email: [email protected] website: nightshift.oxfordmusic.net Free every month. NIGHTSHIFT Issue 159 October Oxford’s Music Magazine 2008

GimmeGimme Shelter!Shelter!

s. - interview inside XMASXMASXMASXMASXMASXMASs met LIGHTSLIGHTSLIGHTSLIGHTSLIGHTSLIGHTSal storm erupt Oxford’

Plus News, reviews and seven pages of local gigs!

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

HEADCOUNT HAVE SPLIT. THE REGAL launches a new The local punk-metal veterans weekly live music club night this called it a day last month after month. You! Me! Dancing! takes almost a decade together. The place every Wednesday night, 8.30- perennial Nightshift favourites late, featuring some of the best up were always the most authentic and coming bands around. punk noise in Oxford, with a October’s line up features This malevolently melodic sound that City (1st); Data.Select.Party (8th); took in Killing Joke, Adam & The Rolo Tomassi, Xmas Lights and Ants and Therapy? as prime Ivy’s Itch, plus Youthmovies DJs influences. Headcount released (22nd) and Pulled Apart By Horses three albums, ‘It’s Business Doing (29th). Visit www.the-regal.com for Pleasure With You’, ‘Die Monkey more details. Die’ and ‘To The Point’, working with the likes of Marco Pirroni IN A VAGUE ATTEMPT to catch from Adam and The Ants, and up with the 21st Century, Raven from Killing Joke along the Nightshift can now accept demos way. from Oxford acts online. We held Foul-mouthed frontman Rob on to our old wax cylinder and Moss told Nightshift, “Yeah. compact cassette player for as long Headcount’s dead cos we got as we could but it seems that fucking bored playing to no-one young people today prefer to email and then we finally realised what a MySpace or BeBo link rather everyone else has known for the than go to all the effort of actually last nine years - people don’t like posting a CD. So anyway, if you fat noisy c***s. But we’re all want your tracks reviewed by our friends and are actually going to famously even-handed demo panel, WINCHELL RIOTS, A Silent Film, Stornoway, Raggasaurus and The try writing songs that we actually send a link over, clearly marked Half Rabbits head the On A Saturday series of gigs at the Academy in like and might enjoy playing, if we Demo for review, to November. On A Saturday is a collaboration between Nightshift and can get Stef away from the dinner [email protected]. We Oxford’s leading gig promoters TCT Music, and aims to showcase the table long enough. So Headcount’s will, of course, still be accepting best up and coming bands in Oxford in a series of high-profile shows. dead, but we’re not, if you know CDs. And bribes. But proper ones, The shows, which take place every Saturday throughout November worra mean. We’re going to try mind, none of yer cheap, tacky provide a great mix of established local favourites and many of the best and get a few copies of the album chewy sweets and stuff. new acts to emerge on the scene in recent months. The full line-up is: sold by doing a free single download and make a demo BBC OXFORD INTRODUCING Sat 1st The Winchell Riots + 50ft Panda + Elapse-O available of the last Headcount are set to release a special CD of Sat 8th Stornoway + The Keyboard Choir + Alphabet Backwards song written which, in my James Bond covers in aid of Sat 15th Raggasaurus + Confidential Collective + Loose Grip opinion, was one of the best Children In Need later this year. Sat 22nd A Silent Film + International Jetsetters + Motion In things we did. Not that anyone Show presenters Dave Gilyeat and Colour would care!” Tim Bearder approached a number Sat 29th The Half Rabbits + Tristan & The Troubadours + of Oxford acts to contribute and Spaceheroes Of The People YOUTHMOVIES release a new the album, entitled ‘A Quantum Of EP on the legendary Blast First Covers’, will feature Xmas Lights, Tickets for each show are priced £6 and are on sale now from label on 3rd November. ‘The Polyp The Family Machine, Witches, wegottickets.com or direct from the Academy box office. EP’ features five brand new tracks Maria Ilett, The Epstein, Sikorski plus a remix of ‘Magdalen Bridge’ and Eleanor Glynn, 50ft Panda, by Jonquil’s Hugo Manuel. Other Boywithatoy, Stornoway, guests on the EP are Portland, Straightjacket and Borderville, available to listen to online all week and artists with quality Oregon poet Adam Gnade, Joe tackling assorted classic Bond at bbc.co.uk/oxford recordings who are interested in Shrewsbury from 65Daysofstatic themes. The album will be on sale obtaining promotional music videos and Blanket’s Vicky Steer. Full in time for the annual BBC YAKUZA STUDIOS is a three- with high-end production values. tracklisting for the EP is, ‘Magic Children In Need appeal and man video production company For more information please email Diamond’; ‘Sad Trash’; ‘Thazn’; should be available on iTunes. based in Oxford. They have made them at [email protected] ‘Become An Island’; ‘Magdalen As ever, don’t forget to tune into music videos for a number of or visit Bridge’ and ‘Polyp’. The band BBC Oxford Introducing every Oxford based acts including, www.yakuzastudios.com. head off on a nationwide tour to Saturday night between 6-7pm on Confidential Collective, Greenacre, promote the new CD, calling at 95.2fm. The dedicated local music Xmas Lights, Mounted Insanity VIDEOSYNCRATIC on Cowley the Oxford Academy on Thursday show plays the best new Oxford Cannon and DJ Fu Vs Jungle Road are still keen to sell CDs, 13th November. Adam Gnade is releases as well as featuring Drummer. Yakuza are currently vinyl and DVDs by local bands. All support for the tour. Tickets, interviews with local and touring looking for videographers to join Oxford acts are welcome to take priced £7, are on sale now from acts, news, demo reviews and a gig their production team, and also in their stock along to Jon at the wegottickets.com and clubbing guide. The show is working with wide range of tbands shop. A quiet word with XMAS LIGHTS

The arrival of Nick has obviously brought an influential new element to the band; how in particular has this affected the band’s live sound and how the album was recorded? JAMES: “With Nick we were after losing the notion of being a five-piece with a vocalist and wanted to become simply six musicians. His electronic-aided take on vocals has really helped us achieve that. Equally he’s a pushy bastard, so we get a lot done!” UMAIR: “It has created a situation where live you don’t have a clue where the noises are coming from, they just batter you left right and centre.” And how has Nick found working with Xmas Lights different from what he was doing before? NICK: “I hadn’t performed live in nearly seven years, not since my days as a small boy in Centre Negative, and bit parts with Coma Kai, so getting back into the habit of that was a big shock, though incredibly satisfying. In that time I’ve been a studio-hermit, either doing other projects like Mounted Insanity Cannon with my brother, or my day job making sounds for video-games, neither of METAL IN TO FLESH. FUTURE FACTORY butchered, eaten or incinerated. Bassist Simon which really involve working in such a sizeable brutality. Screaming. Always the screaming. All is Tierney left to become a dad, guitarist Luke group of musicians, all with different approaches to pain. But you love it. You love it because it’s the followed, before the band parted company with this kind of thing.” sound of Xmas Lights and you’ve got your head vocalist Marco Ruggiero due to musical differences Despite Marco’s departure, Umair is currently stuck in the speakers so you can experience it all (“The largest issue we had was that of melodic working with his old singer on a new side project, one louder. Up to eleven, and beyond. vocals: Marco was keen to add more, whereas we which is reviewed in this month’s demo pages. wanted to lose them entirely. We felt melodic UMAIR: “The project’s called Monday Morning XMAS LIGHTS ARE A METAL BAND THAT vocals suddenly become lead vocals, as opposed to Sun and came out of a desire to make beat driven have moved so far beyond standard metal and being one-sixth of a musical tapestry – but less music with trippy, dubby elements. We were hardcore noise making that they’ve become a pretentiously than that sounds!”). In their places listening to a lot of artists at the time which force for pure musical violence: squalling, virulent came bassist Matthew Mooney, guitarist Charlie inspired us, like King Tubby, Portishead, Lycia, guitars, spasmodic time changes, punishing Cunningham, and, perhaps most significantly, Scorn and My Bloody Valentine. I play guitar and keyboard drones and, yes, the screaming. Brutal, vocalist and electronics wizard Nick B, formerly of sing, Marco sings and plays bass. Vocals-wise it yet intricately textured, Xmas Lights write local metal faves Centre Negative. This trio have may sound similar to some moments of early industrial symphonies that take you through teamed up with remaining drummer Dave Xmas Lights, or comparable to bands like Joy brooding, doom-laden ambience into sharp, McDonald, guitarist James Gray-King and Division and Swans.” unexpected passages of hysterical violence that electronics chap and vocalist Umair Chaudhry. It is feel like you’re being attacked by a crack-ravaged this new combination of Nick and Umair that AFTER HITTING US WITH A COUPLE OF cyborg during a country picnic. makes Xmas Lights such a startling live incredible live shows with the new line-up at the proposition, the pair hunched over their keyboards start of 2008, James left the country for six IT IS TWO YEARS SINCE NIGHTSHIFT LAST either side of the stage, screaming their lungs out in months to work with a charity in Kenya. Xmas featured Xmas Lights on the cover. Back then they crazed tandem, while James contorts himself and Lights subsequently performed a handful of shows had just released one of the most incredible, slashes at his guitar, as the listener tries to work without their lead guitarist, offering up a different, powerful CDs by any Oxford band, ‘The Threat out where the hell each sound is coming from, all even more electronics-led, and more atmospheric Level EP’, magnum opus so expansive and the while being sucked into a heavenly hardcore version of themselves. How have James’ ambitious they couldn’t perform it live without hell. experiences in Kenya affected him? employing a full orchestra. Since that time the JAMES: “As an experience it was unparalleled. band has changed half its personnel, while retaining IT’S TWO YEARS SINCE WE LAST MET, Living by yourself in the middle of the bush and its commitment to epic, explosive noise-making how has the band changed musically in that time? everyday working with the people in tiny villages and is now about to release a full self-titled debut JAMES: “The biggest thing I guess is that with gives you a new respect for things. I think I album on their own Sleep Is For The Weak label. every change in personnel it has helped us reflect probably have less tolerance for trivial things now Never once, in those two years, though, have on what Xmas Lights is and should be and get and that has moved through to my attitude in the Xmas Lights been surpassed in the heaviosity people on board that share that vision, so we are band too. Musically I wrote a lot of very multi- stakes by another Oxford act. Put it this way, if the slightly more defined and slightly less compromised layered things and it really helped to give me a CERN Large Hadron Collider really had created a now. We have added much more electronics and greater sense of dynamics than I had before; I black hole large enough to suck planet earth into with the addition of a second guitar we have been learned to appreciate small things building to a oblivion last month, the BBC highlights would able to lose the melody in the vocals and have that larger whole, rather than just having uber-fast have featured Xmas Lights as the soundtrack. be taken up with a more dynamic guitar interplay.” cool, complicated guitar parts in everything!” Do we really want to meet these people? Well, we DAVE: “Musically, there is a lot more going on in How do the band feel about the gigs they did in survived the last time, so why not. Xmas Lights songs than there was two years ago. James’ absence? This came across in the mastering process of our NICK: “It was inevitable with one less guitar, that FIRST A BRIEF CATCH-UP ON WHAT’S album. There are about four different masters the electronic elements from Umair and myself happened since the end of 2006. Disappointingly knocking around and we’ve finally, just in time, would present themselves more in the live mix. the band members who have left weren’t settled on an album that we agree on.” Though it certainly did sound pretty sweet. I hope as a result we find a midpoint between the `Electric Sheep’, which traverses through so sounds, keep the intensity of dual guitars, but many moods and riffs that you feel like a new make sure the electronics stand out as key plateau of epic-ness has been reached. We’ve element of it all.” not turned into Queen just yet, though. CHARLIE: “The electronics were more Where do you see the music going from here? prominent and they can sound dark; Umair is NICK: “As much as I love this new album, it a dark man with dark intentions, I’m scared still is made up of a lot of tunes that, to be on my own with him.” although modified, were part of Xmas Lights MOONEY: “I feel the electronic path was way before the current line-up. The next one more due to Nick and Umair finally will be the first release to feature tracks combining their attributes, rather than James’ written from scratch by all the current absence. You can hear that already on the members, and so I’m excited to hear how album.” that’ll turn out.” UMAIR: It’s already taking on a life of its DAVE: “You can hear the development own on the album. It’s like we’ve been even while listening to the 35 minute album.” swallowed by electronics and noise, it won’t UMAIR: “I see the music diversifying more, be long until we start sounding like the last slowly progressing songs with intense Skullflower album!” harmonies and more electronic based songs structured around beats and samples.” NEWCOMERS TO XMAS LIGHTS would undoubtedly be hit first and foremost XMAS LIGHTS DO STAND OUT QUITE by the band’s brutality and musical spectacularly from the rest of Oxford’s confrontation, and yet there is still room for musical output; do they see any kindred humour. Some is buried deep, in Nick’s lyrics, spirits in town? while track titles like ‘Salad Bar Sneeze JAMES: “Well, sound wise we stand out a lot Guard’ suggest a daft observational humour. from lots of people, but I believe our attitude JAMES: “The humour always is and always and approach to songwriting places us very will be there. I think it is impossible to be firmly as an Oxford band. We adore serious all the time and be a true reflection of Radiohead; Youthmovies have always been a being a whole person, the trick is to do favourite and overall the whole scene is honest music, and that encompasses every pretty inbred always. Basically we drink in element of being people.” The Star as much as the next band, we just NICK: “I’ve never really been a big fan of get to break more on stage!” lyrics in general, let alone ones with a NICK: “It’s definitely different to what it The Purple Turtle meaningful message, unless it’s really well was seven years ago. Though I think I prefer done. I’ve accepted I’m no poet, so as a what Oxford is putting out now. The bands Oxford’s Best Student bar result most of my vocal tends to be gibberish, have realised Oxford is quite a prominent nonsense, or just sounds that my mouth made player in the UK these days, with more of us that I thought were pretty cool. If I do ever able to break the national scene. So as a result Live Bands and DJs pop in a lyric or two, it tends to be about everyone’s trying harder at what they do, and pretty tongue-in-cheek stuff. I couldn’t even the quality of music keeps getting better and Open until 3am guess at Umair’s approach to his vocal or better. It’s great having the likes of what it’s about, as I’m pretty sure he couldn’t Confidential Collective, This Town Needs Happy Hour between 5.30 – 8pm guess mine. But I like it that way. We’re both Guns, Clanky Robo Gob Jobs and £1 pints and spirits going on about different things, two different Youthmovies, being some of your favourite Frewin Court, opposite Zavvi stories. Someone listening may try and follow bands, and also being your neighbours from both of us, to work out what it’s about, only two doors down.” to feel even more confused. That makes me JAMES: “But thankfully not from three chuckle.” doors down. They were less good...”

