The Joy Collective

MISFITS + Juicehead + Naughty Whisper + Those Furious Flames

£17adv | All Ages*

Monday February 6 , 7:30pm

The Fleece, 12 St Thomas Street, Bristol. United kingdom.

Misfits

In 1977, at the dawn of the punk movement the Misfits set out to make an impression, and created a legacy that has truly withstood the test of time. Immortalizing black and white B horror films in their music, the Misfits developed a ghoulish and totally unique persona that’s consistently evolved, while remaining true to its roots. The band’s iconic “Fiend Skull” logo has become a staple in pop culture, and an instantly recognizable symbol worldwide. Bands across the spectrum of rock have covered their material, including Metallica, Guns ‘n’ Roses, My Chemical Romance and countless others citing the ‘Fits as a key influence. Boasting a massive catalog of music, a new lineup, (consistently helmed by founding member Jerry Only), and an influence felt around the world, the Misfits are generating more interest today than ever before. With new releases charting higher than all priors, and constant worldwide touring, their diverse demographic and legion of “fiends” (as their fans are affectionately known), multiplies daily.

After a split in the mid 1980′s and a decade-long hiatus, The Misfits was resurrected by founding member Jerry Only, returning stronger than ever on Geffen Records, and reestablishing the ‘Fits as one of the most aggressive and still relevant outfits in modern rock history. Thematically, the band’s music continued to focus on their time-honored fascination with vampires, monsters, and alien invasion. “We are the Misfits after all,” warns Only about the band’s refusal to address worldly issues, he explains, “Fiends who buy our records and come to see us perform enter another world – from the guy all the way back in the balcony, to the guy getting his head banged around in the front – they come to have a good time. And we make sure they have it. They can hear about social and political issues somewhere else.”

Today, The Misfits remain more aggressive, more topical and more sought after than ever before, fronted by Jerry Only (Bass/Vocals) with Dez Cadena on guitar, (celebrating his 10th anniversary in the band this year), the latest addition to the fiendish fold is drummer Eric “Chupacabra” Arce behind the kit. Arce, or “Chupacabra” as he’s now known, has been a fixture in the ‘Fits touring lineup for over a decade, and recently inducted a permanent member upon the retirement of original Misfits drummer Robo, who’d passed the torch in 2010. Now, the ‘Fits return with their first full-length release of all-new, original material in nearly a decade! Rooted in the horror and sci-fi themes their audience craves, “The Devil’s Rain” showcases 16 fiendish, soon-to-be Misfits classics including “Twilight of the Dead”, “Dark Shadows”, “Curse of the Mummy’s Hand” and the title track “The Devil’s Rain”. Produced by Ed Stasium, (who’s credits include the Ramones’ “Road to Ruin” and “Too Tough to Die”, as well as the Misfits’ 1999 release “Famous Monsters”), the album showcases a jaw-dropping, two- panel front/back cover painting featuring the rebirth of the band’s iconic “Fiend” mascot in an epic setting rendered by Arthur Suydam (known for his immensely popular work on the Marvel Zombies series, among others). The packaging, designed to emulate a CD sized gatefold LP, also features some incredible new Misfits portraits shot by the legendary Mick Rock. Rock’s imagery has become part of the very fabric of rock ‘n’ roll. Having also served as an on-set photographer for cult-movie classic “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, Rock lends a perfectly suited eye to view the band’s surrealistic and highly theatrical persona. “The Devil’s Rain” is not just a continuation of a historic legacy, it’s a total reboot ushering in a new era of terror. In a sense, it’s the debut album from the legendary Misfits of this decade. From fans of their classics, to newcomers discovering the band for the very first time, “The Devil’s Rain” sets the bar, and redefines the ferocity and melody that has made the Misfits omnipresent and immortal.

One thing is certain, The Misfits are here to stay and every day is Halloween.

Plus support from Juicehead.

•Doors: 8:00 PM

•Price: £6 Adv

•Entry: 16+

•Room: Main Room

The Croft presents:

PAIGE

+ Autumn In Disguise

Monday 6 February @ The Croft, Bristol

PAIGE Biography:

http://www.paigetheband.co.uk

ALESTORM + Claim The Throne + Darkest Era

£10adv | All Ages*

Tuesday February 7 , 7:30pm

The Fleece, 12 St Thomas Street, Bristol. United kingdom.

Alestorm

The Seven Seas were obviously not expansive enough for Captain Chris Bowes and his crew, as their third raid in the quest for booty takes them “Back Through Time”. The Scottish buccaneers battle not only narrow-minded landlubbers and enemy privateers, but also foul-tempered Vikings! They bring the soundtrack to this epic clash of cultures with them and refine their recipe for success as gentlemen o’ fortune with brand-new ingredients. Catchy melodies and fanfare call out from the ship’s stern, along with a number of other authentic instruments including violins, accordions and diverse horns. To add rampage to the mix, metal riffs attack on deck to complete this Fiddler’s Green of irresistible sing-along anthems and party songs. With Captain Chris holding steady at the helm, the tracks are further enhanced with his vocal flair. Songs like “Shipwrecked”, “Rum”, and “Midget Saw” continue the band’s seadog tradition, while further developing its sound. “Death Throes of the Terrorsquid” is the epic conclusion to the album. The approximately 8-minute-long song earns its title and shows the band from a rarely seen, yet extraordinarily becoming perspective. Again, fifth band member Lasse Lammert has taken on the production responsibilities at LSD Studios, and through his countless feats merits the title of First Mate. The images of the talented Ingo Römling / Monozelle also continue to embellish this release. If the old wives tale holds true and the third album decides a band’s fate, Alestorm can look forward to glorious and rum-guzzling times ahead. The third time’s a charm indeed.

With support from Claim The Throne:

Formed in 2005, CLAIM THE THRONE have built a reputation for outrageous live performances and a unique style of metal. With a newly refined line-up in 2010, TRIUMPH AND BEYOND displays the band at their peak with 12 tracks of fearless victory and its festive aftermath.

TRIUMPH AND BEYOND was recorded, mixed and mastered by Dr Al Smith at Bergerk! Studios and is available through PRIME CUTS Music from December 4th 2010.

If you are brave enough, you must witness Claim The Throne for yourself. Blood, armour, swords, axes, cloaks, leather and frothy mugs of ale are just some of the items you will encounter on your journey.

..and Darkest Era:

DARKEST ERA formed under the name Nemesis in mid 2005. They wrote their first song, ‘Battle of Cul Dreimne’ at their first full practice. The song had an unintentional Celtic leaning which was to permeate the band’s writing from then on. Originally taking influence from early Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy and Irish folk music, their self titled demo, Nemesis, was released in mid 2006. A collection of raw, energetic and twin guitar driven songs, it began to bring the band to the attention of the European true metal underground.

February 7th, 2012

BLACK ART | TWO COINS FOR THE BOATMAN | KORPSER

ENTRY//£4adv

February 8th, 2012

F.O.F PRESENTS: DEAD WOLF CLUB / DEAD ELMS

ENTRY//£6adv

\\\Eagerly anticipated album release in January///

“Fast-fretted, noise-loving post-punk band whose new wave energy will get you panting like ten minutes on the travelator ” – The Great Escape Festival

“Another brand new band we’re found and fallen in love with recently. People keep asking us if this is These New Puritans when they hear it. They deserve to be as big. ” – Pure Groove Record, Unsigned Album Choice

“London’s DEAD WOLF CLUB deliver some heavy tunes I like, as you’d expect from yet another Wolf band. If they were just Dead Black Wolf, they’d have the trifecta of band names that are hot in 2008. Check out “Dissapear” – Futuresounds

“Music To Check Out” – Babble and Beat

“DWC come armed with the huge swathing melodies of Nine Black Alps coupled with the intensity of Die! Die! Die! and have the potential to explode!!!” – Windie Miller

Post War Years

February 8, 2012

9pm – midnight / Free Entry

Post War Years live / Camera Culture -live

The Post War Years are a band from Royal Leamington Spa, who (according to their Myspace page) are Latin/Hard House/Jazz but they have an Alternative/Indie edge about them too. Post War Years consist of Si Critten, Henry Riggs, Tom O’Hare and Fred McLaren. They are all very nice chaps and in some cases close personal friends. They all enjoy a variety of musical styles and it shows, because they have a diverse range of songs evincing Prince to Battles as influences, unified thematically by all being jaw-droppingly great.

The Stag And Hounds proudly present our good friends THE KABEEDIES with the launch of their New Album SOAP with support from 2 of bristols hottest bands

THE KEBEEDIES

http://www.facebook.com/thekabeedies?sk=app_178091127385

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ARMCHAIR COMMITTEE

http://www.facebook.com/armchair.committee

Armchair Committee’s sound is a melting pot of hooky vocals, unique song-structures, fertile soundscapes and shifts in tempo and time signature. With their streamlined concoction of the raw blues of Black Keys and the cinematic rock of Muse, they create a sound that is as compelling as it is individual.

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MEMOIRS OF A MAGICIAN

http://www.facebook.com/Memoirsofamagician

Memoirs of a Magician (M.O.A.M) are a three piece Rock/Indie band, based in Bristol. They released their EP “Live for Today” at the start of august, and promoted it around the UK. With bouncing bass lines, jingly guitar patterns and catchy lyrics supported by killer drums, they create their own ear pleasing sound.

SWAN + Marshal Town + Bite The Buffalo + Butterfiles In The Attic

£5adv | All Ages*

Wednesday February 8 , 7:30pm

The Fleece, 12 St Thomas Street, Bristol. United kingdom.

Genre: Local Talent.

•Doors: 8:00 PM

•Price: £5

•Entry: 16+

•Room: Main Room, Front Bar

The Croft In House presents:

Loftbeat

+ Open To Offers + Silverfox + Blake + Rough Money

Wednesday 8 February @ The Croft, Bristol

Brand New

O2 Academy Bristol

Wed 08 Feb 12

Door time: 7.00pm

Show time: TBC

The Long Island four piece, whose most recent album, ‘Daisy’, was released in 2009, delight fans with a return to the live circuit.

Under 21s require ID to purchase alcohol

Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult over 18 at all times

LOS JUENTAS + Within Reason + Liveo + The Diversions

£5adv | All Ages*

Thursday February 9 , 7:30pm

The Fleece, 12 St Thomas Street, Bristol. United kingdom.

Genre: Local Talent.

‘An inventive, endearing, impressive show.’ The Guardian

Ayayaaaaaayyyyyhh! The wildly inventive Spaghetti Western Orchestra, one of the hits of the BBC Proms 2011, takes the stage by storm with its joyous celebration of the powerfully evocative film music of Ennio Morricone, from ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ to ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’.

Let loose on over 100 instruments, this slapstick gang dazzles with its fistful of moody and magnificent soundtracks, recreating the saloon punch-ups, gunshots and jangling spurs that define the gun-slinging West.

‘Compelling theatricality and kaleidoscopic range of moods, from slapstick hilarity to authentically creepy menace. An inspired show.’ The Scotsman

spaghettiwesternorchestra.com

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10pm FreeStage Filmic: Celebrating the launch of Filmic Music + Film Festival, composer Colin Tully and Sensorium play Colin’s original music from ‘Gregory’s Girl’, in a special free-entry after-show party in the Crypt Café / Bar.

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Promoted by St George’s Bristol.

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MGM Wednesday Westerns

In February and March MGM HD (Sky Channel 313 and UPC Eire Channel 325) screen a selection of many of the films whose music the Spaghetti Western Orchestra play. Look out for the promotional short films featuring the Spaghetti Western Orchestra on the MGM channel.

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•Doors: 8:00 PM

•Price: £5

•Entry: 16+

•Room: Main Room

The Croft presents:

Scout Killers

+ Red Dust Road + Casino Trap + The Vast

Thursday 9 February @ The Croft, Bristol

NME Awards Show ft. Justice

Justice

O2 Academy Bristol

Thu 09 Feb 12

Door time: 7.00pm

Show time: TBC

Influential Parisian duo Justice will lead a series of shows that will bring the might of the NME Awards Shows to the whole of the UK.

Under 25s require ID to purchase alcohol.

Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult over 18 at all times.

Sold Out

BABYBIRD + The Tricks + Termites

£10adv | All Ages*

Friday February 10 , 7:30pm

The Fleece, 12 St Thomas Street, Bristol. United kingdom.

Babybird
 
Babybird is a British indie band, formed in 1995. The band is fronted by Stephen Jones, who has also released records as a solo artist, using his own name and the name Baby Bird.
 
Jones had begun writing songs and recording home demos as part of an experimental theatre group in Sheffield. A collection of these demos (I Was Born a Man) was released in the summer of 1995, under the name Baby Bird. Following a warm critical reception for this record, he recruited a band made up of Huw Chadbourne (keyboards), Robert Gregory (drums), John Pedder (bass) and Luke Scott (guitar), in order to tour and promote his work.
 
During 1995, two further albums of demo recordings were released under the name Baby Bird (Bad Shave and Fatherhood) and two in 1996 (The Happiest Man Alive and Dying Happy).
 
By the end of the year, a decent public following had been built up, as well as quite considerable excitment within the press and music industry. Babybird were signed to Echo Records (a division of the Chrysalis Group), and the first “proper” single, a full-band recording of “Goodnight”, which had appeared in demo form on Fatherhood, was eventually released in the summer of 1996, becoming a minor chart hit in the UK.
 
The second single, You’re Gorgeous, reached number 3 in the UK in October 1996, and was also one of the biggest selling singles of the year, going on to chart around the world. This remains the song for which Stephen Jones and Babybird are best known.
 
With support from The Tricks.

Since his 1980s debut, the legendary Momus has strayed from Gainsbourg-influenced chanson to melancholy sci-fi techno-pop, playfully inauthentic glitchy folk, lush sound art and a novel, The Book of Jokes. His literate songs can lacerate with satire or beguile with tenderness, and have influenced everyone from Pulp to Belle & Sebastian.

FRIDAY 10th FEBRUARY | GRAIN BARGE | 8pm | £4

Protest Crayon present the first night of Sherbet Quiche

► PROTEST CRAYON

https://www.facebook.com/protestcrayon

Have you ever wondered what egg and sherbet might taste like on a pastry base baked in a pre-heated fan assisted oven at 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 for 45 minutes or until the base is golden brown, whichever is sooner?

WELL: HOLD THAT THOUGHT.

On Friday the 10th February, Bristol based electropop duo Protest Crayon present a night of unrivalled and dangerously entertaining multimedia wizardry from most corners of the creative globe*. Having spent over a year in the studio sculpting a now eagerly awaited LP, the boys have finally decided to bring their music to a live stage, in the first of a regular evening of fascinating multi-media performances. Sherbet Quiche, the first of which will be hosted at Bristol’s Grain Barge, invites a smorgasbord of fun to the stage including: an unveiling of tracks from Protest Crayon’s album featuring remixes from some of the southwest’s most exciting producers, famously hilarious improvised electronic rap from the genius of Simon Panrucker, a live vocal interpretation of some of the album’s tunes from a live choir, freebies, visuals, surprise guests, viral videos, presentations, more than adequate fire escape routes, plus a whole lot more that they probably haven’t thought of yet and are begrudged to commit to.

* metaphorically

★ Grain Barge Facebook page : http://www.facebook.com/grainbarge

★ Grain Barge website http://www.grainbarge.com/

★ Twitter http://twitter.com/GrainBarge

•Doors: 10:00 PM

•Price: £5

•Entry: 18+

•Room: Main Room, Club Night

The Croft presents:

Tall Ships

+ Spectres + Russian Blue + DJ Pardon My French

Friday 10 February @ The Croft, Bristol

Kerrang! Tour Sponsored by Relentless Energy Drink

New Found Glory

The Blackout

LetLive

While She Sleeps

Kerrang! Relentless Tour

O2 Academy Bristol

Fri 10 Feb 12

Door time: 6.00pm

Show time: TBC

Get ready for some of the finest punk rock on the planet, as Sum 41 (sic – Ed) and New Found Glory come together to co-headline the 2012 tour with support from LetLive and While She Sleeps.

Under 21s require ID to purchase alcohol

Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult over 18 at all times

Finish: 9.45pm

£12.50adv, All Ages*, 7:00pm

James Vincent McMorrow

James Vincent McMorrow’s musical life began far removed from the haunting folk and mythic imagery of his debut output. His early love was hardcore rock, and he spent his teens learning to play drums to the likes of Refused, At The Drive In and Glassjaw. It wasn’t until he heard Donny Hathaway’s ‘I Love You More Than You Will Ever Know’ that he even considered singing, and because of the high, soulful tone to his voice, James found particular encouragement from female singer/songwriters. “I can understand the way they construct melody almost better than I can the way male singers write,” James notes. “But it wasn’t until about four years ago that I actually wrote my first song. I knew I needed to have things worth talking about before I put pen to paper.”

‘Early In The Morning’, then, is the result of a self-education, and the time James spent learning his craft. Having begun to write songs, he quickly sought somewhat surprising inspiration in the hip hop production of acts such as The Neptunes and Timbaland. James then spent three years experimenting with sounds and learning how to make music, and only then did he take this newfound knowledge into an isolated house by the Irish Sea, intent on making a record. One of the first fruits of this six-month labour was ‘If I Had A Boat’: an eerie and emotive introduction to the album, which began life as just a title, but soon started to marry an array of influences. Throughout the record, you can hear the overtones of his Irish upbringing brought together with these traditionally more American, West Coast sounds (see also the relentless ‘Sparrow & The Wolf’, or the instantly-catchy ‘This Old Dark Machine’). 

