email: [email protected] website: nightshift.oxfordmusic.net Free every month. NIGHTSHIFT Issue 186 January Oxford’s Music Magazine 2011

Oxford’s pop-punk heroes return stronger than ever! NIGHTSHIFT: PO Box 312, Kidlington, OX5 1ZU. Phone: 01865 372255 January Every Monday THE FAMOUS MONDAY NIGHT BLUES The best in UK, European and US blues. 8-12. 10th RESERVOIR CATS (UK) 17th THE MIGHTY REDOX (UK) 24th STEAMROLLER (UK) 31st THE CLARE FREE BAND (UK) Coming up in February 7th BAYOU BROTHERS (USA) 14th THE ADAM BOMB BAND (USA) Every Tuesday THE OXFORD JAZZ CLUB Free live jazz plus DJs playing r’n’b, funk and soul until 2am 11th ALVIN ROY & REEDS UNLIMITED 18th THE HOWARD PEACOCK QUINTET 25th THE HUGH TURNER BAND Thursdays 6th KOMRAD / ANNERO 13th AGE OF MISRULE + MOTHER CORONA + TUESDAY NIGHT PROJECT 20th GIVE IT SOME ‘STIC (acoustic night) 27th SKELETOR presents THE CRUSHING / MALTA TONKIN / SIX BULLET CHAMBER / WAYS ACROSS Every Friday FUNKY FRIDAY Funk, soul, boogie and R&B. 10.30pm-2.30am; £2.

Early Friday shows 7th THE CELLAR FAMILY / COCAINE COWBOYS / GENERALS & MAJORS / DAISY & THE UNSTEADIES 14th ALAN BROWN 21st THE INSULT 28th KILL CITY SAINTS Includes entry to FUNKY FRIDAY afterwards

Saturdays 8th DANCE NIGHT 15th SWITCH 60 – Northern soul & Motown 22nd DUB POLITICS – dubstep – 10-3am 29th MAMA ROSIN

Join us on Facebook: Backroom @ The Bully £22,000 for Shelter in its ten years. CAFÉ TARIFA on Cowley Road A special extra Audioscope gig launches a new weekly acoustic takes place at the Cellar on and semi-acoustic music night this NEWNEWSS Saturday 15th January, featuring a month. Bare Your Bones, every Nightshift: PO Box 312, Kidlington, OX5 1ZU night of leftfield electronica from Tuesday evening, will feature local Phone: 01865 372255 email: [email protected] Mo’Wax’s Andrea Parker and and out-of-town acts. Acts wanting Planet Mu’s Shitmat, plus Leeds’ to play can email Online: nightshift.oxfordmusic.net P45 and Oxford’s own Coloureds. [email protected] or Tickets are on sale now from drop demos in to the venue at, 56- wegottickets.com. Visit 60 Cowley Road. OXFORDSHIRE could the Winter Warmer at the www.audioscope.co.uk for more potentially play host to two major Wheatsheaf in December, but details. PRISM, the pioneering Oxford acid outdoor festivals over the same frontman Gus Rogers told Meanwhile, Braindead house club returns to its old home weekend next summer as Nightshift that, “It seemed better Collective have teamed up with upstairs at the O2 Academy (The Cornbury Festival moves to a to end it rather than try and replace Scottish drone-rock fave Rob St. Oxford Venue and Zodiac as it was new location, while Cornbury Park them,” and has promised to return John to record a seven-minute then) for a 20th anniversary reunion itself has signed a deal to host a with a new band soon. improvised single to be sold online celebration on Friday 25th festival organised by HMV’s live in aid of Shelter. The tracks was February. The club’s original DJs, music arm. TRUCK have a whole slew of fun recorded in St. Michael’s Church in Keiran, Marty P and Osprey will After suffering severe financial activities planned in the coming Cornmarket. Fans can pay what be back on the decks. Tickets are problems over its seven year run at months. First up, tickets for this they want for the music, which is on sale via the Academy website Cornbury Park, where it became a year’s Wood Festival go on general available at and box office. established as one of the UK’s sale on 28th January. Limited to just braindeadcollective.bandcamp.com. premier family-friendly festivals, 800 adult tickets, these are AS EVER, don’t forget to tune into Cornbury organiser Hugh expected to go in even faster than SUPERGRASS bassist Mick BBC Oxford Introducing every Phillimore has teamed up with 3A last year’s sold out festival. Quinn returns to action this month, Saturday evening between 6-7pm Entertainment, who work with acts Anyone who attended last year having teamed up with old friend on 95.2fm. The dedicated local like Eric Clapton, Kylie Minogue will be contacted about exclusive Sir Bald Diddley in a new band, music show plays the best new and Paul Weller, to take the event – pre-sale tickets from the 14th Beat Seeking Missiles. The new Oxford releases and demos as well which will still hold the name The January; those who bought tickets band, who play a mix of garage as interviews and sessions with Cornbury Festival – to a new home through a local outlet can email rock, surf and punk, also features local acts. The show is available to at The Great Tew Estate, five miles [email protected] to be added former members of Thee listen to online all week or down the road. This year’s festival to the mailing list. Headcoats. Their debut gig is at the download as a podcast at st rd will run over three days from 1 -3 After the success of their Cellar on Friday 21st January as bbc.co.uk/oxford July. Due to the ongoing licensing workshops and shows at the Old part of Skylarkin’s monthly Big process, no tickets are yet on sale Bookbinders on Green Street, east Ten Inch club night. but visit Oxford, Truck are planning a series www.cornburyfestival.com for of special shows there in February, news as it becomes available. including a Blessing Force gig and a Dr SHOTOVER: Dad Rock Army Lord and Lady Rotherwick, who Heavenly Records showcase, Yes, yes, I was in the British Army, and it never did ME any harm. Not even own the Cornbury Estate, featuring Sea of Bees, Trevor Moss the LSD-25 testing at Porton Down in the 1950s. Hallelujah Jesus, no-sir-ee meanwhile, have struck a deal with & Hannah-Lou and James Bob, no harm done at ALL, thank the Lord and all his brightly-coloured HMV’s live music division for a Walbourne. angels... though I am told that every now and again I do take on the new festival, provisionally on the Most exciting though is that Truck characteristics of a Southern Pentecostalist preacher for no good reason. same weekend. have teamed up with Rapture in HAL-AY-LOO-YAH! [Dr Shotover testifies and waves both hands in the air Witney – Oxfordshire’s sole for five minutes, then sits back down at the East Indies Club bar]... Sorry about that. The Devil of it is, I keep spilling my drink when that happens... surviving independent record store Would you mind doing the honours, old boy...? Very decent of you, yes, – to open a CD and record shop on mine’s a pint of Tennessee Sippin’ Whiskey... ah thank yew kahndly, sir... Cowley Road, on the site of the old Meanwhile, there is something a little unsettling, isn’t there, about all those Videosyncratic shop, which closed apparently wholesome Americans who used to infest the pop charts, such last year. After the success of the as the Beach Boys, the Carpenters and the Osmonds. One, they have too guerilla record store as part of OX4 many of those teeth which look as though they have been flown in from a last year, the new shop will open brand-new piano factory. Two, there is inevitably child abuse, eating on 10th February. They will be disorder, religious mania and drug addiction in the background, and stocking a wide range of they end up starving themselves Oxfordshire music, so all local acts to death with their feet in a bucket are encouraged to get in touch – of sand, while their personal guru email Drew at attempts to spoon-feed them [email protected]. peanut butter laced with Triptafen. Much better to be British, with NOVEMBER’S AUDIOSCOPE British teeth, and a healthy British DIAL F FOR FRANKENSTEIN gig raised over £2,000 for homeless appetite for pies and the sort of dodgy 70s drugs which can only have decided to split. The band, charity Shelter. The annual mini- be enjoyed at crap British free who have become firm favourites festival has been running for ten festivals in the drizzle and/or on the local live scene over the past years and this time around featured while sitting in a shed on one’s couple of years, and featured on a sold-out show from post-punk parents’ allotment. Or indeed in the the cover of Nightshift back in legends Wire at ther Jericho Tavern. Hydraulic Hallucination Chamber at August, decided to call it a day due A special 10th anniversary show at Porton Down. Woo-HOOO – thank to drummer Michael Thompson’s the Tavern featured sets from yew, JESUS! Ah SEE the angels, touring commitments with Fixers Dieter Moebius and Billy ah SEE them! Angelic Upstart: Dr Shotover Next month: EVERY DAY CAN as well as guitarist Chris Berger Mahonie, while Anticon’s SJ Esau emerges from the Hydraulic BE CHRISTMAS DAY (just send Hallucination Chamber at Porton being away at university. Dial F headed the bill at the third show. twenty dollars)! Down bowed out with a headline set at Audioscope has now raised a quiet word with