THE ALBUM FEATURES EIGHT TRACKS AN ALMOST PERFECT EXAMPLE OF over 35 minutes. Previously you might have how bands can combine guitars and had single tracks lasting 20 minutes, notably electronics without compromising either, the gloriously expansive ‘The Threat level Is Xmas Lights are, perhaps, typical of the Orange’, which reached number 3 in ambition and vision of Oxford’s best bands. If Nightshift’s end of year Top 20, yet the they were forced to dispense with either their album itself feels like it runs almost as a guitars or electronics? single piece – so have Xmas Lights become JAMES: “Couldn’t do it! We’d be a whole less epic or more so? different band; one I wouldn’t want to be in.” 876084 JAMES: “More so! By a mile! Basically the CHARLIE: “The electronics: Umair and album is one track as we see it. The track Nick are complete tossers.” breaks mark convenient stop points between JAMES: “What Charlie said!” moments. That said, it was written to be Arch brutalists, they are beyond doubt the listened to in order in its entirety every time. heaviest band in Oxford. If Xmas Lights We have also become better at reigning in registered 10 on the musical brutality-ometer, ideas to get the most from them sooner.” who do you reckon would go up to 11? NICK: I think we managed to recreate the DAVE: “Rolo Tomassi.” live show quite well in the album, making sure UMAIR: “I can never decide between to avoid pauses between songs wherever we Converge and Napalm Death, so I think it could. It’s always nice to not give the would have to be a split. Above that would be audience a chance to breathe until the set’s Swans’ first album on 12.” over. I always like writing things short and ROCK-POP-DANCE-GOLDEN OLDIES-INDIE- snappy, rather than big and epic. Some of the ‘Xmas Lights’ is released on Sleep Is For The SOUL-TECHNO-HIP-HOP-JAZZ-LATIN-REGGAE- guys prefer it the other way round. I think we Weak’. They play at the Regal on Wednesay DRUM&BASS-GARAGE—R&B-DISCO-1950s- found a happy medium with the current stuff. 22nd October with Rolo Tomassi. Visit UMAIR: “The album for me feels very epic, www.myspace.com/xmaslights2 for tour dates 2000s. Brand new back catalogue CDs £4 - £7 especially with the inclusion of the last track, and tracks. each. Brand new chart CDs £5 - £10 each Sponsored RELEASED by echoes of new romantic excess) with a desire to A SILENT FILM fill vast stadiums with a sound that can shift a ‘The City That Sleeps’ million units (they couldn’t dispute the occasionally similarities between themselves (Xtra Mile) and Muse and Keane). Either that or they It’s not great a revelation to say that Oxford simply can’t help writing Radio 2-friendly excels in breeding bands with a musical ambition anthems however hard they try. that goes beyond a stolid three-chord chug. Wide of wingspan, A Silent Film are a delicate, Doubtless it’s something to do with all the sometimes ephemeral band. Rock and roll academia in the city that Oxford has produced excess in its accepted forms wouldn’t suit them, the likes of Radiohead, Youthmovies and Foals. but they punch skywards with a vengeance on In the case of A Silent Film it seems to be the songs like ‘Julie Jane’ and ‘Gerontion’. Still, abundance of grandiose architecture and wide they sound most at home on the more brooding open spaces that is reflected in their music. ‘Sleeping Pills’, or the introspective ‘Aurora’, This debut album from the band feels like it’s which closes the album. been a long time coming – partly because we Unlike so many of Oxford’s musical successes, knew and loved them back when they were A Silent Film’s scope sets them apart from the Shouting Myke – but listening through its or cello offers the same satisfaction as placing underground straight away. They sound like carefully-orchestrated eleven tracks, it seems the final piece of a jigsaw into place. they’re built for success from the off, rather like it’s an almost obsessive search for None of which is to say ‘The City That than some kind of chance breakthrough. ‘The perfection that’s taken the time. The attention Sleeps’ is a stylistic triumph over substance; City That Sleeps’ sounds like the accomplished to structural and textural detail is immense, Rob’s lyrics might appear more literary than third album from an established stadium act, Robert Stevenson’s sweet, soaring voice (not emotive but the almost classical feel of the rather than the debut outing of an as-yet unlike Ultravox’s Midge Ure at times) and music as a whole tugs at your heart in a unknown troupe of hopefuls. They’ve built stately piano slotted into Lewis Jones’ swirling different way. Like Snow Patrol, A Silent Film their palace; now they must hope the tourists guitars with almost mathematical precision, seem intent on marrying their artier leanings flock to admire it. They will. while the unobtrusive introduction of marimba (check out the video to ‘Lamplight, with its Dale Kattack

THE KEYZ is a triumph of proficiency over character. muffled thumps, but at seventy minutes long, Congratulations. the album falls into the frequent trap of ‘Superstar Gazer’ Dale Kattack indulgent drifting, simply chasing the shadows of Kraftwerk’s ‘Trans-Europe Express’. You (Own Label) could easily strip twenty or thirty minutes With a wacky biog on their website, coupled away from `White Noise’ and end up with a with kerrazy, private-joke-infested pen pics of INTERZONE NOISE decent album of dark-edged ambient the band members, the deliberately (we hope) electronica. misspelt name and lyrics like “I want my super ‘White Noise’ While Richie Hawtin and Dave Clarke threw monkey fish badger-shaped-cat” barked over a techno into skeletally stark relief with their mix’n’match hotchpotch of 70s pub-rock, Two (Eyeless) work n the 90s, this too often feels like Tone and Hoxton indie, the temptation is to A follow-up to his recent ‘Interzone retreading all too familiar ground. kick The Keyz’ debut four-track EP around the Recordings’ release on Eyeless a couple of Victoria Waterfield room in the vain hope that some of the pain months back, this album is the work of local magically makes its way through the ether to producer Die_Funkt. Treading similar the band themselves. Because they’ve annoyed minimalist territory to the last one, there are us now, right from the start. But then things get excursions into trance, deep house and dubby worse. The cheesy Specials-by-way-of- techno, but essentially it’s dark, electronic Chas’n’Dave stomp of EP opener mood music that appears to owe pretty much `Monkeyfish’ soon gets replaced by a lumpen, everything to Plastikman and Dave Clarke. plodding form of soft-centred soul-rock that Which is no bad thing, even if can make it sound seems to suck any vestige of hope from the ten years out of date at times. When it works room, causing the listener to be invaded by best, the carefully-nuanced electro ambience nightmares of nights trapped in provincial battle pulses like a distant steam train before sliding of the band semi-finals, watching cheery, beery into hollowed-out sci-fi horror soundtracking, musicians swap knowing grins as they build up or simply the sound of an android trimming his to a climactic cover of Toploader’s `Dancing In hedge. Elsewhere there’s the feel of experiencing 010 The Moonlight’. Extended guitar solos and a rave through several layers of sleep. The electric piano noodling replace anything synth drones and undulations drift in and out of resembling proper tunes and the whole episode focus, the beats switch from harsh and brittle to