James Vincent McMorrow has taken a somewhat circuitous route to success (hardcore rock, hip hop, a house by the Irish Sea and a growing love of folk). Yet he has emerged as a quite brilliant new talent.

MAD.LUV @ Motion Bristol

Saturday 11th February, 2012 at 10.00pm (2 room show)

Tickets:

Line Up:

STICKY ft. KELE LE ROC (UKG legends)

RONNIE HEREL (1Xtra)

SUNSHIP

WOZ (Black Butter / Drop Down Records)

RACK N RUIN (Black Butter)

MY NU LENG (Mindstep / LNUK)

MARIBOU STATE (London Garage Duo)

OH MAN! (WAYF)

YOUNG BEEZY (Bristols r’n'b hero)

LOVERS ROCK (aka Henry Heatwave)

THE KELLY TWINS (Idle Hands)

Terrace Hosted By:

SWAGGER (UKG / Funky House)

Limited 1st release £10 tickets only available from www.motionbristol.com

‘LIKE’ the MAD LUV facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/pages/MAD-LUV/230511920355200

•Doors: 7:00 PM

•Price: £3

•Entry: 16+

•Room: Front Bar

The Croft In House presents:

Sickpig

+ This Ends Here + Warchrist + Disfortune

Saturday 11 February @ The Croft, Bristol

•Doors: 8:00 PM

•Price: £5

•Entry: 16+

•Room: Main Room

Deadpunk Promotions presents:

The Social Club

+ Radio Nasties + Comrades + Atomic Hero

Saturday 11 February @ The Croft, Bristol

Skankers Valentines Ball

Skankers

Grooverider

Fabio (Radio 1)

Hazard

DJ Sly

Logan D

Sub Zero

Nicky Blackmarket

Bryan Gee

Eksman

MC Shaydee

Harry Shotta

Ragga Twins

O2 Academy Bristol

Sat 11 Feb 12

Door time: 9.00pm

Show time: TBC

Grooverider b2b Fabio, Hazard, DJ Sly, Logan D, Sub Zero, Nicky Black Market, Bryan Gee, Pasco b2b Sensai, MRK, Bassman, Trigga, Spyda, Eksman, Shaydee, Harry Shotta, Ragga Twins, Loki, Shabba, Fatman, Juiceman, Riddla, Nut Cracka, Kombo

Photo ID required for entry.

Finish: 5am

Over 18s only

The Stag And Hounds proudly presents probably the most energetic gig of the year featuring:

TYRANNOSAURS ALAN:

http://www.facebook.com/talanband?sk=app_178091127385

“frightfully young and full of energy this is the cast of skins, playing The Specials in the style of King Prawn! Its like listen to all the music from the last 30 years condensed into 3 minutes and I f*cking love it!” – Martin Hobby

“These guys are no dinosaurs, their mixture of ska with its syncopated jangling guitar, strident brass,great bass lines blended with dirtier punk fuelled guitar and rap style vocals make for a very pleasurable listening experience. They play with great energy and have fun doing it! Brilliant!” – studsandpunks.com

“Tyrannosaurus Alan are an eclectic 7 piece from South London, bringing together a beautiful array of ska, punk, reggae and hip hop to create a sound somewhere between classic Capdown, Dizzee Rascal and Sonic Boom Six. It’s all done with a shit load of energy and passion and fantastic musicianship, with big brass and vocal hooks.” – skamutiny.com

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THE DIRECTORS

http://www.facebook.com/directors.easton?sk=app_178091127385

‘the directors’ are a conundrum – we met at dartington studying contemporary music yet we play a variety of music influenced by punk ideals and tragically optimistic political ideals. we have been playing in various incarnations for nearly 5 years, and have inflicted our performances on people across the uk, isle of man, ireland and even europe can you believe it. our favorite gigs are usually what other bands would consider ‘dead’, and we’ve played many ‘dead’ gigs – highlights are serbia, douglas, edinburgh and easton.

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The Sneak Eazies

http://www.facebook.com/groups/126603253919/

“Fat brass, bass heavy, skanking ska. 6 piece Bristol band bringing you jump up party ska mixed with traditional rock-steady melodies.”

February 12th, 2012

WAKE THE DEAD PROMOTIONS PRESENT: HOPE REMAINS LOST | CLEAR THE COAST | HOPE OF THE HATED

T.N.G (THE NEXT GENERATION) 10 BAND SUNDAY ALL-DAYER

£5adv | All Ages*

Sunday February 12 , 3:00pm

The Fleece, 12 St Thomas Street, Bristol. United kingdom.

Another chance to catch some of the best new up-and-coming local young bands

Mayans 10:15 – 11:00

Aztec 9:30pm – 10:00pm

Steven and the Possetts 8:45pm – 9:15pm

Magpie Instinct 8:00pm – 8:30pm

Sonic Sunrise 7:15pm – 7:45pm

Jotcharley Hill 6:30pm -7:00pm

Apex 5:45pm – 6:15pm

Out Of The Ordinary 5:00pm – 5:30pm

Ellie Roser 4:15pm – 4:45pm

Ashley Baker 3:30pm – 4:00pm

Genre: Local Talent.

•Doors: 8:00 PM

•Price: £4

•Entry: 16+

•Room: Main Room

Megalith Promotions presents:

Merihim

+ Death By Ki + YBISCTU + Dissolute

Sunday 12 February @ The Croft, Bristol

•Doors: 8:00 PM

•Price: £5 Adv

•Entry: 16+

•Room: Front Bar

Open Head presents:

Iron Witch

+ Let It Die? + Monolinthian + Human Cull

Sunday 12 February @ The Croft, Bristol

Iron Witch Biography:

http://www.myspace.com/ironwitch1977

Shinedown

O2 Academy Bristol

Sun 12 Feb 12

Door time: 7.00pm

Show time: TBC

The Florida rockers return to the UK as part of their highly anticipated European tour.

Under 21s require ID to purchase alcohol.

Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult over 18 at all times.

Doors: 7:00 PM, £5 Adv, Entry: 14+, Room: Main Room
Buy Tickets

Fine Young Firecrackers

+ As We Climb + The Famous Class + Natural Tendency

THE TWILIGHT SAD + The Evacuees

£9adv | All Ages*

Monday February 13 , 7:30pm

The Fleece, 12 St Thomas Street, Bristol. United kingdom.

The Twilight Sad

The Twilight Sad are an indie rock band from Kilsyth, Scotland formed in late 2003. The band is composed of James Alexander Graham (vocals), Andy MacFarlane (guitar) and Mark Devine (drums). They have released two full-length albums: Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters (2007) and Forget the Night Ahead (2009). Where their debut album mixed post-rock and post-punk with heavily delayed shoegaze guitars and folk elements, their second album is more influenced by early krautrock.

The band started up by playing a couple of gigs at the 13th Note in Glasgow, creating half hour-long pieces of music using guitars, bass, drums, theremin, tape loops from films and old folk/country songs, effects pedals, toy keyboards, thumb pianos, saws, computer games, and a lot of noise, in an attempt to try and discover a sound they could call their own and continue to develop. After these two shows, they rejected many gig offers, and became a more reclusive unit, spending any spare time they had in the studio focused on writing and sculpting away at new material.

In September 2005, they produced a 4-song demo with a 24-track desk, trying to get the best representation as possible, sent it over to Brighton-based Fat Cat Records. Alex Knight, co-founder of the label, went to Glasgow to watch the band perform their third gig and signed them on the spot. In November 2006, they made their first official release with The Twilight Sad, a US-only EP that helped bring attention to the band, as well as performances at CMJ ‘06 and SXSW ‘07 Festivals.

Mon 13th February – DHP presents…

OUTFIT

Doors: 7.30 PM / £7.00 advance

16+ Tickets from seetickets.com / gigantic.com / ticketmaster.co.uk / Bristolticketshop /

http://www.alt-tickets.co.uk/alttickets

ERRORS + Remember Remember + At The Heart Of It All

£9adv | All Ages*

Tuesday February 14 , 7:30pm

The Fleece, 12 St Thomas Street, Bristol. United kingdom.

Errors release Have Some Faith In Magic out on Rock Action Records January 30th 2012.
 
Free download ‘Earthscore’ available now from:
www.havesomefaithinmagic.com
 
Full UK Tour in February & support Mogwai at Glasgow Barrowlands December 22nd 2011
 
After a brief but hugely-influential time away Errors return with ‘Have Some Faith In Magic,’ on Rock Action Records; their third album, it counts as far and away their greatest shift in sound yet, heralding in a sound of serenely cosmo-gazing sugar-tipped pop; previously hinted at with Spring single ‘Magna Encarta,’ a further preview is provided with free download ‘Earthscore.’ 
 
A group who emerged at the tale end of a period when anything purely-instrumental and guitar-based became lazily tagged “post-rock,” Errors have now distanced themselves from that loose genre so much that any fleeting comparison to it is now completely redundant. ‘Have Some Faith In Magic’ is an LP of sprawling pop, with delicious hooks applied liberally across post-electro scatterings; a complete turn away from previously lauded albums ‘It’s Not Something But It Is Like Whatever,’ and last year’s ‘Come Down With Me’ – not least with vocals now being included prominently for the first time.
 
Fresh from a summer supporting label mates (and bosses) Mogwai in the US, Errors can announce that they’ll again be supporting the band at a dual homecoming gig at Glasgow’s famous Barrowlands on December 22nd with a headlining tour taking place in February. Errors’ fans have long had their faith rewarded by the band; their third album only looks set to continue that trends.

February 14th, 2012

YOU ME AND THOMAS | PENNYDROP

ENTRY//£4adv

February 15th, 2012

BSW MUSIC PRESENT: KISS YOUR COMMANDER | OFF THE WALL | 8 DAYS LATER | STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

RICH ROBINSON (THE BLACK CROWES) + David O’Grady + Ulysses

£13.50adv | All Ages*

Wednesday February 15 , 7:30pm

The Fleece, 12 St Thomas Street, Bristol. United kingdom.

Rich Robinson

Playing Black Crowes classics and material from recent solo album, Through A Crooked Sun.’

Socrates said that a life unexamined was not worth living, but sometimes life is going so well that you could forgive one for just going with the flow. But life will catch up with you in time, as it did for Rich Robinson. Before he was 25, he had fame as the guitar player for the Black Crowes, fortune, a beautiful wife and home; seemingly, he had it all. But in the blink of an eye, much of it was gone. How he managed to make it through with graciousness and his sense of self-intact is examined on his new solo album, Through A Crooked Sun.

+ Special Guests

•Doors: 8:00 PM

•Price: £3

•Entry: 16+

•Room: Front Bar

Diogenes presents:

Mirielle Mathlener

+ Davey Woodward

Wednesday 15 February @ The Croft, Bristol

Big Country

O2 Academy Bristol

Wed 15 Feb 12

Door time: 7.00pm

Show time: TBC

After a hugely successful comeback this year, the band announce their 30th anniversary celebrations – performing debut album ‘The Crossing’.

Under 21s require ID to purchase alcohol

Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult over 18 at all times

February 16th, 2012

APACHE | MADELINE BLACK | THE VENEER

ENTRY//£4adv

PHANTOM LIMB + Support

£10adv | All Ages*

Thursday February 16 , 7:30pm

The Fleece, 12 St Thomas Street, Bristol. United kingdom.

Metropolis Music Presents:

Phantom Limb

Phantom Limb will release their anticipated new album, The Pines, early next year on February 13, via Naim Edge Records. This will follow the December 12 release of the title track. Having performed a sold-out show at London’s The Bowery in November (having already played huge dates around the UK with Rumer, at her personal request, as well as Solomon Burke, Candi Staton and many others) .

Mirrorfooker Presents…

Saturdays Kids – Alternative post hardcore recently seen supporting Future Of The Left, for Fans of Fugzai, Sonic Youth & Black Flag

http://www.facebook.com/saturdayskids?ref=ts

Ono Palindromes – XFM acclaimed stoner punk, for fans of These Arms Are Snakes, Torche & The Misfits

http://www.facebook.com/onopalindromes?sk=app_178091127385

Lets Kill Janice – imagine Pavement meets The Descedennts

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lets-Kill-Janice/213415048699352

Falling Stacks – Math Rock for fans of Shellac & Oxes

http://www.facebook.com/fallingstacks

With Mirror Fooker DJ’s playing the likes of These Arms Are Snakes, At The Drive-In, And So I Watch You From Afar, Melvins, Young Widows and Blood Brothers…..

£2 Entry

Doors 8pm

The Croft Front Bar

MIDNIGHT LION

www.midnightlionmusic.co.uk

Live as part of PRESSURE

www.facebook.com/pressureclub

THURSDAY 16 FEBRUARY

THEKLA TOP DECK

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 9.30pm

Ages 18+

Tickets £3 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

•Doors: 8:00 PM

•Price: £5

•Entry: 16+

•Room: Main Room

Offbeat Promotions presents:

Brontide

+ Archimedes + Aulos + Something About Robots

Thursday 16 February @ The Croft, Bristol

Preston Reed

Thu 16 Feb

8pm

Iau 16 Chwef

Preston Reed is widely recognised as one of the greatest guitarists in the world. In 1987 he revolutionised guitar playing, inventing a two-handed playing style that integrated the percussive potential of the guitar body.

The power and depth of his compositions are as unique as his execution – as blues, rock, funk and jazz are combined to create a sonic brew quite unlike anything you’ve heard before.

The New Yorker has been touring for three decades, played with Bonnie Raitt and Linda Ronstadt, clocked up 15 studio albums, received untold hits on YouTube and the praise of both the man on the street and fellow six-string pioneers like Al DiMeola and Michael Hedges.

“In a class of his own” – London Evening Standard

“Spectacular… the best one-man show this reviewer has seen since Bruce Springsteen… A terrific performer” – The Irish Independent

£12/£10/£8

http://prestonreed.com/

The Skrillex Cell – Grey Daze Tour

Skrillex

O2 Academy Bristol

Thu 16 Feb 12

Door time: 7.00pm

Show time: TBC

The electronic visionary, and one of America’s biggest breakthrough artists, will tear up dancefloors on his UK tour with a devastating mix of dubstep, electro, glitch and beyond.

Under 21s require ID to purchase alcohol

Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult over 18 at all times

Finish: 10pm

Over 14s only

Sold Out

YOUNG KATO + Francis Fear + Escape Plan

£5adv | All Ages*

Friday February 17 , 7:30pm

The Fleece, 12 St Thomas Street, Bristol. United kingdom.

Young Kato

“The Smiths with attitude!” – Paul Moss (BBC Introducing)

“A great band that will go far!” – Gary Powell (The Libertines) 

“Love the band’s music!” – Tom Deacon (Radio 1)

“The first band which made me stop writing and take real notice, really had something! Very tight as a band and good interaction from the lead singer” – Annie Nightingale (Radio 1)

fri 17 feb 12

VIALKA

+ SUPPORT TBC

Cafe Kino

108 Stokes Croft

Bristol

BS1 3RU

8pm – 10pm

£tbc

Brooklyn’s High Places craft organic, glitchy avant-pop from shakers and rattles, bells, kalimbas and found sounds. There’s a distinctly exotic tinge to their electronica, with African rhythms rubbing up against dreamlike underwater beats. Support comes from two more two-pieces, The Hysterical Injury (“the noise rock Carpenters”) and Hesomagari (featuring Zun Zun Egui’s Yoshino Shigihara and SJ Esau).

Plus DJs playing boy-girl duos in the bar.

Fri 17th February – lofi hifi presents presents…

THE BLED

Doors: 7.30 PM / £10.00 adv

16+ Tickets Bristol ticket shop

Contraband Sessions

February 17, 2012

10pm – 3am / £3/£2

Edenheight + Friends

Contraband start their monthly Friday night sessions. Expect to see some of the best live funk, soul, hip-hop acts grace the stage for what promises to be a the best party in town. Check posters for full line-up.

•Doors: 7:30 PM

•Price: £4

•Entry: 16+

•Room: Front Bar

The Croft In House presents:

Space Witch

+ Cernunnos + Leafmulch + Athame

Friday 17 February @ The Croft, Bristol

•Doors: 8:00 PM

•Price: £5

•Entry: 16+

•Room: Main Room

The Croft In House presents:

Crinkle Cuts

+ Jebo + The Tame

Friday 17 February @ The Croft, Bristol

•Doors: 10:00 PM

•Price: £TBC

•Entry: 18+

•Room: Club Night

The Croft presents:

51°27′ presents Special Guests

Friday 17 February @ The Croft, Bristol

PULLED APART BY HORSES + The Computers

£8adv | All Ages*

Saturday February 18 , 7:30pm

The Fleece, 12 St Thomas Street, Bristol. United kingdom.

Pulled Apart By Horses

Pulled Apart By Horses are a 4 piece post-hardcore band from Leeds, England. ‘Surely the best live band in Britain’ said the observer. ‘Pulled Apart by Horses’ could be a sick torture method or the name of a new rock consortium from Leeds of west riding. ‘Momentum has been building steadily over the past year for PABH and the band have quickly grabbed attention from the likes of Radio 1’s Huw Stephens and Steve Lamacq, the NME, Artrocker and the inquisitive minds of some of Britain’s most recognizable indie labels. The band only began in Feb 2008 and things have moved more than quickly for them so far. Their sometimes angular but mostly aggressive, amp-melting blend of rock riffs and contemporary alt-noise has seen them climb to the top of Leeds’ musical pile and establish themselves as one of the most essential new acts in Britain. They also blew crowds away at this years Leeds & Reading festival after being asked by Radio 1. Influences remain scarce but from the outlook of the set up of this 4-piece it could be suggested that you’ll be in for a disco rock hammering with a large dose of hard riffing and yelping vocalities.