YOU CAN’T KEEP A GOOD better and more cohesive, I think. It band down, and Dive Dive have also means you can fuck up a bit certainly experienced their downs and it becomes part of the texture of over the years. That they are back the song. Perfection, which you end this month with their third album up striving towards when you’re and more enthused than ever is listening to any instrument just on testament to their tenacious its own, can be a bit lifeless.” character, but also to the Jamie: “I love the imperfections on irrepressible nature of their music. records. We record digitally now but I still think we try and keep an ‘POTENTIAL’: EVEN THE expensive 2” tape mentality: i.e. get title of Dive Dive’s new album it sounding right first time. There’s gushes defiance and a sense of a big difference between sounding renewed vigour. Indeed things are right and being note perfect.” looking better for the quartet than at any point since they formed in WHILE BEN, TARRANT AND 2001, following the demise of Nigel’s time spent touring with Dustball and Unbelievable Truth. Turner obviously impacted on There have been times of great Dive Dive, it’s fair to say the band hope before of course: initially might not be in such a strong signed to independent London label position now if it weren’t for him. Diablo, with who released their From his point of view, how does debut album, ‘Tilting At Windmills’, Jamie see the way things have in 2005 before turning out to be a worked out? It’s opened new doors bunch of incompetent crooks, and a for Dive Dive, hasn’t it? second burst of life with 2007’s Jamie: “It’s going to sound like ‘Revenge Of The Mechanical Dog’ bullshit because of the immense released on their own Land Speed gap between albums but it really label through Truck Records before has given us focus. The rest of the the label went under and Dive Dive’s backing band. The first thing they each other and playing the songs as band are now such well rounded hard work amounted to nought. want to do is explain their apparent we would live. We finished it off in professionals their ability to adapt absence in recent years. a rehearsal room we built at and interpret what I’m trying to do IT’S BEEN ALMOST FOUR Nigel: “Tarrant, Ben and myself Tarrant’s yard, but in between with songs has increased years since that last album but the have been backing Frank as his manic touring and other immensely; the only problem is chief cause of the band’s long touring band, and these last couple responsibilities it took until they could be getting a little bit too absence is also one of their main of years have been extremely busy. October this year to actually draw good. I think whilst they get some salvations: Frank Turner, the Outside of recording and rehearsing a line under the thing.” input into the songwriting with former hardcore firebrand turned my wife figured out that we’ve Jamie: “This really is a prime Frank, our rehearsals of late have folk-punk troubadour who has been away for 23 weeks this year, example of the ‘Turner Effect’. felt like a group conjugal visit, a employed three quarters of Dive which is nearly half of it. It’s hard four days to track the album – I creative orgy if you will. But of Dive as his touring band for the between those times to get any mean we play fast, but we have course the lack of time truly past few years and all four of them momentum up – as soon as you never recorded that quickly – but dedicated to Dive Dive does result as his support act for much of that start to do something three of the then months before we had time to in a lack of momentum for the band. time, introducing them to a whole band up and leave yet again. It’s mix it. Anyway, it was such a “As for opening doors well, sure new audience and, now, a solid, not just that though; with a group pleasure to play it live: it’s there is an associative interest from supportive record label, Xtra Mile. of four strong personalities it’s definitely how we work best and various quarters and the tour we are Playing with Turner, guitarist Ben hard to argue our way through to a it’s reflected in the energy that currently on is of course due to our Lloyd and bassist Tarrant decision which also holds us up.” comes off the record. I don’t know relationship with Frank. But what Anderson (both formerly of Jamie: “There’s no getting away why we didn’t use this method goes around…. I mean, a few years Dustball) and drummer Nigel from the fact that putting the earlier – it was something we did ago Frank was still playing smaller Powell (ex of Unbelievable Truth) Atlantic Ocean between the band for the Peel Sessions and they shows and the boys were acting as found themselves playing at members slows your progress. turned out great.” his backing band for no money. I Reading Festival and Wembley That said I used the time to write a Was there a specific desire to mean, really, if you want it to Stadium last year as well as myriad lot of songs and start a family. knock it out to retain a live feel and happen it’s not about waiting for packed venues around Europe and Then I wrote some more songs.” keep the energy levels high, or someone to open the door for you.” the States, but now, with singer and Those songs are now released as simply a lack of time? And from the other side, how does guitarist Jamie Stuart, they’re off ‘Potential’ this month. With all the Nigel: “A little from column A, a Nigel feel the situation has affected on their own headline tour of the disruption of touring with Frank, little from column B. We were Dive Dive? UK to promote the new album. how different was the recording always really confident in our Nigel: “We played our first Dive process to the previous albums? ability as a live band, but the first Dive show for ages last night and it NIGHTSHIFT CHATTED TO Nigel: “We did the bulk of it in two albums were recorded with me brought home how different it is. Jamie and Nigel shortly after Dive four days in a pumphouse in playing either on my own or just There’s pros and cons on both Dive played The Regal with Frank Nuneham Courtenay during March with Jamie. Having everyone sides – with Frank we’re playing to Turner, both as support act and 2009. We recorded it all, all facing rocking together makes it sound big adoring audiences and get well treated, but I was more satisfied paid little heed to things like song How did the deal with Xtra Mile last night in Glasgow playing 15 structure and pop sensibilities and come about? In praise of minutes after doors to about 60 the lyrical content was very much Nigel: “It was kind of an obvious people than I was headlining to an afterthought. fit. They’re Frank’s record label, 1,500 later that evening, because “There is some of that still going and in terms of getting national DIVE DIVE the music had something of me in on in ‘Potential’ but on the whole I attention the ‘angle’ of us being his it. We can and do contribute to wrote the songs about what had backing band is something to write Frank’s arrangements, but quite been happening around me for the about. Having a label who can tie it rightly he has the final say on last couple of years and so the all together makes sense for both everything. Dive Dive is a growing up I’ve done outside of parties. They’re also good guys communal activity, a proper band.” music has influenced the lyrics and with an indie but ambitious You got play at Wembley last should come across in songs like attitude.” summer with Frank (supporting ‘Damage Control’, ‘Liar’, ‘Collapse The deal also makes you label- Green Day), how was that? A from the Hurt’ and ‘Wherewithal’; mates with A Silent Film. Do you all dream come true? there’s a lot of fear in those songs. get to go to fabulously glamorous Nigel: “I was quite blasé about it, Still there’s plenty of room for showbiz parties together? Frank Turner: weirdly. I think I’m the only one in spitting cynicism elsewhere on the Nigel: “Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha “I first encountered Dive Dive the band who’s seen gigs there, so I album. ha hahahahahahahahaha! Ha ha ha during a soundcheck. I was should have been going nuts with Is there a hint of irony in the ha ha ha! Ha.” crewing for Reuben and they excitement, but I have a kind of album title? Jamie: “Yes, all the time. But Nigel were the support act, and just disconnect when doing Frank’s Nigel: “Kind of, but for me it’s doesn’t get invited.” with their check they blew me shows: it’s not my music so I don’t also a challenge or a statement of away. I’ve been a huge fan ever have that much riding on it. I have defiance. We’re still ambitious as a WHETHER DIVE DIVE GET since, and of course I nicked to drum the best I possibly can in band, but radio and press and TV that overdue commercial success three of them for my band as order to keep my job, but I don’t are all quite rightly looking for the and the glamour that goes with it, well, which I like to think is a really get nervous before going on new exciting thing, the new remains to be seen, but on so many high form of praise. I’m really stage with Mr. Turner. I still do Potential. I always want to remind other levels they already are a happy that they’re back out there with Dive Dive though, because it’s myself that bands don’t have to be success: a band that has stuck playing shows and releasing actually important to me.” like that to be good. Mark together through thick and thin, records again. The world needs Mulcahy is my big example of that, kept their spirit and soul intact, Dive Dive!” AND WHAT IS MOST but Oxford has so many of its own continued to make music that important now is getting the new – The Relationships, Nought, sounds vital and have become an album heard. Long-time fans of Beaker, The Bigger The God.” inspiration for others. Having been Dive Dive will fall for ‘Potential’ Jamie: “The story of my life is there and done it and seen the very immediately: from the that people are always telling me best and the very worst of what a magnificently melodic opening what great potential I have. I think band can experience, what advice thunder of ‘Mr Ten Percent’, that’s nice but also evil. I think it’s would Jamie and Nigel give to any through the ebulliently bulldozing designed to be encouraging but it young, aspiring local band looking likes of ‘Damage Control’, to the can, at best, let you meet to get on today? more considered, but sharp-toothed expectation and at worst, leave you Nigel: “Whatever you do don’t ask ‘Ape Like Me’, the album is coming up short. As I say in the me, or indeed anyone over 25. You packed with all the sweetly song, “When I look back when I’m all know more about how young abrasive pop-tinged punk we’ve grey and old, I’ll lay blame at the people, the main music-consuming long since loved them for. feet of days that all showed public, use the internet; take that Newcomers might be surprised that potential”. knowledge and make it work for a band so assured but still so fresh you. And work harder than anyone sounding can have escaped the MUSICALLY OF COURSE else you’ve ever met doing clutches of success for so long. Dive Dive have always fulfilled anything. I was a teacher on a music How do you Jamie and Nigel think their potential, particularly live course while being Frank’s drummer Jon Spira, producer and ‘Potential’ compares to their where they remain a byword for and a few students who were also director of Oxford music previous albums? pure, unrefined rock energy, but fans would ask about how to scene film Anyone Can Play Nigel: “It’s my favourite. It maybe commercially they have been become successful. I would call up Guitar lacks any true wig-out moments hamstrung by forces beyond their the list of Frank’s past shows on his “The Oxford scene is so densely like `The Crock’ or `Det Gor control, as Nigel ruefully explains. website which goes on for page after populated with brilliant and Ingenting’, but that’s more the fact Nigel: “The first album came out page after page, and say, that’s varied bands that it would be that we’re getting on a bit now and on Diablo Records, who were an how.” impossible to single just one of need to takes things at a slightly independent label that turned out Jamie: “I’ve got to echo that: bands them out as my favourite. Apart more stately pace…” to be run by some shifty fuck-all- without the work ethic won’t from Dive Dive, of course, who Jamie: “When we play shows now knowing spivs. We toured the hell survive. That’s not to say you have are absolutely, non-negotiably it’s a real struggle to cut songs from out of `Tilting At Windmills’, to be bloody-minded and alienate my favourite Oxford band. the set – I want to play them all. including one nuts tour where we people to achieve your goal, just try Perfect angsty pop songs That never happened with the were doing school shows during the and be smart with it, learn to wrapped in cynicism and good other two albums.” day – as many as three sometimes recognise when your band has humour and then smashed to Lyrically, and to a lesser extent – and shows every night, but they picked up momentum and capitalise pieces with dirty yelps, jabbing musically, the new album seems wanted to try and break us like a on it. And of course my personal bass, triumphant lead guitar more reflective than the last. boy band, so all our effort ended golden rule is to always treat the and cocksure stunt drumming. Jamie: “It’s true; I think with the up going nowhere. `Revenge Of industry around you with respect I’ve seen them playing live more previous album we’d come off the The Mechanical Dog’ came out on and don’t piss people off. Lastly than any other band and still get back of a lot of touring with some our own label but via Truck don’t listen to my advice, I’m over a thrill seeing an unsuspecting great bands and musically the Records who went bankrupt.” 25.” crowd expecting a pedestrian influences I was taking from them Jamie: “Ha ha! Just before we support act get their socks came from many different quarters signed to Xtra Mile I stupidly ‘Potential’ is out this month on blown off and handed back to and I tried to create an album of all mentioned to the boss that signing Xtra Mile. Visit www.myspace.com/ them folded, realising that no of these disparate ideas and much Dive Dive has a tendency to lead to divedive to hear songs from the headliner could possibly follow as the others tried to prevent it I bankruptcy. Third time lucky, eh?” album. that.” RELEASED the eager young pups they once were, such is the DIVE DIVE unbridled pop-punk vim of songs like ‘Liar’, but ‘Potential’ age and experience do show their faces further in as occasional bitter irony and a more reflective (Xtra Mile) outlook make their appearance on songs like After two debilitating experiences with different ‘The You In Me’ and ‘Ape Like Me’. Dive Dive record labels, Dive Dive could have been forgiven have always had their more mellow side and its for calling it a day after almost a decade together. not always shown them in their best light but Funny how things turn out. Spotted by former- perhaps working with Turner has added a bite to Million Dead frontman Frank Turner three the slower songs, with ‘Ape..’ an unexpected quarters of the group became his backing band and highlight of the album. sometime support act and two years along the As Jamie Stuart explains in this month’s road they’ve got a whole new audience and a interview feature, the title ‘Potential’ is both reinvigorated enthusiasm for their own music. ironic and a bold statement of intent. The music Partly due to time constraints (it’s hard to get a industry judges success purely in commercial moment to yourself when you’re jetting off to terms, but Dive Dive have always been winners the States or wondering whether today’s venue is and their legacy, both in their own music and that Reading Festival or Wembley Stadium), partly due 10%’ and ‘Damage Control’, barely pausing to of the bands they have inspired along the way, to wanting to keep their furious live energy, say hello before they’re out the back door, will last far longer than other bigger selling ‘Potential’ was recorded in just four days and it wrecking the sofa on the way, smiling sweetly as acts. pays off handsomely as they flail through ‘Mr they go. It’s easy to forget the band are no longer Dale Kattack