Selected Oxford releases are now available on the ground floor HMV Oxford supports local music Open Sundays 11-5pm & late Thursdays till 7pm. 10% student discount every day rise and rise of the band, both in stature and THIS TOWN NEEDS musical accomplishment, suggests that GUNS whatever the release of ‘Animals’ may bring, their story is still unfolding. ‘Animals’ Ian Chesterton (Big Scary Monsters) With their rinky-dink, jazz-inflected math-pop and song titles like ‘I’ll Forget About You MR SHAODOW Throwing That Rock Cos That Dance Was Kinda Funny’, it often felt like This Town Needs ‘Grime’ Guns were a knowing pastiche of Youthmovies, (Own Label) Foals et al. with their clever nods towards the Having set his bench extremely high with ‘Look American (particularly Chicago) alt.rock Out, There’s A Black Man Coming’ and ‘The underground. But the band’s longevity and hard British Are Coming’ last year, we expect great work proves otherwise, and on this debut album, things already from local rapper Mr ShaoDow; they’ve even reined in the titles to single-word thankfully this new single delivers. Instead of tributes to various mammals. ‘Pig’ and ‘Elk’ prevalent throughout the album. settling into a lo-fi, minimalist style, he’s teamed display admirable brevity; the most indulgent But TTNG’s main failing is laid out in the first up with producer Offkey for ‘Grime’, moving they get is ‘Chinchilla’ (although perhaps song, ‘Chinchilla’, which starts to fade out, into funky electro house and a dancefloor- ‘Quetzel’ is being obscure for the sake of it). promising some kind of explosive return, only to friendly sound that doesn’t detract from his full- They’ve reined their music in too. From their shrug and die away. The rest of ‘Animals’ is throttle, lyrically sharp rapping. early releases when their epic pop intentions put similarly lost in contemplation, twinkling along ‘Grime’ takes a swipe at say-nothing, them up alongside Fell City Girl, This Town with no urgency and, crucially, little variation in reputation-obsessed grime MCs (the Needs Guns have nestled into a more self- texture or pace, and while Stuart’s voice can be accompanying video, up on YouTube is regarding sound: Tim Collins’ guitar work strong and emotive, he lacks range and often it’s excellent) in ShaoDow’s trademark manner. As spangles gently over easy rhythms, while Stuart impossible to tell what he’s singing, so a key with ‘Look Out…’, ‘Grime’ makes a serious Smith’s voice is full of dreamy resignation and element of the band’s sound is effectively lost. point with humour and a chorus you’ll struggle odd string flourishes fill out the sound without That said, there is an almost effortlessness to to shake off. Musically it’s a big step up for sounding grandiose. The press release makes no much of what TTNG do and their refusal to bow ShaoDow and lives up his promise in last year’s bones about their debt to Don Caballero and to the usual loud/fast cliché is admirable. Nightshift feature that he wants to move into Owls and ‘Animals’ has a polished, ornamental Ultimately, you wonder if This Town Needs new musical territories. Such ambition, coupled feel to it, as if it exists solely for you to admire Guns’ legacy will be best served by the number with is inherent rapping capabilities, could take its intimate intricacies and smooth surfaces. of other musicians it draws in and influences, as him any place he wants to go and make him Tellingly TTNG’ biggest advocates are other with the likes of Tortoise or Make Believe, to Oxford’s least likely breakthrough artist. local musicians, with an attention to detail whom they themselves look. The slow, steady Ian Chesterton thethe portport mmahonahon Live Music in October 3rd Michael Wright + Desmond Chancer + Padma + Conscripts 4th Quickfix Presents... 6th Arctic Circle + Ladybird + The Mountain Parade 8th Oxford Improvisers 9th Fight The Bears 10th Dirty Boys Presents... 11th Strawhouses + Guests 12th Zangryus + Sacred Divide 16th Frankie’s Whisky Night 17th Three Blind Mice Presents... Maria Ilett + We Aeronauts + Tristan and the Troubadours 18th Ear Popping Candy 19th Black Powder 23rd Burning Legacy presents: Girl Riot Feat: Baby Gravy + guests 24th Not Too Shabby + 14Ten 25th Sunny D Alright + Picnic Now + Motion In Colour 29th Dirty Boys Presents 30th Club Playthings 31st Off Field Presents Hellfest with N-Zyme + Frogspawn + Die_Funkt + David K Frampton + Foetus 502 82 St Clements, Oxford. Tel: 01865 202067 gig guide OCTOBER rd rd FRIDAY 3 Friday 3 st WEDNESDAY 1 JOANNE SHAW-TAYLOR: The Bullingdon JOANNE SHAW- THIS CITY + RUPERT & THE ROBBERS: – Birmingham’s young blues-rock and soul guitar The Regal – The Regal launches its new sensation – see main preview TAYLOR: Wednesday night You! Me! Dancing! Indie club DEADMAUS: The Academy – Progressive night with angular post-punk dance-rockers This house and minimalist techno from the Canadian The Bullingdon City, coming on like a cross between Bloc Party DJ who came to prominence with cult debut What Duffy has done for soul, maybe and At The Drive-In. ‘Faxing Berlin’. Birmingham’s young guitar sensation Joane OPEN MIC SESSION: The Temple KLUB KAKOFANNEY with MARY’S Shaw-Taylor can do for the blues, and show GARDEN + MARY BENDYTOY + THE that a young, white British girl can match THURSDAY 2 nd ROUNDHEELS + THE NEW MOON: The the American old-timers. Coming on like a THE SUBWAYS: The Academy – Buzzsaw Wheatsheaf – A right bunch of Marys down at cross between Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bonnie guitars and screaming are still very much the Klub Kakofanney tonight with portentous Euro- Raitt and Dusty Springfield, with a great order of the day from Welwyn Garden City’s gothsters MG returning to action along with sultry vocal delivery that matches her much- finest export, whose second album, ‘All Or spiky industrial-grunge loons MBT. The only admired guitar playing, Joanne started Nothing’, has just been released. Having been sure result is that it’ll be entertaining. A reliably playing at the age of 14 around her native forced to take time out due to serious throat mixed bill of noise is completed by bluegrass and Black Country clubs and was performing at problems, singer Billy Lunn could have been folk trio The Roundheels and acoustic pop fellas Ronnie Scott’s by the time she was 16. taking it easy but with the demise of his The New Moon. Discovered by Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, relationship to bassist Charlotte Cooper he’s got PHIL WILSON + THE REPEATS + she spent the summer on tour with him, plenty to get off his chest and the band have MEGAMOOG + ALPHABET BACKWARDS: Candy Dulpher from Prince’s band, Jimmy spent the entirety of the summer blazing a noisy The X, Cowley – Formerly frontman of 80s Cliff and Parliament’s Mudbone Cooper in path through the festival circuit. Butch Vig took brass-heavy jangle heroes The June Brides, the supergroup D.U.P and has also played over production duties for the new album so it’s tonight’s Swiss Concrete club sees Phil Wilson’s alongsoide Bill Wyman and BB King. And unsurprisingly heavier than their debut, but the first full band gig for over 20 years, having jacked now she looks set to join the ranks of the odes to loves old and new also bring in his job to rediscover his musical leanings. UK’s blues elite, teaming up with Grammy- contemplation and respite from the garage-grunge Dubbed The Golden God Of Twee, it’s a badge he now wears with pride. Joining him tonight are winning songwriter Kevin Bowe and set to power storm. local indie poppers The Repeats, San Francisco take on the American market. With barely a SKYLARKIN’ with J-STAR & HONEY electro-pop cuties Megamoog and rising Oxford hint of hype, just a string of enthusiastic BROWN: The Academy – London DJ and starlets Alphabet Backwards with their playfully reviews across the blues press, she’s started producer J-Star guests at Skylarkin’s weekly club ebullient indie pop. to build a big UK following, mostly a much night, mixing up old skool hip hop, rocksteady, QUENCH + ARCHIPELAGO + KNITTING younger, more female-orientated crowd than dub and reggae. FOG + JOEY NIGHTMARE: The Jericho blues attracts in this country. But so laid- ALAN TYLER & THE LOST SONS OF Tavern – Anthemic Christian rocking from back and assured is she, you’d think she’d LITTLEFIELD + THE MARMADUKES: The Quench, plus downbeat electro-pop from been doing this for decades. Bullingdon – Former-Rockingbirds chap Alan Tyler brings his lo-fi acoustic country to Archipelago and jangle rock from Joey Moshka’s club night, drawing inspiration from Nightmare. the likes of Townes Van Zandt and Waylon MICHAEL WRIGHT + DESMOND Jennings. Local alt.country rockers The CHANCER + PADMA + CONSCRIPTS: The Marmadukes support. Port Mahon – Acoustic folk singer Michael CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford Wright headlines, with after-hours jazz and blues Community Centre – Oxford’s longest-serving from Desmond Chancer and jazzy hip hop types open-mic club continues to give floorspace to all Conscripts. manner of singers, musicians, performance artists DUGOUT: The Cellar – Soul, rare groove and and storytellers. Tonight’s club features a special funk club night. guest set from Rusalnaia, the dark-folk project BACKROOM BOOGIE: The Bullingdon – featuring local singer Sharron Kraus and Classic funk, soul and r’n’b every week. Pennsylvanian songstress Gill Chadwick. SHAKE: The Academy – Count Skylarkin 50ft PANDA + THEO: The Cellar – Rifftastic spins a goodly selection of funk, reggae, soul, hard rocking from noisy two-piece 50ft Panda, rock’n’roll and jazz dance every week. plus experimental loops and feedback-heavy GET DOWN: The Brickworks – Weekly disco, post-rockers Theo. Latin and funk DJ session. HEY NEGRITA + THE DRUG SQUAD + th MATTHEW ORD: The Jericho Tavern – SATURDAY 4 Gravelly blues, country and Americana with STATUS QUO: The New Theatre – It’s that nods to Creedence Clearwater Revival, Warren time of year again when the veteran rockaboogie Zevon and The Band from London’s Hey crew return, like Banquo’s ghost on repeat play, Negrita, plus ska-punk hoe-down fun from The for a two-night stint, still rocking it up in a Drug Squad. manner that shames too many new bands, and, OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half Moon being the most successful UK singles band of all time, armed with four decades of classic hits, cult new rave-cum-electro-rock hopefuls support. favourites and songs from their more recent, ARCTIC CIRCLE + LADYBIRD + THE return-to-form albums. MOUNTAIN PARADE: The Port Mahon – ROOTS MANUVA: The Academy – Rodney Cute, fidgety lo-fi electro-pop from Bristol’s Smith shows off his lyrical magic – see main Arctic Circle, plus shambling Pastels-styled indie preview from Ladybird and expansive alt.folkies The INNERPARTYSYSTEM: The Academy – Mountain Parade. Stadium-sized electro-emo and dance-rock with THEN WE TAKE BERLIN: The Jericho nods to Depeche Mode, NIN and My Chemical Tavern – Jangly indie-punk in the vein of The Romance from Pennsylvania’s rising stars, Kinks and Libertines. recently signed to Island Records. TRANSFORMATION / TRASHY / ROOM TUESDAY 7th 101: The Academy – Three-in-one club night ENTER SHIKARI + P-DEX + SAVING with classic and contemporary indie hits at AIMEE: The Academy – Rave-metal heroes Transformation, trashy 80s pop, glam and disco bring the noise – see main preview at Trashy, plus hardcore, metal and alternative CAJUN DANCE PARTY: The Academy – noise at Room 101. Quite a misnomer for a band, since north SIMPLE: The Bullingdon – Funky house club London’s teenage indie bouncers aren’t Cajun at night. all, but you can dance to them, particularly if SOCA SLAM: East Oxford Community you’re fond of a spot of fresh-faced, bountiful Centre – Sounds of the Caribbean tonight with a classic indie jangle that mixes up bits of Orange th mix of soca, reggae, calypso and dancehall. Juice, The Smiths and The Cure, but with a smile Saturday 4 SCOOBY DON’T: Black Horse, Kidlington on its face. And a violin. Violins in pop are good. LEE DAVIES & FRIENDS: The Temple Cajun Dance Party are good. Smile. Enjoy ROOTS MANUVA: yourself. Go on. Do it. th The Academy SUNDAY 5 JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon – Keyboard With the release of new album ‘Slime & STATUS QUO: The New Theatre – Second player Howard Peacock and his band are Reason’, is there anybody out there still night of the rock legends’ mini residency. tonight’s guests at the free weekly live jazz club. arguing that Roots Manuva isn’t the UK’s FRIENDLY FIRES: The Academy – Welcome ANNI ROSSI + ROLLIN HUNT: Baby return to town for St Alban’s finest after their Simple – Quirky Minnesota singer, viola player finest rapper? Eclipsing even his sterling showing at the NME New Noise tour and occasional tap dancer returns to town, with a breakthrough debut ‘Brand New Second earlier this year, mixing up Talking Heads and maverick, inventive approach to pop-classical- Hand’, the man once known as Rodney Gang of Four’s post-punk funk pop with 70s electronica crossover that stretches from Joanna Smith, brought up in Stockwell, the son of a disco and traces of nu-rave. All delivered in Newsome, through Lena Lovich to Laurie Jamaican Pentecostal preacher, has made a pocket-sized anthem nuggets. Go on, let yourself Anderson. collection of songs that screams Hit! at go – have a dance. every turn, taking in funk, soul, reggae and ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC SESSION: The Red WEDNESDAY 8 th r’n’b along with forays into gospel and electro. And by working with up and coming Lion, Kidlington STACEY EARLE & MARK STUART + EASY STRANGE VINTAGE: Folly Bridge Inn – producers like Metronomy and Toddla T, TIGER + KATHLEEN HASKARD: The he’s stayed well ahead of the game, even as Classic 60s rock covers in aid of Sobell House Bullingdon – Steve Earle’s kid sister and her he declares his desire to collaborate with Hospice. husband bring their own brand of country, blues James Blunt. The feelgood party mood of and Cajun folk to town, with echoes of Woody th the music is, however, often at odds with MONDAY 6 Guthrie and Johnny Cash and June Carter. Roots Manuva’s rueful world outlook, often RICKY COO & THE HOOLA BOOLA DATA.SELECT.PARTY: The Regal – You! bleak lyricism and that rare thing, rap BOYS: The Bullingdon – Hammond-driven Me! Dancing! club night with Foals-like math- existentialism. It’s his perceptiveness and 50s and 60s-style rock’n’roll and r’n’b from the pop crew Data.Select.Party. ability to turn it into such powerful rhymes, Midlands-based singer, harpist and saxophonist SAM ISAAC + STORNOWAY + THE JOE though, that put him on top of the pile and and his latest band. ALLEN BAND: The Jericho Tavern – Full WHITE LIES + POST-WAR YEARS: The band gig for the Malvern singer-songwriter at make him a real contender as heir to Rakim’s th Academy – 80s-styled indie types with a tonight’s Coo Coo Club, Isaac’s plaintive but throne. Now into his 15 year as a rapper wardrobe full of black clothes and the odd upbeat electro-folk pop unsurprisingly lends an he’s worked with everyone from Leftfield, Editors CD or five in their collection. Warwick’s ear to Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly, to whose U.N.K.L.E and Gorillaz to Mica Paris and Mannequin label he’s now signed. Add in some Mr Scruff and quite possibly, somewhere sweet Bright Eyes-style musings and the lad, along the line, invented grime. Any young who earned his dues playing tours of living British rapper will have to work some rooms and barbecues, is a DIY pop hero in the special kind of magic to catch up with him. making. Support comes from idiosyncratic local pop romantics Stornoway and emotive singer- drum&bass and more. songwriter Joe Allen. OPEN MIC SESSION: The Temple CHARLES HAYWARD: The Port Mahon – Time for a genuine drumming masterclass tonight THURSDAY 9th as former-This Heat and Camberwell Now RACHEL UNTHANK & THE WINTERSET + sticksman Hayward shows just how far you can NANCY ELIZABETH: Holywell Music Room go with a kit. Having worked with everyone from – Northumbrian singer and cellist Rachel and her Phil Manzanera and Everything But The Girl to all-female band head out on tour after the success Laura Logic and The Raincoats over the past 30 of recent Mercury-shortlisted album ‘The years his wildly inventive streak shows now sign Bairns’ – see main preview of diminishing and his recent solo work, GABRIELLE CILMI: The Academy – Aussie involving percussion, electronics and vocals is jazz-pop songstress in the mould of Macie Gray experimental but accessible. Tonight he’s and Amy Winehouse, out on a headline tour after performing solo as well as with members of supporting the likes of Sugababes and Nouvelle Oxford Improvisers. Vague and riding high on the success of Top 10 FREE RANGE: The Cellar – dubstep, hit ‘Sweet About Me’. promising newcomers Inspected By Ten. THE RELATIONSHIPS + LES BLACK HATS + VON BRAUN + SPIRAL 25: CLOCHARDS + MOIETY + BLUE KITE: The Hobgoblin, Bicester – Ebullient indie The Bullingdon – Veterans of Oxford indie rocking with a Supergrass vibe from Black Hats, legends Here Comes Everybody reconvene in plus angular post-rock from Von Braun and dark, their various current bands for a celebration of narcotic groove rocking from Spiral 25. the local scene’s most intriguing rock family tree. CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford Tweedy psychedelic heroes The Relationships Community Centre continue to show that songwriting class in a OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half Moon timeless thing, while Les Clochards inject some Gallic charm into their country-tinged pop. Pete FRIDAY 10th Lock’s Moiety and Blue Kite projects show off SLIDE: The Academy – House music club night his darker, folk-pop side. A CD tracing the with guest Nic Fanciulli. various musicians, from HCE through bands like BLAKFISH + SHAPES + DIAL F FOR The Anyways and more to the present day is FRANKENSTEIN + I AM THIEVES: The released to coincide. Port Mahon – Melodic post-hardcore rocking in STICKS + WHISKY BLITZ: The Tuesday 7th an At The Drive-In vein from Birmingham’s Wheatsheaf revitalised Blakfish, out on tour with angular STRAW HOUSE: The Port Mahon ENTER SHIKARI: noisemongers Shapes. BASSMENTALITY: The Cellar – Hip hop, THE DRESDENS + TO THE BONE + reggae, funk and drum&bass club night. The Academy SEROTONIN: The Wheatsheaf – Truly LEVEL 42: The New Theatre – Oh Christ Taking pot shots at Enter Shikari is a bit ferocious garage and grunge rock mayhem from allfuckingmighty. Do we have to? Do we have to like complaining about kids kicking a The Dresdens at tonight’s Quickfix club, plus be reminded of a band who, along with Simply football against a wall rather than playing virulently guttural hard rocking somewhere ‘Fucking’ Red and Phil ‘Fucking’ Collins, formed chess: it was never meant to be clever or between Pixies and Motorhead from Bolton’s an 80s axis of pop evil that blighted an entire meaningful. If anything, St Alban’s Org-signed To The Bone. decade? The very fact that Level ‘Fucking’ 42 hardcore-cum-rave warriors are simply the MOODY BLUES: The New Theatre – Justin still exist and can play venues this size is proof 21st Century English version of Linkin Park Hayward, John Lodge and Graeme Edge continue that certain people shouldn’t be allowed to vote, (or, if you want to be really anal and show their symphonic soft-rock odyssey. breed or leave their homes without previously your age, the logical conclusion of a BOSSAPHONIK: The Cellar – Live jazz alerting social services. crossover style pioneered by Senser in the dance. LE VOLUME COURBE + VATICAN early-90s) so chin-stroking appraisal really THE SHUDDERS + RED BULLETS + CELLARS: The Jericho Tavern – Sleepy- isn’t the order of the day. Instead it’s all SEVASA + CUTE LOONY: The Jericho voiced, lo-fi Gallic-flavoured folk-pop from Le Volume Courbe, plus dark, tear-stained folk from about getting in the pit and flailing around Tavern – Folky rocking from Swindon’s Vatican Cellars. wildly to the band’s ready mix of screamo Shudders. TRANSFORMATION / TRASHY / ROOM guitars, rave synths, vocal chants and THE MIGHTY REDOX + THE PETE FRYER 101: The Academy screams and euphoric hooks. And The Kids BAND + FILM NOIR + THE HEADINGTON PEDRO + G-BLOCK: The Temple love it. Enter Shikari became only the HILLBILLIES: The Magdalen – Festival funk and psychedelic rocking from The Mighty Redox second unsigned band to sell out the Astoria th and have spent the interim selling out tours at their monthly residency, plus regular chums. SUNDAY 12 and playing wild festival shows ever since, BACKROOM BOOGIE: The Bullingdon TEAM WATERPOLO + BABY GRAVY: The releasing a pretty impressive Top 5 debut SHAKE: The Academy Academy – Inexplicably hyped newcomers who album, ‘Take To The Skies’, on their own GET DOWN: The Brickworks blighted the recent NME New Noise tour with label along the way and winning a fistful of their anonymous funk-pop and sluggish pomp- NME and Kerrang! awards into the bargain. SATURDAY 11th rock. Still, what do you expect from a band And now they head off on tour again, THE STREETS: The Academy – In which the who’ve supported Joe Lean & The Jing Jang coinciding with a new rarities and b-sides once unassailable Mike Skinner gets his final Bloody Effing Bollocks on tour? Rather superior album, ‘The Zone’, and you can bet each chance to impress following the charmless support comes in the form of effervescent and every date will be a complete sell out (okay, let’s be honest, truly fucking awful) electro-punk-pop tigers Baby Gravy. and a frenzied barrel of fun for all ‘Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living’ album, ANDY YORKE + RUARRI: The Jericho concerned. The band’s critics, meanwhile, wherein the former documenter of urban Tavern – Former-Unbelievable Truth frontman would doubtless take a ride on Blackpool’s working class life starting talking about smoking Andy continues to resurrect his musical life after the release of recent solo debut ‘Simple’, big dipper only to complain there was no crack with pop star girlfriends and just how continuing his melancholic path down the road of Proust to read on the way round. terribly difficult it was to be, like, famous. Skinner’s fourth album, ‘Everything Is Jeff Buckley-inspired hymnal pop romance. Borrowed’ promises to cover more exotic and REGGAE REGGAE SUNDAY: The Cellar – A SKYLARKIN with THE NEXTMEN: The universal subject matter, but early hearings double helping of reggae, plus a side dish of dub Academy – Beatmakers Brad Baloo and Dom suggest no great move away from the geezerish and a hip hop, funk and soul pudding. Search return to Skylarkin with a mix of classic conversational formula that made ‘Original ZANGRYUS + SACRED DIVIDE: The Port soul and disco, funky beats and old skool hip Pirate Material’ such a gem. Still, he’s promised Mahon – Proggy metal in the vein of hop, having worked with Public Enemy, that the next album, one he says will be the last Evanescence and Lacuna Coil from Zangryus, Pharcyde and Blackalicious. Streets album, is going to be inspired by plus classic metal riffage from Sacred Divide. GENERAL BOVINE & THE JUSTICE Bladerunner and Lou Reed’s ‘Berlin’, so maybe ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC SESSION: The Red FORCE 5: The Cellar – Superhero-obsessed all is not yet lost. Lion, Kidlington Spinal Tap-like old-fashioned hard rocking from JONQUIL + THIS TOWN NEEDS GUNS + th General Bovine and his hairy gang. THE GREAT ESKIMO HOAX: The Academy MONDAY 13 FIGHT THE BEAR: The Port Mahon – Hard- – Joint headline show from two of the rising SPIRITUALIZED: The Academy – Lysergic gigging Shropshire indie-rock and ska crew. stars of the Oxford scene. Jonquil’s eclectic blend groove rocking from back-from-the-dead CROSSHEADS + JUNE THE BAND + of alt.folk and post-rock produces a great, spaceman Jason Pierce – see main preview INSPECTED BY TEN: The Jericho Tavern – cinematic sound and plenty of genuine singalong THE LARRY MILLER BAND: The Abrasive gothic electro-rock and industrial dance moments, while TTNG’s Chicago math-pop- Bullingdon – Rocking blues from the UK from Crossheads, plus classic indie rocking from inspired sound continues to blossom into guitarist, inspired by the likes of Stevie Ray June and riff-heavy melodic rocking from something very promising. Vaughan and Gary Moore. MAPS & ATLASES: The Regal – Chicago’s IT HUGS BACK + ROD THOMAS + TOBY technically fluid math-rockers play an Oxford SEBASTIAN: The Jericho Tavern – Sweet- headline show after supporting local heroes Foals natured, soft-centred indie jangling from Kent on their UK tour. softies It Hugs Back, alongside twee acoustic singer-songwriter Rod Thomas. TUESDAY 14th INTRUSION: The Cellar – Goth, industrial HOT LEG: The Academy – Spandex-clad drug and darkwave club night. hoover and former-Darkness frontman Hawkins th returns with his new band after cleaning up in the WEDNESDAY 15 Priory. “Hawkins! Don’t forget to dust the BRITISH SEA POWER: The Regal – The ornaments, you hear!” theatrically-proportioned Brighton rockers play JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon – Tonight’s live the suitably elegant Regal - see main preview guest is Alvin Roy with Reeds Unlimited. CHEEKY CHEEKY & THE NOSEBLEEDS + DESMOND CHANCER & THE LONG THE ELRICS: The Bullingdon – Scampering, MEMORIES + MAEVE BAYTON & IAN energetic, if ultimately brainless lad rock in the NIXON + SANDRA SHALLIS: East Oxford vein of Pigeon Detectives and The Wombats Community Centre – Funereal gutter jazz from from Suffolk’s daftly-named newcomers. Tom Waits-inspired crooner Desmond Chancer, GLAD RAGS + RUPERT & THE ROBBERS plus local blues and jazz songstress Maeve + JESSIE GRACE: The Jericho Tavern – Bayton teams up with Les Clochards chap Ian Dexy’s-style soul-rock from Southampton’s Nixon. Glad Rags. OPEN MIC SESSION: The Temple Thursday 9th THURSDAY 16th th RACHEL UNTHANK DIRTY PRETTY THINGS: The Academy – Monday 13 & THE WINTERSET + Carl Barat’s post-Libertines imagination-free pop SPIRITUALIZED: vacuum squad crank out assorted shades of NANCY ELIZABETH: hoary old pub-rock grey once more for the The Academy delight of angst-ridden pseudo-goths who For a chap who’s spent most of his musical wouldn’t know visceral rock and roll thrills if Holywell Music Room life singing about death and talking with God, they dressed up as Jimi Hendrix and strapped Amazing what a Mercury Prize nomination Jason Pierce probably wouldn’t wish to them to a burning rollercoaster. can do for an artist’s profile, particularly one come as close to fulfilling those desires as he AKALA + GTA: The Academy – Return to from a so-called niche market (ie. anything came in 2005 when double pneumonia and a town for the Shakespeare-quoting, Siouxsie- except rock or pop to the marketing men). collapsed lung saw him being read the last Northumbrian singer and cellist Rachel and sampling London-based MOBO-winning rapper and brother of Ms Dynamite. Kidlington’s rites. Thankfully he’s fully recovered now her all-female band head out on their biggest and back to singing about death and God on headline tour so far after the success of freeform hip hop duo GTA support. SKYLARKIN’: The Academy – Ska, funk, the new Spiritualized album, the knowingly- recent Mercury-shortlisted album ‘The titled ‘Songs In A&E’. Listen to the album’s Bairns’, offering quirky, intimate and soul, reggae and more with the Skylarkin crew. Tonight’s special guest is Mr Benn and Souls stand-out track, ‘Death take Your Fiddle’, atmospheric updates on old Geordie folk and you’ll hear it based around the steadily tunes, mixing beguiling four-part harmonies Liberation, mixing reggae grooves and funky hip hop beats. wheezing rhythm of a hospital ventilator. and solemn strings along the way. The music ECLECTRICITY: The Cellar – Electro, The man who launched his musical career and the sisterly harmonics are nothing new bassline and fidgety house with DJ Lee with the seminal Spacemen 3 back in the as such, very much rooted in folk’s distant Mortimer. mid-80s with the slogan Taking Drugs To past and the family bands of the ages, but as FRANKIE’S WHISKY NIGHT: The Port Make Music To Take Drugs To has with the very best modern practitioners – Mahon – Whisky-inspired songs from assorted ploughed a singularly narcotic-fuelled rock including Oxford’s own Sharron Kraus – local bands. furrow since, blending 60s garage rock, there’s an otherworldliness about The THE VICE + THE PREDICAMENT + GOOD krautrock, Sun Ra-inspired jazz, southern Winterset that seems so much more exotic DOG: The Jericho Tavern soul and gospel into a beautifully hypnotic and modern than much of the rock music CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford wall of sound that veers between mournful heralded as the big new thing, especially Community Centre paeans to love and death to sky-touching since they take in everything from blues, OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half Moon improvised cacophonies. These days jazz, music hall and burlesque cabaret to Spiritualized have cut back slightly since classical and leftfield contemporary music FRIDAY 17th they were joined by massed string and horn along the way. Manchester singer-songwriter sections and full gospel choir, but their Nancy Elizabeth, meanwhile, provides FRESH OUT OF THE BOX: The Academy – FOTB present another of their great multi-arena power remains undiminished, and with a few excellent support with her mix of folk and choice Spacemen 3 classics always snuck in post-rock, utilising celtic harp, Appalachian blowouts, with live acts and DJs across three rooms. House, breaks and beats in the main room amid the extensive back catalogue, there are dulcimer and Indian harmonium amid her few better ways to completely lose yourself exotic blend of styles. The Holywell’s old- with award-winning producer and DJ Krafty Kuts, plus Fingerlickin’s Dynamite MC, the for a couple of hours. world ambience provides a perfect setting revitalised Utah Saints and Totally Enormous for both acts. Extinct Dinosaurs, plus FOTB regulars Scott Parker and Ready Maids. The second room is for global Christian music sensations. Norway’s techno, electro and rave and features a live set Darkthrone support. from Altern-8, plus Two Lone Swordsmen’s HOLY FUCK: The Academy – Sublime electro- Radioactive Man, plus sets from Ed Steele and rocking hypnotherapy – see main preview Mr Minimax. Finally there’s disco in the third MORE SILAGE + BORDERVILLE + room with Jack & The Beanstalk and Friends Of SCHUMA THE HUMAN: The Wheatsheaf – The Family. Swiss Concrete retreat ever further into the DELIRIOUS?: The Academy – The Christian realms of twee this month with a visit by worship band bow out with a final tour, having Bristol’s rather silly electro-jangle troupe More risen from Littlehampton youth church band to Silage, coming on like The Razorcuts MUSIC IN MIND with THE DACOITS + BRING ME THE HORIZON + SECRET THE FOLLYS + HIGH RISBY + BETHANY HANDSHAKE + DEEZ NUTS + DEAD WEIMERS: The X, Cowley – Benefit gig in aid SWANS: The Academy – Return of Sheffield’s of mental health charity Oxford MIND, with deathcore merchants BMTH, out on a headline Faringdon’s grunge-pop newcomers The tour with support from Dallas’ electro-rappers Dacoits, plus sprightly 60s-styled rockers The Secret Handshake, former-I Killed The Prom Follys, alternately abrasive and dreamy cello-led Queen drummer JJ Peters’ new rapcore act Deez acoustic pop from High Risby, plus mesmerising, Nuts and UK grind-core newcomers Dead haunting alt.folk from Bethany Weimers. Swans. LET’S TEA PARTY: The Purple Turtle – JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon – With live Funk and soul-tinged rock from Bristol. guests Rogue Dolls. VIXENS + I AM THIEVES + SIERRA VERTIGO: The Cellar – Indie club night with ALPHA: The Jericho Tavern – Jangly indie IMSOC. th Wednesday 15 thrash from Vixens. BRITISH SEA BACKROOM BOOGIE: The Bullingdon WEDNESDAY 22nd SHAKE: The Academy ROLO TOMASSI + XMAS LIGHTS + POWER: The Regal GET DOWN: The Brickworks IVY’S ITCH: The Regal – Hellbastard math- core excellence from Sheffield’s teen titans – see It’s a little odd that British Sea Power should th have titled their last album ‘Do You Like SATURDAY 18 main preview Rock Music?’ because, although they are STRUNG OUT + DIAL F FOR VIXENS + PALACE: The Wheatsheaf – indeed a rock band, they’re a far grander FRANKENSTEIN + SOUTH CENTRAL Elegant indie rocking from former-Hope Of The proposition than the lumpen likes of, say, HEROES: The Academy – Punk night at the States guitarist’s new band Palace, plus local Kooks or Pigeon Detectives. You can’t Academy with a rare UK visit from southern indie rockers Vixens. imagine those filth performing gigs in California’s punk-metal veterans Strung Out, still THE COURTEENERS: The Academy – An lighthouses, the Czech Embassy or being going strong after a decade and a half of frantic exceptionally busy month for gigs as ever in invited to play at the Natural History melody making. Local punk and metal bands Dial October, so there’s always going to be some crap Museum, as they did this summer. No, BSP F For Frankenstein and SCH support. lying about, cluttering up the calendar like dung come from finer stock in the rock stakes. QUEER IS FOLK: The Brewery Gate Tavern in a carburettor, but this lot take not only the (6pm) – Celebration of gay music and art with biscuit but the hand-knitted tea cosy and Long before it became de rigeur, they were live sets from Bearos Records’ Ben Calvert, decoratively iced sponge cake too. A pointless, mining the finer archives of 70s new wave, Bohemian Jukebox’s Dave Wilkie, Helianthus pointless excuse for a rock band, like a tone-deaf from the Bunnymen to more obscure gems Evening Star, Markus Palmquivst and Trevor subhuman’s interpretation of what a particularly like The Red Guitars and Joseph K, dressed Barton. bad Jam b-side might sound like, filtered through in vintage military garb and adorning their TRANSFORMATION / TRASHY / ROOM six separate major label marketing meetings and stage set with foliage and antique stuffed 101: The Academy polished like the turd it is. In a month when you owls, while with ‘Do You Like Rock OX4: The Bullingdon – Drum&bass with could see anything from Roots Manuva to Music?’ they’ve continued to expand their Subterra and DJ Noise. Holyfuck, why waste your hard-earned cash on sound to almost orchestral levels, which, NONSENSE + CHRIS MARTIN + UNIQUE this? Eh? WHY? coupled with their thoughtful, literary, SOUL: The Temple FREE RANGE: The Cellar historically aware lyrics, make for something OPEN MIC SESSION: The Temple more splendid than just another indie band. SUNDAY 19th The new album came with a manifesto that rd laid down the forces of good and evil in rock BLACK POWDER: The Port Mahon – Shouty THURSDAY 23 music (Sir John Betjeman and Field Marshall thrash-punk merchants. BLACK KIDS: The Academy – Third trip to Montgomery on the one hand; Mussolini ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC SESSION: The Red town this year for the still-rising Texan indie and U2 on the other), while ironically never Lion, Kidlington kids, with their ebullient mix of classic 80s indie letting their bookish, birdwatching arty side and new wave, 60s soul and electro-pop. th invade their own rock sound too much. A MONDAY 20 VIVA MACHINE + ALL THESE ARMS + THE SOCIALS: The Academy – Grungy electrorock contrary bunch then, but never less than THE MONTE MONTGOMERY BAND: The from Swansea’s Viva Machine. great and a band who should really shine in Bullingdon – Alabama’s acoustic guitar maestro SKYLARKIN with ANDY SMITH: The the polished grandeur of the Regal. graces the Famous Monday Blues club, bringing with him his trademark electrified acoustic guitar, Academy – Portishead’s Andy Smith guests at creating an innovative, sophisticated sound that’s Skylarkin’s weekly celebration of ska, reggae, impersonating Richard Stilgoe. Still, Borderville won him multiple awards and plaudits, taking soul and more. are on hand to inject some gothic theatrical OXES + BILGE PUMP + EDUARD inspiration from the likes of Mark Knopfler, splendour into proceedings, so watch you don’t SOUNDINGBLOCK: The Cellar – Stevie Ray Vaughan and Lindsey Buckingham, get your precious old Pooh Sticks bootlegs bent Mischievous math-rocking mayhem from Oxes – but playing a virtuoso style that’s all his own. in the crush. see main preview NOAH & THE WHALE: The Academy – JAMES YUILL: The Regal – Bittersweet META META + AFROPEAN CHOIR: St Irresistibly sunshiny folk-pop with a broken- electro-folk pop from London’s latest laptop Barnabas Church – Afro-Cuban and hearted lyrical centre from Charlie and Doug troubadour, following in the footsteps of Ben Traditional European songs and rhythms. Fink’s fast-rising Noah and the Whale, out on Esser and Jeremy Warmsley with his reflective CHALK + THIN GREEN CANDLES: The their biggest tour so far, in aid of debut album acoustic ballads and digital beats. Bullingdon – Moshka club night with local ‘Peaceful The World Lay Me Down’, featuring STRANGERS IN POLAROIDS + UTE: The indie rockers Chalk, plus a debut live outing for gorgeous Top 10 hit ‘Five Years Time’. Laura Cellar – Dark-minded indie rocking from dark-minded electro experimenter Thin Green Marling, we think we love you. Newcastle’s Strangers In Polaroids, plus local Candles. alternative rock types Ute. CIRKING FURCUS: Thirst Lodge – New free st MARIA ILETT + WE AERONAUTS + TUESDAY 21 music and variety club night, with live rocking TRISTAN & THE TROUBADOURS: The RANDOM HAND + MIKE TV + DEADBEAT action from the mighty King Furnace and Fancy Port Mahon – Sweet, summery jazz-pop, folk CAVALIER: The Academy – Livewire punk- Toys, plus dancers, poets, comedians and and trip hop from local singer Maria Ilett, plus metal-ska crossover noise from Yorkshire’s assorted freakery. lovely, ethereal psych-folk pop from We raucous politicos, plus support from punk- TELLING THE BEES + ERINN WILLIAMS + Aeronauts and expansive indie pop from rising poppers Mike TV and local rabble-rousing UNIQUE SOUL: The Jericho Tavern – Fresh, local starlets Tristan & The Troubadours. punks Deadbeat Cavalier. bucolic classic English folk from Telling The Bees, with a neat line in gothic storytelling, + MARIA ILETT: The Wheatsheaf – Jazzy traditional folklore and inventive string hip hop from Conscripts at tonight’s GTI mixed arrangements. bag. Chichester’s Footsteps and Voices bring GIRL RIOT: The Port Mahon – Celebration of their epic indie rocking, while local songstress female bands and musicians, with Baby Gravy Maria Ilett adds the sweet-natured, sunshiney and more. trip-hop and jazz-pop element. SMILEX + BLACK HATS + VON BRAUN: ESOTERICA: The Bullingdon – Proggy metal Fat Lil’s, Witney – Raucous rocking from in the vein of Tool and A Perfect Circle. Smilex, plus fun indie noise-pop from Black Hats NOT TOO SHABBY + 14TEN: The Port and angular alt.rock from Von Braun. Mahon – Rugged bluesy rocking from NTS. CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford PORKER + SPECTRUM 7 + THE HOOTS + Community Centre THE QUOTES: The Jericho Tavern – Classic OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half Moon blues-rock from Porker, plus electro-rocking Wednesday 22nd from Spectrum 7. FRIDAY 24th BACKROOM BOOGIE: The Bullingdon ROLO TOMASSI: GLENN TILBROOK & THE FLUFFERS: SHAKE: The Academy The Regal The Academy – The Squeeze songsmith GET DOWN: The Brickworks continues to display his musical prowess and his Anyone living in a cave in the Outer th enviable legacy – helping to inspire the likes of SATURDAY 25 Hebrides over the last couple of years could The Libertines and Arctic Monkeys along the KIDS IN GLASS HOUSES: The Academy – be forgiven for missing out on Nightshift’s way – now out on tour with his new band and Return of the south Wales punky power-pop regular eulogising of Sheffield-based teens performing songs from across his 25-year career. troupe, voted Best Unsigned Act by Kerrang! terrors Rolo Tomassi. From the first time we CARA DILLON: The Academy – Re-arranged last year following support slots with Funeral encountered them virtually demolishing the from June, the Irish singer and former Equation For A Friends, Lostprophets and the Manics. Port Mahon, through assorted subsequent bandmate of Seth Lakeman unfurls her soft- TRANSFORMATION / TRASHY / ROOM visits to town and a brilliantly frenetic set at centred folk pop. 101: The Academy this summer’s Truck Festival, they never fail GAPPY TOOTH INDUSTRIES with FIGHT LIKE APES + BABY GRAVY + THE to cause our collective heart to skip several CONSCRIPTS + FOOTSTEPS & VOICES SCARLETTS: The Jericho Tavern – Coo Coo beats in sheer giddy excitement. If you Club night with frantic Dublin synth-punks haven’t yet experienced them live, Rolo Friday 17th Fight Like Apes coming on like a female-fronted Tomassi are very young, rather sweet electro version of McLusky crossed with Bow looking and utterly, utterly ferocious. With HOLY FUCK: Wow Wow, and fresh from supporting Ting musical nods to the likes of Mr Bungle, The Tings on tour. Smashing stuff. Local electro- Locust, Dillinger Escape Plan and Babes In The Academy punkers Baby Gravy support. Toyland, theirs is a breakneck switchback Okay, we admit it, we just enjoyed putting SUNNY D ALRIGHT + PICNIC NOW + ride through the complexities of angular that name up in big, bold letters, just in case MOTION IN COLOUR: The Port Mahon – math-rock and pure, distilled hardcore rage. any passing Daily Mail readers might sneak Lightweight power-rocking from Sunny D, One moment there’s a dinky jazz guitar run, a glance and suffer an acute attack of Alright, plus female-fronted acoustic pop the next screaming. Ah yes, the screaming. indignant angina. But, and this is more newcomers Picnic Now. Singer Eva Spence tends to make Linda Blair crucial, Toronto’s Holy Fuck are simply SOUL & REGGAE CLUB NIGHT: The in the Exorcist look and sound like Judie fantastic. The fact that their name alone Bullingdon Garland in The Wizard Of Oz, belching out means they’ll never bother the charts hasn’t HQ: The Cellar – Drum&bass club night. indecipherable, guttural invective like a stopped their music cropping up on Match chain-smoking human volcano set to th Of The Day and the like, a hypnotic, SUNDAY 26 maximum destruction. The band’s debut propulsive blend of vintage synth-pop, YOU ME AT SIX + HOUSTON CALLS + album, ‘Hysterics’, was released last month krautrock and techno-prog that draws in FAREWELL: The Academy – Weybridge’s and captures much of Rolo Tomassi’s strands of Can, Neu! Numan, Trans-Am and watery punk-pop hopefuls head out on a terrifying venom, but for full effect see them Suicide. They’re a five-piece, including two headline tour after supporting Fightstar earlier live. Superlative support comes from drummers, but the core of the band are this year. Nightshift cover stars Xmas Lights and synth and effects wizards Brian Borcherdt THE RESEARCH + PINEY GIR + GINGER virulent goth-grunge sirens Ivy’s Itch. and Graham Walsh, whose intention was to TOM: The Bullingdon – Enduringly twee and create the sounds of great electronic music shambolic lo-fi electro indie pop from and classical music. Backed by a string quartet live without use of laptops or loops. Their Wakefield’s romantic losers. Now with added Arnalds combines piano, electronic keyboards live shows include everything from a film guitar! and percussion and drones to create instrumental synchroniser to toy instruments, but while PIPETTES: The Academy – Stylised Spector- chamber music pieces that rise from fragile, it can be flighty and playful, equally it can esque girl pop from Brighton’s polka-dot vocal emotional intimacy to grand, sweeping be dense, oppressive and abrasive, the live trio. crescendos, not a million miles away from Sigur drumming and bass mean energy levels REGGAE REGGAE SUNDAY: The Cellar Ros, unsurprisingly. remain high and the music has a panoramic ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC SESSION: The Red ambition about it. Just remember to mention Lion, Kidlington TUESDAY 28th very loudly to everyone at work, school or SETH LAKEMAN: The Academy – The th on the bus who you’re off to see tonight. MONDAY 27 English folk revival poster boy returns – see ROB TOGNONI: The Bullingdon – Return main preview of the Tasmanian blues-rock guitarist and his THE PADDINGTONS: The Academy – power trio band. Return to action for Hull’s raggedy indie-punk OLAFUR ARNALDS + FINN: The Holywell scrappers, set to release their second album, ‘No Music Room – The world’s oldest purpose-built Mundane Options’ after a three-year hiatus. concert venue plays host to Iceland’s newest Admit it, you haven’t been holding your breath soundscaping talent in the form of Olafur all that time, have you? Arnalds, who goes a long way to confirming DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH? + SOUTH everything you thought about that country and CENTRAL: The Regal – Dumb, vapid but its ability to keep producing wonderfully glacial entertaining electro-rockers who really aren’t music that crosses the boundary between pop going to offend anyone. Superior support from muscular acid-house rockers South Central. THURSDAY 30th ALCHEMY: The Cellar – Punk, metal and EASY ALL-STARS: The Academy – Reggae industrial bands and DJs, including local gutter- and dub from the people who brought you ‘Dub punk and stadium rock rowdies Smilex. Side Of The Moon’ and ‘Radiodread’. JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon – Regular guests SKYLARKIN’: The Academy – Special Noches The Howard Peacock Quintet play live. de los Muertos Halloween club with ska, reggae, Latin and soul tunes from Count Skylarkin’ and th WEDNESDAY 29 crew, with special guest DJ Derek. BELLOWHEAD: The Academy – Uplifting TANGO SIEMPRE: Wesley Memorial traditional folk-dance from Spiers and Boden’s Chapel – UK’s premier tango ensemble, now eleven-piece big band, who debuted at the 2004 moving away from covers of Argentian legends Oxford Folk Festival and seem to have spent the like Anibel Troilo into more original jazz and years since scooping up every folk award going electro-influenced material. th as well as making everyone they come into CAT MATADOR + DEATH OF A SMALL Tuesday 28 contact with dance like a silly beggar. Tis a rare TOWN + SPIRO SPIRO: The Jericho SETH LAKEMAN: gift we tell ye. Tavern – Heart-burstingly jolly acoustic-led pop PULLED APART BY HORSES: The Regal – from current Nightshift faves Cat Matador, plus The Academy High-octane post-punk funk from Leeds’ rising emotive, epic acoustic pop from Death Of A A welcome return to town for the poster boy stars. Small Town. of the English folk revival. Like Pentangle in VISIONS FALL + REMEMBER THE CHAOS ECLECTRICITY: The Cellar the 60s and The Pogues in the 80s, Seth + K-LACUNA: The Port Mahon – Local metal CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford Lakeman brings such a freshness and attitude and hardcore triple bill. Community Centre to traditional folk music that it’s hard to OPEN MIC SESSION: The Temple OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half Moon believe what you’re hearing is essentially st music that’s hundreds of years old. His first Thursday 23rd FRIDAY 31 two albums, the Mercury-nominated ‘Kitty HELLFEST: The Port Mahon – Off-Field Jay’ and 2006’s superb ‘Freedom Fields’ OXES / BILGE PUMP: presents another extended session of cover such long-lost subject matter as ghost The Cellar experimental noises, including witty grime and stories from Dartmoor, tales of Civil War hip hop artist N-Zyme; free noise outfit battles and handsome soldiers courting A mammoth five-band journey into Frogspawn; dark, minimalist techno from young maidens, continuing a generations-old confounded musical expectations tonight Die_Funkt; blistering electro-noise from David K storytelling tradition, but now with a 21st courtesy of promoters Poor Girl Noise. The Frampton and drum machine and cassette Century rocket up its backside, and on new big treat is a first visit to Oxford for four manipulation from Foetus 502. single, `Solomon Brown’, he sings about a years from Baltimore’s Oxes, a ATREYU + STORY OF THE YEAR + AS I modern-day lifeboat tragedy. Given the West confrontational three-piece who are almost LAY DYING + MUCC: The Academy – Four- Country shares as much cultural history as much a practical joke as a band at times, band ‘Taste Of Chaos’ world tour with with Scotland and Wales as it does England, but who know how to entertain, whether California’s metalcore stalwarts Atreyu; San it’s no surprise that there’s a rich celtic vein they’re rampaging through the crowd while Diego’s similarly hardcore brethren As I Lay running through much of Seth’s material. Dying; Missouri’s post-hardcore and grunge sounding like Shellac shredding Pat Lakeman is a powerful, emotive singer and rockers Story Of The Year, plus Japan’s metal Metheny, or pulling ironic rock god poses guitarist but it’s when he picks up his fiddle veterans Mucc making a rare UK appearance. to a sound of Thin Lizzy being that he really dazzles. With his new album, THE WEEK THAT WAS + RUBY SUNS: The disembowelled by Fugazi, their precision ‘Poor Man’s Heaven’, Lakeman finds Academy – Great new band from Field Music’s attack is filled with pure showmanship. himself tantalisingly close to major Peter Brewis, delving into the darker regions of Leeds’ Bilge Pump, meanwhile, describe commercial breakthrough without ever 80s pomp-pop (Peter Gabriel, Fleetwood Mac, their discordant, scrappy punk-blues-math- compromising his traditionally-based music Kate Bush) to create an elaborate and ambitious post-rock racket as “unlistenable guff”, and this gig is likely to be another sell-out. which doesn’t do full justice to their thematic eponymous album dealing with the thrilling noise or the daft McLusky-like story of a crime and the media that surrounds it. humour of lyrics like “We were genuine, Psychedelic pop starlets Ruby Suns support. firebrands Junkie Brush and suitably blood- happy children / But our dad was a JONNY’S SEXUAL KITCHEN + spattered metal noise from Beelzebozo. Former- miserable cunt”. Laughs too with Eduard RESERVOIR CATS: The Wheatsheaf – The Near Life Experience chaps return with new band Soundingblock, if only for bassist Pete’s Sheaf celebrates Halloween in its traditionally The Crushing. beard. Musically their King Crimson-eaten- full-on manner, with live jazz, rock and blues PRDCTV + CROWDS & POWER + THE HI by-Dillinger Escape Plan prog-core rides from the local veterans, plus all manner of & LO + PHIL KING: The Jericho Tavern – roughshod over rock convention, whilst ghoulish goings on. Radiohead/Future Sound Of London-inspired remaining a visceral pleasure. London’s WITCHES + VON BRAUN: The Cellar – electronic experimentation and soundtracking Nitkowski mix up ambient hardcore, oblique Elegantly eclectic pop from Witches. from PRDCTV. math-rocking and jazzy experimentation, JUNKIE BRUSH + BEELZEBOZO + THE BACKROOM BOOGIE: The Bullingdon while Prefontaine bring their antagonistic CRUSHING: The X, Cowley – Halloween SHAKE: The Academy angular racket along to complete an party with local punk and new wave-inspired GET DOWN: The Brickworks impressive, challenging bill.

