email: [email protected] website: nightshift.oxfordmusic.net Free every month. NIGHTSHIFT Issue 197 December Oxford’s Music Magazine 2011 The Cellar Family Songs from under the floorboard photo: Johnny Moto

NIGHTSHIFT: PO Box 312, Kidlington, OX5 1ZU. Phone: 01865 372255

NEWNEWSS Nightshift: PO Box 312, Kidlington, OX5 1ZU Phone: 01865 372255 email: [email protected] Online: nightshift.oxfordmusic.net

taken control of the building three years ago after Solarview, the company that refurbished it after years of neglect, went into liquidation. Trouble at a couple of club nights in the past had earned The Regal a bad reputation in certain sections of the press, but more recently the building looked like it was set to fulfil its potential as the biggest dedicated live music venue in Oxford.

SECRET RIVALS release a new single next month. ‘Once More M83 have added a date at the O2 Academy on Tuesday 24th January With Heart’ b/w ‘I Know to their UK tour. The band, centred around French musician and Something’ is released on It’s All producer Anthony Gonzalez, recently followed up their acclaimed JONQUIL return to town for a Happening Records on January 2008 album `Saturdays = Youth’ with new album, `Hurry Up, We’re special Blessing Force-themed 16th. Visit www.secretrivals.com Dreaming. Tickets, priced £12.50, are on sale now from the venue box show at the O2 Academy on for more news on the band. office. Saturday 17th December. They are THE HORRORS, meanwhile, have re-arranged their Academy joined for the night by Pet Moon, THE ORIGINAL RABBIT FOOT show for Thursday 19th January after their original date in October Sisterland and Motherhood as well SPASM BAND play a fundraising was postponed when singer Faris Badwan lost his voice. Tickets for as art contributions from Tinhead, show for Kingham Primary the original date remain valid. Valeska Hykel, Amy Honour and School’s music course this month. Charlotte Freeston. Tickets are £6 The course has previously been in advance from the Academy box funded by the annual Commotion office. Festival in the school grounds but feature on a cover-mounted CD sessions with local acts, gig Jonquil, who played at South By this year the event was with China’s SoRock! magazine next reviews, news and a weekly gig Southwest and CMJ earlier this incorporated into the far larger month, along with an interview with guide. The show is available to year, have recently signed to Co-op Harvest Festival, run by Big Wheel the band. Visit www.myspace.com/ download as a podcast all week at Records and will release a new on Alex James’ farm. Having put thegracefulslicks to hear the bbc.co.uk/oxford. album, ‘Point Of Go’, in February together one of the worst line-ups song. More local music news, as well as in conjunction with Blessing Force in festival history, including The interactive local gig and music Records. Feeling, The Kooks and DJ Sara FOLK IN OXFORD is a new reviews, photo galleries, podcasts Jonquil frontman Hugo Manuel, Cox, and attracting such delightful website dedicated to the local folk and interviews are also available meanwhile, has signed a record deal clientele as David Cameron and scene, covering everything from online at with Loose Lips in his Chad Jeremy Clarkson, Big Wheel went folk concerts to morris dancing, www.musicinoxford.co.uk. Valley guise. After a Far East tour, into administration, leaving celidhs, community choirs and Hugo headed off on a UK tour in Commotion, and many others, more. The site has been set up by FINALLY, a big Nightshift support of Friendly Fires unpaid. local folk singer Cat Kelly. Visit goodbye and good luck to Vicky throughout November. Visit The ORFSB will play at Chipping www.folkinoxford.co.uk. Walters, who is leaving her www.mayspace.com/hugomanuel Norton Town Hall on Friday 9th position as box office manager at for more details. December alongside folk singer DON’T FORGET to tune into the O2 Academy. Vicky was Krissy Matthews. Visit BBC Oxford Introducing every responsible for starting and running THE REGAL is set to become a www.commotionfestival.co.uk for Sunday evening between 9-10pm the Academy’s excellent Upstairs church from this month. Rumours tickets and more details. on 95.2fm. The dedicated local local bands showcases earlier this had been circulating around the music show plays the best Oxford year. We’re certain Vicky will miss local music scene for a couple of THE GRACEFUL SLICKS have releases and demos as well as those idyllic Wednesday nights months before it was confirmed at their song ‘Bul Bul Tarang’ featuring interviews and live working at Fuzzy Ducks. the beginning of November that the included on Custom Made Music’s Christian Life Centre would take autumn sampler album in the over the lease of the 1,700-capacity States this month. The local THE OXFORD GUITAR venue, which has recently hosted psychedelic garage rockers feature GALLERY in Summertown has shows by Stornoway, Imelda May alongside Bauhaus’ David J and closed down. The guitar shop, and Bellowhead. Peter Holmstrom from The Dandy jointly run by former-Sevenchurch The Regal’s owner, Niaz Ali, had Warhols. The same song will also axeman Dave Smart, shut its doors for the last time at the start of last month after eleven years trading, This issue of Nightshift is dedicated to the the shop, like so many other memory of Craig Allnutt independent retailers, suffering from declining sales. a quiet word with HE ELLAR AMILY T C F help of a couple of good live reviews and Demo Of The Month in Nightshift last year and the kind support of local people like Paul Carrera and Johnny Moto and Osprey and Penny at the Bullingdon spreading the word, we got a bit of

photo: Johnny Moto attention and quickly realised that moving here was a good decision.” Even if you haven’t seen or heard The Cellar Family yet, chances are you’ll have heard local promoters and other musicians name-checking them – always a good sign. Wherever they play they leave a lasting impression. Another indication of how much Oxford has taken to The Cellar Family came when they were picked to play the Blessing Force tent at Truck back in July. “Andrew [Mears] from Blessing Force emailed us out the blue. It’s was very cool of them, we weren’t expecting to be asked to play. To be honest, we don’t think our sound makes a lot of sense to the Blessing Force thing. I guess either someone recommended us and we were a last resort or they just figured we were “STYLE OF MUSIC DOESN’T all the dirt in the world under your else there who played instruments edgy enough. Either way, musical come into it; it’s bands that are fingernails. seriously so we didn’t really have a pleasings aside, it’s totally impressive shamelessly mimicking what they choice”), before moving to Oxford what the collective have done in assume will get their dicks sucked and BECAUSE, LET’S BE HONEST, last year. Nick and Sam actually live Oxford and there should be more make them millionaires instantly that The Cellar Family’s songs aren’t in the cellar of their house in east young people trying to do the same.” we hate. The only thing that matters songs you could take home to meet Oxford. is integrity and genuine heartfelt your parents. “There isn’t really a home-grown HAVING HEARD THE CELLAR energy in live shows. We don’t want Instead here are tales of serial killers, scene in Winchester,” they explain, Family’s first demo last October and to mention any bands that we sociopaths, cult leaders and voyeurs. “but lots of bands pass through, given it Demo Of The Month, particularly dislike because it’s Tales yelped, screamed, snarled and playing almost solely at The Railway Nightshift was keen to see the trio irrelevant.” eerily gurgled through the twisted where we were lucky enough to play live and ended up catching two shows skeletons and shrapnel of acutely with The Vibrators and The UK Subs, in a week, at the Bullingdon and the ANGER. LOATHING. DISGUST. angular hardcore noise, all sheet-metal which were pretty important gigs for Wheatsheaf. They were everything These are the things that drive The guitars and pulverising artillery beats. us and we received an enthusiastic we’d hoped for and more. There was a Cellar Family. Drive them to ever- There’s no juvenile revelling in shock response from the ageing crusty punk genuine feeling of tension about their greater highs of musical virulence. tactics here; instead songs like ‘Fritzl’, crowd and also from Charlie Parker. performance, as if none of them felt Drive them to react in the most ‘Secret Admirer’ and ‘Father Michael’ Still, due to the lack of a scene we comfortable in their own skin, as well visceral fashion to the posers and immerse themselves in a level of ended up playing mostly in London.” as a cathartic zeal about the songs they pretenders who would try and use humanity most of us are lucky enough The Cellar Family aren’t the first were feverishly kicking out. music simply as a tool to climb an not to have ever encountered. band to move to Oxford because of NICK: “On the best nights that’s imagined career ladder. The band’s latest EP, ‘Flab’, features its vibrant, supportive music scene, definitely the case but then on bad seven tightly-wound splenetic salvos but we wonder how the trio found nights I can sometimes feel like PLENTY OF BANDS CALL of blissful punk noise that fuse, weld their way here. something hasn’t been completed. themselves punk. A few of them even or simply crunch together elements “Sam is originally from Oxford. We Playing live is just a good release of sound like they might have a passing of The Pixies, Fugazi, Big Black, knew we wanted to make a go of it various tensions built up through the acquaintance with the idea of punk. A McLusky, At The Drive-In and Pere and the options were really London, week really. rare few look and sound and really Ubu. It makes our heart beat faster, Oxford, Brighton or Bristol. The JAMIE: “I agree; after a few songs I feel like the spirit of punk, whether makes our feet want to dance dervish- latter two were never really options don’t really know what I’m doing they even recognise the term as like and makes us want to throw though. We realised Oxford has a anymore. It’s a huge release; our applying to them or not. items of furniture through the really good scene with a strong style of music’s good for that.” The Cellar Family are one of that window. It’s music that makes you community ethic. It’s really good for SAM: “I’ve been waiting to play rare breed. Here is a band who, on feel alive. young bands of any kind of music. We music like this all my life. I don’t their night, feel so taut, so uptight figured that our style and methods even think it’s cathartic enough yet you wonder how they don’t simply THE CELLAR FAMILY HAVE would be more appreciated here where but it will be. Every time we start a turn themselves inside out. A band been playing around the Oxford scene other towns may reject them.” gig I feel quite normal, usually whose shows we’ve been lucky for just over a year now, but the band You’ve been here over a year now; grumpy and then it all takes over enough to witness over the past have been together for three and a how have you found it? Have you and just escalates. I’m usually quite twelve months carry a palpable sense half years. Singer and guitarist Jamie been surprised by people’s reactions snappy and bad tempered when we of catharsis about them, that make Harris, bassist Sam Good and drummer to the band? come off stage, something weird you come away from the venue Nick Reading met and formed the “It wasn’t that easy to get gigs in the happens.” cleansed and invigorated, while band together at art college in beginning. We weren’t expecting it to A lot of Jamie’s lyrics deal with simultaneously feeling like you’ve got Winchester (“There wasn’t anyone be easy, though. Gradually with the serial killers or sociopaths or weirdos – from Fred West to Joseph Fritzl Great idea for a video though. to the anonymous voyeuristic protagonist of One of the most striking things about The ‘Secret Admirer’. Is there a genuine interest Cellar Family’s sound is how Jamie’s voice in those sort of characters? can switch in style and pitch mid-song, most “There is a genuine interest but the interest notably on ‘Father Michael’; it’s quite is more about the darkness in the subject unnerving when you first hear it, like an matter; obviously no one is trying be some intensely creepy child. Did he grow up doing kind of voice for serial killers and paedos. strange voices or is it something that’s Whether or not it’s going to be a recurring developed while in the band? theme in the lyrics is quite unpredictable, as “I watched programmes such as Reeves & from song to song the subject matter can Mortimer and The League Of Gentlemen come from anywhere. I never really make a from an early age, and absorbed that conscious effort to include serial killers or particular style of humour. The way it has whoever in the song, it’s just an organic found its way into our music has always been process.” inevitable.” To what extent are songs like ‘Secret Admirer’ just storytelling and to what extent ANYONE WHO HAS WITNESSED THE do you identify with the characters you’re musical storm that is The Cellar Family live often singing from the point of view of? will have heard the band playing the “I suppose I like the idea of a hopeless occasional cover of cult 80s rockers The weirdo singing one of those classic 50s-style Screaming Blue Messiahs, another band with stories that’s about an unattainable woman, a taut, primal approach to their music. Such gazing at her from afar. The way we play it is affection for the Messiahs started early for in an obviously brash and psychotic format Jamie, since his dad Kenny was drummer in that puts our own twist on it, but I can’t the band. We wonder what it was like really say I can relate to that character in growing up with a dad in a pretty successful any way. I have a girlfriend of two years and band and how much he influenced Jamie’s to be honest I can’t remember the last time I music making? 876084 obsessed over an unattainable woman.” “Well, I didn’t really fathom how good the ‘Father Michael’ in particular has grabbed Messiahs were until I was a teenager, even people’s imagination. though I knew he was in a band from a “That song is based on a documentary we young age. In fact, only in the last three or saw on Channel 4 about a cult leader who told four years have they become a major Records, CDs and his followers that he knew when the world influence, but my dad and, for that matter was gonna end and used his status as cult mum, have always been a massive influence DVD Fair leader to sleep with most of the female on what I listen to. Put it this way, they members, including his son’s wife. We just were the first to show me The Prodigy when thought it was pretty fucked up and pretty I was about six years old, and I’ve been a fan SATURDAY 21st January cool to write a song about. It seems to stand since.” out for a lot of people, although the way we Is your dad a fan of your SBM covers? 10.30am-3.30pm see it we’ve been playing it for two years and “We’ve done two now and he has always ROCK-POP-DANCE-GOLDEN OLDIES-INDIE- compared to the direction we have been been impressed by the fact that we try to SOUL-TECHNO-HIP-HOP-JAZZ-LATIN-REGGAE- going in the time since then in songwriting or make them our own. Since the beginning DRUM&BASS-GARAGE—R&B-DISCO-1950s- structural terms it’s pretty straightforward.” he’s always been majorly supportive.” 2000s. Brand new back catalogue CDs £4 - £7 One review suggested there was a strong sense of disgust running through your songs. THINGS, THEN, ARE LOOKING VERY “Yes. Obviously we don’t sing about these good for The Cellar Family right now. When things because we think it’s cute.” they first started gigging in Oxford they had to wheel their equipment to gigs in a IN NIGHTSHIFT’S INTRODUCING knackered old shopping trolley they feature on The Cellar Family earlier in the christened Old Mary. No longer, it seems… year, they stated that that part of their “No. Mary is probably still rotting in the driving force was a reaction against image- garden of our former smelly house. She has obsessed indie bands, but which particular been replaced by a slick and sturdy sack bands are a positive influence on them? truck called Slick Ernest. He’s orange. Mary “In terms of positive influences, we all have will always be with us in our hearts and our a stupidly diverse taste. Sometimes we listen memories, though. She features on the cover to the same stuff, sometimes we totally of `Flab’, wearing her favourite shoes.” disagree. Right now, between us we’re Something that has been nagging away at us listening to Cerebral Ballzy, Jay Reatard, since we first interviewed the band for their Charles Bradley, Neil Young and dark, future Introducing piece though is an answer they drum&bass.” gave to their career low so far. A gig in The Cellar Family’s earliest songs, which we Southampton apparently, which featured a heard on that first demo, were more topless student perpetually rowing on a straightforward punk, while the material rowing machine, and a first ever band most Oxford fans will know them for is far interview in which they were asked which more angular and strung-out; do they feel type of sandwich they would be. So…. Cellar there’s been a gradual evolution of your Family, if you were a sandwich, what sort of sound or was there some epiphany? sandwich would you be? “Definitely a gradual evolution; it just “Fuck Off.” organically and naturally developed over Excellent. That is the correct punk rock three and a half years of playing and living answer. together until it just sounded like the Cellar Family. It’s not like a narwhal-riding Moses ‘The Cellar Family play at the Wheatsheaf appeared to us in a collective dream declaring on Friday 16th December as part of the that the future of music is angular, not Winter Warmer, and at the Bullingdon on curved.” Thursday 22nd with The Relationships. TRACKS OF OUR YEAR 2011 was the year that Jon Spira’s film Anyone Can Play Guitar immortalised Oxford’s music scene and showed how it formed and grew and helped nurture some of the best bands on the planet. It’s also been a year that proves how well that scene continues to flourish and throw up so much fantastic music. Compiling Nightshift’s end-of-year Top 25 has always been fun, but lately it’s become increasingly difficult to fit everything we love in, even as we limit each act to a single song. A dozen or so acts could feel justifiably aggrieved not to feature here, but we gotta draw a line somewhere and 25 felt like a suitably arbitrary number. RADIOHEAD’s sublime ‘Lotus Flower’ is their fourth table-topping achievement since we started doing this almost twenty years ago and confirms their standing as the greatest band Oxford has ever produced, while the fact they pipped FIXERS by a mere couple of votes from the Nightshift scribes shows just how exciting their future is. Anyway, enough waffling. Here it is, Nightshift’s essential guide to the best of the best in 2011. Makes you proud to be part of something so special, don’t it?

