Photo: Richard E. Aaron

Gig Of The Week – Stag & Dagger @ 93 Feet East

I know Stag & Dagger is a multi-venue, many band extravaganza but I’ve got to pick the Fact Magazine line-up at 93 Feet East as gig of the week. They hold court with Everything Everything, TEETH!!!, Dananananaykroyd (pictured), The Twilight Sad and Kicker Conspiracy – easily the best of any of the venues. Tickets still available at a relatively reasonable £16.50 – and are valid for any of the venues across town.

Elsewhere Ladyhawke rolls into Koko surely on her final bit of touring around her stupendous debut, likewise the Ting Tings (only without the stupendous debut bit) at Brixton Academy. Idlewild provide a twist on the ‘play an album as a gig’ schtick as they plump for a comprehensive review of work old and new over three nights at Dingwalls. I’d pick the middle night of 100 Broken Windows and Warnings/Promises. Other picks: Metric, Vivian Girls, Datarock and especially The Soft Pack!

Dananananaykroyd – Black Wax
The Twilight Sad – I’m Taking The Train Home
Everything Everything – Photoshop Handsome
TEETH!!! – If I Ever (Video)

Photo: sugicy

For all the recommended gigs around town this week read on…

Monday 18 May

Datarock – Barfly

Deerhunter – Scala

Juliette Lewis – Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen

Vivian Girls – 93 Feet East

Wave Machines – Islington Academy

White Denim, The Gay Blades, Air France – Old Blue Last

Tuesday 19 May

The Bronx – ULU

Idlewild perform Hope Is Important & – Dingwalls

Metric – Electric Ballroom

Wednesday 20 May

Akron/Family – ICA

Idlewild perform 100 Broken Windows & Warnings/Promises - Dingwalls

The Soft Pack, Titus Andronicus – 100 Club

The Strange Death of Liberal England – Purple Turtle, Camden

Thursday 21 May

Gallows – The Forum

Idlewild perform The Remote Part & Make Another World - Dingwalls

Ladyhawke – Koko

Mumford & Sons – The Flowerpot

Stag & Dagger London ft. Cursive, Evan Dando, Maps, Teeth, The Mae Shi & loads more – Various Venues

The Sunshine Underground – Scala

Friday 22 May

Crystal Stilts – Club AC30 @ ICA

The Ting Tings – Brixton Academy

Saturday 23 May

Anti-Flag – McCluskys

Great Lake Swimmers – The Borderline

Hip Hop All-Nighter ft. Raekwon, Rahzel, Jehst & more – Matter

Mr. Scruff – Koko

Sunday 24 May

Seth Lakeman – Union Chapel

Talvin Singh – Dingwalls

Gig Of The Week – Sonic Youth @ Scala

I’d have given anything to get a ticket to this gig. Anything. The bastards at See Tickets put them on sale early – meaning that when we went to check at 9:50 (tickets due onsale 10am) they were already sold out. I wasn’t happy. Anyway, for those luck enough to be at this ‘secret’ show I reckon it promises to be one of the events of the year. I mean how often do you get to see behemoths of music such as Sonic Youth play cupboards like the Scala? Once in a lifetime… If any of you are heading to this, I’d love to hear how it was – let me know via a comment!

Elsewhere this week I’d recommend heading to Matter on Saturday to catch Miss Kittin & The Hacker. Last time I saw the Kittin was on a beach at Benicassim and it was pretty damn good. Also, Doves play a couple of big ‘uns at Brixton Academy the Juan Maclean follow their Ether festival performance with a slot at Madame JoJo’s and somewhat bewilderingly Friendly Fires play the cavernous Forum.

