Hello. Seemed like a fairly low-key June when I first drafted this preview, but it’s blossomed nicely; the absence of more high-profile stuff means more room to highlight some of the more far-flung recommendations for the month ahead. Quick note to also acknowledge Tera Melos, Wormrot and the Peyote/Hangmen show in Cardiff, the Sick Livers/Hip Priests gig in Newport and Leafcutter John/Serafina Steer, Guitar Wolf and the Kurt Weill night in Bristol. Time and space constraints and all that; see the gig guide for info. Right, read on.
FOREIGN OBJECTS / SOLUTIONS / PERSONAL BEST, Buffalo, 1st
This may be the last Lesson No.1 promotion for a while and it’s an early one, so switch on and get out in support. OK? LN1 shows are a solid gold kite mark of quality in any case, but this one should rip in especially fine style. Boston’s Foreign Objects do catchy, fast and fun riot grrrl-inspired punk, whipping through eight diamond-sharp examples in 15 minutes on their full-length debut No Sensation. Get there early to catch Personal Best, who might well have sprung from Boston circa 1992 but are in fact one of Caves and one of Bedford Falls doing pared-down alt-rock tunefulness. Get involved.
LUCKY DRAGONS / TEN / SILVER STAIRS OF KETCHIKAN / MINOTAUR SHOCK DJ SET, Cube, 1st
On record, Lucky Dragons’ electro-acoustic snippets, vocal and percussive loops and playful experimental zeal pitches them somewhere between Sung Tongs, The Books and concréte installation project. Their live performances – in galleries, museum, workshops or clubs – see them stretch the parameters of conventional gig setups to take in audience participation, interactive collaborations and unique, tiny moments of shared wonder. If you saw them support Dirty Projectors and Polar Bear in Clwb in ’09, you’ll know what I’m droning on about. If not, it was pretty delightful, and genuinely inclusive and warm. With gauzy, ambient improv guitar workouts from Charlie out of Thought Forms (as Silver Stairs Of Ketchikan), mordant and melancholic post-folk atmospherics from Ten and Minotaur Shock on the decks. It’s a perfectly chosen bill and a pretty special night in prospect.
BOLIDE / MILCHE GRAND / FAIRHORNS / HEXENVERFOLGUNG, Croft, 4th
SLY AND THE FAMILY DRONE / MxLx / GIANT SWAN, Croft, 6th
Two shows at one venue within three days, featuring little-known bands with pretty excellent names, two of whom are Matt Williams and four of whom (at least) are doing Supernormal fest in Oxfordshire in August. Check that link, by the way, it looks brilliant. Anyway, they’re our wildcard picks for the month ahead by dint of the fact that they promise tripped-out noise, dribbling improv madness, percussive battery and righteous kraut-drone action aplenty. Fairhorns and MxLx you should know and love like we do by now; the kraut/dub and drone/blissout eargasm alter-egos of the man Team Brick respectively, they’re equally essential. Bolide and Hexenverfolgung hail from Brighton and offer free improv chaos and filthy jazz noise on a Monday night. S&TFD go with the classic drum/synth/cassette loop line-up, while Giant Swan give it some tumultuous floaty drone love on a busman’s holiday from The Naturals. What’s not to get excited about here, then? Exactly.
ANDREW BIRD / WOODPIGEON, Trinity, 6th
A seemingly leftfield choice to headline the second stage at Green Man in ’09, Bird was in fact an inspired selection; while Jarvis toiled away across the site, his solo songs an unwelcome diversion from his patter, Bird’s easy charm, careworn croon and deep, luxurious catalogue of undiscovered orch-folk gems stole the show at a canter. A virtuoso violinist whose early affiliations with gypsy jazz, swing and folk blues still inform his latter-day pop songwriting, his broad stylistic palette, dizzying, seductive wordplay and burnt-sugar voice would elicit comparison with the pop-baroque orchestration and raffish wit of Rufus Wainwright, M. Ward’s crumpled folk-country or the tastefully reappropriated AM radio storyteller pop of Destroyer’s Dan Bejar if he didn’t cover all bases equally well.
LA VAMPIRES / MARIA MINERVA / ITAL / MAGIC TOUCH / HEATSICK, Motorcycle Showroom, 8th
Achingly hip LA label 100% Silk brings the party to this mammoth Qu Junktions night, with label head honcho Amanda Brown’s own LA Vampires and Tallinn-via-London chanteuse Maria Minerva heading the bill. Appearing here in a full-band setting, Brown’s releases as LA Vampires have seen her exclusively work in tandem with labelmates, be it the static-wreathed drones and spooked vocals of her Zola Jesus collab, warped tape-loop jams and blocky 80s FX or the submerged and heat-baked house beats explored with Ital’s Daniel Martin-McCormick. He’s here too, returning to Bristol with his slo-mo, prickly-heat drone-house epics, as is his Mi Ami bandmate Damon Palermo, aka Magic Touch, who brings a more direct, delirious retro-disco vibe. Minerva might be the most intriguing of all the turns here; her own take on the Not Not Fun house style allies seductive lo-fi dance-pop to sturdier, more modernist house and garage patterns. A pretty intense and rewarding showcase for a label that’s a singular voice in dancefloor circles.
JACK LEWIS’ AWKWARD ENERGY / THE MIDDLE ONES / TWO WHITE CRANES, Café Kino, 9th and Moon Club, 14th
More than merely the Carl Hoddle of antifolk, chiefly because I just made that up and it made me chuckle, Jeff’s little brother gets a fraction of his coverage but here steps out of his shadow for a rare solo tour. Moving in the same tight creative and collaborative circles (Herman Dune, Wave Pictures, Kimya Dawson etc) mightn’t exactly suggest a singular voice, but his L’vov series of albums (L’vov Swims the Willamette, on Cornershop’s Ample Play label, is his fifth) reveal a sunny, laidback and awkwardly witty pop that trades enough on the family tropes and retains a naivete, charm and wit redolent of Richman or Malkmus but offers something unique and enjoyable.