The Beach Boys reincarnated as a Their last album, ‘Potential’, released post-punk electro-pop band. Better on Xtra Mile, the same label as Mr known for their characteristically Turner, was a timely reminder. caustic lyricism and artfully angular Traditionally at their best when musical approach, with `Ornaments…’ kicking it out fast and furious, ‘Ape and `Glasshouse’ in particular, Young Like Me’ proved that Dive Dive can Knives proved that pure, unadulterated do slower and more sensitive just as pop suits them just fine. Joyous. well, Jamie Stuart’s cracked, plaintive voice wrenching more emotion out of three and a half minutes than you’ll 4. THE CELLAR hear in an entire series of X-Factor. FAMILY: ‘Father Michael’ 7. SPRING The Cellar Family spent the year OFFENSIVE: proving they weren’t just here for the nasty things in life. Oh hang on, yes ‘A Stutter & A Start’ they were. Whether it was serial While Youthmovies’ influence killers or creepy voyeurs they knew continues to cast a long shadow over how to get to the heart of the beast Oxford music (and beyond), Spring with angular severity. This, though, Offensive are the band who have was the monstrous, bulldozing done most to take that influence and highlight of the band’s cathartic move it into somewhere new. After shows, a tightly-wound, splenetic the thirteen-minute conceptual single exploration of a doomsday cult leader that was ‘The First Of Many Dreams with a thing for shagging his disciples. About Monsters’, ‘A Stutter & A From the malevolent lead riff to Start’ found them back in poppier 1. RADIOHEAD: ‘Lotus Flower’ Jamie Harris’ creepy kid vocals territory (even supporting The Go! halfway through, it was a fantastically Team), dinking like a diminutive Recent Radiohead albums – ‘Hail To The Thief’ and ‘In Rainbows’ in serrated reminder of how invigorating winger through a static back four particular – have been fantastically cohesive pieces of work from which it punk rock can be when it’s done with before nonchalantly placing the ball was difficult to pick out stand-out tracks, else they lost their context. real attitude. in the top corner while appearing to Ironically it was arguably the band’s most uneven album to date, ‘King Of make no real effort at all. Lucas Limbs’, that produced one of their greatest single tracks. Forget the 5. CHAD VALLEY: Whitworth’s voice similarly conveys decidedly unnerving video of a bowler-hatted Thom Yorke attempting to fraught emotions while forever dance like a loon, ‘Lotus Flower’ is as intricate, delicate and near-perfect as ‘Now That I’m Real’ sounding like he doesn’t care two its title would suggest. Thom’s voice hovers over the shifting guitar and By stark contrast to Cellar Family’s hoots. Making great music sound synth textures with the grace of Muhammad Ali reincarnated as a humming excoriating musical surgery, Chad effortless is a rare talent indeed. bird. You feel if you could reach out and touch the song it would crumble to Valley was blissed out in some Ibiza dust in your fingers, but sit back and let it wash through you and it’s power is beach café at sunrise, residual pot simply staggering. 8. LITTLE FISH: confusion informing Hugo Manuel’s soft-focus, gently euphoric blending ‘Wonderful’ enough developed its own gravity. A of 80s pop and chilled 90s house. A year of no little upheaval for our 2. FIXERS: Latin-American-flavoured electro ‘Now That I’m Real’ opened July’s fishy friends as they were cast adrift ‘Swimmhaus bastardisation of ‘The Final ‘Equatorial Ultravox’ EP, although it from their record label, seemed to Countdown’ shouldn’t sound so was Kraftwerk and Ryuichi settle into their permanent three- Johannesburg’ magnificent. But it bloody well did. Sakamoto more than Ultravox that piece formation before drummer Nez ‘Iron Deer Dream’; ‘Crystals’; informed this shimmy through left the band. Somehow in between ‘Majesties Ranch’: Fixers littered 3. YOUNG KNIVES: ‘Trans-Europe Express’-style that they managed to record a new 2011 with exuberant psychedelic grooving, middle-eastern motifs album with Gaz Coombes – set for pop gems, each of which was good ‘Glasshouse’ mottling the sleek lines, leaving release next year – write a book enough to top most Best Of Lists, “She’s my daughter, she’s the apple everyone in the vicinity with a smile about their experiences in the music but it was ‘Swimmhaus Johannesburg’ of my eye / Hear her laughter, fills on their face and a sudden craving industry (pledge online, folks) and that so many people went for. Partly me up like shepherd’s pie.” Just one for pizza and chocolate biscuits. release this new single, accompanied because it demonstrated just how reason to love this closing number by one of the cutest videos we’ve brilliantly unpredictable Fixers could from Young Knives’ `Ornaments 6. DIVE DIVE: seen in a long old while. Nothing, it be, as they momentarily ditched the From The Silver Arcade’ album seems, can stop Juju writing awesome lysergic partying and cooked up a unreservedly. Others might include its ‘Ape Like Me’ pop songs, while her voice is now so magnificent J-pop anthem, and insanely catchy “Ba ba ba ba ba” Given that three quarters of the band powerful there’s an entire partly because it managed to be both chorus, a lyrical shout out to hornbills seem to spend more time on tour as government department cheesy to an almost criminal degree and a gleefully bullish sense of Frank Turner’s band, it’s easy to forget investigating if it can be used as a and so HUGE as a song, it near purpose that makes them sound like just how bloody great Dive Dive are. source of renewable energy. 9. THE ROCK OF Crack In Paradise’ sounded, between them chanted bleak, haunted skill set that most others could merely incorporating ska, pop, even acid mantras like some demonic twin sister standby and gawp at. Lee Luland is fast TRAVOLTA: ‘Last house, into its central reggae stylings, of Linda Blair from The Exorcist, earning a reputation as a fretmaster running a whole gamut of emotions, Undersmile’s slo-mo metallic hardcore par excellence, while singer Matt March of the Acolytes’ from joyous positivity to politically- harked back to classic Swans or Winchester’s heroic, soaring voice Over a decade on from their charged anger to contemplation and Melvins and sounded simply could fill stadiums all on its own. This inception, The Rock Of Travolta’s resignation. This militant highlight of unstoppable. eight-minute pocket opera of a song elegant brutality remains a thing of the album fused hip hop and 70s soul blended convoluted prog with full-on wonder. ‘Fine Lines’, their first into the dominant dub, raging against 18. THE ORIGINAL brutal riffage, blending Dream album since 2003’ ‘Uluru’, found government austerity somewhere Theatre, Opeth, Meshuggah and Rush their searing fusion of powering between Culture and Stevie Wonder. RABBIT FOOT into a titanic whole. electronica, classical structures and SPASM BAND: pure rock bombast unbowed, this 14. DEAD 22. GUNNING FOR stand-out piece suggesting someone ‘Grandpa’s Shed’ in Hollywood’s missing a trick not JERICHOS: If it’s a good time you want, a few TAMAR: ‘Bonfires’ getting them to soundtrack billion- Relentless gigging has honed G4Tinto dollar budget sci-fi battle scenes. ‘Please Yourself’ drinks, a bloody good dance and, hey, why not, a few more drinks, then The a tightly-wound fighting unit with a Going into the studio with former-Test surprisingly melodic core, best Icicles man Rory Atwell proved as Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band are 10. UTE: ‘The your men. Trilbies, cheap suits, big exemplified by this track from their fruitful as you’d hope for Dead early summer ‘Deaf Cow Motel’ EP, Innocent Tailor’ Jerichos who built on last year’s horn flourishes and a Fats Domino-led fiesta, all add up to a serious period- an almost folky, Idlewild-like feel A band who started the year staking a ‘Mountains’ debut with this wiry, invading their spangly math-rock laddish updating on early Cure, all piece party vibe that, as debut album claim to the throne of Oxford’s ‘Year Of The Rabbit’ showed, they motifs, displaying a lighter side to brightest new pop hope but ended it twinkling, reverb-heavy guitars and their riff-heavy Biffy-inspired post- Craig Evans’ set-jaw proclamations. could do just as well on record as on splitting up. Ute’s ‘Gambler’ EP back stage. Because, seriously, you can grunge rocking. A precision balancing in January featured this drunken, Atwell swept away the clutter and act between power and prettiness that punk raucousness of the band’s live drink and dance as easily at home as almost vaudevillian waltz full of you can down at your local speakeasy. they pull off with a deft touch. murderous intent, staggering from one sound to reveal the surprisingly fleet- whisky bar to the next, its arms round footed pop band beneath. 23. UNEEK feat. Radiohead and Grinderman’s shoulders 19. COLOUREDS: at it lived out its wracked revenge 15. THE WINCHELL ‘Tom Hanks’ SILECTA: ‘Soul fantasies like an old blues lament stuck in Purgatory’s waiting room. RIOTS: ‘Undertows’ A spasming old-school rave tune with Destroyer’ Like Ute, The Winchell Riots left us an extreme case of ADHD. Played by The late, great Kate Garrett’s lasting 11. TROPHY WIFE: before they could fulfil their seemingly Cybermen. Inside the darkest corner legacy in Oxford is The Young limitless potential. Here was a band of Donna Summer’s brain. In the Women’s Music Project, from where ‘Wolf’ seemingly intent on writing the biggest future. Probably. How else to describe teenage rapper Uneek emerged to nab Coloured’s singularly distracted the Nightshift Demo Of The Month On their ‘Bruxism’ EP, Trophy Wife songs in the world, albeit big songs approach to dance music? With ‘Tom title back in February, displaying an sounded less like they were lying with an almost angelic sense of grace. Hanks’ Matt Mooney and Nick easy flow in her giddy, skittish awake at night grinding their teeth, On this highlight from their ‘Figure 8s Brewer went fully head on with their delivery, backed with squelchy electro more like they were somnambulating EP’ Phil McMinn’s limpid falsetto is love for classic disco, performing back-up. Trading rhymes with the through some hazy dreamspace as clear and fragile as glass, twinkling some form of strange surgery on its likes of Asher Dust and, as on this between sleep and waking. ‘Wolf’ in guitars eventually exploding into a hapless body before kicking it demo highlight, Silecta, she carried particular from the EP – produced by torrent of crystalline noise at the twitching and short-circuiting onto the some serious bite, not to say some Yannis Phillipakis – came with a song’s climax. They may be gone but they’ve left us with some damn near dancefloor. The resulting spectacle was serious hooks. sense of foreboding that lurked at the as unsettling as it was thrilling. edges of its blissed-out reverie, like perfect musical memories to keep. fleeting glimpses of ghosts. Fragile 24. RICHARD and slightly eerie, just as we like it. 16. BORDERVILLE: 20. THE HALF WALTERS: RABBITS: ‘Poor 12. JONQUIL: ‘The Human Way’ ‘Mattress Fire’ Having dealt with life, work and death Me/Poor You’ Richard’s `Pacing’ album may have ‘Fighting Smiles’ in 2009’s ‘Joy Through Work’, The Half Rabbits titled their latest been over-egged in parts but when he Always difficult to pin down, with Borderville created another epic EP ‘The Optimist’ with an obvious stripped the production back on tracks their last mini-album, ‘One Hundred concept album, based on Kafka’s eye on irony. Unless of course you like `Mattress Fire’, he revealed the Suns’, Jonquil nutmegged everyone’s ‘Metamorphosis’, following the find optimism in songs that tundra-cold magic he’s always been expectations once again, going proper novella’s unfortunate protagonist document various apocalyptic capable of, a characteristically desolate tropical and hi-life, bleached-out Gregor Samsa from his awakening as a scenarios, ‘Poor Me/Poor You’ ode to lost love metaphorically psychedelia and sea shanties cast aside giant insect to an inevitably low and examining the fall-out from war recounted as a house fire. Crack open in favour of high-end township guitars, unclean death. ‘The Human Way’ was over a Killing Joke-style industrial the whisky and chuck another log on sunbeam synths and Hugo Manuel’s the album’s darkest hour: pensive, stomp, Michael Weatherburn’s the fire, eh? reverb-drenched, blissed-out falsetto. churning riffs and a brilliantly theatrical vocal delivery suggesting ‘Fighting Smiles’ sounded like a beach understated central hook giving the he could recite his shopping list and 25. THE party hosted by Animal Collective but bleak, squalling centre-point of the make it sound like The Book Of gatecrashed by Vampire Weekend, album a bizarrely uplifting feel. Revelations. The Half Rabbits don’t GOGGENHEIM: everyone present too merrily do understatement, but then, given ‘Ah Sabina’ intoxicated on acid and coconut-based their subject matter, how could they? 17. UNDERSMILE: Referencing acts as strange and cocktails to care what time it is. diverse as The Residents, Renaldo & ‘Crab People’ 21. PROSPEKT: The Loaf, The Slits and This Heat, 13. DUBWISER: Moving things along at almost The Goggenheim were a joyously tectonic pace, Undersmile were, from ‘Shroud’ deranged breath of fresh air, utterly ‘Power Up’ a certain angle, brutality incarnate. While Oxford’s metal scene continued unlike anything else in town or some Twenty years after they formed, the Relentless galley slave beats, riffs so to flourish this year, few local bands distance beyond. A shiny, plastic local reggae godfathers got round to coated in tar they could pollute entire managed to release anything. Prospekt space-cake disco in Siouxsie Sioux’s releasing their debut album. Given that oceans, and fronted by duel vocalists were ahead of the pack both in putting wildest dreams, `Ah Sabina’ was, in a fact it was amazing just how fresh ‘A Hel Sterne and Taz Corona who out an epic debut EP, and in having a word, mental. Sponsored by RELEASED FIXERS CROZER BROTHERS ‘Imperial Goddess Of ‘Christmas Time Again’ (Own label) Mercy’ Mark Crozer is best known as guitarist in The Jesus (Vertigo) & Mary Chain as well as, alongside brother Paul, And then, when you think Fixers can’t surprise part of the now defunct International Jetsetters. you any more or improve on what they just did, Here the brothers try to resurrect an imagined they bloody well go and do it anyway. halcyon day for Christmas records, possibly The band’s show at Truck Festival back in July forgetting that Christmas records have always been was a phenomenal spectacle, a euphoric mostly bilge of the lowest order. This, however, is celebration of musical invention, madness and really quite lovely, like My Bloody Valentine pure pop pleasure. ‘Majesties Ranch’, the lead waking up on Christmas morning to discover track on this five-track EP, feels like an Santa’s brought them a shiny deluxe Beach Boys encapsulation of all of that, a vast slab of party boxset and a set of sleighbells and setting out to pop, a planet-sized anthem constructed from prove they have a sweet, sugar-coated side. It’s a euphoric, chanted vocals, alternately twinkling wonderfully pure piece of snow-pure guitar pop and searing synths, monster beats, tambourine the Japanese national orchestra to compose that’s wide-eyed and completely irony free. And, and, well, just about everything else the band theme tunes for imaginary kids cartoon shows, like snow, it’s melted away to nothing too soon. could get their hands on. Throw it in the blender, before spiralling in on themselves with the loop- Sledge-gazing, anyone? make it dance and see what happens. If you’re crazy ‘Divorce’, only returning to their more Dale Kattack not leaping about the room drunk on life and standard Beach Boys-go-raving ‘Trans Love’ at planning a trip to Saturn by the end of it, you’re the very end. not coming round our place for Christmas and If you’re in any doubt whatsoever that Fixers are ALPHABET that’s final. the most exciting band to emerge from Oxford, Of course Fixers are contrary on an epic scale, so and far beyond, in the past couple of years, BACKWARDS they follow such a pop treasure with ‘Selinah’, a ‘Imperial Goddess Of Mercy’ is just another glowering, disorientating clutter of disembodied irrefutable piece of evidence against your musical ‘British Explorer EP’ voices, gloomy, staccato beats and clanging taste and your sanity. Stick it at the top of your (Highline) electronics, and then ‘Evil Carbs’, a monstrous Christmas list today and enjoy it with copious It’s increasingly difficult to listen to an Alphabet electro dream-pop stomp that sounds like Ryuichi Christmas crackers and champagne. You deserve it. Backwards song without wanting to give singer Sakamoto dropping a couple of E’s and forcing Dale Kattack James Hitchman a big hug and tell him everything’s going to be okay. Not that he ever seems like things are getting him down, however LISTING SHIPS DEER CHICAGO often he sings his sweet, plaintive pop songs about heartbreak and that old staple of seeing an ex- ‘The 100 Gun Ship’ ‘Lantern Collapse’ / girlfriend out and about with a new partner. No, he’s like a bush baby, wide-eyed with wonder at (ASC) `Rolling Of The Ocean even the most mundane minutiae of the world, Although they describe themselves as post-rock, never quite letting it get him so down he can’t lope Listing Ships frequently share more in common (Own label) along the street surrounded by warm, bubbling with The Rock Of Travolta’s decidedly rockist With the demise of The Winchell Riots Oxford synths. Right up to the point he mentions tendencies. No bad thing really when the power they lost a band of heroically epic scope, one who erections and you cough nervously and suggest he generate across this debut album is so tangible. adhered to the “cathedrals of sound” ethos and takes up internet dating. Lead track ‘Big Top’ here Opener ‘The 100 Gun Ship’ is a scowling electro- seemingly wanted to make music that was bigger is an old-fashioned honey-dipped summer love heavy dirge, riding on an undulating metallic bass than any venue that could house them. Anyone song seemingly infused with an almost pathological line, textured guitars and discreetly menacing synths missing The Winchell Riots though, should naivety, like Noah & the Whale’s glorious ‘Five working together towards an explosive crescendo immediately check out Deer Chicago, a band Years Time’. You could stick it on the top of your that cries out for the biggest rock stage to make its that’s been lurking around the opening slot Christmas tree maybe and fill the whole house with presence best felt. Similarly the elegantly beastly section of the local live circuit for a year or so love, love love. Alphabet Backwards make fools of ‘Equus Ager’, a guitar storm with pockets of quiet now but whose debut single should by rights launch cynics the world over. contemplation to catch your breath. them to a higher standing. Dale Kattack Perhaps the one thing we’d hope for from Listing ‘Lantern Collapse’ is self-consciously grandiose, Ships is to occasionally ditch the pretty or more reaching escape velocity at that point where Ride pensive moments and simply ride one of their and Slowdive meet My Morning Jacket, all great all-consuming grooves for a solid ten minutes shimmering guitars that snowball – or fireball if until brain matter starts to seep out of our ears. you’d prefer – into a turbulent plateau of sky- ‘Melusine Romance’ is a case in point, sounding touching/shoegazing noise, waiting til you think it too ponderous despite its obvious muscle. By can’t get any more epic before becoming, well, contrast ‘Skipper’s Daughter’ is glorious when it more epic. It could easily be bombastic and hits full steam, an unstoppable outpouring of sonic overwrought but instead it’s elegant and majestic. weaponry worthy of the battleships which lend this B-side ‘Rolling Of The ocean’ would, in normal EP its title. circumstances, be an impressive slice of oceanic To be honest the term post-rock does Listing indie rocking but, despite clocking in a good Ships no justice since, these days, it suggests minute longer than ‘Lantern Collapse’, it can’t indulgent showboating, whereas this album, at its match it for all-consuming splendour, good, best, is too busy trying to start a war to bother with rather than great. But never mind that, this is one pretty pattern making. hell of a debut single. Victoria Waterfield Dale Kattack

