Lætitia Sadier Source Ensemble
Marker Starling + Alisia Casper
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Wednesday 16th January, 7.30pm
Lætitia Sadier Source Ensemble
Laetitia Sadier and her Source Ensemble [Emma, Nina and Xavier] are heading back out on the road to promote their Drag City released album 'Finding Me Finding You’.
‘With its crashing together of narcotic pop, serialism and motorik rock, Find Me Finding You is in a similar mould to Sadier’s compatriot Pierre Henry’s concrète pop nugget Psyche Rock. Or, closer to home, Stereolab.’
8/10, The Wire
‘Throwing down a persuasive gauntlet, opener Undying Love For Humanity is all breezy percussion, percolating synths, chiming vibraphones and complex, wordless backing vocal arrangements--a sunny, tropicalia-like setting for Sadier's typically liquid delivery of lyrics.’
4/5, Mojo Magazine
Marker Starling
After recording and performing for many years under the name of Mantler, Toronto’s Chris A. Cummings changed his band name to Marker Starling in 2012. A solo performer for much of his career, Cummings was frequently seen playing Melancholy Party Jams on a Wurltizer electric piano, with drum machine accompaniment.
Cummings has collaborated with the German band Von Spar, contributing vocals and lyrics to four songs on their album STREET LIFE. His song “Deep Background” was recorded by Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier and appears on her most recent solo record FIND ME FINDING YOU.
Tickets for this show are £10 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from Jumbo Records and Crash Records in Leeds or online from here.
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Rozi Plain
Wolf Solent
The Fulford Arms, York
Friday 18th January, 7.30pm
When Rozi Plain upped sticks from her hometown of Winchester, she settled in the West Country capital of Bristol. Here, she took musical inspiration from her job painting the ferries that bob along the city's main river artery, the Avon. Her songs possess a plucky sense of charisma and brilliantly capture life's ephemeral nature: each track a beautiful snapshot of fragility, intimacy and gentle melody. Together with her older brother Sam (aka Romanhead), and her pal Rachael Dadd, she was a founding member of the Cleaner Records collective, a loose assortment of musicians based in Bristol.
Website / Watch / Listen
The unassuming charm of Rozi’s live show has led to tours across Europe, the UK & USA. Along the way she has traversed countries and continents together with such like-minded luminaries as Devendra Banhart, KT Tunstall, James Yorkston and Viking Moses, as well as many appearances at festivals such as Green Man and End of the Road and opening the Park Stage at Glastonbury 2013.
A BBC6 favourite Rozi has perfomred numerous live sessions for Marc Riley and Lauren Laverne. Whether performing alone or with an assembly of her regular musical allies (including François & the Atlas Mountains, This Is The Kit, Rachael Dadd and Being There) her uncluttered songs and effortless hooks create a blissful, singular voice.
Rozi is also a touring member of This Is The Kit and is now based in London.
Tickets for this show are £8 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, Jumbo Records in Leeds or online from here.
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The Wave Pictures
Bull
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Monday 21st January, 7.30pm
The Wave Pictures return with the promised second album of the year, Look Inside Your Heart - a warm, joyous record celebrating friendship, happiness and drunken party times. Like the first album they released this year, the more contemplative Brushes With Happiness, this one was recorded late at night whilst inebriated back at the tiny Booze Cube Studio in Stoke Newington, live to reel-to-reel tape with no computers of any kind. The album is peppered with giggles and chatter, which adds a sense of spontaneity and place.
You can hear the first fruits of the new album here!
Praise for Brushes With Happiness:
‘Dreamlike, bluesy and unique.’
The Guardian
‘A hushed, spectral delight.’
Uncut Magazine
‘As his Tom Verlaine guitar tones drip forth like liquid gold, you can't help falling ever deeper beneath this record's spell.’
Mojo Magazine
Tickets for this show are £11 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from Jumbo Records and Crash Records in Leeds or online from here.
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Mark Wynn
The Crescent, York
Saturday 2nd February, 7.30pm
Mark Wynn is undoubtably a one-off. Thank fuck. Whether he be ragging his guitar, delivering a dead-pan rant, dancing along to classic rock on his mobile cassette player, dancing around to himself playing on his mobile cassette recorder, draping himself over a wheelie bin, dancing around a mop bucket or humping a monitor speaker - a Mark Wynn show is generally an unforgettable experience. It’s not for every day though.
Regardless of the chosen delivery, Wynn’s social commentary monologues and self-deprecating life-stories are perceptive and memorable. Satirical in part, his songs are witty in a dry, nonchalant, Yorkshire kind of way. A heart-warming, lo-fi poet pushing the boundaries of taking the piss.
Website / Watch / Watch / Watch
Tickets for this show are £5.00 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, Jumbo Records in Leeds or online from here.
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Laura Veirs
Sam Amidon
The Crescent, York
Wednesday 6th February, 7.30pm
A prolific songwriter for nearly twenty years, Laura Veirs proves the depth of her musical skill on her tenth solo album, The Lookout. Here is a batch of inimitable, churning, exquisite folk-pop songs; a concept album about the fragility of precious things. Produced by Grammy-nominated Tucker Martine, Veirs’ longtime collaborator, The Lookout is a soundtrack for turbulent times, full of allusions to protectors: the camper stoking a watch fire, a mother tending her children, a sailor in a crows nest and a lightning rod channelling energy.
Website / Watch / Watch
“The Lookout is about the need to pay attention to the fleeting beauty of life and to not be complacent; it’s about the importance of looking out for each other,” says Veirs. “I’m addressing what’s happening around me with the chaos of post-election America, the racial divides in our country, and a personal reckoning with the realities of midlife: I have friends who’ve died; I struggle with how to balance life as an artist with parenting young children.”
Written and produced on the heels of Veirs’ acclaimed album with Neko Case and kd Lang (case/lang/veirs), The Lookout integrates the fluency of collaboration with Veirs’ notorious work ethic. The twelve songs on the album are the result of a years’ worth of daily writing in her attic studio in Portland, Oregon.
“Twenty years ago when I was just starting out with my punk band, it never occurred to me to write five versions of a song,” says Veirs. “I’ve learned to see how malleable lyrics and melodies can be. I have more tools as a musician so I write many versions of songs until I find the right fit.” Such range is demonstrated on the operatic vocals of “The Meadow” and the intricate finger picking on “Watch Fire.” “The Lookout,” the album’s title track, is an ecstatic anthem to trusted relationships.
The Lookout draws on the talents of a time-tested crew of musicians: Karl Blau, Steve Moore, Eli Moore, Eyvind Kang and Martine. Says Veirs, “These guys are a good hang, ego-free and wonderful players who just want to serve the songs.” Sufjan Stevens and Jim James provide guest vocals.
For Martine, who fell, almost two decades ago, for Veirs’ unique sound after listening to a tape cassette she’d sent him in the mail, this album reflects a bar that keeps getting raised. Both familiar and strange, The Lookout gets better with repeated listens, warming to the skin like a cherished saddlebag, critical for the journey ahead.
Tickets for this show are £17.50 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, Jumbo Records in Leeds or online from here.
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A Prom Night With...
Her's
The Fulford Arms, York
Thursday 14th February, 7.30pm
As outsiders from sleepy coastal towns several countries apart, Stephen Fitzpatrick from Barrow in Furness and Norwegian Audun Laading met for the first time in Liverpool as students. The pair bonded over a love of peculiar, sardonic humour and wide eyed observations. Dream-pop outfit Her’s is the natural extension to the solitary decoding of the cultures they grew up in. Together they create 80s indie influenced songs with nods to Orange Juice and the capriciousness of Ariel Pink-ish pop.
Website / Watch / Watch
Tickets for this show are £7 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, Jumbo Records in Leeds or online from here.
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Sarah Jane Scouten
Dan Webster
The Crescent, York
Tuesday 19th February, 7.30pm
We're working with the fine folks at Green Chilli Roots to bring ace Canadian traditionalist Sarah Jane Scouten back to York in Feb.
At age 5, Sarah Jane Scouten was sitting on the dining room table, singing “Lace and Pretty Flowers,” by Canadian country-folk musician, Willie P. Bennett. Hank Williams and Stan Rogers were her greatest inspirations, both a staple at Sunday morning pancake breakfast and afterward, while singing bluegrass and gospel music with her father on Bowen Island, BC. Her talent for performing came naturally, and as chance would have it, so emerged a knack for songwriting. Bringing us up to date, Sarah Jane Scouten is an internationally touring songwriter, loved by audiences across the Northern Hemisphere.
With flavours of Lucinda Williams, Nanci Griffiths and Iris Dement and a wealth of early country music, the three-time Canadian Folk Music Award nominee and Western Canadian Music Award nominee's songs are faithful to a long-standing folk music tradition. Often spilling over into modern themes that are outspoken and edgy, her songwriting tackles issues from poverty and midwifery to tongue-in-cheek heartache songs and unabashed Canadiana. A traditionalist at heart, Sarah Jane Scouten shows her signature flair for the roots of roots music. With respect for these roots, she writes from her own perspective, playing with style to create her own distinct voice. This songwriter is known for hitting hard and close to home, then laughing it off.
