email: [email protected] website: nightshift.oxfordmusic.net Free every month. NIGHTSHIFT Issue 184 November Oxford’s Music Magazine 2010

Oxford’s Greatest Metal Bands Ever Revealed! photos: rphimagies

The

METAL!issue featuring Desert Storm Sextodecimo JOR Sevenchurch Dedlok Taste My Eyes and many more

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

COMMON ROOM is a two-day mini-festival taking place at the Jericho Tavern over the weekend of 4th-5th December. Organised by Back & To The Left, the event features sets from a host of local bands, including Dead Jerichos, The Epstein, Borderville, Alphabet Backwards, Huck & the Handsome MOTOWN LEGENDS MARTHA REEVES & THE VANDELLAS play Fee, The Yarns, Band of Hope, at the O2 Academy on Sunday 12th December. Reeves initially retired Spring Offensive, Our Lost Infantry, from performing in 1972 due to illness and had until recently been a Damn Vandals, Minor Coles, The member of Detroit’s city council. In nine years between 1963-72 the trio Scholars, Samuel Zasada, The had 26 chart hits, including the classic `Dancing In The Streets’, `Jimmy Deputees, Message To Bears, Above Mack’ and `Heatwave’. Tickets for the show are on sale now, priced £20, Us The Waves, The Gullivers, The from the Academy box office an online at www.o2academyoxford.co.uk. DIVE DIVE have signed a deal with Moulettes, Toliesel, Sonny Liston, Xtra Mile Records, home to Frank Cat Matador and Treecreeper. Early Turner, with whom they are bird tickets, priced £8 for both days, on Friday 19th November, with be released and the campaign bandmates, and fellow Oxford stars A are on sale now from support from Empty Vessels plus culminates with the release of ‘Fine Silent Film. The band have a new Wegottickets.com. more to be announced. They also Lines’ in both digital and physical album, entitled ‘Potential’, already play a series of dates in London, formats. The Rock are set to play at recorded and due for release early in THE LINE UP FOR THIS YEAR’S Birmingham and Reading. Visit Audioscope Festival at the Jericho 2011, with a new single, ‘Liar’, out WINTER WARMER is almost www.myspace.com/deadjerichos Tavern on Saturday 6th November. on December 13th. Xtra Mile will complete. The annual pre-Christmas for more news and live dates. also be releasing Dive Dive’s first festival is co-organised by monthly VIXENS have their debut single, two albums, ‘Tilting At Windmills’ club Gappy Tooth Industries and THE ROCK OF TRAVOLTA ‘Mirrors’, released by Yoyo Acapulco and ‘Revenge Of The Mechanical indie promoters Swiss Concrete and release a new single this month. Records this month. The single was Dog’, digitally in the coming this year takes place at The ‘Last March of the Acolytes’ is reviewed in Nightshift in May when months. The band will be supporting Wheatsheaf and Café Tarifa over the released in digital form only, as a the band originally planned to release Frank Turner at The Regal on Sunday weekend of the 17th-19th December. free download from the band’s it themselves. Visit 5th December, as well as backing the The Wheatsheaf will host live music website, www.myspace.com/vixensmusic singer. ‘Liar’ is up online now at on the Friday and Saturday evenings, www.therockoftravolta.com. The to hear tracks by the band. www.myspace.com/divedive. with free live music at Café Tarifa band’s new album, `Fine Lines’, is on the Saturday and Sunday released in early 2011. RADIATE launch a new unsigned JONQUIL are set to release their afternoons. Acts confirmed for the The single starts a campaign of bands night at the Jericho Tavern third album early next year after Wheatsheaf are Alamakota, A releases that mark the 10th starting on January 28th. Promoter signing to new York-based Dovetail Scholar & A Physician, Deer anniversary of the band’s first album, Jon Chapman is looking for original Records. ‘One Hundred Suns’ will get Chicago, Dial F For Frankenstein, ‘My Band’s Better Than Yours’. new bands to play the regular club a download-only release in the States Secret Rivals, Spring Offensive, Two digital special-edition albums, night. Email details to in December, followed by a full vinyl Tiger Mendoza, Volkenfunk and The covering the band’s first decade, will [email protected]. release in the UK in February. The Yarns, while Tarifa plays host to band play a headline show at the Anton Barbeau, James Bell, Ross Jericho Tavern on Friday 19th Bennett, Braindead Collective, November, their first hometown George Chopping, Ally Craig, D Rodger Dawling 1975-2010 show since supporting Foals and Gwalia, Jess Hall, Dan Holloway, Tributes have been paid to Rodger with his time and efforts towards Bombay Bicycle Club on tour. King Of Cats, Midnight Boatman, Dawling, drummer with local pretty much everyone he knew and Support comes from Neon Pulse and Marc Nash, Helen Pearson, rockers Beaver Fuel, who has died, I’ve forgotten how many times Rhosyn (formerly Wap Wap Wow). Prohibition Smokers Club, Trev aged 35. It is believed Rodger he’d have us in stitches with his Jonquil members Kit Monteith and Williams and Matt Winkworth. Visit succumbed to carbon-monoxide utterly irrepressible cheeky humour Jody Prewett left the band earlier www.gappytooth.com for more fumes at his home. Bandmate Leigh and general mischeviousness.” this year to form Trophy Wife, who details. Alexander recalled his friend’s sense Nightshift extends our deepest have signed to Moshi Moshi, while of humour, “His attitude and condolences to all of Rodger’s frontman Hugo Manuel has been DEAD JERICHOS release a new cheekiness reflected the band’s family and friends. playing solo under the guise Chad single, ‘Mountains’, on November general ethos, and he had told me Valley. A track from the new album, 1st. The local post-punk-inspired on a number of occasions that ‘Fighting Smiles’, is up online now at stars cap a successful year with a Beaver Fuel was the only band he www.myspace.com/jonquiluk. special launch gig at the Wheatsheaf had really felt he belonged in. I will forever be indebted to his enthusiasm and will miss him as the SURFACE FESTIVAL returns in 2011, set to feature 500 shows at venues family member he undoubtedly across 14 UK and European venues, including Oxford’s O2 Academy. The was.” Beaver Fuel bassist James event climaxes in a 21-act show at London’s IndigO2 venue in the O2 Serjeant also paid tribute to complex. Next year’s prize pot for the winning acts is £100,000, provided Rodger’s humour, saying “It’s not by various big-name sponsors and includes a slot at the Szigel 2011 just about him being the drummer Festival. Bands wanting to take part in the Surface 2011 event can find for our band; he was a damn good out more details and register at www.surfacefestival.com. friend who was generous to a fault Metal Special BringBringBring thethethe Noise!Noise!Noise! Oxford has long been home to a thriving metal scene, from bands to promoters.

Dave had managed a couple of mates’ bands who JOR became JOR and Faith In Hate, while running his own label, Chicken Records, putting out compilation albums of underground metal and hardcore acts. “Things were very different then as there were hardly any metal bands, at least not young ones. Oxford was still very much ‘indie town’, which is not a bad thing. But it all came along at a time when things had got a bit boring,” he recalls. “For me The Club That Cannot Be Named was just about putting on nights so all of our friends could have fun and party. Luckily it took off straight away and this allowed us to bring bands we wanted to see to town and make a real go of things as promoters. “The Club changed the local metal scene completely. As soon as younger kids saw bands like JOR and Black Candy they all stated forming their own bands and before you know it there was loads of them! There was definitely a feeling of camaraderie between bands when things got going with The Club and I still see that now.”