With support from The Computers.

Best Before

February 18, 2012

10pm – 3am / Free Entry

Kyle Lewis / Neil Redfeun / Okay Deejay

Best Before the new Vintage/retro clothing shop based above STB brings a night with music no quite as only as the clothes they sell. Expect a night crafting together forward thing beats and Pieces.

Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Re-scored by Blue Roses

Sat 18 Feb, 7.30pm

£8.00/£6.00 Concs

‘In each of us, two natures are at war – the good and the evil…’

Philanthropic scientist Jekyll (John Barrymore) has something of a midlife crisis and takes a potion to unleash his darker side – aka Hyde. Barrymore’s extraordinary transformation is achieved through performance alone, with shaken hair and expressive long-fingered hands. This seminal horror silent finds new life alongside Blue Roses’ (XL records) haunting score which received outstanding reaction at Green Man and Latitude festivals this summer.

‘Gleamingly melodic and impeccably arranged’ The Observer

Dir John S. Robertson, Scr. Clara Beranger, USA 1920

February 18th, 2012

FORESTEARS EP LAUNCH | KING OF HEARTS

ENTRY//£4adv

‘See, now this lot from Brighton have a bit of skand to them but a very different bag of fish. Think Gomez, Maccabees even a bit of Bad Seeds. Very interesting.’ – Rhythm Magazine

“Forestears deliver the most idiosyncratic fusion of latina jazz, lo-fi acoustic garage indie and a grab-bag of other musical genres that we’ve ever heard. Like the La’s before them, their dishevelled, skilful skiffle-rock is something that isn’t easy to pigeon-hole – so be prepared to be surprised!”- Live & Loud

•Doors: 8:00 PM

•Price: £5

•Entry: 18+

•Room: Main Room

The Croft In House presents:

+ The Bad Joke That Ended Well + Alms + DJ Binary Rhythm

Saturday 18 February @ The Croft, Bristol

•Doors: 8:00 PM

•Price: £4

•Entry: 16+

•Room: Front Bar

The Croft presents:

Milky Wimpshake

+ The Short Stories + Peru + DJ Rocker + Brian And Thom

Saturday 18 February @ The Croft, Bristol

GZA (of Wu-Tang Clan)

Skitz+Rodney P

Split Prophets

The Scribes

DJ Fingerfood

O2 Academy Bristol

Sat 18 Feb 12

Door time: 9.00pm

Show time: TBC

Legendary artist, producer and founding member of influential hip hop outfit Wu-Tang Clan, GZA plays some UK shows.

Photo ID required for entry.

Finish: 2am

February 19th, 2012

LOFI HIFI PRESENT: LONEY, DEAR

ENTRY//£10adv

Tickets:

www.bristolticketshop.co.uk

http://www.seetickets.com/Event/LONEY-DEAR/The-Louisiana/610347

www.gigantic.com

www.wegottickets.co.uk

16+ (Accompanied by an Adult)

After his last time touring the United States in support of 2009′s Dear John (Loney Dear’s fifth album and Polyvinyl debut), Emil Svanangen returned home to Sweden and began to play shows with chamber orchestras throughout the country.

To successfully accomplish this feat, he was forced to revisit his earlier material — re-writing and re-arranging these older songs for performance on a grander scale.

This experience had an indelible influence on the writing and recording of the appropriately titled Hall Music, an expansive record that finds Svanangen closer to creating the type of orchestral music he has always sought to bring to life on stage (whether he’s actually playing with an orchestra or not).

Above all, Hall Music – Svanangen’s sixth full-length under the Loney Dear moniker — is a study in merging contrasts, an album of impossible pairings brought to life at the hands of a skillful songwriter further mastering his craft.

The pacing is simultaneously fast and slow, with gently weaving harmonic structures propelled forward by quickly moving notes. On “My heart,” the frenetic overtones belie the relaxed, scuzzy bass vibrating underneath, while “Largo” matches the musical definition of its name more in its unhurried aura than its actual BPM.

The instrumentation is orchestral and synthesized; organic and invented. A church bell paired effortlessly with horns and an analog keyboard. Apocalyptically pulsing bass (“Durmoll”) and an angelic vibraphone solo (“Calm down”). At its heart, however, Hall Music is a concise album with an extended vision.

Though at first listen it occupies your ears for just over a half-hour, it is an all-consuming sonic affair. It is intimate music that effortlessly fills vast, empty spaces — in your head, in your room, in your life — with a grip so delicate yet unyielding that you can’t (and don’t want to) escape it.

Sunday 19th February

Hyro Da Hero

Rescheduled date – tickets still valid

EARLY SHOW: Doors 7pm / £8.50 adv / Ages 14+

•Doors: 8:00 PM

•Price: £6 Adv

•Entry: 16+

•Room: Main Room

Lofi Hifi presents:

Gauntlet Hair

Sunday 19 February @ The Croft, Bristol

•Doors: 8:00 PM

•Price: £4

•Entry: 16+

•Room: Front Bar

The Croft In House presents:

Cardinals

+ Fel Fiasco + Last Nights Victory + The Playmakers

Sunday 19 February @ The Croft, Bristol

NME Awards Tour 2012

Two Door Cinema Club

Metronomy

Azealia Banks

O2 Academy Bristol

Mon 20 Feb 12

Door time: 7.00pm

Show time: TBC

The infamous NME Awards Tour is back for 2012 and ready to showcase the year’s most exciting emerging music talent. Renowned for giving the freshest new acts their first taste of national notoriety, 2012′s line-up captures the spirit of 2011 and sets the agenda for an explosive forthcoming year of music.

Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult at all times (16+).

Under 25s require photo ID (drivers license or passport) to purchase alcohol.

Sold Out

DOG IS DEAD

www.dogisdead.co.uk

‘This upcoming Nottingham quintet have quite the knack for making bright, breezy and infectious indie pop’ – The Guardian

It’s been a massive year for DOG IS DEAD, having toured with Bombay Bicycle Club, released a compilation EP of their self release singles, started work on their debut album with David Kosten (Everything Everything, Bat For Lashes) and released limited edition ‘Hands Down’ – their debut major label single which gained support from the likes of Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, XFM, Q Radio and even a spot play on Fearne Cotton’s Radio 1 show. Furthermore, they appeared as themselves in hit TV show ‘Skins’ and played an array of festivals across the UK this summer.

As one of 2012’s hottest new bands, they announce their biggest UK tour to date.

TUESDAY 21 FEBRUARY

THEKLA

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 7pm

Ages 14+

Tickets £6.50 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

•Doors: 8:00 PM

•Price: £11 Adv

•Entry: 16+

•Room: Main Room

Crypt Of Locusts presents:

Origin

+ Psycroptic + Leng Tche + Ite Missa Est + Dictated

Tuesday 21 February @ The Croft, Bristol

Summary:

Crypt Of Locusts and Endless Pain Promotions present the return of American Death Metal icons, Origin. Support comes from Psycroptic, Leng Tche, Ite Missa Est and Dictated.

Crypt Of Locusts & Endless Pain Promotions present

Origin

www.facebook.com/origin

Origin (from Topeka, Kansas) grew out of a series of jam sessions in 1997 involving guitarist/vocalists Paul Ryan and Jeremy Turner. The band took shape over a period of about half a year. Bassist Clint Appelhanz and vocalist Mark Manning joined in October 1997, and drummer George Fluke joined in January 1998. The band members then decided to tour under the name Origin. They are currently touring their newest release, Entity.

Psycroptic

www.facebook.com/psycroptic

Hailing from the remote island of Tasmania, Psycroptic have progressively carved a niche of their own within today’s overcrowded Metal scene. Staying clear of trends, the band incorporate many elements of music – extreme and otherwise – to capture a sound that is uniquely their own. Not to be pigeonholed, Psycroptic stand apart from the horde and add a fresh element in the extreme metal realm with their precise blend of brutality, intensity and groove. Currently on the road supporting “The Inherited Repression”, which is due for release on February 7th.

Leng Tche

www.facebook.com/lengtche

Belgium’s hardest hitting bunch hones its brutal yet clever Deathgrind to a new level of perfection. Styled by themselves as Razorgrind after the same title of their first EP (split 7″ with Black Ops) the sound of these now four maniacs contains a choice selection of Death Metal and Grindcore, Hardcore, bits of Doom and even pieces of Stoner Rock. Named after an Imperial Chinese torture ritual, which is translated in the title of their debut full-length “Death by a Thousand Cuts” (2002), the band was formed in 2001.

February 22nd, 2012

METROPOLIS PRESENT: CHARLENE SORAIA

ENTRY//£7adv

www.charlenesoraia.com

Charlene picked up her first guitar at the age of five. She played her first Open Mic night at the age of eight, and was a regular on the Open Mic circuit by the age of ten.

Completely self-taught, she won admission to the legendary BRIT School of Performing Arts despite failing to have the minimum requirement of a GCSE in Music. Once at the BRIT School she stopped performing acoustically and started playing in a band called Retrospect. She restarted her solo performances in 2008.

Charlene released her new EP entitled Daffodils & Other Idylls in March and has topped the uk Folk Charts on iTunes and will continue to play various shows around London in support of the record.

Citizens!

February 22, 2012

9pm – 11.30pm / Free Entry

Citizens! live / Coasts live

Citizens! are the newest member of the ever-growing Kitsune family. They prove to be a welcome addition to the team with their debut single “True Romance”, which will make you sing and dance almost instantly. True Romance, is a supremely infectious affair, a back-to-the-future job that sounds like an early-70s Bowie-esque vision of the 80s – what Diamond Dogs might have sounded like remixed by Martin Rushent. Citizens! say they despise retro-mania, though they’re steeped in the past – but who cares, they choose their elements well, and they’ve assembled something great out of them. The singer has that tough-fey way of singing that Bowie, and then Steve Harley and pretty much everyone for a few years after him.

HALLEN BANK + Co Supreme + Electric Midnight + Headlights

£5adv | All Ages*

Wednesday February 22 , 7:30pm

The Fleece, 12 St Thomas Street, Bristol. United kingdom.

Genre: Local Talent.

POINO

http://poino.bandcamp.com/

http://www.facebook.com/poinomusic

been trying to get this band over to bristol for a while now and finally it’s happening. their album Moan Loose is killer. don’t miss them!

South London’s off-beat-off combo, Poino, fired up their first notes in 2006. Since then they have continued to tangle and weld their musical abstractions, tour succesfully across the European landscape and deliver a storming debut album – Moan Loose – in 2011. Mixing tempered skill with wild ignorance they spit out a rich clash of menace, ambiguity, and caustic bliss; at one moment thunderous and choking, the next disguising calm with anxious tension. Or did they? Live they are a sight to behold and a tonic for blocked ears so thankfully 2012 sees them continuing to tour with their second album nearing completion. Get some.

ARABROT

the slight return

http://www.diger.tigernet.no/digitalbum.php?id=132784&x=S0larAn0s&bg=true&bgcol=000000&lang=eng

their current album Solar Anus has won Norwegian Grammy in the Metal category!

seriously wtf!!! congratulations guys.

more accolades —————-

The Stool Pigeon 5/5 “It’s been a while coming, but Årabrot have finally earned and cemented their reputation as one of Europe’s best heavy rock bands.” John Doran

Drowned in Sound 9/10 “This album is ferocious, funny, colossal, guttural, hopeful and terrifying. It’s a tidal wave of noise from few hands. Like its title, it’s a contradiction, a dichotomy, a triumph. It shouldn’t work, but it does, infinitely well. It’s art from the lowest of sods. It’s a fucking triumph. ”

MOJO “underground band of the month”

NME 8/10

Vice 7/10

Powermetal.de 7,5/10

Musikreviews.de 11/15

Stormbringer 4/5

Quietus / / http://thequietus.com/articles/06595-rabrot-new-album-details

MANATEES

http://www.facebook.com/manatees.uk?sk=app_178091127385

http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/1615471

http://sunclimber.tumblr.com/

from Carlisle – their sound is like a solar flare. drawing you into a warm, mesmeric waves then tearing your face off.

MANATEES http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLHL5PqcV7w

ARABROT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anUJszs7B3I

POINO http://poino.bandcamp.com/track/widows-cube

TICKETS ARE NOW AT THE BRISTOL TICKET SHOP £6.

£9adv, All Ages*, 7:30pm

Field Music
 
Field Music (a.k.a. Sunderland siblings Peter and David Brewis) releasetheir fourth album, Plumb, through Memphis Industries in February 2012 (13Feb UK/14 Feb US).
 
The follow up to their hugely acclaimed “Field Music (Measure)” was recordedover the course of 2011 at their new studio on the banks of the river Wearin Sunderland, comprises 15 songs in a succinct 35 minutes. It largelyabandons the ‘classic’ songwriting conventions embraced on Measure andinstead remodels the modular, fragmented style of the first two Field Musicalbums; only now shot through with the surreal abstractions of 20th centuryfilm music from Bernstein to Willy Wonka and with the off-beam funk andpristine synth-rock developed on the brothers’ School of Language and TheWeek That Was albums.
 
A highlight of the album, (I Keep Thinking About) A New Thing, can now bestreamed and downloaded from their website at www.field-music.co.uk alongwith a preorder budle for the album and tickets

With support from Stealing Sheep.

Thursday 23rd February

BIMM Live & Lyrical

A charity showcase event in conjunction with The Jessie May Foundation

EARLY SHOW: Doors 7pm / £3 door / Ages 14+

SCHOLARS

www.scholarstheband.com

Having spent our formative years listening to bands like Braid, Hundred Reasons, The Dismemberment Plan, The Faint and Tears for Fears, when Scholars write songs they tend to leave traces of influences all over the place, but hope what th…ey end up with just sounds like…Scholars.

Scholars are Sam, ruggedly good looking, talents ranging from singing to yelling to playing keyboards (and all things in between). They are Chris, a bass playing, deep-voiced and serious man who can also speak fluent French. They are Tom, broad-shouldered and prone to penning novelty Christmas hits. They are Cal, focused, deadly, never afraid to bring the rock. They are Mike, who hits things with sticks.

Fiercely perfectionist, possessed of a dogged work ethic and determined to avoid the mediocre, for Scholars nothing is more important than the songs. They might – just might – record an album next year.

ONSTAGE AROUND 10PM

Playling live as part of PRESSURE

www.facebook.com/pressureclub

THURSDAY 23 FEBRUARY

THEKLA TOP DECK

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 9.30pm

Ages 18+

Tickets £3 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

Glenn Jones

+ Sharron Kraus

Thu 23 Feb, 8pm

£6.00/£5.00 Concs (Workshop free with ticket purchase or £2 without)

Glenn Jones joins us for an intimate solo performance, accompanied by a workshop on American Primitive guitar.

Jones has been playing guitar since the age of 14 and has released four albums (three on Strange Attractors and now his latest, The Wanting, on Thrill Jockey) of original compositions for acoustic six- and 12-string guitar and banjo. His finger-picked performances shimmer and summon the ghosts of the guitarist experimenters he grew up on and the wide-angles of America.

Jones is a 30+ year devotee of the “American Primitive” school of acoustic steel string guitarists, and is widely considered to be one of the leading experts on the music of the leading lights of the style, John Fahey and Robbie Basho. Before embarking on his solo career, he put out nine albums with the seminal Boston based psych band Cul de Sac over the course of their 20 year history, some of which included collaborations with Damo Suzuki and John Fahey. He has performed with / recorded with Peter Lang, Jack Rose, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Peter Walker, and many other guitar greats.

Workshop info here.

Sharron Kraus is a dark-folk gem. “A wonderful singer. She conjures up visions of Karen Dalton, Shirley Collins, Judy Dyble and even early Joni. Live she was fantastic too.” (Byron Coley & Thurston Moore)

February 23rd, 2012

TWO WORLDS EP LAUNCH | BLACK ELEPHANT | THE MURDER SCENE | PAINTED AS SAINTS

ENTRY//£5adv

£12adv, All Ages, 7:30pm

The Mob
 
The Mob played at The Fleece in April 2011 and the show sold out weeks in advance. For those who missed out this is a second chance to catch this legendary band live in a venue which is rapidly becoming the home of punk rock!

February 24th, 2012

LOFI HIFI PRESENT: SPECTOR

ENTRY//£6adv

Spector: they’re kind of asking for trouble calling themselves that, aren’t they? A bit like that 80s hard/jazzcore band fronted by Wire magazine favourite Kevin Martin, God, or Brilliant, that other 80s group with a superlative, begging-for-a-kicking name. If you title yourself after the greatest record producer in history, one with a reputation for the magnificent and grand, with probably the most recognisable signature sound in pop, you’ve put yourself under pressure from the start.

Now, you may be expecting us at this point (otherwise known as the Debunking Paragraph, in which we refute the proposition of the introduction – in this case that the band need to be amazing and great to match the ambition suggested by their name) to announce that Spector don’t live up to their own self-hype. But operating under the maxim that if you haven’t got anything nice to say about someone, say nothing, and in our new capacity as concert organisers with one ear on how a band will come across live, we’re going to praise Spector. They may not have a River Deep, Mountain High in their set just yet, let alone a Baby I Love You or a I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine. But they have plenty to recommend, not least a frontman who has pretensions towards the foppish literacy of a Jarvis and musicians striving to frame those lyrics in a suitably epic context. They’re hardly the Wrecking Crew, they don’t have that commitment to detailed bombast, and there are no strings or horns. But for a five-piece unit they make a decent fist of giving Fred Macpherson’s wordy navel-gazing (“My self-esteem is at an all-time low”) an impressively oomphy backdrop.

