Spring has actually bloody gone and sprung.  Longer days, bank holidays, the first wave of festivals.  People attending gigs in shorts. Clearly it’s not all good news, then, but the glut of live activity this month should provide even more encouragement to get you lazy gets out of the house and into the musical cattlesheds of South Wales and the surrounding area.  Let’s have a look at it, shall we?

Kicking off in Cardiff, the cream of the city’s indie promoters offer a nice mix of the familiar (but welcome) and unfamiliar (but intriguing).  A rare live outing for THE HIGH LLAMAS, Sean O’Hagan’s seasoned Brian Wilson/Tropicalia-referencing outfit, is hugely recommended, so top work Swn.  Expertly chosen support from Cardiff’s own hyper-literate composer/arranger extraordinaire SPENCER McGARRY too (Globe, 21st).  Also very nice to see in the listings are Wolf Parade side-project HANDSOME FURS (Buffalo, 14th); Dan Boeckner’s me-and-the-missus distraction has delivered two albums of streamlined synthpop/indie-rock which beat out most of his main band’s work.  They’re here courtesy of Loose, who also have a paw in several other lower-key but excellent offerings this month; WET PAINT put out a cracking album of hooky, archly funny Pavement/Broken Family Band-esque pop to near-silence a while back and should unreservedly be checked out at Undertone (30th), and there you can also see the ungoogleable yet thrillingly ace post-punk polyrhythmic attack of Baltimore’s THANK YOU (19th, with ex-King Alexander duo JAMES JAMES supporting).  Back at Buffalo, get discovering the chiming lo-fi pop and mush-mouthed crooning of Belfast cuties GIRLS NAMES (4th), and a cracking Swn-helmed double bill of inventive, kinetic mathy noodling from THREE TRAPPED TIGERS and TALL SHIPS (19th).  There’s also welcome returns for prolific Richman-esque indie mavericks THE WAVE PICTURES (Clwb, 12th, with THREATMANTICS), THE VOLUNTARY BUTLER SCHEME (Rob Jones’ shuffling kitchen-sink pop enterprise supports the VEG Club at 10 Feet Tall on the 17th), FRANCOIS & THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS, now Domino-signed and back at 10 Feet Tall on the 3rd, and MISTY’S BIG ADVENTURE whose Panini sticker-style collection of Cardiff venues is complete with a stop at 10 Feet Tall on the 5th where they’re assisted by your GINDRINKER.  Yes.

It’s a packed month, actually; there’s loads more of this stuff to recommend.  The mighty ISLET play Primavera Sound this month, which is great news for them and the dozens of Cardiffians doubtless attending; they’ll limber up with an, er, intimate show at Undertone (23rd) which should be chaos.  Likewise, FUCKED UP kindly mark my impending birthday by squeezing in a full-bill matinee show (Clwb, 7th) ahead of their Croft gig in Bristol that night.  Tour supports BLACK LUNGS and, better, nutso Copenhagen hardcore pups ICEAGE join the fun.  Tickets strongly advised.  Staying with the harder stuff, there’s an alldayer at Clwb on the 15th in aid of MIND with a ton of fine punk, doom and hardcore types like THE DEATH OF HER MONEY, BASTIONS and GOODTIME BOYS and, courtesy of Lesson No. 1, the Bristolian cosmic prog magnificence of ANTA ably backed by local doom/sludge purveyors PUS and THORUN (9th).  Over in Newport, Cardiff City Hardcore’s 60th and final show is a half-day blowout (Le Pub, 7th) with a full eight hardcore outfits bidding them farewell.  IRONCLAD, HARBOUR and DEAL WITH IT feature strongly, while the night before a preview show features CROSSBREAKER and more.  LAST PARTISAN do the Meze (6th) that night too, a pretty splendid weekend for Newport heads all told.  YUCK‘s peppy grunge revivalism is all fine and dandy, and good luck to them as they play Millennium Music Hall’s smaller room (15th) and the Thekla (16th), but spare a thought for the giddy pop shambles of LET’S WRESTLE as they tag along in support.  If you’re going to either date, turn up early and clutch the Wrestle to your bosom, kids.  Oh yeah, and because I didn’t fit it in elsewhere, props to Cardiff Arts for booking blissful Chicago electroacoustic drone duo MOUNTAINS because they’re awesome.  That’s on the 26th, with a show at the Arnolfini the following night.

