Reading this on April the first? Come and join the Joy Collective team at Cardiff’s awesome Fuwch Goch music quiz then. We need the help. Okay, there are gigs too. The Mugstar/Big Joan dust up in the Buffalo looks frazzlingly good, and you can check out John Smith‘s folksiness at the National Museum first if you like (both Cardiff – Swn are curating Thursday nights at the museum in April). Reading this on the second? Then WASE could be a good bet (Gwdihw, Cardiff), especially if you like betting on live Afro-funk bands.
Don’t worry, we’re not going through day by day. But there’s plenty out there. Bristol’s Arnolfini holds its own with some fine artistic triumphs: the ace Mira Calix provides a live score for the 1926 silent film The Adventures Of Prince Achmed on the 10th (Bronnt Industries Kapital will do a similar thing with their scorching score to Häxan at the Bristol Folkhouse on the 30th), while Humcrush follow up on the 15th with members of Food and Supersilent no doubt bringing the unease. The same venue will host the frankly storming line up of Nico Muhly, Ben Frost, Sam Amidon and Valgeir Siguross on the 24th, a night of stringed and electronic swishness to be sure, courtesy of godlike promoters QU Junktions (you are seriously advised to check their website for upcoming killer gigs…)
But you want the noise don’t you? Fine. Lesson No.1 always deliver, with Facel Vega and two others hitting Cardiff’s Buffalo punkishly on the 14th. The same city will see Rolo Tomassi worry Clwb Ifor Bach’s collected brains with their sideways attack on the 18th, five days after Jim Jones Revue bring hotly-touted garage rock to the Barfly. Russian Circles and Earthless produce postrock ripples at the Thekla (8th), while there’s also some heaviness going on in Bristol’s sweatbox the Croft, with Big Naturals appearing a couple of times, and Master Musicians Of Bukkake causing actual auditory pain on the 20th.
The quiet, the weird and the aargh to finish. Whispering Vashti Bunyan is already previewed elsewhere on this site; you may also like Scottish husky Alasdair Roberts (Cube, Bristol, 20th with Cath & Phil Tyler) or Asthmatic Kitty’s DM Stith (same venue, 8th). Perennial wonks Misty’s Big Adventure will be back in Cardiff on the 30th (Buffalo) while over in Bristol Efterklang will play their swooning epicpop dressed in massive plus-fours (Metropolis, 27th), Jerry Dammers plays megaduborchestral while everyone dresses in Egyptian masks (Colston Hall, 7th), and Dudley Sutton, er, relates tales of a certain kind of showbusiness (Cube, 11th). And why not. And clash: tromboning beatdude Bass Clef or a night of nerd erections courtesy of Brainlove Records (Cardiff Arts Institute and Buffalo, 29th)? It’s an aargh, but a good one.