Sonic Youth – Pay No Mind

Photo: Bryan Bruchman

Read on for the full listings this week…

Monday 27 April

Tori Amos – Acoustically Attracted To Sin @ The Savoy

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – The Luminaire

Juana Molina – ICA

Sonic Youth – Scala

Tuesday 28 April

Brakes – Dingwalls

Duke Special – Scala

Darren Hayman & The Secondary Modern – 100 Club

The Juan Maclean – Madame JoJo’s

Micachu, Let’s Wrestle – ICA

Wednesday 29 April

Buck 65 – Jazz Cafe

Jeniferever – Water Rats

The Rakes – Koko

Thursday 30 April

Friendly Fires, Hockey – The Forum

iLiKETRAiNS – The Luminaire

Katharine Blake, Bleeding Heart Narrative – Moose Factory Presents @ The George Tavern

Little Boots – Anne Mac Presents @ Koko

The Mummers – ICA

Young Knives – Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen

Friday 1 May

Doves – Brixton Academy

Saturday 2 May

Doves – Brixton Academy

Fuck Buttons – AITBF Weekender @ The Lock Tavern

Miss Kittin & The Hacker – Matter

Sunday 3 May

Aidan Moffat & The Best Ofs – The Luminaire

A week of fantastic gigs, including Ether 09 – a South Bank festival that has drawn the incomparable David Byrne to our shores to play a show based on his two collaborative efforts with Brian Eno. Unfortunately there will be no Eno involved, but still should be fascinating. Also in a festival-style this Saturday sees International Record Store Day, and two of London’s greatest host sparkling instore line-ups. Rough Trade East sees a plethora of new young things including the fantastic Joe Gideon & The Shark. Pure Groove settles for a bit more experience, with Graham Coxon taking a break from the Blur reunion to play a solo set, backed up by Patrick Wolf.

Gig of the week though goes to the sublime Bat For Lashes, with Natasha Khan picking the excellent School Of Seven Bells as support. Two Suns is setting most critics gabbering, including me, and I’m really looking forward to the gig. Her support slot with Radiohead last summer gave glimmers of a special set, and on her own terms I’m expecting a theatrical adventure – it’ll be intriguing to see if she performs as her two aliases! School Of Seven Bells’ Alpinism should have received much greater admiration than it did last year, and they should provide a perfect electric counterpoint to Bat For Lashes’ more traditional instruments.

Bat For Lashes – Siren Song
School Of Seven Bells – Half Asleep

Here’s a glimpse of how the rehearsals are going for Khan and co.

Bat For Lashes – live in Rehearsal

Photo: Rose X

Read on for the rest of the week’s gigs in the capital…

Monday 13 April

Bombay Bicycle Club – KCLSU

David Byrne – Royal Festival Hall (Ether ’09)

Dent May And His Magnificent Ukulele – Duke of Uke

Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Grammatics – Bush Hall (Teenage Cancer Trust gig)

Tuesday 14 April

Frankmusic – Pure Groove Instore

Loney Dear, Stephanie Dosen – Ill Fit @ Scala

Video Nasties – Old Blue Last

Wednesday 15 April

And So I Watch You From Afar – Barfly

Marianne Faithful – Rough Trade East Instore

Frightened Rabbit – Scala

HEALTH – The Dome

The Veils – Dingwalls

The Wave Pictures – ICA

Thursday 16 April

Dananananaykroyd – Barfly

Errors, BLK JKS, Tiny Masters Of Today – ICA

Friday 17 April

Bat For Lashes, School Of Seven Bells – Shepherd’s Bush Empire

Jeniferever – The Fighting Cocks, Kingston

Johnny Foreigner – Islington Academy

Saturday 18 April

International Record Store Day ft. Graham Coxon, Patrick Wolf – Pure Groove

International Record Store Day ft. Bombay Bicycle Club, Dutch Uncles, Joe Gideon & The Shark – Rough Trade East

Sunday 19 April

Bat For Lashes, School Of Seven Bells – Shepherd’s Bush Empire

IAMX – Koko

The Juan Maclean – Noise of Art @ Queen Elizabeth Hall (Ether ’09)

Linton Kwesi Johnson – The Rose Theatre

There’s been a survey done and apparently the thing that annoys London commuters the most about their fellow travellers is loud music. The survey, carried out on behalf of Jetsleeper, placed audio abuse higher than broadsheet-splaying toffs and drunken head-droopers. No mention of mobile shouters, pushing pikeys or “scuse me ladies and gentlemen, sorry to interrupt your journey…“…

Granted, hissy cymbal rushes and caterwauling R’n'B divas are pretty damn toe-curling in the most serene of times. Listening to the various snatches of London’s collective musical selection isn’t annoying in itself though. Londoners have been used to it for years – when was the last time you last walked down Oxford Street without hearing some godawful Eurotrance blaring out from one of the shops?