‘The Refuser’ is perhaps too slender a piece and UTE too throwaway to justify its inclusion here, but THE CRUSHING ‘The Gambler EP’ overall, ‘The Gambler’ is the sound of a band ‘Quickshooter EP’ confirming all the potential we’ve heard in them (Alcopop!) over the past 18 months and already pointing (Own label) Even from a band as difficult to second-guess as confidently towards the direction they’re intent Featuring a cast of musicians whose collective Ute, the lead track from this new EP, ‘Innocent on exploring next. CVs include Marconi’s Voodoo, Near Life Tailor’, is a surprise. The best kind of surprise, of Dale Kattack Experience and Blood Roses, The Crushing course. A drunken, almost vaudevillian waltz full sometimes sound like a condensed history of the of murderous intent, the song staggers from one past three decades of metal. Over the course of whisky bar to the next, arm around Grinderman’s UNDERSMILE three songs here they move from the classic New shoulder for support as it lives out its wracked, Wave Of British Heavy Metal of Judas Priest and overwrought revenge fantasies before drifting, in ‘A Sea Of Dead Snakes’ Iron Maiden, through Metallica-style thrash, almost ghostly fashion into Radiohead-like briefly skirt nu-metal and end up at the finishing ambience and out again into a gothic blues lament (Blindsight) line stood alongside Lamb of God and Killswitch where the harmonies sound like the frustrated The photo of Undersmile inside this EP sleeve Engage. wailings from Purgatory’s waiting room. It’s shows dual singer-guitarists Hel Sterne and Taz There’s a slightly daft theatricality about The easily the best thing Ute have created so far. Corona-Brown hunched over their instruments, Crushing, which is unsurprising given that former- The rest of this five-song EP flits between the hair cascading over the fretboards, making them Marconi’s Voodoo frontman Snuffy is on vocal trio’s latter-period Radiohead fetish – notably in look like Sadako from ultra-creepy Japanese duties, and ‘Gentle Lover’ might be an out-take Ollie T’s limpid, slightly desolate vocal horror flick Ringu. It’s more than appropriate from the as-yet (but don’t bet against it) unmade performance – and a fragile rootsiness that’s given the slow-building musical malevolence Metal – The Musical! ‘Pile Of Skulls’ is bullish but more frost-stricken forest than earthy meadow. contained therein. lacks a killer punch, Snuffy coming on like a Ute neatly sidestep any accusations of Radiohead Even by metal’s heavyweight standards, this is direct hybrid of Bruce Dickinson and James plagiarism, though by adding in more than the monstrous stuff, less than a handful of songs Hetfield, but the highlight is ‘Squinty Eyes At required doses of inventiveness and style, notably clocking in just under the forty-minute mark, Dawn’, more than a little bit silly but with a on the airy, waltzing ‘Brother’, while ‘Bunker’ their tectonic progress as desolately all- bloody great chorus hook that stops you smirking retreats further into darkness, awash with a consuming as a river of molten volcanic sludge. too hard. creeping sense of lyrical paranoia. That it’s released on Blindsight Records – the Dale Kattack label started by former-Xmas Lights chap Umair Chaudhry to showcase Oxford’s more extreme talents – merely confirms its evil credentials. Undersmile’s ultra-doomy take on sludge-metal is Titanic in its intent and execution, theatrical bows given to Melvins and Flipper on the heroically morose ‘Teutonic Dyslexia’, while ‘Crab People’, with its galley slave beat and ugly, serrated guitar ooze is pure Swans. It’s the gothic- zombie vocal interaction between Hel and Taz that really makes Undersmile, the pair never letting a sliver of light into their restless incantations. Did we mention one of Undersmile’s singers is called Hel? That’s how evil they are. And they are coming to get you. Sleep tight, children. Dale Kattack