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DOVES / CHERRY GHOST The Academy Heavenly Records is about to show is something of an occasion. celebrate its 18th birthday, and like Greeted on stage with the kind of any good teen they’ve organised a rapture you’d expect for a bit of a bash. This isn’t it though; reformed Beatles, even the band those celebrations will take place seems a little taken aback. over three days at the South Bank If things are a little rusty at first, in London. This is the warm up, a then they can easily be forgiven, as pre-party slug on a bottle of gin Jimi Goodwin and the band are and a quick toke on the way to the clearly relishing playing these main event, if you will. songs again. Missed cues and false As far as warm ups go, Cherry starts are far from blights on their Ghost are the equivalent of a set. They merely smile at each broken microwave. They serve no other, start again, and nail it. Rather purpose and you want to take than get perplexed, these gliches them outside and hit them with a make the Doves a more enjoyable hammer. Depleted in number prospect, they’re clearly enjoying tonight, their songs do at least the act of playing as much as this manage to sound slightly better audience appreciates the than their somewhat patchy album, performance. but ultimately they are instantly Songs from their patchy album forgettable. Anything approaching ‘Some Cities’ lead to a few lulls a semblance of an idea hangs tonight, as do the new songs, which fleetingly in the air and fades away sound like they have yet to find as quickly as it appeared. It’s their feet; but the likes of ‘Sea almost ghost-like, except that Song’ and ‘There Goes The Fear’, ghosts are generally mysterious and from ‘Lost Souls’, and ‘The Last interesting. Broadcast’, sound perfect. When as if the venue might explode. apt description of an 18th birthday Doves haven’t played live for they close the set with the Doves are brooding and celebratory party, I don’t know what is. about two and a half years, so this tumultuous ‘Cedar Room’ it feels tonight, and if that isn’t the most Sam Shepherd