Website / Watch / Listen
Sarah Jane was discovered by Vancouver label Light Organ Records when she was cold-called into the studio to make an EP with producer Andy Bishop as part of a series of releases, coined The Railtown Sessions. She has since teamed up with the label and released her third full-length album, When the Bloom Falls From the Rose, recorded in Toronto with veteran Canadian producer Andre Wahl (Hawksley Workman, Jill Barber) in 2017. The album includes ten original songs, ranging in style from classic honky tonk to indie-folk rock, and two virtually unknown traditional Western Canadian songs, discovered on crackly recordings in university archives and given new life through Scouten's haunting arrangements. Developing a big, lush sound on the album, Scouten comes into her own as a songwriter and performer, drawing from such modern approaches to country music as Sturgill Simpson and Emmylou Harris' iconic album Wrecking Ball, produced by Daniel Lanois. If you think you have Sarah Jane Scouten figured out, you haven't heard anything yet.
Tickets for this show are £10 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, Jumbo Records in Leeds or online from here.
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The Orielles
Lylo + Bull
The Crescent, York
Tuesday 26th February, 7.30pm
2018 has been some year for The Oreilles. Having started it as one of the most talked about new band’s in the U.K. thanks to a salvo of singles the previous year for Heavenly Recordings - Sugar Tastes Like Salt, I Only Bought It For The Bottle and Let Your Dogtooth Grow - 2018 saw them deliver on the hype thanks to a much acclaimed debut album, Silver Dollar Moment in February and their breathtaking live show which saw them sell-out increasingly large venues across the U.K and play festivals from Latitude to Camp Bestival and End of the Road.
Website / Watch / Listen
Made up of sisters Sidonie B and Esmé Dee Hand Halford and their best friend Henry Carlyle Wade, they grabbed attention thanks to the spatial-funk of their album that in part recalled both ESG and fellow north-west pioneers A Certain Ratio and marked them out as a band willing and able to explore the more interesting musical corners.
And now, having recruited a new member, Alex Stephens, on keyboards, they return with two stunning new tracks to show how far they’ve come – Bobbi’s Second World is the young sound of West Yorkshire filtered via Lagos while their Peggy Gou cover, It Makes You Forget (itgehane) is testament to the ease with which they are able to musically take on anything and make it their own. To coincide, the band has also announced a number of new tour dates.
Talking about the tacks, the band said:
Bobbi's Second World, written with the addition of a new member on keys, exhibits an explosion of new sounds and ideas that came to fruition after a long summer of playing festivals and taking inspiration from music that made us dance. It centres around the story of a cat named Bobbi who, in order to become a lady, has to experience the extremities of two complex and differing realities- situated in her front and back gardens respectively. The eccentric instrumentation, influenced by northern soul, post-punk and funk music, matches the quirkiness of the lyrics to create a song that concerns a young cats maturity whilst displaying a certain maturity in the music itself. After noticing a passion for songs that make us emotional; want to dance and quite literally 'forget', we decided to cover one of Peggy Gou's latest floor fillers, 'Itgehane aka It Makes You Forget' hoping that we could evoke the aforementioned qualities of music within other listeners!
The end of the year sees them play their biggest London show to date at Heaven plus an already sold-out homecoming show at the Hebden Bridge Trades Club just before Christmas. Following that, the band embark on tour in Feb-March with tickets on sale Friday, 9th November.
Tickets for this show are £10 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, Jumbo Records in Leeds or online from here.
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James Chance & Les Contortions
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Thursday 14th March, 7.30pm
A key figure in No Wave, Chance has been playing a combination of improvisational jazz-like music and punk in the New York music scene since the late 1970s, in such bands as Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, James Chance and the Contortions, James White and the Blacks, The Flaming Demonics, James Chance & the Sardonic Symphonics, James Chance and Terminal City, and James Chance and Les Contortions. His music can be described as combining the freeform playing of Ornette Coleman with the solid funk rhythm of James Brown, though filtered through a punk rock lens.
Website / Watch
Tickets for this show are £15 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from Jumbo Records and Crash Records in Leeds or online from here.
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Ólafur Arnalds
Leeds Town Hall
Wednesday 20th March, 6.30pm
A special Hey! Leeds, Brudenell & PPY presentation.
We're very pleased to be working with Icelandic composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Ólafur Arnalds as he comes to play a rare show in the grand surroundings of Leeds Town Hall.
Website / Watch / Watch / Watch
re:member does curious things. The fourth ‘official’ solo album by Ólafur Arnalds takes the listener through varied moods and feelings, through different musical landscapes. You can hear every facet of his work – the composition, the soundtracks, the pop – bursting through, flowering. When the track unfold opens with what sounds like a stream skittering across rocks, it seems apt, because re:member keeps on moving, never tiring or letting the listener get tired. re:member is an album you can’t forget, because every time you hear it something new and wholly unexpected emerges.
“This is my breaking out-of-a-shell album,” Arnalds says. “This is me taking the raw influences that I have from all these different musical genres and not filtering them. I always have my hands in many different projects at once, and I feel that this album represents that.”
The album is new departure because when Arnalds last finished touring, he decided he was not going to play live as a solo artist until he had something completely new to perform. He was inspired in part by his experiences playing shows with Kiasmos, his experimental techno duo, with Janus Rasmussen. “To experience the sheer unfiltered joy of being on stage, seeing crowd smiling and dancing and jumping – that’s the feeling I wanted to bring to my music.”
Yet part of the reason for the eventual sound of re:member stemmed not from Arnalds’ mental drive, but physical exigency. At the heart of the album are Arnalds’ self-devised Stratus Pianos – two self-playing, semi-generative player pianos, triggered by a central piano which he plays – an invention born of necessity rather than experimentation. “I got into a little accident and I had nerve damage in my hand,” he says. “I couldn’t play the piano for a year, and I wasn’t sure if I would ever be able to play again. It was completely petrifying.” Years before, he had supported Ryuichi Sakamoto on tour and seen the great Japanese musician use self-playing pianos, and he mentioned to a friend that Sakamoto’s set-up was what he needed. “It started as a joke, but I went home and started thinking: maybe there’s something here – not a crutch, but a creative tool. The spark of the idea came from me not being able to play, but it developed into something completely different.”
With his friend Halldór Eldjárn, Arnalds set about developing the Stratus system: software that sends instructions to two pianos, “and the two become one and play together”. Arnalds sets the values that the software feeds to the pianos – the rhythm, the tempo – and those are triggered by chords or notes he plays.
What happened when Arnalds started making music using Stratus was a little unexpected. It summoned its own mood and quickly became the focal point of his new compositions.
Arnalds’ album evolved under the influence of a number of collaborators – friends from different areas of music that came by his studio in Reykjavík and left a lasting mark on the album. One of them was hip-hop producer BNGERBOY, who’s innovative sound caught Arnalds’ ear and influenced the direction of the album – “The track brot, which is orchestral, began with his beat. I started writing chords on top of it. But I ended up removing the beat left only the orchestra. That track would never have existed without him, even though he’s not on it. But some of his sounds can be heard in other parts of the album.”
That’s fitting, because the title of the album – and its lead single–refers in a way to the act of creation. “re:member is about becoming a member of yourself again which I feel my journey for this album was, very much so. I was discovering all these different sides of myself, my creativity, my taste and interests.” Nothing he does is discrete or partitioned off – be it soundtracks like his BAFTA-winning score for Broadchurch, reinterpretations of classical music such as The Chopin Project with
Alice Sara Ott, collaborations such as Island Songs, in which he travelled around to seven different Icelandic locations, collaborating with different artists, including Nanna Bryndís from Of Monsters and Men, to make a song and video from each place. Instead, everything is part of a greater whole. Arnalds says of his career: “I believe it is all the same piece of music. I never really start from scratch; I am always building on what I did before.”
The title track re:member embodies both that idea of Arnalds’ music being a continuum, and his desire to strike out for new terrain. It was hard work for him: though he built it around the Stratus, it still took three weeks of solid work before he had even the basic structure. “It became very personal to me,” he says. “It starts with just one piano, which sounds a little bit like the music I had been making before, then it introduces one by one new elements and leaves the old behind. It takes us through the journey I was going through creatively, wanting to leave the past behind and see where else I can go.”
Tickets for this show are £30 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from Jumbo Records and Crash Records in Leeds or online from here.
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Kristin Hersh
(Electric Trio)
w/ Rob Ahlers (50 Foot Wave)
+ Fred Abong (Throwing Muses)
Left Bank, Leeds
Thursday 21st March, 7.30pm
St. Philips Church, Salford
Friday 22nd March, 7.30pm
Kristin Hersh will be touring the UK in Spring 2019 with Rob Ahlers (50 Foot Wave) on drums and Fred Abong (Throwing Muses, Belly) on bass.
“Sometimes the most subversive thing I can do musically is adhere to standard song structure, sometimes the creepiest chords are the ones we’ve heard before, twisted into different shapes, and sometimes a story is lived a thousand times before we can ride it like a roller coaster. Nothing wholly unfamiliar is gonna make you look twice. When you can describe a record as being “deceptively” anything, you’re hinting at the sociopathic nature of music. Something I love. Imagine truly buying your own sunshine and charm, but also your darkness and violence; the two sides of your psychology showing each other off in relief. Songs can do that...we can’t, really. Darkness we’ve seen. Dark sunshine? Still cool.