gig guide

SATURDAY 1st a now traditional gig by Tony Jezzard’s good-time heavyweight blues-rockers. Happy New Year. We’ve made a resolution to be nicer to angst-ridden singer-songwriters, but like JANUARY th our previous vow to stay off the sherry, don’t TUESDAY 11 th expect us to keep to it. THURSDAY 6 JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon – Free weekly KOMRAD + ANNERO: The Bullingdon – live jazz club, tonight featuring Alvin Roy & Reeds SUNDAY 2nd Technical post-rock and hardcore from Komrad, Unlimited. BARE YOUR BONES: Café Tarifa MOON LEOPARD + RICHARD plus super-heavyweight metal from Annero. OPEN MIC SESSION: The Port Mahon BROTHERTON + BEARD OF DESTINY + SUE CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford INTRUSION: The Cellar – Goth, industrial, & PHIL: Donnington Community Centre – Community Centre – Singers, musicians, poets, darkwave and EBM. Free acoustic music session. storytellers and more at Oxford’s longest-running DARREN LESTER + AURORA YOUNG: The and best open-mic club. th Hobgoblin, Bicester IZZI STONE + AGE OF MISRULE + WEDNESDAY 12 KAPTAINS: The Hobgoblin, Bicester – Jambox MOSHKA: The Wheatsheaf – Local bands. rd rock night, featuring Wycombe’s classic heavy WORDPLAY: The Cellar – Hip hop club. MONDAY 3 rockers Izzi Stone kicking it out in the style of Aerosmith and Motley Crue, alongside bluesy th TUESDAY 4 th grunge-rockers Age of Misrule. THURSDAY 13 AGE OF MISRULE + MOTHER CORONA + BARE YOUR BONES: Café Tarifa – New OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half Moon TUESDAY NIGHT PROJECT: The Bullingdon weekly acoustic and semi-acoustic night for local OPEN MIC SESSION: James Street Tavern – Bluesy grunge-rock and metal. and out-of-town acts. BLUES JAM: The Jack Russell, Marston THE AUSTRALIAN CLASSIC ROCK SHOW: The New Theatre – Aussie-styled take on classic th FRIDAY 7th WEDNESDAY 5 rock songs from Supertramp, Dire Straits, Led KLUB KAKOFANNEY with COUNTRY FOR Zeppelin, The Eagles, Steely Dan, Genesis, Jimi OLD MEN + SWITCH 60 + MOON Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd and The LEOPARD: The Wheatsheaf – The first KK of Who. Friday 14th 2011 finds the merry collective celebrating local HALF NAKED: The Port Mahon – Didcot’s ska- troubadour Jeremy Hughes’ birthday in the punk newcomers. CROWBAR: company of Cajun-tinged country’n’western outfit WHITE HEATHER + CARAVAN OF WHORES Country For Old Men, as well as Jeremy’s own + ZANGRYUS: The Hobgoblin, Bicester – O2 Academy Moon Leopard. Jambox metal night with Banbury heavyweights THE CELLAR FAMILY + COCAINE As the name suggests, Crowbar are hard and White Heather and stoner-metaller Caravan of COWBOYS + GENERALS & MAJORS + Whores. heavy. They’re also fantastically slow. Since DAISY & THE UNSTEADIES: The Bullingdon they formed in the late-1980s, the New CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford – Skewed punk noise from recent Nightshift Demo Community Centre Orleans outfit been a byword for metal’s of the Monthers The Cellar Family at tonight’s OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half Moon sludgiest excesses. The band is basically the It’s All About The Music promotion. OPEN MIC SESSION: James Street Tavern vehicle of British-born singer and guitarist FUNKY FRIDAY: The Bullingdon – Classic BLUES JAM: The Jack Russell, Marston Kirk Windstein who has performed with an soul, funk and r’n’b. JAWLESS & FRIENDS: The Cellar – ever-changing cast of musicians over the past CIRCUIT CHASE + CRYSIS: The Port Mahon Drum&bass. 20 years, the Crowbar sound settling, if that’s SKYLARKIN: The Cellar – Ska, soul, roots and the right word, from its punky beginnings to a more with Count Skylarkin and DJ Derek. FRIDAY 14th sprawling, all-consuming thick tar of ugly, CROWBAR: O2 Academy – New Orleans black riffage, tectonic beats and growling. SATURDAY 8th sludge-metallers kick the new year into life in Windstein is exactly what you’d expect from BIRTHMARK: The Jericho Tavern – Not brutal fashion – see main preview the frontman of such a band – big, bald and prepared to be outshone by his cousins Tim and THE CRUSHING + PHYRRIC VICTORY: The bearded, a metal colossus with the presence to Mike, Chicago’s Nate Kinsella is emerging from his Wheatsheaf – Metal night at Moshka. carry off his band’s huge, brooding sound. time spent with Joan of Arc to carve out a musical MOTOWN’S GREATEST HITS: The New Over the years he’s been joined by members of career of his own under the guise of Birthmark. An Theatre – Classic soul hits from the 60s and 70s. Pantera, Down, Eyehategod and Acid Bath and exceptionally talented multi-instrumentalist, Nate ALAN BROWN: The Bullingdon – Live the current line-up has just released its ninth has made a sizeable contribution to the nebulous techno from Mr Brown. album, ‘Sever The Wicked Hand’, Crowbar’s Joan of Arc. He plays everything on Birthmark’s FUNKY FRIDAY: The Bullingdon first in six years. Told you they don’t do two albums, including the most recent, ‘Shaking FOREST FICTION: The Port Mahon Hands’: drums, guitar, bass, piano, cello, clarinet things in a hurry. WHITE HEATHER + ZANGRYUS + AVENGE and mandolin, as well as singing. The result is a VULTURE ATTACK: The Wheatsheaf, metronomic form of acoustic psychedelia that’s Banbury equally intimate, spaced-out and minimalist. FOUNDATION REGGAE: East Oxford PROPAGANDA / TRASHY / ROOM 101: O2 Community Centre Academy – Indie superclub Propaganda in the DISC-OVERY: James Street Tavern main room, with kitsch pop, glam and 80s upstairs BOSSAPHONIK: The Cellar – Latin dance, at Trashy and metal and alt.rock at Room 101. Balkan beats, world breaks and nu-jazz. LOST INNOCENCE + ACEDIA: The Centurion, Bicester – Jambox rock night. SATURDAY 15th SUNDAY 9th EQUITRUCK: O2 Academy – Truck all-dayer, featuring Fixers, Ute, Dreaming Spires, DB Band, Dead Jerichos and more – see main preview MONDAY 10th THE PSYCHOTECHNIC LEAGUE: The RESERVOIR CAT: The Bullingdon – The Wheatsheaf – New electro night hosted by local Famous Monday Blues opens its 2011 account with acid-techno chap We Are Ugly But We Have The Music, tonight’s opening show features Banbury’s from veteran local faves The Mighty Redox at industrial techno outfit Sikorski and 70s synth tonight’s famous Monday Blues. pop-meets-90s acid house duo Space Heroes Of BEETROOT JAM: The Port Mahon – Live The People, as well as We Are Ugly himself. bands and open jam session. ANDREA PARKER + SHITMAT + P45 + COLOUREDS: The Cellar – Experimental TUESDAY 18th techno at tonight’s Audioscope benefit – see main JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon – With guests preview The Howard Peacock Quintet. ONE NIGHT OF QUEEN: The New Theatre – BARE YOUR BONES: Café Tarifa Spectacular tribute to Freddie and the boys. OPEN MIC SESSION: The Port Mahon SWITCH 60: The Bullingdon – Northern soul and Motown club night. th PROPAGANDA / TRASHY / ROOM 101: O2 WEDNESDAY 19 Academy TRAGEDY: O2 Academy – Metal tribute to The th Bee Gees. Again. This time they’re promising “the Saturday 15 SUNDAY 16th farewell reunion tour”. Oh how we laughed. EQUITRUCK: th MONDAY 17th THURSDAY 20 O2 Academy KIDS CAN’T FLY + NOTHING NEW + GO-X + THE MIGHTY REDOX: The Bullingdon – LOST BOY: O2 Academy – The non-stop pop- Started by members of Truck Festival’s bar Swampy, funked-up blues rock and psychedelia punk touring experience that is Kids Can’t Fly staff, who felt a year was too long to wait for return to town for their own headline show after the main event to come round again, supports to Zebrahead and Less Than Jake. Equitruck marks the six months since and six GIVE IT SOME ‘STIC: The Bullingdon – months before point in the year, an all-day gig th Saturday 15 Acoustic night. based on the same homegrown principles as THE PETE FRYER BAND: O’Neill’s – Eccentric Truck itself, and featuring many of the ANDREA PARKER / blues rocking from the local stalwart. organisation’s favourite local bands. This LOST INNOCENCE + WAYS ACROSS: The year’s event carries particular weight, SHITMAT / P45 / Hobgoblin, Bicester occurring shortly after the untimely demise of COLOUREDS: CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford Equitruck founder Simon Stocker, to whom Community Centre the day is dedicated and with all proceeds going to his favourite charity, The Citizen’s The Cellar st FRIDAY 21 Advice Bureau. Acts so far confirmed include A sort of addendum to November’s trilogy of BEARD OF ZEUSS + DOMES OF SILENCE + the mighty Fixers (pictured) whose star is Audioscope shows, tonight’s gig, again in aid CARAVAN OF WHORES + UNDERSMILE: very much in the ascendancy, mixing Animal of homeless charity Shelter, features a great The Wheatsheaf – Buried In Smoke metal night, Collective’s wayward psychedelia with Brian cast of leftfield electronica, techno and more, featuring stoner heavyweights Beard of Zeuss and Wilson’s timeless pop perfectionism and a the bill topped by long-time champion of Caravan of Whores, industrial-strength sludge- hefty dose of danceability. Ute, who release dark-hearted techno Andrea Parker, a rockers Domes of Silence, coming in somewhere their new single on Alcopop! this month bring classically-trained cellist and singer who’s between Primal Scream, Depeche Mode and their characteristically eclectic approach to incorporated her talents into a succession of Motorhead, and uber-sludge slowies Undersmile. folksy rocking along, plus the fantastically projects, mostly on Mo’Wax, including ALPHABET BACKWARDS + PROXIES + honed post-punk power trio that is Dead collaborations with David Morley and remixes SECRET RIVALS: O2 Academy – Big-hearted, Jerichos. Of course Truck’s Bennett brothers for Depeche Mode, The Orb and Steve Reich. anthemic electro-pop from the fabulously ebullient will be appearing with their Dreaming Joining her is Brighton’s breakcore nutter Alphabet Backwards, Support from electro-tinged Spires alt.country outfit and Mick Quinn’s