CLARE & THE REASONS / Scottish accent to a poor servicemen ahead of D-Day. approximation of Bob Dylan and Cello,violin and viola add an organic BRENDAN CAMPBELL drones on for a good fifty minutes heart to the keyboard-led melodies in pale tribute to his obvious hero. and Tudor-like madrigals waft The Bullingdon Brooklyn singer-songwriter Clare from the stage as Clare coos Brendan Campbell is a dour fellow. silences and mumblings about Muldaur Manchon and her band sweetly, almost ethereally, like What we initially take to be a dry, tuning up start to suck any have brought some colour with Julee Cruise stripped of her weird downbeat sense of humour is conviviality from the room. them, fortunately. In particular the otherworldliness. With a whimsical actually nothing more than a lack of They’re more fun and life-affirming colour red. They’re all dressed head mix of jazz, folk and pop that’s not anything remotely interesting to than his songs, though, as to toe in it and look like an so much subtle as barely there, you say, as the awkward between-song Campbell switches from his native expanded White Stripes about to wonder if they’d all be happier set off for a lengthy jog. That making miniature models of baby would seem to indicate some kind rabbits rather than lurking around of strength, however, and strength darkened pub venues, and when isn’t something you would accuse they tiptoe through a cover of Clare & The Reasons of. Cutesy Tears For Fears’ ‘Everybody and twee, from Clare’s girly voice Wants To Rule The World’ they to the odd glockenspiel, kazoo and replace all the original’s pomp with recorder interludes, is the order of tufts of kitten fluff. the evening, to a point where you Clare steels herself enough to worry you’re about to be apologise for her country’s suffocated by a blanket of meadow president “being such a jerk” flowers and fluffy clouds and start before singing “Obama, Obama, fantasising about Slipknot invading Obama” to the tune of the stage and vomiting on people. `Somewhere Over The Rainbow’, But get past that slightly cloying but the overall impression is of impression and there’s some fairy- eating dolly mixtures: a treat in like wonder about the band. It’s as small doses, but you couldn’t eat if you’ve been transported sixty an entire bag without feeling years into the past and the band slightly queasy. are teasing an audience of US Dale Kattack photo: Sam Shepherd GEMMA HAYES The Jericho Tavern Gemma Hayes is on the verge of that’s bubbling underneath, being stupidly pretty. She could especially on more of the driving be on the front cover of any songs where the whole band kicks glossy magazine and isn’t even in. Songs like ‘Out Of Our Hands’ trying. So fingers crossed that and ‘In Over My Head’ would be when she opens her mouth the perfectly at home on Radio 2’s only sound which comes out will playlist. be similar to that of foxes mating. It’s all going swimmingly well, Hmmm, me, jealous? Okay, maybe but it’s a shame that when the a little. Sadly for me the voice is as whole band is in full swing the alluring as her looks. As she drummer has decided to take off quietly yet confidently opens the his snare. It ruins the sound as all set, she almost whisper-sings like you can hear is this dull thud that a modern Stina Nordenstam (albeit sounds like it’s coming from a pre- you can actually hear what school kit owned by a seven year Gemma is saying). Kudos to the old. It’s desperately hard to drummer, too: I have never in all ignore, however hard we try. my 27 years heard a drummer That aside, whether Gemma pulls physically able to drum so quietly. out the emotional sweet sultry Which is why, of course, it all slow stuff or turns on the works so well. country-tinged folk-rock charm, There is, however, another side to she’s definitely got what it takes the coin. When Gemma fair belts it to be filling up big venues. out you can find her in the Sheryl I mean, it’s a real shame about the Crow, Narina Pallot and, dare I face. Still, nothing that radio can’t say it, Shania Twain camp. hide. There’s a definite country twang Katy Jerome