What of Bristol, then?  Fucking loads, that’s what.  Some top marquee shows this month at the Trinity, with captivating, idiosyncratic alt-folk hottie BILL CALLAHAN making an overdue return (10th) before the heartstoppingly wonderful LOW arrive on the 20th.  That’ll do for starters.  Keeping the folk/country thread alive, old pals THE HANDSOME FAMILY‘s gothic Americana hits the Fleece (16th), the glacially beautiful trad-country songcraft of LAURA CANTRELL is a should-see at St Bonaventure’s (2nd) and the ragged, rootsy and downright lovely RURAL ALBERTA ADVANTAGE are a hot tip at the Cooler (18th).  Best of all, Matthew Houck’s PHOSPHORESCENT return to the Thekla (30th) still trailing a career-high breakthrough album of skyscraping country-rock wonder.  Maybe I won’t break down en route short of the bridge and end up getting towed back home this time, eh?  Elsewhere there’s folky eccentricity old and new, LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III doing the Colston Hall (21st) and St David’s Hall (11th) and Howe Gelb-esque piano man HANS CHEW taking in Buffalo Lounge (free show, 6th) before the Mother’s Ruin (8th).

In the mood for something a little different, a bit challenging?  Course you are.  Bristol delivers in spades, naturally, and Qu Junktions are the reason.  Over here for ATP this month, Sun City Girls’ Richard and Alan Bishop perform as THE BROTHERS UNCONNECTED, a tribute show of sorts to recently deceased colleague Charles Gocher.  Qu and the venue (Cube, 10th) are being coy about an extra-special support guest too, if you need further encouragement.  At the same venue on the 14th there’s a cracking double bill featuring the reunion of DAMON & NAOMI with MICHIO KURIHARA of Ghost and Boris – epic drone-folk ahoy – and the masterful RICHARD YOUNGS.  Essential, exploratory, tangential folk aceness.  Currently subject of a cinema documentary on their remarkable journey, joyous Congolese rhythmists STAFF BENDA BILILI are brought to the Colston Hall by Qu on the 20th, and if you’re into that check out GRUPO LOKITO, a sprawling Afro-Cuban troupe relocated from Congo to London.  Blinding booking at the O2 Academy on the 7th, where godhead MC and total voice of hip-hop RAKIM marks the 25th anniversary of ‘Paid In Full’ (eek!) with support from DJ Format and beatbox legend RAHZEL.  On a different tip, fiercely intelligent, playful, culture-savvy Brooklynites DAS RACIST may be divisive and blog-friendly enough to arouse suspicion but they’re one of the most interesting and certainly culturally unique voices in hip-hop, and allegedly pretty riotous fun live too.  Thekla on the 14th for that one, again highly recommended; as are, while we’re on hipster suspicion, WARPAINT, whose tribal, psychedelic indie-rock gets a run-out at the O2 Academy (17th, with Connan Mockasin) ahead of a Swn show in Cardiff next month.

Rowdier fare in Bristol this month comes in the shape of returning metal noiseniks ROLO TOMASSI, always tight as the proverbial live (Fleece, 10th, with HOLY STATE); frat-thrash rabble CEREBRAL BALLZY, back  at the Thekla on the 9th (props to support Thrush Metal for keeping their end up name-wise); Liverpudlian psych bruisers MUGSTAR, teaming up with the aforementioned ANTA and – brace yourself – Urethra Franklin at the Croft (5th); and Alec Empire’s latest incarnation of ATARI TEENAGE RIOT going around again at the Fleece (13th).  Blissful Scandinavian noisepop from THE RADIO DEPT, like a super-sugary MBV, comes to the Fleece on the 12th backed by Sarah Records alumni SECRET SHINE; elsewhere, forced into despatches by constraints of time and patience, there’s the return of oddball MOR genius ARIEL PINK (Thekla, 17th); urgent, likeable pop from FRANKIE & THE HEARTSTRINGS (Fleece, 9th), adorable beach-bum BEST COAST‘s woozy polaroid chug (Thekla, 1st), perfectly poised PJ Harvey torch-pop moves from ANNA CALVI (Thekla, 2nd) and proggy, dramatic Euro-synth flourishes from ex-M83 man TEAM GHOST (Louisiana, 16th).