METAL LASTS FOREVER. IT’S AS OLD AND cannot be overstated. As well as encouraging local SUCH WAS ALAN AND DAVE’S SUCCESS as heavy as the hills and whatever form it takes, metal bands and bringing emerging big names to at promoting that they soon outgrew the Elm Tree when it hits you, you know it’s metal. town, the club created a hub for the local scene, and the Wheatsheaf and became the main Oxford’s musical reputation around the world has pioneered all-ages gigs in Oxfordshire and inspired promoters at the Zodiac, attracting bigger and been built on bands like Radiohead, Ride, Supergrass other promoters to start their own metal nights. bigger touring bands to town. Anthrax, Sikth, and Foals but through the decades the city has The first TCTCBN show featured local heroes Killswitch Engage and most recently Ozzy always had a strong, characteristically diverse and JOR alongside Spine and Primate. Their second Osbourne are among the host of names they have self-sufficient metal scene. A scene that has show featured Raging Speedhorn. attracted to Oxford, as well as myriad big name and spawned acts as diverse as doom-metal titans Alan Day now works for Kilimanjaro, one of the emerging indie acts. Sevenchurch, metalcore attack dogs JOR, sludge- largest live promotions companies in the UK, Of course, this success spelled the end for core grinders Sextodecimo, garage-thrash duo responsible for Ozzfest and Sonisphere and tour TCTCBN as a local grassroots club, but it had sown Winnebago Deal, stoner-rock champs Desert promoting Ozzy, Slayer and Fear Factory, among the seed for a new generation of promoters to take Storm and the almost uncategoriseable Suitable others, but earlier this year he went back to his over the reins. Case For Treatment. roots as TCTCBN celebrated its tenth anniversary “Without Alan’s gigs I would never have been with a show at the Wheatsheaf, featuring many of tempted to come to Oxford, full stop,” says HEAVY METAL TENDS TO BE ASSOCIATED the bands he first helped find their place on the Bethan Groves, who has promoted metal and with the old industrial heartlands – the Black scene, including JOR, Sextodecimo and Shouting hardcore shows here since 2003 under the name Country, South Yorkshire and south Wales, but Myke, who have gone on to greater international Burning Legacy. “Without Alan Day in Oxford, increasingly over the years it has been the real success as A Silent Film. He recalls why he and there’d be fuck all of a metal scene in Oxford.” sound of the suburbs. Many of Oxfordshire’s Dave first started putting on metal nights. Beth comes from Cwmbran in south Wales but greatest heavyweights have emerged from the “I always thought Oxford was totally lacking in a grew up with the Newport music scene, based small towns surrounding Oxford, while almost metal scene. If anyone was to play at the Zodiac I around the legendary TJs in Newport. She without exception, local metallers are born and wasn’t old enough to go – something I was proud promoted her first show aged 17, oddly enough bred Oxfordians. to change later on. featuring three Oxford bands – JOR, Miazma and In the 1970s and 80s the Dolly – the Corndolly as “I was president of the Rock Society at Coma Kai. Moving to Oxford to study at Brookes it was – was spiritual home to the local metal Portsmouth University and used to put on bands she advertised for bands on the Nightshift forum community, an heroic if sometimes isolated haven once a month, so when I met Dave, who worked (“I remember a certain vocalist of a local band of heaviosity as the genre’s popularity waxed and with a band called JOR, I said, `Why don’t we do telling me I’d be stepping on other promoters’ waned. In more recent times though, particularly in something similar, with a club night vibe’. We toes. It pissed me off so much I thought, I’ll show the past decade, the scene has grown in size, didn’t know what to call it, so one night in Dave’s you mate”), and has since put on touring acts like strength and diversity. parents’ attic we decided to just call it The Club Tesseract and Lithurgy, always with local supports. That Cannot Be Named, based on The Dwarves’ THE CATALYST FOR METAL’S RESURGENCE `He Cannot Be Named’. ALONGSIDE BURNING LEGACY, TWO in Oxford was, of course, The Club That Cannot “We just tried to create a community and get local other regular metal nights have emerged in recent Be Named. The club, started in 2000 by friends bands involved. I worked in a record shop in months, Skeletor at the Bullingdon and Buried In Alan Day and Dave Hale at the Elm Tree on Abingdon at the time too, which helped. I guess we Smoke at the Wheatsheaf, to offer local metal Cowley Road, was a reaction to the perceived lack created a focus point for people into heavy music fans the best selection of gigs in years. of opportunity for local and touring metal bands to and brought everyone together in one unit.” Both Skeletor and Buried In Smoke are run by find a regular, supportive home. local metal musicians who found it hard to get gigs What The Club That Cannot Be Named achieved PRIOR TO STARTING TCTCBN WITH ALAN, for their own bands – Taste My Eyes and Desert Storm respectively – in the wake of The Club That Sevenchurch Cannot Be Named coming to an end. “We grew up with the under-18s rock nights in Abingdon and at the Zodiac,” recalls Buried In Smoke’s Elliot Cole, also drummer with Desert Storm. “Alan and Dave were putting on great bands like JOR, Coma Kai, Winnebago Deal and Sextodecimo. It was those bands, as much as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, that inspired us. “Now that Alan and Dave are doing Kilimanjaro and the Zodiac has changed to the Academy, it’s harder for local bands to get shows, that’s why we started Buried In Smoke. We wanted to help out the local metal scene and give our band more exposure. We seem to get a good sized audience at most of our shows.” Similarly the group of friends behind Skeletor Promotions, including Taste My Eyes’ John for the scene’s strength and JOR’s success. It’s very close-knit and everything is at hand; there Daniel, grew up going to TCTCBN shows in the “They were organised, professional and a little is advice on hand for everything. I think a band early noughties and were prompted to start putting wacky, which made the shows a real experience for breaking out and doing a Foals would help: on gigs by the lack of shows left in TCTCBN’s the bands and the punters. I have never heard a bad something to bring focus to the scene.” wake. Lately they’ve put on gigs by Terrathorn word about the calibre of their work and that’s why and Divine Chaos, again alongside local acts. they are where they are today.” WHAT DOES EMERGE FROM WHOEVER “I used to love that dark, dingy room downstairs Of JOR’s influence on a new generation of local you talk to about the local metal scene is its sense at the Zodiac; nothing seems to compare to it. metal bands, Ben simply states that, “JOR was just of community and mutual help. “It’s such a tight- Oxford was great back then but it died down after five guys sharing an adventure, with absolutely no knit community, which is great,” says John, TCTCBN moved on and was quiet for a few years. aspirations to be playing full time or conquering although he also admits, “there is a general There is a revival going on at the moment though, the world. We just wanted to play shows, sleep on bitchiness and competition that really needs to be and I think 2011 will see a resurgence of a thriving some floors and laugh at the bands that actually stamped out.” metal scene once again.” thought nu-metal would put food on the table. It’s For her part, Beth believes the scene is “more really flattering to hear that there is still mention harmonious in Oxford than in south Wales. Buried JOHN’S POINT ABOUT THE LOCAL METAL of JOR. The advice I’d give to young bands would In Smoke, Skeletor and myself all support each scene enjoying a resurgence seems to be born out be simply this: enjoy what you play, enjoy who other and more people have started to cotton on by the sheer number and quality of metal bands you play it with; some people will get it, others will to what we’re trying to achieve.” Evidence of this around at the moment. not. And play every gig like it’s your last!” mutual support comes as Burning Legacy and Nightshift has always supported the local metal Sextodecimo guitarist Roo Bhasin, now part of Skeletor recently collaborated on a gig promotion scene with the best bands around regularly finding Fixers, remains proud of his band’s local legacy: to try and maximise resources. their way onto the annual Oxford Punt bill, while “We left a massive hole in this town and its gonna It’s not an isolated scene though; Oxford’s Near Life Experience, Xmas Lights and be hard to fill it, so try as they might these kids propensity to foster bands who stretch genres or Sextodecimo are among those to have graced the ain’t got shit on us. Mind you, I’m sure break down barriers means its best metal bands front cover. In recent years our Demo Of The Sevenchurch said the same thing when they split never get stuck in a metal ghetto. JOR, Suitable Month title has been won by a metal band more and look what happened. I hope someone does Case, Winnebago Deal and even Sevenchurch than any other genre. steal our crown one day; I’d happily hand it over managed to attract a following from across the to a worthy contender. Don’t get me wrong, there board. The popularity of bands like Taste My BY FAR AND AWAY THE MOST are some great metal bands around at the moment, Eyes, Black Skies Burn and Desert Storm at recent successful local metal band ever was Sevenchurch in some whose musical proficiency and talents we Oxford Punts also shows how open-minded the the early-90s. The quintet were signed to Noise could only dream of, but I think that was part of local gig-going community is. Records and released one album, ‘Bleak Insight’, our charm: there was no shine and we didn’t care.” which has become an international underground SO WHERE DOES THE OXFORD METAL metal classic, quoted by Terrorizer Magazine as the SO, IS OXFORD’S METAL SCENE ENJOYING scene go from here? Elsewhere in this issue we list third best doom-metal album of all time, beaten a revival? Opinion seems divided even among the some of the emerging local stars. Some, such as only by Black Sabbath and Cathedral. local promoters. Taste My Eyes and Desert Storm, sound ready for Sevenchurch’s portentously-voiced frontman “The local scene is taking its time to get noticed bigger things already, while others are still finding Martin Spear has recently re-emerged as singer but a lot of metallers from Swindon and Reading their identity. What is undeniable, is that the local with Agness Pike, while the band’s guitarist Dave know about it now. The Oxford scene is a late metal scene is integral to the Oxford music scene’s Smart now runs the Oxford Guitar Gallery in bloomer with a flat chest, but in a couple of years identity and success. It is a part of the scene that is Summertown. Sevenchurch laid down some time it will have grown and all the boys will start often under-exposed but should be celebrated as seriously heavy foundations for the bands that paying attention,” says Skeletor’s John. “But it much as our more acclaimed local successes. followed them. “There wasn’t really a local metal could really do with a weekend night event or club scene when we were playing,” recalls Dave, “just a to get more people out. The venues know they can Selected November metal highlights: handful of bands. The scene has grown since. I make more money on an r’n’b or hip hop night Thu 4th Taste My Eyes / K-Lacura / Annero / In don’t think it’s more diverse now, just that more so, the Wheatsheaf aside, it ain’t happening.” Oceans - Fat Lil’s, Witney. genres of music are put under the metal umbrella.” Burning Legacy’s Beth is less enthused by the Sat 6th Buried in Smoke with Charger / Sworn to Of Sevenchurch’s singularly monolithic sound, he current crop of bands in town: Oath / Desert Storm / Beard of Zeuss - The says, “It was never intentional to make the slowest “Other cities have bands emerging and touring out Wheatsheaf. or doomiest music ever, just an unhappy accident of town. Oxford doesn’t have so much since Near Sat 6th Jambox with Ventflow / Aethana / Elysium brought on by years of pain, misery and despair. It Life Experience and JOR. The quality of bands Waits - The Centurion, Bicester. was good being able to lay down a nice, juicy slab of forming isn’t of that standard and it does hinder. Wed 10th Moshka with Agness Pike / K-Lacura - a riff under Martin, who never ceased to amaze me.” There’s a lot of average metal bands in Oxford.” the Wheatsheaf Beth does agree with John though about the need Thu 11th Jambox with Mask of Judas / Reign WHILE SEVENCHURCH MAY HAVE THE for a regular weekend metal night. “There’s too Upon Us - Hobgoblin, Bicester greatest recognition beyond Oxford, for local bands many other promoters in Oxford, so that no-one Wed 17th The Crushing / Annero / Komrad / the two acts that have had the most influence on else can secure a decent Friday or Saturday night to Risen In Black what came after are extreme sludge metallers work with, as the venues are all booked up.” Thu 25th Skeletor with Safety Fire / Taste My Eyes Sextodecimo, and of course the mighty JOR. For his part, Alan Day believes it wouldn’t take so / Galleons / Prospekt - The Bullingdon JOR frontman Ben Hollyer, now the singer with much to bring the local metal scene on a level. Sat 27th Jambox with Taste My Eyes / Prospekt / Taste My Eyes, credits Alan Day and Dave Hale “Oxford is the best place to be in a band. Full stop. Dedlok / Desert Storm - The Wheatsheaf, Banbury a quiet word with photos by Johnny Moto DESERT STORM “I’VE ALWAYS BEEN A FAN OF VIOLENT potential, the brutal metal sound accentuated by media as it’s a powerful tool of therapy; violence producer Jimmy Hetherington, the scope of their can either be sung and heard or carried out. There’s sound widened even further as they plough through always something foul beneath the surface and blues, country and almost middle eastern elements, everybody has a little insanity deeply seeded. All it with guest singer Lauren Hayes adding sweet, folksy needs is a little teasing out. Burying it can cause the backing vocals on ‘Cosmic Drips’ and ‘Ol’Town’. need for professional help and so many problems.” As Nightshift celebrates Oxford’s metal scene, we caught up with the band who currently sit firmly MATT RYAN, OGRE-VOICED FRONTMAN atop the pile of great local heavyweights. of local metal stars Desert Storm is talking to Nightshift about the violent imagery inherent in WE WONDER, FIRST, HOW DESERT STORM the song ‘Forked Tongues’, stand-out track from felt about the acclaim they were accorded for that the band’s recent second album of the same name. debut album last year. The song finds Matt growling, “A preacher started Chris W: “We were certainly pleased with what we yelling / So I slapped his face raw / And when he had recorded; we didn’t expect it to be received so turned the other cheek to me / I broke his fucking well. The advantage of starting afresh after 20/20 jaw,” over a crushing bed of stoner-rock riffs and Vision was that we felt that we had nothing to artillery-heavy beats. prove and could just record without the fear of Matt is quick, though, to play down his band’s having to meet expectations.” violent lyrical imagery: “Looking at the new Matt: “Our fans had an idea what was coming. We album, the themes range from the paranoia of drug had been introducing our new material into the set use to the narrative life of a drifter and also the song by song as it was being created. There were euphoria of life. `Forked Tongues’ features some moments in the studio of being fearlessly charged. brutal imagery, but it’s not a conscious effort to Again it’s something I’m proud to have worked on play up to the demonic side of rock music.” and created.” “Really it’s only that song that includes violent You haven’t been idle since its release; you’ve imagery, the lyrics are actually very diverse,” adds already released a follow-up. How do you feel the band’s rhythm guitarist, Ryan Cole. ‘Forked Tongues’ compares to the first album? Matt: “We find it difficult comparing, as to us its PERHAPS DESERT STORM’S SONGS been one long journey and it feels like the border simply feel more violent than they actually are between releases is really hazy. We don’t write because of the ingredients that go into them. Chief songs for an album, we just write them and are amongst these is Matt’s voice, an astonishing, forced into grouping them together. The new larva-gargling, nicotine-stained beast that sounds album is certainly more polished, thanks to Jimmy like it’s already fought a thousand battles and sunk and our performance has been honed due to the countless bottles of whisky. And behind Matt are practice since the first album. As for round three, the riffs. Riffs are everything in rock and Desert we’ve already got a fair few songs and a video on Storm have riffs made from granite and rusty the go.” steam rollers, timeless riffs that hark back to Led Ryan: “I think that there are a diverse range of Zeppelin by way of Monster Magnet, Kyuss and sounds on the second album that mark it out as a Killdozer. And behind those riffs come the beats, progression. But our live set still includes material sometimes fast and furious, at others Bonham- from the first album; we still really enjoy playing heavy and sturdy enough to carry the band’s them.” considerable weight with Herculean heroism. Chris B: “We all feel the songs are stronger and the production is a lot more polished. Our sludge JOINING MATT AND RYAN IN DESERT influences are more prominent.” Storm are lead guitarist Chris White, bassist Chris Benoist and drummer (and Ryan’s brother) Elliot. WHEREAS THERE CAN BE A TENDENCY Chris W, Ryan and Elliot were previously in teen with stoner and sludge bands to hit a groove and metallers 20/20 Vision who had a decent reputation just ride it, Desert Storm’s greatest strength is in locally before they grew apart over musical bringing in different styles and colours to the mix. differences, the trio intent on following their How much conscious effort is there from the band original love for Black Sabbath and Led Zep and to keep the mix fresh? local cult heroes Sextodecimo, as well as an Elliot: “We all listen to different styles of music as increasing affection for blues. well as stoner rock and sludge, so I think that Desert Storm’s debut album, released last year, was naturally comes out in our sound.” an impressive opening shot by any standards, even Chris W: “At any one time we always have a lot more so from such a young band. Though steeped of material that is ready to be worked on and in classic metal and heavy rock, it sounded practised, so there is an element of trying to work incredibly fresh and painted from an impressively on a variety of styles, whilst incorporating it into wide palette that brought elements of psychedelia the blues rock/stoner sound. We like our sets to be and even folk into the dominant stoner-metal varied and interesting, but by no means is sticking vibe. to a certain style wrong or boring.” The quintet’s follow-up, ‘Forked Tongues’, Chris B: “The importance with our song writing is released in September this year, confirms their that we all have an input; there is no band leader telling everyone what to play and when. We’re Ryan: “I think the local scene is strong, there are of town. It’s harder nationally as you rarely know good friends, so we know to take criticism enough decent bands emerging, and there’s a lot of of the best venues and promoters first off; you constructively. We feel it’s important that diversity. I think it is also more cohesive with have to gig these places relentlessly until you make everyone has their own input and are honest about bands and promoters working together; it’s created an impression. The fact that we come from their feelings on what we are trying to produce.” a positive atmosphere amongst the rock and metal Oxford counts for nothing, you start from the Matt: “It’s always kinda difficult to explain how a community.” bottom at every new place you play.” song is written, it just happens. The only time you Matt: “Local recognition requires work as you really think about the fact you’re writing a tune is HAVING MADE THEIR MARK IN OXFORD, have to be committed to the cause. Some people when you get the occasional mental dry spell. As Desert Storm have been gigging out of the county may enjoy what you play and some won’t, but for keeping it fresh, we like experimenting. If over the past couple of years. every show you are making fans. Nationally it’s a something sounds shit we don’t use it. Apart from Chris B: “For the past two summers we have tried mission as you start afresh in every town. It’s all that, anything goes. You’d hear us play with a brass to do as many out of town shows as possible; we about perseverance and playing the same cities section if we thought it would fit. But there is a have to do it this way as some of us are still at time and time again. We’ve played London, Bristol distinct Desert Storm sound throughout.” university. We love gigs out of town as it gives us and Bournemouth a fair few times as they have Can you imagine writing a love ballad? an opportunity to play out of our comfort zone.” strong scenes with listeners keen for more. The Matt: “`Cosmic Drips’ isn’t far off, lyrically. Elliot: “Yeah, the reception we’ve been getting fact we’re from Oxford doesn’t really matter to We’re the wrong band to whine and swoon about out of town has been really positive, especially people we meet.” love but `Cosmic’ is our piece.” down in Bournemouth. We got asked back a week Matt: “Chris and I were chatting after a after we played there, supporting Firebird. Other particularly dire gig about how it takes the piss to AS WELL AS PLAYING IN DESERT STORM, highlights have been when we supported CKY at get some sob story whining to Simon Cowell that Elliot and Ryan have played a part in helping the Leamington Assembly, for their warm up to they’ve always wanted to be a singer and have make the current local metal scene the strongest Sonisphere, back in July. That also got us some never been heard. If you want to play that much it’s been since the heyday of The Club That good radio exposure.” you’d get to the stinking dives in the middle of Cannot Be Named with their monthly Buried In Ryan: “The Bulldog Bash last summer was also an nowhere to be heard. You hound and nag Smoke club nights, showcasing local acts like amazing experience, playing with the likes of promoters until they give you a chance. You do Dedlok, K-Lacura and Vision Fall as well as Motorhead and U.F.O. It would be awesome to play your bit and pay your dues. Gigging is fun but far attracting bigger out-of-town bands like Orange there again.” from easy. Early sound checks, late finishes, rocky Goblin to the city. How do they think the scene Having played out of town, we wonder how Desert road trips, van crashes, sweats, time and money all has changed since they started playing and Storm’s Oxford roots have affected the way they have to coexist with your passion. There’s that promoting? are perceived and how this differs from the way time old saying `You suffer for your art’ and we Matt: “Particularly recently the metal scene has local audiences think of them. Despite the continue to do our thing because we love it so had a burst of life. There has been a swell with all underground success of a few local metal bands over much.” the talent and interest in Oxford. Promoters old the years, Oxford isn’t a city renowned for and new are doing their bit by getting talent on the producing heavy bands. ‘Forked Tongues’ is out now on Buried In Smoke stage and I would advise all aspiring performers to Chris B: “We realise that Oxford has a rich Records. Desert Storm play at the Wheatsheaf on approach them. The Oxford scene has never been heritage with the success of many local bands, Saturday 6th November. Visit www.myspace.com/ stronger, which is largely down to the fans. If they particularly recently, but we have never felt that it experiencethestorm for more dates and to hear never came to see us who would put us on?” has led to more being expected of us as a band out tracks from the album. DIG THE NEW BREED! Nightshift’s guide to the best new metal bands in Oxfordshire AGNESS PIKE but take elements of both and give them a hardcore makeover, ending Formed by former-Madamadam up sounding like the troll from bandmates Martin Spear and Chris Three Billy Goats Gruff jamming and Mick Brown, plus erstwhile with a heroin-addicted battle tank. Underbelly and Suitable Case For Your gran would love them. Treatment bassist Pete bastard, www.myspace.com/13Gauge Agness Pike have a peerless pedigree. Their debut gig in August suggests they’ve lost none of their UNDERSMILE old power, Chris’s huge serrated Some serious girl rocking in a punk-metal riffs still a force of shockingly male-dominated genre, nature, while Martin remains a Undersmile prefer slow and Mad Hatter-like host at the metal spooky over fast and brutal. tea party. Imagine Linda Blair in The Exorcist www.myspace.com/agnesspike fronting Melvins or Flipper. In a cave. At midnight. So seriously BEARD OF ZEUSS sludgy you have to wash the grime from your skin afterwards, and Stoner-metal protagonists of the TASTE MY EYES while they make take things very, highest order and the only local very slowly, like an oil tanker, band to our knowledge who write Malevolent freakazoid hardcore metal of the sort you’d hope for and expect from any band fronted by one-time JOR frontman Ben Hollyer. they’re unstoppable. songs about hunting wild boar on www.myspace.com/undersmile the plains of Africa. Sludgy, greasy TME take all the best bits of metalcore – screaming, growling, shredding and probably very bad for you, their guitars and hammering beats into your skull with a jack hammer – their rumbling, rampaging riot of and dump all the soppy bits. Their set at this year’s Oxford Punt was BEELZEBOZO riffage fuses Led Zep to Kyuss and stunning, revealing a band who, beneath the brutality, have serious talent Formed by four-fifths of the comes with a big fat spliff hanging and passion. mighty Mook, Beelzebozo play a from its lip. www.myspace.com/tastemyeyes stripped-down version of that www.myspace.com/beardofzeuss band’s classic metal, harking back to Saxon and even Blue Cheer at fuzzstorm, knock it out at full pelt PROSPEKT times and brightened up by some and incite a serious moshpit. Much RISEN IN BLACK Epic, intrictate, technical metal, Screaming Lord Sutch blood and A roaring, squalling distillation of loved by other local metal bands, they look like being a name you’ll Prospekt offer an unexpected mix gore imagery for the live shows. thrash, death and industrial thunder, of styles that sometimes sounds It’s metal played down, dirty and Risen In Black take in influences hear a lot more of in coming months. www.myspace.com/klacura like Rush or ELP trapped in Hell’s dumb by a bunch of deceptively like In Flames, The Haunted and own rehearsal room with Slayer. clever buggers. Metallica and dutifully crank the Lee Luland is rated by many of his www.myspace.com/bozobozobozo volume up beyond anything you BLACK SKIES peers as one of the best guitarists might consider decent. For all their BURN in the area and his uniquely crafted ANNERO music’s evil intent, there is flights of fancy take the band from something fantastically pure in their Formed from the ashes of grindcore the thrash gutter to a higher plane Brutal death-thrash cacophony raging onslaught. faves Faith In Hate, Black Skies altogether. formed by squashing all their http://www.myspace.com/ Burn have been off the scene for a www.myspace.com/ favourite bits of Pantera, riseninblack while but are hopefully now back prospektoxford Meshuggah and Slayer together, for good: their recent Wheatsheaf then squeezing it extra tight with a show was punishing in the extreme, brutal, iron fist. Pleasingly THE CRUSHING a lesson in how to pile on the DEDLOK uncompromising stuff, fronted by a Potential jokers in the pack, pressure and then keep on piling it Screaming thrash riffage, double chap who sounds like he should be fronted as they are by former- on beyond the point of decency. kick drum salvos and guttural wearing a horned helmet and Marconi’s Voodoo panto villain Probably the local band most likely growling, Dedlok’s uncluttered carrying a giant axe as he pillages Snuffy and also featuring Near Life to win a fight with a tank. vision and proud single- villages along England’s north-east Experience screamer Pete Bougourd www.myspace.com/ mindedness have long since coast. Grrr. on drums, their propulsive update blackskiesburn marked them at the head of the www.myspace.com/anneromusic of classic British metal is full of local pack, taking Iron Maiden’s drama and fruity virtuosity. THE FIERCE classic metal through Pantera’s KOMRAD www.myspace.com/ thrash and onwards into thecrushingband Formed from the ashes of Wantage- Discharge’s hardcore punk, replete Prog-metal? Tech-core? King based faves Outofinto, recent with a convincing line in hardcore Crimson get a Mike Patton K-LACURA Nightshift Demo of the Month swearing. makeover? Sometimes it’s difficult winners The Fierce live up to their www.myspace.com/dedlokmetal to keep up with Komrad as they More metalcore, this time from the name, arming their bulldozing turn so many corners along their south of the county from a young industrial-strength rumble with frenetic, convoluted way through band really starting to turn heads hysterical hardcore spikes, 13 GAUGE each live set, rarely letting any locally. Alternately contemplative switching from atmospheric, almost Vomit-flecked vocals and simple label you wish to confer on them and technical, anthemic even on prog passages into virulent bettering mid-paced riffage, 13 Gauge aren’t stick. occasion, but equally able to turn ram thrash in monstrous fashion. quite fast enough to be grindcore or www.myspace.com/ on a sixpence and brew up a www.myspace.com/thefierceband portentous enough to be dark-metal eduardsoundingblock

Remember the Titans Oxfordshire, despite its reputation for indie sounds, has produced some incredible metal bands over the years. Here we bring you our Greatest Local Metal Heroes. Ever.