I usually play all the instruments on my solo records - essentially the sound of having no friends - but sociopaths can’t realize their potential without people to work out their grievances on and this record is a freakin’ sociopath. So I invited my friends to the party I wanted to hear. Not a live record but an alive record.
Because a lot of live records don’t sound live, just poorly recorded. And self-conscious musicians can’t let fly. I wanted to recreate the impact of a show. Unpretentious, with a muscular song body running through the room. This entailed seriously messing with both extremes of the sonic spectrum: the fundamentals (basics, rhythm section, roots) but also with the detail (percussion, high end, effects). These two strata asked to sound eccentric: atonal and arhythmic. So when the song body runs through the room, it’s not wholly unfamiliar, just dressed oddly enough to make you look twice. Dark sunshine, still cool. Hopefully, anyway.
My friends helped me make a nice party noise, a goofy sociopath. Everyone who stopped by the studio was asked to make some noise and they pretty much did. A party that lasted for a few years, it’s only now dying down. A friend called this morning asking when the bus was leaving. A rickety, squealy, squeaky bus...none of us want to miss it.”
Kristin Hersh, July 2018
Watch / Listen / Listen
Throwing Muses’ lynchpin, Kristin Hersh’s prolific career has seen her heralded queen of the alternative release. Her tenth studio album, ‘Possible Dust Clouds’ is a highly personalised sociopathic gem delivered as a futuristic rewriting of how music works, a melodious breeze with a tail wind of venomous din.
Enveloping the juxtaposition of the concept of ‘dark sunshine’, a brooding solo record created with friends to expand her off-kilter sonic vision; a squally, squeaky mix of discordant beauty.
Feedback and phasing gyrate from simply strummed normality, imagine Dinosaur Jr and My Bloody Valentine cranking up a Dylan couplet.
‘Possible Dust Clouds’ is a glorious return to form for one of alternative rock’s true innovators.
‘She's still as powerful a presence as she ever was.’
Pitchfork
‘The prodigious output and commitment to quality is pretty staggering, but then Kristin Hersh is a very, very special musician.’
The Quietus
‘Throwing Muses became a byword for college-rock feminism in the late 80s, largely because of Hersh’s uncompromising impressionist poetry of emotional anguish, subjugated womanhood and mental illness.’
The Guardian
Tickets for these shows are £20 in advance.
You can get tickets for Manchester here and for Leeds here.
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Michael Chapman & Band
Feat. BJ Cole, Bridget St. John + Sarah Smout
The Crescent, York
Saturday 30th March, 7.30pm
The way Michael Chapman sees it "the songs are the songs," and those on his new album True North, fit a kind of mold that's comfortable -- and even a bit surprising -- for the venerable British singer, songwriter and guitarist. "I got lucky this time," the 78-year-old Chapman says. "Sometimes I write songs that can only be done with a band. Sometimes I write songs so loose they could only be done solo. I got lucky because most of the songs on this album I could do either way."
And Chapman is so happy with the results -- produced by Steve Gunn, who worked with him on last year's acclaimed 50, and recorded in rural Wales with a band that includes a cellist and pedal steel player -- that for the first time ever he'll be playing an album in its entirety on tour next spring.
Tickets for this show are £13 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, Jumbo Records in Leeds or online from here.
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Sam Kelly & Ruth Notman
The Crescent, York
Sunday 7th April 7.30pm
Two of the finest singers to come out of the UK folk scene in the last 15 years have joined forces to record a brand new duo album. Recorded at Kate Rusby’s legendary Pure Records studio and produced by musical maestro Damien O’Kane, the album contains a dynamic mixture of revamped traditional material and brand new original songs, and promises to be one of the most exciting records of 2019.
Ruth Notman is a singer and multi-instrumentalist from South Yorkshire. Her first album, Threads, was released in 2007 and sent shockwaves through the UK folk scene and beyond, selling over 10,000 copies and garnering the kind of media attention seldom reaped by folk artists. The album was listed as The Independent’s album of the week, and received lofty praise in The Guardian, MoJo and many more. Her incredible voice inspired a generation of young folk singers and won her many high profile fans, including Kate Rusby and Nic Jones. This album breaks a hiatus from music for the multi-talented Notman while she studied to be a doctor, and will end an agonising wait for new music for her dedicated fanbase.
Sam Kelly, with his band The Lost Boys, has emerged as one of most sought-after names in the folk world. Headlining many UK festivals with his high-octane, rock-tinged reworking of traditional folk music, in only a few short years Kelly has cultivated a reputation as one of the best singers and arrangers of folk music of his generation. His debut album, The Lost Boys, came out to a storm of rave reviews in 2015 and won Kelly the prestigious Horizon Award at the 2016 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. The 2017 follow up, Pretty Peggy, cemented his reputation as one of the most rapidly rising stars in the folk scene and earned Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys a nomination for Best Group at the Folk Awards in 2018. This album brings the focus back to what first caught people’s attention about Kelly – his stunning voice.
The album Changeable Heart will be released in February 2019 and contains some of the most accomplished and unique vocal performances you are ever likely to hear, as Notman and Kelly’s voices weave in and out of each other, standing out and complimenting each other in equal parts. This album is sure to beguile music fans everywhere, as it vividly showcases two people who aren’t afraid to break taboo with arranging and reprising traditional music, and both artists display true technical mastery of their chosen instrument – the voice.
Tickets for this show are £10 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, Jumbo Records in Leeds or online from here.
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Steve Gunn
(band)
Papercuts
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Sunday 7th April, 7.30pm
Deaf Institute, Manchester
Monday 8th April, 7.30pm
Returning with with a brand new album for Matador, one of our faves, trippy-folk-rock and experimental guitarist Steve Gunn returns to two amazing venues with his band.
Website / Watch / Listen
For over a decade, guitarist/vocalist Steve Gunn has been one the American music’s most pivotal figures - conjuring immersive and psychedelic sonic landscapes both live and on record, releasing revered solo albums ranking high on in-the-know end of year lists, alongside exploratory collaborations with artists as diverse as Mike Cooper, Kurt Vile, and Michael Chapman (whose most recent studio album he produced). Gunn is known for telling other people's stories, but on his breakthrough fourth album, The Unseen In Between, he explores his own emotional landscapes with his most complex, fully realized songs to date. The lyrics evoke voyages, tempests (actual and emotional), and a rich cast of characters met along the way -- the work of an artist finding a place of calm in the midst of a storm. Produced by frequent collaborator James Elkington and engineered by Daniel Schlett, the immaculately recorded Unseen forces a reassessment of Gunn’s standing in the pantheon of the era’s great songwriters.
Getting to The Unseen In Between itself was not easy for Gunn. In the summer of 2016, Gunn released Eyes On The Lines, his winning and elliptical debut for Matador. It should have been a triumphant moment, but exactly two weeks later, Gunn’s father and namesake died following a two-year struggle with cancer. During his sickness, he and his son had connected as never before, listening to one another’s experiences and understanding one another’s perspectives; they became not father and son but real friends.
This experience yielded the emotional centerpiece of the album. “Stonehurst Cowboy” is a duet for Gunn’s raw acoustic guitar and spare basslines by Bob Dylan's musical director Tony Garnier, whose featured throughout the album. The song distills the lessons Gunn learned from his father and it is a solemn but tender remembrance, a tribute to his father’s reputation as a tough, wise, and witty guy from far west Philadelphia.
A sense of musical renewal and emotional complexity fits the new songs perfectly; “Luciano” seems to be about the chemistry between a bodega owner and his cat, an unspoken romance of gentle obedience and quiet gestures. But Gunn peers below the relationship’s surface and wonders about the owner's lonely future once the cat is gone, a devastating meditation wrapped in soft strings. And then there’s “Vagabond,” Gunn’s graceful attempt to humanize a rich cast of characters whose lives have gone astray, wanderers who live outside of society’s modern safety net, who pursue “a crooked dream” in spite of what the world expects. Supported by the perfect harmonies of Meg Baird, Gunn finds something lovely in the unloved.
Inspired by contemporary artist Walter De Maria’s Dia Art Foundation-affiliated installation of 400 stainless steel poles atop the high desert of New Mexico, “Lightning Field” considers what we get out of art when it doesn’t work, when lightning does not light up the night for visitors. Opener “New Moon" may begin in the mode of a deep track from Astral Weeks or Fred Neil, with its upright bass and sparse tremolo guitar. But during the song’s final minutes, strings double the melody, and then the guitar rushes headlong, pulling ahead in a wave of ecstatic deliverance. It is a brief but liberating solo, an instant release of tension from the fraught scene Gunn has built, complemented by one of his most arresting vocal performances.
In a final contrast, “Morning is Mended” is an acoustic beauty so resplendent it ranks alongside Sandy Denny or Jackson C. Frank. Buoyed by a melody that sparkles like sunlight on still water, Gunn acknowledges the hardships around him, the feeling of being a “nothing sky,” and then moves forward into the world, walking tall into the fresh morning. The song is an apt encapsulation of The Unseen In Between, a gorgeously empathetic record that attempts to recognize the worries of the world and offer some timely assurance. It is a revelatory and redemptive set, offering the balm of understanding at a time when that seems in very short supply.
Tickets for these shows are £12 in advance.
You can get tickets for Manchester here and for Leeds here.