Round-up time; this month sponsored by me not having packed for a camping trip to Machynlleth tomorrow morning.  Brief mentions, then, for two festivals bookending the month; Simple Things (Start The Bus/Old Firestation, 1st) offers JAMIE XX, GONJASUFI, BATHS, DAEDELUS, FLOATING POINTS and some more suspect stuff; Dot To Dot (various Bristol venues, 28th) hits big with …TRAIL OF DEAD then tails off dramatically with flaccid sub-MGMT crap like The Naked & Famous.  Hmm.  Much more admirable, and to be featured in these pages soon, is a Spillers Records-curated series of 12 Saturday afternoon sessions at the Big Little City exhbition in the Old Library.  The exhibition itself is a joyous multimedia celebration of Cardiff curios past and present; musical turns this month include HUW M (7th) and LLWYBR LLAETHOG (14th).  Elsewhere, give up some time if you please for THE KEYS (album launch, Globe, 6th), THE MIDDLE ONES (Buffalo Lounge, 1st), SARABETH TUCEK (Buffalo, 15th), AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR (Cooler & Clwb, 4th & 5th), NEDRY (CAI, 11th – they’re dead good), the double bill of ROZI PLAIN and TWO WINGS (10 Feet Tall, 22nd), THE JEZABELS (Buffalo, 17th) and SHAPES (Louisiana, 12th).  Before I finish, just time to mention some old lags treading the boards one more time to the same crowds and probably diminishing returns; enough about the Manics, though, let’s hear it for THE ZOMBIES (Globe, 25th), THREE OF THE MONKEES (Motorboat Arena, 24th) and barmy old ADAM ANT (Coal Exchange, 31st).  It’s a shit business.

Right, this is pretty straightforward.  Flux=Rad promoter, Radio 1 DJ and full-time 24-hour enthusiasm machine Jen Long has organised this gig to raise funds for the Red Cross’ aid effort in response to the devastating events in Japan last month.  Clwb have done their bit by waiving the hire fee and every penny taken at the gig will go to charity.  That ought to be enough to get you along to this one, but just in case it’s not there’s a tip top line-up of noisy pop fun and a bunch of other stuff to boot.

KUTOSIS headline, bringing their massively fun indie-punk-powerpop nuggets and impeccable tailoring; Jen and ex-Automatic man James Frost’s EFFORT are sloppy, grungy pop with a rictus grin; sandwiched inbetween, you should definitely check magnificently named Glaswegians GOLDEN GRRRLS, two girls and a boy toting an excellently shambling fuzzed-up indiepop noise on their debut 7″ for the Night School label.  Night School have also helmed a compilation cassette and download benefitting the Red Cross appeal and featuring Golden Grrls alongside Trash Kit, Divorce, Shitty Limits, Peepholes, Girls Names, Becoming Real and many more; it’s clearly both an utter bargain and an excellent thing to have done.  Buy it here, or here, or at the gig.  Stuff your face with cake, chance your arm on some fine raffle prizes, dig three excellent bands and leave knowing you’ve done a good thing.  No-brainer, dude.

Flux=Rad Japan Benefit Show
KUTOSIS
GOLDEN GRRRLS
EFFORT
Plus raffle, cakes, compilation CD sales and more!

Wednesday 27th April
Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff / 7.30pm – 10.30pm
£DONATION ON DOOR – ALL PROCEEDS TO THE RED CROSS BENEFIT FOR JAPAN

http://www.kutosis.co.uk

http://www.myspace.com/goldengrrrls

http://www.night-school.org.uk

http://www.redcross.org.uk/JapanTsunami

Hello everyone. I don’t think I need to write anything here about the terrible disaster in Japan, or try and elicit any kind of emotion in you to realise how awful it must be. So instead, let’s all get together and raise some money. We’re throwing a party at Clwb. They’ve given us the venue and flux=rad will cover the band costs so ALL MONEYS YOU DONATE AT THIS SHOW WILL GO TO THE RED CROSS. A lot of people are getting involved in this… Cardiff Craft will be giving origami lessons for donation. There will be another awesome flux=rad compilation CD available for a small donation. There will be a bake sale. There will be a raffle with prizes including SWN 2011 wristbands, Spillers goodies, Buffalo gig tickets, Music Box rehearsals, Barely Regal swag, and more… Playing… KUTOSIS Ace Cardiff punk trio who’ve just finished recording a stellar debut album. GOLDEN GRRRLS Glaswegian fuzzed out trio favoured by the likes of Pinglewood playing their first Welsh show. EFFORT Cardiff pop duo playing their first show of the year. **This is an early show with headliners on around 9.30pm** Please come down, get involved and help raise some cash. Should be a good night. flux=rad xx