gig guide

THURSDAY 1st Tremain. The band have been in the studio recording the follow-up to 2008’s ‘Animals’ album. CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford DECEMBER NICK HARPER + SIMON BATTEN: O2 Community Centre – Having celebrated its Academy – The acoustic guitar virtuoso and seventeenth anniversary last month, Catweazle FRIDAY 2nd political folk singer returns to action after a brief remains Oxford’s finest open mic club, showcasing hiatus, touring his latest album, ‘The Last Guitar’, singers, musicians, poets and storytellers every WIRE + TALK NORMAL: O2 Academy – The having made his name first as a member of his dad, week. punk-era innovators return to town – see main Roy’s band, before collaborating with Glenn WORDPLAY: The Cellar – Hip hop and dubstep preview Tilbrook and The Levellers, among others. club night with residents Geenee and Kid Fury and FIONN REGAN: St. Barnabas Church – Dark- SHARRON KRAUS + FURSAXA: China Shop tonight featuring a live set from Ohio’s Stalley, hearted folk-pop from the Irish troubadour – see Gallery, St Mary’s Road – Oxford cult folk signed to Rock Ross’s MMG label and over in the main preview heroine Sharron Kraus returns home for her first UK for a short tour in support of his new album KLUB KAKOFANNEY with THE FAMILY local show in a long while, playing songs from her ‘Lincoln Way Nights’. MACHINE + BLACK HATS + PANTHEIST: The most recent album, ‘Woody Nightshade’, fusing PARASITIC EARTH + HAUNTED Wheatsheaf – Great mixed bill at this month’s ancient English and Appalachian folk styles into a TRANQUILITY: The Hobgoblin, Bicester – Klub Kak, with local faves The Family Machine wonderfully gothic whole. She’s joined by ATP Jambox metal night. adding their wry, lachrymose indie-pop to Black signing Fursaxa – aka Tara Burke – from SHATTERED DREAMS + THOM MUDDLE + Hats’ Who and Jam-inspired power-pop and Pennsylvania, whose haunting, atmospheric RYAN MITCHELL & JOEY COHEN + KARL & Finland’s dissonant, mournful funeral-metallers alt.folk has seen her collaborating with members of SAM: The Wheatsheaf, Banbury – Jambox Panthiest. Espers. acoustic night with punk-popsters Shattered JUNE + THE GRACEFUL SLICKS + SIMPLE: The Bullingdon – After pulling a coup Dreams playing an unplugged set. SHATTERED DREAMS + MILLION FACES: with Claude Vonstroke last month, house and OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half Moon The Bullingdon – It’s All About The Music local electro club night Simple welcomes Bristol’s bass- bands night with indie rockers June; psychedelic driven producer Julio Bashmore, who himself Friday 2nd garage rockers The Graceful Slicks and feisty punk released his debut EP on Vonstroke’s pioneering and grunge types Shattered Dreams. Dirtybird label. FIONN REGAN: PHIL KLINE’S UNSILENT NIGHT: Radcliffe DENNIS ROLLINS’ VELOCITY TRIO: Old Square et al – Oxford Contemporary Music Fire Station – Exuberant, funky and visceral jazz St. Barnabas Church reprise last year’s revelatory musical tour of from trombonist Rollins, who has played with The grand, ornate setting of St Barnabas Oxford landmarks to the accompaniment of Phil Courtney Pine, Blur and funk master Maceo Church is made for a singer like Fionn Regan. Kline’s ‘Unsilent Night’ piece. Anyone can join the Parker, alongside Hammond player Ross Stanley The folk-pop troubadour from County tour for free, but you’ll need to bring your own and drummer Pedro Segundo at tonight’s Oxford Wicklow’s songs are too tender to get music player along – ghetto blaster, laptop or Contemporary Music concert at the newly- swallowed up by the chatter and beer-sodden whatever you prefer. Call 01865 488369 to find reopened Old Fire Station. stickiness of your typical gig venue. Here’s out how to join in. ALAMAKOTA: The Wheatsheaf – Local funk- where his literate folk tales of dangerous SKYLARKIN SOUNDSYSTEM: The Cellar – rockers. women, forests and horses can best blossom, Count Skylarkin’s monthly celebration of all things OXFORD IMPROVISERS’ NEW MOVES, though what the parishioners might make of reggae, dancehall and hip hop, tonight featuring a NEW SOUNDS: The Pegasus Theatre – Oxford his allusions to al fresco sex on new album live set from Leeds’ East Park Reggae Collective, Improvisers celebrate their tenth anniversary ‘100 Acres Of Sycamore’ is anybody’s guess. co-founded by Gentlemen’s Dub Club and Cohesion Festival with a series of workshops and Having emerged six years back with stark, Submotion Orchestra chap Tommy Evans, an open session for regulars and prospective imps, Mercury-shortlisted debut album ‘The End Of plugging their newly-released debut album, ‘Three followed by a special concert from African History’, Regan’s lost boy dusky romanticism Stripe Science’. They’re joined by reggae remix Musicians Tunde Jegede, Hafeez Al-Karrar and has made him, if hardly a household name, institution and Outlook Festival mainstay DJ Jstar Ahmed Abdul Rahman, alongside OI regulars. then at least a cult favourite: critical favour as well as The Count himself. PHIL McMINN + THE HALF RABBITS + GERT has come from the States as well as the UK CARETAKER + KOMRAD + ECONO: The LASSITUDE: Phoenix Picturehouse – Free and Ireland and his list of celebrity fans Port Mahon – Seriously ‘eavy noise with show in the Phoenix’s upstairs bar, featuring includes Ellie Goulding and actor Rhys Ifans. Hampshire’s abrasive alt.rockers coming on like Winchell Riots frontman Phil playing his first solo Having moved into more electric territory for The God Machine at times. Progressive hardcore set since his band bowed out last month. He’s second album ‘Shadow Of An Empire’, Regan’s somewhere twixt Dillinger Escape Plan and King joined by goth-tinged indie rockers The Half latest opus finds him back in more Crimson from the mighty Komrad. Rabbits. comfortable acoustic terrain, mining a rich FUNKY FRIDAY: The Bullingdon – Classic GLAMNATION: Fat Lil’s, Witney – 70s glam- seam of dewy-eyed nostalgia, tinged with funk, soul and r’n’b every Friday. rock hits. enough menace to keep him very much at the WHO DO YOU LOVE?: The Duke, St. THE MIGHTY REDOX + FILM NOIR: The darker end of the folk-pop spectrum. Clement’s – Alt.rock, 60s garage, soul, new wave, Chester Arms – Swampy blues rocking and funk punk, surf and eletro-pop DJ session with Jim, Jen from The Mighty Redox, plus old school indie and Grizilla. rocking from Film Noir. GENERALS & MAJORS + MONTANA GOLD THE OLD GRINDING YOUNG + TOLIESEL + + YELLOW FEVER: The Swan, Wantage – THE COWLEY DRUMMING GROUP: Fusion Local rock bands showcase night. Arts Centre – Cooling Pearls’ Aiden Canaday curates an evening of live music and arts, with sets rd SATURDAY 3 from shoegazy indie types ToLiesel and the old THIS TOWN NEEDS GUNS: The Jericho Grinding Young, who we tried to find out some Tavern – The local melodic math-rock faves play more about but came up against some particularly, their first hometown show in some time, fresh not-suitable-for-work websites. from a tour of Australia and having said goodbye to NICO’S ALCHEMY: The Swan, Wantage – founding member and singer Stuart Smith, whose Blues and psychedelic rock from the Italian place in the band has been taken by Henry guitarist and band. PROPAGANDA + TRASHY + ROOM 101: O2 and Fairport-inspired folk-rock outfit Flight Academy – Weekly three-clubs-in-one Brigade; Brooklyn’s Chris Ayer, who previously extravaganza, with classic and new indie at won the folk award at the John Lennon Propaganda; kitsch pop and guilty pleasures at Songwriting Awards, inspired by Paul Simon and Trashy and metal, hardcore and alt.rock at Room James Taylor among others, plus LA’s playfully 101. cosy folk-pop songstress Lelia Broussand. EXTRA CURRICULAR: The Cellar – Weekly WOLSBANE + NEVER A HERO: O2 Academy mix of house, breaks and beats. – Now fully reunited after Blaze Bayley’s stint as A TRUST UNCLEAN + KAIDAEKA + Iron Maiden frontman, the 80s metallers head off HAUNTED TRANQUILITY: The Wheatsheaf, on tour in support of forthcoming album, Banbury – Jambox rock and metal night. ‘Wolsbane Save The World’. PETE BAILEY + CALIS LANDING + OPIE SUNDAY 4th DEINO + RYAN MITCHELL + JOEY COHEN: ADAM BARNES + FLIGHT BRIGADE + The Hobgoblin, Bicester – Jambox acoustic CHRIS AYER + LELIA BROUSSAND + MATT session. SIMONS: The Jericho Tavern – Good mixed bag OPEN MIC SESSION: The Old Bookbinders of folk-leaning artists tonight with soulful local th troubadour Adam Barnes leading the line with his MONDAY 5 th th emotive balladeering, not far from Ed Sheeran at THE MARCUS BONFANTI BAND: The Wednesday 7 – Friday 9 times. Joining him is Hampshire’s Fleetwood Mac Bullingdon – Return to town for the rising star ROTUNDA SESSIONS: of the UK blues scene, the singer and guitarist having recently been nominated for two gongs at nd The Rotunda, Iffley Friday 2 the British Blues Awards, winning fans for his rich, earthy voice and versatile guitar playing that Village WIRE: O2 Academy ranges from Jimmy Page-inspired electric riffage to Having previously hosted pop-up restaurant After last year’s astonishing showing at the more considered acoustic folk and country picking. feasts and teamed up with club night Yoof! as Jericho Tavern as part of Audioscope Festival’s well as opening a permanent café on Magdalen tenth anniversary celebrations, Wire return to th TUESDAY 6 Road, Oxfork this month continue their love of town, and to a venue big enough to house all JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon – Free live jazz unusual venues by putting on three nights of those who missed out last time round. Wire every Tuesday, tonight featuring guests Alvin Roy shows in a former dolls house museum in Iffley emerged from punk’s revolution pool but were & Reeds Unlimited. Village in conjunction with the mighty fine always beyond the nihilistic rage of the Pistols OPEN MIC SESSION: The Port Mahon Beard Museum people. The cast of players over et al, and continued to mutate and innovate at SPARKY’S FLYING CIRCUS: James Street the three nights is mostly local but it’s a pretty every turn. The quartet’s opening gambit, Tavern – Weekly open mic club with Sparky, Hugh peerless cast nonetheless. On the Wednesday ‘Pink Flag’, had all the energy of punk but was McManners and guests. Young Knives make a rare foray into local more ambitious and eclectic than its gigging with a slightly stripped-down set; their contemporaries and over the next couple of th first Oxford show since Truck. The trio’s albums, ‘Chairs Missing’ and ‘154’, Wire WEDNESDAY 7 ‘Ornaments From The Silver Arcade’ earlier this became increasingly eclectic while keeping that SHATTERED DREAMS + ROBOTS WITH year proved they’ve not lost their way with a raw, stripped-down edge. Disbanding in 1980 SOULS + TRAPS + BALLS: The Wheatsheaf magic, twisted pop gem, while a supporting cast they reformed in the late-80s with a poppier – Moshka club night with pop-punkers Shattered of The Family Machine and Cat Matador sound for ‘A Bell Is A Cup (Until It Is Struck)’ Dreams kicking it out in the vein of Penetration provides a fine mixture of darkly-inclined but have become increasingly experimental and L7; support from Robots with Souls, the new melody and wry humour. On the Thursday night over the years, while original guitarist Bruce side-project from Steve from Phantom Theory, Richard Walters proves yet again he is Gilbert has now apparently departed for good. and local punk newcomers Traps and Balls. possessed of one of the finest, most stunningly Frontman Colin Newman, bassist Graham YOUNG KNIVES + THE FAMILY MACHINE + fragile voices ever to come out of Oxford as Lewis and drummer Robert Gotobed still remain CAT MATADOR: The Rotunda, Iffley - First well as a skill with a tragic, romantic ballad that from the original line-up though and if you can of Beard Museum’s shows in the former- has few equals. Ambient chamber-pop ensemble judge a band on those they inspired, Wire have Dollshouse museum - see main preview Message To Bears and singer-songwriter Ed few equals: REM, The Cure and The Manic PHAT SESSIONS: The Cellar – Full band open Laurie provide support. On the Friday it’s a Street Preachers are huge fans, while more jam session with The Phat Session Collective, first chance for local fans to see Gaz Coombes recently Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand and plus Kid Fury spinning a mix of funk, soul, hip in his post-Supergrass solo incarnation. He’s Futureheads have quoted them as a chief hop and house. currently recording his debut album with ‘I influence. Across the Atlantic Big Black and ACOUSTIC LOUNGE: Fat Lil’s, Witney Should Coco’ producer Sam Williams, due out Minor Threat took up arms after hearing Wire. WEDNESDAY BLUES: James Street Tavern next spring, and you’d hope for a handful of As ever, exactly how tonight’s show will pan out ‘Grass faves along the way. As an added bonus is anyone’s guess; Wire are notoriously anti- th THURSDAY 8 Spring Offensive are the support, having nostalgia, though last year’s show found them DJ SHADOW: O2 Academy – The genre- staked their claim to be one of Oxford’s most revisiting ‘Pink Flag’, ‘Drill’, ‘Kidney Bingos’ splicing instrumental hip hop maestro plugs new th promising young bands of the year. and ‘The 15 ’ alongside tracks from their new album, ‘The Less You Know, The Better’ – see album, ‘Red Barked Tree’. Whatever they play, main preview here is a rare thing: a band that completely doesn’t take himself too seriously, even as he DOGS D’AMOUR + LUCKY STRIKES: O2 explores the dark nights of his soul. He’s also a defied catagorisation and still sound cutting edge Academy – The formerly hirsute glam-rockers even well into their fourth decade together. master of underplayed observational pop, almost keep on keeping on, frontman Tyla the only nabbing the Christmas number 1 spot back in 2007 remaining original, having employed a revolving with his wry, `We’re All Going To Die’ ditty. door attitude to bandmates over the years, the band Having threatened that 2009’s `Waxing Gibbious’ having reformed three times now and now set to might be his last offering, he’s back out on tour and release a re-recorded version of 1988’s ‘In The just in time to spread a little festive cheer. Dynamite Jet Saloon’. RICHARD WALTERS + MESSAGE TO MALCOLM MIDDLETON: The Jericho BEARS + ED LAURIE: The Rotunda, Iffley - Tavern – The former-Arab Strap chap returns with see main preview more of his joyous gloom. Having previously BLACK POWDER + NUCLEAR SKYLINE + described himself as “a fat child throwing a Casio COCAINE COWBOYS + THE BIG SOCIETY: keyboard down a flight of stairs and hitting an old The Bullingdon – Hardcore thrash-punk action man at the bottom who’s playing Verve songs from local behemoths Black Powder at tonight’s badly on an overpriced guitar,” it’s fair to say he It’s All About The Music show. CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford LIZ GREEN + BRICKWORK LIZARDS + THE Community Centre HOUND REELS: The Jericho Tavern – Raw, WORDPLAY: The Cellar – Hip hop and haunting 1930s-style jazz, blues and folk from dubstep. singer Liz Green at tonight’s Coo Promotions OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half Moon show, the former Glastonbury Emerging Talent competition winner sounding more like a pre-war FRIDAY 9th singer from the Deep South than a northern WARM DIGITS + THE WORKHOUSE + English lass, her voice regularly compared to Judy LISTING SHIPS: The Wheatsheaf – Garland, Karen Dalton and Jolie Holland, her new Krautrock-tastic journeys from Newcastle’s Warm album, ‘O Devotion’, a lesson in elegant Digits – see main preview spookiness. Great eclectic support from Brickwork THE SAW DOCTORS: O2 Academy – Return Lizards, combining elements of 1930s jazz, hip of the cult Irish folk-rockers after their headline hop and Arabic folk music, plus lo-fi alt.folk from set at this summer’s Cornbury Festival. former-Roundheels and Cargo Cult chap Nick Ruck GAZ COOMBES + SPRING OFFENSIVE: in his new Hound Reels incarnation. The Rotunda, Iffley - Gaz plays his first solo THE GUNS + FIVE MILES NORTH + THIEVES: show in the intimate and unusual Rotunda setting The Cellar – Welsh rockers The Guns head out - see main preview on tour to plug new album ‘Fuck The Demons BOOTLED ZEPPELIN: O2 Academy – Led Zep Outta Me’. Followed by beats, breaks and house tribute. club night Extracurricular. DRESSED TO KILL: Fat Lil’s, Witney – Kiss tribute band. Friday 9th X-UFO: The Bullingdon – Laurence Archer, th Thursday 8 Danny Peyronel and Clive Edwards from UFO, WARM DIGITS / alongside UFO offshoot band MSG’s Rocky DJ SHADOW: Newton kick out a selection of old UFO faves. LISTING SHIPS / THE PINDROP CHOIR + THE EPSTEIN + THE WORKHOUSE: O2 Academy MAT GIBSON: St. Michael’s at the Following up one of the most epoch-making Northgate – Pindrop hosts its Christmas party, The Wheatsheaf albums of the past two decades was never going getting more into the true spirit of the event than A simply stunning triple bill of (mostly) to be easy, but 15 years on from most with a performance from the excellent instrumental soundscaping at the Sheaf ‘Endtroducing’, DJ Shadow remains a musical Pindrop Choir, fronted by James Cunning from tonight for what is ostensibly Listing Ships’ perfectionist, and if not the scene leader he the Christchurch Singers, performing a set of EP launch gig, although the star turn is bound once was, still a talent others aspire to emulate. mediaeval carols and modern songs. They’re to be Newcastle’s Warm Digits. Duo Andrew ‘Endtroducing’ was the first wholly sampled joined by local alt.country rock faves The Hodson and Steve Jefferis’ recent debut album, album, a restless fusion of hip hop, funk, soul, Epstein and singer-songwriter Mat Gibson who ‘Keep Warm… With the Warm Digits’ is a ambient electronica, jazz and rock and probably has released his debut album, ‘Forest Fire’, on revelation, fusing the classic electronic created a dozen subsequent genres all by itself. Clubhouse Records earlier this year. krautrock of Neu! and Kraftwerk with Giorgio Having spent the intervening years BOSSAPHONIK: The Cellar – Balkan beats, Moroder’s gleaming disco and My Bloody collaborating with U.N.K.L.E, Cut Chemist and dancefloor Latin, world breaks and nu-jazz club Valentine’s snowstorm guitar assaults. Add in Dan The Automator, as well as creating his own night with a live set from Balkan brass band The some Silver Apples-style wild drumming and a solo work, the man born Josh Davis returned Balkanatics. little of Holy Fuck’s wild-eyed motorik with his fourth album, ‘The Less You Know, GRUDLE BAY + CAMENA + ARTHUR electronica and you’ve got a simply The Better’ last month, a similarly genre- SAWBRIDGE: The Port Mahon – Daisy astonishing band. Listing Ships should be able splicing effort that showed greater adherence to Rodgers Music night with ambient electro and to hold their own in such elite company mind, conventional song structures as well as longer chillwave from Grudle Bay, plus acoustic alt.pop their electro-heavy take on post-rock filled samples. From old skool hip hop to full-on from Camena and local songsmith Arthur with nautical references and capable of kicking metal, via dub, and featuring vocal Sawbridge utilising violin and loops to create his out some Dreadnought-heavy firepower, contributions from Tom Vek and Little intricate form of pop. partway between Billy Mahonie, Rodan and Dragon’s Yukimi Nagano, it has the feel of a FUNKY FRIDAY: The Bullingdon Holy Fuck. The Workhouse, meanwhile, now mixtape, but it’s with his recent live shows that LORD ‘AV MERCY: The Library – Roots, dub, settled in London after leading the field in he’s most impressed, using intricate light shows dancehall and bashment session. elegantly incendiary post-rock locally, remain and special effects to create a genuine spectacle CRY EXCESS + THE KAOS: The a band by whom all others must be judged. that goes well beyond what you’d expect from a Wheatsheaf, Banbury – Jambox rock night. DJ set. The man has still very much got it. C.U. TUESDAY: The Swan, Wantage THE PETE FRYER BAND: The Crown & Thistle, Abingdon SATURDAY 10th BURIED IN SMOKE’S CHRISTMAS ALL- DAYER: The Wheatsheaf (2pm) – Ten solid hours of molten metal to grind your festive spirit to dust – see main preview ELECTRIC SIX + BLACK HATS: O2 Academy – Back again for Christmas, just like Santa, Dick Valentine’s garage-glam crew continue to knock out ‘Danger! High Voltage’ and ‘Gay Bar’ alongside a surprisingly extensive catalogue of