Henry Collins, aka Shitmat (pictured), who boy band Proxies, following in the footsteps of… bluesy DB Band. began his experiments with gabba and jungle as oh, you know. Sounds a bit like a half-arsed Calvin Harris remix of We Are the Ocean or some-such. a reaction to mainstream drum&bass, won Sorry, you appear to have confused us with himself a deal with Planet Mu and has since tonight reviving plenty of songs from their debut someone who cares. album, ‘My Band’s Better Than Yours’, alongside moved from disaffected outsider to festival THE BIG TEN INCH with BEAT SEEKING tracks from their forthcoming new album. regular and prolific album artist, without ever MISSILES: The Cellar – Count Skylarkin’s TARIK BESHIR + JOHN KAMEEL FARAH + compromising his crazed musical vision. Also monthly celebration of rock’n’roll, ska, soul and LES OCELOTS: Modern Art Oxford – Pindrop playing tonight is P45, originally from r’n’b plays host tonight to the debut gig by Beat Performance continues to showcase some of the Oxfordshire but musically established in Leeds, Seeking Missile, the new band formed by Sir Bald most esoteric acts around, tonight featuring where he started the legendary experimental Diddley and former-Supergrass bassist Mick Quinn, Brickwork Lizards frontman Tarik Beshir, mixing music club Room 237, mixing up a dense alongside ex-members of The Headcoats, kicking up electronic, modern classical and north African out a raw blend of garage, surf and punk inspired by collage of drum&bass, industrial electronica, music, plus virtuoso pianist John Kameel Farah, Sonics, Kinks, Link Wray and Bo Diddley. dubstep, ambient and hip hop, which has seen joining the dots between Rachmaninov and THE BOHEMIANS: Fat Lil’s, Witney – Tribute him support everyone from Squarepusher and Squarepusher, and contemporary jazz ensemble Les to Queen. Venetian Snares to The Locust and Four-Tet. Ocelots, featuring bassist Ruth Goller. THE INSULT: The Bullingdon Oxford’s own experimental techno twins PETE FRYER BAND: The Red Lion, Yarnton LES CLOCHARDS + THE MARMADUKES: Coloureds open the show. PROPAGANDA / TRASHY / ROOM 101: O2 The Chester Arms – Roy Orbison gets a French Academy café folk-pop makeover in Les Clochards’ exotic twilight world, plus folk from The Marmadukes. MUNDANE SANDS: The Hollybush, Osney – Folk rock in the vein of Mark Knopfler and The Oyster Band from Mundane Sands. FUNKY FRIDAY: The Bullingdon SATURDAY 22nd Bare Your Bones Live music every Tuesday night @ Cafe Tarifa THE WALKMEN: O2 Academy – The We are looking for acts to perform acoustic / elegantly wasted New Yorkers ride into town – see main preview semi-acoustic sets. THE ROCK OF TRAVOLTA: The Please send demos to: Port Mahon – More symphonic [email protected] or drop them in to electro-rocking from the mighty Rock, Café Tarifa, 56-60 Cowley Rd, Oxford. THURSDAY 27th GAPPY TOOTH INDUSTRIES with VICARS OF TWIDDLY + EVOKATEUR + ABOVE US ONE DIRECTION: The Regal – Abs out and let THE WAVES: The Wheatsheaf – Classic surf- the screaming commence as this year’s X-Factor rock delivered with a papal bull by the ever- third-place boy band bring their all-dancing cabaret entertaining Vicars of Twiddly at tonight’s GTI. to town. Expect covers of ‘Viva la Vida’, ‘Kids In Support comes from London’s sultry boy-girl America’, ‘Summer of 69’ and of course ‘Torn’. electro-pop duo Evokateur, in a St Etienne, THE CRUSHING + MALTA TONKIN + SIX Dubstar and Glass Candy vein and complex, BULLET CHAMBER + WAYS ACROSS: The angular alt.pop from Above Us The Waves. Bullingdon – Skeletor metal night with theatrical JOHN OTWAY: The Port Mahon – Return to heavyweights The Crushing launching their new town for the enduring clown prince of pop. EP, offering a lopsided take on classic Judas Priest, PROPAGANDA: O2 Academy 80s thrash and more contemporary hardcore KOMRAD + SCOTT GORDON + THE metal. Support comes from promising new stoner- SCEPTICS + BLIN JONNIE: The Hollybush, metallers Malta Tonkin, Banbury’s thrash Osney – Benefit gig for next summer’s Wittstock merchants Six Bullet Chamber and female-fronted Festival, in aid of the Oxfordshire MIND charity. nd thrash crew Ways Across. Saturday 22 Proggy hardcore merchants Komrad head the cast; NITKOWSKI + GUNS OR KNIVES + it’s free to get in but you can donate to the GUNNING FOR TAMAR: The Cellar – Post- THE WALKMEN: festival or buy raffle tickets on the night. rock at tonight’s Big Hair night. HEADINGTON HILLBILLIES: The Chequers, CHARLY COOMBES & THE NEW BREED + O2 Academy Headington. BLACK HATS + SPRING OFFENSIVE: Fat The sublime Jonathan Fire*Eater were a band Lil’s. Witney – Great, earthy 70s-style soul-rock th too far ahead of their time to make it big; in the vein of Little Feat from Charly Coombes, SUNDAY 30 instead The Strokes stole their thunder, but at plus moddish power-pop from Black Hats and wiry, THE RICHARD THOMPSON BAND: The least their premature demise – along with that sharp-elbowed indie from Spring Offensive. New Theatre – The folk guitar legend returns. of The Recoys – led to the creation of The DYING BREED + THE BREAK AWAY + Walkmen, who have continued that heroically CRACKERDUMMY: The Hobgoblin, Bicester MONDAY 31st untamed exploration of vintage rock’n’roll, THE CLARE FREE BAND: The Bullingdon – surf, garage and punk, drawing on influences th FRIDAY 28 Electric blues-rock in the vein of Bonnie Raitt like Sun Records, classic blues and The Velvet THE EPSTEIN + GLASS ANIMALS + from the local singer and guitarist. Underground. Over the course of six VARIOUS CRUELTIES: The Jericho Tavern – critically-acclaimed albums the New York Radiate Management – responsible for looking outfit have championed the terminally after Stornoway – launch their new monthly live th regretful, resentful and world weary with music night in style tonight with the increasingly Saturday 29 elegantly dishevelled aplomb. More theatrical mighty Epstein headlining, now established as and uptight than fellow well-dressed New undisputed princes of the local scene with their MAMA ROSIN: Yorkers The National, The Walkmen are superb ‘Held You Once’ single just released and a capable of some undeniably awesome rock second album due in the summer. Mixing the epic The Bullingdon moments, like ‘The Rat’, and ‘Angela Surf big folk sound of The Waterboys with the emotive Formed on the tranquil banks of Lake Geneva, City’, from their most recent album, bleakness of Giant Sand and The Low Anthem, Swiss trio Mama Rosin’s real roots lie in the ‘Lisbon’. Hopefully all that sustained positive they’re stars in waiting. Excellent support too Louisiana Bayou, where their raw, swampy press will start to translate into wider from Glass Animals, Nightshift Demo Of The mix of blues, Cajun, zydeco and rock’n’roll commercial success this year, although their Month winners last year with their wispy, would be right at home. Inspired by the French continued outsider status is surely fuel to atmospheric electronica, trip hop and psychedelia, migrant music of the southern states, but touching on Tricky, Liars and Pink Floyd at times, singer Hamilton Leithauser’s creative fire. equally by punk and rock’n’roll, guitarist and while London’s Various Cruelties mix up surf pop and indie-folk, having supported Villagers and melodeon player Cyril Yeterin and banjo and washboard player Robin Girod have slowly but FRESH OUT THE BOX: The Cellar – Hip hop, Mumford & Sons previously. steadily earned themselves an enviable breaks, disco, electro-boogie, techno, reggae, house TRY THIS PINK: Fat Lil’s, Witney – Get the and funk club night. party started, it’s a tribute to Pink. reputation around Europe for their authentic DUBSTEP NIGHT: The Bullingdon MOON WIRING CLUB + TIME ATTENDANT: take on lost folk sounds given a hefty Modern Art Oxford – Playfully ghostlike injection of rock energy, championed early on rd electronic experimentation from Moon Wiring in the UK by Mark Lamarr and more recently SUNDAY 23 Club, signed to the cool Ghost Box label (also by Jools Holland. Along the way they’ve home to Ariel Pink and Broadcast), inspired as toured with British cajun legend Chris Hall as th MONDAY 24 much by Hammer Horror and lost TV broadcast well as The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and STEAMROLLER: The Bullingdon – tapes as anything and accompanied by collages of it comes as little surprise to learn their first Heavyweight 60s-style blues-rock from the bizarre, arcane TV clips as they play music from album was released on Swiss punk label Voodoo reformed local rockers. recent album, ‘Shoes Off, Chairs Away’. Support Rhythm. With their new album, ‘Black comes from Resonance FM regular Time Robert’, the band have drawn in new calypso th Attendant, playing radiophonic electronica. and jazz influences, spicing their musical TUESDAY 25 MESS AGE TO BEARS + THE GULLIVERS + gumbo with elements of Blue Note as well as JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon – With guests COOLING PEARLS: The Wheatsheaf – Neo- The Hugh Turner Band. classical folk-rocking from M2B, ethereal indie The Velvet Underground and with a full UK BARE YOUR BONES: Café Tarifa pop from The Gullivers and sweetly dark-hearted tour to promote the album, Mama Rosin look folk-pop from Cooling Pearls. like being one of this year’s most interesting WEDNESDAY 26th KILL CITY SAINTS: The Bullingdon and fun breakthrough world/folk acts. FUNERAL PARTY: O2 Academy – California’s FUNKY FRIDAY: The Bullingdon spiky dance-punk three-piece hit the UK on the SECRET RIVALS + BLACK HATS + KING OF back of their acclaimed, ‘New York City Moves To CATS: The Port Mahon The Sound Of LA’, and appearances at last year’s Reading and Leeds festivals, coming on like a more SATURDAY 29th aggressive Rapture at times. MAMA ROSIN: The Bullingdon – Punked-up MOSHKA: The Wheatsheaf – Bands to be Cajun and zydeco from the Jools Holland-endorsed announced. Swiss outfit – see main preview FREE RANGE: The Cellar