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Terry Riley
& Gyan Riley
Riley Smith Hall, Leeds University Union
Friday 12th April, 7.30pm
It’s possibly hard to do justice in words to the influence of Terry Riley on so much adventurous music that has emerged over the past half century. Take his legendary In C, a simple piece of musical genius that still resonates as loudly in impact today and perhaps achieving more widespread influence than ever currently since its first recorded appearance in 1968. Add in his sublime minimalist keyboard recordings such as Shri Camel and A Rainbow In Curved Air, his early tape work, his collaborations with Pandit Pran Nath, John Cale, La Monte Young.
Terry will perform in a duo with his son Gyan, who has a growing discography of his own that includes releases on labels such as John Zorn’s Tzadik and has worked with Zakir Hussian, Dawn Upshaw and many others.
Tickets for this show are £25 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from Jumbo Records in Leeds or online from here.
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Holy Moly & The Crackers
Band On The Wall, Manchester
Saturday 13th April, 7pm
We're dead chuffed to be helping our Geordie buddies on their biggest ever Manchester show in 2019. Tickets on sale now!
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Newcastle’s Holy Moly & The Crackers are one of the country’s hardest working bands.
You might call that a cliche, but how many others can you name that have covered the thousands of miles and played the amount of shows that HM&TC have, in just two years? Oh, and they’ve managed to write, record and release a critically-acclaimed album and start their own record label in that time too.
Lead singers Conrad Bird and Ruth Patterson met when they were teenagers in 2008 and Ruth was in the midst of adapting to a diagnosis of chronic arthritis. Ruth, at one stage cited for an orchestral career on the violin, had not played for two years. But, encouraged by their mutual passion for music, she battled through the new limitations to relearn her instrument and discovered a love and skill for singing.
Not long after the couple met costume designer and accordion player Rosie Bristow they started to perform Irish, American and Balkan folk songs together at open mics and dive bars. They were cutting their teeth, learning the ropes.
By 2015 the trio had moved to Newcastle and met jazz/funk bass player, Jamie Shields, and Tommy Evans - who would give Keith Moon a run for his money - on drums. The gang began to blend their love of the folk tradition with a contemporary rock sound, influenced by a wide range of artists - from Cold War Kids to Gogol Bordello and Jack White.
Since then the bombastic folk rockers have been on what seems like a never-ending tour,; playing over 300 shows, 60 festivals (including Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party, Wilderness, Boomtown and Bestival) and tearing through trips around Italy, the Netherlands, France, Portugal and Germany. Wowing their raucous and ever-expanding fan-base with instrument-swapping, squeezebox-growling, fiddle-shredding, brass-howling hoe-downs, the group have been able to hone a sound that is organic and invigorating - forged in the sweat and heat of the live show.
In 2017 Holy Moly & The Crackers stepped up a gear. They signed a deal with Wipe Out Music Publishing and, working with producer Matt Terry at the legendary rock studio VADA, recorded and released Salem - a record that’s been described as “a new kind of sonic madness” by music magazine and long time supporters, Narc.
The album has taken them to new heights, and has seen the band’s idiosyncratic blend of folk and contemporary rock playlisted across Spotify, clocking up close to a million streams in the process*, as well as receiving rotation on BBC Radio and RadioX. The album’s hooky rabble-rousing lead single ‘Cold Comfort Lane’ has been featured internationally on adverts and TV shows, including E4’s ‘Tattoo Artist Of The Year’.
Now it is 2018. 22-year-old Nick Tyler has joined on guitar. Classically trained but influenced by psychedelic and DIY punk in equal measure, he is the final piece of the multifarious puzzle that is Holy Moly & The Crackers - the final Cracker, as it were.
This year HM&TC will release two stand-alone singles, recorded by Matt Terry and mixed by Dan Austin (Pixies), and back the songs up with with major international festival appearances, including a main-stage appearance at Beautiful Days and Colours Of Ostravia in the Czech Republic, before embarking on their biggest UK headline tour to date in November.
They will also head back into the studio to record their next album and continue their relationship with Matt and Dan, both of whom use dynamic formulas combining tight, pop sensibility with the naturalism of garage rock and folk/roots.
The last two years have been a whirlwind and you might think that it’s time to take a breather. But HM&TC are not that kind of band. The road is their home and they’ve got their foot to the floor.
Press
“One of Newcastle’s finest bands have upped the game on their new album”
The Crack
“This is one of the most original sounding albums doing the rounds at the moment”
God Is In The TV Zine
“A cauldron of swirling dark rock potions”
R2 Magazine
“Turn it on and turn it up. This one’s a rager”
No Depression (USA)
Tickets for this show are £10 in advance.
You can get tickets online from here. The price includes a 50p venue restoration levy.
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Otoboke Beaver - おとぼけビ～バ～
Golden Week 2019
Say Sue Me 세이수미 + Drinking Boys And Girls Choir 드링킹소년소녀합창단
Deaf Institute, Manchester
Monday 29th April 7pm, £15adv
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Friday 3rd May, 7pm, £15adv
GOLDEN WEEK 2019
Otoboke Beaver (Kyoto, Japan)
Otoboke Beaver おとぼけビ～バ～ are a punk-rock-garage quartet from Kyoto, Japan. The band’s name is taken from a local ‘Love Hotel’ and they describe themselves as: “Japanese girls ‘knock out or pound cake’ band”. Formed in 2009’s summer at Kyoto University’s music club, the band consists of Accorinrin (Lead Vocal & Guitar), Yoyoyoshie (Guitar & Vocals), Hiro-chan (Bass & Vocals) and Pop (Drums & Vocals).
2017 was a breakthrough year for the band with features in Pitchfork, NPR, i-D and The Fader, acclaimed SXSW & Fuji Rock Festival debuts, a sold-out 100 Club show, and their ‘Love Is Short’ 7” sat in the UK charts for 4 weeks. 2018 saw them travel over 24,000 miles in a week on their ‘ATTYUUMA’ tour which included 3 UK dates bookmarked by Coachella slots where they and X Japan were the only Japanese acts on the bill. The Cribs describe them as “Punk-as-Fuck” and many view the band as one of the great live acts.
Press
‘… sheer calamity and deliriously fun ― supercharged, sugar-rush hardcore with breathless vocals, pogo-ing rhythms, and torrential DayGlo riffs… the fire of “Love Is Short” recalls a lineage of patriarchy-scorching girl-gang shrieks, from the Slits’ “Shoplifting” to Bikini Kill’s “Liar” and beyond.’
Pitchfork
‘Their Riot Grrrl attitudes and passion for noise-rock make them stand out as true renegades in the underground scene.’
i-D
‘The Kyoto-based Otoboke Beaver takes in the history of Japanese punk and runs with scissors in hand towards the bonkers-noise of early Boredoms, Afrirampo’s uninhibited avant-punk, and the revved-up garage-rock of Shonen Knife...Punk is rarely this charmingly vicious.’
NPR Music
Website / Watch / Watch / Watch
Say Sue Me (Busan, Korea)
Jaeyoung Ha (Bass) and Byungkyu Kim (guitar) have been friends since 5th grade. They met drummer Semin Kang and played in bands together since winter of 2012. On meeting Sumi Choi, they immediately offered her a spot as the vocalist in a new band that would become Say Sue Me. Sumi turned out to be a natural at song writing. Semin sadly suffered trauma from a fall during the making of their second album. New drummer Changwon Kim stands in while they await Semin’s recovery.
Following well-anticipated showcases at SXSW in 2018, they released sophomore album ‘Where We Were Together’ and a Record Store Day special covers EP ‘It’s Just A Short Walk!’ and the "Just Joking Around" single and Christmas EP with 2 European tours. Their blend of indie rock, dream pop and surf has been widely met with critical acclaim from the likes of Pitchfork, The Fader, Stereogum, NPR, Lauren Laverne, Gideon Coe and Tom Ravenscroft on BBC6Music, KEXP, i-D, Dazed, ELLE and many more.
Press:
‘…jangly indie-pop, handclap-rich girl-group classics and the lightly rumbling sounds of early surf-rock. At once stylish and timeless…’
NPR
‘…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
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Drinking Boys and Girls Choir (Daegu, Korea)
DBGC are a skate-punk trio from Daegu City, Korea. Formed in 2013 when two drummers MJ and Meena shared a rehearsal space, and decided to form a band. Meena switched to Bass and guitarist Bondu (who had just finished his military service) answered their ad. They bonded over a shared love of drinking, skating and punk.
Inspired by Sum41, NOFX and Daegu's 90s-00s hardcore punk/indie-rock scene before it moved to Seoul, the band are very passionate about not moving to the capital and nurturing a sustainable local scene. Each member writes and sings so there is a lot going on, stylistically it jumps from Pop-Punk, to melodic Hardcore, to more drawn out indie-rock. DBGC release their 18 track debut album “Keep Drinking!!” in January on Damnably and Electric Muse and have been announced for SXSW2019.
Website / Watch
Tickets for these shows are £15 in advance.
You can get tickets for Manchester here and for Leeds here.
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Robyn Hitchcock
Jessica Morgan
The Crescent, York
Wednesday 8th May, 7.30pm
Robyn Hitchcock is one of England’s most enduring contemporary singer/songwriters and live performers. A surrealist poet, talented guitarist, cult artist and musician’s musician, Hitchcock is among alternative rock’s father figures and is the closest thing the genre has to a Bob Dylan (not coincidentally his biggest musical inspiration).
