Left Lane Cruiser tour dates

LEFT LANE CRUISER support their new album Painkillers with a European tour, followed by some US dates.

European tour dates
Sept 28 Les Nuits Defendues – Bordeaux, France
Sept 29 Cafe Olive – Nimes, France
Sept 30 Deep Inside – Dijon, France
Oct 2 La Chocolaterie – Bruxelles, Belgium
Oct 3 Point Ephemere – Paris, France
Oct 4 Le Tremplin – Beaumont, France
Oct 5 La Citrouille – St Brieuc, France
Oct 6 4AD – Diskmuid, Belgium
Oct 7 DB’s – Utrecht, Netherlands
Oct 8 Mac Daid’s – Le Havre, France
Oct 9 L’Usine – Geneve, Switzerland
Oct 10 Peniche Sonic – Lyon, France

USA shows
Nov 9 The Bohemian Caf – Greenville, SC
Nov 10 The North River Tavern – Atlanta, GA
Nov 11 JJ’s Bohemia – Chattanooga, TN
Nov 29 Founders – Grand Rapids, MI
Nov 30 Cricket’s Pub – Muskegon, MI

Left Lane Cruiser on Facebook

Frank Wilson RIP

We couldn't let the passing of the singer and writer of perhaps the number one classic northern soul song happen without a mention.

Frank Wilson has died of prostrate cancer, aged 71. 

Wilson joined Motown in 1965. Asked by Berry Gordy to relocate from LA to Detroit, Wilson went on to write and produce hit records for Brenda Holloway, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, The Miracles, the Four Tops, The Temptations, Eddie Kendricks, and more.

He also launched his own publishing firms, as well as trying his hand at being a recording artist himself. The single 'Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)' has a fascinating story. Supposedly 250 demo 45s were pressed, but by that time Wilson decided he would rather focus on producing and he had the demos trashed. Somehow at least two or three known copies survived - the one pictured above fetched over £25,000 when sold in May 2009.

Post-Motown, Wilson became a born again Christian. As a minister, he travelled the US, writing books with his wife Bunny.

Press play below and be transported somewhere else. You know you want to.

Happening the night returns tomorrow!

Angel, north London, tomorrow from 7.30pm. We'll be seeing you...

Record Review - The Solar System

THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Lysergic Summer
Self-released download/USB stick

Perhaps not as trippy as the title would like to suggest, Lysergic Summer is the latest effort from American one man band Chris Oliver, a proficient little bugger with a string of self released albums and EP’s. The nine track album is a short, sharp burst of quirky, psych pop, the sound of the 60s filtered through a net curtain in some American kid’s bedroom in the new millennium.

Most of the tracks are very short, only three even breaking the 3 minute barrier, so there’s the feeling of scraps occasionally, of Chris just toying. But there’s some sweet, sweet guitar work just drifting through the ether, that unmistakable sound of off-kilter percussion that you get with “home” recordings (a sound that I always love), the wonky tape loop thing and some pretty fine pop tunes including 'Watch The Fall' and 'Fast Cycle' hiding in there. Not so much acid as maybe Lemon Sherbet but still pretty sweet stuff.

Kami McInnes

Nuggets from Australia

The classic Nuggets compilation is the inspiration for two new Australian garage compilations.

2012 marks 40 years since the release of the original Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968 double LP on Elektra, and now Warner Music are marking this milestone with a new issue of the compilation. Warner in Australia are going the extra mile by dropping two decidedly Australian compilations – provisionally titled Down Under Nuggets and Antipodean Interpolations Of The First Psychedelic Era.

David Laing of Warner told themusic.com.au Down Under Nuggets will “basically be '60s Australian stuff, a single CD which will hopefully be reasonably close to the definitive best of the '60s Australian garage stuff. I’m talking to a few different experts about it. Two guys called Ian (Ian D. Marks and Iain McIntyre) are kind of involved with it. And Mark Taylor, who was in the Lipstick Killers in the late ‘70s in Sydney, he’s one of the biggest ‘60s garage collectors in the world and really knows his shit so I’ve brought them in for opinions and such".

Laing hopes the Nuggets connection on this forthcoming release will make people realise just how influential the legendary compilation was on Australian rock bands. “I think the whole Nuggets thing had a really big influence on Australia, probably thanks to Radio Birdman in the ‘70s doing You’re Gonna Miss Me by the 13th Floor Elevators and they used to do Don’t Look Back [by The Remains] I think they really introduced the Nuggets aesthetic to Australia. Then you had that whole late-‘70s, early-‘80s Sydney thing with The Lipstick Killers and The Lime Spiders and The Wet Taxis and The Psychotic Turnbuckles… and Sunnyboys were doing covers by The Remains; there’s a really strong kind of heritage of it in Australia, so I think it’s appropriate that Mark’s doing this thing with Australian bands and that there’ll be an Australian celebration of what Nuggets is or was.”

Down Under Nuggets and Antipodean Interpolations Of The First Psychedelic Era are scheduled for a November 16 release.

Record Review - The Bidons

THE BIDONS
Granma Killer!!!
Area Pirata download

This mini-LP by five Italian garage punks is very much in the tradition of loud and trashy Stooges-y European rock’n’roll. Part 80s garage/power-pop, part 70s hard rock, part 60s homage (via covers of The Strangeloves and The Avengers), what you see/hear is what you get.