4. XMAS LIGHTS 7. WINNEBAGO Xmas Lights were, at their peak, ironically just before they split, a DEAL force for pure musical violence, a A two-man army before such things hyperactive, spasticated industrial became de rigeur, Winnebago Deal – killing machine. With lots of Ben Perrier and Ben Thomas – took metal out of the garage and onto the photo: Johnny Moto screaming. The screaming is important. But instead of the typical dusty highway, a non-stop, no-frills frontman screaming over noisy guitar joyride concerned with little more format, here it was just one part of a than whisky and knife fights. They vast, many-angled tapestry of metal sounded – still sound; a new album is noise where electronic drones battled due at some point in the near or with squalling, virulent guitars while possibly not so near future – like trying to balance on shifting time Motorhead going head-to-head with signatures. The musical virtuosity and Black Flag for the title of Speed disparate ideas that went into Xmas Kings. Uncompromising in the Lights can’t be overstated, whether it extreme, the pair have never wilted was guitarist James Gray-King’s or made any concession to the frenzied shapes or Umair Chaudhry’s vagaries of fashion in their single- 1. SEXTODECIMO molten electronics. Here was a band minded pursuit of raw, hard riffage. that created symphonies for the end And whisky. “If the radioactive fall-out from Chernobyl formed a band, it would sound of days. like Sextodecimo” ran an early Nightshift eulogy to Oxford’s greatest ever metal protagonists. Sextodecimo’s unrelenting sludge-core was so dark, so 8. COMA KAI dense, so unforgiving it went through metal and out the other side of a black 5. SUITABLE CASE Prime exponents of hardcore-infused hole into a whole new universe of musical pain; tracks regularly clocked in nu-metal, taking System Of A Down’s around the ten-minute mark, oppressive assaults on the senses that recalled FOR TREATMENT convoluted structures and righteous Eyehategod, Iron Monkey and Kyuss but went beyond the call of duty on Like Xmas Lights, Suitable Case For fury and mixing it with Korn’s neo- every level. The quintet, from Witney, had to be experienced live to fully treatment took metal as their sonic brutalist approach, Abingdon’s Coma appreciate their incredible power, but the band’s debut EP, `The Banshee base then by some strange alchemy Kai were the best of the bands that Screams For Buffalo Meat’, captures plenty of their dark art, astutely twisted it into such bizarre shapes you came up in JOR’s wake. Their produced as it was by Sevenchurch guitarist Dave Smart and legendary wonder whether it even qualifies as strength came in managing to make Jericho Tavern and Point promoter Mac. After going into semi-hibernation metal in the end. But that’s metal’s white-hot rage sound incredibly in the latter part of this decade Sextodecimo finally called it a day with one timelessly universal appeal. It’s a melodic, brilliantly captured on their final, brutal show at The Club That Cannot Be Named’s 10th anniversary many-headed beast but in its heart it ‘Firekillschildren’ EP, particularly party earlier this year. Guitarist Roo is now in psychedelic pop outfit Fixers is always metal. Thus SC4T songs like ‘Fury’ and while bassist Humphrey and drummer Tommy formed lachrymose blues- sometimes sounded like Tom Waits ‘Old.Skool.Reject’ which might have folksters Huck & The Handsome Fee: an acceptance perhaps that after fronting Cannibal Corpse. At others sounded like a God-sized Gollum Sextodecimo they could go no further into metal’s heart of darkness. they took Melvins into the Deep vomiting up his breakfast over a South for a fire and brimstone Baptist torrent rolling thrash riffs and blast conversion, never content to get beats. from A to B without visiting several 2. SEVENCHURCH 3. JOR outlying settlements along the way. In 2006 Terrorizer magazine listed Or JOOOOORRRRRR! to give them Their Sabbath-inspired riffage was 9. MINDSURFER their Greatest Doom-Metal Albums of their proper name. JOR were the mighty, frontman Liam Ings-Reeves’ Steeped in the classic sounds of all time. And Sevenchurch were daddies of Oxford metalcore, the band ire was righteous and live they could NWOBHM, particularly Judas Priest, number 3, beaten only by Black who more than any defined that spirit be a genuinely disconcerting spectacle and 80s thrash, Mindsurfer were Sabbath and Cathedral. Not bad for a of rock revolution that The Club as they ploughed through jazz, funk, regularly found covering the likes of band from Oxford who only released That Cannot Be Named brought to prog, hardcore and several lorry loads Metallica and Diamond Head but one album and broke up a decade the local scene, going on to inspire of kitchen sinks besides. equally at home tackling Anti- previously. But then the band’s legacy the likes of Coma Kai, Miazma and Nowhere League’s ‘So What?’, a goes well beyond their short lifespan. Shouting Myke, amongst others with regular highlight of their brutish, no- ‘Bleak Insight’, released on Noise their virulent blend of Slayer, 6. MADAMADAM nonsense sets. Frontman Steve Records in 1993, featured an Pantera, Jesus Lizard and Black Flag. Punk and metal have long been Phelps was like a human pitbull astonishing six tracks across 70 This was molten stuff and from a volatile bedmates and Oxford’s late- minutes, an uncompromisingly slow band who were willing and able to 80s / early-90s favourites were the and bleak Gregorian form of doom take it out of Oxford and into the ensuing pillow-fight, evil laughter metal with the crushing, intricate rest of the UK, sharing stages with included. Before he fronted guitars occasionally giving way to Dead Kennedys, Hundred Reasons and Sevenchurch, Martin Spear was the proggy flights of fancy and topped Biffy Clyro before returning home to Mad Hatter-like host of off with Martin Spear’s theatrically pack out local venues where sweat Madamadam’s regular bunfights, a portentous vocals. They sounded like and occasionally blood would stream Lydon-voiced cheerleader for metal a Titanically morose Brian Blessed down the walls. Their only album, mayhem as his band piled on the fronting a bucolic, mediaeval Black ‘Blunt’ (“Music to hoover Hell to”, pressure somewhere between Black Sabbath. At half speed. On Mogadon. we said back then) still rocks ten Sabbath and Anthrax. People Sadly problems with the label, which years after the fact and their one-off regularly left Madamadam gigs in later folded, pre-empted the band’s reunion gig for TCTCBN’s 10th ambulances and then came back for demise but since then they have anniversary party proved that age has more. Rarely have moshing and Suitable Case become underground metal legends. neither withered nor tamed them. laughter gone together so well. For Treatment photo: Johnny Moto guitarist

, but we talks about the maaaaan SEXTODECIMO Roo Bhasin origins and unique band’s sound. “We definitely set out to be loud definitely set out “We we knew we wanted to be and heavy, an extreme band but at the time we didn’t really know how to go about it, we were just a bunch of dumb first formed the band when We kids. we were 16 or 17 but we lacked the drive or know-how to do anything sit around We’d constructive. smoking pot and listening to heavy music, dreaming about being in a heavy band, eventually got round to recording a 3-track demo that showed promise... but we quickly lost or so later we year A interest. decided to give it another go and at the time we were listening to a lot down-tuned and aggressive of slow, bands, that at the same time had a real groove to them. Me and Humphrey started writing a bunch of riffs, to which we assigned stupid names so we could remember them. was a Water `Bridge Over Sludgy favourite. It usually took us about six months to write a song, partly because they were so long, and partly because we could never could say the You remember them. driving forces behind the band were extreme music and extreme excess. definitely polarised opinion, “We but there was nothing more satisfying than clearing a room. We low got a kick out of playing slow, and loud, and seeing people’s confusion and disbelief made it even hard to exist as a sweeter for us. It’s band like that, especially in a small shot town like Oxford. We ourselves in the foot from day one making the music that we made, cos you’re never gonna have many fans, you’re never gonna do many never gonna be shows and there’s Its the nature of much opportunity. the beast. “Dave Smart, who produced our EP really helped mould our sound and, having done it all before with Sevenchurch, had a lot of great ideas and advice. `Bleak Insight’ is the best album from any Oxford band ever, so to have the man that wrote it helping us was a real buzz.” 19. FIVE ALARM 19. FIVE PANIC Banbury has always been a nurturing Alarm hothouse for metal and Five biggest heroes Panic were the town’s for a while in the early-90s. They funked like Faith No More but riffed like Slayer, infused with punk and kicked out with an abandon that Mill venue regularly had Banbury’s packed out and rocking like that last Saturday night on earth. They wrote songs about giant apes with giant America willies who drove cars around and carry guns. They even had proper metal. Yeah, pyrotechnics. 20. MOOK Like Mindsurfer, Mook were always old-school metal loyalists. Inspired by the likes of Metallica and Judas Priest, and with songs with titles like ‘I Like Fuck’, they rumbled, growled, barked, fuzzed and turned it up to 11 with admirable aplomb, studiously avoiding anything resembling da funk in favour of a sturdy Panzer After their demise the tank assault. core of the band re-emerged as Beelzebozo who are still going And heavy. steady. 17. DAYS OF 17. DAYS GRACE labelled emo and unfairly, Regularly, mainly because in their day, Currier could frontman Patrick had proper actually sing and they Days Of melodies and everything, Grace, formed by former-members Kaowin and Slave of Black Candy, under the Unit, and quickly taken could Alan Day, TCTCBN’s wing of in the same be technical and delicate came with a but they Tool, way as Gigs hardened, bludgeoning edge. Heroes and with InMe, Hell Is For them a one Minute Silence earned before they strong local following to front split. Patrick went on Lights. Action. 18. MARCONI’S VOODOO Pimp suits, inflatable lizards, arse- baring and a sense of theatrical Marconi’s hide ridiculousness couldn’t very serious virtuosity, Voodoo’s particularly from versatile bassist Mostly instrumental, the Snuffy. three-piece mixed up speed-addled funk-core and big old fashioned powerchords into groove-heavy metal chugs that were always unpredictable enough to swing out on pedal broken effects A tangents. would become a grand pantomime in world, but these crazy Voodoo’s the guys could seriously rock it. authentically metal as it gets when as it gets metal authentically about it. you think 16. 2DIE4 Covered recently in Nightshift as part of our monthly ‘Whatever Happened pieces, current Long Insiders To…?’ brothers Nick and Simon Kenny began their musical lives as teenagers in this long-haired, LA-fixated soft- metal outfit and promptly got themselves signed to Hollywood label Morgan Creek. Who promptly shat all over them. But not before paying videos of top dollar for MTV-friendly them bungee-jumping off bridges They toured the while playing guitar. States and hung out with Lemmy on Sunset Strip, which is about as Oxford’s chief contribution to late- Oxford’s 90s post-grunge, rap-tinged nu-metal. The Against Equal parts Rage Machine, Deftones and Pearl Jam they had rage and riffage and an ability to get funky without sounding like Linkin Park, instead thundering with almost industrial zeal. In their prime they played regular riotous shows at The Club That Cannot Be Named. Highlight of their career was their pummelling final single ‘Downfall’, which also featured a duet That and Ben Hollyer. with JOR’s provoking some seriously crowd- surfing, including a bloke in a rubber 2000. Truck at dinghy, 15. BLACK CANDY 14. HIGH & MIGHTY Even in a genre that appreciates High & Mighty are longevity, survivors. They seem to have been around forever and if they only play one gig a year these days, they are metal everymen, rooted in Oxford’s traditional heavy rock traditions (big riffs, heroic, chest-beating choruses, bulldozing drum salvos) but keen to try their hands at each and any new variation on the theme. Hence their one and only album, released in 2000, veered from almost funk-rock to something approaching gothic punk, but always sounded like a proper old- fashioned heavy metal band. 13. NEAR LIFE NEAR 13. EXPERIENCE Mindsurfer Formed by erstwhile McNeil and riffmeister Johnny rabid howler monkey fronted by the Bougourd, who also voice of Pete at be head security man happened to NLE (contractually the Zodiac, N3ar Lif3 obliged to spell their name Exp3ri3nc3) were a dizzying 80s Brit- amalgam of metal genres, thrash ferocity metal riffs, raging bull freakery. and pin-tight math-metal Somewhere between Pantera, Shadows Dillinger Escape Plan and sometimes Fall, they were complex, fast operatic but always thrillingly and heavy. Sow

pure-at-heart metalness. pure-at-heart remembered for their determinedly remembered disappointment but they’ll be fondly disappointment Right To Remain Violent’ was a Violent’ Remain Right To of their magic. Debut album, ‘The album, magic. Debut of their retire from singing the band lost some the band lost from singing retire onstage and when he was forced to he was forced and when onstage vocals. Munge. Mmm. Eat up. bedrock for James Green’s growling bedrock for James Green’s titanium-tipped riffs providing the rocked they rocked big time, Softieness aside, when Underbelly better, you say? Don’t be cheeky! without the odd ballad? Considerably good measure. For what is metal with the odd ballad thrown in for stomped on by Machine Head and Seattle – Tad and Nirvana getting Tad Seattle – their 2006 Demo Of The Month. and the then emergent sounds of riddled dying,” said Nightshift of damned heavy fusion of classic metal vocals the screams of the bullet- case, though, it was a Underbelly’s like machine gun fire, the band’s budget sausages out of. In “Chopped-out guitar stabs that sound sounds like something they make hardcore-tinged sonic warfare. described themselves, Munge. Which aggression the keys to their 12. UNDERBELLY Metal and grunge. Or, as they highly effective, distortion and Meshuggah, Sow kept it simple but inspired by At The Gates and At inspired by Heavy-duty roaring and riffery of Days of Grace and Miazma. metallers, including former-members featuring a rotating cast of local demise of his previous band, JOR and axe of Ansley Prothero after the axe of More unrelenting brutality from the 11. SOW 11. still rocked. Like bastards. without the maniac up front. They TCTCBN’s anniversary party but TCTCBN’s others in this list they reformed for others in this list they reformed thrash in unholy communion. Like thrash in unholy communion. of Deftones and Carcass, death meets of Deftones and Carcass, In Hate sounded like an evil mash-up In Hate sounded like an particularly violent, moshpits, Faith particularly violent, moshpits, and tended to start his own, wildebeest being put through a mincer wildebeest being put through butcher and sang like a herd of butcher and sang like a giant of a bloke who looked like a giant of a bloke who looked into a giant jet engine, fronted by a into a giant jet engine, racket like Carfax Tower being sucked Tower racket like Carfax 10. FAITH IN HATE 10. FAITH who made a Four scrawny long-hairs MAKATING ‘Reggae Rehab’ (Own label) RELEASED There are many rock’n’roll bands in Oxford but few, if any, more rock’n’roll than Mackating. Yet WINNEBAGO DEAL Makating play reggae and have done for nearly a decade and a half. The band has survived, and is ‘Career Suicide’ indeed now thriving after, the untimely passing of vocalist, Leroy ‘Slimma’ Golding in 2003. (Cargo) This and living out some truly hedonistic times Earlier this year while reviewing The Club That on and off stage and in the studio, it is not for Cannot Be Named’s 10th anniversary party, we nothing their latest album, their first in seven concluded that Winnebago Deal were the most years, is called ‘Reggae Rehab’. uncompromising band Oxford has produced, ‘Greetings’ (“we bring, to all ragamuffins”) because they’ve always stuck to their guns amid bounds in, full of their upful groove. Firerocious the ever-tightening spiral of changing fashion, has taken over main mic duties and pounces all sticking hard and fast to the twin rules of… well, over it, his Tigger-like energy tumbling out of the hard and fast. speakers. Ilodica (plays me-lodica; get it?) is his Hard and fast is what Winnebago Deal have unhinged, dready bear sidekick (think Horace always done best and ‘Career Suicide’ finds no Andy on a strict Special Brew and Special K diet need to tinker with a winning formula. Fourteen and you get the idea.) Lorraine and Vicki are the tracks in a little over half an hour tells you much glamorous I-twos, adding a touch of mellow of what you need to know. But by no means all. hanging out on Sunset Strip with Hanoi Rocks or sweetness to the mix (and Lorraine gets a whole Fantastically frantic and pulverisingly full-pelt Motley Crue, but even here they’re out on the song, the ridiculously sunny ‘I Believe’). Paul’s though they are, Winnebago Deal haven’t got to street fighting off all-comers with a broken bottle psychedelic keyboards and Danny’s rock steady album number four and supported everyone and making their escape on a stolen Harley while drums fill in the mix. It’s an Irie celebration, yet from Fugazi and Blood Brothers to Motörhead their garage-metal compatriots are still finishing covers much musical ground. ‘Rosehillbilly and Mondo Generator by being mindless thrash- their fancy cocktails. Blues’ starts off with Desperado-style guitar merchants. ‘Career Suicide’ is a side-step from its That the two Bens make an astonishingly full- from James, before launching into a raunchy predecessor, ‘Flight Of The Raven’, more bodied racket for a two-piece goes without groove, while the album’s title track is based on melodic, taking a trip into glam on its title track saying. That they can still crank it out so an Italian folk song you might just recognise. and visiting The Damned on ‘Avalanche’ for a remorselessly and still pen choruses as simple ‘Judge’ is a militant roots anthem but the beer or ten. ‘Frostbiter’ and ‘Can’t See, Don’t and catchy as “I don’t give a fuck about dying” standout track is ‘Life Resurrection’, more Care, Don’t Know’ are closer to the duo’s earlier after all these years remains a genuine marvel. dubby with a wonderfully slurred vocal from hellbastard hardcore attack, while ‘Heart Attack Some band play rock and roll. Others have it in Ilodica. In My Head’ rumbles monstrously like their blood from birth. Great to have them back In a local scene increasingly dominated by Motörhead in battle mode. in action. This place has been too quiet without earnest indie kids and wholesome folkers it’s There are tracks, like ‘Tokyo Rip’, where it you, boys. refreshing to tune in to an Oxford group that – feels Ben Perrier and Ben Thomas have been Dale Kattack like the Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band, with whom they have played on a few occasions – is unapologetically non-PC, with a rock’n’roll ALPHABET BACKWARDS attitude that ensures that The Party is strong within them. ‘Superhero EP’ Leo Bowder (Kittywake) Are Alphabet Backwards on some serious have got all the time in the world to be together prescription drugs? And if not, how can they / In the blink of an eye you were gone,” chirps THE ROCK OF always manage to sound so damn happy even James Hitchman with the sort of zen when they’re consumed by wistful nostalgia or philosophy it takes a lifetime for Buddhist TRAVOLTA facing up to a girlfriend clearing off? “Our lips monks to achieve. Crikey, maybe he’s a Moony, programmed to smile like a loon whatever the ‘Last March Of The circumstances. Acolytes’ Anyway, suffice to say, Alphabet Backwards’ new EP is as chirpy a slice of melancholic (Free download) synth-spangled indie pop as you’d hope for A free taster for the band’s new album, due early from a band who could provoke the Easter next year, and a less than gentle reminder of what Island statues into a hands-aloft singalong. Lead we miss when The Rock go on extended hiatus. track ‘Collide’ reflects on the vivid colours of ‘Last March…’ is grandly proportioned but not childhood and bouncing on trampolines in what overly ornate, propulsive rather than pretty, a seems to be a study of trying to hold on to powerful collision between instrumental rock and youthful pleasures while growing up and would dynamic classical exertion, piano subsumed early in the hands of someone like Tony Parsons end on by a crescendo that takes up half the piece, up as a sour, curmudgeonly rant but here guitar battling cello until a tension-releasing finale sounds giddy and full of beans and ice cream. leaves a huge silence hanging in the room. Maybe it’s Alphabet Backwards CDs the NHS Truth be told, The Rock Of Travolta aren’t a should be giving out on prescription. band best appreciated in a single number, and the Dale Kattack forthcoming album will display their range and strength far better, but since this is a free NEXT MONTH: download it’s a good introduction to the band for The Epstein, Dead Jerichos, Minor Coles, The Cooling Pearls, anyone unlucky enough not to already be a convert. Headcount, Michael Lee, and more... Dale Kattack November Every Monday THE FAMOUS MONDAY NIGHT BLUES The best in UK, European and US blues. 8-12. 1st THE COLIN JOHN BAND (USA) 8th KENT DUCHAINE (USA) 15th THE JOANE SHAW-TAYLOR BAND (UK) 22nd THE MATT SCHOFIELD TRIO (UK) 29th CONNIE LUSH & BLUES SHOUTER (UK)

