A proper old pals’ act here, as ace promoters Loose and their bandmates in The School curate the final day of Buffalo/10 Feet Tall’s month-long January cobweb-shaker and invite back a few past collaborators. Headliners ALLO DARLIN’ ably supported The School at their album launch last March with a set of breathless, crackling indiepop, a pleasantly surprising diversion and a cut above the dreary winsomeness affecting some of their peers. A joint tour followed, cementing inter-band friendships on beer-sticky provincial dancefloors across the UK. They’ve since released their own debut full-length (on Fortuna Pop!), winning some impressive plaudits; and while Elizabeth Morris’ phrasing strays a little too close to Tender Trap bandmate Amelia Fletcher than is strictly healthy, and the constant stream of pop culture references and retro product placement are a little too pat, there’s a winning charm and a lightness of touch that sees it skip unharmed through any genre minefields. Given their usual rollicking live treatment, this should be a proper winner.

SWEET BABOO can do no wrong around these parts, and his apparently boundless work ethic seems set to continue into 2011; no sooner had Stephen Black’s third album (and first for Shape) I’m A Dancer/Songs About Sleepin’ emerged than a new three-piece country-rock line-up of the band took souped-up, thrilllingly noisy versions of its songs on tour. An EP of collaborations with The Voluntary Butler Scheme’s Rob Jones (as Wickes) followed, and while Black continues to play with H. Hawkline, Cate Le Bon and Euros Childs he’s found time to deliver a new EP to Shape for release this year amongst other projects. The quality control stays dizzyingly high, the wit and onstage banter suggest impending shambles, and the Simon & Garfunkel cover gets ever closer to ending properly. Maybe it will tonight.

Opening, neatly, is The School’s lead guitar prodigy IVAN MOULT, himself having recently expanded his solo acoustic ditties with a live band comprised of Evening Chorus and Lucky Delucci members. It’s a smart move, expanding the promise of his The Mine Canary EP into something a little grander.

Loose presents – Hometown Heroes closing party featuring:

ALLO DARLIN’
SWEET BABOO
IVAN MOULT
& THE SCHOOL DJs

Monday 31st January 8pm
10 Feet Tall, Cardiff
Ages: 18+

http://www.10feettallcardiff.com

How many goddamn cool people are here in a heaving Clwb tonight? Well, none, but then this is an evening celebratory of music that will always remain uncool; what you may call twee and I might call heartfelt or beautifully awkward. Pagan Wanderer Lu, or Andy as he’s also called, could theoretically be some sort of nerd leader, essaying wry lines and chopped guitar over the chunky, fidgety hometronica coming from his iTunes. He might be too fatalistic though; a lot of these tunes dwell on failure and insignificance, though with enough wit and Duplo beats to banish any danger of navel gazing. Indeed, there seems to be a knotty heart to each song, circled by an esoteric braininess and some killer one-liners that I signally fail to write down. There’s also great dicking around with a mini Monome, but we’re getting into slash fiction now.

Allo Darlin’ could take even the blackest, coal-ridden cynic’s heart and squeeze a diamond smile out of it, such is their ridiculously firm grip on grinning pop dynamics. Their bassist, allegedly borrowed from a metal band (definitely the only Dischord T-shirt in the venue), grins hardest: it’s obviously a blast richocheting amongst the band’s ukelele bounce tunes. It’s perhaps music that shouldn’t work – januty, whirling, winsome indie – but there’s something about Allo Darlin’ that resembles pop scrubbed clean of all artifice or knowing, leaving dazzlingly pure music, played laughing, falling down a hill. Huge-footed singer Elizabeth Morris’s Aussie accent adds further clean-sheets appeal. File next to: trips to the zoo and films with happy endings.

But this is the School‘s night, and time for the underdog to dance around and bop you on the nose. After their last official Cardiff appearance, supporting Lisa Milburg to around eight scumbags, it’s weird and excellent to see them in front of people who are pressed up front and literally screaming for their favourite members. A new album, extra musicians and a stadiumful of guestlisters makes for a drunken group hug of a gig: strings and brass add chocolate to the School’s already classically lovelorn tunes, dropping into songs that already revolve around finely-crafted melodic charm. Strong songs with killer moments: the the bridge of ‘I Want You Back’, rushing up the keyboard; the staccato ending to ‘Valentine’ or ‘Let It Slip’s oblique second verse and high-register pinpricks. More soppiness in reviewers please.

THE SCHOOL (Album Launch)
ALLO, DARLIN’
PAGAN WANDERER LU
& Helen Love’s Bubblegum Killers djing between bands
followed by Bethan Elfyn’s Vinyl Vendettas until 3am!

Saturday 6th March 7.30pm
Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff (upstairs)
Ages: 18+
£5 adv from TicketWeb / Spillers / Diverse
**This event is also part of International Women’s Day celebrations**

THE SCHOOL are a female-fronted indiepop group from Cardiff for fans of Camera Obscura, Belle & Sebastian and 60s girl groups. The band are celebrating the release of debut album ‘Loveless Unbeliever’ on Elefant Records.

This event is also part of International Women’s Day celebrations.

“a swaying, winsome tune with some of the Phil Spector lushness of Lucky Soul, the Belle & Sebastian-style modesty of Camera Obscura, and the airy, girl-group vocals of both” – Pitchfork

“they do enough to at least light up (if not part) the greying clouds into blue sky as a musical and meteorological Moses with their floaty, shimmering and often clip-clapping tunes” – DrownedinSound

“indie pop sweetness blended with heart-lifting girl group harmonies, punchy Northern Soul beats and lush Brill Building strings” – AllMusic

“infectious, hyper-melodic pop you can simultaneously cry and dance to” – Rough Trade

“On bubblegum pink vinyl, the sixties-saturated sound of The School is indiepop par excellence. ‘All I Wanna Do’ conjures up the aching hearts of Mary Weiss and the Ganser sisters as Liz Hunt’s little-girl-lost voice pours on the passion to describe an angelic innocent’s first big crush. ‘Valentine’ is like a pixie-booted Eurovision entry with a stomping piano-led tune that’s swept aloft by heavenly strings. Douze points pour Le Pays de Galles: c’est magnifique!” – SoundsXP

“The joint best Welsh pop band EVER” – Adam Walton, Radio Wales

ALLO, DARLIN’ is singer-songwriter Elizabeth Darling, originally from Queensland, who plays beautiful songs on ukulele and guitar about subjects from Stephen Hawkin and Henry Rollins to the Grease Megamix and her Fugazi-loving boyfriend.

Her first EPs on cult CD-R label WeePop! sold out within weeks, and now ALLO, DARLIN’s debut LP will be released on Fortuna Pop! in March.

“the best indiepop song for years” – The Guardian

“like Hefner got a brass section and got cute too..” – Unpeeled

The School MySpace
Allo, Darlin’ MySpace
Pagan Wanderer Lu MySpace