songs, playing it deliberately dumb with their tongue-in-cheek garage-rock disco bombast. URIAH HEEP: O2 Academy – The seminal 70s heavy rockers plug 23rd album ‘Into The Wild’, only Guitarist Mick Box remaining from their classic incarnation whose often operatic fusion of prog, classical and proto-metal helped them sell over 30 million albums. REPLICA: Fat Lil’s, Witney – Rock and pop OPEN MIC SESSION: The Port Mahon party tunes. SPARKY’S FLYING CIRCUS: James Street PROPAGANDA + TRASHY + ROOM 101: O2 Tavern Academy INTRUSION: The Cellar – Goth, industrial, VIBED: The Bullingdon – R’n’b, garage, house darkwave and EBM club night. and pop with DJs Dee and Varchez. THE JUKES + YELLOW FEVER + THE WEDNESDAY 14th PLAYMAKERS + VAGUEWORLD: The THE CELLAR FAMILY + GO ROMANO + Duke’s Cut – Local bands showcase led by BEAVER FUEL: The Wheatsheaf – Skreeling Britpop newcomers the Jukes, taking their cue angular hardcore brilliance from this month’s cover from The Jam, Kinks and Oasis, plus indie stars at tonight’s Moshka club night. popstrels Yellow Fever. FREE RANGE: The Cellar – Old skool jungle OXEDELIA: The Port Mahon – New club night special with Niki Blackmarket and North Base. playing psychedelia, krautrock, freakbeat, mod, WEDNESDAY BLUES: James Street Tavern indie and rock’n’roll, plus a live set from Yanmolby. th OPEN MIC SESSION: The Hollybush, Osney THURSDAY 15 THE PETE FRYER BAND: The Chester Arms VINTAGE TROUBLE: O2 Academy – Vintage by QUADROPHOBE: The Swan, Wantage – name, vintage by nature as the Hollywood-formed Funk and ska-tinged pop. quartet recall the tough, soulful r’n’b of the 60s, with frontman Ty Taylor drawing comparisons to Saturday 10th SUNDAY 11th James Brown. They’re considerably better live than on their debut album, ‘The Bomb Shelter Session’, BURIED IN SMOKE EMILY SPIERS + FLUER + MUNDANE a raucous old-style revue that’s won them an army SANDS: The Bullingdon – It’s All About The of fans at various festivals as well as supporting CHRISTMAS ALL- Music presents a folky selection of local acts, Brian May and Bon Jovi. including singer-songwriter Emily Spiers and ELLA + WHO’S FELIX: The Bullingdon - It’s DAYER: The Wheatsheaf pastoral folk-rockers Mundane Sands. All About The Music gig night. OPEN MIC SESSION: The Old Bookbinders Since Nightshift’s metal special last yea, the CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford Oxford scene has continued to cement its Community Centre th foundations even further with Skeletor and MONDAY 12 OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half Moon Buried In Smoke’s regular shows giving the best THE ROCK SOUND RIOT TOUR: O2 AVENGE VULTURE ATTACK + GRINDHOUSE local heavyweights a decent airing, while also Academy – Quadruple dose of hardcore spleen- + KINKY BOOTS BEASTS + YUNGSTAR: The attracting some excellent emerging out-of-town venting courtesy of rock mag Rocksound. New Hobgoblin, Bicester – Jambox rock night. bands to the Academy and the Wheatsheaf. So York State’s Every Time I Die headline the bill, it’s great to see Buried In Smoke celebrating bringing some technical angularity to the hardcore FRIDAY 16th Christmas in the most unseasonal manner blueprint, while Sacramento’s Trash Talk’s raw, CHIPMUNK: The Regal – Tottenham’s pop- possible. Today’s all-dayer features a dozen often dissonant hardcore thrash has seen them friendly rapper comes to town after the bands many of whom tend towards the sludgy, working with Steve Albini and Black Flag’s Keith postponement of October’s show here, a slew of stoner end of the spectrum. Hosts and Morris. Boston’s Defeater up the political activism radio-friendly hits under his belt after early grime headliners Desert Storm are ferociously quota on their raging punk squall while Watford’s singles like ‘Oopsy Daisy’. psychedelic in their metalling, with an almost Spycatcher fly the flag for British post-hardcore, THE WINTER WARMER: The Wheatsheaf – Deep South Baptist preacher edge to their having supported Get Up Kids. First night of Gappy Tooth Industries’ annual pre- groove-heavy sound, and with two albums THE HAMSTERS: The Bullingdon – Final tour Christmas shindig, tonight featuring Hot Hooves, already under their belt they continue to lead for the British blues-rock veterans, well into their Secret Rivals and this month’s Nightshift cover the local scene. We would say that Undersmile third decade having served the blues circuit well in stars, The Cellar Family – see main preview are catching up fast, but so tectonically slow is that time with their Hendrix and ZZ Top tributes. THE ORIGINAL RABBIT FOOT SPASM their form of uber-sludge doomcore, that BAND’S CHRISTMAS KNEES-UP: O2 wouldn’t be appropriate. Taking a cue from th TUESDAY 13 Academy – Never mind warmed-up classic rock, Melvins, Swans and Flipper and adding some FRANZ NICOLAY: The Wheatsheaf – The which seems to be the theme of this month’s gig seriously spooky vocal incantations to the mix, former-Hold Steady multi-instrumentalist returns guide, here’s the real way to get into the Christmas they’re this year’s star local metal turn. There’s to town after his show at Café Tarifa last year, his spirit, with a proper jazz riot. The Rabbits, as we’ll more sludgy, stoner riffing from the likes of versatile skills put to good use as he incorporates call them for brevity’s sake, have been the local Caravan Of Whores, Beard Of Zeuss, elements of gypsy folk, jazz, punk and world go-to act for serious party vibes for the past couple Mother Corona and St Albans’ Trippy sounds, vocally akin to Nick Cave and Tom Waits of years now and with damn good reason, kicking Wicked, while Komrad’s technically esoteric and a flamboyant entertainer in the Vaudeville out a raucous update of 30s and 40s New Orleans math-core and Mutagenocide’s progressive tradition. speakeasy jazz with some serious punk attitude. thrash offer a different angle. A pretty SAXON: O2 Academy – Easily the pick of this Great rock’n’roll support from The Long Insiders, unrelenting way to spend the build up to month’s plethora of classic heavy rock bands dancing a fine line between meaty rockabilly and Christmas, but if you rate Satan above Santa in coming to town. Leaders of the New Wave Of smooth lounge-surf, plus top swing and jump blues the fun stakes, the Sheaf can be your very own British Heavy metal in the late-70s and early-80s, party tunes from Count Skylarkin on the decks. grotto of pleasure. Saxon have sold something in the region of 13 DUOTONE + JESS HALL + MATT million albums around the world, including genre CHANARIN: The Bullingdon – classics like ‘Wheels Of Steel’ and ‘Denim & Cellist and musical experimenter Leather’. Incredibly, they’ve never split up, Biff Barney Morse-Brown plays a solo set Byford and Paul Quinn keeping the roadshow under his Duotone guise, joined for the rocking around the world over the decades and, like night by Devonian folk singer Jess Hall, many of their generation, they’ve lately found whose wistful style recalls Laura Viers favour with a new audience, playing both and Eva Cassidy. Tonight she’s Sonisphere and Download recently. Mighty stuff. launching her ‘Red Jumpers’ EP. THE FLOATING WORLD ENSEMBLE: The WE ARE ELEMENTS: The Cellar – Warneford Chapel – Ethereal traditional Garage, funky and dubstep club night, Japanese music from Koto player Melissa Holding with special guest Mosca, recently and shakuhachi flautist Clive Bell at tonight’s OCM nominated for breakthrough act by DJ outreach educational show. Mag. JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon – Free live jazz THE STONES: Fat Lil’s, Witney – from The New Jazz Collective. Rolling Stones tribute. globetrotting year (frontman Hugo Manuel also downstairs in the Sheaf from Klub Kakofanney’s enjoying some serious success in his solo Chad Phil & Sue and friends ahead of the final Winter Valley guise). Their effervescent tropical pop is Warmer session upstairs in the evening. effortlessly uplifting and should be complemented OPEN MIC SESSION: The Old Bookbinders by Andrew Mears’ Pet Moon, taking a more electro and r’n’b direction after his time with MONDAY 19th pioneering local rockers Youthmovies. Sisterland THE FAMOUS MONDAY BLUES and Motherhood complete the musical bill, plus CHRISTMAS PARTY: The Bullingdon – there is art from Tinhead, Valenka Hykel, Amy Roadhouse, Debbie Bond, Alamo Leal and Cherry Honour and Charlotte Freeston. Lee Mewis all put in a turn at the blues club’s DAPPY: O2 Academy – ‘Im with the ‘at out of traditional festive knees-up – see main preview N’Dubz and not, apparently, a cartoon duck, although you’d be forgiven for failing to see or th Friday 16th – Sunday 18th hear the difference. TUESDAY 20 IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC CHRISTMAS GO WEST: O2 Academy – The 80s pop duo THE WINTER PARTY: The Bullingdon – The Bully’s local return with a new album, ‘3D’, doubtless set to music promotions crew celebrate the festive season give old hits like ‘We Close Our Eyes’ and ‘King Of WARMER: with some of their fave bands. Nine-Stone Cowboy, Wishful Thinking’ another airing. The OX4 Allstars, I Silecta, Mogmatic, Player2 JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon – Live jazz from The Wheatsheaf and Yellow Fever all play. New Jazz Collective. Last year’s Winter Warmer coincided with the SIMPLE: The Bullingdon – House and electro CHRISTMAS CASUAL CLASSICS: The heaviest snowfall in Oxford in over 30 years club night, with local electro-pop starlets Wild Cellar – Live music from grungy popstrels Kill and saw Nightshift walking home to Kidlington Swim, plus their more electro-house alter-egos Murray; punky indie noise from Beta Blocker & from Cowley Road, with only a bottle of brandy Cubiq performing alongside the Simple residents. The Body Clock and lo-fi trash-pop from recent for company. An unavoidably disastrous ending WITNEY WINTER FESTIVAL: Fat Lil’s, Demo Of The Month winners Poledo, plus classic to one of the best mini-festivals on the local Witney (3pm) – Witney gets it own pre- tunes from the 80s onwards. calendar, a high-quality, decidedly uncommerical Christmas winter warmer. Dead Jerichos headline escape from the pre-Christmas riot of and are joined by an excellent cast of local acts th consumerism. Jointly organised by the monthly that includes hardcore rock duo Phantom Theory; Monday 19 Gappy Tooth Industries club and indie electro-indie fuzzsters Secret Rivals; moddish THE FAMOUS promoters Swiss Concrete, The Winter Warmer power-pop trio The Black Hats; epic shoegazers takes different forms each year; this time round Deer Chicago; ballsy heavy rockers Empty Vessels; MONDAY BLUES it’s three nights at the Wheatsheaf and features bluesy indie types Very Nice Harry; an acoustic set one of its strongest line-ups so far. Friday night from Alphabet Backwards and hip hop-tinged CHRISTMAS PARTY: is topped by Hot Hooves, the band formed by rockers Colour Change For Camouflage. former Talulah Gosh and Heavenly guitarist ALASDAIR ROBERTS + DAVID A JAYCOCK: The Bullingdon Modern Art Oxford – Adventures Close To Peter Momtchiloff and legendary Jericho After 25 years bringing the blues to Oxford, Home round off a great year of promoting Tavern and Point promoter Mac, together The Famous Monday Blues club’s annual pre- underground and leftfield folk acts in unusual local kicking out a splendid fuzzstorm in the vein of Christmas knees-up remains a highlight of its venues with a particularly special show, featuring Husker Du and Teenage Fanclub. Joining them calendar and tonight’s shindig is a ex-Appendix Out chap Alasdair Roberts, whose are double-caffeinated electro-indie starlets characteristic mix of old and new. In the solo career has found him leaving experimental Secret Rivals (pictured) and this month’s former camp are UK electric blues-rockers indie sounds behind to explore spectral ancient Nightshift cover stars The Cellar Family, Roadhouse who, since their 1991 inception, Scottish folk song. In the process he’s collaborated along with Adam Beckley and Arthur have played over 2,000 shows and released 11 with Will Oldham, Isobel Campbell and Jason Sawbridge. Saturday finds consummate party albums, while performing at every festival Molina as well as more recently gracing the cover band The Vicars Of Twiddly donning their going. Gary Boner’s crew kick it out in the of Wire magazine. His new album, ‘Too Long In ecumenical garb for some serious shimmering. style of Creedence Clearwater Revival and This Tradition’, is out now. They’re joined by alternately jangly and Lynyrd Skynyrd, while sticking close to their THE DIRTY EARTH BAND: Fat Lil’s, Witney raucous indie newcomers Dallas Don’t and blues roots. Joining them is Alabama’s Debbie elaborate ambient soundscapist Seabuckthorn, – Classic rock covers. THE NEW MOON + SOLACE: The Bond, whose soulful southern backwoods blues among others. Sunday rounds the weekend off is inspired by Bonnie Raitt and Janis Joplin, neatly with recent Nightshift demo of the Hollybush, Osney – Fundraiser for next year’s Wittstock Festival with local acoustic pop outfit taking in elements of jazz and country along monthers Vienna Ditto, whose seedily exotic the way. Rio de Janeiro’s Alamo Leal has dream-pop sounds like Portishead soundtracking The New Moon. SHATTERED DREAMS + THE COLOURS + been a regular visitor to the FMB over the a Tarantino movie. The wonderful Family years and provides a laidback Delta and New Machine join them, mixing wry, romantic TAI CHI SWAYZE: The Port Mahon – Pop- punk from Shattered Dreams. Orleans-style counterpoint to Roadhouse’s lyricism with darkly pastoral indie and country- high-octane approach. Potential highlight of tinged rock. Atmospheric alt.folk songsmith D FUNKY FRIDAY: The Bullingdon DJ DEREK’S 70th BIRTHDAY BASH: The Hi- the night, though, is Wales’ Cherry Lee Gwalia and Hollox complete an exceptional Mewis, who debuted here back in the summer, bill. Lo Jamaican Eating House – The legendary Bristolian ska and reggae DJ joins Count Skylarkin rising fast through the ranks with her powerful to celebrate his 70th birthday, playing classic tunes old-time blues voice and fresh, soulful takes LO-AUDIO + YUNGSTAR + ADOTT ASH: The from over the years. on the likes of Blind Willie McTell, Koko Wheatsheaf, Banbury – Jambox hip hop night. PROPAGANDA + TRASHY + ROOM 101: O2 Taylor and Memphis Minnie alongside her THE MIGHTY REDOX: The Cricketers, Iffley Academy own songs. Road EXTRA CURRICULAR: The Cellar HYPERMUSED: The Swan, Wantage – Muse THE ALAN KEYLOCK BLUES BAND: The tribute band. Swan, Wantage – Blues covers. SATURDAY 17th SUNDAY 18th THE WINTER WARMER: The Wheatsheaf – THE WINTER WARMER: The Wheatsheaf – Surf-rockers The Vicars Of Twiddly headline Vienna Ditto, The Family Machine and D Gwalia tonight’s second instalment of the Warmer, plus help round off the Warmer for another year – see Dallas Don’t and Seabuckthorn – see main preview main preview UPSTAIRS: O2 Academy – The final Upstairs MOON LEOPARD + BEARD OF DESTINY + local bands showcase of the year is a Blessing Force HEADINGTON HILLBILLIES + SUE & PHIL: special, with Jonquil returning to Oxford after a The Wheatsheaf (2pm) – Acoustic session WEDNESDAY 21st Christmas tree. Merry Christmas to FREERANGE: The Cellar – all our readers. We’ll have a large Dubstep, drum&bass, UK garage and brandy, some Twiglets and Amy Pond grime Christmas party. off of Doctor Who please, since WEDNESDAY BLUES: The James you’re asking. Street Tavern MONDAY 26th THURSDAY 22nd Ooh… football. THE RELATIONSHIPS + THE th CELLAR FAMILY: The TUESDAY 27 Bullingdon – Local pop godfathers SPARKY’S FLYING CIRCUS: The Relationships burnish their James Street Tavern psychedelic sweet suburbia, alongside this month’s Nightshift cover stars. WEDNESDAY 28th CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford FREERANGE: The Cellar DECEMBER Community Centre WEDNESDAY BLUES: The James IZZI STONE + WHERE’S BILLY + Street Tavern Every Monday THE LIGHT DIVIDED + CJ THE FAMOUS MONDAY NIGHT BLUES QUINN: The Hobgoblin, Bicester th – Jambox rock night. THURSDAY 29 The best in UK, European and US blues. 8-12. WORDPLAY: The Cellar THE BLACKOUT + ATTACK 5th THE MARCUS BONFANTI BAND (UK) ATTACK + REVOKER + SAVE 12th THE HAMSTERS – 25th anniversary farewell tour (UK) FRIDAY 23rd YOUR BREATH: O2 Academy – 19th THE FAMOUS MONDAY BLUES XMAS PARTY with Merthyr Tydfil’s post-hardcore BORDERVILLE + MARY’S heroes celebrate their most successful ROADHOUSE (UK) / DEBBIE BOND (USA) / ALAMO GARDEN + DEER CHICAGO: The year yet as they continue to tour new LEAL (Brazil) / CHERRY LEE MEWIS (UK) Wheatsheaf – The Wheatsheaf album ‘Hope’. They began 2011 as eases itself into Christmas in support to My Chemical Romance Every Tuesday considerable style with vaudevillian before going on to play the main concept rockers Borderville taking a stage at Reading and Leeds Festivals THE OXFORD JAZZ CLUB Ziggy Stardust-shaped axe to Kafka’s as well as supporting Funeral For A Free live jazz plus DJs playing r’n’b, funk and soul until 2am Metamorphosis, while Mary’s Garden Friend. Keeping it welsh, they’re 6th ALVIN ROY & REEDS UNLIMITED return to action in suitably winterish joined by Caerphilly’s Attack Attack. 13th / 20th THE NEW JAZZ COLLECTIVE fashion. Epic shoegazing indie BLUNTED: The Cellar – A return rocking from Deer Chicago in to the Cellar for the vintage hip hop, Thursdays support. funk and soul club night, with DJs 8th BLACK POWDER / NUCLEAR SKYLINE / COCAINE GLAM ROCK CHRISTMAS Fabulous Hand, Fu, Grande, Unia et al. PARTY: The Bullingdon – Double COWBOYS / THE BIG SOCIETY REIGN UPON US + A TRUST th bill of glam-rock from It’s All About UNCLEAN + CIRCUIT CHASE: 15 ELLA / WHO’S FELIX nd The Music, with Wigwam and Martini The Hobgoblin, Bicester – Jambox 22 THE RELATIONSHIPS / THE CELLAR FAMILY Rockers. metal night with thrashcore monsters SHEPHERD’S PIE: Fat Lil’s, Reign Upon Us. Every Friday Witney – Rock covers. FUNKY FRIDAY BERSICKER + CIRCUIT CHASE th + DIGGING FOR PEDRO + FRIDAY 30 Funk, soul, boogie and R&B. 11pm-2.30am; £3. BRANDON KING: The FUNKY FRIDAY: The Bullingdon Wheatsheaf, Banbury – Jambox FOUNDATION REGGAE: East Early Friday shows metal and rock night. Oxford Community Centre – 2nd JUNE / THE GRACEFUL SLICKS / SHATTERED FUNKY FRIDAY: The Bullingdon Reggae and roots soundsystem. DREAMS / MILLION FACES th SATURDAY 24th SATURDAY 31st 16 DUOTONE / JESS HALL / MATT CHANARIN 23rd XMAS GLAM-ROCK PARTY with WIGMAN / THE SKYLARKIN SOUNDSYSTEM’S THE BIG BANG: The Cellar – REGGAE CHRISTMAS: O2 Disco, soul, boogie, hip hop, house, MARTINI ROCKERS Academy – Count Skylarkin garage and funky tunes into the new continues the tradition of welcoming year with The Cellar crew. Saturday Early Show in Christmas with some serious reggae PROPAGANDA + TRASHY + 17th IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC CHRISTMAS PARTY ROOM 101: O2 Academy – The action, tonight featuring a live set with NINE-STONE COWBOY / THE OX4 ALLSTARS / I Academy celebrates a space and from fast-rising dancehall starlets SILECTA / MOGMATIC / PLAYER2 / YELLOW FEVER aliens-themed NYE party, with classic Laid Blak, whose recent singles ‘Red’ 24th YOUR SONG with HOT HOOVES / THE MAZARATI / and ‘Bristol Love’ are already and new indie at Propaganda; kitsch BLACK POWDER / KOMRAD & more! considered modern day classics of the pop, 80s and guilty pleasures at genre, plus a soundclash between Trashy and alt.rock, metal and Desta*Nation and House Of Roots. hardcore at Room 101. Saturdays YOUR SONG: The Bullingdon – NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY: Fat 3rd SIMPLE – House & techno with JULIAN BASHMORE. Classic covers and moments of Lil’s, Witney 10-4am; £10adv inspired genius from Hot Hooves, THE PETE FRYER BAND + SIMON 10th VIBED – R&B, house, garage and pop. DJs DEE & The Mazarati, Black Powder, Komrad WALTERS + JEREMY HUGHES: VARCHEZ. £3 B4 11pm / £5 after and more local acts to be announced. The Chester Arms 17th SIMPLE – House & techno with WILD SWIM / CUBIQ SUNDAY 25th Having discovered that Sainsbury’s Nightshift listings are free. Sundays stock chocolate-flavoured wine, Deadline for inclusion in the gig 11th EMILY SPIERS / FLUER / MUNDANE SANDS Nightshift is planning to see exactly guide is the 20th of each month - how much of the stuff we can no exceptions. Call 01865 372255 Join us on Facebook: Backroom @ The Bully consume before we vomit our (10am-6pm) or email listings to chocolate-infused livers all over the [email protected]. LIVE photo: Sam Shepherd