To carry off a musical reinvention, especially one with a pronounced shift into the mainstream, never comes without problems.  Haters will hate, and even if it’s just a handful of disillusioned first-wave fans and the odd smirking onlooker (we’ve all been there, it’s fun, don’t deny it) a gear-change into more accessible territory needs a certain chutzpah and confidence in the material to come off right.  Enter COLD CAVE.  Wesley Eisold’s past in hardcore/screamo outfits Give Up The Ghost and Some Girls could hardly have been a more unlikely progenitor to 2009′s Love Comes Close, a glorious, glacial debut of EBM-accented synthpop which drew inspiration from Joy Division, the Human League, early Ministry and any number of glum Depeche Mode-fixated nihilists with a penchant for hi-energy disco thrills.  What set it apart from so much blank-eyed 80s-fixated revivalism was its shiny black pop core, made all the more surprising given the presence of collaborators from Prurient and Xiu Xiu.

New album Cherish The Light Years, the reason for this UK jaunt, dares to up the stakes still further; the choruses are huge, the guitars overdriven, the rhythms more frenetic than anything on its predecessor.  The likes of ‘The Great Pan Is Dead’ are the sort of glossy, widescreen electro-pop anthems that indie makeweights like Bloc Party tried on for size; but sleek, lustrous and darkly sexy where those bands came off lumpen and gauche. With the new touring line-up featuring another implausible guest (ex-Mika Miko vocalist Jennifer Clavin), expect a chilly, strobe-lit intensity but watch for the glowing, romantic pop at its heart.

Cold Cave / Man Without Country
Clwb Ifor Bach, Womanby Street, Cardiff

18+| 7:30pm | £7.50 | buy tickets

• www.swnfest.com
• www.myspace.com/coldcave
• www.manwithoutcountry.com

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

Recorded music highlights of 2010:

Were from The National, Beach House, Lowed Dens and Swans.

Live music highlights of 2010:

Was possibly Demolished Thoughts at SXSW (especially getting punched in the face), and festival singalongs to The National at Latitude and Marina & The Diamonds at Reading.

What else did you enjoy this year?

This year I really enjoyed putting on gigs by bands like Savoir Adore, Harlem, Beach House, Abe Vigoda and Surfer Blood (to name a few)

2010 was… AWESOME.
2011 will be…  all about Still Corners and the new Joy Formidable record.

There is a fairly sizeable crowd from early on in the evening, which gives Saturday’s Kids plenty of opportunity to pedal their wares to lots of pairs of ears. This young 4 piece have done pretty well with their blend of post-punk, hardcore and noise rock, but I find their music hard to swallow sometimes. One of their vocalists seems to provide the main focus for the crowd with his best impression of David Yow or Mark E. Smith. The band can sound rather sloppy at times, and the most memorable part of their set is a riff that sounds suspiciously like Drinking And Driving by Black Flag. If they took some of the best elements from their songs and managed to be more cohesive, I think they’re a promising prospect, but after seeing them for the second time, I’m still unconvinced.

HEALTH hail from Los Angeles, California and play music that isn’t particularly easy to categorise. They incorporate tribal drums, pulsing electronics and waves of ring modulated noise whilst keeping a firm handle on melody. HEALTH announce where they are from and tell the crowd to, ‘Come closer to the stage, like at a normal show’. The crowd obliges and the band start playing their first song.

Considering that they have toured and shared a split 7” with vacuous electronic duo Crystal Castles, it would be easy to dismiss them as just another hipster band to throw on top of the pile. You have to also remember that they have released music on New York based Love Pump United, which has also put out music by less eardrum-friendly folk including Canadian nudity fans, Aids Wolf.