Every Tuesday THE OXFORD JAZZ CLUB Free live jazz plus DJs playing r’n’b, funk and soul until 2am 2nd / 16th / 23rd THE HOWARD PEACOCK QUINTET 9th ALVIN ROY & REEDS UNLIMITED 30th THE HUGH TURNER BAND

Thursdays 4th IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC presents PLAYER 2 / THE HOODYS / support 11th IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC presents THE KILL CITY SAINTS / THE INSULT / support 18th EVERYDAY FOLK presents ELLEN & THE ESCAPADES / UTE / THE YARNS 25th SKELETOR presents SAFETY FIRE / TASTE MY EYES / GALLEONS / PROSPEKT

Every Friday FUNKY FRIDAY Funk, soul, boogie and R&B. 10.30pm-2.30am; £2.

Early Friday shows 5th EVERYDAY FOLK presents VATICAN CELLARS (album launch) / WE AERONAUTS 12th IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC presents NINE-STONE COWBOY / BEAUX DEGALS / ZEM / THE NEW MOGMATIC 26th MELTING POT Includes entry to FUNKY FRIDAY afterwards

Saturdays 6th SIMPLE – house & techno. 10-4am 13th DUB POLITICS – dubstep – 10-3am 20th SELECTA – Drum’n’bass – 10-3am