Still only 23, Macpherson has already been in two bands, neither of which registered on our radar: Les Incompetents and Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man. We know their names but never checked them out, so we don’t know what they sounded like. Spector are being pitched, it is said, as “somewhere between Roxy Music and the Strokes, the Killers and Kanye West, Pulp and R&B and Frank Sinatra”. Good to aim high, of course, but that’s just silly. That said, we can hear the Killers amid the blustery choruses. The single, Never Fade Away, has the portent of a Killers track: portentous sound, portentous vocals, as though to convey the idea that they are talking about Important Stuff. We’re not sure about the Roxy and Kanye references, but to us this one sounds like Ultravox with Beach Boys harmonies, if you can get your head round such a clash of opposites.

Chevy Thunder is indeed thunderous, with a lyric about wanting to “take your father’s car and drive, drive, drive” that is pure Springsteen worship. Celestine is also Boss-y: imagine Bruce if he’d fronted a mid-80s synth-pop band. We’re not sure what Grey Shirt & Tie is about – we wish we had a rock equivalent of Rap Genius to use today because we can’t work out if this is a paean to something, a lament to lost youth, or a dart aimed at conformists. Still, its keen sense of drama renders comprehension less than essential. Finally, Lay Low – sadly, not a cover of the My Morning Jacket guitar apocalypse – sees them bring on the strings. It’s not the full-on assault you might get from THE Spector, but it’s a start, and it would certainly work on a small stage in a discreet London venue (hint, hint).

Fri 24th February – DHP presents…

WE HAVE BAND

Doors: 7.30 PM / £8.50 advance

16+ Tickets from seetickets.com / gigantic.com / ticketmaster.co.uk / Bristolticketshop /

Motel Party

February 24, 2012

10pm – 3am / Free Entry

The Motel Ladies

Motel one of STB favourite shops will be spinning some bubble gum pop, Hip Hop, and R and B. Also expect this party to rock with the best in 90’s, 80’s pop and Indie.

SHABBY SHOES PRESENTS…

Friday 24th February ~ 8pm

£4 Door Entry

MILKWOOD

The amazing new band project from Polly Staple (Baba Yagas’ Consort)

+ ANDI SKELLAM

Andi studied fine art at university and his music reflects the darkly humorous and deeply affecting absurdities of his canvasses. Sometimes billed as the Fingerless Hoodlum, Andi in fact possess some of the nimblest guitar and banjo-picking digits currently to be found pretty much anywhere. Debut long-player ‘Molton Sea’ captured his rich textures and baritone voice to stunning effect, drawing listener comparisons to Syd Barrett and Nick Drake – artists who similarly managed to butterfly-pin the strangeness of English life in music. The soundtrack to resting on a broken tree in Mulchy woods.”

+ WIG SMITH

One half of The Hand with Rachel Dadd, Wig and his Kora make for an otherworldly experience.

THE MINUTES

www.theminutesmusic.com

The Minutes were born in Dublin in the mid-Noughties out of a shared love of NYC punk rock, The Smiths and Thin Lizzy. Investing in some serious vintage amplification, the band has honed their craft on the Irish gig circuit and beyond, developing a classic power trio sound, channelling the primal surge of rampant garage rock ‘n’ roll with elements of the blues and gospel.

FRIDAY 24 FEBRUARY

THEKLA TOP DECK

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 7pm

Ages 14+

Tickets £6 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

THE MOB + Patrik Fitzgerald + Idiot Strength + Hagar The Womb + Shocks Of Mighty

£12adv | All Ages

Friday February 24 , 7:30pm

The Fleece, 12 St Thomas Street, Bristol. United kingdom.

The Mob played at The Fleece in April 2011 and the show sold out weeks in advance. For those who missed out this is a second chance to catch this legendary band live in a venue which is rapidly becoming the home of punk rock!

Genre: Punk/Hardcore.

NEARLY DAN

£12.50adv | All Ages*

Saturday February 25 , 7:30pm

The Fleece, 12 St Thomas Street, Bristol. United kingdom.

Less tribute and more homage, Nearly Dan is saviour to the growing legions of Dan fans, desperate to hear the meticulously crafted grooves and allusive lyrical style of Donald Fagen & Walter Becker. Nearly Dan’s approach is faithful, though not reverential, and relaxed but as tight as their namesakes. They bring their own unique spirit and spontaneous humour to every concert.

2012 celebrates three major anniversaries…

40years since the release of the first Steely Dan album“Can’t buy a Thrill”,featuring the hits

“Do it Again”and“Reelin’ in the years”…30years since the release of Donald Fagen’s classic solo masterpiece“The Nightfly”and15years since Nearly Dan were formed.

The ten pieceNearly Danpromise all the Steely Dan favourites in a two hour-plus show, featuring tracks from the groove ofCountdown to Ecstasyto the super cool of celebrated albumsThe Royal Scam. Aja and Gaucho.

A real treat for all music lovers and an unmissable concert for any aspiring musician young or old.

Visit www.nearlydan.co.uk for up-to-the-minute tour news, information, and dates.

Celebrating 3 decades of STEELY DAN.

Donald Fagen and Walter Beckerhave created some of the most influential music of the pop era. Inspired arrangements and witty, often biting, lyrics combine to make this some of the most distinctive music ever to grace the turntable, with hits such as Reelin’ in the Years,Do It Again,Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,Deacon Blues, Peg and FM.culled from their seven platinum albums issued between 1972 and 1980.

They reunited in the early 90s and toured throughout the decade, releasing multi-Grammy winnerTwo Against Naturein 2000 and its acclaimed follow-upEverything Must Goin 2003. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

Tonight we bring you Birmingham’s finest experimental tuba trio, ORE, fresh from their triumphant performance at the recent Supersonic festival. The Sound of ORE is the sound of drones that are colossal walls of static bass, nail-hard riffs that move at a glacial pace, and a brass sound like nothing else on earth. Support comes from local favourites Anta, performing their own unique take on monothlic, progressive, psychedelic space-rock. Also playing tonight, the artist formerly known as Team Brick (in his Fairhorns guise) and the haunting, captivating electroacoustic soundscapes of Skjolbrot. An evening of experimental sounds definitely not to be missed.

Tickets £6 adv £8 door available from the usual outlets

http://www.soundofore.com/

http://music.anta.me.uk/

http://www.skjolbrot.org/

Sat 25th February – DHP presents…

DJANGO DJANGO

Doors: 7.00 PM / £7.00 adv

16+ Tickets from seetickets.com / gigantic.com / ticketmaster.co.uk / Bristolticketshop /

http://www.alt-tickets.co.uk/alttickets

KEVIN DEVINE

www.kevindevine.net

Geeky sub-rock from New Yorker Kevin Devine. A mix between Beck, Adam Green and Ben Kweller, Devine’s music is a breath of fresh air – simple, poppy and sweet.

SATURDAY 25 FEBRUARY

THEKLA

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 7pm

Ages 18+

Tickets £10 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

Rise Music

February 25th, 2012

THE RAMONA FLOWERS | UNCLES

ENTRY//£4adv

Electro minded indie outfit The Ramona flowers have been in the studio writing and recording their debut LP (Distiller Records, Summer 2012) alongside Andy Barlow (Lamb/Lowb) and Jason Cox (Gorilliaz, Blue, Jamie T). The band will be making their live debut supporting LAMB on their forthcoming European tour this February. The album will feature the bands first single ‘Dismantle & Rebuild’ – a synthesis of guitars, club beats, moods and surprises. To hear the track and find out more on The Ramona Flowers visit –

Electro minded indie outfit The Ramona flowers have been in the studio writing and recording their debut LP (Distiller Records, Summer 2012) alongside Andy Barlow (Lamb/Lowb) and Jason Cox (Gorilliaz, Blue, Jamie T).

The band will be making their live debut supporting LAMB on their forthcoming European tour this February.

The album will feature the bands first single ‘Dismantle & Rebuild’ – a synthesis of guitars, club beats, moods and surprises.

No Need To Shout Presents :

Phenomenal Handclap Band

+

Support

—————-

22.00 – 03.00

Start The Bus

£4/£3

The Phenomenal Handclap Band is a tight-knit aggregation of musicians and artists from Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. At the center of the collective, Daniel Collás (the Witch Doctor) and Sean Marquand (the Medicine Man) who, after years of searching and contemplation, through live performance and the manipulation of recorded music, have finally succeeded in assembling the personification of their holy vision: The Phenomenal Handclap Band.

It all started with Collás and Marquand, two New York underground club DJs feeling restless with the concept of playing other people’s music. Both had also been involved in the NYC nightlife scene, and had an almost encyclopedic knowledge of esoteric music ranging from Brazilian soul to vintage psych-rock… becoming producers seemed to be the next logical step. After writing and working with a wide range of artists, from veteran soul acts to up-and-coming rock n’ rollers, the duo set their sights on their most personal project, The Phenomenal Handclap Band.

The band’s core consists of, along with Daniel & Sean, Patrick Wood, Nicholas Movshon, Pier Pappalardo, Luke O’Malley, Laura Marin, Quinn Luke, and Joan Tick. Together, in their Lower East Side studio, they crafted a sound that is equal parts anthemic, dancefloor-oriented and orchestral, borrowing elements from progressive rock, disco, electro, and psychedelia. Throughout the recording of their self-titled debut album, many friends stopped by in interest of the project including The Lady Tigre, Aurelio Valle, Bart Davenport, Jon Spencer and Jaleel Bunton, to name a few.

Live, The Phenomenal Handclap Band is distilled to an eight-member powerhouse, an eye-popping spectacle that overwhelms the senses. It pulses with a savage rhythm section that provides the ultimate foil for cascading guitars and electrified washes of organ and synthesizers. Their delirious sermonizing whips crowds into a charismatic frenzy. Needless to say, their live shows are more akin to a spiritual church revival than an actual rock show.

UKF Bristol

Knife Party

Zane Lowe

Borgore

Shy FX

Breakage (Digital Soundboy)

Skism

Cyantific

Fred V & Grafix

Dub Phizix

Phaelea

Rollz

Inspector Dubplate

O2 Academy Bristol

Sat 25 Feb 12

Door time: 10.00pm

Show time: TBC

Photo ID required for entry.

Finish: 5am

Over 18s only

February 26th, 2012

LOU LOU PRESENT: GRAEME CLARK (WET WET WET) | GAVIN THORPE

ENTRY//£10adv

DOORS: 7.00

Ska/Punk/Reggae 10 Band All-Dayer with SLAGERIJ + More

£5adv | All Ages*

Sunday February 26 , 3:00pm

The Fleece, 12 St Thomas Street, Bristol. United kingdom.

Epic 10 Band Ska/Punk/Reggae All-Dayer with: Slagerij (10.30 – 11.15), 6Fears7 (9.45 – 10.15), The Richardson Maneuver (9.00 – 9.30), The Stingrays (8.15 – 8.45), Land Of The Giants (7.30 – 8.00), Brickwalls & Bruises (6.45 – 7.15), Hell Death Fury (6.00 – 6.30), A Bit Too Far (5.15 – 5.45), The Me! Me! Me’s? (4.30 – 5.00), and The Migraines (3.45 – 4.15).

Genre: Local Talent, Ska/Reggae.

Max Raptor & Hildamay

Max Raptor

Hildamay

O2 Academy 2 Bristol

Sun 26 Feb 12

Door time: 7.00pm

Show time: TBC

Max Raptor fuses classic British punk attitude with an astute sensibility to a ballsy riff, forthright narrative and infectious hook-fuelled chant.

Under 21s require ID to purchase alcohol

Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult over 18 at all times

FANFARLO
www.fanfarlo.com

From London via Sweden, Fanfarlo play fragile and beautiful orchestrated pop music that defies description, but if you were going to try you would probably mention The Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens and Belle and Sebastian.

MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY

THEKLA
The Grove, Bristol
Doors 7pm
Ages 14+

Tickets £8 advance
0845 413 4444
www.alt-tickets.co.uk
Bristol Ticket Shop

• Doors: 8:00 PM
• Price: £8 Adv
• Entry: 16+
• Room: Main Room, Front Bar

Artists: Dead To Me, The Human Project, Fighting Fiction, Atomic Hero, Southpaw Fakers

For as great of a band as Dead To Me is, they’re so immersed in style and culture that they’ve always seemed almost as much like an art collective as a rock and roll outfit. They draw on such disparate sonic, visual and intellectual influences as Brit rock, graffiti, Slavic prison tattoos, Midwestern punk, reggae, Day of the Dead iconography, old school hip-hop and modern American History. Dead To Me’s current incarnation finds Ian and Chicken joining forces with Ken of Enemy You/Western Addiction fame and Sam from New Mexican Disaster Squad to put forth their latest effort, Moscow Penny Ante, recorded with the handsome and talented Matt Allison at Atlas studios (Alkaline Trio, Lawrence Arms), due out on Fat Wreck Chords on October 25th. As usual, it’s nothing less than the exact opposite of what you’d expect from Dead To Me.

After 2009’s critically acclaimed African Elephants, which was as much pop, reggae and dissonant experimentation as it was punk rock, Dead To Me is back with an album that revisits and updates the classic sound that first caught everyone’s attention on 2006’s Cuban Ballerina. This is anything but a retread, though. On Moscow Penny Ante, DTM is more dynamic, more pummeling and more downright awesome than ever before. Remember Rocky IV when Rocky went up to the mountains to train at altitude in order to be able to match his strength with the vastly bigger and more handsome Ivan Drago? Well, consider the wild departure of African Elephants to be the altitude training for the explosion of footwork and uppercuts that is Moscow Penny Ante. All the experimentation and quirky left turns of Elephants sharpened the DTM guys’ sense of melody and arrangement. Now that they’re back at sea level, they’re cranking out the punk rock songs they’re known for with an intensity and skill that can only come from working outside of your comfort zone for a long time and then returning to what you’re best at, with a new take on your classic technique, just like Rocky did when he beat Drago, blew the minds of the Russian crowd, and singlehandedly won the Cold War.

However, believe it or not, my clever Rocky IV analogy is NOT why the new album is called Moscow Penny Ante. True to form, Dead To Me have drawn from their idiosyncratic bag of influences and repurposed Malcolm X’s term for the small time hoods, or “penny ante thugs” and self-deprecatingly applied it to their own unique take on making music, noting that their “penny ante punk” has recently taken the band all the way to Moscow on tour, where they presumably didn’t have to explain all the Cyrillic text that litter the designs on their t-shirts and hoodies. It’s a bit of false modesty, as one listen to Moscow Penny Ante clearly reveals four guys brimming with technical skill, confidence and passion for what they do. Dead To Me may not be selling out large theaters all over the world, but they’re sure as hell pummeling their own take on modern aggressive music and rocking a style that can’t be easily pinned down or copied. The classic Dead To Me themes of brutal introspection and revolted frustration-with-the-shitty-world-we’re-stuck-in are still the bread and butter of Moscow Penny Ante’s lyrical content, and the band has never sounded more sincere or pissed.

Fresh off a huge US tour with Off With Their Heads and Riverboat Gamblers, Dead To Me’s latest incarnation is well oiled and ready to kick ass worldwide this fall on behalf of Moscow Penny Ante. Expect dates with Banner Pilot and stops at CMJ and the Fest in Gainesville, just for starters. For now, just sit back and listen to the hardest edge of the most dynamic band currently evolving in the underground today. Go see them live when they come to your town and watch Chicken piss off half the crowd with his irreverent wit, then win them back with his wide-legged stance and bass mastery. Watch Ken and Sam shred like they’ve been doing it together for fifteen years. And for fuck’s sake, check out the drummer. God, he’s handsome.

February 28th, 2012

LOFI HIFI PRESENT: BETH JEANS HOUGHTON

ENTRY//£9adv

Beth Jeans Houghton was born in Transylvania to a pack of albino wolves who raised her on chewing tobacco and stuffed clams. Despite they’re hospitality, love conquers all and she soon eloped to scotch corner with her shiny new stallion peter Andre.

Beth was his mysterious girl for as long as she could be, but sadly he yearned for bigger baps. taking the wrong end of his tanned stick she searched up and down the Parisian market stalls for the biggest loaf’s she could find, but alas, when she returned home, he was gone. He is currently residing somewhere in the vicinity Jordan’s breasts. Beth was gutted……Until one day, she was on a family holiday with her albino wolves in Buttermere in the Lake District.

During a dispute about the severe lack of chewing tobacco Beth left the yurt and went for a late night trot around the serene lake. not serene for long though. She soon heard a splishing and a splashing in the darkest corner of the lake. She carefully began bare-footing along the waters edge to take a closer look at the commotion.

As the sun rose golden over the nearest mountains, the waters began to swell and curdle, and three delightful heads appeared. Seeing three boys rise from the lake, Beth stared in disbelief as they emerged to show their glorious furry hind-quarters and scintillating hooves. ‘jesus on a bike’ she cried as the half men, half goats trotted gleefully towards her. ‘WE ARE YOUR DESTINY!’ they cried and Beth and the three forns embraced in a glorious two footed, six hooved love-in and vowed to make bestiality cool again and make beautiful music until their hooves fell off.

And so began the beautiful relationship between Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves Of Destiny….

ALLO DARLIN’ + Our Arthur + The Kick Inside + Big Pink Cake DJs

£7adv | All Ages*

Tuesday February 28 , 7:30pm

The Fleece, 12 St Thomas Street, Bristol. United kingdom.