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effected noise. Effortlessly great stuff. SPRING OFFENSIVE’s guitar spangle is skinnier of rib and sharper of elbow; their debt to fellow local stars Youthmovies and Jonquil apparent throughout, with their offbeat harmonies and willingness to veer off-road at will, but they’ve got such a way with a tune – especially the excellent ‘Every Coin’ – and an ability to wring every ounce of tension out of a song, that they stand out as a great young band in their own right. And so we head home enthused and merrily oblivious to the shrieking harpies and bellowing oafs staggering along Cornmarket stuffing their wretched faces with mechanically-recovered meat-based food substitute. This is going to be a great weekend.

If the first day of the Warmer is Black Friday, the second is White Saturday.

The Workhouse photo: Johnny Moto The Workhouse It’s snowing. And snowing. And snowing. It takes three hours to get from Kidlington to Café Tarifa on Cowley Road – albeit including a glorious amble along Queen’s lane that feels like a Dickensian Christmas scene – only to find most of the acts have been stranded at home. Of those who have made it here, we’ve already missed JESS HALL and BOATMAN’S CALL (a gothic Crowded House, according to a fellow Nightshift scribe), but we’re in time to catch KING OF CATS, who wanders around the sparsely-populated venue emoting in startling fashion, like a nutter who’s wandered in from the blizzard to sing us his singularly tragic and surreal life story. One more daydreaming number is about being Hannah Montana’s guitarist, but he saves his best to last, the more tender ‘Cat Manoeuvres’. Two severely worse-for-wear barflies then volunteer their services and stumble heroically through what might in another life have been actual songs but at least they’re entering into the blitz sirit of the event. Just as the compere is about to announce that’s it for the day, JAMES BELL staggers in from the cold for a short set, updating a selection of trad folk THE WINTER WARMER numbers in urgent fashion amid his own tales of social reformer Jeremy Bentham and more and keeping the atmosphere alive for a little while longer. The Wheatsheaf / Café Tarifa And then that’s it. The buses have stopped so the Wheatsheaf can’t open for the evening and even the Sunday afternoon session has to be cancelled as acts It all starts so well. On the night the emergency services apparently dub Black remain cut off around the county. Friday, due to the number of office party casualties left sprawled across city As a hundred or so confused souls mill about the bus stops we decide to walk centre streets, Gappy Tooth Industries presents its own annual festive the six miles back home through the ghostly snowdrifts, armed only with a celebration: two nights and two afternoons of live music of the sort you will bottle of brandy. Now that’s what we call a winter warmer. never encounter battling for the Christmas number 1. Dale Kattack Winter Warmer openers A SCHOLAR & A PHYSICIAN are very much in keeping with the spirit of Gappy Tooth Industries: singularly oblivious to the constraints of fashion and a little bit ramshackle. A dodgy lead means the duo’s laptop crackles and pops at regular intervals, but it can’t diminish the frivolous enthusiasm of their shouty electro-punk which at its best sounds like Bis trying to be Devo, or possibly John Otway, and only occasionally sounds like bad Pet Shop Boys karaoke. It’s daft but fun and they might be that thing Oxford never knew it needed: a spiritual successor to Holy Roman Empire. THE YARNS start off promisingly enough, gangly and jangly in an undeniably 80s kind of way, hints of The June Brides at times with the