The band rips though songs without much break in momentum and I find myself transfixed by the mesmerising layers of percussion, atonal guitars and violent screams coated in electronics. More than once during the set, I find myself looking between the members to find the source of a sound that could be emanating from any them.

Throughout all the chaos is a real sense of melody, but the 4/4 beats and clean vocals are frequently unsettled by a break in rhythm or some alien-sounding electronic frequencies. Despite all of the chaos, the biggest reaction from the crowd comes during the singles USA Boys and Die Slow. USA Boys in particular has no jagged or harsh edges, and treads the line of more of a standard pop/dance song. I’m not sure whether it’s just me, but I swear that some members of the band look bored whilst playing it.

As quickly as the band had started by insulting the crowd (well, me) with their insinuations that we weren’t at a real show, they finish a short set with no encore. You do get the impression that you must have the right haircut and wear the right clothes to fit into the cool club along with HEALTH, which is compounded by the fact that their guitarist completely ignores my friend who compliments him outside after the show.

Minor douchebaggery aside, I would recommend anyone who writes the band off for being another Pitchfork approved hipster favourite, to check them out. I imagine that more mainstream success may be around the corner, but there’s enough discordance and noise to keep things interesting.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Assuming you like running at pace around various Cardiff venues, that is, and if you don’t you’re in the wrong place.  There’s a massive amount of ace new music to explore – trust me, I’ve spent the last fortnight on Myspace seeking it out – so spreadsheets at the ready, and off we go…

Thursday packs a punishing amount into six hours and seven venues.  Christen the festival in familiar style with Threatmantics (Clwb), currently on career-best form – loud, delirious folk-rock with cracking tunes.    Or try Dad Rocks (Y Fuwch Goch), belying an awful name with intricate plucking, mournful trumpet and lyrical quirkiness.  Kutosis kick off a fine evening with the Barely Regal label, bringing whipsmart indie punk tautness to Dempseys; dip in there then back to Clwb for Sweet Baboo’s country-rock reboot of his endlessly charming songbook before taking in Sun Drums (Model Inn), alternately blissed-out and uneasy with spooked vocal hiccups woven into pitter-patter electronica.  Your appetite for some mid-evening beats duly whetted, Chad Valley’s beautifully melancholic Balearic euphoria – think Tough Alliance, Dolorean etc – should be a must, and Nedry’s marriage of Bjork/Fever Ray ethereal gloom to dubstep wobble in CAI wil stop you in your tracks.  An alternate route can be found via Spectrals’ bus station doo-wop fuzz  (Clwb) or Right Hand Left Hand’s ever-brilliant math-rock genius (Dempseys), followed by either the redoubtable, insidiously eerie pop of Clinic (Clwb) or Attack + Defend’s one-off live return (Model).  Three choices, all excellent, and it’s only Thursday evening.  Whichever you choose, haste ye then to Lesson No. 1’s showcase at the Model in time for Nordic tundra-metal titans Arabrot; from there, White Ring’s foggy, bad-acid slo-mo electronica (Undertone), Talons’ fret-tappy post-rock epics (Dempseys) and Samoans’ widescreen, Aereogramme-recalling math-prog (Fuwch) would all be fine options before taking in the twisting, soul-baring tension/release and Shellacian tautness of Bellini (Model).  That seems an ideal point to close the first day.  You’ll need your rest, after all.

