TheJoyCollective

A Qu Junktions Triple Shot presents...

Wildbirds & Peacedrums

Here come one of the bands of the summer WILDBIRDS AND PEACEDRUMS, even the name brings to mind spiritually uplifting, erotic and exotic imagery, sounds and feelings. They certainly generate that in their performances. They are simmering in fine fine fashion at the moment, so catch them close and intimate at The Cube with fine fine support acts and DJs. After a summer break this is the first Qu Junktions show of the late summer season.

Wildbirds and Peacedrums...such a lot from the bare essentials. These two are the forbidden fruit laid bare for us to admire....too good to believe. Wildbirds & Peacedrums create hot, exotic songs with a haunting sense of the blues, freeform soul and a loose-limbed percussive edge that seers them way clear of the bland. The pair's stripped down, tantalising primal show left audience agog at Venn 08 and are on real roll. They are duo from Sweden, who got signed to Leaf and now traverse the world singing sweet and raw. The songs are imbued with a sense of scatter-jazz, Scandinavian pop and widescreen dynamics. Nina Simone certianly gets channelled, as does the energy of jazz gospel, some one man marching band dynamics and some good tunes + they look good in technicolour.

support from Peter Broderick + Silver Pyre

Peter Broderick is a young and gifted multi-instrumentalist from Portland who plays in the Dutch ensemble Efterklang. Solo he captivates with hush hush instrumentals and cinematic lushness. He releases on Type and comes highly reccomended.

Recently relocating to Bristol, Silver Pyre forges a sound from the depths of his native rural Somerset. Blending richly crackling textures with yearning vocals, his music echoes its rugged coastline, legendary free parties and the oppressive pulse of the nuclear power
station.

At The Cube Microplex, Bristol
Sat 13th Sep 2008 / 8pm / £6 adv

Labels: bristol, cube, Wildbirds and Peacedrums

UBERALLES PRESENTS...

BORN RUFFIANS

When one of your tunes is hand-picked by one of the hugest mobile phone companies to feature on their advert, you know you're on to a winner. More than just the obvious benefits, it's also a sure-fire sign that your tune is, what Jerry Lee Lewis used to call, 'Kill-uh'.

Born Ruffians, just one single, a couple of EPs and an album into their career have received that lucrative stamp of approval with their single, Hummingbird, currently selling phones by the bucketload. And, chances are, they'll follow the other bands who've been dealt that same hand and will be selling out venues and notching up mega-sales any time soon. Oh, and an appearance in the recent Channel 4 teen drama, Skins, won't have done them any harm either.

From Midland, Ontario in Canada they come, numbering just three. And with a refreshing, schizophrenic take on indie rock they are armed. In fact, so refreshing is their outlook that they've been signed to the legendary electronic label, Warp Records. The NME love them, Time Out labelled them “a must see” and even The Guardian quite liked them. Drowned In Sound webzine summed them up best though, labelling their sound “equal parts zappy pop smarts and bracing complexity”.

Thursday 18th September 2008
Clwb Ifor Bach, Womanby Street, Cardiff
£6 in advance, 7:30pm

Tickets are available through Spillers Records (02920 224905/www.spillersrecords.co.uk), www.seetickets.com and Clwb Ifor Bach's box office (02920 232199) and are £6 in advance

Labels: born ruffians, canada, cardiff, clwb ifor bach

Another exemplary PeppermintPatti night, another celebration of double X chromosome superiority, another week's pay dropped on the merch stall. You only play a PP gig if one or more of your band members have ovaries; oh, and being very good helps. Such is the case with Heck, who've coalesced around ex-members of Sammo Hung, Mo-Ho-Bish-O-Pi and other local guitar bashers, and who make satisfyingly chunky slabs of mid-tempo rock, vaporous guitar lines circling low-end strut. They rarely take proper flight, but have a weighty heft that I like.

Fast forward to the end of Betty & The Werewolves's set and they're literally jumping for joy. To be fair they're doing this at most points of the set, such is the band's delirious dedication to ramalama garage and frantic pop. It's dangerously close to perfection: playful, stylish, ultra-tight, and leaping out from some place that demands excitement, vitality. The most fun since, like, forever.

With Wet Dog, as with B&TW, you get the feeling that they arrived fully formed the moment they picked up their instruments. They also look ridiculously cool, while clearly operating outside such crappy frameworks. Their actual music is primitive, repetitive, pretty great: song after song that takes Liliput as a starting point, and stomps itself into something more strung out, more weirdly British. These awkward, joyous shapes seem to come from nowhere. More nights like this please.

Brand spanking new Cardiff promotions types Simatik debut with a jam-packed line-up at semi-spanking new Cardiff Buffalo-spin-off 10 Feet Tall.