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Since founding the art-rock band The Soft Boys in 1976, Robyn has recorded more than 20 albums as well as starred in ‘Storefront Hitchcock’ an in concert film recorded in New York and directed by Jonathan Demme.
Blending folk and psychedelia with a wry British nihilism, Robyn describes his songs as ‘paintings you can listen to’. His most recent album is self-titled and marks his 21st release as a solo artist. Out on April 21 2017, the album is produced by Brendan Benson (The Raconteurs). Hitchcock describes it as a “ecstatic work of negativity with nary a dreary groove.”
It has received rave reviews from UNCUT, Rolling Stone, Paste, Tidal and more.
‘A gifted melodist, Hitchcock nests engaging lyrics in some of the most bracing, rainbow-hued pop this side of Revolver. He wrests inspiration not from ordinary life but from extraordinary imaginings…’
Rolling Stone
‘These 10 gems slither, rock, roll, glide and shapeshift, coalescing around Hitchcock’s typically anxious, strained but striking and immediately identifiable vocals.’
American Songwriter
‘Beloved of everyone from Led Zeppelin to REM, Hitchcock has only enhanced his status with this wonderful outing.’
Hot Press
‘Witty, moving and seriously catchy, Robyn Hitchcock is a glorious return for a man who wasn’t really gone in the first place.’
Paste Magazine
Tickets for this show are £15 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, Jumbo Records in Leeds or online from here.
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Kaia Kater
The Crescent, York
Sunday 12th May, 7.30pm
A Montreal-born Grenadian-Canadian, Kaia Kater grew up between two worlds: one her family’s deep ties to folk music; the other the years she spent soaking up Appalachian music in West Virginia. Her old-time banjo-picking skills, deft arrangements, and songwriting abilities have landed her in the spotlight in North America and the UK, garnering critical acclaim from outlets such as NPR, CBC Radio, Rolling Stone, BBC Music, and No Depression.
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Kaia started her career early, crafting her first EP Old Soul (2013) when she was just out of high school. Since then, she’s gone on to release two more albums, Sorrow Bound (2015) and Nine Pin (2016). Her most recent album weaves between hard-hitting songs that touch on social issues like the Black Lives Matter movement (“Rising Down,” “Paradise Fell”) and more personal narratives speaking to life and love in the digital age (“Saint Elizabeth”). Nine Pin won a Canadian Folk Music Award, a Stingray Rising Star Award and sent Kaia on an 18-month touring journey from Ireland to Iowa, including stops at The Kennedy Center, Hillside Festival and London's O2 Shepherd's Bush. Kaia is currently working on her next album, due for release in October 2018.
Press:
‘…plaintive, mesmerizing...writes and performs with the skill of a folk-circuit veteran…’
Rolling Stone
‘Where bluegrass meets Nina Simone’
The Guardian
‘You want some authenticity in your folk music or bluegrass – I give you Kaia Kater.’
No Depression
‘…a minor classic forged from both modern and traditional folk-roots, upgrading the sounds and narratives of rural Appalachia into something vital and fresh.’
9/10 - Uncut Magazine
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, Jumbo Records in Leeds or online from here.
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Lau
The Crescent, York
Wednesday 5th June, 7.30pm
Already acknowledged as thrilling live performers and folk music pioneers, Lau arrive at a new creative peak with Midnight and Closedown. The band’s 12-year recording career is resplendent with unexpected collaborations, accolades and innovative ideas. The sound of Lau in 2019 is perhaps closer to late period Beatles than to the traditional tunes and ballads of their 2007 debut Lightweights and Gentlemen. And yet the new album’s closing track ‘Riad’ marks a fullcircle, stripping the lineup back to bare acoustic instruments.
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Midnight and Closedown is Lau’s first new music since 2015’s The Bell That Never Rang (***** The Guardian; The Herald’s Album of The Year). Producer John Parish, widely celebrated for his recordings and collaborations with P.J Harvey, Eels, Sparklehorse, This Is The Kit, Aldous Harding, Rokia Traore, M. Ward, Giant Sand and many more, has captured the essence of Lau’s songwriting: tender, bewitching and mournful, uplifting, experimental and political. These are new sounds still rooted in the traditional music that brought together the UK’s three finest folk artists.
‘Lau. Cool band. Don't sound like anybody else. I could describe the instrumentation : treated fiddle, guitar and rich baritone voice, an electronic ship in a bottle. A beautiful set of songs and instrumentals. In touch with their roots but not bound by them’.
(John Parish, October 2018)
Lau have pushed at the boundaries of modern folk music with each successive release, curation and concert tour. And now comes this bold, progressive new statement. Reading between the lines here – the enigmatic album title – could suggest that the new album is Lau’s swansong. But Midnight and Closedown, Lau’s finest artistic statement to date, could equally prove to be the opening of a brave new chapter.
Press:
'Lau are a remarkable band - the most musically adventurous trio in British folk - exquisite and hypnotic, musicianship at its best - The UK's best live band"
★★★★★ 5/5 - The Guardian
'Leagues ahead of the crowd - worthy of a David Lynch movie expansive sonic landscapes - it's time to ring some changes - may frighten a few horses'
fRoots
Instrumental virtuosity blends easily with tasteful electronics
★★★★ Albums of The Year - Mojo
‘For alternative music lovers as much as folk fans, brimming over with intoxicating, mesmerisingmusic’
BBC Music
Four time winners ʻBest Groupʼ at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, Jumbo Records in Leeds or online from here.
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LOVE Band Featuring Johnny Echols
‘The Farewell UK Tour’
Sam Forrest
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Monday 1st July, 7.30pm
Celebrating the music of Arthur Lee and LOVE.
The LOVE band featuring Johnny Echols sees Arthur Lee’s longest serving band return to the UK to perform classic songs from Love’s first three albums Love, De Capo and Forever Changes as well as some special deep cuts for the last time.
From 1993 until Arthur’s death in 2006, the band Baby Lemonade performed with him, being an essential part of the renaissance of Love’s music. This iteration of Love saw many sold out tours, as well as back to back Glastonbury performances and an appearance on Later with Jools Holland.
Joining Baby Lemonade is Love’s original lead guitar player and founding member Johnny Echols, who was part of the classic line up that recorded the seminal Forever Changes.
Johnny Echols and Arthur Lee were childhood friends whose families both moved from Memphis to Los Angeles. Teenage Johnny & Arthur teamed up to form the groups Arthur Lee & The LAG’s and the American Four before they formed Love in 1965. The classic Love line up featuring Johnny disbanded in 1968. Johnny reunited with Arthur Lee in 2005 to perform together once more.
Baby Lemonade formed in 1992 by Rusty Squeezebox, Mike Randle, David “Daddy-O” Green, later adding Dave Chapple to the mix. In 1993 the band landed the gig of a lifetime opening up for Love. That show was the last for that incarnation of Love as Arthur replaced them with the four Baby Lemonade members. Baby Lemonade released records on Sympathy for the Record Industry, Munster and Big Deal between 1993 and 2001.
Upon their return from a Love tour of Europe, in 1996, Baby Lemonade was shocked to find that Arthur had been sentenced to 12 years in prison on a weapons charge.
After nearly 6 years in prison, Arthur’s case was overturned and shortly after, at his request, Baby Lemonade began rehearsing for what would be non-stop Love touring throughout North America, UK, Europe and Australia between 2002 and 2005 where they enjoyed unprecedented success with sold out tours, back to back Glastonbury performances, Roskilde and Benicassim festival, two sold out shows at the Royal Festival Hall that spawned a live album, and an appearance on the Later with Jools Holland TV Show.
In 2005 the Love line up once again featured Arthur’s childhood friend and founding member Johnny Echols on lead guitar who returned after a 37 year absence.
In July of 2005, Arthur was diagnosed with Leukaemia and after a brave battle he passed away one year later. Arthur’s last show was with Baby Lemonade and Johnny Echols on June 23rd at San Francisco’s Cafe Du Nord. The world had lost a true music legend.
In 2019 The LOVE band featuring Johnny Echols will return for one last UK tour to celebrate the music of Arthur Lee & Love.
Tickets for this show are £16 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from Jumbo Records and Crash Records in Leeds or online from here.
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The Stroppies
The Crescent, York
Friday 12th July, 7.30pm. £7.50adv
Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds
Saturday 13th July, 7.30pm. £7.50adv
“Whoosh is a silly word,” says Gus Lord of the Stroppies. “There is something completely nonsense about it, especially when removed from any kind of context. For me it conjures up images of something absurd and transient - two things fundamental in the experience of listening to or making good pop music.”
Whoosh may indeed be a silly word but it almost onomatopoeically captures the sound and essence of The Stroppies first proper debut album, one that breezes along with boundless energy, a refrained pop strut, infectious grooves and the sort of jangling guitar melodies that sound like a prime-era Flying Nun band.