Sunday 7th BRONZE / support

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MONDAY 1st O2 Academy – Florida’s poppy ska-punk troupe THE COLIN JOHN BAND: The Bullingdon – NOVEMBER return to town to coincide with their new album Classic rocking blues from the Ohio guitarist and of TV theme covers. singer, making his first Famous Monday Blues PLAYER2 + THE HOODYS: The Bullingdon BIRTH CTRL Z: The Cellar – Indie, electro – Lively indie pop in the vein of Vampire appearance in some time. and dubstep sounds. ONE NIGHT ONLY: O2 Academy – Return of Weekend from Player2. MR FOGG + CAPAC: Phoenix Picturehouse the increasingly synthed-up Yorkshire rockers, nd coming in somewhere unholy between The TUESDAY 2 – Local electro-pop chap Mr Fogg continues his Feeling and New Found Glory, who have recently SAM AMIDON + HANNAH PEEL + MATT monthly series of free shows at the Phoenix’s bar, recruited Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong’s WINKWORTH: The Jericho Tavern – tonight playing an acoustic set on keyboard and drummer into their ranks to make them even Currently spearheading the latest American folk harp, and joined by Huw Stephens-championed better than before. Their eponymous second revival, Vermont singer, guitarist and fiddle player Liverpudlian trio Capac, mixing post-rock album has just been released. Amidon has made his reputation from revitalising textures with electronic beats. traditional songs going back centuries as well as SPIN JAZZ CLUB: The Wheatsheaf – With increasingly penning his own compositions. Along guests The Nic Meier Group. th Thursday 4 the way he’s worked with Bjork collaborator CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford Valgeir Sigursson, bringing a modern indie and Community Centre – Singers, musicians, poets STORNOWAY: electronic edge to murder ballads, square dance and storytellers at Oxford’s oldest and best open Brookes Union tunes and bluegrass standards. Support for mic club. tonight’s Coo Promotion show comes from TASTE MY EYES + K-LACURA + ANNERO + th Saturday 13 quirky, atmospheric folk singer Hannah Peel and IN OCEANS: Fat Lil’s Witney – Excellent eccentric cabaret-pop singer and pianist Matt local metal bill with malevolent metalcore LITTLE FISH: Winkworth. merchants Taste My Eyes and K-Lacura lining up YANN TIERSEN: O2 Academy – A bit of high alongside thrash crew Annero. O2 Academy culture down the Academy tonight as French JAMBOX BATTLE OF THE BANDS FINAL: Foals notwithstanding, Stornoway and Little composer and multi-instrumentalist Tiersen The Hobgoblin, Bicester Fish were Oxford’s two great success stories of showcases music from his new album, ‘Dust ELECTRIC BLUES JAM: Bricklayers Arms, 2010. Stornoway signed to the peerless 4AD Lane’. Renowned for his minimalist Marston label and released their debut album, compositions, fusing contemporary classical OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half Moon ‘Beachcomber’s Windowsill, which duly went music with French folk and avant garde sounds, NIKKI LOY: Copa Bar, George Street Top 20; for their part Little Fish toured the his pieces centre on violin, piano and accordion States with Hole and the UK with Blondie but he also employs myriad other instruments, FRIDAY 5th before putting out their debut album, ‘Baffled toys and bric a brac, drawing on a wide spectrum MIDLAKE + JOHN GRANT & JASON & Beat’, on Linda Perry’s Custard label. of influences, from Chopin and Satie to Philip LYTLE: O2 Academy – Pastoral psychedelia Richly deserved success for two bands who Glass, Michael Nyman and Penguin Café exemplify Oxford’s ability to keep knocking Orchestra. from the Texan stars – see main preview out brilliant creative and hard-working bands. JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon EDWYN COLLINS: O2 Academy – A doubtless (Success that’s even more richly deserved by BARE GARAGE: The Cellar – Garage, dub and emotional show from the former-Orange Juice dint of being two of the nicest groups of dubstep club night. frontman who has turned his life around since people you’re likely to encounter). OPEN MIC SESSION: The Port Mahon suffering a double brain haemorrhage – see main Stornoway’s show at Brookes is their biggest preview local headline gig to date after a summer of WEDNESDAY 3 rd VATICAN CELLARS + WE AERONAUTS: The festival appearances. They’re a band who like Bullingdon – Album launch gig for funereal pop DESMOND CHANCER & THE LONG to try something a bit different wherever they duo Vatican Cellars, brought together and inspired MEMORIES + MATT SAGE: The Wheatsheaf play, so expect a proper show as well as a by personal tragedy, but finding plenty of room – Gutter jazz in the vein of Tom Waits from Mr fanatically-received homecoming party. Little for sweetness and sunlight in their literate, Chancer, plus world-folk and 60s-inspired acoustic Fish too are playing their biggest hometown pastoral pop, which owes something to Richard pop from Mr Sage. headline show, at a venue where they’ve Hawley and The Kinks. Expansive folky indie PHAT SESSIONS: The Cellar - Live jam regularly shone as support act. Jules and Nez’s rocking in the vein of Arcade Fire from We session with all-comers welcome to join in with phenomenal onstage chemistry elevates their Aeronauts. the in-house band, The Phat Sessions Collective, pop-friendly garage rock to another level with KLUB KAKOFANNEY with SPACE HEROES playing a mix of hip hop, ska, funk and Latin. energy levels set to 11, and after two years on OF THE PEOPLE + VICARS OF TWIDDLY + the road, learning from the very best, they’re MARK BOSLEY BAND: The Wheatsheaf – th a peerless live prospect. Two shows to savour THURSDAY 4 Classic electro-pop with a 90s rave twist from from stars we’re proud to call our own. STORNOWAY + RACE HORSES + FOXES!: Space Heroes, inspired by Kraftwerk, Numan and Brookes Union – Celebratory homecoming Baby Ford, plus fun surf-rocking from Vicars and show for the local folk-pop heroes – see main melancholic folk-rock from Mr Bosley and band. preview TALONS: The Jericho Tavern – Astonishingly FIGHTING WITH WIRE: The Cellar – Return intense instrumental trio, and stars of last year’s of Derry’s Foo Fighters-styled grunge-pop cult Truck Festival, mixing tumultuous explosions of faves, formed by ex-Jetplane Landing guitarist noise with controlled aggression in the vein of Cahir O’Doherty, out on tour following support 65Daysofstatic. slots to Lostprophets and Biffy Clyro earlier in FUNKY FRIDAY: The Bullingdon – Classic the year and plugging a new EP, ‘Sneaky’, for sale funk, soul and r’n’b every Friday. only at gigs. SKYLARKIN SOUND SYSTEM: The Cellar – LESS THAN JAKE + ZEBRAHEAD + WE ARE Soul, ska, reggae and hip hop with Count THE UNICORN + THIS CONTRAST KILLS: Skylarkin and DJ Derek, with a live set from Sidewalk Doctors, formed by Pama dancing shoes. And a spare pair in case you wear International’s Lenny Bignell, paying authentic them out. tribute to classic Jamaican rocksteady, having NOUVELLE VAGUE: O2 Academy – New previously worked with Prince Buster, The wave classics and obscure gems get the bossa Skatalites and Toots & The Maytals. nova treatment. French duo Marc Collin and FOUNDATION REGGAE: East Oxford Olivier Libaux have spent the past few years Community Centre – Weekly roots, dancehall paying their own very individual tribute to it, and dub session. abetted by a constantly changing cast of exotic DISCO-VERY: James Street Tavern – Disco, female singers, including, in the past Mélanie deep house and funky beats with Cyan and Angie Pain and Camille Dalmais. The band’s 2004 self- every Friday. titled debut is still their strongest, featuring BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE: Cricketers radical reworkings of Killing Joke, Depeche Arms – Northern soul, Motown, funk and r’n’b Mode and Dead Kennedys, as well as a superb with Mr Rossi and Kid Swanton. version of Modern English’s ‘I Melt With You’, SWINDLESTOCK: The Port Mahon now better known for its use in a T-Mobile ad. Since that opening gambit they’ve moved on to th classics by Blondie, Echo & The Bunnymen and SATURDAY 6 th AUDIOSCOPE: The Jericho Tavern (2pm) – Bauhaus as well as more obscure tracks by Lords Friday 5 Audioscope celebrates its tenth anniversary with a of the New Church and A Certain Ratio, MIDLAKE / JOHN cast of favourite acts from previous festivals, amongst others. Last year’s ‘3’, found Nouvelle including a headline set from krautrock legend Vague expanding slightly to collaborate with GRANT / JASON Dieter Moebius – see main preview members of the bands they were covering, SKA CUBANO: O2 Academy – Return of the including Magazine’s Barry Adamson, Fun Boy LYTLE: O2 Academy Cuban ska and mambo party-makers, led by Top Three’s Terry Hall and the Bunnymen’s Ian Something approaching heaven tonight for Cats’ irrepressible frontman Natty Bo and mixing McCulloch. lovers of American alt.folk as Texan beardies up traditional Cuban dance with Jamaican 3 DAFT MONKEYS: The Bullingdon – Midlake return to town for the first time since rocksteady and ska, a fair whack of Calypso and Eclectic blend of traditional English folk, Latin, the relase of their highly-anticipated ‘The the spirit of classic rock’n’roll. Bring your Balkan and gypsy dance with dub, punk and reggae from Cornwall’s rising trio. Courage Of Others’ album, the follow-up to cult CHARGER + SWORN TO OATH + DESERT smash ‘The Trials Of Van Occupanther’. The Friday 5th STORM + BEARD OF ZEUSS + A HORSE time between the two albums seems to have CALLED WAR: The Wheatsheaf – An seen Midlake moving further away from their EDWYN COLLINS: overdue return to live action for doomy sludge- Radiohead-styled rock and into full-on pastoral metal stalwarts Charger at tonight’s Buried In haziness, the harmony-drenched tributes to O2 Academy Smoke club night, the band’s furiously raw take The Band and Crosby Stills & Nash remain but That this gig is even happening is little short on Sabbath-eque noise made them underground now Fairport Convention are as much a part of of a miracle. In February 2005 Edwyn Collins cult heroes a few years back and time has not their gently psychedelic wide-screen folk. suffered a double brain haemorrhage. It left mellowed them one iota. They seem to lose Midlake have also been providing back-up for him unable to walk, talk, read or write. Five singers at the same rate Spinal Tap lost former-Czars frontman John Grant who years on the physical effects mean he can no drummers but new EP, ‘Disgust At The Status supports them tonight. A turbulent private life longer play the guitar and he suffers from Quo’, has their trademark aggression stamped all has provided the singer – one possessed of a aphasia, a cruel blow to such an eloquent over it. Thrash merchants Sworn To Oath superbly intoxicating and emotive voice – with songwriter, but incredibly the man has written support, along with local stoner-metal heroes plenty of ammunition for his acclaimed new and recorded a new album, ‘Losing Sleep’, and Desert Storm and Beard Of Zeuss. album, ‘Queen Of Denmark’, which heaps on is back out on tour. It’s testament to his YOOF with FICTION + CHAD VALLEY + the anger and slef-loathing and will hopefully personal resilience as well as the astonishing SISSY & THE BLISTERS: The Cellar – More reap him the rewards he deserves. Completing care and encouragement of his wife and up and coming indie and electro at Yoof, tonight an excellent bill is former-Grandaddy singer manager Grace Maxwell, that he’s recovered featuring a headline set from Fiction, plus Jason Lytle, whose old band really set the scene to such a degree. The new album is textured electro-pop from Jonquil mainman for Midlake, Band Of Horses and more back in remarkably upbeat, a reflection of an artist Hugo Manuel’s Chad Valley side-project. New the 90s, so make sure you get there early to reborn as well as a human being given a indie and electro sounds afterwards from guest pay due respect to the man. second chance. The core ingredients remain, and resident DJs. 1000 MILE HIGHWAY + NINE-STONE inspired by punk, northern soul and the pure th guitar pop he plied with Orange Juice 30 years COWBOY: Fat Lil’s Witney – Americana SUNDAY 7 ago. Contributors to the album include Johnny from 1000 Miles, plus wryly melancholic pop BRONZE: The Bullingdon – Classic rock. Marr and Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos, from NSC. SOUND OF ARROWS: The Jericho both able to repay musical debts. Because PROPAGANDA / TRASHY / ROOM 101: Tavern – Dreamy electro-pop with nods to Pet whatever has happened to Collins in recent O2 Academy – Three clubs in one every Shop Boys and Vangelis from the acclaimed years, his best music is peerless – Orange Saturday with electro and indie at Propaganda, Swedish duo. Juice’s sublime ‘Rip It Up & Start Again’; his kitsch pop and glam at Trashy and alt.rock at THE MARINER’S CHILDREN + TRISTRAM + own solo 90s hit ‘A Girl Like You’. Now 50s Room 101. BORN BLONDE + WE THIEVES + SONNY years old he’s better respected and appreciated VENTFLOW + AETHANA + ELYSIUM LISTON: The Cellar – Bringing the than at any time since the early-80s and WAITS: The Centurion, Bicester – Jambox Communion club/collective to Oxford, this joint tonight, as with each and every show he plays metal night. tour between Brighton’s skiffle-inflected indie nowadays, it’s going to be emotional. CABARET CLANDESTINO: East Oxford folksters Mariner’s Children and lovely starlit Community Centre – Music, poetry, cabaret folkies Tristram, keeps up the tradition of the and circus skills with sets from local psychedelic club in championing the best new UK folk acts, in folkies Telling The Bees, glam-folk troubadour the past including Mumford and Sons, Laura James Bell and nihilistic pastoral poet Johnny Marling and Noah and the Whale. Waterboys- Fluffypunk, plus club host Pete The Temp. influenced popsters Born Blonde join the bill PAN THE MAN: Queen’s Head, Horspath – alongside local acts We Thieves and Sonny Van Morrison tribute. Liston. MOVE IT: Jack Russell, Marston HEADINGTON HILLBILLIES + BEARD OF ALL MOD CONS: James Street Tavern ZEUSS + STEVE & CHRIS + PETE WATSON: NIKKI LOY: The Ashton Club, Bicester Donnington Community Centre – Free ONO PALINDROME + SPECTRES + acoustic music session, with bluegrass and GUNNING FOR TAMAR: The Port Mahon Americana from Headington Hillbillies. TUESDAY 9th NINE-STONE COWBOY + BEAUX DEGALS FENECH SOLER: The Jericho Tavern – + ZEM + THE NEW MOGMATIC: The Northamptonshire’s rising electro-pop starlets Bullingdon – Bitter-sweet pocket pop out on tour to promote their debut album, mixing symphonies with a wry, through-a-glass-darkly hefty doses of club-friendly funk and house into lyricism from doomed romantics Nine-Stone their hook-heavy pop in a Das Pop and Cut Copy Cowboy. vein, while frontman Ben Duffy has recently SHAKER HEIGHTS + JUNE + BETHANY worked with Groove Armada. WEIMERS: The Wheatsheaf – Rootsy indie JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon pop and Americana from Shaker Heights, plus INTRUSION: The Cellar – Goth, industrial, indie rocking from June and darkly-crafted darkwave and EBM club night. acoustic pop from Bethany Weimers. th th OPEN MIC SESSION: The Port Mahon THE BLOOD ARM: The Jericho Tavern – Saturday 6 / Saturday 20 Stomping blues and soul rocking from LA’s much- AUDIOSCOPE: th touted cult heroes Blood Arm, who have WEDNESDAY 10 supported everyone from Franz Ferdinand and The Jericho Tavern WIRE: The Jericho Tavern – The punk and Maximo Park to Killers and Hot Hot Heat along post-punk legends play their first Oxford show in the way. Annual mini-fest Audioscope, which raises almost 30 years as part of Audioscope – see main THE EPSTEIN: Rapture, Witney (6pm) – money for homeless charity Shelter, preview Instore show at Oxfordshire’s sole remaining celebrates its tenth anniversary this year with HAUSCHKA + BRAINDEAD COLLECTIVE + three show at the Tavern. Post-punk legends LIBRARY TAPES: St Michael’s at the Wire are previewed separately but the first of Northgate Church – Pastoral, rhythmic the month’s gigs is an all-day event contemporary classical music in the lineage of Wednesday 10th celebrating those ten years of bringing some Vaughan-Williams and Satie, with electronic and of the best leftfield and underground acts to acoustic pop undercurrents from German WIRE: town with a selection of the organisers’ faves. composer and pianist Hauschka at tonight’s Headlining is Krautrock legend Dieter Pindrop Performance show. Suitably unsuitable The Jericho Tavern Moebius who played with Cluster and support comes from improvisational Audioscope has pulled some serious tricks out Harmonia as well as collaborating with Eno. experimental group Braindead Collective, plus of its bag over the years – Damo Suzuki, Four Joining him will be post-hardcore-tinged Sweden’s experimental ambient soundscapists Tet, Rother & Möebius – and this time they math-rockers Billy Mahonie, a debut show Library Tapes. All within the fittingly might just have surpassed themselves. Wire from Rome Pays Off, featuring former- atmospheric setting of Oxford’s oldest building. emerged from punk’s revolution pool but were Rothko members, trippy krautrock-inspired AGNESS PIKE + K-LACURA: The always beyond the nihilistic rage of the Pistols Julian Cope faves Qaa, narcotic groovers Wheatsheaf – A Moshka metal night, with et al, and continued to mutate and innovate at Oscillations and a great quintet of local metalcore mavericks Agness Pike bringing the every turn. The quartet’s opening gambit, bands that includes jazz’n’decker brutalists serrated riffs, with up and coming heavyweights ‘Pink Flag’, had all the energy of punk but was Nought, symphonic electro-rockers The K-Lacura in support. more ambitious and eclectic than its Rock Of Travolta, sludge-blues ogres FREE RANGE: The Cellar – Drum&bass and contemporaries and over the next couple of Mephisto Grande, goth-tinged indie outfit dubstep. albums, ‘Chairs Missing’ and ‘154’, Wire The Half Rabbits and a one-off reformation THE YARNS: Fat Lil’s Witney – Sweet-natured became increasingly eclectic while keeping for electro-heavy post-rockers Sunnyvale indie pop. that raw, stripped-down edge. Disbanding in Noise Sub-Element. 1980 they reformed in the late-80s with a th The show on the 20 sees a headline set by THURSDAY 11th poppier sound for ‘A Bell Is A Cup (Until It Is Anticon Records’ SJ Esau, with his unique Struck)’ but have become increasingly M.I.A: O2 Academy – Gig of the month from blend of electronica, hip hop and experimental over the years.Original guitarist the multi-talented singer – see main preview experimental indie pop. Norwich’s nu-gaze Bruce Gilbert has now apparently departed for THE KILL CITY SAINTS + THE INSULT: The lovelies Sennen join the bill alongside Ice good, but frontman Colin Newman, bassist Bullingdon Sea Dead People, mixing seriously hardcore Graham Lewis and drummer Robert Gotobed SPIN JAZZ CLUB: The Wheatsheaf – With noise with a delicious melodic edge, new wave still remain from the original line-up and if guest musicians Binker Golding and Alex Ho. psychedelic outfit Epic45, Elysian Quartet’s you can judge a band on those they inspired, CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford experimental cellist Laura Moody, Kranky Wire have few equals: REM, The Cure and Community Centre Records’ Felix and local riff-heavy rock duo The Manic Street Preachers are huge fans, MASK OF JUDAS + REIGN UPON US + Phantom Theory. A good few more besides while more recently Bloc Party, Franz SENTURIA: The Hobgoblin, Bicester – these and both events provide a full day’s Ferdinand and Futureheads have quoted them Jambox metal night featuring Chichester’s thrash- portion of your necessary leftfield sounds. And as a chief influence. Across the Atlantic Big core outfit Mask of Judas and Bicester’s own of course all in a good cause. One that, given Black and Minor Threat took up arms after black-hearted thrash merchants Reign Upon Us. the government’s plans for benefit cuts, is set hearing Wire. Just how tonight’s show will pan THE PETE FRYER BAND: Prince Of Wales, to have its work cut out even more in the out is anyone’s guess; Wire are notoriously Iffley – Blues rock. coming years. Visit www.audioscope.co.uk anti-nostalgia, so there’ll be no greatest hits ELECTRIC BLUES JAM: Bricklayers Arms, for full line-up details. set, but to see such a genuinely legendary band Marston in such intimate confines is something simply OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half Moon not to be missed. And just to make the th ECLECTRICITY: The Cellar – 2-step, garage, MONDAY 8 evening even better, no-wave nosiemakers deep house and disco. IMOGEN HEAP: O2 Academy – A return to Teeth Of The Sea, and heavyweight ROCK CLUB: Fat Lil’s Witney the Academy for the kooky folk singer after her krautrockers Einstellung support. sold-out show here in February. Still a cult th concern, Heap is popular enough to pack out big FRIDAY 12 venues regularly, her mad-woman-down-the-street AKALA: O2 Academy – Leading the current ditziness belying a wayward pop sensibility that at wave of politicised Brit rappers, the Camden times recalls Laurie Anderson, Cat Power and Tori rhymer – and, lest we forget, younger brother of Amos. Ms Dynamite – looks towards Gil Scott Heron for KENT DUCHAINE: The Bullingdon – Return inspiration as he explores racism, child poverty of the long-time blues favourite Duchaine, singer and more, while cramming Shakespeare and and slide guitarist out of Minnesota, playing sampling Siouxsie & The Banshees. His mission traditional Delta blues in the style of Muddy to use hip hop as an educational tool might be an Waters, Robert Johnson and Lightnin’ Hopkins old one but it’s one that’s sadly rare in modern on his trusted Leadbessy steel guitar. rap and thus is all the more welcome. independent music store, from the local SUNDAY 14th alt.country faves, launching their new single. ELIOT MINOR ACOUSTIC: O2 Academy – JOOLS HOLLAND: The New Theatre – The At least it’ll be quieter. honky tonk geezer brings his inclusive jazz, blues, VERY NICE HARRY + SECRET RIVALS + soul and rock’n’roll show back to the new ABOVE US THE WAVES + HALF NAKED: Theatre. The Wheatsheaf – Quadruple bill of indie rock. JAGGY EDGES + THE SHAPES + UNION DEAD JERICHOS + YELLOW FEVER + THE CHAIN: The Port Mahon – Acoustic folk-rock VIBE + BROKEN BEDSTEADS + TWIST: The in the vein of Peter Gabriel from local duo Jaggy Regal – Moddish post-punkers Dead Jerichos and Edges. Foals-inspired indie funkers The Vibe are amongst BON GIOVI: Fat Lil’s Witney – Bon Jovi the bill of up and coming local acts getting a tribute. chance to play the elegantly expansive Regal. Thursday 11th THE PETE FRYER BAND: The Broad Face, SUNDAY ROAST: The Cellar – Rock’n’roll, Abingdon swing and folk night with live acts tbc. M.I.A.: O2 Academy FUNKY FRIDAY: The Bullingdon Oh yes. Yes indeed. It’s difficult to explain just FOUNDATION REGGAE: East Oxford MONDAY 15th how excited we got when we saw M.I.A was Community Centre playing in town, but suffice to say plenty of DISCO-VERY: James Street Tavern JOANNE SHAW-TAYLOR BAND: The Bullingdon – Another chance to see the rising crockery got smashed in the ensuing melee. BOSSAPHONIK: The Cellar – Latin dance, After causing a serious stir with her debut Balkan beats, world breaks and nu-jazz club night UK blues star, currently working to do for blues what Duffy has done for soul, matching the album, ‘Arula’, she then surpassed herself with with a live set from Delation Sound, playing a its 2007 follow-up ‘Kala’, one of the most mix of salsa, rumba, funk and samba. American old-timers with a laid-back and assured style, coming on like a young, female cross inventive albums of recent years, and its attendant hit single, ‘Paper Planes’, a genuine SATURDAY 13th between Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bonnie Raitt and Dusty Springfield, having been playing live around classic, and one of the best singles of the past LITTLE FISH: O2 Academy – The local garage- her native Black Country venues since the age of decade. And so, having named those first two rock heroes play their biggest Oxford headline 14 before being discovered by Eurythmics’ Dave albums after her parents, her third is sort-of show to date – see main preview Stewart and consequently touring in a supergroup named after herself, though obliquely titled STATUS QUO: The New Theatre – As is made up of him, Candy Dulpher, Jimmy Cliff and ‘/\/\/\Y/\’ just to bugger up any Google searching. increasingly traditional at this time of year Ver Mudbone Cooper. Google being funded by the CIA, according to Quo bring their boogie down production back to BEETROOT JAM: The Port Mahon – Open the woman born Mathangi ‘Maya’ town, playing hits from their vast back catalogue jam session and live bands. Arulpragasam. Her music may be a playful as well as songs from their more recent albums. amalgam of hip hop, dancehall, punk, JOHN OTWAY + BLACK HATS ACOUSTIC: th electronia and pop, fusing together world styles The Wheatsheaf – If Status Quo, also playing TUESDAY 16 that range from South America, through Africa town tonight, are the most successful UK singles THE DIVINE COMEDY: O2 Academy – Neil to India and back to New York and London, but band of all time, here’s one of the least. Self- Hannon keeps on keeping on, flush with the lyrically M.I.A. is deadly serious. The daughter styled clown prince of pop Otway has been success of ‘Bang Goes The Knighthood (his tenth of a Tamil separatist, her childhood was playing on his one-hit-blunder loser credentials album) earlier this year, his orchestral chamber- seriously affected by political persecution and since the late-70s, even managing to notch up a pop now a more earnest and lyrically darker beast she’s still listed as a terrorist sympathiser by the second hit single to mark the anniversary of his than his wry 90s hits. Sri Lankan government. That aside she is also first, and all down to his astonishingly fanatical LOSTBOY AKA JIM KERR: O2 Academy – one of the most visionary music makers on the following who have sustained him through all The former-Simple Minds frontman rides into planet with an imagination and attitude that these years. And don’t let that self-consciously town a month after his erstwhile drummer and few can even start to match. That she’s also an underachieving persona fool you; if you’ve yet to bassist played this same venue, tonight playing accomplished artist, film maker and fashion see John Otway live, make the effort – he’s a material from his new album as well as reworked designer as well running her own N.E.E.T. consummate entertainer, a genuine nutcase and versions of old Simple Minds faves. record label, simply confirms her importance in more fun than any of the ‘stars’ you’ll see on JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon modern culture (she was recently included in telly tonight. STARSMITH: The Jericho Tavern – Epic Time Magazine’s Top 100 most influential HOLD YOUR HORSE IS + SPRING synth-scapes and electro-disco from the London- people on the planet). We could go on and on OFFENSIVE + IDIOSYNC + PHANTOM based producer-turned-performer Fin Dow-Smith, about just how great we think she is, but then THEORY: The Port Mahon – Local alt.rock who has previously remixed Katy Perry, Little we’d end up looking like the sort of mad people starlets Spring Offensive continue their series of Boots, Passion Pit and Marina & The Diamonds, you avoid eye contact with at bus stops, so gigs inviting bands they’ve played with around the amongst others. we’ll quietly go and listen to her superb, Suicide- country back to Oxford. Tonight’s guests are BARE GARAGE: The Cellar sampling ‘Born Free’ and try and glue these Hella-inspired angular post-hardcore types Hold OPEN MIC SESSION: The Port Mahon plates back together. Your Horse Is. Spring Offensive themselves provide a folky, occasionally proggy take on WEDNESDAY 17th Jonquil and Youthmovies-inspired rock, while THE CRUSHING + ANNERO + KOMRAD + PHAT SESSIONS: The Cellar – Second heavyweight post-punk hardcore duo Phantom RISEN IN BLACK: The Wheatsheaf – More birthday bash for the live jam club, featuring in- Theory crank up the volume. metal majesty tonight with propulsive house band The Phat Sessions Collective, plus DJ GREEN ONIONS: Fat Lil’s Witney – Blues NWOBHM-influenced types The Crushing Fu. Brothers tribute. bringing their trademark virtuosity to PROPAGANDA / TRASHY / ROOM 101: O2 the party, plus hardcore thrash Academy merchants Annero, technical prog- Records, CDs and THE LIGHT DIVIDED + SIX BULLET core types Komrad and super- CHAMBER + WHERE’S BILLY + RISKY heavyweight thrash from RiB. DVD Fair HEROES + BONE IDOL: The Wheatsheaf, THE CORAL: O2 Academy – The Banbury – Jambox rock and metal night. recently downsized country-tinged th HONEYTHIEF: Baby Love – 80s, 90 and psychedelic Wirral outfit head out on SUNDAY 5 December noughties indie, pop and electro in aid of the road to plug recent album, ‘The 10am-4pm Amnesty International. Butterfly House’, one of their best to ALL MOD CONS: The Duke, St.Clement’s date and perhaps sounding more ROCK-POP-DANCE-GOLDEN OLDIES-INDIE- BASSMENTALITY: The Cellar – Hip hop, ska, relevant than ever with the success of SOUL-TECHNO-HIP-HOP-JAZZ-LATIN-REGGAE- reggae, drum&bass and dub with Only Joe and similarly arcane songsmiths like Fleet DRUM&BASS-GARAGE—R&B-DISCO-1950s- Fridge & Bungle. Foxes. 2000s. Brand new back catalogue CDs £4 - £7 Riots drawing on Snow Patrol and Sigur Ros to FOUR MORE FACES + INFLATABLES: inform their pristine pop sound. Hardcore noise Kidlington FC – Mod rock from Four More and classic rock riffery from Phantom Theory Faces, ska, soul and reggae classics from and feisty moddish post-punk from Black Hats in Inflatables, plus a northern soul sound system. support. GREEN ONIONS: Folly Bridge Inn – Blues CRUDE MEASURE + IZZI STONE + TYGER Brothers tribute. STRYKE: The Hobgoblin, Bicester – Jambox REPLICA: Fat Lil’s Witney – Classic rock rock and metal night. covers. CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford THE MIGHTY REDOX: Bear & Ragged Staff, Community Centre Cumnor – Psychedelic blues and swamp-rock ELECTRIC BLUES JAM: Bricklayers Arms, from the local faves. Thursday 18th Marston MOVE IT: Didcot Labour Club OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half Moon ALL MOD CONS: James Street Tavern BELLOWHEAD: UNPLUGGED SESSION: The Duke’s Cut – THE ROD CRISP BAND + STEAMROLLER: New monthly unplugged bands night. The Cellar – A trip back in time tonight at the The Regal Cellar with one-time Falling Leaves chap Rod An unprecedented four BBC Folk Awards for FRIDAY 19th Crisp returning to his old stamping ground for the Best Live Act tells you exactly what you need JONQUIL: The Jericho Tavern – The local first time with his seven-piece soul and blues-rock to know about Bellowhead, but really you have experimental pop outfit return with their new outfit. His drummer back in those days was one to actually experience them in the flesh to line-up – see main preview Larry Reddington, who went on to form blues- realise why such plaudits are so well deserved. DREADZONE + SHE IS DANGER: O2 rock heavyweights Steamroller in the 70s. Now The eleven-strong folk big band, formed by Academy – That most peculiarly English of reformed they join tonight’s bill, while local Jon Boden and John Spiers, who debuted at the reggae bands returns to town, mixing roots sounds music historian and DJ Trevor Hayward will be 2004 Oxford Folk Festival, really are an and dub with a folky feel, trance and breakbeats. spinning suitably period sounds. unparalleled live experience, as anyone who After almost 20 years on the road, half a dozen st caught them at this summer’s Truck Festival albums and countless festival appearances their SUNDAY 21 will testify. They simply blew everyone else appeal remains as a great dance band, fifteen NIKKI LOY: The Fishes, North Hinksey on the main stage away with a set that was a years on from their classic ‘Second Light’ album. perfect mix of astounding virtuosity, DEAD JERICHOS + EMPTY VESSELS + DIAL th showmanship and FUN. While their starting F FOR FRANKENSTEIN: The Wheatsheaf – Thursday 18 point is taking old, sometimes ancient, folk EP launch gig for young Drayton trio Dead st KLAXONS: dance tunes and kicking them into the 21 Jerichos, who have lit up the local scene this year Century, the manner in which they revitalise with their militantly funked-up mod-pop, an O2 Academy and reinvent their core material is nothing uptight and ready for a scrap blend of Jam-like Seemingly intent on following MGMT’s How short of astonishing, whether it’s ‘New York post-punk, Gang of Four grooves and Cure-like To Lose Friends And Alienate People Girls’ or ‘Amsterdam’. The collective have sense of melody. They’ve also earned a approach to their second album, Klaxons been wowing audiences at festivals since their reputation as one of the hardest-working bands in probably deserve some credit for not simply inception, from WOMAD to Cambridge, able Oxford, playing anywhere and everywhere, and hacking out a quickly-assembled successor to to whip a crowd of any size into a frenzy, but further success is well due to them next year. the Mercury prize-winning debut ‘Myths Of indoors their impact is doubled. They’ve just Joining them at tonight’s show are anthemic The Near Future’, but that’s as far as it goes. put out their third album, ‘Hedonism’, and psychedelic blues-rockers Empty Vessels, who The problematic gestation for new album celebrated its release by brewing their own ale take inspiration from the likes of Blue Cheer, ‘Surfing The Void’ has included sacking two of the same name, and with a special real ale Cream and Hendrix, plus sparkling punk-pop producers, including Tony Visconti, and bar promised for tonight’s gig, it’ll be time to outfit Dial F, mixing grunge noise onto tightly- ditching a session with Simian Mobile Disco’s drink deep and party hard. wound post-hardcore to irresistible effect. James Ford, before bizarrely plumping for Ross THE BIG TEN INCH: The Cellar – Count Robinson as recording helmsman. Robinson is Skylarkin’s monthly rock’n’roll, r’n’b, swing and better known for his work with Korn and jump blues club night, including a live set from THURSDAY 18th Slipknot and it seems Klaxons have now Derriere, playing old school rock’n’roll, vintage KLAXONS: O2 Academy – Difficult second ditched the electronics and pop sensibilities soul and rockabilly. album time for the indie-dance heroes – see main that spawned indie disco anthems like DRESSED TO KILL: Fat Lil’s Witney – preview `Gravity’s Rainbow’ and ‘Golden Skans’ in Tribute to Kiss. BELLOWHEAD: The Regal – The party starts favour of chunky bass lines and churning hard BROTHERS WELSH + PAPA JULES + here as the best live folk band around come to rock riffs. Of course the band were always BRANCH IMMERSION: The Port Mahon – town – see main preview more of a straightforward indie rock band than Spangly, math-tinged indie from former- ELLEN & THE ESCAPADES + UTE + THE their nu-rave tag suggested, and not a Collisions and Consequences chaps Brothers YARNS: The Bullingdon – Great, sweet- particularly great live proposition at the best Welsh at tonight’s Daisy Rogers club night. natured folk-pop from Leeds’ Escapades at of times, but with even their hardcore fanbase FUNKY FRIDAY: The Bullingdon tonight’s Everyday Folk club night. Taking set to be alienated by this change of tack, you FOUNDATION REGGAE: East Oxford inspiration from Joni Mitchell and Fleetwood wonder where next for a band whose adherence Community Centre Mac, they’ve been favourably compared to to the KLF manual of japery made them fun DISCO-VERY: James Street Tavern Mumford and Sons and should appeal to that interviewees if nothing else. Recent press outings suggest ingestion of some seriously band’s ever-expanding fanbase. Ute, too, are on th an upward trajectory, managing the difficult task SATURDAY 20 exotic hallucinogens has led to a bit of of combining thoughtful, spacious melodies with AUDIOSCOPE: The Jericho Tavern (2pm) – spiritual awakening but that’s failed to an ability to seriously rock out when duty calls. Shoegaze heroes Sennen headline the third of this translate into wondrous new psychedelic Fluffy jangle pop outfit The Yarns complete an month’s Audioscope shows – see main preview sounds. excellent bill. BEELZEBOZO + CARAVAN OF WHORES: RINOA + WHILE SHE SLEEPS: The Cellar – The Wheatsheaf – Grandly-proportioned Alternately brooding and cathartic post-rock and traditional metal and thrash from Beelzebozo, hardcore from Essex’s Rinoa, out on a farewell plus heavyweight stoner-core types Caravan of tour, with support from velocity metalcore outfit Whores. While She Sleeps. COMPLETE STONE ROSES + KINGS OF THE WINCHELL RIOTS + PHANTOM LYON: O2 Academy – Double dose of tribute THEORY + BLACK HATS + DEER bands. CHICAGO: Fat Lil’s Witney – Great local bill PROPAGANDA / TRASHY / ROOM 101: O2 with intricately expansive stars The Winchell Academy GENTLEMEN’S DUB CLUB: The Cellar sunshiny synth-popping indie faves launch their new single. MONDAY 22nd DRY THE RIVER: The Jericho Tavern – 65DAYSOFSTATIC + KONG + Gorgeous, ethereal alt.folk from Dry The River, finding a middle ground between The Low COLOUREDS: O2 Academy – After their awe- Anthem and Noah & The Whale. inspiring show at Truck this summer, Sheffield’s BILLY PURE: Fat Lil’s Witney – Stomping noise terrorists bring their own particular form of country and folk-rock from the Charlbury faves. musical punishment back to the Academy, doing FUNKY FRIDAY: The Bullingdon loud to an heroic degree, meshing post-rock, FOUNDATION REGGAE: East Oxford blinding hardcore and hip hop beats into Community Centre something cinematic, brutal and elegant. Metallic DISCO-VERY: James Street Tavern Fugazi-meets-Shellac virulence from Manchester’s th HQ: The Cellar Friday 19 Kong in support, plus local electro-crazies Coloureds. th JONQUIL: THE MATT SCHOFIELD TRIO: The SATURDAY 27 Bullingdon – British blues guitarist who started GAPPY TOOTH INDUSTRIES with The Jericho Tavern his career playing with Lee Sankey and Dana PICTUREHOUSE + KAT MARSH + POST: Despite their apparent lack of activity on Gillespie, as well as the Lester Butler Tribute The Wheatsheaf – Another goodly mixed bill at the local gigging front, it’s been a busy old Band, before going out on the road with his own GTI, with glitchy electro-acoustic beat-driven year for Jonquil. They spent the early part of band, playing blues and funky jazz, inspired by BB pop from Picturehouse, sassy blues, soul and jazz it on tour with old chums Foals; Jody and Kit King, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert Collins from loop-pedal aficionado Kat Marsh, plus the left the band to form Trophy Wife and difficult-to-find-anything-out-about Post. they’ve recently signed a new deal with New TUESDAY 23rd ABSOLUTE BOWIE: O2 Academy – Tribute York’s Dovecote Records, the first fruits of to the Thin White Duke. which will be a download-only album later JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon PROPAGANDA / TRASHY / ROOM 101: O2 OPEN MIC SESSION: The Port Mahon this year followed by a full vinyl release in Academy the new year. Meanwhile frontman Hugo has TASTE MY EYES + PROSPEKT + DEDLOK + WEDNESDAY 24th been busy with his solo electronic side- DESERT STORM: The Wheatsheaf, Banbury project Chad Valley, including sets at Truck ATHLETE: O2 Academy – The hitmaking indie – Excellent night of local metal at Jambox’s and OX4 Festivals. But tonight finds the band softies return after their last sold-out show here regular session. Virulent metalcore from Taste My back on home ground and headlining. For Eyes, technical prog-metal from Prospekt, last year. those unfamiliar with one of Oxford’s most hardcore thrash from Dedlok and bluesy stoner- PAUL SMITH: The Jericho Tavern eclectic and esoteric musical talents, Jonquil metal from this month’s Nightshift cover stars THE MARMADUKES + WELCOME TO are a band that spread their wings wide, from Desert Storm. PEEPWORLD + THE NO-ONES: The rousing folk shanties, to lysergic psychedelic Wheatsheaf – Alt.country rocking from QUEEN OF CLUBS: Baby Simple – Music and pop and onwards to experimental electronic Marmadukes at tonight’s Moshka club night, cabaret with style at Queen of Clubs, featuring a pop and post-rock. Their mix of bucolic live set from London’s country-ska outfit alongside sweet-natured acoustic folk-pop outfit tranquillity and uneasy menace make them Pennyblack Remedy, award-winning burlesque Welcome To Peepworld. masters of a peculiar kind of ambient pop artist Kiki Kaboom, plus magicians, vintage ACOUSTIC LOUNGE: Fat Lil’s Witney – and whichever direction the new album takes arcade games and DJs playing gypsy dance and Open mic session. them, it’ll be a journey worth taking with FREE RANGE: The Cellar more. them. CHARLY COOMBES & THE NEW BREED + THURSDAY 25th ULYSSES STORM: The Cellar – Rough-hewn rock’n’soul of a 70s-style vintage from Charly SAFETY FIRE + TASTE MY EYES + successful BBC collaboration with La Roux. From Coombes. GALLEONS + PROSPEKT: The Bullingdon – founding the original Human League, to their era- W.A.M: Fat Lil’s Witney – Ska and punk Skeletor Promotions metal night with London’s defining ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ album, Martin covers. prog-metallers Safety Fire headlining. Support Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, along with singer TUESDAY NIGHT PROJECT + TRIDEM + Glenn Gregory, brought a sense of soul to comes from Rabid metalcore tyrants Taste My REFUGEES OF CULTURE: Folly Bridge Inn – previously austere electronic pop and hit the Eyes, Nottingham’s chaotic math-core merchants Heavy rock, grunge and punk from ex-Hangman’s charts with singles like ‘Temptation’ and ‘Come Galleons and rising local talents Prospekt. Joe types Tuesday Night Project, supported by Live With Me’, although it was the classic ‘We JOE BROOKS: O2 Academy – Southampton’s jazz, ska, punk and blues fusion outfit Tridem. Don’t Need This Fascist Groove Thang’ that apparent “Myspace sensation” tours his new THE MIGHTY REDOX: The Crawley Inn, defines them. Only Gregory and Ware remain album, `I’d Rather Slice My Own Eyeballs Open Witney from the original line-up but the old hits will With A Spoon Than Endure One More Second Of ALL MOD CONS: The Duke, St.Clement’s This Soul-Destroying Sub-James Blunt Fart Gas’. doubtless be out in force. CONNIE LUSH & BLUES SHOUTER: The SPIN JAZZ CLUB: The Wheatsheaf – Guest th musician Phil Peskett plays with the in-house SUNDAY 28 Bullingdon – Five-time winner of Best UK Spin Trio. BLUES JAM: Fat Lil’s Witney (3pm) – All- Female Blues Singer, Connie Lush returns to the CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford day open jam session. Famous Monday Blues with her powerful singing Community Centre SUNDAY ROAST: The Cellar style taking in traditional blues, rock, jazz and DEER CHICAGO: The Cellar – EP launch gig soul. for the local indie types. MONDAY 29th th DR SLAGGLEBERRY: The Hobgoblin, HEAVEN 17: O2 Academy – The 80s synth- TUESDAY 30 Bicester – Return to local live action for pop pioneers are currently riding a wave of JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon Chinnor’s math-core monsters. renewed critical appraisal, both for their influence BARE GARAGE: The Cellar IN THE POCKET: Fat Lil’s Witney – Indie on the current crop of electro acts but also their OPEN MIC SESSION: The Port Mahon bands night. ELECTRIC BLUES JAM: Bricklayers Arms, Marston OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half Moon ECLECTRICITY: The Cellar