Head-lining the nght are Bridgend rock outfit The Hustlers who draw definite Arctic Monkeys comparisons with their kind of simple, pop-culture indie tunes, there's a definite sense of fun-loving imagination to their tracks though that puts them a step up from other imitators. 'Lois Lane' features delightfully retro guitar solos and an opening that almost bursts into 'Walking on Sunshine'!

We Are The Afterglow have a more scrappy approach, there are shades of Queens of the Stone Age, notably in tracks like 'We Don't Need Fathers', and curious whispers of latter Red Hot Chilli Peppers. In fact, there seems to be a new direction and genre twist to each track I've heard, all centred around confident instrumentation that inspires almost unintentional head-nodding and foot-tapping even as I write this.

I'm pretty sure I've got a copy of Man Without Country's demo CD knocking around somewhere, and I remember being pleasantly surprised by their excellent production and song-crafting skill, and by the sounds of a recent BBC Cymru session they've come on in leaps and bounds since that release barely a few months ago! The Bridgend three-piece have a sort of ethereal sound to their music that draws comparison to Snow Patrol and The Smashing Pumpkins.

I'll be honest with you, I couldn't find anything out about Beard of Blessed via my usual means of research (*cough* MySpace *cough*), but, the three bands I have already mentioned should warrant your attention and anything else will, I imagine, be a cherry on an already tasty cake. Simatik have an interesting slate of gigs coming your way over the next couple of months and a determination to bring you a diverse and interesting range of bands.

Labels: simatik hustlers we are the afterglow man without country beard of blessed

Another band from the Big Scary Monsters label (Blakfish, Tubelord, Cats & Cats & Cats). I love this label and have got a bit of a promotional end on the go in Diverse if anyone wants to check some of their catalogue out. This Town Needs Guns play a Kruger night in Clwb next month about a week before Cats & Cats & Cats (who they released a split CD with) play Joy in Meze Lounge. Before then though, you can have a look and listen to this.

Labels: big scary monsters, cats and cats and cats, joy, kruger, this town needs guns

OK, first up is a mental note to self to go find Ellen and say hi next time so we don't review the same thing. This could be fun though as I'm bollocks at doing reviews, that why I post a lot of previews, I can steal other people's hard work. However, I'm a pro, I turned up early (mainly because I like Zissou) and only had a pint of Coke all night so my feelings weren't tainted by piss poor wine and I even took a note book so that I looked like a wanker and could remember things. So, here goes...

The night was put on by Shape who are run by the good members of Attack + Defend. It's actually a bit like what we try and do at Joy, put on some diverse and interesting bands with some visuals and have a night that's a bit different to the norm. Last night there were three bands.

Zissou were first up (either Ellen missed them or didn't want to do comparisons to her own band!), the first thing I notice is that Rhys had grown a shitting massive beard. Quality. Anyway, I've seen Zissou twice before when they've played at Joy and the sound has been a lot better than it was last night. These guys have a lot going on at once, there's 6 of them playing guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, violin, wierd tubey, blowy mini keyboard thing (yeah, yeah, do you know what it's called?) plus 3 of them singing, when they started I could hardly hear the vocals and everything else sounded a bit muddy. It did get better though. The first part of what I've described above is what's going to earn them the LC! parallels. To be honest I just think that they've arrived at a similar place through sharing a lot of influences, there's a bit of Broken Social Scene in there, a bit of Flaming Lips and at times, and this is what sets them apart, a bit of Sonic Youth. Yes, there's duel vocals and catchy indie songs, they're rough around the edges but I don't mean they're not practised, just that they don't want to be a polished pop band. When Jack is giving it his all on guitar and Rhys is hammering his violin they sound like they could easily appear between Mogwai and Slint on an ATP bill. If you want to go and see a band that have all the tunes (and t-shirts) of the indie scene but the mindset of a punk band, check out Zissou.

Next on were The Jelas and I have to say that agree with Ellen on this one, the wine had nothing to do with it. If someone said that I was going to see a discordant rock band with awkward time changes and a singer that looked like Thurston Moore I would kind of assume I was going to like them. If you imagine you have jigsaw pieces representing Captain Beefheart, Pixies, Deerhoof, Moldy Peaches and Sonic Youth that didn't quite fit and needed twatting together with a hammer then you'll get an idea of this band. Nice, off key, Malkmus-esque vocals, a great drummer and talented bassist/hamlet can on stick player were all excellent individually but needed to click more together. As somebody stood next to me said 'if that's them playing, I'd hate to hear them practise'. Maybe they just weren't my thing as they seemed to go down well with the rest of the (very full) venue.