Website / Watch / Watch / Listen
Between them, the Melbourne-based band - currently comprising of Gus Lord, Rory Heane, Claudia Serfaty and Adam Hewitt - have been in countless bands such as Boomgates, Twerps, Tyrannamen, Primetime, Blank Statements, The Blinds, White Walls, See Saw and Possible Humans. The band formed together around a kitchen table in 2016 with a heavy focus around the essence of collaboration and a DIY ethos. This led to an acclaimed cassette release of lounge room recordings, which was then pressed onto vinyl to more acclaim. The Stroppies next step was then taking their DIY approach to home recordings into the studio to make a transitional leap to what would become their proper studio debut. “Whoosh is our first concerted effort to make something with a bit more sonic depth,”says Claudia Serfaty (the bands other primary songwriter). “It was an attempt to take working processes that had been established in a home recording setting and build on them with a broader musical palette in the studio in order to push the band into new territory without compromising what made initial releases so endearing.”
Endearment is something that the Stroppies have no problem retaining on Whoosh. It’s a record that possesses all the spunk and gusto of a young band hurtling forward yet also knowing when to take their foot off the accelerator. It’s an album that simultaneously feels young and fresh but wise beyond its years. “Whoosh is the most robust sounding release we have ever recorded,” Serfaty says. Combining taut post-punk rhythms, indie jangle, seamless melody and sugary pop, it’s a record that Lord says is influenced by: “All sorts of things - life, work, relationships, old cartoons and the last 60+ years of guitar-based pop music in some form or another. This includes everything from Bill Fay to the Clean to Stephen Malkmus.”
Whoosh is a record that combines a natural sense of urgency with a thoughtful approach. Something that the recording process itself was emblematic of. “Budgetary restrictions meant that we had two days to lay the foundations,” Serfaty recalls. “So it was axe to the grind: burning through live takes interspersed with tea and Turkish food from the local kebab shop, which culminated in twelve half finished cuts, rough and ready.” That was the urgent part, what then followed was a focused and labour intensive approach to get the most out of the bare bones of the record as possible. “We spent hours building up, stripping down and mixing the work that had been recorded the month prior, throwing everything we could think of at the songs to see what would stick. We utilised whatever was on hand to pull sounds, including but not limited to vintage synths, rain sticks and an old door frame that we used for percussion.” This was done with Zachary Schneider, a friend of the band, budding producer and established musician who is most notable for his guitar work in bands such as Totally Mild, Free Time and Full Ugly.
By the end of that period the band got so absorbed in the record that they almost lost sight of it. “I'm still a little too close to this record for it to evoke anything in particular,” Lord says. “Except for perhaps dull anxiety. Towards the end of recording I felt like I was drowning in the process and lost all clarity on what it meant or it's value. Kind of like saying a word over and over again - it starts to lose all meaning.” Although with time comes clarity and even amidst the fog of making a record that has taken over his life, Lord knows the band has made something special. “Reflecting on the process I feel really proud of the album.”
Tickets for these shows are £7.50 in advance.
You can get tickets for York here and for Leeds here.
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Sunday 7th April, 7.30pm
Deaf Institute, Manchester
Monday 8th April, 7.30pm
Returning with with a brand new album for Matador, one of our faves, trippy-folk-rock and experimental guitarist Steve Gunn returns to two amazing venues with his band.
Website / Watch / Listen
For over a decade, guitarist/vocalist Steve Gunn has been one the American music’s most pivotal figures - conjuring immersive and psychedelic sonic landscapes both live and on record, releasing revered solo albums ranking high on in-the-know end of year lists, alongside exploratory collaborations with artists as diverse as Mike Cooper, Kurt Vile, and Michael Chapman (whose most recent studio album he produced). Gunn is known for telling other people's stories, but on his breakthrough fourth album, The Unseen In Between, he explores his own emotional landscapes with his most complex, fully realized songs to date. The lyrics evoke voyages, tempests (actual and emotional), and a rich cast of characters met along the way -- the work of an artist finding a place of calm in the midst of a storm. Produced by frequent collaborator James Elkington and engineered by Daniel Schlett, the immaculately recorded Unseen forces a reassessment of Gunn’s standing in the pantheon of the era’s great songwriters.
Getting to The Unseen In Between itself was not easy for Gunn. In the summer of 2016, Gunn released Eyes On The Lines, his winning and elliptical debut for Matador. It should have been a triumphant moment, but exactly two weeks later, Gunn’s father and namesake died following a two-year struggle with cancer. During his sickness, he and his son had connected as never before, listening to one another’s experiences and understanding one another’s perspectives; they became not father and son but real friends.
This experience yielded the emotional centerpiece of the album. “Stonehurst Cowboy” is a duet for Gunn’s raw acoustic guitar and spare basslines by Bob Dylan's musical director Tony Garnier, whose featured throughout the album. The song distills the lessons Gunn learned from his father and it is a solemn but tender remembrance, a tribute to his father’s reputation as a tough, wise, and witty guy from far west Philadelphia.
A sense of musical renewal and emotional complexity fits the new songs perfectly; “Luciano” seems to be about the chemistry between a bodega owner and his cat, an unspoken romance of gentle obedience and quiet gestures. But Gunn peers below the relationship’s surface and wonders about the owner's lonely future once the cat is gone, a devastating meditation wrapped in soft strings. And then there’s “Vagabond,” Gunn’s graceful attempt to humanize a rich cast of characters whose lives have gone astray, wanderers who live outside of society’s modern safety net, who pursue “a crooked dream” in spite of what the world expects. Supported by the perfect harmonies of Meg Baird, Gunn finds something lovely in the unloved.
Inspired by contemporary artist Walter De Maria’s Dia Art Foundation-affiliated installation of 400 stainless steel poles atop the high desert of New Mexico, “Lightning Field” considers what we get out of art when it doesn’t work, when lightning does not light up the night for visitors. Opener “New Moon" may begin in the mode of a deep track from Astral Weeks or Fred Neil, with its upright bass and sparse tremolo guitar. But during the song’s final minutes, strings double the melody, and then the guitar rushes headlong, pulling ahead in a wave of ecstatic deliverance. It is a brief but liberating solo, an instant release of tension from the fraught scene Gunn has built, complemented by one of his most arresting vocal performances.
In a final contrast, “Morning is Mended” is an acoustic beauty so resplendent it ranks alongside Sandy Denny or Jackson C. Frank. Buoyed by a melody that sparkles like sunlight on still water, Gunn acknowledges the hardships around him, the feeling of being a “nothing sky,” and then moves forward into the world, walking tall into the fresh morning. The song is an apt encapsulation of The Unseen In Between, a gorgeously empathetic record that attempts to recognize the worries of the world and offer some timely assurance. It is a revelatory and redemptive set, offering the balm of understanding at a time when that seems in very short supply.
Tickets for these shows are £12 in advance.
You can get tickets for Manchester here and for Leeds here.
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Terry Riley
& Gyan Riley
Riley Smith Hall, Leeds University Union
Friday 12th April, 7.30pm
It’s possibly hard to do justice in words to the influence of Terry Riley on so much adventurous music that has emerged over the past half century. Take his legendary In C, a simple piece of musical genius that still resonates as loudly in impact today and perhaps achieving more widespread influence than ever currently since its first recorded appearance in 1968. Add in his sublime minimalist keyboard recordings such as Shri Camel and A Rainbow In Curved Air, his early tape work, his collaborations with Pandit Pran Nath, John Cale, La Monte Young.
Terry will perform in a duo with his son Gyan, who has a growing discography of his own that includes releases on labels such as John Zorn’s Tzadik and has worked with Zakir Hussian, Dawn Upshaw and many others.
Tickets for this show are £25 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from Jumbo Records in Leeds or online from here.
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Holy Moly & The Crackers
Band On The Wall, Manchester
Saturday 13th April, 7pm
We're dead chuffed to be helping our Geordie buddies on their biggest ever Manchester show in 2019. Tickets on sale now!
Watch / Watch / Watch
Newcastle’s Holy Moly & The Crackers are one of the country’s hardest working bands.
You might call that a cliche, but how many others can you name that have covered the thousands of miles and played the amount of shows that HM&TC have, in just two years? Oh, and they’ve managed to write, record and release a critically-acclaimed album and start their own record label in that time too.
Lead singers Conrad Bird and Ruth Patterson met when they were teenagers in 2008 and Ruth was in the midst of adapting to a diagnosis of chronic arthritis. Ruth, at one stage cited for an orchestral career on the violin, had not played for two years. But, encouraged by their mutual passion for music, she battled through the new limitations to relearn her instrument and discovered a love and skill for singing.
Not long after the couple met costume designer and accordion player Rosie Bristow they started to perform Irish, American and Balkan folk songs together at open mics and dive bars. They were cutting their teeth, learning the ropes.
By 2015 the trio had moved to Newcastle and met jazz/funk bass player, Jamie Shields, and Tommy Evans - who would give Keith Moon a run for his money - on drums. The gang began to blend their love of the folk tradition with a contemporary rock sound, influenced by a wide range of artists - from Cold War Kids to Gogol Bordello and Jack White.
Since then the bombastic folk rockers have been on what seems like a never-ending tour,; playing over 300 shows, 60 festivals (including Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party, Wilderness, Boomtown and Bestival) and tearing through trips around Italy, the Netherlands, France, Portugal and Germany. Wowing their raucous and ever-expanding fan-base with instrument-swapping, squeezebox-growling, fiddle-shredding, brass-howling hoe-downs, the group have been able to hone a sound that is organic and invigorating - forged in the sweat and heat of the live show.
