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Friday 6th April 2012
All Day BBQ Festival

Sparrow and the Workshop
6 Day Riot
The Nuns
Singing Adams
Y Niwl
Colours
Dignan Porch
+more tbc

The Windmill
Brixton
Price tbc

On Our iPod

Golden Grrrls - New Pop 7”

Chris Devotion & The Expectations - Amalgamation & Capital (album)

Trailer Trash Tracys - Ester (album)

Throwing Up - Mother Knows Best 7”

Howling Wolf - Complete Chess Masters 1951-60

The Ketamines - A Rotten Bond/1 Yr (from Oddbox Singles Club Pt 2)

Cardinal - Hymns (album)

Proper Ornaments - Taking the Gamble Out of Buying 12”

Darren Hayman - January Songs (album)

Various: Marshall Teller EP 12”

Latest Forum Posts

Single/Download Review

Babies/ Ice Black Birds/ Bonne Idée/ the London Dirthole Company/ Thee Piatcions/ the Woe Betides
Singles roundup

Article written by Ged M - Jun 7, 2010

Babies’ second single is as good as their first. ‘Meet Me In the City’ (Make A Mess Records 7”) is fast and dislocated pop, sounding very New York new wavey. Kevin Morby sings, Cassie Ramone adds backing but the best thing about it is the immense and uplifting join-in-able chorus. The flip, ‘Somebody Else’, is another great lo-fi DIY effort too, straightforwardly catchy with great minimalist guitar solos out of school-of-Pete-Shelley. Another corker. Myspace

It’s all too much. If the phrase “indie-boogie anthem” doesn’t set you running in panic, it should. ‘Doors’, the AA-side of the new single by Brighton’s Ice Black Birds (Laissez Faire Club Records 7”) is chugging blues rock with Sam Dennison’s over-forced Jim Morrison impression. Their bastardised stadium blues concept is only confirmed by the poppier ‘As Birds We’d Be Fine’ that has an almost catchy niggling little guitar riff but an echo of Kings of Leon. Blues is meant to have heart and tell truths. This hasn’t and doesn’t. Myspace

Sweden continues to turn out indiepop bands effortlessly, the latest being Bonne Idée. A mostly female band, they seem like a tweepop dream, although ‘A Dream of You’ (Cloudberry Records 7”) is actually difficult to like – too chilly and reserved. No such problems with ‘It Will Be Back’ on the b-side, which is utterly addictive with its combination of accordion, Postcard Records guitars and a hiccuppy beat, as well as a lapse into schoolgirl French and an overload of “ba-ba-bas” on the run out. Myspace

The ‘Monkey Mania EP’ by the London Dirthole Company (Radiowave Recordings) is slightly deranged garage rock with everyone playing (4 guitarists and 2 stand up drummers, according to the sleeve). ‘Monkey Man and the Monkey’ is primitive Pebbles-style caveman rock that’s as dumb and infectious as ‘Louie Louie’ (and owes it more than a small debt) while ‘Richard’s Little Chicken’ is as sectionable as its name suggests, a combination of wild blues and garage-rock plus, at one point, the Batman theme. Very rhythmic, mostly instrumental, perfect for parties and sounding even better when squiffy. Myspace

No, I don’t know either what the name means (do you pronounce it “passions”?) but I know that Thee Piatcions are a fine psychedelic pop outfit from Northern Italy. The title track of their ‘Time EP’ (A Giant Leap Records) is very catchy psych-pop that puts them in the “children of Nuggets” category while ‘Singapore Mon Amour’ has the drones and grooves of bands like Spacemen 3, The Warlocks and the BRMC but retains its pop hooks. The 8-minute ‘As Seen Through A Telescope’ then combines all their influences, from 60s garage to 90s shoegaze! Good stuff and I wouldn’t have been surprised if this had come out on Sonic Cathedral. Myspace

When we reviewed the ‘Play Dead EP’ by the Woe Betides we mentioned the influence of Brian Eno on that art-pop effort. Even more so now, ‘Sylvia’ (Songs In the Dark Records) is English pop with a strange Eno-esque sensibility: subversive surburban you might say. It has melody in the right places and beats in the wrong ones too, to slightly sinister and disorienting purpose. But that weird pop experimentalism keeps you listening avidly. Myspace

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