th FRIDAY 26 Nightshift listings are free. Deadline for inclusion in the gig guide is the 20th of each month - no ALPHABET BACKWARDS + KING OF CATS exceptions. Call 01865 372255 (10am-6pm) or email listings to [email protected]. + ANNA LOG: The Wheatsheaf – The local All listings are copyright of Nightshift and may not be reproduced without permission Sponsored LIVE by

offer a stilted ersatz funk that would make Arthur Russell spin in his tragically early grave, and Glitches are the same but worse, a Wanky Goes To Hollywood melange of syn drums, stupid hair and ineffectual yelping. Jesus, we love the 80s and these two acts are making us sound like we write for Proper Music Pub Rock Weekly by their sheer lack of Fixers photo: Johnny Moto vision. More positively, Dog Is Dead are a tight band with some decent tunes, if you can battle past the fact they sound like Level 42, and Willy Mason is impressive in holding a large audience with just an acoustic and some slow paeans, classic but not retro, acknowledging influences without aping them and standing as an example of how true talent will always find its own voice. More reference grabbing from Abe Vigoda, who make a passable swipe at Talking Heads artfunk and Devo japery without having the character to equal either. Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin, from Missouri, fondly recall the days of OX4 the 60s beat group, summery, delicate and unassuming, their songs Various venues meander pleasantly enough but lack Throughout the afternoon, passers- acts we see are homegrown. The than one man with a keyboard has much in the way of structure. South by are enticed up to the doorway of Folk Festival stage is strong, with any right, Chad Valley makes a London’s Breton, meanwhile, are Cafe Tarifa by the music the Oxford highlights from Bellowhead’s John quietly euphoric music that isn’t far another shining light of the day, Folk Festival has booked, only to Spiers, and Huffenpuff, a duo of from late-80s Scritti Politti or a sun- sophisticated but not showy, their turn away after discovering the £5 accordion and soprano sax/flute, bleached Beloved and once you’ve music is multi-layered and complex, entry fee, yet the vast majority of which blithely skips through the forgiven the fact that the vocal with elements of dubstep and post- those who have spent twenty quid on glade of musical history grabbing sounds like Tony Hadley with rock. Their slower material is where an OX4 wristband don’t venture out fragments of Breton, klezmer and hiccoughs, the set is strong. the electronic percussion and to see anything until the sun has set. jazz like so many falling blossoms. Some days it feels as though every keyboards really take flight, while Somewhere in this paradox is the Outside the Bullingdon Horns Of band in the world can be defined with their expending line-up, including promoter’s eternal frustration, and Plenty are blowing their hearts out reference to The Beach Boys. In video work under the name the problem couched at the heart of in their usual noisy manner. No-one that sense Fixers fall somewhere BretonLABS, makes them a band to OX4. You can go on all you like invited them, they just turned up. between the approaches of Animal watch out for. about “Oxford’s Creative Quarter” Maybe this is the start of an OX4 Collective and The High Llamas, but The hipster homogeneity of so and musical diversity, but whilst this festival fringe. more importantly they play the set many of the name acts, with festival may superficially resemble Hreda build intricate yet reserved of the day. The smooth, AM sound influences stretching from ‘Now 5’ The Punt, OX4 is more like a instrumentals that are full of delicate beneath the soaring falsetto to ‘Now 8’, takes the edge off the touring gig writ large: there are a mystery, and who construct their serenades is as much Dennis Wilson event, but the gems are there for the handful of big acts (all from outside arrangements with clockwork as it is Brian, and intrigues those of dedicated. Our final act is the the county, if not the country), and precision when most post-rockers us who feel that ‘Surf’s Up’ is at excellent Mr Shaodow, for whom the rest of the multifaceted day is rely on sketchy dynamics. The least as good as ‘Pet Sounds’. The half the room sadly leaves within like one long local support act that Winchell Riots, meanwhile, seem pastel-tinted songs are also dusted minutes, but who energises the nobody goes to see. We visit the surprisingly rejuvenated: more with mid-80s synth tones and Phil remainder with pure expertise, open mike at the new INevents outward-looking and passionate than Spector drum patterns, yet manage originality and intelligence. As space, to find the host begging for expected, they seem to have found a to retain a cohesive and individual someone who has lived in London, participants – it seems a musical new voice, with an urgency and air. China and Oxford, he could tell you community, like music itself, just punch replacing a tendency to Fixers are proof that music can be that good musicians are united by can’t be forced. towards introspection and self- retro and still feel fresh, but the hard graft and talent, not their But good music there is, and it’s absorption. lesson has been lost on most of the postcode. OX4’s secret victory that all the best Despite taking far longer to set up larger acts. Everything Everything David Murphy and Art Lagun Dedlok photo: Johnny Moto DEDLOK / K-LACURA / VISION FALL / BLACK SKIES BURN The Wheatsheaf Tonight’s Buried In Smoke gig showcases four local metal bands, two of whom have recently returned to action after a long lay-off. The first of these is Black Skies Burn, who we haven’t seen since the Oxford Punt in 2008. Time off hasn’t mellowed them one bit and, as you’d expect of a band formed from the ashes of Faith In Hate, they’re brutal in the extreme. Singer Simon Manion looks like he wrestles grizzly bears for a living and growls and roars like a man who’s just been genetically spliced with a jet engine. They’re gloriously relentless, a virulent blend of Napalm Death, Meshuggah and Slayer, even finishing their set with a one-second Napalm Death cover and if they’re going to stick around for a while now the local scene will be a better, more dangerous place for it. After that Vision Fall could end up sounding a bit, well, wimpy, but it’s to their credit they still shine, wiry frontman Ricky Taylow belying his size with a roar of Uruk-hai proportions while the band come out of the blocks at full pelt and never let up the pace, a synchronised wall of thrash their songs given variety by more considered long boats and worshipping Odin but their sound is riffage delivered with studious intensity. moments. Like Vision Fall, though, they’re best the most nuanced of the night, classic thrash Somewhere at their heart they have an epic sense keeping it brutally simple and by the end of their interspersed with old-school Brit-metal riffs and an of melody but at their best they’re simply hellish set a fair proportion of the crowd is up on stage aggression that owes as much to hardcore punk. in intent and execution and it’s a shame tonight is with them adding to the racket. From a moody intro, they quickly gather speed and their penultimate gig. Dedlok are the second of tonight’s returning mass and by the time they’re at their peak they K-Lacura’s recent demo was deceptive, failing to heroes, back with a new line-up but undiminished sound like a monstrous mash-up of Slayer and prepare us for their far more ferocious live show. in their mission to keep it raw and seriously Boltthrower. And simply being able to type the Escaping from a muffled, disappointing start to heavy. Of all tonight’s bands they look the most name Boltthrower makes us very happy indeed. their set they build and build, tight and angular, likely to be found pillaging villages from their Dale Kattack

