http:\/\/bristolladyfest.wordpress.com<\/a>\u00a0for details of this year\u2019s charities and the wide-ranging events, taking in film, comedy, art exhibitions, creative workshops and some cracking gigs. The Fleece hosts a massive alldayer on the Saturday, highlights including fantastically charismatic, gleefully arse-kicking sister-brother noise-rock Hysterical Injury, Rozi Plain\u2019s poised, tender folk and the banjo-plucking French-tinged acoustica of This Is The Kit. The opening party at the County Sports Club on Colston Street has Big Joan\u2019s Annette Berlin, the seething Riot Grrrl screech of Crash! Paris and perennial Joy faves Bellies!, the most grin-inducing skronk-pop clatter imaginable. Bellies! also grace Cardiff again this month with the splendid minimal post-punk robo-twitch of Totem Terrors, so if you can\u2019t make any of the Ladyfest events (and you should), do not miss that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
JO SCHORNIKOW, Louisiana, 9<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\nA friend, a Fence Records obsessive and all-round stout fellow, recently emailed me recommending sweetly miserablist NYC indie-folk duo The Shivers. The following day an email appeared in the Joy inbox from Jo Schornikow, an Australian singer-songwriter, itinerant organist and currently one half of The Shivers, promoting her solo UK tour. I\u2019d have missed this listing entirely if not for the coincidence, but I\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t; The Shivers\u2019 More<\/em> is a fine enough record, but Schornikow\u2019s own songs are gems. Her First Time, Long Time <\/em>is a deceptively breezy and relaxed listen, reflecting on familiar themes of love and transience, as you\u2019d expect for someone whose career took her a world away from the jazz clubs and churches she played in back home. She\u2019s got a winning, candid charm and there\u2019s a sort of timeless quality that finds you reaching for comparisons to Laura Nyro or Carole King rather than anything more contemporary.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
SHARON VAN ETTEN, Thekla, 10<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\nIt\u2019s the voice that stops you in your tracks, grabs you by the arm; the voice and the words, sometimes calm, or defiant, or anxious, or bitterly sarcastic. With a back-story and glorious, bruised, soaring vocal range like hers, comparisons between Van Etten and Cat Power are as inevitable and lazy as the assumption that her stark, confessional songs are autobiographical. The twist is that they are, and that first-person intimacy, particularly on 2010\u2019s Epic<\/em>, ought to be a difficult listen. That is isn\u2019t reflects the often stunning quality of the songs themselves, folk and country, laments and exhortations, intimate and solo or arranged for a small ensemble cast. Van Etten has found a voice and a determined, questing confidence that demands the attention in the way of, say, Nina Nastasia, Marissa Nadler or Shannon Wright. As her well-documented personal issues are essayed and self-healed, the journey is a fascinating and rewarding one for others too.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
WOODEN SHJIPS, Fleece, 10<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\nThe slow hit of Wooden Shjips\u2019 narcoleptic drone-boogie works in a very simple, primal way. The beauty\u2019s in the repetition, not just in the minimal patterns and insistent grooves within single tracks, but in the way a whole set coalesces into a singular, driving mass that stays thrilling regardless of its length and of the lack of movement or interaction from the band\u2019s members. The bad-vibes Stooges chug, and diesel-sucking guitars recall any number of garage, psych and biker-rock wrong \u2018uns, while the droning organ and insistent basslines are prime Suicide, Ripley Johnson\u2019s vaguely forboding muttering completing the picture. You could just as easily replace those references with Hawkwind, Spacemen 3 and the furthest reaches of Krautrock, and that\u2019s the thing \u2013 use even a limited palette in the right way and you transcend the influences in spite of yourself. If there\u2019s been a slight refinement of style in recent releases, live they still seem utterly untroubled by time and progress, as though they could happily riff and drone and solo away until dawn if no-one stood in the wings tapping a watch. Get up close, hear the amp crackle and the warm buzz of overheated keyboards and nod out.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
ORCA TEAM \/ JOANNA GRUESOME \/ MOUSE DEER, Croft, 12<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup> and Buffalo, 13<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\nIt’s Nautical Indiepop Month at Buffalo, where Pacific NW transplants Orca Team (see?) offer a more studied, starchily Calvin Johnson take on the prevailing turn-of-the-60s beach party vibe than do the less knowing, more emotionally direct Sea Lions. Not that there isn’t plenty to enjoy here, though, something roughly akin to Nodzzz attempting a set of Eddie Cochran and Jan & Dean covers. Skeletal and linear, with gawkily catchy basslines skimming across the surface and a pleasingly bleached-out hey-let’s-party attitude which offers intriguing hints of a lo-fi B-52s. Cardiff’s own fuzzed-up pop kids Joanna Gruesome support here, offering the kind of cutie noisepop they should be far too young to remember (Velocity Girl, Cub, Boyracer et al) and doing a startlingly good job of it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