So is it distinguishable from the pack? No, but that’s not the point. Sweaty, brash, short blasts of punk attitude rarely are. Just listen to the crunch of those guitars - is doesn’t get better than that! Their version of ‘Night Time’ has an excited bassline and the band just let everything hang out in the most infectious way.

The fuzz and organ twin attack of ‘Wolves of Saint August’ is just beautifully controlled aggression and would slay dancefloors if released on 45. The title track is 80s power punk in excelsis. The rest of the album rides it luck on energy and melody alone, and I never felt bored listening to it. They finish this eight-tracker with a fun, quick run-through of ‘Be A Caveman’, and I’m left wanting more. High praise indeed for a music form that is easy to make but hard to perfect.

Phil Istine

Light In The Attic Road Trip

Light In The Attic Records are in the midst of their annual ROAD TRIP and had to fill our readers in. Over 10 days they will be visiting 58 record stores, covering 3000 miles - from Seattle to Los Angeles and back - to deliver thousands of Light In The Attic CDs/LPs via a 15-person passenger van. And documenting the trip, with daily videos, Instagram, Tweets, and Facebook posts!

Along the way LITA are offering a free seat in the van to a lucky winner, including $50 per day to spend on records.

Episode #2 of their video daily highlights can be watched HERE. You can follow all the daily action on the Official Road Trip Site.

Record Review - Slow Season

SLOW SEASON

Slow Season

self-released download

American four piece blues-rock outfit Slow Season see no reason to not wear their influences on their sleeve and hell they do make it easy to just say "Led Zeppelin knock off" and be done with it but there’s a lot more happening than just Jimmy and Robert here. Of course opening with the blatant Zep-styled 'Heavy' doesn'’t help the lazy critic but following up with the late 60s country rock stylings of 'Ernest Becker’s 32nd Schizophrenic Nightmare' is a nice turn of events. 'Dayglo Sunrise' follows and with more than a hint of an adolescent Jim Morrison in singer Daniel Rice’s voice and the band sounding more like obscure but legendary 60s acid-blues band Jamul than Led Zeppelin - this is the highlight of the album for me.

It does dip a little with the instrumental 'Thunder Song' offering very little and then 'Deep Forest' starting as a meandering jam before the band suddenly wakes up and Rice wails away with a quick Plant impersonation. Luckily they soon get back on track with the slow burning 'No More Running', the mandolin-led 'Ruah' (which comes across like a pretty sweet outtake from Houses Of The Holy), and later Jim’'s ghost reappears for 'Bars And Bridges' to finish the album off in style.

So what we have is a band of young guys with some great taste in music, not afraid to show their influences, not bothering to justify themselves with any need to drag the music into the new millennium, occasionally failing but still hitting the mark more often than not and having a damn good time doing it. For a debut effort that’s pretty damn good odds. If you like it heavy, if you yearn for more of those late 60s acid rock/blues daze well here'’s an album just for you. Oh and did I mention it’s a free download?

Kami McInnes

Record Review - Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby

WRECKLESS ERIC & AMY RIGBY

A Working Museum

Southern Domestic CD

Part indie-pop, part jangle-rock, and part singer/songwriter folk, the latest by the former Stiff Records luminary and Mod Housewife, is a rollicking album by two streetwise old pros having a good time with song-making and with each other. 

The album puts me in mind of Sam Phillips’s Martinis and Bikinis, if Phillips sang in Rigby’s drawl, or Grant McLennan’s work both with The Go-Betweens and as a solo artist, if he’d been less literary and more smartass. There’s an overall sense of sardonic wit being pulled off by people who have come out of their younger, leaner days with knowing minds and keen, world-weary senses of humour.

The lyrics are so clever that they could work as short stories in a chapbook, and since the musical backing and vocal melodies are such afterthoughts as to be dull, I’d be just as happy to hear the pair perform the set as spoken word pieces.

Brian Greene

Children Of The Stones celebrated on Radio 4

From the BBC's media centre:

Happy Days: Children Of The Stones

Thursday 4 October, 11.30am-12 noon, BBC RADIO 4

Writer and comedian Stewart Lee explores the 1970s television series Children Of The Stones and examines its special place in the memories of those children who watched it.

In this documentary, Stewart returns to Avebury to discuss the serial's influence on him and explore the history and secrets of the ancient stones. Including contributions from series co-creator Jeremy Burnham, cast members and fans.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2012/40/happy-days.html

Record Review - Tame Impala

TAME IMPALA

Lonerism

Modular Recordings CD

Effortlessly shrugging off any notions of a sophomore slump, Kevin Parker follows up 2010’s splash-making debut Innerspeaker with another set of dazzling head music. Lonerism chugs, churns, pulsates, echoes, and weaves through an ever-changing series of sonically-charged and cerebrum-tickling avenues. 

Knob-twiddling living legend Dave Fridmann mixed the record, and it’s Fridmann’s heady work with The Flaming Lips, particularly on The Soft Bulletin, that's brought to mind here. Think ‘Race For The Prize’ mashed up with The Idle Race’s ‘Hurry Up John’.  The universe loses two-thirds of its supply of reverberation when the Impala plays.

