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Weird Dreams - Choreography (album)

Crocodiles - Sunday (Psychic Conversation #9) 7”

The Hairs - I’ve Been Working Out 7”

King Creosote and Jon Hopkins - Third Swan single

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Tashaki Miyaki - sings the Everly Brothers 7”

Antony Harding - The Birds Sing Goodnight To You And Me (album)

Veronica Falls - My Heart Beats 7”

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Gig Review

Bands for Japan: Let’s Wrestle/ Slowgun/ The Catcher Nine/ No Cars/ MJ Hibbert
Brixton, Windmill

Article written by Ged M - Apr 25, 2011

No Cars

The Windmill has always been a good venue for Japanese bands over the years (says he, recollecting a belting Shonen Knife/ Screaming Tea Party gig a couple of years ago) and there are a few J-bands on the venue for this fundraiser in aid of victims of the Japanese tsunami.

Japanese trio (“from Hackney”) No Cars play charming but cruel indiepop, with garage-rock rhythms, playful time changes and an interactive relationship with the crowd; the tuna-fish dancing is something to behold but the treatment meted out by the sweet-but-sadistic singer to the puppet raccoon is mildly distressing to anyone who grew up with Sooty and Sweep. It’s entertaining fun but you may regret volunteering to join the band on stage.

The Catcher Nine are the new trio that includes Koichi from Screaming Tea Party. They draw your eye on stage and their songs have an auditory attraction too: plenty of post-punk rhythms and hallucinatory dreampop, the finest of which is ‘The Ghost of Madame Legros’. Now that we’re seen them, we want to repeat the experience soon.

Slowgun

Slowgun are going places - you heard it here first (or seventeenth). I know little about them other than that they’ve apparently been around since 2004 and have UK and Italian members and have played lots of support slots. That, and they’re strongly influenced by 90s alt-rock-influenced guitar pop, particularly the Breeders. That sound is so zeitgeisty now it’s a wonder there are no records from them other than the excellent self-released ‘Stephen’ from the end of last year but that makes seeing their live show so essential. File under: “too good to be just below the headliners”.

The big surprise for me is MJ Hibbert. I’ve always fought shy of his charms at festivals, but seeing him play in the smoking shed, sorry, the outdoor stage, and seeing up close the way that he works a room with his absurdist humour, comedy wordplay and pop-punk tunes overcomes any residual disposition to dislike comedy songwriters. He likes his beer, he likes his indiepop, he likes to mix music and laughs – what’s not to like about MJ? The prodigal son at last comes home to Hibbertville.

Let's Wrestle

Previewing new record ‘Nursing Home’ and honed with touring to appreciative audiences in the US, Let’s Wrestle’s punk-pop sounds better than ever. Tonsorially, they’ve gone backwards, bassist Sam Pillay’s hair being no match for the luxuriant growth of Mike Lightning but WPR is a far better, more confident shredder of a guitarist than he was at the time of ‘In the Court of the Wrestling Let’s’, and the new songs sound as word-clever and anthemic as those on the first record. However, it’s still tracks like ‘We Are The Men You’ll Grow To Love Soon’ and the magnificent ‘I Won’t Lie To You’ that spark off the one episode of mass moshing this evening to end this worthy event on a truly high note.

Links:
http://windmillbrixton.co.uk/
http://www.myspace.com/letsfuckingwrestle