SOUND IS MUSIC FESTIVAL RADIATE MANAGEMENT The Regal Representing Artists and Bands Nightshift’s first visit to the Regal reveals different universe from every other band on Please send amazing DEMOS to what is inarguably Oxford’s most attractive today’s bill, with a blend of spacey folk-pop, venue – it has the welcoming glamour of a teletext jazz and ambient electro that’s post-war ballroom coupled with a radically alternately squally and propulsive or genially RADIATE MGT beautified Astoria. The previous night it had ebullient, thanks in the main to singer Bobbie PO BOX 5038 hosted a rollerdisco; later this year British Sea Watson. Their set grows in strength and CHECKENDON Power and Nouvelle Vague will be suitably confidence throughout, and if you wish they’d elegant guests. Today, though, is a ten-hour maybe explore their darker, trippier side a bit READING benefit gig for Action Aid’s anti-poverty more, they’re oddly refreshing. RG8 0AW campaign, featuring ten, mostly local, bands, Respectable performances too from Von none of whom, it sadly seems, are able to Braun, part teenage tantrum raging; part [email protected] muster even a small crowd. Which means it’s spaced-out stoner reverie and with a tendency easy to get a drink, but makes the event feel towards that sort of angular flightiness that radiatemanagement.com like a bleak day in purgatory. today at least feels like something a bit myspace.com/radiate_records This feeling is particularly apparent during a different; and from Apologies, I Have None, a three-hour part of the day that sees two-piece guitar and drums outfit who thrash Sidwinders’ nondescript MOR pub rocking, out a poppy if rudimentary take on early Cure replete with OTT feet-on-monitors histrionics before spoiling the effect by sounding a bit like VENUE PHONE NUMBERS that feels not so much like watching a band as The Alarm. a competition to see who can fit the most rock The best comes at the very start of the day, Oxford Academy: 0844 477 2000 clichés into forty minutes; Red Valve’s shouty, though. Domes Of Silence have been hanging (ticketweb) nonsensical meandering that drive the sound around the peripheries of the local scene for a The Bullingdon: 01865 244516 engineer to trudge to the loo muttering, “Even I decade now, more popular in Belgium than in The Wheatsheaf: 01865 721156 draw the line somewhere,” as we attempt to their home town, but deserving of far more amuse ourselves with the pneumatic bar stools, attention on the strength of this showing: a The X: 01865 776431 and best of the lot, Milton Keynes’ Lionsex, muscular, industrial sludge-rock onslaught that The Cellar: 01865 244761 who look like mid-80s Swedish glam-rockers hits a groove and rides with it. If you had to The Regal: 01865 241261 with their bleached feathercuts, fancy boots, describe them in a single word it would be The New Theatre: 0844 847 1585 leather jackets, low-slung guitars and cock-rock solid: not in that dismissive workmanlike way. The Port Mahon: 01865 202067 posturing that makes their third-rate attack on Solid in that if you drove your car into them The Damned all the more hilarious. At least it’d crumple like a sponge cake. They sound The Jericho Tavern: 01865 311775 until they cover Billy Idol’s `Rebel Yell’, at like Primal Scream making over Motorhead at The Purple Turtle: 01865 247086 which point Nightshift laughs an entire pint of half speed, fronted by Jim Morrison. Which is The Temple: 01865 243251 lager through its nose. rock’n’roll in a way Lionsex, for all their frills, East Oxford Community Centre: There is some respite, however. Colins Of could never understand. Paradise sound like they come from a Dale Kattack 01865 792168 photo: Paul Tipping effective whenattheirmost Calexico areactually attheirmost popular material onoffertonight, highlights ofeasilythemost Mexican influencesarethe (shudder) TheEagles.Whilethe something ofthedullbluster but attheirworsttheyhave there aresomecharmingmoments, Bright Eyes’‘Cassadaga’,and have theevocativewistfulnessof time, ofcourse. At theirbest,they won’t suiteveryoneallofthe Such anarrayoftoneandcolour Mariachi-inflected brass. desert laments,viaatouchof Californian guitarpoptoarid locality: theyflitfromsummery, eclecticism hasitsrootsintheir Even theirmuch-vaunted Arizona homelandstunningly. Calexico’s outputreflectstheir that makesuptheirname, neat geographicalportmanteau anywhere else.Rightdowntothe couldn’t imagineitbeingmade particular locationthatyoujust Some musicissotieddowntoa The Academy CALEXICO Stuart Fowkes that theyoffer. but it’s companionship,not love, people companyonthejourney, panacea. They’llkeepalotof it offersacomfortinglyvague directness anditsheart,butrather music tobreakyouintwowith its you atasafedistance.Thisisn’t you butatthesametimekeeps misleading intimacythatembraces brush strokesofthekind Calexicoareexpertingrand,broad finest musicitssheenofbrilliance. most personallevelthatgivesthe time difficulttoconnectonthat sense ofplace,butatthesame and effortlesslyabletoconjurea ground overandover:atmospheric feel roteandcoverthesame how quicklytheirsoundstartsto instrumentation, it’s surprising palette andtherichnessoftheir Yet consideringtheirbreadthof Love cover. closer tousthanontheirexcellent parched, desperate,andnever stripped down,JoeyBurns’voice administration: namelythe however, istheBush Themaintargetofhisrants, unutterably stomach-churning. burger fromtheirrubberylipsis spraying bitsofsemi-digested audience ofobese Van Halenfans comedy; whilsthisdescriptionofan full-on PeterJackon-styleshlock- be amundaneaffair,turnsinto which inanyoneelse’s handswould An anecdoteaboutkillinganinsect, luridly visceralword-pictography. strewn eloquenceandspecialisesin talks withaslangy, profanity- he’s gothisteethstuckinto.He sometimes losestrackofwhatitis with suchspeedthatevenhe bounding fromsubjectto energy ofahepped-uppuppy, good way. He’s gottheindefatigable kind ofexhaustingtoo,althoughina word hat,andhisperformanceis Tonight he’s wearinghisspoken exhausting justtothinkabout. to stand-uppublishing.It’s human rightsactivismtojournalism he hasspringboardedfromactingto incendiary frontmanofBlackFlag, his daysrilingpeopleasthe HenryRollins,forinstance:since cardboard box-inhabitingpenury. crisis hasreducedtherestofusto rolling inmoneywhenthecredit in enoughpiestokeepSaraLee Some peoplehavegottheirfingers The Academy HENR Waterboys, Viarosa pitsongs with melodiesas pungentasThe Tom Waits vocals, alltoppedoff melancholy, intertwinedwithraspy hints ofNickCave’s lyrical leaves itpleadingformore.With which engulfsyoursensesand shape oftheformlapsteel, Viarosa thiskickcomesinthe an extraalcoholicpunch.For bound upinabowlandlacedwith bass, drums,violinsandbanjos) you wouldexpect(acousticguitar, with allthetraditionalingredients like anygoodChristmaspudding, Theiralternativefolk-rockvibeis these rarefew. bittersweet. Viarosa areoneof create musicthatisenticingand light anddark,fusingittogetherto Occasionally abandcapturesboth happiness isinevitable. you intosunshinestates,where create cheerfulmelodiesthatspring than theautumntrees.Others spiral, leavingyoufeelingbleaker which throwyouintoadepressive Some bandscreatedarksounds, The Wheatsheaf VIAROSA Y ROLLINS Emily Gray televised. this timetherevolution With Rollinsatthehelm,perhaps and morepowertohimforthat. with flowersandCNDsymbols- but hisheartisclearlybedizened that he’s a“peace’n’lovehippy”, awareness. Hedeniesrepeatedly under thecoversinordertoraise most peoplehidingtheirheads the facethingsthatwouldhave Hunger”, andiswillingtolookin he’s makingforcharity, “Hisfor passionately aboutadocumentary doing endearing. And, damn,atleasthe’s quivering jelly, buttheyare won’t reduceTheMantoaheapof “stick ittoTheMan”probably charm. Hisfrequentinjunctionsto broad brushstrokesarepartofhis new insights.Inaway, though,the doesn’t exactlydeliveranysearing entertaining tolistento,buthe upon thatmonth.It’s very country Bushhasdeclaredenmity destinations aroundwhichever taken toplottinghisholiday body politic. Apparently hehas withered, repressedhideofthe warpaint, anarchicallystreakingthe himself asakindofrainbow to civilliberties.Herehestyles and itsdecidedlyunliberalapproach shortcomings ofitsforeignpolicy Lisa Ward out ofthisworld. culminating insomething altogether dejection meetsexuberance, able tocreatemusicinwhich evokes rawemotion. Viarosa are sound anddelightwithmusicthat they enchantwiththeirhaunting technical problemstowardstheend, indulge everymorsel.Despite tonight’s gigsees theaudience With thisinmind,itisnowonder music andtransfixinglisteners. alight thegloom,illuminating supernatural spark,whichsets spine. Theoneconstantisthe send ghostlychillsthroughyour lyrics, whichinvadeyourbrainand such as‘Tourniquet’, offer haunting The Stars’.Equallyothersongs, seen inthelikesof‘CruelPullOf silent sufferingofsalvation,best the background,asiftoreflect against guitarsthatwailwithpainin At timesoptimisticlyricsareset scream outforvengeance. injustice againstotherswhich capturing therawanimosityof something.Hetalks will be WINKSTOCK 08 The Port Mahon / The Cellar Drones. Feedback. Screaming. it’s the earlier tracks that win us Things that look temptingly easy over, woozily sounding like Band for a musician, yet are actually Of Gypsies covering Pink Floyd damned hard to pull off. Recitation after a few pints of Benylin. is another, and so many artists who Chops utilise three keyboards, a try talking over music end up as drum kit and lots of funny bloopy drama school showoffs, or inaudible noises to create the theme music to mumblers. Clara Kindle (actually an advert for Finnish marshmallow male), with soft, measured, stately sweets as imagined by Boredoms, vocals, shows us how well it can be and it’s impossibly brilliant. done, and his calm, burnished tones They’re also full of surprises, the October remind us of Meanwhile, Back In second number – at least, the noise Communist Russia, Arab Strap and after the first applause – is an Every Monday a funeral priest. The looped guitar octave-spanning vamp that THE FAMOUS MONDAY NIGHT BLUES backing is less assured, but even resembles Miles Davis’ fusion The best in UK, European and US blues. 8-12. with a slight reticence the music has group having a crack at Add N To 6th RICKY COO & THE HOOLA HOOLA BOYS (UK) a clipped elegance, and sounds how (X), whilst they end with a sax- th 16th Century troubadours might sprinkled Eddie Bo funk tune, 13 THE LARRY MILER BAND (UK) th have done if they had access to resembling a robotic New Orleans 20 THE MONTE MONTGOMERY BAND (US) infinite delay pedals. bar band. Act of the day, 27th ROB TOGNONI (Australia) In contrast Joey Chainsaw’s set is unquestionably. a brief, brutal spasm. Bending and A run across town to The Cellar is Every Tuesday bowing his guitar strings with two fun, but does taken the momentum drumsticks, Chainsaw excitedly from the event, which has been split THE OXFORD JAZZ CLUB slaps out a bunch of sounds, all across two venues to allow a bigger Free live jazz plus DJs playing r’n’b, funk and soul until 2am knitted together by a seasick crowd for the headliners. Some 7th / 28th THE HOWARD PEACOCK QUINTET lurching glissando. There are some haven’t lasted the distance, and 14th ALVIN ROY & REEDS UNLIMITED interesting moments, but it starts to Elapse-O start up to a small crowd, 21st ROGUE DOLLS coalesce into something memorable although we enjoy them far more after about 8 minutes, at which than last time. They now seem to Wednesdays point the set abruptly ends. We’d play with the programmed beats, th like to have seen this explored rather than near them, and it all has 8 STACEY EARLE & MARK STUART (£9 adv) th further, although punters with a fuzzy edge to it, like a shoegazing 15 CHEEKY CHEEKY & THE NOSEBLEEDS / fingers firmly in ears may have felt Sunnyvale. The vocals still sound THE ELRICS otherwise. strained, but it’s a decent set. The House Of John Player may Shit & Shine may be possibly the Thursdays have some vocal reverb and delay best live act we saw last year, but 2nd MOSHKA presents ALAN TYLER & THE LOST SONS effects, and a surprisingly tinny their records are very different OF LITTLEFIELD / THE MARMADUKES acoustic guitar sound, but ultimately affairs, built on queasy synth loops th the set sounds like yet more singer- and lofi tape splicings. With a 9 ECLECTRIC FRESHERS PARTY 9-2am rd songwriter strums from a man with Casio, drumkit and machines 23 MOSHKA presents CHALK / THIN GREEN CANDLES a Paul Weller haircut, which sits Gentle Friendly make a noise that oddly on the bill. We’re reminded of could fit into these records Every Friday the album Brian Eno made with seamlessly. They’re also a touch BACKROOM BOOGIE James: some decent textures, but like Trencher, and a sort of Fisher- underneath it all the same threadbare Price Fuck Buttons. Most Funk, soul and R&B. 10.30pm-2.30am; £4. songs. pleasant. Thankfully we’re soon woken up. We recently ate some great chilli Friday Early Shows The Academy can spend all the chicken noodles, eye wateringly 3rd JOANNE SHAW TAYLOR (£8) money in Oxford on PA equipment, spicy, yet with a subtlety of 24th ESOTERICA but nothing can ever sound as loud flavour. Manatees’ huge surging Includes entry to Backroom Boogie afterwards as a full throttle drummer in the roils of sound are similar, in that Port Mahon, and American Gods they’re sonically oppressive, yet boast a very good one. They make a musically satisfying. We dutifully Saturdays very fine clatter, equal parts Stooges wear earplugs, but it’s immaterial, 4th SIMPLE – Funky House 9-4am. and Thee Headcoats, but with a pop as this bassy rumbling bypasses the 11th THE RELATIONSHIPS / LES CLOCHARDS / heart beating in the middle – in fact, tympanum and instead troubles the MOIETY / BLUE KITE some of the yearning vocal lines bowels (much like the noodles, but 18th OX4 – Drum’n’bass with SUBTERRA & DJ NOISE would fit comfortably onto an REM that’s by the by). Forget the Large 9-4am; £6/5 single, though they’ll probably hate Hadron Collider, it’s Melvins-style us for writing that. onslaughts like this that are likely to If Oxford were really big enough to produce black holes. We stumble Sundays have micro-scenes, You’re Smiling into Cornmarket, reflecting that 5th KILL FOR A SEAT COMEDY CLUB with REGINALD D Now But We’ll All Turn Into there’s still three hours of DJs to go. HUNTER / GAVIN WEBSTER plus compere SILKY. Demons recall Eynsham, circa They have some stamina, these 7.45pm; £7/6 2003, such is their grungy, Dead Winkstock organisers; and a brilliant 26th THE RESEARCH / PINEY GIR / GINGER TOM Meadow rocking. Whilst the latter contacts book. Here’s to Winkstock part of the set features Blue Cheer 2009. thrashing and a broken bass drum, David Murphy photos by rphimages Thom Yorke) - and the band Yorke) Thom substance. Without too much style. Simon Minter and wheeling static. References flit past in the space of a tremolo - Morrison Van nods to the Beatles, and Eliot Smith. North pitches around the stage with the enthusiasm you’d expect a crowd of 80,000 to deserve; it’s infectious, energetic and overwhelming when there are a dozen of you. all over before you want it to It’s sheer enthusiasm be - the band’s gestures towards a few more oddball covers, or at least a stage dive (although North reliably informs us that the after party is chez are off to surprise the next fifteen people. tour is an entity apart Jubilee’s from their upcoming album, which will feature guest spots from Dave Grohl, Trent Reznor et al. This is a small scale, EP promotion set- up: the band have downscaled their per diems and sleep in a transit van, subsisting on little more than their own enthusiasm. got nothing to do it’s Refreshingly, with who they know – for once, all about the music. it’s Liz Dodd – but the mean more elemental and band are ultimately style over JUBILEE The Bullingdon Between cheating death on the M5 and ducking exploding amps onstage, this hasn’t been an easy tour for Jubilee. They’re a band with an ethic: that despite the alt- Aaron rock goliaths involved - ‘Nine Inch Nails’ North on guitar and vocals; Mikey ‘Queens Of on Fire’ Age / Wires The Stone Shuman on bass and Travis ‘the new Lester Bangs’ Keller behind the scenes – this will never be a super-group. The statement pays off. By playing small venues and shirking promotion, Jubilee’s respective rock idols create an atmosphere in which they can - finally - get down to playing what they want to play. Even the set, with a certain glorious petulance, refuses to be pigeonholed. Individual tracks pitch from gentle shoegaze to rocking Stone Roses: curve-balls sit alongside comfortable singles, and nothing here sounds like the day jobs. It takes three tracks to reach single ‘Rebel Hiss’, where sarcastic harmonies hold their own over a 60s Britpop lick before dissipating into frenzied shreds sophisticated lady Jessica, soundscapes that fill your soundscapes with melody and consciousness tense repetition that power, and A draws you in. grabs you and of early 90s reminder of a swathe to recall. music I’m only too happy be I hope that their set will of rock’n’roll followed by a barrage Lemon, who mayhem from Modey before their I’d built up in my mind who show as psychedelic warlords, the would inevitably smash a modern Bullingdon to pieces with the vein of take on proto-punk in And well, or MC5. The Stooges they’re certainly in that hey, general arena – but unfortunately they’re very much ticketless chancers, peeking over the arena’s fence after failing to blag their way in. They’re far from the centre of generic, bland hard rock things. It’s in the main, endlessly picking over selections from the blues scale without the power, aggression or are There required. coolness that’s hints of something more interesting around the edges – especially in some throaty keyboard lines which suggest a potential for something Momtchiloff and one-time Adam & and one-time Momtchiloff The Ants bassist Andy Warren. a She’s singing in perfect French or with received English pronunciation, and of her being a general feeling there’s fabulously bored by this whole pop malarkey at times, but at the root of sound is that Would-be-Goods’ The lingering awkwardness, as if they’ve consciously decided not to play too lest it let the spirit of competently, indie down. Which means that parts of the set sound more like a new band trying to work out what each other is meant to be doing rather than concentrating on the songs and slipping into jangling mediocrity. They’re more endearing when talking about being Jessica’s inspired by Pinocchio or on the glitter-stomping finale, which is still about as rock and roll as mint juleps and croquet. Like a country pile, Would- The cracked and crumbling, be-Goods are band from another time, before vulgar new money As such, their charm moved in. never truly fades. Ian Chesterton decidedly Piano’s Piano’s everybody in the room is