Don’t know how to tell you this, but Thursday’s just an icebreaker.  Friday stretches the legs and the stamina still further, typified by the corking one-two across the bows that is Drains‘ cheeky, grungey hood-wearing punk (Chapter) and the magnificent Jesus Lizard creep and flex of the splendid Brandyman (Clwb).  A gentler introduction lies with Lucky Delucci (Undertone), reborn as gently anthemic folk-rockers.  Standard Fare‘s last Cardiff appearance was blighted by braying goons sharing the venue; their smart, vulnerable and hugely catchy indie-pop deserves better and will be one of the day’s treats.  Skip across town to Chapter for more big-hearted joy from Steve Baboo and Rob Voluntary Butler Scheme’s supergroup Wickes, perhaps; followed by a sly outside bet in the form of Stricken City (Undertone), all strident Polly Harvey/Zola Jesus vocals and luminous reverb-soaked, darkly inviting odd-pop.  Clwb, meanwhile, sees the re-energised Truckers Of Husk showcase new additions to their supremely catchy math-pop catalogue, and from there half an hour of Bastions‘ furious North Walian hardcore should naturally follow.  Plenty of top-drawer electronica once again today – Dam Mantle‘s glitchy, stuttering breaks and burbling dubstep-not-dubstep synths and the sublime Warp Records IDM classicism of Quinoline Yellow go back-to-back at CAI, while the skeletal Nintendo beats and Zomby-esque bleeps of Becoming Real are a hot tip for excellent leery, bassy fun at Buffalo.  Hang on there for Visions Of Trees, perhaps, whose horrid name hides an unexpectedly lovely, ghostly North Africa-goes-R n’ B take on Telepathe’s crystalline darkness.  Or take in a rare visit from legendary Dutch anarchist post-punks The Ex (Clwb), restless experimental visionaries as relevant now as ever.  Lesson No.1 strike again, there.   The confident, gleaming psych-pop classicism of The Keys will be a revitalising pop rush for tired ears and legs, so stop in at Y Fuwch Goch for that before deciding between Raffertie‘s queasy, rollercoaster dubstep/rave hybrid (Buffalo) or the Ras Kwame-helmed late-nighter at Clwb where grime don P Money holds court.  Or both.  No work tomorrow, y’know?

Saturday.  Plenty of ways to start day 3 in relaxed fashion, with Ballad of Britain taking a Welsh slant on the UK’s folk music history in the company of Trembling Bells and Richard James.  That’s in Chapter, with DJs and Scrabble in Dempseys; hardier souls will dive straight back in to the live tackle.  Undertone hosts H. Hawkline, now offering chewy psych-folk songwriting with krautrock leanings, and the lo-fi Welsh language glam-pop of Mr Huw.  Throats‘ overdriven math-metal lunacy is the pick of an earthier line-up at Clwb.  One of the year’s must-see bands play twice today; Y Niwl‘s expertly turned out surf twang will have you twisting in the aisles at both CAI and the Model.  See ‘em twice, pausing inbetween to take in the a nice counterpoint of Still Corners (Buffalo), whose glowing girl group balladry recalls trashy death-disc sadness and Broadcast’s exquisite poise.  Nice.   Tough choices abound come the evening, and weariness may play a part.  The Legendary Meic Stevens (TM), the increasingly ace stirring folk of Evening Chorus, the sweet acoustic sampledelia of Huw M and The Gentle Good‘s reliably pretty Welsh folk tales all feature on a great  bill at Chapter, where the day’s standouts Trembling Bells later bring awesome, soaring Incredible String Band folk-rock.  Do. Not. Miss.  Cate Le Bon clashes directly with them, which is truly gutting as her bucolic, earthy psych is ever a treat.  She’s on in Buffalo, and should you be in town you can also catch Let’s Wrestle and their endearing, shambolic lo-fi heartbreak pop, or the return of elusive Peel faves Melys (Clwb).  Spector-worthy pop thrills abound in Clwb, too, with the way-underrated wistful C86 joys of The School and the unnervingly young Magic Kids‘ Sesame Street Beach Boys vibe.  Clutch them to your weary bosom, before racing off to the Model to catch some of Beach Fossils‘ insidiously catchy, chiming indie pop, then to Dempseys where Veronica Falls offer expertly poised girl-group angst and smart male/female harmonies.  James Blackshaw should not be missed, should you be able to get into the MMH; his staggering 12-string guitar mantras would ideally be showcased at Chapter, but that’s my tough luck.  Whether you’ve chosen some of the above, or Perfume Genius‘ much-vaunted exploration of crushingly bittersweet Sufjan Stevens balladry, shoegazey FX and Antony Hegarty’s glassy vulnerability, do whatever is necessary to cram into the Model Inn for Islet‘s closing set.  Surely hopelessly oversubscribed, their feverish, joyous polyrhythmic attack and crowd-bothering interaction will echo the crazed scenes of last year’s Strange News and Right Hand Left Hand shows.  Those forking out the extra dollar can move on to catch the once-in-a-lifetime realignment of Swans at the MMH; the rest will drag their sorry frames to Clwb, or to the Silent Disco, and reconvene at Dim Swn (Gwdihw) on Sunday to drink away the pain to the strains of Gruff Rhys and Pete Fowler’s soothing DJ sets.  I’ll be there.  I might need a hug.