In 2017 Holy Moly & The Crackers stepped up a gear. They signed a deal with Wipe Out Music Publishing and, working with producer Matt Terry at the legendary rock studio VADA, recorded and released Salem - a record that’s been described as “a new kind of sonic madness” by music magazine and long time supporters, Narc.
The album has taken them to new heights, and has seen the band’s idiosyncratic blend of folk and contemporary rock playlisted across Spotify, clocking up close to a million streams in the process*, as well as receiving rotation on BBC Radio and RadioX. The album’s hooky rabble-rousing lead single ‘Cold Comfort Lane’ has been featured internationally on adverts and TV shows, including E4’s ‘Tattoo Artist Of The Year’.
Now it is 2018. 22-year-old Nick Tyler has joined on guitar. Classically trained but influenced by psychedelic and DIY punk in equal measure, he is the final piece of the multifarious puzzle that is Holy Moly & The Crackers - the final Cracker, as it were.
This year HM&TC will release two stand-alone singles, recorded by Matt Terry and mixed by Dan Austin (Pixies), and back the songs up with with major international festival appearances, including a main-stage appearance at Beautiful Days and Colours Of Ostravia in the Czech Republic, before embarking on their biggest UK headline tour to date in November.
They will also head back into the studio to record their next album and continue their relationship with Matt and Dan, both of whom use dynamic formulas combining tight, pop sensibility with the naturalism of garage rock and folk/roots.
The last two years have been a whirlwind and you might think that it’s time to take a breather. But HM&TC are not that kind of band. The road is their home and they’ve got their foot to the floor.
Press
“One of Newcastle’s finest bands have upped the game on their new album”
The Crack
“This is one of the most original sounding albums doing the rounds at the moment”
God Is In The TV Zine
“A cauldron of swirling dark rock potions”
R2 Magazine
“Turn it on and turn it up. This one’s a rager”
No Depression (USA)
Tickets for this show are £10 in advance.
You can get tickets online from here. The price includes a 50p venue restoration levy.
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Otoboke Beaver - おとぼけビ～バ～
Golden Week 2019
Say Sue Me 세이수미 + Drinking Boys And Girls Choir 드링킹소년소녀합창단
Deaf Institute, Manchester
Monday 29th April 7pm, £15adv
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Friday 3rd May, 7pm, £15adv
GOLDEN WEEK 2019
Otoboke Beaver (Kyoto, Japan)
Otoboke Beaver おとぼけビ～バ～ are a punk-rock-garage quartet from Kyoto, Japan. The band’s name is taken from a local ‘Love Hotel’ and they describe themselves as: “Japanese girls ‘knock out or pound cake’ band”. Formed in 2009’s summer at Kyoto University’s music club, the band consists of Accorinrin (Lead Vocal & Guitar), Yoyoyoshie (Guitar & Vocals), Hiro-chan (Bass & Vocals) and Pop (Drums & Vocals).
2017 was a breakthrough year for the band with features in Pitchfork, NPR, i-D and The Fader, acclaimed SXSW & Fuji Rock Festival debuts, a sold-out 100 Club show, and their ‘Love Is Short’ 7” sat in the UK charts for 4 weeks. 2018 saw them travel over 24,000 miles in a week on their ‘ATTYUUMA’ tour which included 3 UK dates bookmarked by Coachella slots where they and X Japan were the only Japanese acts on the bill. The Cribs describe them as “Punk-as-Fuck” and many view the band as one of the great live acts.
Press
‘… sheer calamity and deliriously fun ― supercharged, sugar-rush hardcore with breathless vocals, pogo-ing rhythms, and torrential DayGlo riffs… the fire of “Love Is Short” recalls a lineage of patriarchy-scorching girl-gang shrieks, from the Slits’ “Shoplifting” to Bikini Kill’s “Liar” and beyond.’
Pitchfork
‘Their Riot Grrrl attitudes and passion for noise-rock make them stand out as true renegades in the underground scene.’
i-D
‘The Kyoto-based Otoboke Beaver takes in the history of Japanese punk and runs with scissors in hand towards the bonkers-noise of early Boredoms, Afrirampo’s uninhibited avant-punk, and the revved-up garage-rock of Shonen Knife...Punk is rarely this charmingly vicious.’
NPR Music
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Say Sue Me (Busan, Korea)
Jaeyoung Ha (Bass) and Byungkyu Kim (guitar) have been friends since 5th grade. They met drummer Semin Kang and played in bands together since winter of 2012. On meeting Sumi Choi, they immediately offered her a spot as the vocalist in a new band that would become Say Sue Me. Sumi turned out to be a natural at song writing. Semin sadly suffered trauma from a fall during the making of their second album. New drummer Changwon Kim stands in while they await Semin’s recovery.
Following well-anticipated showcases at SXSW in 2018, they released sophomore album ‘Where We Were Together’ and a Record Store Day special covers EP ‘It’s Just A Short Walk!’ and the "Just Joking Around" single and Christmas EP with 2 European tours. Their blend of indie rock, dream pop and surf has been widely met with critical acclaim from the likes of Pitchfork, The Fader, Stereogum, NPR, Lauren Laverne, Gideon Coe and Tom Ravenscroft on BBC6Music, KEXP, i-D, Dazed, ELLE and many more.
Press:
‘…jangly indie-pop, handclap-rich girl-group classics and the lightly rumbling sounds of early surf-rock. At once stylish and timeless…’
NPR
‘…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
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Drinking Boys and Girls Choir (Daegu, Korea)
DBGC are a skate-punk trio from Daegu City, Korea. Formed in 2013 when two drummers MJ and Meena shared a rehearsal space, and decided to form a band. Meena switched to Bass and guitarist Bondu (who had just finished his military service) answered their ad. They bonded over a shared love of drinking, skating and punk.
Inspired by Sum41, NOFX and Daegu's 90s-00s hardcore punk/indie-rock scene before it moved to Seoul, the band are very passionate about not moving to the capital and nurturing a sustainable local scene. Each member writes and sings so there is a lot going on, stylistically it jumps from Pop-Punk, to melodic Hardcore, to more drawn out indie-rock. DBGC release their 18 track debut album “Keep Drinking!!” in January on Damnably and Electric Muse and have been announced for SXSW2019.
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Tickets for these shows are £15 in advance.
You can get tickets for Manchester here and for Leeds here.
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Robyn Hitchcock
Jessica Morgan
The Crescent, York
Wednesday 8th May, 7.30pm
Robyn Hitchcock is one of England’s most enduring contemporary singer/songwriters and live performers. A surrealist poet, talented guitarist, cult artist and musician’s musician, Hitchcock is among alternative rock’s father figures and is the closest thing the genre has to a Bob Dylan (not coincidentally his biggest musical inspiration).
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Since founding the art-rock band The Soft Boys in 1976, Robyn has recorded more than 20 albums as well as starred in ‘Storefront Hitchcock’ an in concert film recorded in New York and directed by Jonathan Demme.
Blending folk and psychedelia with a wry British nihilism, Robyn describes his songs as ‘paintings you can listen to’. His most recent album is self-titled and marks his 21st release as a solo artist. Out on April 21 2017, the album is produced by Brendan Benson (The Raconteurs). Hitchcock describes it as a “ecstatic work of negativity with nary a dreary groove.”
It has received rave reviews from UNCUT, Rolling Stone, Paste, Tidal and more.
‘A gifted melodist, Hitchcock nests engaging lyrics in some of the most bracing, rainbow-hued pop this side of Revolver. He wrests inspiration not from ordinary life but from extraordinary imaginings…’
Rolling Stone
‘These 10 gems slither, rock, roll, glide and shapeshift, coalescing around Hitchcock’s typically anxious, strained but striking and immediately identifiable vocals.’
American Songwriter
‘Beloved of everyone from Led Zeppelin to REM, Hitchcock has only enhanced his status with this wonderful outing.’
Hot Press
‘Witty, moving and seriously catchy, Robyn Hitchcock is a glorious return for a man who wasn’t really gone in the first place.’
Paste Magazine
Tickets for this show are £15 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, Jumbo Records in Leeds or online from here.
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Kaia Kater
The Crescent, York
Sunday 12th May, 7.30pm
A Montreal-born Grenadian-Canadian, Kaia Kater grew up between two worlds: one her family’s deep ties to folk music; the other the years she spent soaking up Appalachian music in West Virginia. Her old-time banjo-picking skills, deft arrangements, and songwriting abilities have landed her in the spotlight in North America and the UK, garnering critical acclaim from outlets such as NPR, CBC Radio, Rolling Stone, BBC Music, and No Depression.
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Kaia started her career early, crafting her first EP Old Soul (2013) when she was just out of high school. Since then, she’s gone on to release two more albums, Sorrow Bound (2015) and Nine Pin (2016). Her most recent album weaves between hard-hitting songs that touch on social issues like the Black Lives Matter movement (“Rising Down,” “Paradise Fell”) and more personal narratives speaking to life and love in the digital age (“Saint Elizabeth”). Nine Pin won a Canadian Folk Music Award, a Stingray Rising Star Award and sent Kaia on an 18-month touring journey from Ireland to Iowa, including stops at The Kennedy Center, Hillside Festival and London's O2 Shepherd's Bush. Kaia is currently working on her next album, due for release in October 2018.