ARKY’S MAGIC PIANO Heavenly guitarist Peter

doing, and it’s fantastic – vast doing, and it’s surrender yourself to what they’re derivative they certainly are. But of Slowdive; and somewhat Swervedriver and the abstract blur with the buzzing edge of combination of Ride’s dreaminess combination of Ride’s shoegaze-by-numbers, a Sennen, to cynical listeners, play You’ve been told. You’ve The Wheatsheaf whether they want to or not. SP there. We can make them go places We there. / THE WOULD-BE-GOODS Next time they play Oxford – be syncopated, more Liars-style areas. branching out into odder, more their Oxes-style math-rock with a couple of new tunes that see with a couple of new increasingly familiar canon of work increasingly familiar canon they’re excellent, adding to their they’re excellent, adding attention than they do. As usual, attention than they do. this band should attract more this band should attract are never a great night for gigs, but are never a great night embarrassing degree. Sunday nights embarrassing degree. Sunday slightly uncomfortable and slightly uncomfortable room is virtually empty, to a room is virtually empty, is everybody for 50ft Panda? The is everybody for 50ft am I to berate? But where the hell am I to berate? missed the first act tonight, so who missed the to complain about this – after all, I about this – after all, to complain The Bullingdon hypocritical of me somewhat It’s 50FT PANDA 50FT MODEY LEMON / SENNEN / / SENNEN LEMON MODEY and 80s players, including Talulah Gosh Talulah 80s players, including made up of similarly rooted-in-the- of course, even if her current band is moved on at all for her since. It has life and music doesn’t seem to have Me’ second song in tonight’s set, second song in tonight’s Me’ plays 1988’s ‘The Camera Loves ‘The plays 1988’s twenty-one years ago, and when she Griffin released her first single In fact the band’s mainstay, Jessica mainstay, In fact the band’s be-Goods are children of that time. post-C86 crowd, and The Would- The post-C86 crowd, and or the shambling coyness of the sharp-elbowed funk of Fire Engines was a virtue, whether it was the Back in the 1980s, awkwardness you could love them more. keep your interest, though you wish hour set they lack the variety to Unfortunately, across a full half- Unfortunately, moments of quirky sweetness. Jane (what did ‘Fine Day’) in odd occasionally recalls 80s cult fave lo-fi electro-twee pop, one that Sparky’s Magic Sparky’s noise that noise raving about. Instead we indulge Lovely Eggs, a boy-girl garage-pop We just miss tonight’s first act, The first act, just miss tonight’s We MAGIC NUMBERS / DANNY & THE THE LONG INSIDERS / LITTLE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD LOST DAVID / JIM DRISCOLL & Harvest Festival, Isis Tavern JENNY MAY The weather stays kind and the cooped up in the studio working on The Jericho Tavern vibes gentle for the second day of a new LP. No-one doubts Romeo Opening act at tonight’s decidedly are the kind of group that encourage Truck’s new Harvest Festival. The Stodart when he says an intimate gig mixed but typically memorable Coo people to break out in ungainly, talk on beer-making seems to be organised by friends is exactly what Coo Club, Jim Driscoll and Jenny drunken dancing. And in a place as winning out over the instrument- the band need and intimate this May deliver beguiling alt-country occasionally pompous as Oxford, making workshop but nobody’s surely is, a tiny stage nestled under tunes, before, somewhat that’s high praise indeed. They look counting. Small festival favourites an old spreading tree. Several new shambolically, running out of time. like a group of debauched geography Danny And The Champions of the songs get their first live outing and It’s clear that the pair haven’t been teachers; all mid-price clothes, World capture the mood perfectly, indications suggest more poignant, collaborating for long, but what they knowing looks and faintly detached, starting off great and just getting delicate songwriting with just the lack in on-stage chemistry, or indeed weary expressions. Lead singer better. And better. And better. right amount of studied rocking out. variety, they make up for with their Sarah Todd looks particularly Imagine Ronnie Lane fronting the They may not be that big on variety heartfelt acoustic prettiness. volatile; and for someone whose classic Waterboys line-up; they’re but when the music’s this good you Next up is the highly-tipped Little voice is like melting chocolate, she even better than that. Grand Drive don’t want to start picking holes. Lost David. Hailing from Sheffield, unexpectedly dominates the stage. frontman Danny George Wilson ‘Love Me Like You’ remains a he specialises in emotionally Their music is influenced by 60s leads a motley crew, including perfect tale of loss and regret, and charged, guitar-driven singer- surf tunes, shot through with Goldrush’s Robin and Joe Bennett, the three vocals of Romeo, Michele songwriter loveliness. He has a emotive, bruised guitar-driven through a joyous, transcendent and and Angela still play off each other piercing voice which he uses to good melodies. They could score a David very personal musical journey, perfectly. The finale is a glorious run effect, in a style that’s already been Lynch film perfectly, and, given half taking the grateful crowd with him. through The Band’s ‘The Weight’, compared to Rufus Wainwright and the chance, would eat you for The label folk-rock does no justice with assorted Champions somehow Antony Hegarty. He has a searing breakfast (washed down with a to how great this band is; every managing to crowd themselves darkness and violence about his glass of gin and bitter lemon, no song goes on forever, but no-one onstage. songs which neither of these have, doubt). Their songs are perfectly wants them stop. Much as I hate the word, Truck however, and he possesses an crafted, compact and punchy, and The Magic Number’s headline set has become a brand, and a hugely absolutely fascinating stage they delivere a forty minute plus set at Truck ’05 is so legendary, having successful one at that. Of the five presence. You just wish he would which is packed full of highlights. cannily been booked just before festivals I attended this summer, no have a full band; he has an Captivating as they are, though, it’s their first album came out and went other left in its wake such a warm accompanying drummer, but this Little Lost David who has me on Top 10, that surely it can’t be glow, enough to carry us through guy needs to be heard loud and with the laptop straight after the show. topped tonight, right? Wrong. In the long months until the next meaty accompaniment. He is a real find, and I’m still getting almost perfect darkness they hit the round. Headliners, and Oxford music scene goose pimples. stage in top form, fresh from being Art Lagun stalwarts, The Long Insiders James Benefield

THE DODOS / EUROS CHILDS / the necessary glue that holds it all together, making their delivery as storming, fast-paced, TRISTAN & THE TROUBADOURS über-tight, hypnotic, and, alas, as unique as Animal Collective’s work. The only difference The Academy here is a noticeable fondness for meaningful Tristan & the Troubadours are an Oxfordshire thinking of intense African drumming combined lyrics and a simplified bi-dimensional approach, seven-piece band, young, vibrant and ready to with added percussion for extra beat effects, yet loaded with stunning glitches of silences and eat the world. They have been compared to rhythmic guitar rollercoaster patterns and a crescendos, explosive rhythmic u-turns and Larrikin Love, but they own a unique energetic crystal clear melodic voice on top. Everything intense earthy riffs. It is like racing on a single attitude and savoir faire that other bands can’t in their music is based on beats and even though track with no brakes - Pure ecstatic adrenaline. recreate. Classical violin intermingled with fresh the guitar here doesn’t take the lead, it becomes Liane Escorza percussion, rhythmic guitars and broken vocals form their musical recipe – a surprising beginning to a hopefully successful future. Euros Childs was fronting Welsh psych- popsters Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci a few years ago, showcasing a melodic pop trend in the line of The Beatles, with a folk twist. Now going solo, he strips things down to the mere basics of piano, synths and acoustic strokes. Hymns of nostalgia and poetic ambience promise a melancholic vis-a-vis with the past, of better sepia-colour times, yet this expenctancy is cracked in places. The initial sweet flowing choruses and elongated moves shift from serene beauty to eternal dispair, and from climax to photo: Liane Escorza boredom and coldness. ‘The Miracle Inn’ tunes may suggest sparkly hope and warm smiles but tonight they just deliver ethereal steam and colourless waves. The Dodos are Meric Long and Logan Kroeber, a psychedelic indie-folk duo from San Francisco. If that doesn’t say much to you, try