Favourite parts are the sticks-in-your-head melody lines that come along every now and then, and get you humming along even as you trip the fuck out. ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’, my new song of the year thus far, is something I’ve been singing to my baby to get her to sleep at night. I’m seeing trails for miles and miles.

Brian Greene

Rolling Stones film news

New of two films concerning the Stones are worth sharing with you.

Firstly is the home release of Peter Whitehead 's Charlie Is My Darling, the tour of Ireland film from 1965. It has never officially been available since its cinema outings in the 1960s. The film was the first professionally-filmed documentary featuring the band, and is a classic document of those heady days. This year the film has been meticulously restored with bonus never-before-seen footage too. Following a New York première Charlie Is My Darling will be available on DVD/Blu-Ray/super deluxe box set from November 6.

Then comes Crossfire Hurricane. In this new film, directed by Brett Morgen, the band are chronicled during the key period of their career - the 1960s and 1970s. It’s all there, from the Marquee Club to Hyde Park, from Altamont to Exile, from club gigs to stadium extravaganzas.  The film combines extensive historical footage, much of it widely unseen, with contemporary commentaries by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood and former Stones Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor.  A theatrical release here in the UK will arrive next month.  The band will be attending the world premiere of Crossfire Hurricane in Leicester Square, London on October 18 as part of the BFI London Film Festival . It will also be premiered on HBO in the USA, and broadcast on BBC Two later in the year.

In other band news, their latest greatest hits package, entitled GRRR!, is released on November 12. It comes in three formats: 50 Track 3CD album, Super Deluxe Edition Box Set (4CD/80 tracks/7″ Vinyl/book/poster/postcards), and  5x 12” Vinyl Box Set. If you're after new material too you're in luck, as  GRRR! features 'Gloom And Doom' and 'One More Shot', two new studio recordings recently completed by the group in Paris, France.

Record Review - Gnod

GNOD
5th Sun/5th Dub
Trensmat 7”

The only previous exposure to Gnod I have had is the excellent split album with White Hills (Gnod Drop Out with White Hills) which is a really excellent disc of experimental psych-y spacerock that’s heartily recommended to all. This single, however, is a much heavier affair built around a momentous doom riff which first ascends then descends into the pit from whence it came.

Added to this huge riff are numerous experimental squalls of noise, unintelligible vocals and disorientating effects. While this may make the track sound a bit of a mess, the central guitar motif keeps everything grounded solidly with a queasy groove that anchors all the madness surrounding it.

To complete the package the flip is a demented dub take on the ‘A’ side. Very much coming across as a unique piece in itself, it heralds a much less travelled path that I’d be hugely interested in hearing the band explore further. The whole thing comes in a sunshine coloured sleeve with similarly garish coloured vinyl. You might not find too much summery pop on the single but it will grill your gluteus maximus and simultaneously deep-fry your frontal lobe.

Austin Matthews

Night Beats European tour

The Night Beats head to Europe on a mammoth tour in November/December. Night Beats are an American psychedelic-garage-soul group, based out of Seattle, Washington. Night Beats incorporate sounds of early R&B, Texan psychedelic rock, UK blues, folk and soul. They've toured extensively with bands such as The Horrors, Black Lips, The Black Angels, Roky Erickson, Wooden Shjips, The Greenhornes, Acid Baby Jesus, and more.
TOUR DATES:

November
14 UK - London - The Shacklewell Arms
15 UK - London - The Fiddlers Elbow (tickets here)
16 DE - Berlin - Westgermany
17 DE - Kassel - Haus
18 CZ - Prague - 007 Klub
19 AT - Vienna - Chelsea
20 DE - Munich - TBA
21 DE - Konstanz - Klimperkasten w/Gozilla
22 CH - St Gallen - Schwarzer Engel
23 DE - Karslruhe - Alte Hackerei
24 FR - Paris - Miroiterie
25 FR - Nantes - Stakhanov
26 FR - Bordeaux - Pompier w/ Strange Hands
28 ES - San Sebastian - Bukowski
29 ES - Madrid - Siroco
30 ES - Barcelona - Apolo 2
December
1 NL - Amsterdam - Pacific Parc
2 NL - Utrecht - Le Guess Who Fest
3 BE - TBA
4 BE - Antwerpen - Trix
5 BE - Brussels - Madame Moustache
6 NL - Haarlem - Patronaat
7 GR - Athens - Six Dogs
8 GR - Thessaloniki - Gaia Live

The band were signed within weeks of self releasing their debut EP, the H-Bomb EP. Picked up by Chicago's Trouble in Mind Records (Ty Segall, Fresh and Only's, Hex Dispensers, etc.). Any number of bands cite 60's Texas psych as an influence, but rarely does a group actually capture what made those bands special. Following their debut EP also on Trouble In Mind, The Night Beats have expanded on the bedroom immediacy of their first recordings to create an LP that perfectly captures and modernizes the hallucinogenic and exhilaratingly demonic aura of bands like The 13th Floor Elevators and Golden Dawn. With blazing guitar work and a razor sharp rhythm section Danny Lee Blackwell and company mutate conventional chords & progressions into a mind-blowing sonic sprawl. The record reels you in with 2-3 minute pop songs like 'Ain't Dumbo' and 'Dial 666,' forging a landscape that then throws you into a chaotic journey of jams a'la 'Dewayne's Drone' and 'Little War in the Midwest' that bend and meander but never overstay their welcome.