CATE LE BON KATE RUSBY O2 Academy The New Theatre Cate le Bon and her band are having into something quirky but utterly “It’s a little bit samey,” an audience ‘High On A Hill’ is given the a laugh tonight. They laugh as they captivating. It feels like an old torch member observes midway through alternative treatment, meandering squeeze awkwardly past each other song being led to the gallows. Kate Rusby’s set, leaving me only to from a vocal-driven track, to a in their tiny corner of the stage and Elsewhere Cate and her band swap conclude she’s not been paying full musical hoedown. Kate’s comedy giggle like kids when the toy instruments and styles with such attention. Sure Kate is understated, hasn’t vanished either and in a set keyboard that’s perched on its rack casual abandon there’s never time to the melodies from one song weaving which features as much introduction collapses to the floor halfway get comfortable: here’s a simple into the next with elegance and ease, and humour as music, she ensures the through a song. You’d like to think acoustic folk lullaby punctured by a but those familiar with the folk rhythm of the set is punctuated with that in years to come, when they’re grunge churn and splinters of white nightingale’s extensive back catalogue well-timed retorts. headlining venues this size, with all noise; there’s a country twang will realise this is her charm. This low While the humour and best loved the space and fancy equipment they twisted into wayward shapes and key collection of songs, embracing tracks are anticipated, Kate’s can dream of, they’ll be able to taken on a gentle trip into space. No reworkings of traditional tunes dating sampling of new tracks from her look back and laugh even more wonder Super Furry Animals’ Gruff back 200 years, to ones penned forthcoming album suggests the days heartily. Rhys is so enamoured of her. entirely from scratch, seem to fuse of lovers’ laments may be a thing of Truth is, Cate le Bon is such a And yet there’s nothing overly arty together, distinction between the two the past. ‘Only Hope’ is filled with singularly unusual talent she may or awkward about Cate or her songs. becoming a distant dream. This positive refrains and upbeat melodies forever be doomed to minor cult The pall of uncertainty and gloom however, is less a marker of whilst ‘Let Them Fly’ might well be success. Possessed of a such a strong that hangs over them merely throws originality and more indication of her the folk equivalent of the Dixie welsh accent she sometimes makes their prettiness into starker relief command of the genre. Chicks’ ‘Not Ready To Make Nice’. Max Boyce sound like a cockney and tonight’s set highlight, ‘Eyes So Some fans may have been happier Kate is perhaps, in her own words, barrow boy, and a restlessly creative Bright’, is positively imperious in its with the band line up which used to “protecting the old ways from being nature, her songs, pretty as they are, beauty. accompany the Barnsley star when abused,” given her desire to continue would scare the bejesus out of the X- “Baby, I’m headed for the black,” former-husband John McCusker reworking traditional songs such as ‘I Factor-watching unwashed masses. croons Cate dreamily in the `Sunday appeared by her side. Yet in with the Courted A Sailor’. Yet she is also Cate’s regularly tagged The Welsh Morning’-like `Sad Sad Feet’, like a new musicians comes refined pushing folk firmly into the 21st Nico, and it’s clear why on songs like doomed romantic heroine. If we understanding of Kate’s airy vocals Century with the likes of uptempo ‘Me Oh My’, full of fatalistic could believe for one moment that a and their melodies are sympathetic ‘The Wishing Wife’ and in a set that melancholy, her voice demure yet talent this special could instead be and understated, allowing her lyrics to perfectly merges the two it’s fair to austere, the sparse drum beat heading for the bright lights, then really shine. ‘The White Cockade’ is suggest that Kate is unlikely to funereal, the wobbly electronics we’d all be laughing. stripped back, leaving her voice to relinquish this quest anytime soon. bending the tune out of shape and Dale Kattack carry the weight of the melody, while Lisa Ward photo: rphimages of aparticularscenefrom can hear andseefromtheir euphoricreception tonight. Accentuating the thinking thatthere simplymustbemoretoBringMe TheHorizonthanI Thirteenmillion MySpaceplayscan’tbewrong,can they?Ican’thelp between songsthat makesyouwanttogivehimabig hug.Sortof. have utterlyconvincingstridency coupled withanoddly-bashfulcharm rush tomakeasmuchnoisepossible. And invocalistLiamCormierthey and aboveallnotforgettowritesome crackingsongsbehindadesperate chop andchangethepacefeel fromtorpidsleazetopugnaciousbolt, too busybouncingaroundtonotice). They’rehappytoplaywiththeform, air guitarinhalftheaudiencewithout themevenrealising(theotherhalfare core surroundedbythekindofsheetmetalriffingthatinspiresunconscious songs areeconomical,brutalfour-minuteblastswithasurprisinglypoppy When itcomestometalbands,CancerBatsareprettymuchperfect. Their 02 Academy BRING they’re heavymetalthroughapost-indieblender, Melvins’ wrappersofnoisearoundadarkheart, with BlackSabbath,andmostrecentlyends elevator doors.Continuingalineagethatstarts out fromtheOverlookHotel’s metaphorical the slow-motion,thickwavesofbloodechoing barbarian-style thunder. Regal provinganaptlycavernoussettingforsome slightly slightly sweeterinnaturethanthat.Butonly unparalleled heaviosity. As itturnsout,thingsare forever, suchweremyexpectationsforsome equivalent ofabootstampingonhumanface, I wasprimedtodescribethisgigastheaural The Regal STORM /IVY’SITCHBEARDOFZEUSS ORANGE GOBLIN/ Beard OfZeuss : thisisstillaweightyaffair,withThe ME openproceedingsinthestyle THE HORIZON/CANCERBA The Shining : theyare WINNEBAGO DEAL often enoughforittobecomeaproblem. sound, withasliponthereinsofsongs,butnot turn. At timestheytendtowardsastonedjamof surprising natureofasupertankermakingU- time spans,songsstopandstartwiththe Notes unexpectedlyringoutforindeterminate but havethegoodsensetodosomeweirdthings. that thebandhasalwayshadatitscore-asuper- clicked intoplace,though,itrevealsthegreatness difficult tofindmuchdefinition.Whenthings swamped allothersoundsinexistence,makingit Bjelland. It’s afantasticvoice,butittoooften sounding likeaneven brutal vocalstyleofElizaGregory, impressively indistinct sound,butmainlyduetotherelentlessly Ivy’s Itch alsoedgetowardsasomewhat more Stuart Fowkes that shouldnever bewhatmetal’s allabout. impressive thing about BringMeTheHorizonishow intended tobeconfrontational, adrenaline-fuelledbrutality, the most riff that’s notoutofthe2003Bumper BookofDropD.Consideringit’s production trick,bothbarelyconcealing adearthofinspirationorsingle There’s ahissingblanketof insipidnoise,punctuatedbytheoddsampleor Park. Musicowesyouadebt. pad soundsperpetuatedbyLinkin Parkabouttenyearsago.Thanks,Linkin metalcore, rent-a-chugdoublebass drum-ladenriffingandthoseawfulsynth they’re playingisanincoherent,blusteringprofusionofthelamest bits of and youcan’t faulttheirenergy onstage. Yet atthesametime,what positive, they’remachine-tight–everybeatandriffbangonthemoney – pissed-offKat /DESER TS T Finally, seem toeffortlesslycreate. enough forsuchapummelingasthetwo-piece from timetotime.PerhapsI’mjustnothardy had thesensetoaddsome opposite endsoftheband’s frameofreference) Even TheRamonesorNapalmDeath(astwo that thingsquicklybecomeone-dimensional. bloody-minded intheirpursuitofspeedandpower That initselfispeachy, butthebandareso afterwards withanalmostliteraltorrentofriffs. Goblin’s Venom t-shirt.Stepping onstagetothestrainsof movie ‘Bullet’ Baxterandthebaby-eatingstarofhorror resembles acrossbetween actual giantforaleadsinger,albeitonewho old school.Theyhavewhatappearstobean no mistake,thisisaheavymetalband,fromthe the firsttimeintheirfifteen-yearhistory. Make that mars It’s perhapsthissenseofrelief-filledenjoyment to getdrawninandbeginnodalong. having suchagoodtimeit’s almostimpossiblenot suddenly becomearockmonster, butonethat’s stoner rockinitsplace.Throughthis,they they ditchthefunkandshovecrunchof played, butittakesaturnforthebetterwhen place. It’s highlyproficient,andexcellently Californian sun-drenchedfunthatseemsoutof Red HotChiliPeppersstyling,causingafugof metal, withshadowupontic-inducingof comprised oftwohalves.Initially, they’refunk- different direction,withasetthatislargely that havenotalwaysbeenondisplay. their credit-itunveilsdimensionstotheband numbers, forwantofabetterword,andit’s to they seemunafraidtostretchoutintomore‘epic’ rhythm section.Moresothaninpreviousyears, now boundmorethanevertoathundering heavy, uncomfortablestyleofsongwritingthat’s Simon Minter tear itout.Thebigsofties. captures myheart,whenIhadexpectedthemto have thoughtit? The noisy, nastybandsomewhat that’s soladenwithcynicismandfakery. Who’d is genuinelyrefreshingintoday’s musicalworld see us“punchingeachotherinthefuckingface”) gratitude tothecrowd(evenwhenhedemands evident fromhismanydrunkenexpressionsof charming fellow. The searinghonestythatseems through aMetallicafilter–he’s asurprisingly 80s New Wave OfBritishHeavyMetalrun by themusichisbandiscreating–atakeonearly Massively powerful,andsoobviouslycaptivated between-song rants,he’s theperfectleadvocalist. majesty ofItalianhorrorduringonehismany Desert StormDesert Anthropophagus theBeast Suspiria Orange Goblin Winnebago Deal takethingsinanentirely soundtrack,andreferringtothe , playinginOxfordfor

Grange Hill texture, andabreather boring , whopowerin . Wearinga itallis–and ’s Geoff PLAID & THE SOUTH BANK GAMELAN ORCHESTRA The Oxford Playhouse Promotion can really matter. We recall a Swiss Concrete gig starring ultra-twee poppets You And Me, with backing vocals from actor Ewen Macintosh. Had the promoters swapped their tasteful A4 posters for a banner across Cowley Road reading “See Keith off The Office: Fiver!” a sparse turnout could have become a sell-out crowd. With that in mind, this event advertised as Plaid with the South Bank Gamelan may have enticed the mid-30s Artificial Intelligentsia who grew up on Warp, but if anything the billing should have been reversed. The gamelan orchestra makes by far the bigger impression, not in the quality of their playing, but with the arresting sight of their exquisitely turned Javanese metalophones, xylophones and assorted percussive devices. The physical presence of the gamelan sound is incredible, whether it’s playing with piercing their third LP would have it – so their sound subtle arrangement of Aphex Twin’s ‘Actium’ volume, or with a limpid, elegant stateliness. A hovers oddly above the surface of the gamelan’s reveals not only how dynasties and continents fascinating contrast between complexity and resonant overtones. Plus, for the most part, could be brought together, but also Richard James’ simplicity arises when repeated iterations of brief despite the programme’s bombastic trumpeting knack with a killer melody, no matter how melodies are made on many instruments about new vistas, for the most part the gamelan fragmentary. The encore was apparently played simultaneously – not only is the sound miasmic and Plaid alternate their playing. Joint for the first time the preceding night, and yet it’s and mysterious (one piece is like the bleached composition with gamelan master Rahayu the highlight of the concert, a melding of an old bones of a 60s spy theme deep underwater), but Supanggah is more a patchwork of ideas than a Plaid track with a traditional Javanese song. The the sight of five sets of ornate mallets being collaborative creation, more a musical Exquisite synthesised clicks and the warm percussion tones dropped in unison looks like eerie alien Corpse than a fresh stylistic alloy. truly works together for the first time, and choreography. Plaid’s dinky electro doesn’t really All very pleasant indeed, in short, but not a touch suddenly we see performers working on the same mix. The duo has spent many years taking the on the inscrutable architecture of the centuries wavelength as well as the same stage, musicians 808 boom out of Detroit techno, and replacing it old music that opens the evening. However, two who share an exciting vision and not just a with a the twinkle and patter of a perpetual moments show that this young collaboration publicist. motion toybox – ‘Rest Proof Clockwork’, as could still blossom into something wonderful. A David Murphy

SPARROW AND THE WORKSHOP THE JIM JONES REVUE O2 Academy O2 Academy Not so much coals to Newcastle as six-inch heels. The involvement of Working by the maxim that shamelessly pillage Jerry Lee Lewis, Foals to Oxford – that’s Sketches, Delgados associate Paul Savage in this rock’n’roll had no need to change Little Richard and Chuck Berry, The whose penchant for trebly guitar year’s well-received album ‘Crystals after 1959 beyond buying some Jim Jones Revue grab you so firmly marks them out as keen students of Fall’ is another indicator of the bigger amps, The Jim Jones Revue by the throat you barely have time the work of Cowley Road’s finest . direction in which their muse tends. aren’t so much the Devil’s music to wonder at what point rock music Perhaps their B-side ‘Fevered Foals’ Perhaps the best way to describe stripped down to its pants as thrown learned how to be as lame as so is them wishing ill on their heroes so them, though, is as ample headlong back into the primordial many of its practitioners became. they might grab their limelight? compensation for anyone (like me) soup. The volume tonight is punishing, You could never accuse Sparrow and who loved Howling Bells’ debut but Jim Jones has always been a man in the honky tonk piano in particular the Workshop of fashionable found its misjudged follow-up ‘Radio love with the very essence of scouring away an entire frequency of pretensions – though sterner critics Wars’ a crushing disappointment. The rock’n’roll, from his first band Thee hearing by the time an hour is up. than I might charge them with a Australians’ gothic and shoegazery Hypnotics, who took Hendrix’s wild This is what it would sound like if degree of affectation, citing the stark overtones might be absent, but riffery into the realms of lysergic Motorhead had invented twelve-bar contrast between the goofy and O’Sullivan’s vocals – insinuating, hedonism, through to his late-90s boogie. There’s a hefty dash of 70s playfully affectionate onstage banter sweet and stinging – are as seductive incarnation at the helm of Black glam in the mix, echoes of Slade’s of vocalist/guitarist Jill O’Sullivan and as ice maiden Juanita Stein’s, making Moses. With his Revue he’s taken a ‘Mama Weer All Crazee Now’ invade duetting drummer Gregor Donaldson a song like ‘I Will Break You’ sound trip back to the source, to a time what feels like an apocalyptic and the frequently murky and bleak almost as much a serenade as a threat. before rock forgot how to roll, a time rendering of ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, subject matter of their music, which, As thrilling as the punch packed by when it probably really did feel like and the whole show is so pin-tight, like ‘Into The Wild’ and debut single Donaldson and guitarist/bassist Nick nothing would ever be the same again. perfectly choreographed and ‘Devil Song’, draws upon the rich, Packer can be, it sometimes feels as The band’s sound is undeniably retro; drenched in its own sweat it’s a dark history of the folk, country and though there’s too much of the it wears its period costume with pride astonishing it can stay so fresh after blues traditions. Workshop and not enough of the and has the slicked-back hair and so many months on the road. In this the trio are reminiscent of Sparrow. But when they get the sideburns to match, but that’s no The band’s new album is called another outfit who call Glasgow balance and tension just right – as on matter when the music is so ‘Burning Your House Down’, but home, Sons & Daughters – especially album closer ‘You’ve Got It All’ and a unrelentingly thrilling. The Jim Jones Revue are so much new single ‘Black to Red’, the new song containing a lyric about From the opening number, fun it’d be worth all that risk to “snazzy” video for which O’Sullivan “shooting pains down my arm” – the essentially ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’ invite them round to party like smilingly complains had her painted results are stunning. racketed up to top volume by way of there’s no tomorrow. blue and tottering around in crippling Ben Woolhead AC/DC, through a set of songs that Ian Chesterton OCEANSIZE / THIS TOWN NEEDS GUNS / MOJO FURY O2 Academy The question of whether to bother watching a band named Mojo Fury is a perplexing one. It’s a moniker that conjures up an image of a middle aged man choking on his pipe, aghast at one too many articles on The Beatles in his music periodical of choice. Fortunately, the band themselves concentrate primarily on the Fury aspect of their name. This is most obvious when they run through the roaring muscle-bound beast of their latest single ‘The Mann’, Oceansize photo: Sam Shepherd which is all pummelling rhythms, taut vocals and thundering bass. They may crib a lot of their style from Biffy Clyro, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing and they win a fair few over tonight with the directness. This Town Needs Guns might well be one of the best bands in Oxford at the moment judging from the reaction they get tonight from the faithful. They are remarkably tight, complex riffs falling from their fingers with effortless grace. Their math rock intricacies twist and dazzle as vocalist Stuart Smith adds an emotional sheen to the constantly shifting time signatures and tonal nuances. It might be a little self-indulgent for some tastes, but there’s no doubting the talent the band possesses. If it’s self indulgence you’re after, then Oceansize are the band for you. Never afraid to prevent a song from wandering off on a lengthy deviation, their prog-tinged rock could be accused of being bloated. For the initiated however, Oceansize’s songs are the musical equivalent of magic eye pictures; spend long enough with them, and hidden depths are revealed. They take to the stage to the guttural grind of ‘Part Cardiac’ and from there they set about building a wall (or more specifically, a rocket) of thunderous, heavily layered noise that is almost impenetrable. Yet there are moments such as ‘Silent/Transparent’ when the band drops down to a low hush allowing Mike Vennart’s almost apathetic vocals to climb to the top of the pile. There are concessions to gorgeous melody at times too, not least on ‘Superimposer’ which, like their opening song, has more than a little debt to Cardiacs songwriter Tim Smith. Winding things up, Vennart snipes at the venue’s early curfew causing them to drop ‘Pine’ from the set, before launching into a positively incendiary version of ‘Ornament/Last Wrongs’. Self-indulgent it may be, but few do it as convincingly and as enjoyably as Oceansize. Sam Shepherd