Watching Wolf Eyes play Clwb Ifor Bach a couple of years ago, I had a weird realisation.  For a band playing ostensibly abrasive, difficult music, their attitude and moves – near-synchronised lunges into their equipment, tweaking and triggering more jet engine-volume scree – could have been those of any indie rock, or even techno act.  This isn’t a snide criticism, just a pretty laboured observation that harsh noise folded into more ‘accessible’ music can be a mightily giddy thrill when presented just right.  Maybe Wolf Eyes weren’t the horse to back for that particular crossover; HEALTH, though, are just the ticket.  I first saw them live at Primavera Sound in 2008, where for a mid-bill band on a smallish festival stage the sound was utterly crushing, a surprise punch to the solar plexus; the band were a visceral whirl of hair and dayglo.  It’s that volume, their fastidious attention to technical detail and the lack of irritating slacker indifference that makes HEALTH so thrilling to watch.

If their first album sounded like a Liars and Boredoms drum-off punctuated by stabs of electronic noise, occasional smeared MBV vocals and the odd eye-of-the-storm passage of trippy atmospherics or noodly guitar – all GOOD THINGS, of course – HEALTH’s follow-up Get Color seemingly cribbed as much from the interim remix LP, upping the melodies, doubling the electronics and keeping the needles in the red.  Expect exquisitely tooled noise, pummelling rhythms and little earworm-like hooks which, actually, might just be tinnitus.  Bring those earplugs.

This is a cracking support slot for JC favourites SATURDAY’S KIDS, fresh from our own Action Beat show a few weeks back and (we keep saying it, like over-eager teachers trying to cajole the smart-but-lazy kid, but it’s true) consistently showing promise of fine things to come.  Slowed-down tempos, hardcore abrasion and sludgy guitars aplenty; like punk, but more miserable, and enjoyable for it.

See that poster down there?  It’s by Adam Chard of Croatoan Design.  He did our Action Beat poster, and the current Pagan Wanderer Lu releases.  He’s really good.  You can buy a luscious A3 print of this poster from http://croatoan.bigcartel.com/ if you’re quick.  Go on then!

SWN & flux=rad present

HEALTH / Saturday’s Kids

A 14 plus event. Formed in 2005, HEALTH self-recorded their debut album over the course of 9 months at Los Angeles D.I.Y. venue The Smell, birthing an urgent and extraordinary album which seethed with ghostly, epic pop and spurts of chaotic noise. Their shows grew wilder, kids danced & moshed, blogs freaked out, critics raved, and everyone wondered how in God’s name HEALTH was going to follow it up. While the anticipation continued to build, HEALTH released their critically-acclaimed remix record HEALTH//DISCO, toured with the likes of Crystal Castles and Nine Inch Nails, and played over 420 shows! In April of 2009, HEALTH emerged with their second album GET COLOR on CIT YSLANG records. The Single “DIE SLOW” received immediate accolades from Pitchfork & NME, with the effects rippling across their DIE SLOW THROUGH EUROPE tour, resulting in a near-riot in Eastern Europe. The song’s infectious fusion of noise and dance was the most fully-formed and undeniably rad piece of music from HEALTH yet. And it only served to rile up their fans more. In 2010 HEALTH returned to the remix realm with DISCO2. Curated and produced by HEALTH, DISCO2 features the epic noise jams of GET COLOR remixed by electronic luminaries Tobacco, Crystal Castles, Salem, Javelin, and Gold Panda (among others). DISCO2 morphed 2009′s GET COLOR into an electronic masterpiece. Leading off with the killer new HEALTH single “USA BOYS”, mixed by legendary producer Alan Moulder (My Bloody Valentine, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode). On stage it is where it all comes together for HEALTH. They’ve just finished playing a wide variety of Festivals including Primavera Sound, Loolapalooza, Eurockeennes, Roskilde as well as Reading and Leeds.

