he puts it succinctly. This meant messing around with gear they didn't quite understand, conjuring new sounds and bringing in familiar friends to contribute vocals—including Liars frontman Angus Andrew, Maria Uzor of British dance aesthetes Sink Ya Teeth, and Glasser's synth-pop wizard Cameron Mesirow, who all join Offer and !!! co-vocalist Meah Pace on this barn-burning party of a record.
"We were sitting on these instrumentals that we liked, so we started sending them around to random people," Offer states while discussing the collaborative process streaked across Wallop. "We overwrite and overrecord, and send them out to our friends to vote. We don't know what we're making until it's done. This record could've been completely dark or completely pop."
"We're not the kind of band that sits down and says, 'Let's make a record now,'" producer and multi-instrumentalist Rafael Cohen continues. "We just keep going, which is good because it leads to less of a narrative for each album." With an array of producers lending a hand—including Cole M.G.N. (Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Julia Holter), Graham Walsh (Holy Fuck), and longtime collaborator Patrick Ford—Wallop was eventually stitched together to reflect the colorful, body-moving tapestry that its end result represents.
Work on Wallop took place in understandably different sociopolitical circumstances than what surrounded Shake the Shudder—but addressing those circumstances head-on was initially harder than Offer and Cohen thought. "Every political song we wrote kind of sucked," the former admits, while explaining that the wide-eyed societal paranoia embedded within the record was naturally occuring. "When we stepped away from politics, it seeped its way back into the music.”
Indeed, Wallop chronicles these strange times through !!!’s personal lens, capturing the mere act of existing amidst so many shifting paradigms; the skipping IDM of “Domino” zooms in on the conflicting emotions that come with experiencing gentrification first-hand, while "UR Paranoid" throbs with the type of intensity reserved for existential spiraling and late-night k-holes alike—an urgency that also speaks to !!!'s admiration for club music. "We're always trying to make pure club stuff—that's where we get our sonics," Cohen states, while Offer elaborates, "We're very much classic songwriters, but the music that turns it on is club music. It's always moving, and it's a good well for us."
Meanwhile, "Off the Grid" ripples and pulses in a way not unlike XTRMNTR-era Primal Scream, “Slow Motion” dives headlong into the ecstatic energy of 1990s UK trip-hop and beat-driven rock, “This Is the Door” radiates crisp and effervescent disco, and “Couldn’t Have Known” is pure urban clatter topped off by Cohen’s soothed-out vocals. The splashy beat of "Serbia Drums" in particular comes from a surprising source: an iPhone recording that drummer Chris Egan captured while the band was touring in Serbia. "Chris is from D.C. and so am I, and that groove is so go-go," Cohen marvels on the song's propulsive sound.
Overall, Wallop is a testament not only to the rocky, worldly times it reflects, but !!!'s artistic lifeblood—a constantly-creating ethos that's kept the band going for so long and enables them to constantly innovate their sound. "We just work really hard and try to make the best records we can," Offer proclaims. "We have a strict policy of challenging ourselves—'What haven't we done?'" And if that sense of self-discovery resulted in Wallop's jam-packed, kaleidoscope world of sound, let's hope !!! never stop challenging themselves.
Larry Fitzmaurice
June 2019
Tickets for this show are £15 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, or online from here.
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Penelope Isles
The Fulford Arms, York
Tuesday 3rd December, 7.30pm
Like breaking open a rock to discover a crystal inside. Shimmering, intimate and beautifully destructive, this is the experience of Penelope Isles. Siblings Jack and Lily Wolter make music that reveals a curiosity and sensitivity to the world around them. The four-piece band from Brighton via the Isle of Man have a sound that unfolds both dramatically and softly. Nostalgic, but undeniably new, Penelope Isles’ debut LP ‘Until The Tide Creeps In’ is released March 2019 on Bella Union Records. For the lovers of early Arcade Fire, Grandaddy and Mogwai.
Website / Watch / Watch
Tickets for this show are £7.50 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York or online from here.
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