MR FOGG / ITAL TEK KATE NASH Phoenix Picture House O2 Academy It’s a simple set-up: keyboard, saw him DJ in Holland in 2009, There’s a fine line between creating the biggest issue comes with the sampler, laptop, microphone and playing with the boundary-pushing music that is wacky yet wonderful lyrics; whilst the likes of drum module, but Mr Fogg manages Boxcutter. They’ve kept the dubstep and bizarrely bad and Kate Nash has ‘Mouthwash’ and ‘Skeleton’ receive to fill the homely Phoenix Picture scene on its toes with their half-speed always walked this divide with rapturous responses, the new songs House upstairs room with an amorous rhythms and strong melodic upmost precision. Love her or hate seem comparatively lacking in glow. The singer had his gear stolen assemblages that liken them to early her, the success of ‘Made Of Brick’ depth. Even ‘Mansion Song’, which less than a week prior, so it’s Warp Records output and Autechre. A marked her out as something of a is more verbose than the rest, lacks fortunate that he’s navigated this moderate performance on laptop and modern day Kate Bush and her latest the sparkle it requires and drifts off upset and made the most out of a mixing desk invites one punter to releases ‘My Best Friend Is You’, into a disconnected rant. small palette of materials. dance away, but Ital’s music has ample suggests she has no inclination to It’s telling then, that for me and at Beginning with ‘Stung’, one of the nectar for the coffee table drop her idiosyncratic style anytime least a third of the audience (who catchiest tracks off debut album surroundings as well. soon. Nevertheless, as she opens the promptly depart after its airing), ‘Moving Parts’, it lays out a blueprint The problem with dubstep - and show with ‘I Just Love You More’, ‘Foundations’ seems to be the for the Fogg sound: heavy electro electronica as a whole - is when your you wonder if she’s finally slipped highlight of the evening. Though beats, swimming synthesizers and his market reaches critical mass, creative onto the wrong side of that divide. they miss outstanding renditions of trademark high-pitched vocals that force plummets, forcing those who Whilst the sound is rockier and ‘Birds’ and ‘Pumpkin Soup’, during recall Bronski Beat’s Jimmy loved experimentation to look harder heavier, deviating away from her which Kate pummels her piano Somerville, but transcend the goolies- for it. What’s more, sameness of pop-driven routes, a commendable before standing on it, their apathy in-a-vice pitfalls of the style. He’s a selections breed a wasteland culture - shift, the lyrics consist of a singular seems to highlight the flaws in her versatile performer though, manning remember what happened to jungle in line which she tediously repeats, like new material. If the new album were the electronic drum kit and adding a the mid-90s? The roots of dubstep scratched vinyl. full of songs like ‘Later On’, which tangible element to the gently packed were always entwined with drum&bass As a Kate convert, it’s disappointing contains both original upbeat venue. That he’s received plaudits and jungle, but Ital Tek also points to to say the least and there’s a fear melodies and distinctive lyrics and from NME and Radio 1 is a double- its other touchstone: UK garage. You that she will become something of a it’s punked-up vibe which rings of edged sword: it highlights the can feel it in the swing of ‘Neon Arc’ car crash victim, with a slim chance Blur’s ‘Song 2’, it might be a whole accessibility of his work but there’s and the addition of sassy vox to more of survival. While ‘Paris’ thankfully different story. assuredly enough depth here to of the album tracks. I for one will be echoes her earlier work, it is almost As it stands Kate has wandered down warrant investigation for electronica singing his praises for this night too alike, leaving a real dilemma the same rabbit hole as Alice, only fans of any plane. alone, but widespread attention is that the new songs are either too peculiar has become somewhat The same goes for Ital Tek. Signed currently an unknown quantity. similar or too removed but never insipid. to giant IDM stable Planet Mu, I first Mick Buckingham satisfactorily different. It seems Lisa Ward Dr SHOTOVER – [ spoofs ] [White type appears across the screen - The KARLINGSTAN Academy, Oxford... A huge explosion rocks the camera... cut to swarthy men with moustaches running along the street... one of them is clutching a Flying V guitar. Dr SHOTOVER pulls up in a black four-wheel-drive, wearing shades, unshaven, impassive, as debris from the explosion flies past in slow motion. A burning plectrum lands on the tinted glass windscreen; he starts speaking into the lapel of his leather jacket]. Enact Level 9 Protocol with Grade A Access All Areas Backstage... Am now in character – yes, Aziz, the Kazakh roadie... They’ve released the “package” and they’re on the move... Their goal? They won’t stop until the West acquiesces to their demands - Central Asian Prog Metal 24-hour blanket coverage on all media... yes, Holy Dragons, Ego Fall, Ulytau, DoomSword, the lot... apparently the RUSH-ans are secretly backing them... Consider this a Priority One Threat. Will re-establish contact in a week, by which time I will have gone undercover for a doomed but passionate relationship with an exotic dark-haired woman, apparently a “trusted asset”, but who will inevitably turn out to be a double agent working simultaneously for Harvey Weinstein and Vince Power... Meanwhile I’ll need you to find out whether O2 is some kind of toxic Weapon of Mass Destruction. And... Tariq? Make sure you don’t use any of that heat-sensitive night camera nonsense on me when I’m with the lovely Fatima... [The picture splits into four, gets gradually solarized, and finally disappears]. Ahem, harrumph... Ah, there you are, moth brain. Just a little fantasia for Heavy Metal Month here at the East Indies Club. Nice filming job by Frosty Farnsworth, what? Buy me a drink and I will sing you Born To Be Wild by Steppenwolf. No? All right then, buy me two drinks and I will merely hum it. Make it three, and I will refrain altogether from all musical activity. Cheers! [gulp-o] “Let’s go and drink some fermented Cheers! [gulp-o] Cheers! [gulp-o] Etc. camel milk, dudes!”- Dr Shotover (far Next month: Foals/Band Of left, in wig) blends in with some Horses double header. Kazakh Rock fans. DEMOSDEMOS

reinterpreting Pink Floyd’s ‘Grantchester DEMO OF Meadows’ in the style of a troupe of time- travelling mediaeval minstrels, before THE MONTH moving on to a dark-folk protest song about George W Bush and the Iraq war (he apologises in the sweetest way possible for SHATTERED being a bit behind the times on that score). Over four songs he touches on Steeleye DREAMS Span’s pastoral whimsy, casting an almost Sometimes, just keeping things simple, spectral presence with his slight vocal playing and singing within your own range delivery, so you can almost feel the chill is all that’s needed. Oh and being able to wind blowing through the loose fitting write the odd decent tune or two helps, windows of an old thatched cottage in the obviously. Lately we’ve heard so many woods. He does tend to wander off female-fronted rock bands where the singer aimlessly towards the end of the demo, but sounds like she’s come straight out of stage even here he explains that this was the school or imagines herself in the chorus point in the recording process where the line to some godawful West End magic mushrooms started to kick in. Things production and ends up warbling painfully work differently and at a slower pace in over some Disney executive’s idea of what Quickthorn’s world and we feel it’d be a grunge should sound like. By contrast nice place to holiday once in a while. Shattered Dreams sound untutored, Probably during magic mushroom season. pleasingly rough around the edges, even a tad clumsy at times. It just makes us like them more. Singer Steph Branch is strident MOTHER CORONA without ever being overbearing or shrill, This being a metal special issue of while she and her band are unfussy, never Nightshift, and this being the demo page, indulging in fripperies or ostentatious we’ve just got to have a metal CD in the muso displays. Admittedly they can find pile and here it is, Mother Corona, hailing themselves veering too close to the middle from Didcot and possessed of a pile of of the road at times and maybe need to girders they’ve nicked from the railway find the confidence to lose their inhibitions station and fashioned into riffs. Like Desert and seriously rock out, but despite that Storm and Empty Vessels, Mother Corona they’ve got a pretty authentic early punk lean towards the bluesy, psychedelic side of sound about them, reminiscent of metal, Sabbath riffs grinded out with Penetration at times or Hazel O’Connor’s varying degrees of malevolence before the Breaking Glass band. ‘Live & Learn’ is the guitar heads off on a trip into outer space a softest yet strongest song here, Steph la Hendrix or Blue Cheer. At their best singing with a husky militancy as the band they’re bulldozingly monolithic, but the keep everything the right side of sweet- mix on the demo is so bass-heavy it’s often natured. There’s talent here, albeit a talent hard to make out what the guitarist is doing for playing to their strengths, chief of and that kind of ruins the effect when he’s which is simplicity. Go and download a wigging out. Also the vocalist is an acquired couple of old Vice Squad or Runaways taste and perhaps not entirely suited to this tracks and pick up a few tips perhaps but style of music, possessing the adenoidal for now, a young band with no little sneer of Billy Corgan when his very promise. occasional growl works more effectively. Still, you get the impression that cranked up in the Wheatsheaf and given a decent QUICKTHORN live mix they could be phenomenal. 876084 Quickthorn, or Prydwyn Piper as he is, sends a lovely hand-written letter on old- KUBRIS fashioned parchment (it was all he had Another band out of Didcot. Still, what else lying around, he informs us, which makes is there to do down there? Oh yeah, we us think he’s maybe a wizard for a living) know, they’ve got all them nice new shops R A D I A T E : telling us how he saved our lives by and a cinema and arts centre but this is A NEW MONTHLY BAND NIGHT marrying the love of his life who had Didcot we’re talking about; that place you threatened to butcher us in our sleep after go to if you want to get a train to Bristol or his last review four years and made her go to a Thomas The Tank Engine open day. LAUNCH : FRIDAY 28TH JANUARY 2011 obey him. A quick glance back at that Kubris certainly don’t sound like they’re THE JERICHO TAVERN, OXFORD review reveals we were really rather nice having the time of their lives down their, about him last time, so his missus, to morose acoustic rock dominated by a band submissions : quote Goldie Lookin’ Chain, must be a sorrowful violin, which at least detracts [email protected] nutter. Prydwyn, meanwhile, isn’t, from the singer’s slightly self-pitying although he does seem to exist in a cosy emoting. It’s like Crowded House after No covers bands, please netherworld of music where the lute is still they’ve had all the fun sucked out of them the must-have item of technological by a gang of Dementors on a day off from www.radiatepromotions.com innovation. That doesn’t stop him guarding Askaban (possibly having stopped off in Didcot on their way to Bristol). rhymes “I lost my gran / In Japan” barely From there it doesn’t get any more coherently, and with an apparently badly cheerful, though it does sporadically get blocked nose, over distorted beats and a more interesting, particularly on ‘Stained sampled yangquin. Awful old bollocks. 2’, where the whispered vocals and sparse But then some of what follows could be piano suggest a Trent Reznor unplugged pretty fun if you didn’t constantly feel session in Jools Holland’s kitchen, the urge to slap the perpetrators roundly blossoming slightly into an atmospheric across the face. ‘Dancing Bears’ is a mood piece that takes itself just a bit too Streets-y monologue over a shifting seriously. The violinist gives an edge to the backdrop of lonesome piano and tinny downbeat blues chug that is ‘Do This rhythms, a woozy dream-like piece that Everyday’, but ‘Friday’s Song’ is a sucks you into its oddly lysergic lo-fi horribly overwrought ballad with an ill- world, while ‘A Hundred’, with its advised funk tendency and sounds like it scraping violin just about rises above the fell out of the middle of some long- slightly pedestrian rapping. By the end forgotten 80s hair metal album. They rise though, it’s back to the stoned rambling slightly again for the emotive country-folk and feeling it’s all a late-night, post-bong THE COURTYARD STUDIO of ‘How We Fall’ but by the end you feel piss-take. Shame. PROTOOLS HD2, MTA 980 CONSOLE 32/24/ like you’re wandering down a particularly glum garden path lined with wilted 24, OTARI MTR90 MK2 24 TRACK TAPE daffodils, at the end of which is a run-down BELOW THE FALL MACHINE, 2 TRACKING ROOMS, SUPERB cottage full of decomposing corpses. Or Hmm, well here’s a hybrid we’ve not come CONTROL ROOM WITH GOOD SELECTION worse, Didcot. across before – emo shoegazing. And OF MICS & OUTBOARD GEAR, + MIDI against all expectations it’s not that bad at FACILITIES (INC LOGIC AUDIO, AKAI A LITTLE TWIST OF all. Below The Fall kick in promising a bit S1000, OLD SKOOL ROLAND ETC.) of lightweight post-hardcore by numbers Residential facilities included. but soon they’re fuzzing dreamily like a LEMON half-formed Ride. ‘Commissioner’ spends www.courtyardrecordingstudio.com Lina, the young lady behind this bedroom too long on epic swirl and bombast and PHONE PIPPA FOR DETAILS project, declares she’s influenced by the forgets to go anywhere, but ‘Just Run ON 01235 845800 weather and tends to worry a lot, which Away’ takes a more subtle approach before might explain the music’s timidity, but for launching into a full-on fuzzstorm and all its decidedly no-fi somnambulating, suggests they might just be onto some of it’s pretty sweet – warm, intimate something. electronica and almost ghostly acoustic pop, sounding a bit like Stereolab or Pram re-imagined by the Puffles from Club Penguin. There’s a feeling Lina’s lost the THE DEMO plot towards the end, mind, idly searching the cupboards for chocolate hobnobs while DUMPER half talking, half singing to herself. Hello? Hello-o? We’re still here you know and we THE MANIC SHINE want entertaining. That and some hobnobs. Manic Shine describe themselves as an “electric-eclectic concoction, the bastard WHO’S THE HERO child of Led Zep and John Mayer”, which Punk-pop teens Who’s The Hero inform us simply doesn’t fit with the inconsequential, they’ve just split up but would like our overly fluffy and utterly anodyne guitar opinion on their music anyway, which pop we’re listening to here. An extensive we’d be happy to proffer, except their list of reviews of the band finds them Myspace seems to have been hijacked by a described by webzines we’ve never heard third-rate Cypress Hill rip-off, under of as “off-kilter” and praising their which they’re all but inaudible. Still, if creativity too many times to be a they’re no more, it’s hardly going to ruin coincidence, which is simply perverse given their career trajectory. how safe and featureless these songs are. Maybe those reviews were written by their mums. Or mental people. Who don’t get CRACKY D & THE out much. Whatever, `The Escape’ is oppressively overlong, attempting to drag a SOAPY BANJO MAN fleeting moment of Franz Ferdinand into its There is a frustratingly well-populated dispiriting regional-band-competition world place between ‘experimental’ and ‘pissing of tedium. The faux-literate lyrics and about’ and it’s here we find Cracky D, who unnecessary guitar solos simply make them comes from Wallingford and is better sound like a strange cipher of a band, known to his mum as Daniel. The first designed by the CIA to infiltrate the rock track here – we can’t afford it the dignity underground unnoticed and wreak havoc of ‘song’ – consists of some stoned bloke with people’s tastes. God forbid they rambling and occasionally rapping about succeed. In the off-kilter stakes they make fuck all and chocolate and cheese, doubtless Counting Crows sound like Wolf Eyes. finding the whole exercise hilarious as he Manic Shine? Manic Shite, more like.

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