TOTALLY ENORMOUS EXTINCT DINOSAURS / Dinosaurs’ budget rave has a lot to follow after such a tight set, yet he FIXERS copes perfectly. Resplendent in a bright blue dinosaur costume, The Ashmolean Museum producer Orlando Higginbottom It seems fitting that this pairing of vintage and inspires the kind of Beach Boys as is possible to get and (for he is T.E.E.D.) excavates the acts should find themselves playing dancing that could provide the basis their ear for a melody is phenomenal. fossils of early 90s rave and in the auspicious surroundings of a for an entire comedy routine from It’s plain to hear in the likes of European house to get the room museum. Is there a better place to Chris Rock. Switching smoothly ‘Another Lost Apache’ or writhing in a seething mass of find a dinosaur, let alone a totally between A Tribe Called Quest, Ice ‘Swimmhaus Johannesburg’ just why sweaty bodies. There’s as much enormous one (we’ll take extinct as Cube, and Gangstarr, he has the crowd they’re being discussed as being the knowing camp in his performance read)? As for Fixers, the class that in the palm of his hand all night. It’s next big thing to come out of Oxford. (the first few songs aren’t a million permeates their music exudes the only when he crashes a Pharcyde Fixers, when they’re on this kind of miles away from The Pet Shop kind of sophistication that justifies track to introduce T.E.E.D. that he form are incredible. Forget the Boys) as there is a keen the bar staff carrying the empties drops a slight clanger. comedy disguises and random understanding in how to get a crowd out on silver trays. Fixers’ set is nothing short of a bellowed statements that defined their dancing and once he gets them DJ Mim of the BlackCab sessions marvel. Despite the venue not set at Truck this year, concentrate on going, they never look like they’re kicks the night off and keeps things providing the best of acoustics, they their wealth of tunes, and it’s going to stop. It seems that the ticking over nicely with an array of still sound utterly divine. Their perfectly clear that Fixers are dinosaurs really do come alive at finely chosen hip hop tunes. It’s amalgam of electro, rock and close destined for truly great things. night in the Ashmolean. primarily of late-80s early-90s harmony is as close to an updated Totally Enormous Extinct Sam Shepherd