NIGHT BEATS on Facebook

Record Review: Toy

TOY
Toy
Heavenly LP/CD/DL

Toy singer-guitarist Tom Dougall is son of Brighton folkie Alistair and brother of Pipettes/Mark Ronson singer Rose. So clearly music was always a big pull. After one horrendous false start (in the J*ng J*ng J*ng) he’s pulled together a crackpot lineup of talent, including on drums former Happening clubnight DJ Charlie Salvidge. So, is our loss the music world’s gain?

Yes. And a bit of no too. In a world of seemingly fully-formed hyped bands its nicely refreshing to hear a band still finding their feet on record; of raw talent that hasn’t properly coalesced on this LP, but looks likely too soon. And hyped they have been - made out as the cool younger friends of The Horrors by many in the press, it’s made it harder for us as listeners to separate the two bands. Certainly Primary Colours has informed the sound on Toy, as has My Bloody Valentine and early 70s European rock and electronica.

Dougall is unlikely to win favour with Gary Barlow or any of the X-Factor judges for vocal athleticism - his croon is more homeless wounded puppy than in-flight eagle. Still, vocal melodies are not where we’re at with Toy - instead we get sheets of soothing glacial keyboards, bubbling guitars, and a well-honed and frankly quite superb motorik groove from the rhythm section throughout. The result is less dark-psychedelic-krautrock though, and perhaps more gothic-indie-with-flair.

When they’re good they’re very good, as on the excellent ‘Lose My Way’ and ‘My Heart Skips A Beat’. Yet a lot of tracks pass you by without making much of a noise, and for me the songs lack the all-important emotional punch. I’m also disappointed they didn’t include their cracking debut single ‘Leave Myself Behind’. Even so you, our lovely readers, should go buy this album as it’s worthy of some serious listening time. Just don’t expect mind-blowing brilliance and you’ll be well pleased you bothered.

Phil Istine

Record Review - Waves Of Fury

WAVES OF FURY
Thirst
Alive Naturalsound CD/LP

Stomping debut from this West Country quartet who channel Stax and Motown influences through gobsmacking punk influences and update the whole sonic blast with a burst of high energy hjinks accumulated on lengthy tours throughout the Southern US. Put on your thinking caps and you might hear a tad of the old ‘Downtown’ piano riff trickling into opener ‘Death of a Vampire’ before Bim Williams’ Spiritualized-style brass washes over you. Vocalist/shouter Carter Sharp emotes in a healthy Iggy snarl as if he’s the vampire in question begging for his life! There’s some down-and-dirty, anthemic pleading in his vocals that will take getting used to, particularly due to the over-distorted quality of the production which tends to drown his efforts in extreme overmodulation, rending him occasionally unintelligible.

But the songs are powerful enough to overcome these setbacks, particularly the Bar-Kays-influenced ‘Businessman’s Guide To Witchcraft’, with its ‘Soul Finger’-ish brass pronouncements, and the JAMC-worshipping ‘Pretender Soul’. If they can rein in Sharp’s tendency to break into over-the-top, Iggy-meets-Cave impersonations and tighten up some of the disjointed, turn-on-a-dime song arrangements, they’ll certainly have a killer of a sophomore effort. But this is a strong beginning from a talented bunch of lads with the right influences, and the short-and-sweet ‘Nervous Exhaustion' suggests they have quite a few tender ballads in them, while epic closer ‘Viodrene’ suggests the spirit of Otis is alive and well and hovering somewhere over the Somerset hills.

Jeff Penczak

Interview: Paul Levinson

Repress of Paul Levinson’s Twice Upon a Rhyme LP

Paul Levinson’s private-press folk-psych album Twice Upon a Rhyme from 1972 was one of Shindig’s favourite rereleases of last year. The delicately crafted material was recorded two years before its appearance and features some excellent fuzz guitar amongst numerous other instrumental flourishes. The original repress has now sold out and The Sound of Salvation Records have pressed up a further special edition of 50 copies of the LP with new artwork on a deluxe screen printed cover. Austin Matthews caught up with Paul to comment.

SD: Have you been surprised by the reaction generated by the rerelease of the album?

PL: Logically, if someone had told me in 1970 that Twice Upon a Rhyme and its songs (while not becoming hits or even known by anyone other than a handful of people back then) would be getting such great reaction 42 years later, I would have said, well, that's science fiction. But yeah, for the most part I find the current response to the album astounding, mind-blowing, fantastic, while that part of me that's still 23 says: ‘See, I told so you.’

SD: Would you ever have predicted so long a shelf life of the album when it was first recorded?

PL: Would I have predicted that such a little-known album would have such a long shelf life? Well, I always hoped that someday someone like Anthony at The Sound of Salvation would somehow hear the album and bring it back out into the world, but would I have bet on it? Well...maybe I would. After all, better to bet on something you create and lose than never to have written and recorded at all.