7:30pm | £8/£10 | buy tickets

Much wailing and gnashing of teeth to be found at this killer triple-bill from the good people at Sŵn and Flux=Rad.  Guitar-drum-screaming duo COMANECHI were here last in blizzard-hit January, stripping the walls at the Arts Institute with grungy dynamics, 80s Sonic Youth squall (tellingly, they and co-headliners Divorce team up to cover Death Valley ’69 on a split EP this month) and Akiko’s absurdly kinetic drumming and confrontational patter.  They were even better in support of Ponytail a while back, and while this gig will have to go some to top one of the best things I’ve seen in years, you’d be foolish to pass it up.  Expect a bunch of thrashy, profane and weirdly catchy two-minute explosions from half-hour debut Crime of Love, schizophrenic and smutty noise-pop and Cousin It slinging a guitar about with abandon.  Top.

Freewheeling co-headliners DIVORCE come armed with a splendidly ridiculous pseudo-genre name (‘Nae Wave’), lunging stop-start rhythms, controlled shards of feedback and the thick Glaswegian roar of Sinead Youth’s vocals.  Their debut EP took in battering post-hardcore, the restless no-wave energy of Pere Ubu and the scuzzy low-end punk of Silverfish.  They share a delicious prude-baiting lyricism with the latter, too; witness ‘Early Christianity’ with its televangelist’s beckoning “We accept all of your faults! We love a challenge!”.  There’s a dead-on choice of opener in Cardiff newbies DRAINS, a busman’s holiday of sorts from (as far as can be told) Kutosis and Circa Regna Tonat members shirtless and clad in hangman’s hoods and tearing through three-minute bellows of sludgy noise-punk.  Seriously, don’t miss out.

COMANECHI / DIVORCE / DRAINS - Tuesday 28th September

COMANECHI / DIVORCE **co-headline**
DRAINS
Flux=Rad DJs

Tuesday 28th September
7.30pm
£5 adv from http://www.wegottickets.co.uk / £6 doors

After they tearing ears to shreds in January, Swn & Flux=Rad are delighted to welcome Simon and Akiko (Pre/The Big Pink) aka COMANECHI back to Cardiff.

Their debut album Crime of Love received both critical acclaim and all round applause, while their live shows have been known to end in blood, sweat and screaming.

Glasgow’s finest DIY garage punks DIVORCE will rip your heart out, chew it up and spit it back out in a gnarled mess of bass-driven riffs, jagged drums, and throaty screeching.

They’ve got a forthcoming split 7″ with Comanechi on the ever brilliant Merok label (Klaxons, Titus Andronicus, Blondes).

DRAINS are a new Cardiff three piece who played their first gig in Flux=Rad’s kitchen recently and instantly got offered this slot.

Comanechi MySpace
Divorce MySpace

Drains MySpace

It’s worth going through piles of needles just for one poke of hay. At the rocktastic time of 7.45pm the Stacking Chairs line up on stage: Casey Raymond, formerly of fabulous irritants Botanophobia and Presto & Spartanite; Huw Evans, ex of Meanz Heinz and currently looking a bit like the lesbian hipster from Big Brother (my flatmate watched it once okay?), and Louise Mason, later to play as one third of the Victorian English Gentlemens Club. Seated behind what appears to be a bunker made of tape machines, busted kids instruments and other twiddlables, Casey issues guitar notes and manipulated noise as his colleagues hunker down on either side, adding further guitar layers and random bass thud. It’s like competing radio stations fading in and out: brief, galloping drum samples overrun drifting in riffs, while a snatch of Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ leads to some top nasal ranting. Brilliantly playful, dreamy and awkward – I could eat this music for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

More indigestible fare follows. Let’s be unfair and lump them together. The Woe Betides may have a Colin Hunt-style drummer who sometimes wanders around looking like a pouting frog in a Stuart Cable wig but they bash out music of a resolutely indie girth, drab nuggets too clean and polite to be the nervy post punk guitar rock they aspire towards. Asking for dry ice for one song is a good idea, unless that song finds you at the keyboard, making a passable Keane impression. 90% of the crowd take up smoking during their set. But the VEG Club teeth kick you in a different way. Clearly smart enough to make even setting up a benignly surreal experience – costumes, a loudly amplified metronome, dry ice again (and lots of it), a tape of birdsong that continues for the whole set – it’s a little weird and heartbreaking to find their musical pie pretty devoid of any filling. Songs like ‘Parrot’ poke toes in dark banshee territory but again lack the true demonic energy needed to burn these songs properly into memory. My inner Swells is in danger of coming out. Time to leave.