Jeffrey Lewis and the Jitters + Peter Conway + Peeping Thom and the Voyeurs
The Musician, Clyde Street, Leicester
Tuesday 26 August
http://www.myspace.com/jefflewisband
http://www.myspace.com/peterconwaymusic
“Jeffrey Lewis is a god, there’s no denying it.”
Drowned in Sound
We can’t wait – 2 gigs by Jeff and the Jitters in Leicester in a month! What better way to spend the summer!
Jeffrey Lewis was raised in New York City and is a maker of comic books, tragi-comic folk narratives, and lysergic garage rock. With brother Jack on bass and David Beauchamp on drums, the Jeffrey Lewis Band mixes 60s acoustic psychedelia like Pearls Before Swine with the experimental art-punk of the Fall and the urban lyricism of Lou Reed, sounding a bit like if Woody Guthrie fronted Sonic Youth. Live shows also incorporate "low budget videos", Jeff’s large illustrations displayed to accompany certain songs. In 2001 Jeffrey Lewis signed to Rough Trade Records and has since released four albums.
Video for "Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror" on Youtube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSdZ_yZP8bk
Video for "Posters" on Youtube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOXNRYEKFFI
Live footage of a "low budget video" performance on Youtube here:
"History of Communism pt 4: China" -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn8WWRjBLoo
Press Quotes for "Jeffrey Lewis: 12 Crass Songs"
"Jeffrey Lewis’ talents appear without end… (on 12 Crass Songs he) magically makes the anarcho-rockers’ anti-establishment savagery his own, by wrapping their barbed sentiments in his trademark mottled tea-towel warmth” - NME
"He’s taken hold of any number of my old stormy favorites and breathed fresh life and fire into them. . . Man, I’m in awe of Jeffrey right now. Who’d have thought he could have done that?" - Everett True/ Village Voice
“All my favorite songwriters are American – Jad Fair, Jonathan Richman and Jeffrey Lewis.” -Eddie Argos/Art Brut
£8 – adv.
Wednesday 10 September
Frightened Rabbit + We Were Promised Jetpacks + The Legion
Firebug, Millstone Lane, Leicester
£6 – adv.
http://www.myspace.com/frightenedrabbit
http://www.myspace.com/wewerepromisedjetpacks
http://www.myspace.com/britlegion
Continuing the long tradition of emotive Scottish indie rock that includes Mogwai, Delgados and Arab Strap, Frightened Rabbit are the best of the newcomers. Catch them at the Summer Sundae and then imagine them blasting your head open in the confines of Firebug. Ian is really EXCITED about this show!!! We just need to hear their brilliant opening song, the upcoming single “Fast Blood”. As frontman Scott Hutchison sings, “The fast blood hurricanes through me”, the effect of his passionate vocals is devastating. It is at once bleak and infectious, and a highlight from their new album The Midnight Organ Fight.
Other songs are tinged with a folk lilt. In “Keep Yourself Warm”, keyboard and warm vocal harmonising back Hutchison’s plaintive vocals. And with the Southern country blues guitar and beat of “Old Old Fashioned”, they come on like a Celtic Kings Of Leon. If you’re a fan of Scottish indie rock, this could well be your new favourite band.
The Independent
We Were Promised Jetpacks – what a name!
"[...] With an impeccable grab bag of influences and a miraculously accessible romantic sensibility that sidesteps the vomit bag..." The Skinny
also, the tremendous stu mchugh in the list magazine:
"The phrase 'guitar band' covers a multitude of sinners in the pop battleground. We Were Promised Jetpacks, apart from having the best name in showbiz, meet all other requirements necessary to lift them above their peers. Their live sets rip along at breakneck pace but somehow deliver a mini-anthem in every tune, merging Postcard and C86 jangle with full-on alt.rock."
The Legion
"Observational indie pop from the headlining Leicester tykes, whose average age is just 17" - TimeOut – London on the new fantastic Leicester label run by the very lovely Jenny http://www.myspace.com/forthesakeofthesongltd
Wednesday 10 September @ The Musician, Clyde Street, Leicester
Promoted by The Musician and Magic Teapot - a great night if you are not into Frightened Rabbit!
American Music Club + Peter Bruntnell
www.peterbruntnell.com
Led by songwriter Mark Eitzel, American Music Club were one of the most acclaimed American underground bands of the '80s. Chosen for its deliberately nondescript qualities, the name American Music Club was perfect for this lauded group. Over the course of seven acclaimed albums, the group tied together the disparate strands of the American musical fabric - rock, folk, country, punk, even lounge schmaltz - into a remarkably distinct and riveting whole, creating a brilliant and cohesive body of work.
£12adv
Thursday 18 September
Mick Turner (Dirty Three) + Pacific Ocean Fire + guests
Firebug, Millstone Lane, Leicester
http://www.myspace.com/trenphantasma
Tonight is a real special treat for any Dirty Three fans. It’s funny to think that we were first to put Dirty Three on outside of London in 1998 and now it’s Mick’s turn alone but oh so beautiful! Here is a review of his latest album.
