Smasher of a booking from Save Your Widsom Teeth here. Brooklyn’s Zs are bracing minimalists, high on crashing soundscapes and saxophone abuse (my favourite kind of abuse). Itchy dance party scenes predicted. Doublegood support too: Team Brick will deliver unpredictable doses of crumpled electronics, busted throat singing and wrong guitar, while Bambikill’s promised mixture of [...]

August.  Pretty shit, right?  No-one books tours, punters flock to any fly-blown square foot of concrete masquerading as a beer garden, and promoters comb the sticky carpet at your local underattended gig venue in hope of raising enough pennies to bring some quality bands to town in the Autumn.  Do one, August!  Or rather, don’t.  [...]

Updates in the world of Gruff Rhys: as well as two Cardiff dates to celebrate his madheaded collaboration with Brazillian TV repairman and musical instrument inventor Tony Da Gatorra (the album is thumping, quixotic and brilliant, the gigs sold out), the film of the South American adventures that inadvertantly led to the album is almost upon us. [...]

And this month’s weighed-up stab in the musical dark is… Anton Barbeau sounds great: a fried-brained casualty of California, soaked in the psychedelic waters of artists like XTC and Julian Cope, collaborator with the Bevis Frond and the Seconds… I like those eggs. Also look out for Bristolians Schnauser shaking out gently proggy pastoral indie – promising [...]

The Handsome Family may look like a couple who taxidermy their pets and possibly they do. There’s certainly a dark, gothic strain to their country folk apocalypse; murder ballads and more that are not so much bone dry as evaporated. They are, definitely. terrific entertainment – quiet, intelligent songs that muster as much gravitas and shadowy [...]

No offence to Oui Messy and all but I kind of like the fact that their yanking from the bill shifts Science Bastard into top slot (plus they’re currently playing 38 gigs a month anyway). And if you’re thinking “Yeah, but you would say that. One of Science Bastard helped set up this website and [...]

Do you believe in magic? What about aliens? How about alien magicians, some martian Paul Daniels pulling green rabbits from his bumhole? This, literally, didn’t happen tonight, but what is present is a definite air of extraterrestrial weirdness, strange spells cast by Nalle that creep over a dreary Monday in Cardiff like a gold spiderweb. [...]

The happenings are happening again. Chapter may still let the odd artsnob bulbhandler through its doors, but the recent refurbishment has left the two upstairs rooms available for musical funtimes again. In Chapters mixes literature gubbins with booze-soaked musicians, local hairy man Ollie has plugged his Six Glass Fingers monthlies back in, while this here [...]

Is the Buffalo the only frigging venue Joy Of Sex ever play? I’ve got visions of them rolling out of bed to the sight of the ‘What The Fuck’ sign, rehearsing downstairs before the bar opens, then choosing lunch from the extensive and affordable food menu. They’re still one of the capital’s finest bands: stripped [...]

You can’t see Cardiff from space. All this is is one set in one gig in one venue on a Sunday night when the football’s on. Such is the power of small and perfect ideas though this one set cut to the heart of my stupid psyche and made me way giddier than these old [...]

Welcome to the first in an occasional series, “Reviews we were too lazy to finish at the time”.  You’ll notice this gig was over two months ago.  Since it took place, everyone present has lost their hair.  Look out for Matt’s legendary I Am Hope review some time in December.  Sorry.  Photos below were by [...]

It’s worth going through piles of needles just for one poke of hay. At the rocktastic time of 7.45pm the Stacking Chairs line up on stage: Casey Raymond, formerly of fabulous irritants Botanophobia and Preston & Spartanite; Huw Evans, ex of Meanz Heinz and currently looking a bit like the lesbian hipster from Big Brother [...]