more aggressive than playful; more lugubrious PROFESSOR GREEN than energetic. Self-deprecation has slipped into O2 Academy self-indulgence; stuff like ‘Astronaut’ – about a rape victim turned drug addict – would have felt Hackney rapper Professor Green is at his career material from his new album is mostly an too serious on his first album. But the overall loss zenith today, with the current number one, a anticlimax. I shouldn’t feel as relieved as I do of the sparkle of songs like ‘Monster’ is a shame. second album just out and a reality TV show now when he follows the hostile ‘D.P.M.O.’ with the Luckily, the wit hasn’t totally been abandoned: available on 4OD. There’s certainly a lot to latch much more fun first album track ‘Kids That Love the new album’s title track, ‘At Your onto - the singsong delivery, the humour, the To Dance’. cheekiness... charm discernible to people who His development as an artist probably needed this Inconvenience’, a critique of the music industry, don’t usually stray into his territory. step into contemplative introspection: the has some bite, despite the lolloping backing. The Professor’s earliest chart successes – ‘Just Be Eminem-like rant on his number one, ‘Read All Green even makes that Travie McCoy/Bruno Good to Green’ and ‘I Need You Tonight’ – skip About It’, about his Dad’s suicide and criticism of Mars shipwreck of smugness ‘Billionaire’ along at a jolly pace, with Green bounding around his talking about it, seems excusably cathartic, listenable. But while the new album might end up and furiously polishing the air; and it’s all about and it’s probably a deft step to avoid sliding into defining his legacy, it’s the old stuff that currently him, his backing band efficiently rendering his parody, but the night is defined by this dichotomy. gives him the most credit. chart-friendly guest stars unnecessary. But the The new material is more like his earlier ‘Jungle’: Kirsten Etheridge THE ORIGINAL RABBIT FOOT THE LIGHTHOUSE TRIO SPASM BAND / MATT WINKWORTH Lincoln College This is one of those rare gigs when reminiscent of Keith Jarrett, his & THE WINKWORTHERS you get lucky and happen to be there playing is characterised by frequent when whatever the mysterious shifts of time signature, sudden ORIGINALS creative thing that composer- storms of notes and a strong left musicians do is very much there and hand, so that the absence of a bass is The Jericho Tavern in the room. A generous bequest never missed. However, like the Matt Winkworth’s mini orchestra are virtuosity. Time was, jazz was viewed brought The Lighthouse Trio to entire band, what seems most a sight to behold. Matt himself is a as wholly immoral, a genuine threat Lincoln just at the point when they important ultimately is the melody. picture of camp uncool, like the to the wellbeing of decent society, had spent two months working up a The prolific Simcock seems to lovechild of Marc Almond and Gok not the background musak for set of new compositions, and just compose in different styles as easily Wan, while behind him is a motley upmarket restaurants. two weeks before taking them into as he plays, including being inspired collection of thick-rimmed The ORFSB are rough-hewn and the studio. So on offer tonight are by Ibiza house music and by the spectacles, ill-advised haircuts and, oh raucous, simply an old-time dance new recipes freshly cooked and sound of the Hang, like a resonant yes, a purple trombone. band with punk rock attitude, Cab served piping hot with the cooks still steel drum but with fewer notes. I It fits perfectly with the band’s Calloway-style gravel-throated vocals playing around with the flavouring. particularly like his ‘Beelzebub’, a consistently entertaining blend of sharing space with big horn flourishes, The band are playing acoustic, not a tribute Earthworks, the band cabaret and pop: Weimer-era music occasionally the mood dropping into microphone in sight and this, along drummer Bill Bruford ran after he hall filtered through The Magic Band what sounds like old-time Italian with being in touching distance and left Yes, which suggests even the and Marc & The Mambas, a grand street music. But what’s most the band’s readiness to tell the story Devil has meditative moments. operetta full of geeky drama, frantic surprising – and invigorating – about behind their tunes, makes for a However, it’s two of Garland’s polkas and almost stately waltzes, a Rabbit Foot show, is the age and particularly intimate gig tonight. tunes, combined with his rhapsodic wordy and often emotionally taught style of the crowd – a far younger The Lighthouse Trio are Tim lyrical playing, which are most for all the campness around its edges. bunch than you’d imagine, many of Garland on saxes and bass clarinet, moving. ‘One Morning’ – inspired Describing The Original Rabbit Foot them discovering jazz for the first Gwilym Simcock on piano and Asif by his acquisition of a 1949 sax – Spasm Band simply as a jazz band is time, doubtless, like this reviewer, put Sirkis, who plays a special drum set feels like the best sort of warm like calling The Pogues a folk band. off the idea of it because of what it’s of Turkish frame drums, udu, and Sunday morning, with sunlight It’s sort of correct but doesn’t even become. And that’s a triumph on so Swiss hang. This means Sirkis can streaming through the window and touch on the fiery soul of the music. many levels. hit the drums as hard as he loves to good coffee brewing. ‘Passion Like The Pogues, The ORFSB are Tonight is bonfire night, a centuries- but make only half the noise of a Flower’, a heartfelt tribute to the detested by genre purists, who flee old tradition kept alive, mostly standard drum kit and avoids lyrical playing of John Coltrane is all aghast from their uncouth treatment through the fun of explosions, bright drowning out the unamplified piano the more poignant and joyful for of the past, chucking a molotov lights and simple visceral thrills. and sax. It also makes Middle being played on that 1949 sax. cocktail under the tanker of tradition Almost a hundred years on from the Eastern rhythms one of the big When live music gives you moments and dancing round the flames. Pints heyday of ragtime and swing in influences on the music along with like this, you suddenly remember are sunk rather than chins stroked. downtown Old Orleans, The Original the easy virtuosity of pianist why you love it so. But such precious harrumphing Rabbit Foot Spasm band are applying Simcock. Often described as Colin May forgets that jazz, in its youth, was all similar principles to keep that about gin palaces, brothels and riots, tradition alive in a corner of Oxford. not endless solos or self-reverential Dale Kattack DANANANANAYKROYD / NAIROBI TERJE ISUNGSET’S ICE MUSIC The Bullingdon Nairobi take their lead from the many indie bands used to have fun The Northwall African pop music that seems to have with their music and performances, We don’t normally care about a morass of politeness. been bizarrely adopted by indie bands and not try to either bewilder or musician’s equipment - start talking To be honest, we far prefer the first like Vampire Weekend, and from the belittle their audience. That’s not to like that and before you know it you half of the concert. ‘Tribute To precision and pseudo-polyrhythmic say that they’re simplistic or soft; think Stevie Vai is better than John Nature’ is a piece for drumkit approach of Foals and their ilk. What they’re actually pretty flippin’ noisy Lee Hooker – but we watched Terje augmented by elemental wood and this means is very clean, unaffected and fierce, delivering buzzing, gruff Isungset’s Ice Music desperate to granite percussion, but the rough- and uneffected guitar melodies, and pop music that joins the dots between know what gear they had backstage. hewn instruments offer more than catchy, memorable songs. Without Bis, Huggy Bear, Cat On Form and What sort of refrigeration rig is earthy novelty. The click of stone realising it, after seeing Nairobi a Johnny Foreigner. They’ve got required to bring instruments carved on stone is a Neanderthal telex, and couple of months previously, I’d outstanding levels of energy and from Norwegian glaciers to the UK? a Jew’s harp passage sounds like a absorbed a couple of their tunes, joyousness, with in-your-face dual The instruments not only look Tuvan version of Aphex Twin’s which tonight seem pleasantly vocals that express cheeky, drunken gorgeous in subdued theatre lighting, ‘Didgeridoo’; at times the windswept familiar. They are sparse in fun rather than ire. It’s difficult to but they sound phenomenal: an ice stillness is Biosphere unplugged, at arrangement, with that clean guitar not have a stupid wide grin on your marimba is somewhere between a others the frenetic crackling sound spidering around white-boy-funk face when presented with this balafon and a tabla, and a pair of rhythms are bebop played by a huge bass and skittering drum patterns, but combination of expert, succinct, glistening ice horns sound like Jan insect. A Max Roach, maybe? No, they’re taken a step beyond clever pop music, self-effacing Garbarek mournfully morphing into no, you’re right, we’re sorry. mundanity with a couple of twists and humour and an overall feeling of an elephant seal. But, once you’ve ‘Tribute To Nature’ may be too turns of rhythm and construction. On warmth and friendliness. This is marvelled at the logistics and the long, and the shamanistic groove is top of of this, vocals are delivered in typified in their take on the normally concept and the beauty of ice too Howard Moon (“Coming at you a bizarre Robert Smith-style yawn, violent moshpit Wall Of Death - instruments, you’re unfortunately like a jazz narwhal!”), but the piece which whilst somewhat out of tune, is reinvented as the Wall Of Cuddles. left with something aimlessly pretty. is hypnotic and evocative, and confident enough to charm. I like Any band that can get pretty much Take Lena Nymark’s breathy vocals: Isungset is modest enough to break Nairobi; they’re an odd combination everybody in the room hugging she may be adept enough with her the sonic spell and make people of recognisable influences and strange strangers have to be doing something effects pedals to build a wash of giggle by creaking his drum stool: ice quirks. right, right? Noisy, enjoyable stuff. Cocteau Twins ambience, but her is nice, but sometimes a musician Liking them sets me up perfectly for Sometimes it’s great to leave one’s voice is rather thin when what the finds their best material in jokes and Dananananaykroyd, who I really like, brain at the door and just immerse show needs is a steely soprano or a accidents. but who are unfortunately about to yourself in the atmosphere. gutsy folk chorus to raise it from the David Murphy split up. They remind me of how Simon Minter Karma To Burn photo: Johnny Moto the game since1988and as famedforhis Whichbringsus toDOOM,akaMFDoom,in a primeexample. officially releasedproduct,Drake’s ‘SoFarGone’ websites likeDatpiffandoftensuperior to often exclusivematerial,freelyavailable from new musicviamixtapes,MP3collections of supported bythecurrenttrendfor distributing carefully considereddocumentary. Thisviewis the blackCNN;24-hourrollingnews ratherthan may bemoreontargetwhenhedescribeditas new musicalformsincerock’n’rollbutChuckD of circle.Diehardsclaimittobetheonlytruly that oftenseemstobringitaroundinsomekind much toitsabilitymutateandevolve,evenif The inexhaustiblelongevityofhiphopowes O2 Academy DOOM rock thatsoundstentimesasvitalinthese Listing Ships uncompromising intheirownuniqueway, from bill that’s almostuniversallyexcellent,eachact Inbetweenthesemonolithicmusicalbookendsisa day fullcircle. front ofabankMarshallstacksandbringthe stoner-metal theyhelpedpioneerinthe90s Burn Shelter, West Virginia’s grizzledrockers At theendoftoday’s mini-festival inaidof gospel, aren’tburiedinsheerriffage. their sound,frompsychedeliatosomethingalmost sound inthe Tavern ensuresthemanysubtletiesin proceedings. Brutaltheymaybe,asympathetic damn surenofuckergetseasedgentlyinto local stoner-metal titans Audioscope beginsalmostasitendstodaywith The Jericho Tavern AUDIOSCOPE reprisetheno-frills,no-prisonersformof ’ gracefullymalevolentlyelectro- Desert Storm making Karma To scary as things get;he’sa significant sporting through allhisalbum artwork.Butthat’s aboutas Doom character from MarvelComicsthatruns trademark scary mask, anodtotheDoctor and, interestingly, are98%white.Hesports his town whoclearlyknoweveryrhyme backwards, from thecrowd, ThenDOOMemergestoarapturous reception any genre. ‘Exhibit C’,thefinestsongofrecent yearsin nicely withasetthatincludesJayElectronica’s Wordplay DJsGeeneeandKidFurywarmusup recent track‘RetardedFren’. Jonny Greenwood,whocollaboratedwithhimon earning fansthatinclude Thom Yorke and musical andproductionskillsashisrapping, cleaners sweepupwhatgorymessremainsofthe mercilessly foranunstinting40minutesandletthe they justneedtohammerthepointhome kicked outinsuchshort,sharpburstswhenreally conflagration thatsuffersonlyslightlyfrombeing wallofnoise,asearingsonic to-the-floor lined upeye-to-eyewiththecrowd,createametal- todaybutthreeguitaristsandabassist, drummers disgust. hardcore oozesaparticularlyvenomoussenseof intimate setting,wheretheirangular,sheet-metal benefit fromplayingtoadecentcrowdinan damage, to into everycorneroftheroomtowreakits Lines lastmonth,‘The100GunShip’swarming punters inthecavernous Academy venueatLey compact surroundingsasitdidinfrontadozen Action Beat The CellarFamily comearmedwithameretwo including m any fansfromoutof whosimilarly Necro Deathmort They’repositivelylightweightcomparedto audience. Dale Kattack their owndoorstep. time, raisingmoneyforthosewhodon’thave pleasures righttoourdoorstep,while,atthesame wilfulness and,asever, such Audioscope brings join in.It’s agenuinepleasuretoencountersuch mainstream withnohopeofeverbeinginvitedto any bandevercould–aworldawayfromthe Infacttheykindofsumup Audioscope asmuch toymaker. like they’vebeentwistedoutofshapebysomeevil but deceptivelymelodicsetofsongsthatallsound virtually unclassifiable,aspasming,grating,atonal between theBreedersand Alien SexFiend,they’re songs wherewetrytopinthemdownbizarrely perhaps stealtheshow. Otherthanacoupleof The VictorianEnglishGentlemen’sClub Against suchhighqualityoppositionthough,it’s Karaoke’ that’s pureNeu!-likegrooving. halfway throughthoughwithasuperb‘Electro Prodigy’s ‘Breathe’ atanother. Somethingclicks at onepointandaloungejazzremodellingofThe Rea tryingtocover Talking Heads’ ‘PsychoKiller’ half oftheirset,soundingworryinglylikeChris Japanese) threatentobesimilarlydullforthefirst Fujiya &Miyagi louder. Notthesamething,isit. any betterwhenwereturn. We’re tolditgotabit if itgot we wanderuptoPeppersBurgers;ask really goanywhere.Giventhatit’s gonedinnertime all pensiveSteveReich-styledronesthatdon’t Alexander Tucker has. Whitworth fantastic voicefrontmanLucas some oftheirtightly-angledmomentsjustwhata everything theydo,whileit’s easytoforget amid Coin’, butmaintainasimmeringemotionaledgeto they canbeabrasive,asonclosingnumber‘Every The Housemartins’‘CaravanOfLove’.Elsewhere harmony workoutthat’s onestepremovedfrom middle ofthefloorforanacousticfour-way after thestorm,particularlywhentheytaketo which After sound likehappyhourataschooldisco. we’ve witnessedinyears. They makeWolf Eyes positively thebleakestthirtyminutesoflivemusic are likeexperiencinganauralenemaand electro-cum-drum&bass attack,NecroDeathmort funereal blackmassmetalandSalem’s vicious an unholy(whatelse?)collisionofSunn0)))’s sprinkles ontop.Darkchocolate,obviously. Like extra sideportionofdoomwithchocolate dear readers.Hereisdoom,moredoomandan Art Lagun “I’m sohighIcould vomitonacomet”. this? Who couldputitbetter thanLil Wayne; from ahugelyenjoyable set.Howgreatisall masked featuresthere’s nothingtodistractus screen withasimpleloopedsequence ofhis reference tothe Teletubbies. Aside fromavideo his takeon‘IGet A KickOutOf You’ anda quite allowustocatcheveryword, heincludes conventional songsand,thoughthe PA doesn’t stream ofconsciousnessthanaseries digital trickery. Thelyricsseemtobe morea soul recordsratherthanwowinguswithhi-tech produced, heavyonbeatsandsamplesfromold As expectedthebackingtracksaresimply impression leftbyhismusicthanappearance. clearly amanmoreconcernedwiththe by peopleworkingingardencentres:thisis bellyandthekindofgreenanorakoftenworn Spring Offensive (whoareneitheraduonor , mind.Theclueisinthename, isabitofdisappointment, feellikesunshine who ADAM ANT CHARLIE BAXTER / SPACE O2 Academy HEROES OF THE PEOPLE / Listening to the radio on the way children’s entertainer about the way he LEFT OUTER JOIN down tonight, the BBC are crowing swaggers about the stage, trying to about their Children In Need Rocks emulate the old moves, moustachioed The Wheatsheaf concert, boasting about a line-up that and bespectacled beneath his pirate Right off the bat, tonight’s Moshka and stirs like a malfunctioning features Coldplay, Kelly Rowland and hat, but backed by a muscular, club night’s attendees tonight have a juggernaut, their set ending with a Michael Bublé. And we ponder, sadly, occasionally heavy-handed band and a feast for the ears. Left Outer Join, simple “thank you”, affirming how they don’t seem to make pop pair of glamorous backing singers, all hard techno poise, keeps his live technology doesn’t get in the way of stars like Adam Ant any more. Only ‘Stand & Deliver’ and an inevitable glowstick drumming set-up and heart when it’s needed most. Lady Gaga on that bill has anything encore of ‘Prince Charming’ still carry Roland machine locked over a “Oh my god, it’s Techno music” on approaching the sense of theatre that some of the old shine. swelling backdrop of progressive his t-shirt: a gimmicky endorsement the man born Stuart Goddard brought Aside from the earliest material – Goa-style synth-lines. His music fails to indie’s fervour with dance in to the charts in the early-1980s, closer in spirit to early PiL as to the to threaten but there’s particularly recent times? Charlie Baxter pulls it dressed variously as a pirate, a punk scene they emerged from – solid genesis with his mightily off with a mullet to spare. Kicking highwayman and a fairytale prince. highlights tonight come unexpected energetic performance. At points out a Ramones-y surf-punk guitar Serious mental illness as much as the quarters, notably ‘Puss In Boots’, we’re in a proper proto-drum&bass shuffle, the jungle tempo yields high tides of fashion finished Ant’s career dedicated to Phil Collins, who played vibe circa-90s T Power, scattered octane rhythm sections, powered but lately he’s recovered some of that drums on the original (“I like Phil snares chipping away at your ears but with “gimme adrenaline” lyrical old form and tonight’s show, while Collins. Fuck it, I don’t care,” spits always avoiding a screeching flow. phrases. He approaches a more giddy not without its pitfalls, is a reminder Adam with Lydon-esque glee). The Space Heroes Of The People follow version of Pendulum with those of the genuine star quality he once monstrous Burundi beat of ‘Kings Of suit with a tumult of decayed neon synths and maximalist figures, possessed, as well as being a seriously The Wild Frontier’ has lost little of synthetic fizz, then step up the but it all sounds coherent and lacking great songwriter. its impact, particularly played with trashy percussion and 4/4 rumble. in cheese. These are purposeful We couldn’t have hoped for a better two drummers tonight, and we’ll even Echoing melodic innocence from tracks filled with vim, especially his set-list. While he could easily have brush over the fact that solo hit ‘Vive 80s post-punkers Propaganda, white boy cover of `Play That hacked out the big hits and a load of le Rock’ sounds like Status Quo showing a varied palette that takes Funky Music’. Baxter then gets to new material, tonight’s near-two-hour covering Robert Palmer’s ‘Addicted in nu-rave and filters it through a asking the audience what they had set is packed with songs from Adam To Love’. Ferris wheel of proportionate for dinner. “Maybe I should write a & The Ants’ superb ‘Dirk Wears Ageing pop stars hitting the vocoder tidbits and pounding bass, song about pizza,” he muses. If it’s as White Sox’ debut. Most of it still comeback trail can be sad, tawdry rather like an autochanger from dull engaging as his new single, `Charlie sounds incredible – ‘Car Trouble and affairs, and given his recent history, to cool. Tim Day’s vocal effecting Baxter’s In My House’, featuring a Cleopatra’ in particular; the latter Adam Ant’s shows could be a car makes the natural timbre of voice cameo of Europe’s `The Final dedicated to Elizbeth Taylor. ‘Dog crash waiting to happen, but it’s seem second-rate by comparison, Countdown’, he’ll be one to cook Eat Dog’, early in the set, suggests apparent how much of that old desire squelchy bleeps adorning the mid for in future. A stellar night all Ant’s voice is shot; it sounds awful, to perform, to entertain, still burns in section of the set alongside Jo Edge’s round. but it’s easy to forget how much of his heart. And by God, if the distant double bass. The show droops Mick Buckingham the big hits were down to Merrick’s alternative is Coldplay and Michael production and thirty years on Adam Bublé, we might need him back more is never going to hit those high notes. than we ever knew. There’s something of the ageing Dale Kattack TWIN SISTER / HOLIDAY SHORES Jericho Tavern WILD BEASTS / BRAIDS Two bands from the top and bottom dedicated music venue, then they’d of the USA, on a late-autumn have come to see them and soak up O2 Academy European tour. One band better, the chillwave sounds, instead of Braids, from Montreal, look like your supreme delivery can’t be anything stripped back live, than their over- partying like its 1999 by the main typical indie rock band – keyboards, other than an absolute love for their egged studio work, and one band door. With her wide-brimmed black guitars, bass, drums, all contributing music, a serious and modest approach, whose cushioned indie songs are more hat pulled way down, singer Andrea to vocals – but beyond that, they and joy of playing together. Together suited to a bedroom stereo, than the Estella comes off as a shy and never conform to formula. Instead, they form a close-knit bunch, one in intrusive braying rowdiness that is the shadowy mix of Yoko Ono and they have an exploratory, dream-like, which they constantly challenge their upstairs Tavern on a weekend. Stevie Nicks, an image she reinforces warping, rising and plummeting own perceptions, trust their instincts First up, from Tallahassee, Florida, by asking for most of the stage lights nature. Like Dirty Projectors, they and act according to rules that only Holiday Shores (formerly to be turned off. push the boundaries of the concept of they themselves understand; they’re Continental Divide) really get a Their Cranes-meets-black, black indie music and make their stuff, gloriously intimate. handle on the Friday night vibe, with dream pop, like a small child singing well… authentically indie. Their This intimacy transcends. They vocalist / keyboard player Nathan lullabies at the bottom of a well, sound effects, cathartic spells, make pop a challenge; they make Pemberton duelling with jazz-style starts shipping water from the start, puzzling beats, highs and drops baroque style a calming drug, and they guitarist Josh Martin, and together with slower songs like ‘Ginger’ and encompass a performance that pretty make music cavalieresque for with their Spin Doctors-tight ‘Nectarine’ swamped by the raised much conveys a sense of cavaliers and damsels. With two rhythm section they have me voices, until bewildered Estella is deconstruction, pulling all elements vocalists alternating between a serious thinking of Jenniferever and Tears forced to remark, “You having a apart rather than building a whole. It falsetto and a husky powerful For Fears getting it on with Brian good time out there?” as the core of is this conceptual quality that baritone, chills run down spines while Wilson in his beach house. their fans glower over their seperates them from others. It is this drumbeats echo and bounce off the With most of the tracks tonight shoulders disapprovingly and shuffle harmonious baring of it all, with utter walls. They are intense, intricate, coming from their latest album, forward as one to the stage, to hear precision but loving delicacy that sensual, but never totally suffocating. ‘New Masses for Squaw Peak’, segued better. makes their music intriguing, Wild Beasts are the equivalent of with even more exciting unnamed The band finally pull it round with engaging and beautiful. exquisitely draped and adorned, red instrumental experiments, they are the ramped-up electro-funk jam Words that could similarly be applied and golden rooms over bare an evolving band as sharp and nattily outs of ‘Milk & Honey’ and ‘Bad to Wild Beasts’ music. Promoting brickwork surfaces in medieval fresh as Christopher Cross hosting a Street’, sparking Estella to become their Mercury Prize-nominated album palaces – finely and gently West African dance party. more like Andrea True Connection, ‘Smother’, the band from Kendal are handcrafted, finely and gently Twin Sister, a coolly cult Brooklyn a sequinned boot they should have nothing else but gentlemen playing smothering. quintet, probably expected that if put down firmly at the very start. hypnotic tunes. The reasons for their Liane Escorza people paid ten pounds to get into a Paul Carrera ANYONE CAN NUKE GUITAR!