Allo Darlin’

Allo Darlin’ are a fan’s band. They are close friends that found each other and the music they make in London. Elizabeth and Bill are from Australia, Mike and Paul are from Kent. They’ve only been playing seriously as a band since January 2009. Their debut album was released on Fortuna Pop in June 2010 to widespread critical acclaim. They spent much of 2010 on the road in the UK, Europe and America. The band are currently working on their follow-up.

+ Special Guests

SOKO

www.myspace.com/mysoko

SoKo (b. Stéphanie Sokolinski, in Bordeaux, France), is a half-French / half-Polish singer & actress (called SoKo as far back as she can remember). She has appeared in several French films & got a start as a singer, after she asked a director to sing, on screen.

In 2007 and 2008 “I’ll kill her” became a hit song in a number of countries, including Denmark, Austria, Belgium and Australia.

While many believed SoKo to have stopped playing music, in January of 2010 she once again started playing live shows, and writing new material.

TUESDAY 28 FEBRUARY

THEKLA

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 7pm

Ages 18+

Tickets £10 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

The MOBO Tour 2012

O2 Academy 2 Bristol

Tue 28 Feb 12

Door time: 7.00pm

Show time: TBC

This is a free show and you can apply for tickets by registering at www.mobo.com/mobotour. Please note the show is already open for registration.

Under 25s require ID to purchase alcohol

Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult over 18 at all times

Free Entry

£12adv, All Ages*, 7:30pm

Inme
 
InMe announce “The Pride”, their 5th studio album UK tour.
 
InMe are an English alternative rock band based in Brentwood, Essex. To date, the band have released 4 highly successful studio albums spawning a number of Top 40 UK singles and years of touring and playing great shows and festivals around the UK, Europe and the world. InMe have toured with the likes of Nickelback, Limp Bizkit, Pendulum, Deftones, Serj Tankian, Staind, Feeder and Biffy Clyro as well as having played massive festivals such as Reading, Sonisphere, Download & Summer Breeze.
 
The InMe of 2010 is very different animal to that of their 2003 debut album “Overgrown Eden”. InMe have continually evolved over the years, maintaining a fiercely loyal fanbase and challenging themselves further as musicians with the release of every album. 2010′s “Phoenix – The Best of InMe” celebrates the bands successful career so far and features exclusive tracks that showcase InMe’s progression even more.
 

With support from LostAlone…

Do You Get What You Pray For? Is going to be released on February 5th 2012. A track called SuperZhero will also be available as a B-side and also an iTunes Exclusive acoustic version of Do You Get What You Pray For?

…and Mojo Fury.

All Tickets from postponed 2011 dates are valid for this new date.

February 29th, 2012

DHP PRESENT: COLD SPECKS

ENTRY//£7adv

Cold Specks is Al Spx, which is pretty amusing because Al Spx is just as enigmatic as Cold Specks and she could have just left it at that. Not that there’s anything funny about Spx/Specks – this is deathly serious, eerily stark modern blues that harks back to old blues. It’s blues, basically. And it’s sung by Spx in such a way that you can picture the effect it’s going to have on people in this voice-obsessed age. As soon as she utters the opening phrase, “Rotterdam, goddamn”, on her debut single, Holland, you just know there will be one hell of a fuss about this woman and her vocal chords. Yup, she’s one of those. Remember Clare Maguire? Here’s this year’s one. Only without the 80s makeover, and kept raw. The Clare Maguire who was allowed to sound like her heroes – Mahalia Jackson and Sister Rosetta Tharpe – and not just namecheck them in interviews.

This is as close to a field recording as it’s possible to get without Alan Lomax to see it through. There is production here as the song builds up, but it always goes back to the voice and guitar. There is some multitracking, but it doesn’t need it – that voice has some power. The man at the controls is Rob Ellis, PJ Harvey’s producer, and there is some of Harvey in Specks’s stentorian boom. The tremulous cello at the start reminds us of My Bloody Valentine’s No More Sorry, which was blues from another dimension – when you think about it, that’s precisely where it should be coming from in the 21st century. Then when the guitars, bass and drums pile in, it threatens To Go A Bit Maguire, which is now officially an industry term; its 90s variant being To Go A Bit Moyet.

If you’re wondering what Spx would sound like completely unadorned, try the B-side Old Stepstone, which is a cappella. The retro maniacs who love this kind of stuff will look at each other knowingly, mouths agape. It’s a voice. Get over it. Yes, it’s better than most of the clothes-horses and karaoke kids on The X Factor, but so what? Can she write, sing, play on, produce and arrange a pop masterpiece? Then she’s only doing a fraction of the job she should. You want modern blues? Try What You Need by the Weeknd. What’s the difference? Cold Specks takes you back in time. With the Weeknd you luxuriate in the moment.

Sorry, not sure what came over us there. Back to the article. Ah, yes. Specks. Apparently, she used to record as Basket of Figs and the Hotel Ghost, and in 2009 released a collection of demos called the Soft Science, as well as several EPs with titles such as Dead Language and 666. Now the Canuck blues wailer is living in London and about to launch her “doom soul”, as she calls it, on an unsuspecting public. Although, of course, it’s not unsuspecting at all because the public has been lapping up this sort of period-fetishising warbling with vintage accoutrements for years. Well, here’s some more.

FIRST AID KIT
www.thisisfirstaidkit.com

“We are delighted to announce that we will embark on an European tour this February! We cannot wait to go back to these amazing cities again. We are excited to perform brand new songs from our new album “The Lion’s Roar”. We hope to see you there!”

xx johanna & klara

WEDNESDAY 29 FEBRUARY

THEKLA
The Grove, Bristol
Doors 7pm
Ages 14+

Tickets £10 advance
0845 413 4444
www.alt-tickets.co.uk
Bristol Ticket Shop
Rise Music

Wed 29th February – BSW MUSIC NETWORK PRESENTS presents…

KIDS CANT FLY with THE FIRST + SMILE, LOOKALIVE + SELL YOUR SKY

Doors: 7.00 PM / £6.00 adv

Tickets from Ticketweb.

Woman’s Club

February 29, 2012

9.30pm – 11.30pm / Free Entry

 live / Local Support

Originally hailing from Cumbria but now based in the big smoke, Woman’s Hour are a four-piece which actually consist of more men than women, and are known to play for less than an hour. They specialise in stripped-down yet dynamic indie- pop which can alternate between delightfully sparse slow jams on Human and more funked up moments such as Jenni, all characterised by singer Fiona’s smooth tones. They are already developing a reputation for rambunctious live performances, and if early recordings are anything to go by they could be in line for some major attention sooner rather than later.

Ben Howard

O2 Academy Bristol

Wed 29 Feb 12

Door time: 7.00pm

Show time: TBC

The young acoustic troubadour brought a new freshness and lustre to the scene with his debut album ‘Every Kingdom’. Now he announces his biggest ever headline tour.

Under 21s require ID to purchase alcohol

Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult over 18 at all times

THE WAR ON DRUGS
www.thewarondrugs.net

Philadelphia’s The War On Drugs make lovely, swimming ambient folk-rock with a retro slant and a dreamlike quality not too far from acts such as Dead Meadow, Band Of Horses or Black Mountain. American music at its sentimental, country-inspired best.

THURSDAY 1 MARCH

THEKLA
The Grove, Bristol
Doors 7pm
Ages 18+

Tickets £9 advance
0845 413 4444
www.alt-tickets.co.uk
Bristol Ticket Shop
Rise Music

• Doors: 8:00 PM
• Price: £7 Adv
• Entry: 16+
• Room: Main Room, Front Bar

Artists: Crazy Arm, Austin Lucas & The Bold Party, Apologies I Have None, Great Cynics

Ticket link: http://www.the-croft.com

Deadpunk Promotions presents a night of Punk / Folk / Country.

Crazy Arm set up camp in mid-2006. Not easy to categorise, and all the better for it, their sound is an accumulation of decades of influence and inspiration: rooted in hardcore/punk, ‘60s protest folk/country and classic rock’n’roll, combined with a grass-roots political overview that embraces anti-war, anti-fascist and pro-community activism.

Austin Lucas: Raised in the backwoods country of Monroe County, Indiana, Austin Lucas was born into a folk and bluegrass lineage. His father, Bob Lucas, is an accomplished musician and performer in his own right, having earned songwriting credits on two of Allison Krauss’ albums, including 1997’s Grammy-winning So Long So Wrong. Learning to harmonize before learning to read, Lucas honed his vocal control in six formative years as a member of the nationally-acclaimed Indiana University Children’s Choir. In a narrative as well-worn as it is true, Lucas rebelled against his upbringing, leaving his Americana roots for the catharsis of punk rock. After the better part of a decade spent criss-crossing the globe with a series of bands in broken-down vans, Lucas hit a musical glass-ceiling, eventually finding respite for his ringing ears in the delicacy of traditional songcraft.

Seth Lakeman

English folk singer, fiddle-player, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist

When Mar 01, 2012

from 07:30 PM to 11:00 PM

Seth Lakeman

+ Support

Tour marking release of new album, Tales From The Barrel House. Nominated for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize, Lakeman has belonged to several musical ensembles, but has most recently established himself as a solo headlining act.

Tickets: £18.00 + BF

available from See Tickets & Bristol Ticket Shop 0117 929 9008

SETH LAKEMAN

Seth Lakeman, widely regarded as the UK’s foremost folk singer songwriter, is playing a short run of dates in December with his superbly talented band. He will be playing tracks from his previous studio albums on the tour plus some brand new songs from his album ‘Tales From The Barrel House’ which was released on the 18 November. Recorded at Morwellham Quay in Devon, Seth has not only written, sung and played all the instruments on every track on the new album but he’s also recorded and mixed the whole album himself. Seth says he has enjoyed this recording project like no other. “I’ve been really keen for some time to get right back to the basics of ‘Kitty Jay’..” (the £300 kitchen-table album that shot him to fame and won him a Mercury Music Prize nomination back in 2005)

“To be blunt, this is the type of album I could never have done with a major label. I’m grateful for having worked in some of the best-equipped studios and with top producers, but with this record I’ve felt completely free to do my own thing for the first time in years.” In keeping with this independent spirit, ‘Tales from the Barrel House’ has been released through his own Honour Oak Records and is only available to buy from Seth’s website as a strictly limited deluxe digipak with each copy individually numbered.

‘Tales From The Barrel House’ underlines Seth’s inate knack for writing both foot-stomping, sing-along songs and more tender, thoughtful ballads. His playing is often breathtaking and Seth’s trademark, soaring vocals are at the forefront of this album, as beguiling and haunting as ever. Charismatic, full of passionate energy and giving voice to people from the past, “Tales from the Barrel House” will entrance and enthrall a growing army of present-day fans and, undoubtedly, will also be discovered by lovers of heartfelt music – discerning folk – of the future.

Trinity now operates a “Challenge 25″ policy. If you look under 25, please be prepared to show proof of age when buying alcohol.

14+ (under 16′s must be accompanied by an adult)

PICTURE BOOK

www.picturebookmusic.com

A three piece band who play up to nine instruments on stage at any one time, vocalist Greta and brothers Dario and Lorne have created an energetic electronic based live performance with dance beats, large sine wave bass, eclectic guitar, ethereal violins and dreamy Scandinavian vocals, to fill every corner of any room. Picture Book’s music is influenced by their multi national status, being brought up in the USA, UK, Faroe Islands, Singapore and Sweden, albeit they now call Liverpool home.

Live as part of PRESSURE

www.facebook.com/pressureclub

THURSDAY 1 MARCH

THEKLA TOP DECK

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 9.30pm

Ages 18+

Tickets £3 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

March 1st, 2012

IN EXTREMIS | GREAT NATIVES | ROUGH MONEY

ENTRY//£4adv

March 2nd, 2012

FIELD PROMOTIONS PRESENT: BLEECH | CALL THE DOCTOR | ANNETTE BERLIN

ENTRY//£6adv

SJ ESAU

Friday 2nd March ~ 8pm

£5 Door Entry

One man band Sam Wisternoff pleases us with genre defying experimental pop. Sharp anecdotes and surreal songs are motored by samplers, toy synths and mutated guitar and voice through clever looping.

Above all this is fun and spellbinding music and not to be missed.

+ SUPPORT TBC

AA BONDY

www.aabondy.co

AA Bondy follows in the lineage of the great American story tellers Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clarke and Will Oldham and breathes new life and soul into Cosmic American Music. With a voice to melt hearts and lucid stories to warp the senses, he will induce tears and laughter in (nearly) equal measures.

FRIDAY 2 MARCH

THEKLA

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 7pm

Ages 18+

Tickets £9 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

Friday 2nd March

JAGUAR SKILLS

& HIS AMAZING FRIENDS!

(Toolroom Knights/BBC Radio 1)

 + LOST BOYS

Thekla Bristol

10pm-4am

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦

JAGUAR SKILLS

& HIS AMAZING FRIENDS

(Toolroom Knights/BBC Radio 1)

www.facebook.com/djjaguarskills

His name? Jaguar Skills.

His title? International DJ, man of mystery.

If you have a party to rock, and no one else can help, and if you can find him… maybe you can hire… Jaguar Skills… HoooooOOOOO!!!!!

Currently, he can be found on BBC Radio One, on the Trevor Nelson Show, every Saturday, 8.00pm… for only 10 minutes… and then… *puff* …he’s gone!

Dubstep Mix: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB2_CJKOfmo

8 Bit Hip-Hop Mix: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSL2_bba_WI

Michael Jackson Tribute Mix: www.vimeo.com/14346947

Drum & Bass Kitchen Mix: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbifXzPn9_8

Kanye vs Daft Punk Mix: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYF69_hpZvU

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦

LOST BOYS

(( BRISTOL DEBUT! ))

www.facebook.com/thelostboysaredead

Lost Boys are Bristol based Bass producers Andrew Burgess and Matthieu Nelmes. They have been DJing for some of the UK’s biggest club nights for the past three years and have shared stages with the likes of Chase and Status, Sub Focus, Zane Lowe, Pendulum, Doorly and Fake Blood. Since early 2011 they have been producing bass driven music at a variety of tempos and are soon to take the UK by storm with a unique live show.

Merry Fucking Xmas Mixtape: www.bit.ly/ADbI6i

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦

Friday 2nd March

Thekla Bristol

The Grove, Bristol BS1 4RB

www.theklabristol.co.uk

10pm-4am

Ages 18+

Tickets £12 earlybird

www.alt-tickets.co.uk/alttickets/event_ate_14085a.html

0845 413 4444 / Bristol Ticket Shop

March 3rd, 2012

SYMPTOMATIC PRESENT: SPOTLIGHT KID

Spotlight Kid continue their assault against sonic mediocrity with an assuredness and an emotional depth so many guitar bands are currently lacking.

This is the sound of a band rising to the top of their game, while wearing their hearts on their sleeves and performing live shows like their next meal depends on it. Influences from the likes of The Cure, Swervedriver and My Bloody Valentine have allowed Spotlight Kid to produce a heady mix that runs through the entire gamut of emotions.

The new album moves from the brittle melodic “Haunting Me”, a towering epic, underpinned by hopeless romantic loss, before plunging without warning headlong into the Mary Chainesque two-minute punk blast “Plan Comes Apart,” providing a marvellous wake-up call to the senses. This is exactly what the album is about. You’re in the arms of your lover one minute and then cast into a dark void the next.

Spotlight Kid’s music features mixtures of Shoegaze, Krautrock and 90s Psychedelia. Fuzzy guitars wrapped in layers of reverb and boy/girl vocals subtly building on the layered walls of distortion. In the last year Spotlight Kid have supported The Joy Formidable on their UK sell out tour, been chosen by BBC Introducing to play at this year’s Glastonbury and have

Sat 3rd March – LO FI-HI FI presents…

ATTACK ATTACK US

Doors: 7,00 PM / £9.00 adv

16+ Tickets from Music Glue / wegottickets/seetickets.com / gigantic.com / ticket web / Bristolticketshop

Doors: 7.30 PM / £11.00 Adv
16+ Tickets from seetickets.com / gigantic.com / ticketmaster.co.uk / Bristolticketshop /
http://www.alt-tickets.co.uk/alttickets

* Doors: 8:00 PM

* Price: £6 Adv

* Entry: 16+

* Room: Main Room

Tristate presents:

Funeral Suits

Monday 5 March @ The Croft, Bristol

* Doors: 8:00 PM

* Entry: 16+

* Room: Front Bar

The Croft In House presents:

Cambion

+ Mad Hatter 2.0

Monday 5 March @ The Croft, Bristol

Mon 5th March – DHP presents…

TO KILL A KING

Doors: 7.00 PM / £7.00 adv

16+ Tickets from seetickets.com / gigantic.com / ticketmaster.co.uk / Bristolticketshop /

http://www.alt-tickets.co.uk/alttickets

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

DHP Concerts Presents the fiery New York-based punk-blues pioneers

When Mar 07, 2012

from 07:30 PM to 11:00 PM

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

New date!

2011 kicked off with the band making a splash with their raucous cover of Ram Jam’s ‘Black Betty’ in Volkswagen’s Super Bowl XLV ad. In addition, the JSBX toured Australia and New Zealand, in support of the band’s massive reissue campaign featuring the seminal, long-out-of-print albums – Now I Got Worry, Acme, Extra Width and Orange and the extremely rare live album, Controversial Negro – all lovingly remastered and released by Majordomo Records/Shout! Factory as physical packages and available digitally for the first time.

