Record store day.

Record Store Day. The one day of the year that up until now i've not bothered with for a few simple reasons.

1. I don't own a turntable
2. don't have the money 
3. don't have the time
   

Dan Whitehouse

I decided that this year i would bother however as this time i had two of those things and the excellent Left for Dead shop in the Custard Factory was having live performances. The shop was stocked up full  of special edition RSD releases, Including the Tame Impala Live Album on coloured vinyl, Parquet Courts 'Sunbathing Animal' single and one or two others. i didn't buy anything however due to reason #1

Hoopla Blue

I decided to stay because of the live music. The first act i managed to catch was the solo acoustic singer Dan Whitehouse. the sparse, emotional acoustic songs were livened up using guitar pedals, including  one that allowed him to loop what he had just played backwards, giving his songs a cool psychedelic feel. 

Following this was the experimental trio Hoopla Blue. Who played 4 sets at different record stores before playing that the Hare And Hounds that night. Which is kind of impressive. I don't mean to be a little nasty but i couldn't tell for half the time whether they were soundchecking or playing their songs. Their sound isn't too far from other local experimentalists such as Deaf Inspector, or Ultimate Grand Supreme. Ultimately it wasn't really my thing. 

Schnauser were the last band I got to catch before i walked on up to work. A trio of bristol experimentalists who pay tribute to the golden era of progressive rock, as the artwork  on their 7' Vynil single and choice of cover version for the b-side confirmed. The line up includes a singer on keyboards, a guy on bass and a man with ginger sideburns banging on the drums. the have songs inspired by hatred for their singers boss, and 'the lifecycle of a wasp'. They'd just come back from some gigs in Italy, and the next day I read a review of a show in Classic Rock magazine. So they must be making waves. I decided  a long time ago that Prog isn't my thing, but these guys deserve credit, there are hundreds of bands paying homage to the Smiths, or Joy Division, Or Metallica but few evoking the sounds of ELP, King Crimson  or Genesis. I'd recommend this band  to any fans  of those  groups. 

 I had to go to work after this  so i missed a band called  Grand Union and the previously blogged about Mutes, and The Mighty Young. 

Record Store day is a great thing, anything that helps in the independant shops is a good thing, and i may get involved more next year if i get a Turntable. but if you are lucky enough to have a good local indie then use it! for me everyday is Record Store Day

Dan Whitehouse:
http://shop.dan-whitehouse.com/
https://www.facebook.com/danwhitehousemusic?fref=ts

Hoopla Blue: www.facebook.com/HooplaBlue

Schnauser: www.facebook.com/SchnauserMusic

Curb, Leftover pics

CURB

CURB are awesome. They were the final act on the night of April 10th at the Sunflower Lounge and put on a set worthy of any headlining band.
In their own words "(we) didn't form a band just because its the cool thing to do because one Midlands band got signed to a major label....We just write songs we like and go play them live and try to put our best into it so its hopefully worth the money for the people who took the time to travel over to watch us... We're an honest band that plays music because we love music, not for cool points or for the coolest in haircut".
These are modest words considering they've got songs like  'So High'. Their hair doesn't seem to have gone near any product, and it was no question at all whether they put their best into it. I've not seen this much chaos at a show since God Damn/The Wytches at the same venue back in February. Their Bass player was almost constantly jumping about the place, (I was almost constantly trying to get an amazing shot of him doing so). The crowd got moshing like mentalists. One guy got lifted up so he could touch the light fixtures, another guy nearly got that far but fell off instead. The bloke from ANiMA was in the background head-banging, and another guy got to join the group onstage to bang a tambourine. Appropriately enough it all ended with the band smashing up their kit. This show was worth the 500 pennies I spent on entry. 

Unfortunately there is only one song you can hear of theirs online at the moment. It's the Aforementioned, 'So high'. One guy reckons it sounds like "Oasis without the suck" I say it mixes the good bits of the 90's -baggy/shoegaze/grunge but with a huge chorus.
http://www.soundcloud.com/curbsaysmile

