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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

Cate Le Bon - Cyrk (album)

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

Standard Fare / Kid Canaveral / Judy Beat and the Becketts
The Shakespeare, Sheffield

Article written by Matt H - Dec 3, 2011

Standard Fare - looking sharp

Judy Beat and the Becketts is Nat Johnson indulging a Figurehead-free side project backed by various friends and family , consisting of covers and, mainly, songs inspired by episodes of Quantum Leap. I never liked Quantum Leap. So it’s maybe surprising that the songs have all the hallmarks of her best stuff, tunefulness and a melancholy heart to the lyrics. If she’s perhaps all too aware of the ludicrousness that sits not far below the surface, it does mean that Nat is more engaging than her usual apologetic stage presence, and that’s a good thing.

With Tigercats held up and not making an appearance until after the headliners (by which time I’d scarpered for my last bus), Kid Canaveral follow and do a fine job of ratcheting up the atmosphere. Yet another gem originally hailing from Fife, their bouncy tunes with occasional mini-rock-outs hit a spot more or less dead centre between Fence collective down-to-earth romanticism and the indie-rock energetic tunefulness of their hosts. Totally endearing and full of fun they even get a few of the bespectacled chinstrokers dancing. A bit.

Standard Fare seem a little discombobulated by somehow failing to be last on at an album-launch gig where their album is not available. But they’ve got a basic quality that sees them through. Their old songs sound as strong as ever, but despite its absence the new album is still the point of the night. Darth Vader has been sneaked out as a sort-of single and its downbeat charms left a worry that they might have gone just a little bit too grown up. No fear. On first hearing the new songs pick up pretty much where the last album left off –indie-guitar tunes written by a band who you suspect had no idea they were writing indie tunes, making them all the more convincing. They sound to have kept intact all quality and uncomplicated charm that first won our hearts. So worth looking for the album when it finally does turn up.

Links:
http://www.standardfare.co.uk/
http://www.natjohnson.co.uk/
http://www.kidcanaveral.co.uk/home/