“The shows have been amazing, we’ve had a string of knockouts. It feels so good to be blowing minds with the BX again. Judah Bauer, Russell Simins, and myself are on a roll, and moving into the future – got a trick bag of new tunes, can’t wait to whip ‘em on the people!” Jon Spencer/July 2011

Doors 7.30pm

Tickets on sale now (existing tickets still valid)

£16.50 adv + bf

14+ (under 16 must be accompanied by an adult)

Alt-Tickets

Bristol Ticket Shop 0117 929 9008

March 07, 2012

The Croft, 117 – 119 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS1 3RW

£10 Adv

Mest, The Human Project, Everything We Left Behind

Ticket link: http://www.the-croft.com

BSW Network and Deadpunk Promotions present U.S. Pop Punk / Pop Rock stalwarts, Mest. Currently gearing up to release their sixth studio album, this will be the bands first UK tour since they reformed in 2008.

BSW Network & Deadpunk Promotions Presents

Mest – Cousins Tony and Matt Lovato grew up across the street from each other in the Blue Island section of the south side of Chicago and began playing together at seven, borrowing instruments from Tony’s father, with Tony picking up guitar and singing and Matt playing bass. In high school, they hooked up with guitarist Jeremiah Rangel and drummer Nick Gigler. Tony came up with the band name Mest while looking at a case of Milwaukee’s Best beer. Playing in local Chicago punk clubs, the group self-released their debut album, Mo’ Money, Mo’ 40′z. They got their first real break when Tony wrote to Goldfinger lead singer John Feldmann and got a response. After listening to a demo tape, Feldmann agreed to let Mest open for Goldfinger, got them a record deal with Maverick, and produced their major-label debut, Wasting Time, which was released in July 2000. A year later, Mest returned with a cameo-filled (Young MC, Save Ferris’ Monique Powell) spiky-punk second album entitled Destination Unknown. A self-titled third album, which included a cameo from Good Charlotte’s Benji Madden, appeared in June 2003. A lengthy stretch of Warped Tour dates followed, which led to exhaustion for Mest and back surgery for Tony Lovato in particular. But the band soldiered on, and in autumn 2005 they released their fourth effort for Maverick, Photographs. After ten years together, Mest called it quits in early 2006. They went out on an appropriately titled final tour, So Long and Thanx for the Booze, that February alongside Allister and Scary Kids Scaring Kids. In 2008 the band reformed for what was meant to be a one off special, but after much demand from fans have now put the band back together full time and will release their sixth studio album some point in 2012.

The Human Project – Tech punkers from Leeds featuring ex-members of Random Hand.

Everything We Left Behind – Super fast pop punk from Weston Super Mare.

Doors: 8:00 PM, Price: £4, Entry: 16+, Room: Front Bar

PALE SEAS

www.paleseas.com

Pale Seas are a Southampton born–London based five piece with the ability to craft stunningly beautiful pop songs.

The band, led by singer Jacob Scott, have recently recorded with producer/engineer combo Jimmy Robertson and Demian Castellanos (Anna Calvi, Big Pink, Florence & The Machine, Exlovers).

Reminiscent of Beach House and Elliott Smith, the bands intimate and nocturnal sound is potent enough to melt even the iciest of hearts. ‘Something or Nothing’ is a bittersweet track which exemplifies Pale Seas’ ability to entwine elegant harmonies with lyrical content way beyond the bands years.

Like a night by the fire whilst it rains outside, there’s a richness and subtle grandeur to their sound, a certain sparkle and charm which grows with multiple listens.

ONSTAGE AROUND 10PM

Playing live as part of PRESSURE

www.facebook.com/pressureclub

THURSDAY 8 MARCH

THEKLA TOP DECK

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 9.30pm

Ages 18+

Tickets £3 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

cLuMsY

Friday 9th March ~ 8pm

£4 Door Entry

cLuMsY are an independent, funky soulful reggae six piece, who have been part of the South West music scene for the last 10 years.

In 2010 cLuMsY, previously an acoustic outfit, went electric. Since then, cLuMsY have been making an impact with their latest sound – playing gigs and festivals around the South West.

cLuMsY’s new sound – a unique blend of Ska, Reggae, Funk & Soul played with driving rhythms, energetic guitar, melodious bass and toe-tapping horn section – provides a platform for their distinct vocal melodies, thought-provoking lyrics, and unforgettable songs.

+ SUPPORT TBC

Friday 9th March

The Cube, Bristol

8-late

Lucy Face & Samfrancisco present… Spiders from Mars

Oh you Pretty Things… come and celebrate the great David Bowie – his music, his fashion, his face.

A night dedicated to Mr Bowie’s many cha cha cha cha Changes through all of his Golden Years.

Whether it’s Ziggy Star Dust or the Goblin King that rock your Bowie world, the chameleon of cool is what it’s all about tonight.

Ziggys got Talent – hosted by Bowie’s biggest fan

Fame! Do you want to be a Rebel Rebel? Then this is your opportunity to be The Prettiest Star and perform your favourite Bowie classic at this one off talent show where anything goes. Remember to Hang on to Yourself as you go head to head against real professional amateurs. Feel Under Pressure as the best and worst battle it out on stage in a bid to win the final audience vote to win the coveted Ziggy’s Got Talent Trophy 2012. You could be Heroes – just for one night!! (Or will it just be Rock n Roll Suicide?)

To secure your place please leave your interest on the wall here and we will get back to you. Spaces are limited.

Scary Monsters and Super Creeps, this is not America it is the land of where all your Bowie fantasies come true:

- Get your Face Painted at the Lady Stardust Saloon

- Let’s dance to Dedicated Bowies tunes in the Suffragette City Bar

- Fill your glass with a Queen Bitch Cocktail or three

- Sing along to your favourite Bowie songs in the Bowie-oke Lounge bought to you by those Absolute Beginners Squeaky Hill

- Bowie Music Video Montage – a selection of his best music videos from across the eras (8-9pm)

- Midnight Bowie Movies in the Auditorium

- Bowie inspired outfits worn by you

- Will you make Modern Love like its 1984 or go home with a little China Girl in a Moonage Daydream?

£3 for participants/sign ups

£5 punters on the door

A thrilling return to the Cube for Kansas’s fearless, heartbroken prom queen Piney Gir, rebooting the 1960s of mascara-run Spector girl groups, Pacific-coast surf harmonies and effortlessly tuneful longing. Geronimo!

With electro-Latin Casiotone pop from Poppy Perezz and ukulele-melodica punk from Drunken Butterfly.

Plus Lipstick On Your Collar DJs take over the bar for a night of all-female artists and dancing.

March 10th, 2012

F.O.F PRESENT: THE CHAPMAN FAMILY | THE NATURALS

ENTRY//£6adv

The Chapman Family are a band from Teesside in the North East of England. Artrocker magazine called “All Fall,” their debut single from their debut album, “the best rock song of the year” in October 2010. Their debut album “Burn Your Town” will be released in March 2011, preceded by their second single “Anxiety” on 28th February 2011.

MAYER HAWTHORNE & THE COUNTY

www.facebook.com/mayerhawthorne

The “retro soul” tag is added to almost any contemporary work that sounds like it was originally recorded before 1980, and Mayer Hawthorne is aware of how trends come and go. But, he says, he’s not interested in taking it back to the “good old days,” as much as he is in creating the “new good days.” And to fans like producer Mark Ronson, who said, “I have no idea what this is, old or new, but it’s fucking good!!!” upon first hearing Hawthorne’s music, age ain’t nothin’ but a number.

On How Do You Do, his first major label effort for Universal Republic Records, Hawthorne proves that he is not part of a trend. The classic Motown sound that provided the blueprint for his self-produced independent debut, A Strange Arrangement, remains, but is joined on How Do You Do by music reminiscent of late 1960s California pop and the best work from the likes of Steely Dan and Chicago.

“Hawthorne emerges with a jaw-dropping collection of classic soul,” RollingStone.com proclaimed upon hearing A Strange Arrangement, but with this latest release, the formula has been updated. The vocals are stronger, the music more varied and vibrant, but it’s still Mayer Hawthorne. And the message is love.

Hawthorne grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, just outside of Detroit, and vividly remembers, as a child, driving with his father and tuning the car radio in to the rich soul and jazz history the region provided. “Most of the best music ever made came out of Detroit,” claims the singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, who counts Smokey Robinson and famed songwriting trio Holland, Dozier, Holland among his influences, but also draws inspiration from Michael McDonald, Juan Atkins and J Dilla.

Hawthorne has produced and played instruments for much of his life, but never intended to become a singer. What he became, however, was a new school soul sensation, touring globally and earning accolades from Playboy, NPR and Entertainment Weekly. “He’s an able singer…an arranger of astonishing precision,” wrote the New York Times when Hawthorne first hit the scene.

On “The Walk,” the first single from How Do You Do, Hawthorne plays a man scorned and content with saying “So long, you did me wrong” to the lady in his life. “A Long Time” is both a brilliant homage to Steely Dan’s “Hey Nineteen” and a storied history of Hawthorne’s beloved Detroit, followed by a duet – yes, duet – with the incomparable Snoop Dogg on “Can’t Stop.”

“It’s Snoop like you’ve never heard him before,” Hawthorne told Billboard.com before the two performed together at the South by Southwest music festival in March.

The rest of How Do You Do is a trip through generations and tales of love cherished and love lost. Songs like “Hooked,” “You Called Me” and “You’re Not Ready” are vintage fare, while “The News” and “No Strings” add a modern, 21st century flair to the proceedings.

Snoop Dogg once heralded Hawthorne as his new favorite artist, praise shared via Twitter by other stars such as Kanye West, Justin Timberlake and John Mayer. With the release of How Do You Do, such sentiment is sure to grow, just as Hawthorne himself continues to grow as an artist and performer. It was soul music from which he came, and those roots will never be left behind. But there is more to this artist than just soul music.

“A lot of my other influences are coming out on this record,” Hawthorne told Billboard.com. “There are a lot of other genres that are blending in now. “It’s just turning into me.”

- Ronnie Reese, August 2011

SUNDAY 11 MARCH

THEKLA

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 7pm

Ages 14+

Tickets £12.50 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

Rise Music

* Doors: 8:00 PM

* Price: £5 adv

* Entry: 16+

* Room: Main Room

Offbeat Promotions presents:

Toy Horses

Sunday 11 March @ The Croft, Bristol

•Doors: 8:00 PM

•Price: £5 adv

•Entry: 16+

•Room: Main Room

Offbeat Promotions presents:

Toy Horses

+ Joyce The Librarian

Sunday 11 March @ The Croft, Bristol

* Doors: 8:00 PM

* Price: £8 Adv

* Entry: 16+

* Room: Main Room, Front Bar

Diogenes presents:

Father Murphy

+ Muddy Miles

Tuesday 13 March @ The Croft, Bristol

Father Murphy Biography

http://www.myspace.com/reverendmurphy

March 13th, 2012

LOFI HIFI PRESENT: SUMMER CAMP

ENTRY//£8adv

Taken from The Guardian:

The BBC Sound Poll and all those other lists of who’s going to make it in 2010 already seem out of date and out of touch. Why? Because they didn’t have Summer Camp in them, and Summer Camp are going to be quite a big deal over the next few months.

Not that we know anything about them. Their MySpace says they’re from the “United Kingdom”, we’ve read that they’re from Chicago, and most write-ups of them thus far have been pretty convinced that they are, in fact, Swedish. They’re cool and clever enough to be a Brooklyn arthouse scam or one of those Stockholm never-never concept pop groups that make sublime music but never sell a record.

Actually, we have it on pretty good authority – we asked their press officer – that they’re a boy-girl duo from London, but we don’t know their names or who plays what instruments. However, there is an emphasis on soft female vocals, if that isn’t a contradiction in terms.

Meanwhile, they’re so keen to retain their anonymity at this point that instead of photos of them, they’re sending out for use various snapshots of kids and teenagers in the pre-punk 1970s in bad tanktops, supposedly enjoying themselves on some kind of seasonal holiday – or Summer Camp, as they’re often known. Unless that Polaroid of a couple drenched in beige and snogging at the kitchen table really is them, which would be weird.

They’re as slippery as they are seemingly shy, this Summer Camp pair. They fit in or flit in and out of various categories: the new surf-rock of the Drums, the C86-ish indie-pop of Pains of Being Pure at Heart, the girl group revivalism of Vivian Girls … There are elements in their lush lo-fi moments of chillwave, with some of the crackly intimacy of Perfume Genius. “If Washed Out offer the comedown from the utopian gauzy beach party,” wrote one blogger, “then Summer Camp are the band who played the prom the night before, peppier than their morning-after bedfellows.”

They’re not mono-fetishists: it’s not just the innocence of the pre-rock 1950s or non-rock mid-1960s they’re lionising here. Alongside the synth version of the Flamingos’ spectral 1959 hit I Only Have Eyes for You there are references to the mid-1980s – most of the songs on their MySpace start with a quote from an 80s Bratpack movie or other. Round the Moon – itself more electro-poppy than doo woppy – is prefaced by Molly Ringwald’s character Sam Baker saying, “I can’t believe I gave my panties to a geek”, during John Hughes’s Sixteen Candles. And Was It Worth It?, or at least the singing on the verse, is so Morrissey it’s not true.

“We’re big fans of the glo-fi/chillwave thing happening at the moment,” the duo exclusively told New Band of the Day. “Washed Out, Active Child, the Smith Westerns – there is something so nostalgic and heartbreaking about it, while still sounding really fresh and exciting. We also love Motown and the Beach Boys, and 80s pop like Cocteau Twins, Altered Images, Talking Heads and XTC. Stiff Records is a big influence – Wreckless Eric, Jona Lewie, Ian Dury and Devo. We just love synth-pop, though, ultimately. And we kind of imagine that we’re writing songs for an 80s teen movie. John Cusack is a huge influence on us.”

Cool. But why the secrecy?

“That came about completely by accident,” they said. “As things started happening it made sense to carry on being secretive, as it takes the pressure off us slightly. Plus, we don’t like how you can know everything about a band these days – we’re nostalgic for mystery. People will find out soon, though, and probably be disappointed that we’re not actually Cheryl Cole and Moby. Or are we …?”

March 13, 2012 19:30

The Croft, 117 – 119 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS1 3RW

£8 Adv

Father Murphy, Muddy Miles, Fairhorns

Ticket link: http://www.the-croft.com

The Diogenes Club presents Father Murphy – Italian trio championed by the likes of Julian Cope, Deerhoof and Michael Gera for their unique psychedelic slow tempo rock doom. Support comes from Muddy Miles and Fairhorns.

The Diogenes Club Presents

Father Murphy – An Italian trio comprised by freddie (vocals, guitar), Chiara Lee (vocals, keyboards, percussions) and Vittorio Demarin (drums, viola, vocals). Born in Treviso, Northern Italy, from the ashes of Federico’s several previous musical projects, Father Murphy with two albums and a plethora of ep’s and limited releases became one of the most mysterious and enigmatic musical entities coming out of Italy. If their first album Six Musicians getting unknown was still somewhat rooted in twisted psychedelic pop and sounded vaguely related to Os Mutantes (Brazil) and Italian psych pop masters Jennifer Gentle, the second record, with “…and He told us to turn to the Sun” they did a significant step ahead – out of every familiar musical genre and right into the darkness. Recorded in a church between the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008, And He told us to turn to the sun maybe was born like a rather weird attempt to a concept album about religion, but surely sounds like a collection of dark, foreboding songs that crawl and twist and hiss like that old biblical serpent. Think of Gnostic masses, kabbalistic chanting, chiming little bells, tinny Gregorian-like drones played on toy-keyboards and the subtle but inescapable influence of 70’s Italian horror rock acts like Jacula and soundtrack masters Goblin and Ennio Morricone, and you will have some of the ingredients that make Father Murphy’s music. Add a good deal of lunacy and enough humour to keep the gloom away (just because you cannot take yourself that seriously) and the album is here, in all its strangely beguiling simplicity: an uneasy, compelling, furiously heretic yet sandblasted in Catholicism little album that could come only out of Italy. Warmly embraced in the recent years also by both the UK and the US press, winning fans like Julian Cope, Deerhoof and Michael Gira.

Muddy Miles – “Bristol based trio bring sounds that combine Pink Floyds live in Pompeii experience to a sudden wall of sound that is as heavy as Mogwai or Tool. With a chaotic live show, Muddy Miles bring a much needed refreshing experience to rock music today.”

Fairhorns – Blackened kraut vibes/dub party hits.

Wed 14th March – DHP presents…

DIAGRAMS with Yeti Lane

Doors: 7.30 PM / £7.50 adv

16+ Tickets from seetickets.com / gigantic.com / ticketmaster.co.uk / Bristolticketshop /

http://www.alt-tickets.co.uk/alttickets

March 14, 2012 19:30

The Croft, 117 – 119 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS1 3RW

£6 Adv

John Hegley

Ticket link: http://www.the-croft.com

A night of avant garde poetry and song with John Hegley.

John Hegley began his performing career at London’s Comedy Store in 1980, and received national exposure when he appeared with his backing band the Popticians on Carrott’s Lib in 1983, and recorded two sessions for John Peel in 1983 and 1984. Hegley published his first poetry collection, Visions of the Bone Idol (Poems about Dogs and Glasses), pieces from which were later incorporated into Glad to Wear Glasses, in 1984. Hegley has written a number of collections of poetry, ranging from the surreal through the humorous to the personal and emotional. There are a number of recurring themes in his poems, notably glasses, dogs and reminiscences of his childhood in Luton.