Blockbusting Hollywood director That’s the Wheatsheaf fucked, then. Nick Cope (Steve Buscemi) who has been Roland Emmerich is set to remake rendered the unluckiest bloke on the planet by a disturbance in his neutrinos, possibly caused by a Anyone Can Play Guitar. solar flare, or lack of dietary fibre or some other laws-of-physics-defying shit that even a five- Emmerich, whose previous hit movies include year-old could see right through. Independence Day, 2012 and Fuck Me, Look At The Size Of That, described Jon Spira’s After numerous setbacks – their spaceship goes documentary about the Oxford music scene as, “a into liquidation; an attempt to create a world- bunch of middle-aged men trying to remember saving weapon utilising lightning bolts, a gong and what they did last week,” and “completely lacking a giant condom by eccentric scientist Tim Turan in laser guns, global catastrophe or extra (Tim Roth) goes messily awry; our gallants heroes terrestrials. Well, except for Richard Cotton, unearth a long-buried copy of Radiohead’s ‘Pop Is obviously.” Dead’ single and waste a good hour laughing Filming is due to start this month with the late themselves sick – the local musicians are Marlon Brando set to reprise his role of Colonel victorious; the final, spectacular battle scene sees Kurtz in Apocalypse Now as Jericho Tavern two-thousand-year-old indie-pop deity Lord promoter Mac. Terry Thomas plays Zodiac Richard Ramage (Chrisopher Biggins) emerging promoter Nick Moorbath, while prime minister from his library to make everyone a nice cup of David Cameron is set play Nightshift editor tribute acts and ageing rock bands whose souls tea, while Dustball, The Nubiles and The Ronan Munro after going on a curry and doughnut have been replaced by an unstoppable desire to Candyskins try to work out why none of the diet for six months. meet their final mortgage payments. monitors are working. The final scene features Supergrass singing In a spectacular opening sequence, The Jericho In typical Emmerich fashion, the fate of the local ‘Alright’ as the gang slap each other manfully on Tavern is destroyed by a supervolcano that has scene is left in the hands of a ragtag bunch of the back, oblivious to a swarm of microscopic lain dormant under Port Meadow for thousands of maverick misfits led by Thom Yorke (played by math-rockers pouring through holes in the years. The destruction is shown to have been Peter Lorre), a previously popular local celebrity Zodiac’s quite frankly dangerous roof. predicted in an ancient piece of graffiti on wall of dancer whose career has hit the rocks after a the gents’ loos in the Oranges & Lemons, traumatic encounter with Coldplay left him “I thought it was great,” said Jon Spira, “far more previously mistranslated simply as “Oxfud mental incapable of writing a proper tune for over ten convincing than some old hippy claptrap about mob was ear”. years. community and musical talent. Though, to be As the local music scene attempts to come to Yorke’s battle to overcome the aliens are honest, it’ll be even better once they’ve let terms with this disaster, The Zodiac is invaded by hampered by a vast snowstorm caused by global George Lucas twat about with it a few times and a race of sinister aliens who plan to turn the club warming that means the Number 5 bus service is turn Thom Yorke into a CGI-rendered Hayden into a giant factory churning out second-rate suspended, and conflict with his trusty lieutenant Christensen.” DOCTOR SHOTOVER Render Unto Caesar Well, dear boy, it’s all about TRIBUTES this month. More specifically, TRIBUTE BANDS… though I will take a Bulmers and tomato juice off you, if you are offering to render unto Shotover some form of “liquid tribute” from the bar… Ah, that’s better [gulp-o]… Meanwhile, older readers of this column may recall, and resonate with, my long-held theory that the more tribute bands there are, the better - since they help keep the newer and more self-indulgent (aka moan-y) Young People’s bands off our stages. Even if it does mean that we have to put up with all those amusingly misspelt names appearing weekly at the O2 Laughing Academy – The Smyths, The Jamm, “Sandi Thom” Yorke. (Laugh? I thought I’d never start etc). We here at the East Indies Club are generally more partial to the ones which include a nationality and/or location in the name, e.g. The Australian Doors… The Danish Blue Oyster Cult… The Isle of Wight Stripes. Still with me, Junior? Now, what about another liquid tribute? Well, since you’re asking… I wouldn’t say NIET to a large vodka and Cherry Blossom. Try and keep up at the back – it’s from my days in a Russian Gulag, when, in the absence of other stimulants, we used to melt shoe polish on the radiators and spread it on our bread. Bedingfield our trusty bar-steward knows the drill… Why, thank YOU, comrade [gulp-ovitch]. That’s put a new shine on things! While we’re on such lofty cultural topics, here’s a couple more tribute bands for you – the Russian RUSH… the Canadian CAN… not to mention “Harold” Buddy Holly and The Italians… what’s that? You’d rather go and see This Town Needs Guns? Oh suit yourself. Just get another liquid tribute in, and then you can f*** off. Next month: Caesar Sisters Bohemian Crapsody – The Queensland QUEEN Introducing…. photo by Giulia Biasibetti