Press:
‘…plaintive, mesmerizing...writes and performs with the skill of a folk-circuit veteran…’
Rolling Stone
‘Where bluegrass meets Nina Simone’
The Guardian
‘You want some authenticity in your folk music or bluegrass – I give you Kaia Kater.’
No Depression
‘…a minor classic forged from both modern and traditional folk-roots, upgrading the sounds and narratives of rural Appalachia into something vital and fresh.’
9/10 - Uncut Magazine
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, Jumbo Records in Leeds or online from here.
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Lau
The Crescent, York
Wednesday 5th June, 7.30pm
Already acknowledged as thrilling live performers and folk music pioneers, Lau arrive at a new creative peak with Midnight and Closedown. The band’s 12-year recording career is resplendent with unexpected collaborations, accolades and innovative ideas. The sound of Lau in 2019 is perhaps closer to late period Beatles than to the traditional tunes and ballads of their 2007 debut Lightweights and Gentlemen. And yet the new album’s closing track ‘Riad’ marks a fullcircle, stripping the lineup back to bare acoustic instruments.
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Midnight and Closedown is Lau’s first new music since 2015’s The Bell That Never Rang (***** The Guardian; The Herald’s Album of The Year). Producer John Parish, widely celebrated for his recordings and collaborations with P.J Harvey, Eels, Sparklehorse, This Is The Kit, Aldous Harding, Rokia Traore, M. Ward, Giant Sand and many more, has captured the essence of Lau’s songwriting: tender, bewitching and mournful, uplifting, experimental and political. These are new sounds still rooted in the traditional music that brought together the UK’s three finest folk artists.
‘Lau. Cool band. Don't sound like anybody else. I could describe the instrumentation : treated fiddle, guitar and rich baritone voice, an electronic ship in a bottle. A beautiful set of songs and instrumentals. In touch with their roots but not bound by them’.
(John Parish, October 2018)
Lau have pushed at the boundaries of modern folk music with each successive release, curation and concert tour. And now comes this bold, progressive new statement. Reading between the lines here – the enigmatic album title – could suggest that the new album is Lau’s swansong. But Midnight and Closedown, Lau’s finest artistic statement to date, could equally prove to be the opening of a brave new chapter.
Press:
'Lau are a remarkable band - the most musically adventurous trio in British folk - exquisite and hypnotic, musicianship at its best - The UK's best live band"
★★★★★ 5/5 - The Guardian
'Leagues ahead of the crowd - worthy of a David Lynch movie expansive sonic landscapes - it's time to ring some changes - may frighten a few horses'
fRoots
Instrumental virtuosity blends easily with tasteful electronics
★★★★ Albums of The Year - Mojo
‘For alternative music lovers as much as folk fans, brimming over with intoxicating, mesmerisingmusic’
BBC Music
Four time winners ʻBest Groupʼ at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards
You can get tickets in person from the venue and Earworm Records in York, Jumbo Records in Leeds or online from here.
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LOVE Band Featuring Johnny Echols
‘The Farewell UK Tour’
Sam Forrest
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Monday 1st July, 7.30pm
Celebrating the music of Arthur Lee and LOVE.
The LOVE band featuring Johnny Echols sees Arthur Lee’s longest serving band return to the UK to perform classic songs from Love’s first three albums Love, De Capo and Forever Changes as well as some special deep cuts for the last time.
From 1993 until Arthur’s death in 2006, the band Baby Lemonade performed with him, being an essential part of the renaissance of Love’s music. This iteration of Love saw many sold out tours, as well as back to back Glastonbury performances and an appearance on Later with Jools Holland.
Joining Baby Lemonade is Love’s original lead guitar player and founding member Johnny Echols, who was part of the classic line up that recorded the seminal Forever Changes.
Johnny Echols and Arthur Lee were childhood friends whose families both moved from Memphis to Los Angeles. Teenage Johnny & Arthur teamed up to form the groups Arthur Lee & The LAG’s and the American Four before they formed Love in 1965. The classic Love line up featuring Johnny disbanded in 1968. Johnny reunited with Arthur Lee in 2005 to perform together once more.
Baby Lemonade formed in 1992 by Rusty Squeezebox, Mike Randle, David “Daddy-O” Green, later adding Dave Chapple to the mix. In 1993 the band landed the gig of a lifetime opening up for Love. That show was the last for that incarnation of Love as Arthur replaced them with the four Baby Lemonade members. Baby Lemonade released records on Sympathy for the Record Industry, Munster and Big Deal between 1993 and 2001.
Upon their return from a Love tour of Europe, in 1996, Baby Lemonade was shocked to find that Arthur had been sentenced to 12 years in prison on a weapons charge.
After nearly 6 years in prison, Arthur’s case was overturned and shortly after, at his request, Baby Lemonade began rehearsing for what would be non-stop Love touring throughout North America, UK, Europe and Australia between 2002 and 2005 where they enjoyed unprecedented success with sold out tours, back to back Glastonbury performances, Roskilde and Benicassim festival, two sold out shows at the Royal Festival Hall that spawned a live album, and an appearance on the Later with Jools Holland TV Show.
In 2005 the Love line up once again featured Arthur’s childhood friend and founding member Johnny Echols on lead guitar who returned after a 37 year absence.
In July of 2005, Arthur was diagnosed with Leukaemia and after a brave battle he passed away one year later. Arthur’s last show was with Baby Lemonade and Johnny Echols on June 23rd at San Francisco’s Cafe Du Nord. The world had lost a true music legend.
In 2019 The LOVE band featuring Johnny Echols will return for one last UK tour to celebrate the music of Arthur Lee & Love.
Tickets for this show are £16 in advance.
You can get tickets in person from Jumbo Records and Crash Records in Leeds or online from here.
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The Stroppies
The Crescent, York
Friday 12th July, 7.30pm. £7.50adv
Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds
Saturday 13th July, 7.30pm. £7.50adv
“Whoosh is a silly word,” says Gus Lord of the Stroppies. “There is something completely nonsense about it, especially when removed from any kind of context. For me it conjures up images of something absurd and transient - two things fundamental in the experience of listening to or making good pop music.”
Whoosh may indeed be a silly word but it almost onomatopoeically captures the sound and essence of The Stroppies first proper debut album, one that breezes along with boundless energy, a refrained pop strut, infectious grooves and the sort of jangling guitar melodies that sound like a prime-era Flying Nun band.
Website / Watch / Watch / Listen
Between them, the Melbourne-based band - currently comprising of Gus Lord, Rory Heane, Claudia Serfaty and Adam Hewitt - have been in countless bands such as Boomgates, Twerps, Tyrannamen, Primetime, Blank Statements, The Blinds, White Walls, See Saw and Possible Humans. The band formed together around a kitchen table in 2016 with a heavy focus around the essence of collaboration and a DIY ethos. This led to an acclaimed cassette release of lounge room recordings, which was then pressed onto vinyl to more acclaim. The Stroppies next step was then taking their DIY approach to home recordings into the studio to make a transitional leap to what would become their proper studio debut. “Whoosh is our first concerted effort to make something with a bit more sonic depth,”says Claudia Serfaty (the bands other primary songwriter). “It was an attempt to take working processes that had been established in a home recording setting and build on them with a broader musical palette in the studio in order to push the band into new territory without compromising what made initial releases so endearing.”
Endearment is something that the Stroppies have no problem retaining on Whoosh. It’s a record that possesses all the spunk and gusto of a young band hurtling forward yet also knowing when to take their foot off the accelerator. It’s an album that simultaneously feels young and fresh but wise beyond its years. “Whoosh is the most robust sounding release we have ever recorded,” Serfaty says. Combining taut post-punk rhythms, indie jangle, seamless melody and sugary pop, it’s a record that Lord says is influenced by: “All sorts of things - life, work, relationships, old cartoons and the last 60+ years of guitar-based pop music in some form or another. This includes everything from Bill Fay to the Clean to Stephen Malkmus.”
Whoosh is a record that combines a natural sense of urgency with a thoughtful approach. Something that the recording process itself was emblematic of. “Budgetary restrictions meant that we had two days to lay the foundations,” Serfaty recalls. “So it was axe to the grind: burning through live takes interspersed with tea and Turkish food from the local kebab shop, which culminated in twelve half finished cuts, rough and ready.” That was the urgent part, what then followed was a focused and labour intensive approach to get the most out of the bare bones of the record as possible. “We spent hours building up, stripping down and mixing the work that had been recorded the month prior, throwing everything we could think of at the songs to see what would stick. We utilised whatever was on hand to pull sounds, including but not limited to vintage synths, rain sticks and an old door frame that we used for percussion.” This was done with Zachary Schneider, a friend of the band, budding producer and established musician who is most notable for his guitar work in bands such as Totally Mild, Free Time and Full Ugly.
By the end of that period the band got so absorbed in the record that they almost lost sight of it. “I'm still a little too close to this record for it to evoke anything in particular,” Lord says. “Except for perhaps dull anxiety. Towards the end of recording I felt like I was drowning in the process and lost all clarity on what it meant or it's value. Kind of like saying a word over and over again - it starts to lose all meaning.” Although with time comes clarity and even amidst the fog of making a record that has taken over his life, Lord knows the band has made something special. “Reflecting on the process I feel really proud of the album.”
Tickets for these shows are £7.50 in advance.
You can get tickets for York here and for Leeds here.
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