SD: We love the album and are big supporters. Do you have any words for our readers?

PL: To Shindig! and its readers: you are the reasons I put all that effort into recording the album (writing the songs was easy) all those years ago. It was a lot of work and although I loved it, I was also doing it because I was hoping it would connect with some people out there. In the case of you, Shindig!'s readers, I hope the songs connect with you, and ring a chord across the decades.

Led Zeppelin Celebration Day release (02 Arena)

The Led Zeppelin reunion concert from 2007 is finally to be released on Blu-Ray/DVD.

On December 10, 2007, Led Zeppelin took the stage at London’s O2 Arena to headline a tribute concert for Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun. Founding members John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were joined by Jason Bonham, the son of late drummer John Bonham, to perform 16 songs. 20 million people applied for tickets for the band’s first headline show in 27 years.

The film of the event, entitled Celebration Day, will first be screened in cinemas worldwide from October 17. The home release will then follow on November 19.

The full setlist from the night was:

1. Good Times Bad Times
2. Ramble On
3. Black Dog
4. In My Time of Dying
5. For Your Life
6. Trampled Under Foot
7. Nobody's Fault But Mine
8. No Quarter
9. Since I've Been Loving You
10. Dazed and Confused
11. Stairway to Heaven
12. The Song Remains the Same
13. Misty Mountain Hop
14. Kashmir
15. Whole Lotta Love
16. Rock and Roll

For more visit the band's official site HERE. And here is the official Youtube trailer for Celebration Day.

Record Review - The Ace

THE ACE
Next Time Around
self-released CD

This Leeds trio have this rather smart debut album to offer us, with a clean dozen tracks of effervescent power-pop meets West Coast 60s garage. There is the Moon-esque pummeling of the drums, the heavy riffing of a master, and some hyperventilating vocals..in other words, something for every rock’n’roll fan whose pulse can raise itself when needed.

They play a strange hand, these lads. The opening trio of songs here are the least appealing, falling into that easy trap of making upbeat but indistinguishable, forgettable, and cliched retro pop. Great live no doubt, but less great on record. Yet what follows is a delight. We get on the title track some frenetic, Joe Meek freakbeat echoed sounds that also recalls XTC-style new wave. Funky riffage a la Jon Spencer and The Black Keys makes a welcome appearance on blues rocker ‘Loose Cannon Woman’ that really should get a proper single release IMHO.

Then there’s the John’s Children-inspired beat of ‘Waiting For My Baby’, the punk chops of ‘Hard Graft’, the scorching psych rock of ‘Alone’ (with some nifty excellent fuzz lead guitar), and the acid punk sci-fi (with added theremin) on unhinged closer ‘Attack Of The Mosquitoes’. There’s even a satisfying extra emotional layer The Ace reveal on the tumultuous, tremelo-ing ‘Shipwrecked’.

This album will appeal to the 80s ex-mods, to fans of the post-Prisoners flood of well-crafted Hammond-drenched classic rock, and well, to all good Shindig-verse music fans in general.

Phil Istine

Event: The Night Of The Jackalope

They may have lost their spiritual home in Stoke Newington but the spirit of The Jackalope rages on! Transmuting out of necessity into a guerilla operation they return on September 22 to the Motorship Stubnitz!

Here's a taste of the amazing line-up: Badly Drawn Boy, Syd Arthur, Seahawks,  The Magnetic Mind, Denis Jones, Paddy Steer, John Stammers, Sunlight Service Group, Eat Lights Become Lights, Savaging Spires, Grass House, The Title Sequence, Elda Champion...plus formidable DJ sets from Chris 'The Judge' Arthur, Pete Fowler, Horton Jupiter, Richard Norris, Jah Shabby and Critical Heights...

The Motorship Stubnitz is an 80 meters long ex-East German fishing vessel transformed in 1992 into a moving platform for cultural research and exchange. Originally Built in 1964 in the former East German city of Stralsund and weighing in at over two and half thousand tons the Stubnitz “roving neutral venue” travels from its homeport Rostock around the Baltic and North Sea, physically networking with cities such as Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Newcastle , Hamburg, St. Petersburg and now, since July 2012 in London. Including the outside deck there are four fully-equipped event areas transformed out of the old cargo holds catering for audience(s) of up to seven hundred people.

Saturday September 22

@ MS Stubnitz, Millennium Mills Pier, London Royal Docks

6pm-4am. £10 advance

FACEBOOK EVENT

Happening the clubnight is back!

Happening the clubnight is back after a summer break, in a great new rocking venue in Angel, north London.

The ‘Happening’ clubnight has now established itself as the grooviest place to sample the delights of the Shindig! universe. A joint operation in conjunction with Sweet but Deadly Promotions, Happening has become its own little rock’n’roll haven, with invitations sent out to the best bands and DJs asking them to stoke your sonic fires. Come meet, greet and party with like-minded souls ’til your head explodes with delight!

Playing Live:
Black Light White Light
http://www.facebook.com/BlackLightWhiteLight
From Denmark, expect catchy melodies swirled in distorted tremolo and chiming guitars, with groovy bass lines and pounding beats in a Spectorish 60s sound. With a modern Scandinavian twist!