Swerve

I've kept an eye on Swerve ever since I saw the last 10 seconds of a gig of theirs  at the actress and bishop, and nabbed a copy of the EP (complete with pink highlighter artwork). This was a nice opportunity to see how they've progressed. Now second on the bill on what was more or less a joint headline with CURB. Their front man is without a doubt one of the coolest (and Beardiest) guys in the scene. He wore a pair of cheap plastic sunglasses* throughout the gig, a big beard, a t shirt of a band I've never heard of and an African style poncho, which he wore as protest to Nigel Farage. Swerve's music is grungey, in fact I've compared them to both Nirvana and Guns 'N Roses in the past. By now the lounge was packed and I was right up against the speakers. At one point they played a Ballard which reminded me of Peace's 'Float Forever', and showed a surprising laid back melodic side to this band which I was not aware of. However this was a rare occurrence, and the rest of the set was full throttle grunge-y Rock n Roll. They even had a little light projector, giving the place a colourful disco feel. I even had 'Honeydripper' playing in my head for days afterwards.  Overall it was a confident and captivating set, I had a feeling that Swerve were a good band from watching those 10 seconds, and it's nice seeing how they've developed into a confident band. if the night had stopped there, then Swerve would have been great head-liners. Swerve owned the Sunflower Lounge, but things were still about to get better...

*good thing, I didn't feel so guilty about using the flash because of this.

https://www.facebook.com/swwwerve
https://twitter.com/swwwerve
https://soundcloud.com/swwwerve

Noir

That Rock N Roll eh? attempting to smash through the glass ceiling, but smashing its nose, looking bloodier than ever. Okay i exaggerate but seriously why are all the bands splitting up? RNR's not gonna break through if everyone just gives up after 6 months.
Half way through the gig Noir's singer casually announced that this was the bands last gig. Which is a shame as these guys showed a lot of promise. It didn't seem like there was any animosity or tension between them all, or any sadness either. Despite it being a last show it just seemed like a few lads  having a good time, spreading positive vibes.
Rarely has a band ever been so suited to the Sunflower Lounge, and its moddish retro image.
Noir are/were a bunch of young and incredibly skinny West Midlands based lads who play indie rock n roll that evokes both summers of love. They probably idolise The Stone Roses, as there was a definite baggy influence on the bands sound. Their shaggy haired frontman danced and jumped about, while singing and kept on throwing his tambourine into the crowd, where one guy would pick it up and pass it back to him, before said tambourine would be dropped again. By this point the audience had finally started to fill out the room, and Noir's set definitely lived up to expectations


If this is the end for Noir, then I'm sure they'll all go onto other projects, a bunch of lads this talented will obviously go on to find other bands to play in. and while they were a very promising young band, they don't win points for originality. I look forward to seeing what they do next.

Check out their song 'Feel' here https://soundcloud.com/wearenoir-1
www.facebook.com/wearenoir
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFazbIBeg3c

ANiMA

Next up was ANiMA, who's music is a mix of Goth, Grunge, and Metal. The main focus point of this set, or at least of my photos was the singer. Dan Sheridan, Dan seems like the sort of guy who lives and breaths this music. He has long thin jet black hair, pale skin and he wore a T shirt with 'HIPS TITS LIPS POWER' (whatever that means) and set up all his pedals and mic just that little bit closer to us than the rest of the band. His voice reminds me of another singer but I can't remember who (it'll come to me), he was headbanging almost constantly and at one point writhing all over the floor. 
After the first song he said 'Thank you, this is Awkward Silence' to which I turned to my friend and said '...is that the song or?..' It's safe  to say that this is not really my thing. But I still spoke a bit too soon making fun of them there. I reckon I'd have loved these guys during my teenage emo years. But I actually kind of like them now, I really enjoyed the show. They are all obviously talented musicians and they've got good songs. I'd say that grunge is probably quite an influence e.g. Smashing Pumpkins, L7.  'You are not Alone' stood out as being a really good song as did 'The Sun and the Moon'. Good songs as well as obvious passion and love for this music separate ANiMA from your usual Emo posers.
 https://animanoise.bandpage.com/

Only Shadows

 -- 10th April 2014 --
Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham 

Last Thursday, when the singer of Only Shadows pointed out that he could have a conversation with everyone in The Sunflower Lounge - individually- he wasn't joking.  In fact The Sunflower Lounge seems to get smaller every time I'm there. Only Shadows did their best to get the party started. With their melodic Indie rock, lively stage presence and sarcastic banter. Their music isn't far from the likes of Bombay Bicycle club (their guitarist looks a little like jack Steadman) they put plenty of energy into their short performance. The guy on bass jumped off the stage and played right in front of us, while the singer lifted his guitar up like a machine gun (both giving me the cool photos you see here) it’s just a bit of a shame that so few were around to see them. But that’s the way it goes.

They’ve also got plenty of good songs. Which you can hear on the rather good ‘Forest Fire’s EP which I nicked a copy of. This was the start of a great night of live music with some brilliant performances to come

This post is Part 1 of 5. next I'm writing up ANiMA, Noir, Swerve and Curb. 

soundcloud.com/only-shadows
 www.facebook.com/onlyshadowsuk