Nightshift’s monthly guide to the best local bands bubbling under Deer Chicago

Who are they? Deer Chicago are Jonny Payne (vocals / guitar), Dan Newton (bass) and Tris Griffiths (drums). They formed late in 2009 to play a gig at Fat Lil’s in Witney and were immediately offered the chance to play at Charlbury Riverside Festival the following year, so thought it would be a good idea to stay together. The trio have continued to gig locally since, including a stint of gigs around Scotland last winter where they apparently did more snow shovelling than gig playing due to the weather. They’ve recently been recording with Ben Lloyd from Dive Dive and have their debut single Their favourite other Oxfordshire act is: ‘Lantern Collapse’ / ‘Rolling of the Ocean’ to show for it this month “Von Braun.” What do they sound like? If they could only keep one album in the world, it would be: In a word, epic. Maybe even majestic if ‘Lantern Collapse’ is anything to go “Biffy Clyro’s `Vertigo of Bliss’. Every song is written really well and we’ve on, all shimmering guitars that that snowball into a turbulent plateau of sky- been influenced by the way the songs flow, whether it involves long touching/shoegazing noise, waiting til you think it can’t get any more epic instrumental sections, big verses or build ups, every part has its place.” before becoming, well, more epic. There are elements of post-rock in there, When is their next gig and what can newcomers expect? but tempered by more structured melodies and an adherence to the contrast “Fat Lil’s Winter Warmer on the 18th December. It’s an all-dayer packed between light and soft bits and more grandiose bursts of noise. with local bands and festive treats. Hopefully stollen and glühwein.” What inspires them? Their favourite and least favourite things about Oxford music are: “Music that has the ability to pull you in certain ways. There are particular “Favourite – There’s a large amount of support for local music with live gigs we’ve all been to where the band/artist manages to create an Rapture/Truck store as well as a variety of local magazines and websites. atmosphere or mood in the room, and completely captivate the audience.” The range of venues is also pretty impressive. Least favourite: although we Career highlight so far: wouldn’t say it’s a negative point, but there are a lot of good gigs that clash “The Upstairs with BBC Introducing show at the O2. We grew up going to at the moment. In one night there was Upstairs Oxford with some amazing see very influential gigs at the Zodiac, and although it’s very different now it bands, plus Winchell Riots’ last show and Komrad and Rock of Travolta at was still the first time we’d played in that building.” the Cellar. All gigs we wanted to attend.” And the lowlight: You might love them if you love: “Playing the Box in Glasgow where we got heckled a huge amount for things Ride; Winchell Riots; Slowdive; My Morning Jacket. as small as dropping a plectrum. The banter began when we said we were Hear them here: from Oxford. Mistake.” www.deerchicago.co.uk

This month in Oxford Ye Olde Days music history 20 YEARS AGO 10 YEARS AGO 5 YEARS AGO In a landmark moment for Oxford music, a young Nightshift was celebrating “A hell of a year” in It was announced this month that The Academy band called On A Friday graced the cover of local December 2001. The front cover featured photos Music Group was set to buy The Zodiac venue, music mag Curfew, the band’s first ever interview. from Radiohead’s phenomenal South Park show; Nick Moorbath and Adrian Hicks relinquishing The feature found Thom Yorke admitting, tongue- Ride, who had reformed for a one-off ownership of the venue they had opened six years in-cheek, that he was “sick and aggressive” as he performance on Channel 4; the Point venue that previously with investment from Radiohead, Ride explained how ‘Nothing Touches Me’ was about an had been controversially closed down the previous and Supergrass. AMG spokeswoman Louise Kovacs artist imprisoned for abusing children, while Oxford month, going out with a riotous final show, and told Nightshift that the company would “be itself was the inspiration for songs like ‘Everybody pictures from Truck Festival and the Punt. looking to improve standards of service, décor and Lies Through Their Teeth’, before admitting that The Rock Of Travolta, Eeebleee, Meanwhile, facilities for fans and artists”. he maybe “takes things too seriously” but “it’s the Back In Communist Russia and Six Ray Sun Fell City Girl, who later morphed into Winchell only way to get anywhere” and his band “is had played a special Nightshift-organised show at Riots, graced the Nightshift front cover as well as ambitious.” Who could have guessed back then just the Zodiac to celebrate the emergence of a new topping our end of year Top 20 for the second how far that ambition would carry them. wave of great local bands, while Radiohead topped year in a row – the first band ever to achieve the Elsewhere Ride announced they were to play Nightshift’s end of year Top 20 with ‘Pyramid feat. Young Knives’ ‘She’s Attracted To’ was their biggest hometown show, at the Apollo (now Song’ from their ‘Amnesiac’ album. The Rock Of runner-up in a list that also included Thom Yorke, the New Theatre) the following February, while Travolta’s ‘Lukewarm Skywater’ was runner up. Xmas Lights, Foals and Rebecca Mosley, while Curfew’s demo of the month was a sprightly bunch Big Speakers, Dupe, Moonkat and Cargo Cult Young Knives bassist House Of Lords was of young pups called The Jennifers, featuring a were among acts now lost in time in the Top 20. celebrating being included in NME’s Cool List for teenage Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey. The Former-No Joy In Mudville singer Grant was the year. Joining Young Knives on Transgressive review likened them to “The Beatles meeting Syd demo of the month, while poor old Asher Dust Records were Foals, who were due to set off on tour Barrett on the Moon.” was stuck in the demo dumper, the enduring singer, with Mystery Jets and Larrikin Love. Gig highlights of the month included a brace of rapper and producer having since finished top of Local acts releasing new material this month were shows from On A Friday (supporting Freak! at that particular pile. A new band in town, October File, Sharron Kraus and Junkie The Oxford Venue – now the Academy); grindcore Ponyclub, were also reviewed, later to change Brush. Hammer Vs The Snake were demo of pioneers Carcass supported by local doom- their name to Young Knives. the month, while at the other end of the scale, metallers Sevenchurch at the Jericho Tavern and Gig highlights of the month were, at the time, Impinge apparently sounded “depressingly like a host of local acts including The Haze, Dead newcomers Hundred Reasons at the Zodiac, Christopher Cross’s `Arthur’s Theme’ with any But Dreaming, The Daisies, Purple Rhinos, while post-punk cult heroes The Chameleons semblance of thrill factor removed (and ain’t that Five Alarm Panic and Saturn 5. were on the comeback trail. Christmas Day’s listing saying something?)” A quick glance at the studio ads in that issue shows saw The Velvet Underground, Magazine, Gary Gig highlights of the month were The Human how long-lasting many of them are – Appletree, Numan, Blondie and Radiohead set to play at the League at the New Theatre and a rare show from The Coldroom and Courtyard all feature. editor’s house. Like bollocks they were. lost folk legend Vashti Bunyan at the Zodiac. DEMOSDEMOS Sponsored by Demo of the Month wins a free half day at Silver Street Studios in Reading, courtesy of Trojan Horse Recordings. Visit www.trojanhorserecordings.co.uk

as anyone, not piffling pretty backing vocals. DEMO OF Anyway, composure regained, it just pains us to hear an opportunity lost. Momentum goes THE MONTH by the wayside and we feel we’ve got to sit pensively at the bottom of the stairs contemplating the beauty of metaphysical DAMN VANDALS poetry when really we want to be outside With the singer’s stentorian voice and a bit firing lasers at passing asteroids. Vera Grace of a gothic stomp about it, Damn Vandal’s to their credit try once more to rouse ‘Can’t Go Dancing When You’re Gone’ themselves towards the end but even then initially promises to be right old Batcave they can’t resist doing the fluffy stuff again. hoe-down, or disco time down at the The silly sausages. Hammer Horror studios, but ultimately it pulls too many punches and never manages to work itself free of its central refrain and HALF NAKED ends up sounding like The Divine Comedy While rather less ferocious than Vera Grace trying too hard to sound mean and moody. on first inspection, Half Naked sound more Thankfully, ‘Hey Little Bunny’ is a far convincing overall for not upsetting their darker beast of a song. With its opening particular punk apple cart with anything lines, “Hey little bunny, I’ve seen you unnecessarily nice. Seemingly coming from jumping around / With your tail in the air the post-Blink 182 school of pop-punk, and your feet off the ground,” we wonder, at they’re all fizz and bluster, the singer first, if it’s meant to be a piss-take, but no, chewing up his words and spitting them out it’s all about the destruction of poor wee with a decent amount of attitude, the guitars bunny’s countryside home by developers – all staccato stabs of fuzzed-up belligerence. woodland burrows concreted over and nature ‘An Offer You Can’t Refuse’ finds them at poisoned by humanity’s headlong pursuit of their spikiest, all stop-start dynamics, while consumerism. The singer talks dolefully to ‘Broken Arrows’ is far poppier, managing to bunny as a squalling storm of guitar builds find a good balance of melody and fiery behind him, the whole thing brought to life intent, careering through an entire skipful of rather wonderfully by a video of a floppy Stateside punk at a determined canter. Just as toy rabbit enduring ever more depressing you’ve got them pegged down as slightly scenarios – falling off a seafront wall, two-dimensional noisemakers, they close breaking his paw and becoming homeless. with the seven-minute ‘Our Future, slower It’s great and reminds us of Robert Foster’s and more densely textured. It’s probably less COLDROOMS fantastic ‘Is This What You Call Change?’ fun than what’s come before but remade by be-suited 80s rockers The demonstrates an admirable willingness to Godfathers. change things around a bit and while they’re RECORDING AND REHEARSAL STUDIOS hardly an original band, they kick it all out with some serious vim and vigour and are in FULLY EQUIPPED RECORDING no immediate danger of being mistaken for * AND PRODUCTION STUDIO VERA GRACE poetry-reading softies. Witney’s Vera Grace pile into proceedings * LARGE LIVE ROOM with no little bombast, all thundering drums and anthemic guitar volleys, before the GRUDLE BAY RIOTS * 3 FULLY EQUIPPED REHEARSAL ROOMS singer screams, belches and rasps his way Following on from their so-so one-track into the ceremony and it’s all set for the demo a couple of months back, Grudle Bay TEL: 07823770079 or 01865 863044 thrilling spectacle of Iron Maiden battling it Riots return with another single-song out with Gallows and we’re hanging on to offering, still painting pretty pastoral their coattails for the duration of the party. pictures with their decidedly chilled form of And then. And then they go and do what dream-pop. ‘Oneandone’, like ‘Hon’ before every other bloody metalcore band seem to it, feels like a come-down answer to Chad do – bring in the melodic counterpoint Valley’s more euphoric form of Balearic- vocals to try and prettify everything. Like inspired electro-pop. Guitars twinkle, nasty, brutish hardcore mayhem ever needed electronic beats chatter and breathless vocals prettifying. Not only is it a cliché, it’s like swoon overhead, while an understated dubby the barman at a Viking feast suggesting bassline gives it a less ephemeral feel. Of everyone stop for a sweet sherry because all course, it’s the musical equivalent of staring that high-octane mead and axe-throwing is out across the Mediterranean at sundown/ getting a bit beastly and might upset that sunrise (deleted according to sleeping/waking nice lady sat in the corner. Not realising that habits) after a good session on the bong. the nice lady is actually Boudicca and she’s Which, as the cold, damp nights draw the biggest party animal in the room and inexorably in, feels like a bloody good place wants bloody axe-related mayhem as much to be right now. particularly aware of what the spirit of rock MATT FINUCANE and roll entails, sounding like the sort of Matt, now resident in Brighton, reminds us of teenagers who might tell their parents to turn local bands he’s been in in the past, including that bloody racket down. This is power pop of mid-90s Nightshift faves Thin Blue Wrists, as the politest sort, the sort of stuff that clogs up well as more recent local rock heroes Empty MTV’s schedules in case they broadcast Vessels. His solo stuff here is nothing like something that offends a Presbyterian those acts, a far more understated affair with a minister’s wife in Ayreshire. This lot make warm, lo-fi fuzziness to it that underpins McFly sound like Fucked Up in the crazed Matt’s almost Bowie-ish vocals, particularly punk rock stakes, lead track `Soul For Sale’ on ‘180 Degree Reaction’ (although he does sounding suitably soulless, while `Free Fresh momentarily turn into some kind of cockney Air’ and `Fake Weekend’ are like some warped barrow boy when he announces “I’ll fackin’ Human Centipede-style fusing of The Feeling knock you aaaart” at one point. Best of the and Shed Seven. Come on lads, you’re sixteen two songs here is ‘Hands Up’, which is sort of years old ferchrissakes, not sixty. Sound like list of random, mostly bad stuff (“Hands up if you’re having fun, not trying to impress some you believe in trophy shags; hands up for an gimlet-eyed major label A&R shark who’s been office crèche; hands up for rotten teeth and told to sign someone who’ll look pretty on rickets… etc), delivered in an oddly jaunty the front of glossy mags but satisfy the Radio fashion for its mostly downbeat subject 2 playlist panel. Still, if it’s any consolation matter. We particularly like the “Ba ba ba ba” Fivethirtyone are this month’s band most bit near the end, which fleetingly reminds us likely to get a million downloads on iTunes or of Iggy’s ‘The Passenger’. Anyone who a billion Likes on Googleplus, or whatever it is reminds us of Iggy, however fleetingly, is young people do instead of buying records and alright in our book. CDs these days. See, we’re completely out of touch with youth culture. Then again, if this is indicative of youth culture, we’re bloody glad MAMMOTH & THE to be so. DRUM Mammoth & The Drum sent us a full album of their stuff some months ago, which showed THE DEMO that they have at least one cracking pop song in their repertoire – the maddeningly catchy DUMPER ‘Who Says You Shouldn’t Surf In Jimmy Choo Shoes?’ We’re not sure if this demo counts as progress, the songs, for the most part, CLEPSYDRA sounding like they’re made of old lolly sticks From young people trying to sound like old held loosely together with sellotape but, again, people, to old people trying to sound like dead they have their moments. Or moment, to be people. Some time ago we got chatting at a gig precise. ‘Why Buy Balloons Just To Let about great artists who had unintentionally Them Go?’ is annoying, partly since its lyrics inspired a disproportionate number of really are little more than wacky non-sequiters that rubbish acts. The Beatles obviously, and Stevie sound like Mammoth & The Drum are trying Wonder (not just for Jamiroquai) came up. too hard to be zany and psychedelic, but also And of course Jimi Hendrix. Arguably the because the singer’s voice so squeaky and world’s greatest ever guitarist: an innovator, a adenoidal the chorus line sounds like he’s showman, a true original. So how the bloody singing, “Wah babbaloo jussa lemago”. It’s like hell come so many of the tedious old an old Twizz Twangle demo with all the mad tosswallies who worship at his musical altar THE COURTYARD STUDIO silliness removed. ‘Now That Summer Is Here’ can’t manage to be innovative, showy or PROTOOLS HD2, MTA 980 CONSOLE 32/24/ is better, a lo-fi surf-tinged jaunt that’s original in the bloody hell slightest? This 24, OTARI MTR90 MK2 24 TRACK TAPE awkward enough to make you think of a sorry bunch are a typical case in point. They MACHINE, 2 TRACKING ROOMS, SUPERB beefed-up Incredible String band, but ‘Such A even have a song called ‘Jimi Plays My CONTROL ROOM WITH GOOD SELECTION Glorious Day’, replete with laughing children Guitar’. They’ve also got a band name that OF MICS & OUTBOARD GEAR, + MIDI and a cheeky snatch of that old ‘Jimmy Choo sounds like a particularly unpleasant type of FACILITIES (INC LOGIC AUDIO, AKAI STD. On and on they churn, like it’s still Shoes’ ditty wedged into its coda, is their best S1000, OLD SKOOL ROLAND ETC.) effort by far, folkier, more solid and again 1969. In fact, so long do they churn on and proving they can pen a simple, cheery tune bloody on, they might well have started Residential facilities included. when they put their minds to it. playing in 1969 and simply forgot to ever www.courtyardrecordingstudio.com stop. It’s all very what earnest old dullards PHONE PIPPA FOR DETAILS would call authentic and earthy and blah blah ON 01235 845800 FIVETHIRTYONE bloody blah boring as fuck. With big jangly We’re not sure if this band’s name is meant bells on. Here’s a windswept guitar solo; to be taken like that classic Spinal Tap “one there’s a constipated blues dirge. Here’s a full louder” moment and the band are like Tara to the brim bucket of cattle dung. Eat up. Milton’s old outfit 5.30 except, y’know, Back in the day Jimi Hendrix set fire to his louder. Or faster. Or just a bit later in the day. guitar on stage. The only way you’d get Then again, given they’re all sixteen years anything like a similar level of entertainment old and come from Henley, we doubt they’re out of Clepsydra would be to pour a can of particularly aware of a cult early-90s mod- petrol over them mid-set and torch the punk band. Neither are we sure they’re fuckers. Guess we might even dance to that.

Send demos for review to: Nightshift, PO Box 312, Kidlington, Oxford, OX5 1ZU. Or email song links to [email protected], clearly marked Demo for review. IMPORTANT: no review without a contact address and phone number. No more than four tracks on a demo. If you can’t handle criticism, please don’t send us your demo.