Albert Zi & The Uptown 3
http://www.facebook.com/albertzindtheuptown3
The Roves + MFC Chicken + The Vinyl Stitches = Uptown 3! The sound of English beat meets South American fuzz!

Temple Set
http://www.facebook.com/templesetmusic
A super psychedelic "dream-gaze" band, specialising in haunting melodies and shimmering guitars. The Future Sound Of London.

Then resident DJ Phil Istine and guest DJ Lady Michelle (Lordy Lord) will spin your world via ’60s/’70s dancefloor psychedelia, garage, beat, and general vintage rock’n’roll wondermints!

@ Rattlesnake
56 Upper Street, London N1 0NY. 7.30pm-2am.
Free before 8.30pm. £4.50 in advance from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/185667
£6.50 on door. Tube: Angel (4 mins)

FACEBOOK EVENT

Albert Zi & The Uptown 3

Black Light White Light

The Fingers reform for home show

One of the UK's first psychedelic groups, Southend's  The Fingers, are reforming for a special hometown gig at the Riga Music Bar in Westcliff-on-Sea.

Probably the first group to wear hillbilly hats and braces and vests, they still pack a mighty punch with this original six-piece line-up, three of whom have worked extensively with Mickey Jupp in various bands including Legend. Members of The Fingers have also worked with many well known artists such as Billy Fury, Suzi Quatro, Chris Farlowe, Frankie Ford Flaco Jiminez, Robin Trower, Rhet Stoller, and Cliff Richard. They also recorded, as Daddy Lindberg, the classic 1967 psychedelic song 'Wade In The Shade'.

The Fingers

Friday September 21

@ Riga Music Bar, Westcliff-on-Sea

£10 in advance, £12 on the door. 

Riga website

Brain Police & Greenleaf Tour

Get ready Europe, here comes the Brain Police & Greenleaf 2012 Euro Tour.

Right on the heels of their brand new album Nest Of Vipers, Sweden's rather excellent Greenleaf will be hitting the road with Icelandic label mates Brain Police for the better part of October 2012. This is gonna be a show that is not to be missed. There also maybe a few more additional dates to be added - these are shows for fans of Graveyard, Deep Purple, and all things both retro and heavy...


Tour Dates
Oct 9, 2012 - Berlin, Germany - Lido
Oct 10, 2012 - Frankfurt, Germany - Das Bett
Oct 11, 2012 - Stuttgart, Germany - Zwoelfzehn
Oct 12, 2012 - Munich, Germany - Feierwerk
Oct 13, 2012 - Dresden, Germany - Groovestation
Oct 14, 2012 - Linz, Austria - Kapu
Oct 16, 2012 - Wien, Austria - Arena
Oct 17, 2012 - Innsbruck, Austria - PMK
Oct 18, 2012 - Geneva, Switzerland - L'usine
Oct 19, 2012 - Winterthur, Switzerland - Gaswek
Oct 20, 2012 - Altenkunstadt, Germany - Nepomuk
Oct 21, 2012 - Antwerp, Belgium - Trix
Oct 22, 2012 - Cologne, Germany - Underground
Oct 24, 2012 - Hamburg, Germany - Molotow
Oct 25, 2012 - Jena, Germany - Rose
Oct 26, 2012 - Siegen, Germany - Vortex
Oct 27, 2012 - Osnabrueck, Germany - Westwerk

Record Review - White Fence

WHITE FENCE
Family Perfume Volumes 1 & 2
Woodist CD/2-LP

LA-based White Fence is the subtle, melodic and scorchingly psychedelic solo bedroom recording project of Darker My Love mouthpiece Tim Presley. White Fence fuses outer spectrum sonic elements such as ’60s punk, folk-rock jangle, smatterings of programmed drums, biker-psych leads that’ll rattle your retinas, and the punk-ist deconstructionisms of Brit DIY, evoking shades of ’60s-early ’80s weirdo outsiders and skewed pop pariahs who’ve later been lauded. 

On their third and fourth respective releases compiled here (released in limited run as separate LPs) Presley doses us with a more progressively diverse set of sounds which gel remarkably, brandishing elliptical lyrics bringing rewards upon repeated listens. From the true modern barroom psych-pop classic ‘It Will Never Be’, Syd-isms of ‘Balance Your Heart’ and blistering ‘Long White Curtain’, highlights within are too many to mention. ‘King Of The Decade’ certainly gets a nod. 

Cuddle up, warm blanket in tow, and stay bedroom-bound (as we hope Tim will) Linus-style and ponder why his comrade Ty Segall is the one seeing the shine.

Jeremy Cargill

The Groundhogs live

Tony McPhee, Joanna Deacon and the band with the greatest name in British psychedelic blues rock are back!  The Groundhogs play High Wycombe at the Arts4every1 Centre on Saturday September 29. Go see the man who was already turning R'n'B into psych when Hendrix was still playing backup for the Isley Brothers, and the band who influenced everyone from Black Sabbath to The Damned and even Pavement. 

Expect 'Cherry Red' 'Split' 'Garden' 'Eccentric Man' and many more, including maybe a sneak preview at some new material. Tickets are £10 in advance from WeGotTickets, and local emporiums Counter Culture and Ruby Moon.

