Don’t yadda me with your ‘nothing on in the summer months’. Decent promoting bods still bleed money for you to chat at the bar and you should be grateful they exist. Try Cardiff’s Buffalo Bar on the 14th, where Noxagt and Ultralyd will play disturbingly loud rock bleakness and twisted free jazz respectively, and will rupture you somewhere pleasant. “Thanks” local promoters Lesson#1. Equally stellar would be Warp dudes Plaid playing with a frigging Gamelan Orchestra at the Arnolfini in Bristol (10th). Again, take a bow QU Junktions people.
These are just two of June’s jump ups: leftfield treats and sweaty youngsters are waiting like truffles for you to root out. The fantastic Golden Disko Ship and Rangda gigs you may already have read us excitably rambling about here and here – similarly great will be Part Horses Mane On Both Sides, playing the Cardiff Arts Institute on the 13th with a fine, fine support bill of Yaje and Islet side project Circles Of Don Boxeo. Part Horses’ spooked wrongness also turns up as part of the showcase from top record label Singing Knives (Cube Cinema, Bristol, 12th), featuring many excellent sideways bands. Enjoy.
I did say sweaty youngsters didn’t I? Well, Flux=Rad nights have moved from Cardiff’s Arts Institute to Clwb Ifor Bach (there’s a slightly ugly backstory here) – of note this month are Woodsist-released femmes Brilliant Colors (8th) and Malkmussian wonksters Wet Paint (22nd). On a related callow tip would be the animal hatted chip tweaker Unicorn Kid (Barfly, Cardiff, 28th), New Zealand surrealist Connan Mockasin (Buffalo Bar, Cardiff, 1st, “helped” by Joy Collective “DJs”) and the terrifyingly cute filth-hoppers Millionaires (Cooler, Bristol, also on the 1st). Also annoyingly young is rising dubstepman Nosaj Thing, who plays Cardiff’s Ten Feet Tall on the 22nd – the same venue that terrific Planet Mu head Falty DL plays on the 1st.
Loads more to finish on: US crackpot Ariel Pink returns to the UK (Metropolis, Bristol, 11th), Lesson#1 bring further noise to Cardiff with Total Abuse and more (Buffalo Bar, 8th); Mariee Sioux and the Resonation Big Band are just two of the additional thrills Bristol’s Cube continually provides (5th and 11th in this case); Songdog‘s Americana comes out to play again (Le Pub, Newport, 12th) and the always lovely School ride their wave of Molly Ringwald approval at the Buffalo Bar (6th, plus Joy Collective Girl Group DJ set, excitingly). And can we just squeeze in Benin City‘s afrofunkbeat (Cardiff Arts Institute, 12th), the Roots On The Lawn folkfest at Chepstow (26th and 27th), witchy goodness from Pamela Wynn Shannon and Haruko (Ten Feet Tall, Cardiff, 12th), further adventures from F.A.G. Club, now in Bristol (Boneyard Bar, 6th; the Jelas are particularly recommended), Frank Gossner‘s African plundering (in a good way) DJ skills (Cardiff Arts Institute, 26th), another top poetry, prose and music night from Balloon (Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, 17th) and, in the same venue on the 19th, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath‘s high falutin’ tribute act…? Uncle Tom Cobley is available for support slots.