Doors: 8:00 PM, Price: £4, Entry: 16+, Room: Front Bar, Main Room

March 15th, 2012

MIDNIGHT MANGO PRESENT: ALICE GOLD

ENTRY//£8adv

Alice Gold (Alice McLaughlin) is an English singer-songwriter based in London, formerly signed to Sunday Best[1] and currently signed to Fiction Records.

Her debut single “Orbiter” was released on 23 September 2010 through Pure Groove Records, with a single launch party at The Drop in Stoke Newington. The Guardian said it “showcases Gold’s mighty voice through its power-pop chorus” and described her as “One to watch”.

Her second single “Runaway Love”, released on Fiction Records, has received airplay on radio stations across the UK, entering the A-List on BBC Radio 2. On the official release date, 18 April 2011, an acoustic EP was recorded live at Toerag Studios where The White Stripes have previously recorded.

Gold’s debut album Seven Rainbows, released on 4 July 2011, was produced by Dan Carey (Franz Ferdinand, Hot Chip, Lily Allen). In an interview with PopCultureMonster.com she said of the album “the main bass, drums and guitars rhythm tracks were all recorded live and on tape like the old 60s records. The over-dubs are mostly made up of one-takes, whether it be guitar or vocal takes. My producer Dan Carey and I decided that if a take felt good then we’d keep it, so it is complete with minor ‘mistakes’ and quirky sounds through doing that, which we both like. Its a very honest album, quite autobiographical. The songs were born from a lot of darkness and grief but the lyrics are drenched in hope because of that, which is why I imagine people connect to it.”

In October 2010, Gold was shortlisted for Q magazine’s ‘Next Big Thing’ award.[4]

In September 2011, Gold’s cover of the Billy Fury song “Wondrous Place” was used in an advert for the British beer brand Carling.

She has toured with Eels, Athlete, Band Of Skulls, Noah And The Whale, The Twilight Singers and has upcoming tour support slots confirmed with The Dears and The Bookhouse Boys.

Gold also played festivals in 2011, including Glastonbury, V Festival, T in the Park, Harvest at Jimmy’s Festival, Jodrell Bank Live, Kendal Calling, Cornbury Festival and Hull’s Freedom Festival.

INSPIRAL CARPETS

www.inspiralcarpets.com

Inspiral Carpets ranked alongside the Happy Mondays and the House of Love as one of the leading bands on the Madchester indie scene during the late ’80s and early ’90s. Songs like ‘This Is How It Feels’ and ‘She Comes In the Fall’ remain indie anthems over a decade later. The band reformed in 2011 with their original singer Stephen Holt taking over lead vocal duties. Rediscovering their garage band roots, Inspirals will be recording their first material in 15 years coupled with worldwide live concerts.

THURSDAY 15 MARCH

THEKLA

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 7pm

Ages 14+

Tickets £20 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

Get The Blessing

Thu 15 Mar, 8pm

£7.00

Bristol’s post-jazz iconoclasts Get The Blessing proudly launch their third album, “OCDC”, with a rare local performance also featuring Portishead collaborator John Minton on visuals. The album fizzes with the musical tensions suggested by its title: tightly controlled structures are offset by joyously unfettered improvisations; thumpingly strong melodies are balanced by abstract fine details; air-punching grandeur meets wistful delicacy.

“Jubilantly genre-scrambling music” – The Guardian

“Punky brawn with jazz brain” – Mojo

Get The Blessing have deftly ploughed their jazzy post-rock furrow since the release of their debut All Is Yes back in 2008, drawing enthusiastic comparisons to similarly inventive acts like Tortoise and Polar Bear, whilst wearing their jazz credentials lightly but defiantly. A shared love of legendary saxophonist Ornette Coleman’s early quartet inspired their boldly monophonic instrumentation. The intricate but absolutely rock-solid rhythm section forms the glue that holds Get The Blessing together, with the dual sax and trumpet frontline working with the bass to create melodies and harmonies. Drummer Clive Deamer and bassist Jim Barr have long provided the low-end rumbles and stuttering beats for trip-hop legends Portishead, and Deamer has recently been recruited by Radiohead as their second live drummer for 2012 (he’s also an established partner of Robert Plant, Roni Size, Hawkwind, Jeff Beck and several other contemporary luminaries). John Minton, long-time provider of stunning live visuals for Portishead, brings his inventive work to accompany the band for this special event.

From the upbeat rollicking title track that kicks off proceedings, to the lilting cinematic closer Pentopia, the new album exudes energy and invention at every turn. With guest turns from Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley as well as by legendary composer & musician Robert Wyatt, and influences including astronomy, psychology, Borges, and food, OC DC grabs the listener by the lapels and sets off joyously once more into the sonic wilderness.

* Doors: 8:00 PM

* Price: £4

* Entry: 16+

* Room: Front Bar

The Croft In House presents:

Good Looking Dead

+ Evacuees

Friday 16 March @ The Croft, Bristol

BOOTS ELECTRIC

www.boots-electric.com

Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes announces first full UK Solo Tour as Boots Electric and second single ‘Love You All The Thyme’ from debut solo album ‘Honkey Kong’.

Jesse Hughes has today announced a solo UK tour as his alter ego Boots Electric. Following the release of his debut solo album Honkey Kong and first single Complexity Jesse and his band are ready to hit venues across the UK and bring their feel good dance inducing electro-rock and roll to the throbbing masses.

As Time-Out Magazine recently put it at the London album launch show – ‘it’s time to tuck your tongue into your cheek and lock up your daughters as Jesse Hughes is coming to town as Boots Electric’.

Hughes didn’t simply become Boots Electric for Honkey Kong; he’s been Boots for a very long time. The very first rumblings of Honkey Kong actually date back to the 1998 Desert Sessions when the plan for his other band Eagles of Death Metal was also consequentially hatched. However, his EODM partner-in-crime Joshua Homme told Hughes he would only become “Boots Electric” the day he stopped “fruit-booting” around on roller blades and learned to dance. That day has come.

Hughes explains, “Honkey Kong really started when Joshua took me to the studio to make EODM’s first album, Peace Love and Death Metal. I became a student and disciple of this wonderful thing we call show business, and Honkey Kong is my final exam.”

With arms aloft sing-a-long choruses and dirty funk laden hooks a plenty, Boots Electric’s live show can now draw on material from three storming Eagles of Death Metal albums plus Honkey Kong and promises to be one hell of a party.

FRIDAY 16 MARCH

THEKLA

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 7pm

Ages 14+

Tickets £12 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

Rise Music

Friday 16th March / 8.00pm / £4adv

Bristol’s We Be Records presents Caretaker playing aggressive, discordant rock music sounding somewhere between Neurosis and The Jesus Lizard. Their new album ‘Providence’ is out March 5th and has been well received by X-FM and the Radi…o One rock show. Support comes from Oxford-based troublemakers The Cellar Family with their unique brand of angular noise rock, plus local reprobates Sonance (featuring members of local favourites Mea Culpa) playing noise influenced, atmospheric doom. A night of intelligent heavy music, not to be missed.

www.caretakerband.com

www.cellarfamily.co.uk

sonancenoise.wordpress.com

www.weberecords.com

ROOM 94

www.room94.co.uk

These young Hertfordshire boys seemingly have an endless supply of super catchy, bouncy, powerpop songs. Enough to make McFly and Sum 41 jealous! These teen tearaways feature Kieran Lemon (lead vocals & guitar), George Bagnelle (backing vocals & …lead guitar), Kit Tanton (bass) and Dean Lemon (drums). Their sherbet-fuelled blend of addictive fizzy punk-pop has seen their fanbase grow, while debut single ‘Best Friends’ Girlfriend’ looks set to be an anthem for teens everywhere.

8TH TIME LUCKIE

www.8thtimeluckie.co.uk

“Cheeky English punk-pop like a younger Blink 182.”

DESTINE

www.destinemusic.com

“Destine is Holland’s response to bands such as Paramore, Fall Out Boy and All Time Low.”

MONDAY 19 MARCH

THEKLA

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 6pm

Ages 14+

Tickets £10 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

LOS CAMPESINOS!

www.loscampesinos.com

Alt-pop NME favourites from Cardiff, making waves with their brand of power-punk-pop laced with sixties psychedelia and prog-rock

“…the kind of thing that’s so terrifyingly promising it gives you a headache just thinking about it.” – This Is Fake DIY.

WEDNESDAY 21 MARCH

THEKLA

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 7.30pm

Ages 14+

Tickets £10 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

Rise Music

ALEX WINSTON

www.alexwinstonofficial.com

Classically trained in opera and bred on musical Americana, Alex’s musical roots began with her family back in Detroit. Her father bought her a guitar when she was just seven years old, and they would sit in the basement for hours… practicing chord progressions and listening to songwriters like Carol King and Laura Nyro. A talented multi-instrumentalist with a voice reminiscent of Joanna Newsom, Lykke Li and PJ Harvey, Alex Winston is causing quite a stir in the pop world.

FRIDAY 23 MARCH

THEKLA

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 7pm

Ages 14+

Tickets £8 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

RONIKA

www.ronikamusic.com

“As with disco dolly/Benitez-era Madonna, the cutesy surface is a disguise for deep involvement in the local underground dance scene. A writer-producer as well as a singer, you could imagine her penning hits for Kylie or becoming the female Stu…art Price. As with Price, there is a facility here with late-period disco, electro-funk and synth-pop.” – The Guardian

“Beneath the sugar-coated electro-pop rush of her self-released debut EP Do or Die/Paper Scissors Stone there’s a strange mix of more obscure influences.” – Dazed and Confused

Live as part of POP CONFESSIONAL

www.facebook.com/popconfessional

SATURDAY 24 MARCH

THEKLA TOP DECK

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 9.30pm

Ages 18+

Tickets £5 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

Jon Mueller, Pimmon, The Organ Octet & Syntjuntan

Sat 24 Mar, 7.30pm

£8 Adv

Jon Mueller and Pimmon headline an evening of immersive and radically different approaches to music production: Swans, Wilco and Bon Iver affiliate Mueller performs a spellbinding snare roll and tape concerto while Australian laptop legend Pimmon generates macro-worlds from micro loops. The Organ Octet (including John Chantler) create a shimmering sonic architecture with a troop of 70s reed organs, and Swedish female sound collective Syntjuntan perform wild DIY electronics with the participants and instruments from their daytime synth knitting workshop.

JON MUELLER

As a drummer and percussionist, Jon Mueller has performed solo and in various groupings throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. His recordings have been released by record labels such as Table of the Elements, Polyvinyl Records, Type Recordings, Jagjaguwar, Hometapes, and many others. Mueller has worked with members of the groups Swans, Wilco, Bon Iver, and Rhys Chatham’s Guitar Trio, as well as being a founding member of the groups Pele, Collections of Colonies of Bees, and Volcano Choir. He has also collaborated with James Plotkin, Marcus Schmickler, Bhob Rainey, Dan Burke, Asmus Tietchens, Lionel Marchetti, Z’EV, Jason Kahn, Jack Wright and many others. Over the past 25 years, Mueller has become increasingly focused on recognizing the dialog between sound and the situation it’s presented in, bypassing standard approaches to percussion and considering acoustics and concepts surrounding the work in order to create a larger experience for those listening.

PIMMON

Over the past decade and a half, Paul Gough has carved out a unique space for himself by producing a series of masterfully executed excursions into abstract electronic sound. The so-called ‘Godfather of Australian Laptop music’ Pimmon is recognized internationally as one of a handful of artists pushing the boundaries of music and digital composition. His music creates a dense, emotive, compelling and challenging listening experience through a combination of pop, minimal composition, exotic drones and field recordings. Paul has recorded for various international labels including Tigerbeat6 (US) Sirr (Portugal) and Fat Cat (UK). He was also part of collaboration between Oren Ambarchi, Fennesz, Peter Rehberg and Keith Rowe that recorded the recently reissued ‘Afternoon Tea’ and he has forthcoming releases scheduled: ‘Lay Down Real Slow’ [Stunned Records] and a collaboration with Fabio Orsi ‘Procrastination’ on Home Normal.

THE ORGAN OCTET

John Chantler’s Organ Octet are a loose assemblage of musicians kicking life and form into the humble reed organs of the 70s taking them out of the living room corner and onto the stage, sharing wave space with their fellows to create a shimmering, glowing halo of overtones. John’s latest LP, The Luminous Ground, was one of The Wire’s top 50 albums of 2011. For this special performance he will enlist members of Bristol’s musical community.

SYNTJUNTAN

Syntjuntan is an ensemble of female composers, musicians and instrument builders from Sweden, who set out to meet women’s curiosity for technology and electronics, encouraging them to build instruments and other means to facilitate their own experimentation. Syntjuntan was founded 2009 by Ida Lundén, Lise-Lotte Norelius and Ann Rosén.

TOUCHÉ AMORÉ

www.toucheamore.com

Hailing from Los Angeles, California, USA, Touché Amoré set themselves against the glamour and greed of their hometown culture with ‘…to the Beat of a Dead Horse’, the passionate debut LP/CD released through 6131/Collect Records.

Touché Amoré have become a vibrant part of the flourishing West Coast hardcore punk scene, successfully bridging gaps between subgenres. By playing their explosive and sincere music in every basement, VFW hall, club and space up and down the West coast, along side hardcore torchbearers Killing The Dream, Trash Talk and This is Hell as well as like-minded, discordant bands Ampere, Comadre and La Quiete, they have brought a feeling of togetherness and positivity to a scene they love. Unafraid to play their emotionally charged fury in front of uninitiated crowds, Touché Amoré has even shared the stage with upbeat pop-punk bands such as Broadway Calls and folk-punk heroes Fake Problems making close friends along the way.

PIANOS BECOME THE TEETH

www.pianosbecometheteeth.tumblr.com

Pianos Become The Teeth has a melodic yet uncompromising sound that brings to mind such diverse and influential bands as Thursday, Envy and City of Caterpillar. Brimming with sincerity and brandishing an experimental ambiance, the band is pushing beyond the boundaries of a stale genre. Mixing elements of screamo, hardcore as well as post rock, Old Pride breathes new life into a once decaying scene.

Read more: http://topshelfrecords.com/tsr2/_pages/artist_pianos_become_the_teeth.php#ixzz1jHHCLnBy

MONDAY 26 MARCH

THEKLA

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 6.30pm

Ages 14+

Tickets £8.50 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+ FREE ENTRY to THE LOCK IN club night after the show (18+) +

++ www.xthelockinx.co.uk ++ www.facebook.com/thelockin ++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tue 27th March – DHP presents…

POKEY LAFARGE And The South City Three

Doors: 7.30 PM / £10.00 adv

16+ Tickets from seetickets.com / gigantic.com / ticketmaster.co.uk / Bristolticketshop /

http://www.alt-tickets.co.uk/alttickets

March 28th, 2012

DHP PRESENT: JAKE MORLEY

ENTRY//£7.50adv

Morley began recording in 2008, and released of his first EP, This City later the same year. A popular artist on the London circuit, Morley played to increasingly larger crowds and in the summer of 2008 played the MS Calling charity gig[1] at the 100 Club where he met double bassist, John Parker (formerly of Nizlopi), drummer Harry Mead and sound engineer Phill Brown (Bob Marley / Talk Talk / Faithless) who recorded and co-produced Morley’s debut album. Also in attendance was Calum MacColl (Rokia Traore / Ronan Keating / Eddi Reader) who played guitar on and also co-produced the album.

Throughout 2009 Morley continued to play at various venues in London and the UK. During the summer of 2009 Morley released a track a week for free download culminating in a headline show at The Underbelly, Hoxton Square where he sold hand made E.P’s containing all of the tracks released that summer.

In January 2010, Morley assembled a team of musicians and, along with Phill Brown and Calum MacColl, started recording Many Fish To Fry. With recording, mixing and over dubs continuing for a few months, Morley returned to live performances in March.

In April 2010 secured a residency at Ronnie Scott’s playing once a month all the way through to December.

Towards the end of 2010, Morley joined forces with Kerry Harvey-Piper, of Red Grape Records who took on the role of being his manager.

2011 has been a busy year for Morley. His debut album Many Fish To Fry was released in February on his own independent label. After a short UK tour, Morley held his album launch party at London’s Bush Hall, where his performance received much critical acclaim.

In March 2011, Morley’s debut single ‘Feet Don’t Fail Me Now’ was played on Dermot O’Leary’s Saturday afternoon BBC Radio 2 show, with the DJ commenting after the track ‘We like this a lot’. ‘Feet Don’t Fail Me Now’ continued to be played throughout April on over 40 radio stations.On the 5th May Morley headlined the City Showcase after party at the 100 Club and straight after his set finished, he and his band rushed over to the BBC Radio 2 studios to perform a live set on Janice Long’s show. Later that week, Janice Long recommended ‘Feet Don’t Fail Me Now’ as the featured live track of the week on Jo Whiley’s Radio 2 Live In Concert.

Most recently, ‘Feet Don’t Fail Me Now’ was played by Chris Hawkins on his BBC 6 Music breakfast show

NNTS Presents :

Memoryhouse (Sub Pop Records)

+

Support

——–

Start the Bus

————

20.00 – 23.00

===========

£8 + Booking Fee

Tickets Available from Bristol Ticket shop + See Tickets

=============

Memoryhouse

————

In the depths of southern Ontario, nestled between Canada’s most dangerous super-highway and the banks of the laconic, ironically-named Speed River, there is a mid-size town called Guelph, also known as The Royal City. More recently, because few people can recall the historic reasons for that Victorian-era subtitle, and because it is more appropriately musical than royal in the twenty-first century anyway, Guelph was rechristened as “The City of Music”. And it is, in fact, a community that takes its music to heart, having sent forward any number of its native sons and daughters in indie band formation. It is also the base of the Hillside Festival, another local effort with international effects, most notably for introducing music lovers to early versions of such acts as Broken Social Scene and The Arcade Fire.