Over the past ten years, Dirty Three guitarist Mick Turner has taken many forms. He’s a guitarist for hire - remember that awesome Cat Power record he did? Or his turn as The Marquis de Tren opposite our very own Bonny Billy? Plus, he paints! But mostly, Mick plays himself in solo recordings or collaborations with his Dirty Three skin basher, Jim White, where the two of them go under the moniker Tren Brothers. Swap, Warren Ellis, for some gentle keyboards, electronics and guitar loops and you have a slightly more experimental take on what is essentially that same, warm/cool feeling which the D3 perfected. Slightly more cinematic perhaps: in fact in live performance Turner has his own films and paintings rolling on a backdrop. Amazon
Mick Turner may seem like an unlikely candidate for a collection of rarities/b-sides/compilation tracks, but here it is, and it is glorious. While most widely recognized for his work with the Dirty Three, Turner’s paired-down, more pensive solo material bares an inevitable stylistic similarity and is every bit as stirring. An Aussie wunderkind of meditative guitar poetry, he goes by his own name when composing alone, Tren Brothers when collaborating as a duo with D3 drummer Jim White, yet always rouses sound into songs like weather.
Even when separated completely from the cover art/album title’s power of suggestion, his work actually comes across like sketches windblown winter trees would make with lead or ink-tipped branches; at one point a naked poplar (“Angel #1”), at another a swaying willow (“Away”), elsewhere a blustery eucalyptus (“Angel #5”). While it seems that only in nature can a body find parameters worthwhile enough to describe the palpitating gorgeousness of Turner’s compositions, any specifically pastoral imagery is inevitably the listener’s own.
Really, there are no weak links here. Turner/Tren/D3 fans will not be disappointed, nor would any fan of golden instrumental melancholia, placid but for its momentary swells and tremendous, indefatigable beauty.
Crawdaddy!
£6 adv.
30 September 2008
Rolo Tomassi + Throats
+ Diet Pills
Firebug, Millstone Lane, Leicester
£6 adv.
http://www.myspace.com/rolotomassi
http://www.myspace.com/throatsofgold
A veritable smorgasbord of styles, these female-helmed discotech thrashers specialise in adrenaline-soaked, keyboard-laden art-punk that jerks, jolts and jigs with an ultra-camp temperamentality. Drowned In Sound
Rolo Tomassi are the most fearless band in the world today. Based on a love of doom metal, Locust-inspired math-prog and Fifties sci-fi themes, they take anything and everything, wrap it in a ball of noise and snot it back out on your toast.
This album comes out as a reissue, having been painfully ignored the first time around. Since the demise of Testicicles and an increasing presence of metal music in the indie club (and around the world) Rolo Tomassi are now spearheading an angry movement of genre-benders (think Bonde De Role having their decks bludgeoned and still partying).
Of course this isn’t going to be to everyone’s taste; the vocals are screeched out with gusto and there's hardly any concern for melody. Ultimately however, Rolo Tomassi are a band about ideas and musicianship: Frank Zappa and Mr Bungle instantly spring to mind as comparisons to their sense of creative insanity. If you prefer your music as a drinking partner on a Friday night this isn't for you, but if you want your head blown open (just a little), you have to get this record. Artrocker
Thursday 2 October
Bob Log III & guests
The Musician, The Charlotte and Magic Teapot presents:
Certain elements of Bob Log III's performance must be seen to be believed: his propensity for performing in a motorcycle helmet, for instance, or his insistence on playing a show with a woman from the audience on his lap. That sort of thing doesn't really come through Log Bomb. What does come through is Log's rock-solid rhythm and earthy humour, best heard on "One Man Band Boom".
Like the music of other Fat Possum artists, Log's sound might best be described as John Lee Hooker meets punk rock; he'd be equally at home at a festival honouring either genre. While all the songs on Log Bomb tend to blend into each other after a while, they're all riff-fuelled, groove-driven slabs of raw blues that scrape across the ear like a roaring motorcycle. There are a few standouts, notably "F*hole Parade," which shifts tempo as smoothly as a well-tuned Harley shifts gears. It's not quite as much fun as catching Log live, but Log Bomb does give you a taste of this unique performer's octane-driven punk-rawk blues. --Genevieve Williams
The Charlotte, Oxford Street, Leicester £7 – adv.
Wednesday 15 October
@ The Charlotte, Oxford Street, Leicester
The Charlotte + Magic Teapot presents:
Does It Offend You, Yeah?
+ guests
£10 adv.
http://www.myspace.com/doesitoffendyou
'You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into' is the debut album from Reading electro-indie rockers Does It Offend You Yeah? Taking their influences from groups such as Justice, Daft Punk, Muse and DFA 1979, this raucous and day-glosmattering record embodies the spirit of 'Nu-Rave'. Includes the singles 'Battle Royale', 'Weird Science' and 'Let's Make Out'. Amazon UK
Tuesday 18 November
Dengue Fever + guests
The Musician, Clyde Street, Leicester
http://www.myspace.com/denguefevermusic
Released in the UK at last, in time for Dengue Fever's appearance at a whole batch of UK summer festivals, this is the third album by the quirky Los Angeles band who set out to revive the pop styles that once flourished in Cambodia, before the country's music scene was brutally crushed by the Khmer Rouge. Formed by guitarist Zac Holtzman, who has a beard worthy of ZZ Top and became fascinated by the blend of local folk styles and western pop while backpacking in Cambodia, the band features an all-American instrumental lineup playing keyboards and saxophone and is fronted by the petite and charismatic Cambodian singer Chhom Nimol. At their best - on songs such as the wailing and quirky Seeing Hands and Mr Orange, or the pounding finale One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula - they play an intriguing mixture of psychedelic rock and garage surf styles, mixed in with Nimol's cool, clear vocals in Khmer. There's just one English-language duet, the charming Tiger Phone Card, about a long-distance telephone romance between New York and Phnom Penh, and a few tracks that sound like sub-Blondie pop given an Asian edge. They are a great live band, so check out their festival appearances. The Guardian
£8 – adv.