trumpet interrupting the sweet-natured songs that come over as a cross Spring Offensive photo: Johnny Moto between a tumbledown cottage and a sleepy puppy, but they quickly get bogged down in a semi-acoustic pop mire, chugging with precious little personality and then really blowing it by trying to get funky. TIGER MENDOZA are a welcome wake-up call after that, their big mechanical beats and vaguely acrobatic female vocals creating an approximation of an unlikely collaboration between Tricky and Maria Carey, but the band don’t seem to gel and often it sounds like four different genres, never mind songs, being played simultaneously. So rarely do THE WORKHOUSE play live it’s easy to forget that they’re one of Oxford’s most underrated bands. Their magnificently dour glissando sounds like it’s arrived direct by Tardis from 4AD’s early catalogue – a little bit Cocteau Twins, a little bit Modern English – but with an attention to texture and dynamics that make it timeless. Guitars sparkle like diamonds over metronomic beats and tunes rise into tidal waves of dense, heavily- MR FOGG / TIGER MENDOZA / LISSIE / THE PIERCES REAL FUR / THE NICHOLE STEAL O2 Academy Having discovered Lissie as support ‘Record Collector’ and ‘Little Lovin’ The Jericho Tavern act for various household names her ability to fuse pop with her Daisy Rodgers Music’s monthly club the style of A Certain Ratio, layering over the past year, it follows suit native style culminates in a set filled night features the neat novelty of on the reverb as they pay a visit to that her own support is of equal with life. allowing everyone who buys an Vampire Weekend and finally end up, calibre. If Kate Bush had met up with It’s fair to say, even before tonight I advance ticket to vote on one of the via Talking Heads’ road to nowhere, Abba, The Pierces would be the end was drawn in by Lissie’s style. Still, acts playing an unusual cover at Paul Simon’s Gracelands for a result. Uptempo riffs interwoven more of a folkie than a pop fan, I’m version. Tonight’s overwhelming calypso pop party. Derivative stuff, with dramatic vocals and heavy naturally dubious of records that hit winner, the excited host announces, but no less fun for all that. synths mean ‘How Can I Love You the decks of Radio 1 but tonight are gig debutantes The Nichole Steal A shame we can’t be so kind about More?’ reads like an answer to reconfirms why sometimes it’s right whose take on Musical Youth’s ‘Pass Tiger Mendoza, whose impressive `Waterloo’, whilst ‘Secret’ would fit to break your own code of conduct. The Dutchy’ – segueing neatly into Myspace tunes couldn’t prepare us for neatly onto ‘The Kick Inside’. The The eclectic crowd, which leaves me Roni Size’s ‘Brown Paper Bag’ – is this ramshackle showing, featuring a Pierces are doing in the States what caged in at the front of the stage, coolly defunked in the same way singer completely off key for most of Marina & The Diamonds have done mouth nearly every lyric back. Black Box Recorder remade the set, which churns bullishly but over here and it’s not long before Whether it’s the passion of ‘Uptown Top Rankin’ a few years never gets out of second gear. the audience is nodding along, heartfelt ‘Bully’ or the bluesy ‘O’ back. It’s great sing-along fun but What you get from any given Mr proving that quirk is the new cool. Mississippi’ Lissie’s vocal prowess nowhere near the highlight of a set Fogg gig depends on whatever Lissie, by contrast, is low-key never falters. Rounding off with a that starts hesitantly but quickly format or band line-up he employs Americana. Opening with the festive cover of ‘2000 Miles’, she blooms into something seriously for the night. Tonight is a full band mellow ‘Wedding Bells’, there’s continually hits the mark and makes promising. Tonight might be the synth-rock extravaganza, Fogg and instant panic that she’s about to be it look easy. When she “fell in love quartet’s first live show but they bandmates looking like a cross overshadowed. ‘Worried About’ soon with being defiant,” Lissie also defies have a couple of Nightshift Demo between Kraftwerk studiousness and rectifies this and as the tune builds my ability to find fault. Every song Of The Month awards under their Heaven 17 glitz, but musically, and with its horse-like canter, the brims with single potential and whilst belts and Lucy Hamblin’s dreamily particularly vocally, they sound combination of Lissie’s arresting the album seems perfect for a sunny childlike voice hovering over the more like an electro My Chemical vocals, over well-timed rock-driven day, live she proves to be more than tripped-out funk grooves and acid Romance, such is the yearning guitar lines, rope the audience in, a summer fling. house squiggles reminds us of Sneaker nature of the songs. The synths are cowboy style. As she continues with Lisa Ward Pimps at times, while odd snatches pleasingly raw but tunes are emotive of guitar echo Talk Talk and the bass rather than austere, Mr Fogg’s player unleashes his inner Mick breathless vocal delivery Karn. They leave the best to last, a occasionally drifting into Julian HEAVEN 17 seductively bruising industrial trip Cope territory. The whole show is hop piece that breaks the gently slickly executed and seems tailor- O2 Academy hypnotic spell. made for chart success, but it’s the The recent wave of 30th anniversary and Distinction’, a later album From a 90s-style trip to a jaunt less commercial closing number, tours has thrown up a mixed bag of featuring an array of guest singers, through 80s jangle with Real Fur, ‘Answerphone’, that’s the highlight, curiosities, but tonight’s offering became the launch-pad of Tina who take Orange Juice as their all marching snare and emo made for proves to be more enjoyable than Turner’s resurrected career. Here, starting point, musically and robots. expected. Sheffield’s Heaven 17 vocal duties are handled by Billie sartorially, before funking it up in Dale Kattack emerged from the 1980 split of the Godfrey, whose energetic original line-up of The Human performance and delivery maintains League (also currently out on tour), the momentum of the whole show. and both are also releasing new Gregory then plays acoustic guitar to THE VACCINES material. The Human League’s ‘Don’t You Tonight’s show is themed around Want Me’, and the evening starts to The Jericho Tavern debut album ‘Penthouse and turn into a bit of an 80s revue. Side Pavement’, a mix of dancefloor- two of the album reminds us that In shrugging off the tidal fuss about that just ten minutes in they are oriented numbers and futuristic (for their success was down to intelligent The Vaccines, their singer Justin about to start song five with just four the time) tunes progressing ideas song-writing and Gregory’s distinctive Hayward-Young has said they are the songs left to go. from the last League LP. Events like voice, rather than forging a new “antithesis of ‘clever’ guitar bands, The Ramones-tinged ‘Wreckin Bar this are a good excuse to prepare with frontier in electronic dance music. and are just straight-up rock’n’roll (Ra Ra Ra)’ accelerates into ‘Post a pile of long-neglected vinyl, and Over the Penines New Order would you either get or not within the first Break-Up Sex’ and ‘If You Wanna’, Heaven 17’s early material lacks the end up taking that accolade, if more few bars.” and suddenly you’re thinking this is dated quality and lumpy production by accident than design. What he’s omitting from that Fleet Foxes on uppers doing Eddie that typifies so much of this era. Towards the end comes a touching, statement is that The Vaccines are Cochran riffs, or the Stone Roses in Tonight original members Glenn piano-led cover of The Associates’ actually very clever, in that they Speedos, Surfin’ USA. But past the Gregory and Martyn Ware lead a full ‘Party Fears Two’, a tribute to their instinctively understand what all the ‘Wake Up Boo’ Motown stomp of band, playing the album live for the late friend, its author and singer Billy great producers – Spector, Brian ‘European Sun’, they show they are first time. McKenzie, with Gregory carefully Wilson, Berry Gordy – understood, more than just half-time football Opening side one, ‘We Don’t Need reproducing the unusual phrasing of that timeless pop/rock, while anthems to keep warm to, as ‘Wet This Fascist Groove Thang’ was the original. A few old singles are appearing simple and real, is Suit’ jumps full on into bittersweet always a better conceptual joke than chucked in and they conclude with swaddled in the sound of unreality, as Beach Boy philosophy, before going political statement, famously banned The Human League’s ‘Being Boiled’, if you are hearing it all through back to give the stage divers one last from the BBC for the line “Reagan’s still the greatest pop song ever someone’s distant memory. sugar rush of ‘Norgaard’. President Elect, fascist god in written, and the show ends up a The current, short attention span, So are Zane Lowe and The motion”. The songs are faithfully resounding success. The fact that no- hipstamatic app, transistor head Guardian right that The Vaccines recreated but nothing’s added to bring one in the audience appears to be culture they feed into is very retro “Kick-start a new era”? Nah. They them up to date and the mix is far under thirty-five, unusual even for too, but not so much Ready Steady are a great band though, just from dazzling, so by the end of the these kind of tours, suggests that its Go, more Ready Steady Gone in reminding us how much jump- side it looks like disappointment will significance is more sociological than Sixty Seconds, as, from my position around-the-room, primal fun the old rule the day. But then they go off- musical, but this was a moment in squashed up against the sound booth, eras were. road and things perk up. ‘Ball of time well worth re-living. I can see the engineer’s set list, and Paul Carrera Confusion’ from ‘Music of Quality Art Lagun UNSILENT NIGHT WE AERONAUTS / CAT MATADOR Oxford City Centre Modern Art Oxford Through the joint efforts of local basement chip falling out of Having spent most of the day some truly astonishing melodies to ivory-tinkler Matt Winkworth and drinkers’ maws. jammed between two women at a carry it off. the always game Oxford But for all the parading and the Christmas “do” who redefined the Cat Matador are similarly exposed Contemporary Music, a boombox spectacle, there is something words gluttony and ear-shattering we tonight – something vocalist/ symphony has made its mark on the unexpectedly warm and fuzzy about arrive at Modern Art expecting guitarist Liam Martin is at pains to streets of Oxford. the experience. Thanks to the something to calm the nerves from a point out. Playing an acoustic set New York artist Phil Kline’s fusion simultaneous playing of different typically high-quality Pindrop means there’s no effects pedals to of art piece and amplified music tracks, the music itself is a nebulous, Performance show. Fate has other flesh out their sound, so the `Unsilent Night’ floats down the indistinguishable mass of humming plans however – tonight’s headliners emotional rise and fall of the music likes of Cornmarket and Merton synthesisers, jangling bells, chimes Bleeding Heart Narrative have had is more reliant on delicate vocals and Street like a cloud of sparkly, and almost choral-like euphoric to pull out due to illness and Sian Lloyd Williams’ haunting violin twinkly ambient feel-goodery on a vocals. transport issues. than the judicious application of bitterly cold evening. The piece At once organic and defiantly Tonight’s heroes are We Aeronauts volume and distortion. consists of several different forty- artificial, it’s a piece that could who have stepped into the fray with Liam needn’t have worried; although five minute tracks, given randomly compare and contrast to any space it only a few hours notice. They also the sonic assault of ‘Down’ is absent, to volunteers. At eight o’ clock on wraps itself around. Sound disappears have members missing, and rather the gloomy nature of their songs is all Winter Light night, the volunteers down the High Street, yet was all- than being seven or eight strong the more apparent – and there’s gather at Radcliffe Square with encompassing moments before down they’re a threadbare four-piece. plenty of beauty to be found amongst various ghetto blasters, mp3 speaker around New College. Under bridges, However, this stripped down version the dour lyrics and sombre tones that docks, laptops and mobile phones – it’s hard not to get knocked out by of the band is just as effective and if the band revels in. Towards the end of basically anything that could project the reverberations. anything they’re more direct than their set they find time to cover The music – and, after some basic What it does do is make you aware normal. The likes of ‘Distance Postal Service’s ‘The District Sleeps instructions, press play and lift their of the jaw-flooringly gorgeous city Learning’ are gorgeous, with the Alone Tonight’, and they make it speakers skyward. we live in. The constant changing band’s vocal harmonies resonating their own, Liam putting in a Their tour of central Oxford modulation and volume of the sound dramatically in the small particularly heartfelt performance. produces some interesting results. makes you look at your changing performance space. It would be They close with the remarkably Students stop in their tracks in Oriel surroundings like the first time you wrong to suggest that the band are delicate ‘We Can Change’, which Square, some of whom even join the saw those dreaming spires. And, taking it all entirely seriously; possesses urgent bass lines and (literally) humming throng. Walking without trying to sound like a new although they’re playing everything gorgeous vocal harmonies and proves past some of the city’s less salubrious age guru spouting hippy crap, it’s in an assured manner, they are that beneath Cat Matador’s usually drinking establishments, quizzical pretty peaceful and rejuvenating basically just having fun with their more robust sound beats a broken looks meet with open mouths. The stuff. own material and the audience. It’s heart full of fine melodies. occasional half-chewed bargain James Benefield lucky they’ve got enough charm and Sam Shepherd

Introducing…. photo: Pier Corona

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

Who are they? Undersmile are a four-piece sludgecore/doom band, compromised of Taz Corona-Brown (vocals / guitar); Hel Sterne (vocals / guitar); Olly Corona- Brown (bass) and Tom McKibbon (drums). They formed in 2008, playing a handful of “shambolic” gigs before their style morphed into its current dissonant incarnation. More recently they have played regularly on the local circuit, alongside fellow local noise-mongers Desert Storm, Komrad and others. In December the band released their debut EP, ‘A Sea Of Dead Snakes’, on Blindsight Records, the label set up by former-Xmas Lights chap and Oxford’s King Of Doom, Umair Chaudhry. What do they sound like? Slow and heavy to the N’th degree, Undersmile songs tend to clock in around the ten-minute mark: monstrously dense slabs of downtuned guitars If they could only keep one album in the world, it would be: and galley slave beats, topped off by Hel and Taz’s genuinely disconcerting “This is an excruciating question, but an album of recent years which we vocals – gothic, slightly ghostly, zombified incantations straight out of The have all enjoyed wholeheartedly is Pissed Jeans’ ‘King Of Jeans’, especially Exorist. Heavily influenced by the likes of Swans, Melvins and Harvey Milk, the slow-tempo tracks ‘Spent’ and ‘Request For Masseuse’, which best tracks progress at tectonic pace but scour and crush pretty much everything display their No-Wave inspired sound.” in their path. When is their next gig and what can newcomers expect? What inspires them? “We are actually taking January off gigging to go back into Studio 101 with “Harvey Milk, Melvins, Swans, Pissed Jeans, Boris, The Birthday Party, Jimmy Hetherington and continue working on our album. Newcomers can Leonard Cohen, Kyuss, Pumpkins, QOTSA, Codeine, Komrad, expect tinnitus and a very drunk rhythm section.” Sextodecimo, Caretaker, Huck and the Handsome Fee, Ivy’s Itch, Desert Their favourite and least favourite things about Oxford music are: Storm, The Rock Of Travolta, Von Braun, Suitable Case For Treatment.” “Our favourite thing is the quality of bands and musicians here; there is Career highlight so far: always a great gig to go on any night of the week. That said, apathy “Being unplugged mid-set at a recent gig.” amongst audience members is a bit of a trend in Oxford.” And the lowlight: You might love them if you love: “Not being plugged back in.” Melvins, Swans, Flipper, Babes In Toyland, Ivy’s Itch. Their favourite other Oxfordshire act is: Hear them here: “The mighty Komrad.” www.myspace.com/undersmile. DEMOSDEMOS