Record Review - Layers Of The Onion

LAYERS OF THE ONION
Hal-An-Tow

OHM/Droning-On/Apartment Records CD

If the band name and booklet photos (two hirsute, accordion-wielding minstrels surrounded by instrumental exotica) prompt thoughts of Incredible String Band copyists, think again. This is very different stuff.

That said, the opening track, with its lapping waves, languid acoustic strumming and glockenspiel accents, treads a fine line between psych-folk langouresness and new-age vacuousness.

'In The Land Of Sona-Nyl' ups the weirdness quota, all spooky drones and mettalics and eerie, otherworldly shimmers. Volcano The Bear drummer Aaron Moore patters away restlessly, creating an atmosphere of druggy, ritualistic improv. You can almost smell the fug of incense and marijuana smoke.

'The Muspel Light' closes, with 24 minutes of layered drones and blurry reverberations; impressionistic sweeps of sound which match the dry, austere ambience of contemporary classical music to the more wayward experimental palette of the avant-garde, as sounds emerge from, and then disappear into the mix. This is immersive, unsettling music. 

Neil Hussey

Record Review - Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs

HOLLY GOLIGHTLY & THE BROKEOFFS

Sunday Run Me Over

Transdreamer CD

Prolific London-born, Georgia-based singer-songwriter Holly Golightly (christened after the call girl protagonist in Truman Capote’s Breakfast At Tiffany’s) joins forces once more with longtime collaborator, photographer and multi-talented Texas musician Lawyer Dave. 

The pair serve up a dozen titles that range from rockabilly-on-steroids (‘I Ain’t Got No More Money’), an off-kilter waltz called ‘One For The Road’, a delightfully re-tooled, rootsy rendition of Wayne Raney’s 1960 gospel chestnut ‘We Need A Lot More Jesus (And A Lot Less Rock And Roll)’, the hauntingly chugging opener ‘Goddamn Holy Roll’ (a line from which is the album’s title), a ghostly, loping duet titled ‘They Say’ and the western swing-edged ‘The Future’s Here’. Not to mention a silvery take on The Davis Sisters’ ’53 country hit ‘I Forgot More’, along with an ebullient run-through of Mac Davis’ ‘Hard To Be Humble’, with an appropriately swaggering lead vocal from the Lawyer. 

Golightly has really hit her stride with these Brokeoffs projects.

Gary von Tersch

Record Review - Jackamo Brown

JACKAMO BROWN

Oh No, The Drift Of The World

Development CD

The genre ‘loner folk’ never runs dry. There are, after all, a lot of loners out there, and a high proportion of them like folk music. Jackamo Brown is one of them. 

Oh No, The Drift Of The World is the debut album by this rather enigmatic man. While there’s not much information about him, he does like Bert Jansch. That much is clear from his guitar, his vocal stylings, his lyrics. Of course, there are worse people to be heavily influenced by, and Brown does pay tribute to his hero well (especially on ‘Elena-Jane’). What is more original, and appealing, about this record is its ambient backdrop. It has a field-recording quality that drifts in and out, suffusing the record with a warm-earth feel. 

Be warned: there’s no track separation on this album. You have to listen to all of ‘part one’ or ‘part two’. That smacks of arrogance, a control over the listener that Brown has not yet earned the right to.

Jeanette Leech

Record Review - TV Guests

TV GUESTS

Franklin 101

Izica CD 

Jason Falkner’s god-like presence on this second album by French punk-poppers TV Guests is bound to stir some interest, but without his input as producer/engineer (Jason also provides numerous backing vocal and instrumental contributions) it’s difficult to imagine what would remain of worth.

Opener ‘Lisa’ sounds tantalisingly promising, being full of satisfying Falkner-esque chord twists and harmonies, whilst ‘Watch Me Now’ is squelchy bubblegum that manages to sound equal parts Plastic Bertrand, Human League and Chicory Tip. Other than this, however, Franklin 101 simply re-treads territory already amply covered by French new wave bands such as Taxi Girl 30 years ago. Falkner presumably did his best within the confines of a miniscule recording budget, but what he really needed was a stronger set of songs to work with.

Chris Twomey

Event: Kizmiaz rock'n'roll shows, Sicily

This Kizmiaz garage rock'n'roll festival in Catania, Sicily, Italy is brought to you by Kuma Records. All the information is there on the excellent flyer above, but to surmise - two warm up parties this and next month with Reverend Beat Man and The Cynics playing, before the main weekend in November featuring the rock'n'roll royalty that is King Khan and The Shrines, King Salami & The Cumberland 3, and King Automatic.

More Cramps-referencing festivals, please!

Record Review - Om

OM
Advaitic Songs
Drag City LP/CD

Advaita is the Hindu concept of non-duality – the idea that the human being is indistinguishable from the Godhead from which he sprang. I’m sure there are numerous metaphoric constructs that other reviewers will use to explain Om’s music but I prefer to think this title merely refers to the pan-religious themes the album explores.

Formed following the demise of stoner-doom legends Sleep, rhythm section Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius put their powerhouse bass and drums horsepower into Om. Hakius has since left, leaving Cisneros’ bass as the dominant instrument. The band have long since abandoned their minimalist machinations and only nominally retain the ‘heavy’ tag – rather they have moved into beguiling and less traversed territory.