DAVID THOMAS BROUGHTON, St Bonaventure’s, 11th
It’s galling, in a way, that ten-a-penny mobile phone advert singer-songwriters shin up the greasy pole so quickly and frequently – selling out huge venues on the way – while the likes of the unique Broughton remain cult concerns. It was wonderful to see him play the main stage at End of the Road a few years ago, baffling the afternoon picnickers with his gloriously plummy Jake Thackray tones, frenzied violin and decaying vocal loops. Outbreeding may have showcased slightly more conventional songwriting than his previous loop-heavy, improvised and processed recordings, but it’s still wonderfully affecting, odd stuff; a Richard Youngs-style approach to folk, twisting English traditions, weird acid-folk, and more contemporary electronica together and coupled with a rich Yorkshire baritone and disquieting, personal subject matter. Captivating to see live, get up close and revel in it.
LA SERA / CASSETTE CULTURE / VELCRO HOOKS, Fleece, 12th
The breakneck pace of Vivian Girls’ thrilling 2008 debut had an unfortunate critical echo; last year’s third emerged to frustrating indifference from many, as if the abundance of trebly C86 copyists made them a worse band. There was a notable tension creeping into the band’s lyrics, perhaps unsurprisingly; girl-group fragility and brittleness hid in the murk and reverb from the start, and the resultant solo projects could be seen to act as a clearing-house for the band’s songwriters to work through some long-held issues. Bassist Katy Goodman’s confident, direct second LP as La Sera hits the spot. In parts it tears along with the same cacophonous energy Vivian Girls specialise in, albeit paring back the sheets of noise for a cleaner, crisper fuzz-pop. Elsewhere there’s luminous melodies and swooning Beach House languor.
ADDISON GROOVE, Clwb, 8th & Thekla, 15th
Conceived as a Chicago footwork and juke-influenced sideline to his plentiful and high-quality heavyweight dubstep releases as Headhunter, Addison Groove achieved notoriety from the off with the inimitable gonzo brilliance of ‘Footcrab’. Repurposing the bass-heavy juke form for UK dubstep crowds, the resultant hybrid came off effortless, dumb and hugely danceable. A subsequent flurry of 12”s and remixes followed a similar pattern, dabbling in electro and house along the way; one such, for Spank Rock, led to a couple of suitably lascivious numbskull collaborations on AG’s debut LP earlier this year. Breathless, sweaty dancefloor fun and bass-heavy filth in spades at this one.
Y NIWL / JOYCE THE LIBRARIAN / VIOLAS / EILIR PIERCE, Café Kino (22nd) and Clwb (23rd)
TAFWYL FAIR, Cardiff Castle (23rd)
Anglesey’s finest continue to tour incessantly as their profile justly rises; radio sessions, high-profile endorsements and support tours (Richard Hawley, more dates with Gruff Rhys) litter their diary as album number two comes together. They’ve two shows in the capital to mark the expansion of the Tafwyl fair, the centrepiece of a week-long community arts festival to raise the profile of spoken Welsh in Cardiff. A mid-afternoon slot in the free alldayer (also featuring Meic Stevens, Heather Jones, Yr Ods etc) is followed by a Clwb gig where the promisingly unhinged Eilir Pierce – Denbighshire’s own R. Stevie Moore, he said glibly – supports. The night before sees them blast through twangy nuggets old and new in a rescheduled show in Café Kino’s intimate, friendly basement; in-yer-face and loud like memorable Swn shows in CAI, the Model and Dempseys, it’ll be well worth the hike to Bristol to witness people seeing them for the first time again.
FLOATING POINTS / ANDREW WEATHERALL / BEN UFO / BRAIDEN, Clwb, 22nd
Blinding line-up courtesy of Electronic Goods and Red Bull Music Academy, topped off by nu-house wunderkind Sam Shepherd aka Floating Points. The Londoner’s diverse and frequent releases via his Eglo imprint have moved almost imperceptibly across the map, from the gloriously symphonic downtempo electro-soul like ‘Love Me Like This’ or the spacey, smudged disco ecstacy of ‘Vacuum Boogie’ to the fidgety abstractions of ‘Danger’. Think the psychedelic, jazz-inflected bass music of Flying Lotus rerouted via Detroit and Chicago. Supporting cast is pretty solid too – just Hessle Audio mainman Ben UFO and Rinse FM’s Braiden – oh yeah, and the masterful Andrew Weatherall. Expect the first two to chart a course through garage, funky, dubstep and electro; expect the unexpected from the moustachioed interloper.
THE SCHOOL / TOYPOP / MOUSE DEER, 10 Feet Tall (23rd) and Croft (6th)
In which Cardiff’s finest pop combo, fresh from a support tour with reanimated C86 janglers the Primitives, take a deserved victory lap of the country in celebration of their utterly lovely second album Reading Too Much Into Things Like Everything. A refinement rather than a reinvention, it once more takes lyrical and musical inspiration from classic girl group pop, with Spector and Bacharach arrangements, brassy indiepop choruses, deft hints of new wave and wistful Francophone longing. They’re a proper gang these days, and this giddy enthusiasm shines through every note. Pick of the handpicked supports here is Mouse Deer, hopelessly named but toting deceptively complex, sunny pop of a Field Music hue with some very nifty melodic twists. Afterparty chaos will ensue following the Cardiff gig. Do yourselves a favour and celebrate with them.