catches up with them for the final minute DEMO OF when they become less prog and more comfortable and accessible and things work THE MONTH better from there, ‘Bring The Force’ and ‘A Step Away’ being hurried, slightly jerky WILD SWIM technical indie fuzz and jangle, the vocals in particular reminding us of Mew, cheesy It’s always an absolute pleasure to dig keyboards managing to complement rather something genuinely new and innovative than detract from the songs. Everything is out of the demo pile, and this is one of the very busy, like they’re trying to cram as most unusual offerings we’ve unearthed in much into every three minutes as possible some time. Wild Swim were previously and a little bit of space here and there might known round these parts as Picturehouse not go amiss, but on the whole, a well but a new name has also brought with it a rounded effort from a band coming from new sound, one that, excitingly, is just off the beaten track. desperately difficult to pin down. Like Radiohead – to whom they bear no noticeable musical similarity – Wild Swim FLOODED cherry pick from myriad genres and cleverly, delicately knit the resulting HALLWAYS disparate influences into something It’s been a long while since we heard from completely cohesive and their own. They hip hop duo Nemrot and Deeq and they wash in with a backwards slice of not- now sound like a more cohesive team, while quite-psychedelia, verging on classical retaining their lo-fi credentials, preferring minimalism, breezing through what might minimalist backing for their rhymes, be an airy Japanese operetta by way of chattering electronic beats, synths and Klaus Nomi and the wired pop of The electric piano pretty much all they need as Associates (particularly in singer Richard they trade raps, Deeq adopting a vaguely Sansom’s gentle but highly-strung voice). Streetsy style on his narratives, contrasting Glitchy electronica and house, lysergic with Nemrot’s more free-flowing style. folk and hip hop shimmer by, adding their Both of them sound confident while little bit of magic before disapparating, avoiding generic bragging, a downbeat the outstanding highlight of the whole ambience pervading each track, Deeq in demo being ‘The Surrender’, which would particular sounding world-weary on make the perfect soundtrack to a drug or ‘Official Story’, and over four tracks such a dream sequence from a future Alejandro meandering pace, with a slight stoner edge, Jodorowsky movie. In fact, if there’s a can make it feel like they lack range, but the single fault we can pick in this it’s that slo-mo funk bass and genially pitter- the CD itself is scratched so the first song pattering beats of ‘What A Coward Won’t skips horribly halfway through. It Do’ neatly complement the resignation of Records, CDs and doesn’t spoil the experience too much the story being told, while the more though, and this is a great band who will assertive Arcane Sway’ similarly shows hopefully make their mark under their how well the pair complement each other. DVD Fair new name sooner rather than later. They’re also planning a collaboration AETHARA SATURDAY 8th January with Mr Shaodow in the near future, which will be something well worth This month’s obligatory mention of the 11am-4pm holding your breath for. obligatory monthly metal demo, this time from a new Oxford band, inspired, it seems, ROCK-POP-DANCE-GOLDEN OLDIES-INDIE- by the summery Scandinavian sounds of In SOUL-TECHNO-HIP-HOP-JAZZ-LATIN-REGGAE- Flames amid the cast of usual suspects, DRUM&BASS-GARAGE—R&B-DISCO-1950s- PLAYER2 ranging from old school Brit metal, through 2000s. Brand new back catalogue CDs £4 - £7 Regular gig fodder round the local circuit in thrash and death to Lamb Of God et al. For recent times, the experience seems to have a relatively new, young band, they’ve got a done Player2 plenty of good, showing decent grasp of epic noise and technical themselves as a band who can be solid and ability, building demo opener ‘The Marsh’ R A D I A T E : inventive. They take a while to settle up into a thundering old storm of goblin A NEW MONTHLY BAND NIGHT down, mind, seemingly having drunk a rage, the too-high-pitched melodic vocals two-litre bottle of coke before setting out perhaps the sole distraction when the FRIDAY 28TH JANUARY 2011 on their musical mission and demo opener growling homunculus on lead does the job THE JERICHO TAVERN, OXFORD ‘Blueprints’ feels a bit all over the place, perfectly well by himself. It’s a genre trap coming in like an old Kid Creole & The too many bands fall into, trying to keep THE EPSTEIN Coconuts cast-off crossed with a bit of things melodic but perhaps losing some of GLASS ANIMALS indie jangle before suddenly dropping into the more primal thrills in the process. VARIOUS CRUELTIES a more full-blooded rock intermission, Further in there are the requisite florid trading its groove for heaviosity for no guitar breaks to prove that, hey, these guys £5 ADV / £6 door: wegottickets.com apparent reason and then cantering off in are got serious talent, right, but we prefer it submissions for February : another direction altogether, as if they’re when they just bludgeon all before them [email protected] trying to escape from the tune in hand. It on ‘Self-Inflicted’, sounding like a tribe of trolls seriously pissed off because some fucker drained their pet swamp in the THE WATER MARGIN night and now they ain’t got no toads for Here’s another band back after being breakfast. Here they’re dark, dense and reviewed a couple of months back, although more dangerous, while ‘Discovery and in this case, the result is an improvement on Damnation’ finds them freewheeling into that previous effort. In fact The Water rampant speed-metal territory, leaving our Margin ended up in the Demo Dumper last earlier doubts lying in the dust. time, but have the character and attitude to bounce back, declaring that they’re both thick and thick-skinned and ready for more AGS CONNOLLY of whatever we choose to dish out, which What’s this? Folk-inclined acoustic singer- endears us to them enormously. And this is a songwriter in Not Shit shocker? Yes, it’s good step up in quality, if still in need of true, Ags here, from west Oxfordshire some serious work. ‘The Time Being’ is outpost Finstock may be possessed of a modest but jaunty, like a folksy singing and songwriting style that’s Tindersticks, or The Housemartins at their reflective bordering on morose, but he’s most reflective, although there’s some irony THE COURTYARD STUDIO also possessed of a welcoming campfire in the singer declaring “I’ll take your breath session voice, one that reminds us quite a away,” while sounding like he’s gasping for PROTOOLS HD2, MTA 980 CONSOLE 32/24/ lot of Kenny Rogers. This is proper old- air himself. Better is ‘Fairweather Friend’, 24, OTARI MTR90 MK2 24 TRACK TAPE fashioned – bordering on antique – which just about manages to blend the odd MACHINE, 2 TRACKING ROOMS, SUPERB country-folk, simple and to the point on combination of downbeat indie jangle and CONTROL ROOM WITH GOOD SELECTION every level but warm and engaging cheesy Miami Vice incidental music, like OF MICS & OUTBOARD GEAR, + MIDI nonetheless, and the biggest shock is seeing Lloyd Cole done over by Jan Hammer, a big FACILITIES (INC LOGIC AUDIO, AKAI his website profile pic in which he doesn’t old 80s-style synth chiming in halfway S1000, OLD SKOOL ROLAND ETC.) have either an enormous beard and Stetson, through the understated surf shimmer. So Residential facilities included. nor a half-empty bottle of sour mash by anyway, there you have it: take your his side. Whisky does crop up in one of his punishment like proper men and we’ll treat www.courtyardrecordingstudio.com songs, mind, the classic hard-luck tale that you with respect. Still not the crazy Samurai PHONE PIPPA FOR DETAILS is ‘I’m Not Someone You Want To Know’, cyborg rock demons we hoped for with that ON 01235 845800 in which poor Ags loses his job, his friends band name but moving in the right direction. and his girl before taking to the bottle. Hey Ags, cheer up, maybe we do want to know you after all. First round’s on you. Altogether now… “Rubeeeeeeeee… don’t THE DEMO take your love to town!”. Hic. DUMPER THE GRACEFUL AGES SLICKS We love a bit of lo-fi amateurism. We thrive Hope were high for The Graceful Slicks on it. But, by God, at least make some after their debut demo a few months back fucking effort to sound like you care about suggested a band with an almost heroic what the word ‘music’ actually means. disregard for the evolution of music after Opening with what sounds like the opening 1969. Which makes the disappointment of bars of ‘Are Friends Electric?’ played over this new offering all the deeper. Gone, it and over again on a biscuit tin and half a seems, is the tar-coated psychedelia of guitar and all shoved through a wonky their first demo, replaced by a half-arsed distortion pedal permanently set to max, indie jangle dug out from the back of a Ages manage to draw two and half minutes discarded mid-1980s unsigned showcase out to a gruelling degree; when the vocals compilation and a sullen attitude that eventually join the fray they too are suggests they might have been at home distorted to buggery, which at least distracts opening the bill for one of Creation from the fact the perpetrator seems to be Records’ less inspired signings back in the reciting his shopping list with a sterling lack day. ‘I’m Not The Only One’ gives cursory of anything resembling enthusiasm. nods to The Velvet Underground and The Onwards they churn, the sole glimmer of Monkees’ ‘Steppin’ Stone’ but is little melody popping up briefly on ‘Surf The more than common-or-garden pub rock at Wave’, only to retreat back into the its core. ‘Bravery Through Repetition’ suffocating fug of half-cocked thrash at the initially snakes in with a bit of atmosphere precise moment we realise it’s nicked off but quickly descends into aimless plodding, ‘Blister In The Sun’ anyway. By which the tune – or any resemblance to one – left point we’ve realised why Ages have at the door with the stash of drugs we’d absolutely no friends on their Myspace site. hoped they were coming up on last time And talking of which, why is Myspace so round. By the time they reach final number bloody rubbish nowadays? Just because ‘The End’ they’ve degenerated into some overpaid, underemployed twonk in mumbling barely coherently and seemingly Murdoch Towers decided things needed trying to sound like mid-80s goth also-rans changing for the sake of fucking change. The Rose Of Avalanche. Heftily kicked arses all round.

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.