And now Yacht. I have to admit that as soon as they started I thought 'The Death Set' to myself. There are definite similarities, shouty vocals over what is essentially a karaoke track, mostly bass and beat driven, occasional guitar and on the second track a tinkly piano that I briefly thought might turn them into Utah Saints (U-U-U-Utah Saints). The general song structure seemed to consist of call and response, repetitive boy/girl vocals but to be honest, nobody cared because although I'm not going to rush out and buy the album, they were wildly entertaining and did everything with a smile and a sense of humour. There was some classy dancing that's synchronicity put Tom Daley and his whinging diving partner to shame. There was also an inter-song geography lesson showing us where they were from, USA, West Coast, Portland, North Portland, right down to a photo of their house and their address (4008, N Mississippi Avenue #4, Portland, 97227-1114). A friend of mine thought they 'were like Nathan Barley dressed by the cast of Mad Max', they weren't his thing. They were fun though, there was a lot of messing about with a laptop and a mid-set Q&A but as the band themselves said 'professionalism - who wants it, who needs it, fuck you'.

Labels: clwb ifor bach, shape, the jelas, yacht, zissou

Cardiff post-punk, art-pop outfit Joy of Sex have released their debut four track EP, and here's a review!

Opening with what sounds like a surreal Christmas Carol that quickly turns into an Art Brut meets The Pixies indie-growler, this debut EP from Cardiff based Joy of Sex is a speedy, experimental and pleasing little record.

Second track 'There Are No Giants' is the standout here, flailing around from laconic verse to squawked chorus barked over stripped down instrumentation. They have a similar post-Frank Blank to sound to fellow Cardiffians The Victorian English Gentlemens Club, also administering a slightly schizoid tendency to their song structures. 'Briefing' has a more erratic post-punk edge to it, with the lead vocals becoming practically seagull-like.

Closer 'Red Rocket' growls over a staccato bassline, boy/girl vocals and drum beat all insistently striking at once until a searching The Cure-like guitar line leads us out of the track.

At four tracks in just over nine minutes it's an extremely brief release, but suggests that this three-piece has enough inventiveness and spark up their sleeves to make them worthy of your attention.

Free download of 'December Month of Plenty' at:

http://www.samu.co.uk/sound&visiondownloads.html

Labels: joy of sex

Planet Events (who I know nothing about, get in touch) present the rather wonderful Jeffrey Lewis and his band. Last time I saw him it was in Buffalo Bar which isn't the best place to watch live music and was worse at the time as it didn't have a stage!! It'll be good to see him in the more accommodating confines of Clwb Ifor Bach.

When other Sidewalk performers the Moldy Peaches signed to Rough Trade Records in late 2000, they recommended Jeffrey's cassette recordings to label head Geoff Travis, and Rough Trade has since released three full-length Jeffrey Lewis CDs in America, England and Europe, garnering glowing press and a devoted following for the idiosyncratic illustrator/songwriter.

Like his Rough Trade releases, and an art/music/DVD box set project (released on England's Hallso label), Lewis's shows can range between "lo-fi folk and sci-fi punk" as well as occasionally incorporating "low budget videos" (large color illustrations displayed to accompany songs). It is only since 2002 that Jeffrey and Jack have become an "official" band, with various friends trading time in the drum seat.

The Jeffrey Lewis Band has toured the US, UK and Europe sharing bills along the way with Cornershop, the Fall, Beth Orton, Frank Black, Daniel Johnston, Scout Niblett, the Mountain Goats, Radio4, Adam Green, Kimya Dawson, British Sea Power, the Fiery Furnaces, Thurston Moore, the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, Devendra Banhart, and others.

"The Big Apple's best-kept secret" - NME

"Jeffrey Lewis: 'The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane' - Best Indie Album of 2002; like his drawings, his music is witty, animated and true." - New York Daily News

"Bizarre but brilliant. Jeffrey Lewis could well be [New York's] ace in the hole." - Uncut

The Wave Pictures are Dave Tattersall, Franic Rozycki and Jonny ''Huddersfield'' Helm. In 1998 Franic and Dave lived in a village called Wymeswold where they started playing music together, with Hugh J. Noble on drums. The band was called Blind Summit. When Hugh decided he didn't want to play drums he went to Exeter to study Philosophy instead. The band changed it's name to The Wave Pictures. Hugh was replaced by several drummers, until Jonny "Huddersfield" Helm became the permanent replacement.

For a few years Dave, Franic and Jonny lived apart, meeting up sporadically to play music. They kept on writing songs and recording, and they played shows across the UK and in France and New York. During this time highlights included playing at the Mofo Festival in Paris at the invitation of friends Herman Dune, and playing shows with The Jeffrey Lewis Band. Dave also sang The Wave Pictures song "Dust Off Your Heart" with Herman Dune on a radio session for the late great John Peel. The Wave Pictures also served as backing band and co-songwriters for John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats, the results featuring on a seven-inch single released by 4AD records.

Last summer, the band finally moved together and currently share a flat in Bethnal Green, London. They are more active than ever. They have toured Spain and Sweden with the mighty Darren Hayman, formerly of Hefner, and played several times in Berlin and France.

7:30pm | £9/£10 | buy tickets from Diverse and Spillers

Labels: clwb ifor bach, jeffrey lewis, the wave pictures