The opening track ‘Addis’ features a female vocal chant which sounds like a religious hymnal or call to prayer, set across an unsettling backdrop. This backdrop never really alters, though the band explores all sorts of mournful instrumental textures, from the menace of ‘State of Non-Return’ to the cello-heavy riffing of ‘Haqq al-Yaqin’.

As intriguing and accomplished as Advaitic Songs is I found that the more I listened to it, the less I wanted to listen to it. Perhaps it was too much of an overdose to try and absorb this complex and multi-layered record in a week in order to write this review. This is the sort of album that takes time to digest over the course of a year or a decade - much like the religious texts from which it takes its inspiration.

Austin Matthews

Record Review - Justin Kline

JUSTIN KLINE
Cabin Fever Songs
self-released CD / download
　
Anyone with an undying love of power-pop - the milkshake variety rather than the rum punch - should check out Tennessee’s Justin Kline, if they haven‘t already. I’m in awe of artists able to re-fashion the age-old Beatles/Beach Boys blueprint and hit the (hitherto unknown) cranial G-spot, whilst still retaining some individuality. Only an elite are capable of pulling it off without descending into pastiche, and Kline is in that pack, along with the likes of Mike Viola and Linus of Hollywood.

With several albums and EPs already under his skinny belt - he’s previously traded under the names In Clover, Sleepy River and Heartstring Band - Kline‘s latest was apparently written and recorded entirely at home, using whatever basic gear he had lying around, following some kind of nervous breakdown. Judging from the lyrical bitterness on display, I’d guess it was precipitated by some lady trouble. The music, however, offsets his gloom with its sunny sweetness.

'Nighttime Girl', 'Your Mystery' and 'Carol Lynn' - a country-pop gem that Nilsson wouldn’t have turned his nose up at - are all particularly gorgeous. Meanwhile, it’s surprising someone hasn’t already written a song called 'Sunday Night Blues' (about the dreaded Sunday Depression as it's known in our house).

Chris Twomey

Record Review - Sylvester Anfang II

SYLVESTER ANFANG II
John Changs Kosmische Hand/Moordende Maan
Great Pop Supplement 7”

Belgian ‘funeral-folk’ lunatics Sylvester Anfang II are back with a new single every bit as singular and esoteric as the rest of their output. With a sound that harks back to German commune bands like Amon Düül I or the Cosmic Jokers collective, this is another strong addition to their weird mythos.

The ‘A’ side is a disquieting affair full of off-kilter jamming somewhere in the region of folk-psych and krautrock. The tribal percussion beats out a cursory pulse as a discordant flute (?) mutates some kind of melody. There’s some distant sense of co-ordination in the track but it’s hard to pin down. Towards the end the bass attempts some sort of interaction with the beat while the background noise grows more discordant and menacing. The pace quickens as the track seems to groan beneath its own weight, eventually burning out completely.

The ‘B’ side is an eastern modal scale noodle cut from the same occult cloth. Droning and groaning throughout, it’s a queasy raga that’s not so much meditative as medicative.

This is Godless music, somehow both beautiful and nauseating. It’s hard to think in what situation you’re ever going to want to play this single but I’m glad it exists.

Austin Matthews

Record Review - The Sunchymes

THE SUNCHYMES

Let Your Free Flag Fly

Calliope CD

A couple of years back, on constant rotation at my place was an album in thrall to The Beach Boys – rich in harmonies and stunning melodies. Bizarrely, it hailed not from California but from Rushden, Northamptonshire. Now, Aaron Hemington (for he is basically The Sunchymes), is back with a second outing that’s just as strong as its predecessor.

A few moments into the opener, ‘Revelations In Her Mind’, and you’ll know what’s coming – West Coast sunshine-pop as the Wilsons played it but with additional twists and turns. This time round Hemington has plainly been listening to a few British psych albums. For ‘Seargent Walker’ and ‘Uncle Alfred’s Slide Show’ have that sinister tweeness that characterises the best of the genre. They sound a little to me like lost ’80s mod band The Direct Hits, and that is a big compliment.

Ashley Norris

Record Review - Josephine Foster

JOSEPHINE FOSTER

Blood Rushing

Fire CD/LP

When reviewing the previous Josephine Foster album, Perlas, I had a bit of a moan. Perlas was indeed a good collection of Spanish folk songs, but I expressed frustration that the truly original Foster no longer seemed to care about songwriting: Perlas was the third album on the trot without her lyrics.

Now we have Blood Rushing. Ten brand new songs, all written by Foster. It’s a ‘rock-ballet chanté’, running from hyper-focused acoustic quiet to psych-folk electrocution (in particular, the superb ‘Geyser’) with plenty of unclassifiable moments in there too (‘O Stars’). Blood Rushing is generally chirpier than her earlier records, helped by the sensitive yet vibrant Spanish guitar of Victor Herrero. However, what the album loses in soul carving, it makes up for with the driest Foster humour. “You’ve slept in the summer sun / burnt and brittle, well done” she smirks on closer, ‘Words Come Loose’.

And there’s always, always the wavering treasure of That Voice. Welcome back, JoFo.

Jeanette Leech