It was in this strangely creative setting, or more accurately on its somewhat more mundane south-end suburban fringe, that Memoryhouse was conceptualized some five years ago.

Memoryhouse didn’t actually set out to be a band. It took form as a collaborative project meant to serve as an artistic outlet for composer Evan Abeele and photographer Denise Nouvion. Evan, a dedicated student of classical music and a pop-music encyclopedist, intended Memoryhouse to be a multimedia art project, pairing his instrumental compositions with Denise’s photographs and short films. Combining their musical and visual artwork seemed the most promising, and least unhealthy, strategy for battling archetypal adolescent angst worsened by the paralyzing effects of Canadian winter. What they wanted was to test ways to blur the boundaries between genres, to weave a synthesis of music and photography. As Denise explains their collaborative cross-media process, “we start with photos that we want to write around, to give us some kind of aesthetic grounding.”

“When people think of music today, they try to compartmentalize it into different genres,” Evan observes. “I think the sound we have right now fits ‘out’ of time, but, obviously, is still ‘in’ our time. It’s something that could have happened many years ago, but it also sounds contemporary.”

Memory, then, both in terms of looking back and as embedded in contemporary culture, is the basis of the Memoryhouse project. The band’s name itself commemorates the work of German neo-classical composer/artist Max Richter, specifically his 2001 album Memoryhouse, as well as the watershed impact of that album on the Abeele-Nouvion project. As Evan explained in an interview with Pitchfork, “for me, in my musical development, there was a ‘before Memoryhouse’ and an ‘after Memoryhouse’ Hearing that fundamentally changed the way I approached composition. I just wanted to pay tribute to that. I wanted to have that to ground us, wherever we took our own music.”

Where Evan and Denise took their own music was a quick distance from where they began, recording, refining, and conceptualizing their aural-visual collage in the bedroom of a suburban family home. Individually and together, they experimented with themes, lyrics and multiple layers of instrumentation, with Nouvion’s soft, ethereal voice anchoring the frozen textures of Abeele’s compositions with frank sentimentality a uniqure approach towards humanizing the electro-pop compositions they were creating.

Their first extended stint as performers made for a huge learning curve, but after a few extended tours in Europe and the United States, they were soon signed by Seattle’s legendary Sub Pop Records. And in September 2011 Memoryhouse released an improved version of their original home-recorded EP The Years on Sub Pop.

When it came time to record their debut full-length album, Memoryhouse knew exactly what they wanted. “I think there is an unfortunate tendency for bands to rush their first album jumping into a studio without getting a chance to fully develop their voice,” states Abeele. Memoryhouse, however, took their time, touring the songs that would eventually comprise their debut full-length for a full two years. “The album is a big leap for us, but it’s also a completely organic one” posits Nouvion. The 10-track album, produced by Abeele, with assistance from friend, collaborator, and occasional Memoryhouse bassist Barzin Hassani Rad, finds Memoryhouse heading toward a new clarity in composition as well as sound; a more organic direction for artists who are, in their own words, transitioning from a “bedroom recording project” into a fully realized band. Even their range of influences has expanded to include such acts as Emmylou Harris, Dusty Springfield and Fleetwood Mac. “These vocalists, Emmylou, Stevie Nicks they have undeniable warmth to them, but also a sense of identity, or ‘character’,” says Abeele. Nouvion’s voice has never been more present than on the new album, which finds her stepping away from Memoryhouse’s past reverbed sound in favor of a more upfront, and intimate vocal affectation. They half-seriously refer to their new sound as “Taylor Swift with Built to Spill as her backing band.”

The new album is titled The Slideshow Effect. The title speaks to what hasn’t changed for Memoryhouse: their continuing interest in the synthesis of the aural and the visual. It refers to the photographic/cinematic technique of zooming and panning to animate still images, often used in documentary film making to give movement to archival photographs. The Slideshow Effect will be released on Sub Pop Records on February 28, 2012.

Grouper ‘Violet Replacement’

Doors: 8:00 PM, Price: £5, Entry: 16+, Room: Front Bar

Fantazia Superheros @ Motion Bristol

Saturday 31st March, 2012 at 10.00pm (3 room show)

Tickets:

Line Up:

WAREHOUSE WAX

DREAM FREQUENCY

THE SL2 EXPERIENCE

SY & UNKNOWN

RATTY & TANGO

TWISTA & FAYDZ

NICKY BLACKMARKET

LOMAS

DRUID

RANDALL

+ many many more

Coaches:

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=288582684496077

March 31st, 2012

FUNKENSTEINS | ZOOT | THE PORN ISSUE

ENTRY//£4adv

* Doors: 8:00 PM

* Price: £7 Adv

* Entry: 16+

* Room: Main Room, Front Bar

Lofi Hifi presents:

SHARKS

Monday 2 April @ The Croft, Bristol

SHARKS Biography:

‘Trains’ Is taken from the E.P ‘Show Of Hands’ available in the UK on Best Before records www.bestbeforerecords.com

A 12″ hand screened picture disc is also available at Coffee Breath And Heartache. These are limited to 300 copies only. www.coffeebreathandheartache.com

Please feel free to share and spread the word.

WWW.TRAVELSUNDERGROUND.BLOGSPOT.COM

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/SHARKSUK

WWW.TWITTER.COM/SHARKSBAND

WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/SHARKSOFFICIAL

http://SHARKS.BIGCARTEL.COM

http://www.myspace.com/sharksuk

Sat 7th April – Strikefour Music London presents…

JUST ME AGAIN with Tonight We’re Electric

Doors: 7.00 PM / £5.00 adv

14+

Tickets – £5adv http://www.ticketweb.co.uk

Tinariwen

Saturday 7 April 2012

Colston Hall

Colston Street, Bristol BS1 5AR

8.00pm – 11.00pm | £18.50

The original masters of gossamer Touareg guitar groove return, touring their latest record, the sweet and becalmed ‘Tassili’.

More info to follow. A joint junktion with Colston Hall.

A Corleone Family Presentation

Sunday April 8th (Bank Holiday) @ The Fleece

ORANGE GOBLIN

CHURCH OF MISERY

GRIFTER

DOPEFIGHT

SLABDRAGGER

6pm – 11pm

£15adv

All Ages*

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“OG are STILL the best underground band in Britain.” – Tommy Udo (Metal Hammer)

“It has to be said that Orange Goblin shows are very predictable, in the sense that you know they are going to be brilliant before they even hit the stage!” – Terry Beezer (Kerrang!)

“Consistently one of the greatest live bands the UK has produced in recent decades!” – Dom Lawson (Classic Rock)

“Put simply, Orange Goblin are the best metal band in Britain!” – Malcolm Dome (Metal Hammer)

Orange Goblin triumphantly continue to uphold the traditions of great British heavy metal. Having returned to the public eye after talks of a split following the departure of guitarist Pete O’Malley with their stunning album Thieving from the House of God in 2004, the Orange Goblin express train just keeps on gathering speed and the band has now risen to the very pinnacle of the stoner metal field.

From the psychedelic noodlings of Frequencies from Planet Ten to the greasy, biker groove of Time Travelling Blues, the crushing cosmic doom of The Big Black right through to the aggressive punk-metal fusion of Coup de Grace, the all out rock/metal majesty of Thieving from the House of God and, more recently, the plague-ridden Sabbathian-Doom of Healing Through Fire, the Goblin have continued to motor onward, freeing themselves from any stagnant pigeonhole or five-minute trend that may have been thrown their way. This is ROCK the way it should be…unpredictable, exciting and dangerous!!!!!

Main support comes from VERY special guests CHURCH OF MISERY, along with three of the UK’s most promising outfits: GRIFTER, DOPEFIGHT & SLABDRAGGER – this is set to be one of the most authentically heavy line-ups Bristol will see in 2012.

TICKETS:

www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?region=gb_south&query=detail&event=476321

www.seetickets.com/see/price.asp?code=598256

BANDS:

www.orange-goblin.com

www.churchofmisery.net

www.facebook.com/GRIFTERROCK

www.facebook.com/pages/DOPEFIGHT/101421736246

www.facebook.com/Slabdragger

* Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult and leave by midnight

2:54

www.twofiftyfour.net

London based 2:54 are made up of sisters Colette and Hannah Thurlow, joined by Joel Porter on bass and Alex Robins on drums. Influenced by punk bands, the name 2:54 was taken from “the bit where it gets good” in a Melvins song.

CHELSEA WOLFE

www.chelseawolfe.net

California native Chelsea Wolfe has always embodied both light and dark. Yet though her music is a raw strain of electric folk tinted by black metal and deep blues, it never wallows in despair. Instead, it wraps itself like a thick blanket around the human experience, encouraging uplift, seeking triumph. Her voice is a haunting call, warm and lingering, and her lyrics acknowledge life’s obscure and melancholy moments in service to the unlikely truths and beauty they so often reveal. Her music exudes strength in the midst of adversity. It makes sense then that her influences run from Nick Cave and Selda Bagcan, to director Ingmar Bergman, with nods to the dramatic flair of Antony Hegarty, and even more so that she hails from the wilder, woodsy part of her state.

TUESDAY 10 APRIL

THEKLA

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 7pm

Ages 14+

Tickets £7 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

Rise Music

PELICAN
It seems fitting, upon listening to Pelican’s music, that the band hails from Chicago. When Tortoise and their contemporaries ushered in a new wave of instrumental music over a decade ago it was a pastiche of genre-defying sound, simultaneously cohesive and expansive in influence. Similarly, Pelican’s songs touch on so much from the canon of rock music.

When the quartet’s first full length, Australasia, came out in late 2003, it was an experiment in crushing heaviness, albeit melodic and compositionally complex that set them apart from their contemporaries. The songs excelled in exploring layers: where there were glacier-thick walls of guitars, there were also shifts and nuances that gave the songs room to breathe. These nuances became even more pronounced on Pelican’s 2005 sophomore album, The Fire in our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw. Pegged early on as a “metal” band, it was with this second full length that it became apparent that this label was an oversimplification as the group had more in common with Slint and Hum than Slayer. With 2007’s City of Echoes yet another step in Pelican’s evolution was unveiled. This new album showcased urgency, more twists and unexpected turns; songs with more of a lyrical feel. And as evidenced by the post-DC-punk influenced title track, the band’s disparate influences were presented with increasing clarity as guitar dynamics and rhythmic interplay came out from behind the wall of sound that were evident on previous recordings.

This very special show from the behemoth that is PELICAN is not to be missed.

+ Support

£12.50 advance, 7:00pm, 16+ BRING PHOTO ID!

TICKETS: http://www.seetickets.com/Event/PELICAN/The-Cooler-Bristol/601594 // http://www.wegottickets.com/event/142739 // www.ticketweb.co.uk // www.gigantic.com // Resident Music (01273 606312) // Rounder Records (01273 325440)

Doors: 8:00 PM, Price: £5 Adv, Entry: 16+, Room: Main Room

UH HUH HER

www.uhhuhher.com

The Los Angeles-based Uh Huh Her is the brainchild of musician/actress Leisha Hailey, formerly of alt-pop band The Murmurs and Camilla Grey, bassist and keyboardist with lo-fi rock band Mellowdrone. They began making music together at the beginning of 2007, writing emotionally charged electro-pop tunes.

THURSDAY 19 APRIL

THEKLA

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 7pm

Ages 14+

Tickets £12 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

MAJOR LAZER @ Motion Bristol

Saturday 21st April, 2012 at 10.00pm (3 room show)

Tickets:

The Blast presents

MAJOR LAZER

+ huge supporting line up

THE TODDLA T SOUND

feat: SHOLA AMA/ SEROCEE/ DRS +more!!!

(Ninja Tune/ Radio 1)

MELE

(Grizzly/ Mixpak)

ARSEQUAKE

(Shit the bed/ The Blast)

DUBIOUS

(The Blast/ Wobble)

FIRE MAN SAM

(LEGO Technic set)

+room 2 tbc!!!!

22:00-05:00

Tickets:

£15.50 1st Release

£17.50 2nd Release

DELILAH

www.delilahofficial.co.uk

Delilah’s unique look and sound epitomise the true essence of the multi cultural environment she grew up. Delilah was raised amongst the vibrant sound of London’s live music scene. Her father introduced her to this through his work in pr…omoting British bands and live music, during the 90′s. When he died in 2002, Delilah used her emotional experiences of life and death to start creating her own music.

SATURDAY 21 APRIL

THEKLA

The Grove, Bristol

Doors 6pm

Ages 14+

Tickets £9 advance

0845 413 4444

www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Bristol Ticket Shop

Doors: 8:00 PM, Price: £10 Adv, Entry: 16+, Room: Main Room, Front Bar

Trembling Bells with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
Support from Muldoon’s Picnic

Bristol Ticket Shop / 0117 929 9008

TREMBLING BELLS with BONNIE ‘PRINCE’ BILLY

Trinity Centre, Bristol / 03 May 2012 / £12adv + bf

Based in Glasgow, Trembling Bells are a group of 21stcentury troubadours who know their history,joyously attempting to synthesise traditional folk forms with the bathetic romanticism of country music, the deceptive complexity of medieval music and the swagger of classic Rock.

http://www.3ca.org.uk

May 31st, 2012

SARAH McQUAID | DAN ASHTON Louisiana Cellar Room

ENTRY//£8adv

Renowned for her warm, engaging stage presence, Sarah McQuaid is a versatile and beguiling performer. In addition to her own elegantly crafted originals, she interprets traditional Irish and Appalachian folk songs, Elizabethan ballads, 1930s jazz numbers, surprise covers and lively guitar instrumentals with panache and poignance.

Dan Ashton – Untypical songwriter

http://www.dottodotfestival.co.uk/

Early Bird tickets on sale now!

BRISTOL – 2nd June 2012

NOTTINGHAM – 3rd June 2012

MANCHESTER – 4th June 2012

IN PREVIOUS YEARS:

Wild Beasts, Mystery Jets, Friendly Fires, Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding, Zane Lowe, Beach House, Hurts, Field Music, Los Campesinos!, Blood Red Shoes, Washed Out, The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, We Are Scientists, Braids, Ladyhawke, The Temper Trap, Patrick Wolf, The Hold Steady, The xx, 65daysofstatic, Annie Mac, Marina And The Diamonds, Mumford & Sons, Klaxons, Gallows, Spiritualized, Late Of The Pier, Laura Marling, British Sea Power, Foals, Mystery Jets, Santogold, Glasvegas, Kano,Erol Alkan, Frank Turner and many more…

Join our mailing list to receive all the latest Dot To Dot news and announcements and follow the action on Facebook.

All Press enquiries to:

Online: bruce(at)getinvolvedltd.com

Print/Broadcast: katy(at)getinvolvedltd.com / aidan(at)getinvolvedltd.com

Regional: orla(at)getinvolvedltd.com

www.getinvolvedltd.com

———————————————————————————

Commercial sponsorship enquiries to : eleanor(at)dhpgroup.co.uk

———————————————————————————

Band enquiries to : bandenquiries(at)dhpgroup.co.uk

———————————————————————————

Dot To Dot is a DHP Presentation.

For more information visit www.dhpgroup.co.uk

Dead Chemists Promotions x Sabotage Promotions

WEEKEND NACHOS (US)

Quite simply one of the hardest bands going, a band bringing power-violence kicking and screaming into the 21st century. On a389 Records which is also home to Integrity, Ringworm and Pulling Teeth. For fans of Harm’s Way, Magrudergrind and Charles Bronson.

https://www.facebook.com/weekendxnachos

THE AFTERNOON GENTLEMEN

Leeds powerviolence/grindcore act. Spazzy, breakneck music with vocals lifted from a 1970s video nasty. For fans of ACxDC, In Disgust and Lycanthropy.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Afternoon-Gentlemen/209765832398773

WITCH CULT

South Coast powerviolence. Uncivilised and uncompromising punishment for the ear drums on Holy Roar records. For fans of Infest, Drop Dead, and Napalm Death.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Witch-Cult/141730455870213

PARISO

Holy Roar stalwarts and vanguard of the #UKCRUSH scene. Blistering punk rock with dalliances in grind and black metal (and Mazz is back on vocals!) For fans of Combatwoundedveteran, Shai Hulud and Let It Die.

https://www.facebook.com/parisoband

ATOMCK

Welsh/Bristolian grind bastards with mathy elements and sweet grooves. Also just a lovely bunch of bastards. For fans of The Number 12 Looks Like You, Wormrot and The Atrocity Exhibit.

https://www.facebook.com/atomckgrind

SHOOT THE BASTARD

Fast as hell grind featuring members of The Afternoon Gentlemen. Thrashy and brutal, an aneurysm of a band. For fans of Infest, Repulsion and Merciless Precision.

TFU

Bristol city stoner violence. Ruin it for everyone. For fans of Ceremony, Kyuss and Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/TFU/209916322375624?ref=ts

AT THE CROFT BRISTOL

SUNDAY 1ST JULY

SABOTAGE

https://www.facebook.com/Sabotagepromotions

DEAD CHEMISTS

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dead-Chemists-Promotions/175043242534526

* Doors: 8:00 PM

* Entry: 16+

* Room: Front Bar

The Croft In House presents:

Bloodwrath

+ Deceiver

Saturday 21 July @ The Croft, Bristol