Introducing…. Whatever happened to… those heroes THE MYSTICS Nightshift’s new monthly guide to the best local bands bubbling under Who? The Mystics were singer and bassist ELAPSE-O Sam Williams, guitarist Mark `Woody’ Wood, Who are they? keyboard player and David J Roe who sings and plays guitars and Toby Nevitt on bass and singer Kate Garrett electronics. They formed in the summer of 2007 and have been gigging and drummer Matthew constantly ever since. “We’ve played up and down the country. From Steer. grotty, but fashionable Shoreditch venues to just plain grotty rooms What? Spiky, beneath student bars in Leeds. On the whole it’s been pretty good.” They grunged-out played at this year’s Oxford Punt and recently released a download EP psychedelia that through Nottingham-based label Records On Ribs. David also finds time to married The Pixies’ promote his own Permanent Vacation gig nights, showcasing the best local tense melodic mayhem and international experimental and noise acts. with The Beach Boys’ lysergic sunshine pop. Or perhaps children’s TV What do they sound like? puppets from outer space reinterpreting The Beatles’ ‘Revolver’. Nightshift awarded their recent CD Demo Of The Month, describing them When? The Mystics’ debut single, ‘Happy’ was released on local label as a mix of future factory rhythms, heavily-treated guitar drones, Backbeat (the same label that launched Supergrass) in 1993, after which they electronic bleeps and shimmers and panicked, disembodied vocals mixed signed to Fontana for whom they released a series of singles, including ‘Lucy’s and curdled together to form a dense, hypnotic tapestry of sounds that Factory’, ‘See You’ and ‘Who’s That Girl?’ before extracting themselves from hiss, click, clatter and grind their way with steely determination. Or in the deal in June 1996 after long-running disputes over career direction, their own words: “Piercing guitars. Fist in the air bass lines. Primitive coupled with problems with Californian drummer Matt’s visa problems. The beats. Bright electronics. Sickly shoe-gaze boy vocals. Like a stack of 80s Mystics’ eponymous debut album was finally released on Rotator Records in shoe-gaze and electro albums, played on a ghetto blaster at deafening 1997. The band split shortly after. Soon afterwards Sam, who had produced volumes in an industrial metal drum.” Supergrass’ debut album, teamed up with ex-Ride chaps Mark Gardener and What inspires them? Loz Colbert to form the short-lived The Animal House. “Taking risks and the small pockets of people who you’ll find in cities Why? For a time in the early-mid 90s The Mystics were at the forefront of across the UK (including this one) who play in small venues, for small Oxford’s burgeoning music scene. Sam Williams’ Supergrass associations change, who are also dedicated to it. Apart from that, dirty, repetitive helped the band attract major label attention and they signed to Fontana after electro and hip-hop beats.” a furious label bidding war. More importantly they were an electrifying live Career highlight so far: spectacle, Sam’s hysterical lead vocals and Woody’s furious post-punk guitar “Having a 7” released in another country.” thrash beautifully offset by Kate’s otherworldly backing vocals and tendencies And the lowlight: towards mutant jazz. In 1994, a vintage year for Oxford music, the band’s “Supporting HEALTH. They totally blew us off the stage. Never nice. It’s sublime ‘Dead’ topped Curfew’s end of year Top 20, beating Supergrass’ made us work harder and think more closely about what we do.” ‘Mansize Rooster’ in a photo finish. Their favourite other Oxford band are: Where? Post-split, Matthew headed back to the States and Woody to “Hreda.” London, before heading for South America. Kate subsequently formed her own If they could only keep one album in the world, it would be: band, who still gig regularly in Oxford and she runs the local Young Women’s “`Fear of a Black Planet’ by Public Enemy” Band Project. After enduring more major label machinations and some minor When is their next gig and what can newcomers expect? chart action with The Animal House Sam now concentrates on production st ”Saturday 1 November, upstairs at the Academy. Hopefully a show that work, recently producing A Silent Film’s debut album. puts across the best elements of the band. A loud catharsis of noise and How? ‘The Mystics’ is available to buy online from oxfordmusic.net, or electronics. Our shows are generally helped by a good quality PA. The download tracks at mppglobal.com. Academy has that, so we’re looking forward to playing there.” Their favourite thing about Oxford music is: “Both this band and Permanent Vacation, a promotions night one of us runs, have been supported and received in a way that’s encouraging. DR SHOTOVER: Pretties For You Oxford’s a small city so the scene can become familiar quickly. But, when Ah, there you are.... Pull up a pew. I believe compared to other cities its size, like Northampton, where we come from that you want to buy me a drink and hear about my adventures with Johnny Foreigner. originally, the level of interesting stuff that’s going on is pretty high. I’ll take a pint of Strong Bowel Cyder - and You’ll love them if you love: pop a Pernod and blackcurrant in the top, Suicide, Liars, Cabaret Voltaire and Swans. will you, there’s a good chap. Yes, just back Hear them here: from the South of France, you can probably www.myspace.com/elapseo tell. I used to think that pink wine was only drunk by Rod Stewart, footballers’ wives and people from Witney. As it transpires, I acquired quite a taste for the stuff in Provence, don’t you know... thirsty work, all that shouting at people in their native tongue. (“COGNAC - NOW!” etc). Meanwhile I gather that the Oxford Music Scene reached an all-time low in my absence, but that things are looking up, in that various members of proto-janglers HERE COMES “Hi, Dr S! We’re moving EVERYBODY are due to be on the same in next door!” stage at the Bullingdon Arms this month.... What’s that, Bentley-Fortescue? They’re not actually re-forming? I knew that, you chinless milksop. Also not due for reformation, in strict chronological order - THE PROLES, Oxford’s first punk band; Bicester art- rockers HENRY PIG; Wantage disgusto-industrialists RANCID FAT; and, last but not least, the East Hanney showband with a heart of gold and a twinkle in their eye, BOW-TIE McCRACKEN. Ah, the ruffled shirts, the priceless covers of “Three Times a Lady”, “Lady in Red” and “Candle in the Wind”... How well I recall those happy evenings snogging on the dancefloor at Fumbles nightclub with a succession of bleached-blonde 80s popsies... Ahem. Where was I? Ah yes, about to be sick. Nice talking to you... Next month: Dr Shotover IS sick. Very sick. DEPRESSION FEARS AS FINANCIAL CRISIS HITS As recently as March this year three songs in one) to a worrying Oxford band Young Knives three songs per album with the released an album entitled release of ‘Hail To The Thief’. ‘Superabundance’, but the global Their price rallied to a respectable financial crisis means the Ashby- six songs for the last fiscal quarter de-la-Zouch three-piece may soon on ‘In Rainbows’ but experts not have a pot to piss in! believe a reliance on their electronics “It’s serious”, said a spokesman investments might lead to more for the leading Oxford rockers, rambling, muttering and noodling in “buyers are wondering where all the future. the quirkiness has gone.” Financial observers have a offered WHAT A HOO HA a glimmer of hope for the Ashby- Previously buoyant Oxford pop de-la-Zouch group, pointing to institution Supergrass, who previous sound investments in famously declared that everything second-hand tweed. “Such frugal was ‘Alright’ before the credit spending at this time might mean crunch hit have been the subject of “We’re sorry, but your shares are now worthless. Henry, House and Oliver don’t a shock take-over as confidence in Oh and by the way, you’re fired.” have to tighten their belts as much feelgood glam-pop evaporated. as some critics have previously Classic Rock Building Society suggested. Er, sorry, where did you moved to sure up the band’s recent Fish in the big global economy CAN WE GO TO BED NOW? say they were from again?” ‘Diamond Hoo Ha’ project, pond will have to battle hard to Nobody can now doubt that the ensuring a high quota of beery survive the times ahead, especially future is extremely gloomy, with CHEER UP, FOR singalong anthems that would with huge American investment the global economy set to crash, GOD’S SAKE! appeal to the more affluent 30-40 being ploughed into the company, sending millions of people into As the stock market crash age bracket. “Can we make a joke but they advise against bowing to unemployment, leading to suicides threatened even the most secure of about ‘In It For The Money now’?” pressure to install a bass player into amongst city workers and possibly Oxford bands, it emerged that quipped a passing insurance broker. the boardroom, or face ending up signalling the end of the world as Radiohead’s stock had fallen from a with egg custard on their faces. we know it. Sorry, that’s not part record high of fourteen songs per CUSTARD “Bands should stick to what they’re of this article, it’s just some album with ‘OK Computer’ (come With the financial crisis expected to good at, or they’ll be flogging life Richard Walters lyrics we picked on, ‘Paranoid Android’ was at least worsen, analysts warn that Little assurance before they know it.” up on earlier. DEMOSDEMOS Sponsored by Demo of the Month wins a free half day’s recording at Keynote. Call 01189 599944 to claim your prize and get special deals for local bands!

DEMO OF MOLLY HODGE This month’s obligatory alarmingly talented THE MONTH teenage girl demo, this time from 16-year old Mollie Hodge who apparently lives at Cloud Cottage somewhere in Warborough, which SPUNKLE sounds like a fantastic, dreamy place to reside. Back in Nightshift’s 100th issue we listed 100 And sure enough Mollie sounds happy enough, things that had made us happy, sad or warbling along to a lone piano whatever in that time. We listed Spunkle as accompaniment, aiming squarely for a jaunty the only person we had called a genius and cocktail lounge jazz vibe. Her voice is light, not regretted it in the morning. Such was his airy and playful, but like many other young maverick and innovative use of technology singers, she sounds like she needs to team up and sense of mischief. After an early Shifty with a more experienced or imaginative Disco single, a couple of inspired demos and songwriter, her tunes being sweet enough but some brilliantly bizarre gigs, Jim Davies, the slight and insubstantial, more distractions than man who was Spunkle, dropped off the radar actual songs. Either that or she could learn a to become an artist or something so it was repertoire of old standards, in which case a with little whoops of delight we opened this glorious future entertaining diners on cut- new CD, an eight-track, 35-minute price Mediterranean cruise ships is hers for collection of electronic explorations that the taking. takes in lolloping acid house squelches and bubbles, drifting ambient randomness, bludgeoning future factory carnage, thumping LUKE KEEGAN techno funk and maddeningly hypnotic and This month’s obligatory sad-bloke-with- disorientating synth squiggles. Oh and a few acoustic-guitar demo. Which, particularly in well-placed snatches of dialogue that are these darkening days of autumn, following on funny by sheer dint of being utterly from such a non-event of a summer, would meaningless in isolation (“Do they come normally have us driven to despair or into a from Denmark?”). Simultaneously harsh and paroxysm of rage, except that Luke here isn’t playful, elegant and fidgety, what Spunkle is half bad actually. And anyway, he’s drawn us a doing is little different to what a million nice picture of a smiley monster-cum-bear bedroom-bound sound dabblers are doing, but thing holding an ice cream cone and the ice it’s his style, his imagination that makes him cream is coloured with fluorescent felt pen, different. Makes him better than all of them. and it makes us a little bit happy because ice So, do we still think he’s a genius? Ask us in creams remind us a of summers in the distant the morning. past when the sun actually used to shine and you had to actually go in the sea to get wet rather than just sit on the beach and get royally pissed on. Still, all is not well in Luke’s world: he sounds rather annoyed with the THIN GREEN world on the first couple of songs, humming and strumming along with little discernible CANDLES character, but then he injects a bit of Spanish Another bedroom electro experimenter, as is guitar thrum into proceedings and gets a bit apparently obligatory each month. Thin more reflective and even the strange drunk- Green Candles isn’t quite in Jim Spunkle’s person-snoring vocal effect he sticks over the league but it’s a pleasantly disquieting clutter top of it for a few moments can’t detract of ambient noises that suggests a young man from its simple charm too much. Best of the sitting alone in the dark, thinking dark bunch is the final track (hey, no song titles thoughts, contemplating smoking some more here) which aims for some kind of breathless skunk while immersed in the innovative wonder, a la Richard Walters, doesn’t quite hit electro primitivism of acts like Coil, Hafler those highs but does offer the promise of Trio and Nurse With Wound. From the icy better things to come. A quick visit to Luke’s horror flick soundtrack of opener ‘Break Me Myspace site finds his headline tag reading Down’, with its apparent sampling of the “Please don’t hate me”. And for now, such tortured wails of the undead, through the feelings are kept under wraps. clatter and throb of equally abstract and propulsive electronica and looped vocal samples, to the deliberately cheap-sounding BACK POCKET keyboards on ‘Papernovember’, there’s a decent grasp on texture and atmosphere, PROPHET with the odd chink of light just about This month’s obligatory metal demo. Back 07967 229 102 sufficient to brighten the gloom. Pocket Prophet, whose name is impossible to type correctly after half a glass of wine, never mourning the lack of sun, really is rubbing our mind pronounce after several pints of lager, noses in it. Fantastic. And so, with all the come from Bicester and they’ve got a church solemnity of Joy Division’s ‘Atmosphere’ as bell. There it is tolling, rather tinnily we have if it were being prised apart by silicon chip to admit, at the start of the opening track, demons they drift through disembodied chants, ‘Transposition’. But if that suggests a thrift- part Gregorian, part Klezmer, each track shop Black Sabbath, the music is heavy and building and building over repeated synth and militant, a rising swell of blistered guitar piano loops, rising up into battering electro- exploding into hardcore chug with suitably core mountains. Marco sings like Wall-E sneery, shouty vocals and even a good old recast as a short-circuiting android lounge fashioned widdly middle-eight. From Sabbath- blues crooner and it’s all anyone could need to like spaciousness to all-out metal-core via get a good old beach party started. Judas Priest’s melodic thrash, BPP are well drilled and by the time they get to ‘How Can I Deny You’, the reins have come loose and NOT MY DAY they’re going at it full pelt. So much so that This month’s obligatory classic guitar pop we can even forgive them the comedy rant in demo. Not My Day’s is a solid, jangly chug THE COURTYARD STUDIO the middle that sounds like a Power Rangers through the usual accepted litany of Great baddie plotting to take over the world. British Blokes With Guitars bands, the vocals PROTOOLS HD2, MTA 980 CONSOLE 32/24/ heartfelt but laddish enough not to get his 24, OTARI MTR90 MK2 24 TRACK TAPE mates taking the piss after a couple of beers MACHINE, 2 TRACKING ROOMS, SUPERB PISTOL KIXX and brothers Adam and Ben Cook combining CONTROL ROOM WITH GOOD SELECTION This month’s obligatory….well, Pistol Kixx well on the 60s-style harmonies. All of this OF MICS & OUTBOARD GEAR, + MIDI demo. Since this is their third offering in the carried out with sprightly conviction and just FACILITIES (INC LOGIC AUDIO, AKAI last few months. In fact this demo was enough punky energy to fit in with the massed S1000, OLD SKOOL ROLAND ETC.) recorded at Keynote Studios as the band’s ranks of modern Woolworth’s-friendly indie prize for winning Demo Of The Month earlier rockers, but as it barrels along with muscly Residential facilities included. in the year. These blokes don’t mess about, abandon, you realise that while it might never www.courtyardrecordingstudio.com you know: “Recorded with the help of cheap win any prizes for originality, it’ll damn well PHONE PIPPA FOR DETAILS booze”, shouts their scrawled letter. “More of get the boys and girls dancing. And no bugger ON 01235 845800 the same!” it pronounces, and they ain’t ever lost money doing that. So Not My Day wrong. But then why fix what ain’t broke? might well get their day one day. What’s broke, by the way, is probably all the furniture in the studio and anything else that isn’t made of concrete or girders. So anyway, `Backdoor Beauty’ is a simple Oi! punk thrash THE DEMO fronted by a gruff B&H rasp, while `City Sniff’ is, well, more of the same. Two songs, DUMPER five minutes, wham bang thank you mam. They won an entire day’s recording for that previous Demo Of The Month so to come DEEDS OF THE out with five minutes of music suggests the NAMELESS cheap booze took up most of the time. Admirable behaviour in every respect. People This month’s obligatory unreconstructed soft- take notice: this is how proper rock bands rock whipping boy of a demo. Shouldn’t studio should sound and behave. engineers be forced to sign some kind of voluntary code of conduct, like garage mechanics have to now, that forces them to MONDAY MORNING confront bands like this with the sheer pointlessness of their endeavours before they SUN hand over another wad of cash to add those This month’s obligatory Umair Chaudhry extra overdubs just so they can sound even demo. You know, him out of this month’s more like Whitesnake suffering from sudden cover stars Xmas Lights; him what always mid-life crisis and trying to turn into Kaiser wins Demo Of The Month whatever he does Chiefs? “ Sorry lads, it’s not 1985 any more: because it’s almost without fail absolutely here’s your money back, it’ll tide you over doom-ladenly brilliant and him what engineers until you get your first pay cheque from at Keynote Studios and produced the Pistol Homebase. Get yourselves some 21st Century Kixx demo and thus would be winning his own haircuts and a bag of chips, now bugger off eh, bloody prize if he won another demo of the I’ve got Metronomy coming in in an hour.” Month. Which might just set off a space/time So, initially at least, Deeds Of The Nameless continuum loop that could destroy the very sound like hoary old session men who’ve just fabric of the universe. And he nearly would discovered an old Jam and Cars compilation have pulled it off if it hadn’t been for that tape down the back of the sofa and decided it’s pesky Spunkle kid. Anyway, here Umair teams the future. Quickly running out of energy they up with former-Xmas Lights bandmate Marco lapse into rock ballad mode before giving up Ruggiero for a deliberately dispiriting trawl completely and reverting to their original 70s through the bleaker edges of ambient rock. At least it sounds more honest. If still a industrial noise. Which, when we’re still stinking heap of shit.

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