WU-TANG LEGENDS, Newport Centre, 16<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\nWell. Newport\u2019s Big Splash festival is a weekend-long, multi-site free event of participatory family fun, music, crafting and youth-friendly \u2018urban\u2019 activity. Oh right yes, and four of the Wu-Tang Clan. In a Newport leisure centre, on a Monday evening. Incredulity aside, this is a heck of a coup given it\u2019s one of five UK dates they\u2019ll do; while its slightly oblique name should forewarn that it might be a slightly loose definition of Wu-Tang, and despite apparent doubts about Method Man\u2019s attendance, it\u2019s undeniable that Ghostface, Raekwon and even GZA can still slay live if they put their minds to it. Don\u2019t know about you but even at \u00a327 and with one group album in ten years, a set based on Wu-Tang classics and bits of Cuban Linx<\/em>, Ironman<\/em> and Liquid Swords<\/em> still sounds pretty tidy to me, and if that\u2019s what this provides there\u2019s no reason it shouldn\u2019t be excellent knuckleheaded fun.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
WANDA JACKSON, The Factory (Porth), 16<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup> and Thekla, 18<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\nWhen I was about five I was given a small record player and a bunch of hand-me-down records. The first LP I ever owned was a K-Tel \u201cRockin\u2019 & Rollin\u2019 Greats\u201d compilation which, obviously, I was transfixed by. It had the scariest song I\u2019d ever heard (\u2018Wipe Out\u2019 \u2013 that cackling intro terrified me), the best version of Stagger Lee ever (by Lloyd Price) and Wanda Jackson squawking and squealing through \u2018Let\u2019s Have A Party\u2019. It was completely brilliant. I\u2019d no idea what she meant by \u201cshaking a chicken in the middle of the room\u201d, and I pretty much still don\u2019t. Fifty-two years after she released that, the Queen of Rockabilly still belts out Jack White-produced rock & roll and country standards and this month hits the bright lights of Porth. Where did it all go right, Wanda?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
TRUCKERS OF HUSK \/ FAILED NASA EXPERIMENT \/ HANGMEN, Clwb, 21<\/strong>st<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\nCardiff and Ammanford\u2019s leading five-man percussive hydra return for their second gig in the capital this year, unless I\u2019m an idiot (I am). This is cause enough for celebration, of course; their exhilarating, shapeshifting math-rock brew has evolved into manifold new shapes over time, with densely layered samples, buzzing synths, saxophone and carefully deployed, inscrutable vocal rounds filling it out. Accelerated Learning<\/em> is, by their usual recording pace, still very much fresh, yet the Truckers website tantalisingly hints at the impending release called Night Eraser<\/em> – EP? Unlikely second album? Interactive CD-Rom adventure where Kelson and Rhodri traverse the A474 to Ammanford solving crime? The truth will out. Get to this early for Failed NASA Experiment, Murray Ward\u2019s one-man assault of blissed-out drone, warped tape manipulations, and hazy, beauteous sun-damaged avant-garde joy as well as a further dose of July surf rock, courtesy of Swansea’s great Hangmen.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
PLEASE MIND YOUR HEAD III: THREATMANTICS \/ THE GENTLE GOOD \/ THEM SQUIRRELS \/ GINDRINKER \/ LOCAL SPORTS TEAM \/ SHE\u2019S GOT SPIES \/ THEM LOVELY BOYS, Clwb, 22<\/strong>nd<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\nThird annual fundraiser for the extremely good eggs of brain injury charity Headway, again featuring a fine and diverse line-up of eminent local types and organised by our pal Justin. Raffles, stalls, brantub, booze, increasingly tipsy and rambling introductions and a clutch of reliably excellent bands makes it pretty much mandatory as far as us bulbs are concerned. This time out, the lucky dip brings us the fine musical stylings of Threatmantics, The Gentle Good, Gindrinker and the lesser spotted and always completely brilliant Them Squirrels. Cheap entry, guaranteed fun, the satisfying glow of helping a worthy cause plus it fills an otherwise dull Sunday. No excuses, people.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
JOE MCPHEE & CHRIS CORSANO \/ LAND OBSERVATIONS, Cube, 23<\/strong>rd<\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\nClosing out this month\u2019s recommendations, this one is hard to beat, a potentially explosive meeting of two forces of nature. McPhee, a multi-instrumentalist embraced more in Europe than his homeland for years (a Swiss label was inaugurated specifically to showcase his work) and schooled in Coltrane, Ayler and Coleman, has immersed himself in the avant-garde all his long career. From post-Civil Rights free jazz and its overlaps with funk, Eastern mysticism and African music, to working with electronic composer and \u2018Deep Listening\u2019 pioneer Pauline Oliveros, to his brilliant latter-day collaborations with Paal Nilsson-Love (both as a duo and in a barnstorming ensemble with the Thing and Cato Salsa Experience), McPhee\u2019s remained in the vanguard of weird, powerful and way-out music. Chris Corsano you\u2019ll know, from his many collaborations and ensembles (Rangda, Six Organs, Bjork etc), as an astonishingly fluid improv drummer. Should be an incredible night. Land Observations sound very interesting too \u2013 if you recall Exeter kraut\/post-rockers Appliance, this is guitarist James Brooks\u2019 new minimal guitar outfit. Nice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WEEKEND NACHOS \/ THE AFTERNOON GENTLEMEN \/ WITCH CULT \/ PARISO \/ ATOM\u00c7K, Croft, 1st POWERCUP \/ PIZZA HI-FIVE \/ ATOM\u00c7K \/ MERCILESS PRECISION \/ Loads more, Gryphon, 14th If like me your youth was soundtracked to a significant degree by dear old Uncle John Peel interspersing the Ragga Twins and Ukrainians hits with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":21391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2230,458],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlights","category-preview"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}