What depresses and annoys me about the proliferation of the little white ear-buds isn’t so much the diabolical taste of my fellow Londoners. It’s the terrible sound you get from those shitty little headphones, cutting out all low end and turning the rest to some hideous mid-range sludge. Not only that but the reduction of music from artform to sonic pavement – how many of these i-drones are actually loving (or even know) what they’re listening to?

On my regular commute I’ve seen suited middle age men stare blankly into middle distance while the Sugababes whirl dolefully in his ear. Occasionally you spot someone in the zone -  I clocked a girl once mouthing the words to Kelly Watch The Stars as the train whizzed through Clapham. For my sins I’ve been told several times to turn my music down – most memorably drawing the dreaded commuter stare as Vex Red’s Can’t Smile penetrated the packed rush hour carriage.

I don’t mind your music, London. Just get some decent headphones, start loving what you listen to and we’re all square.

Photo – Orhantsolak

Commuter Love – The Divine Comedy

Hot Chip – Hold On (Switch LDN Rmx) MP3

Metronomy – Heartbreaker


Metronomy – Heartbreaker (KODH Rmx) MP3

White Denim – Shake Shake Shake

White Denim – Shake Shake Shake MP3

The Dodos – Fools

The Dodos – Fools MP3

Travis – Something Anything

Ladyhawke – Dusk Till Dawn

Ladyhawke – Dusk Till Dawn (Shoes Rmx) MP3

Gotye – Learnalilgivinanlovin

Gotye – Learnalilgivinanlovin (Jake Bullit’s Hacienda Rmx) MP3

We Are Scientists – Impatience

Iglu & Hartly – In This City

Moby – Disco Lies

The Raveonettes – Aly, Walk With Me (Nic Endo Rmx)

	Elbow’s debut LP, Asleep In The Back had an aborted start to life, it wasn’t even meant to be their debut record. After having being messed around by Island, they finally released the album in May 2001. And what an album it was, packed with aching tunes sung as if through gravel. The record was unsurprisingly picked for a Mercury nomination, losing out to the sublime PJ Harvey with Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea. Highlights from the album include Scattered Black & Whites, and two of the singles, Newborn and Powder Blue.
	The second LP, Cast Of Thousands opened promisingly with the superb Ribcage but, for me, offered less than the debut. The quality of songwriting was still there, as was the Mancunian worldview, yet the overall feel of the record was that the band had stagnated some.
	Cast Of Thousands on the other hand saw Garvey and co ratchet up the noise levels. Self-produced, the album featured the blistering single Forget Myself and again had a moving opener, Station Approach. Somehow Elbow’s appeal had diminished, despite ongoing critical clamour. Representing a relative commercial slump for the band, there were only two singles released from it.
	And so onto the award-winning The Seldom Seen Kid. Preceded by the belting Grounds For Divorce, this is perhaps the most confident Elbow record. There’s still heartache and there’s still Manchester, but perhaps more importantly there is influence from outside – Sheffield songsmith Richard Hawley makes an appearance on The Fix. The most heard bit of the album has to be the orchestral finish to the brilliant One Day Like This, repeated on everything from Team GB’s success at the Olympics to the TV detritus that is the Big Brother finale.

Each and every one of their albums is well worth the asking price, and I’d probably tackle them in release order. I’d still rate their debut as their most essential record to date, but they have proven themselves a band who can consistently produce excellent songs, and enjoyable albums.

Elbow – Powder Blue (Mp3)
Elbow – Ribcage (Video)
Elbow – Station Approach (Mp3)
Elbow – One Day Like This(Mp3)

Album of the week is Martha Wainwright’s I Know You’re Married But I Have Feelings Too. I gave the record it’s first spin last night out in the back yard, eating some yummy BBQ. It’s a much more mature album than her debut, and more stylistically diverse all held together by that great voice.

A long awaited release, and this weeks runners-up are hip-pop duo Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip. Hugely demonstrating to their doubters that last year’s Thou Shalt Always Kill was no flash in the pan, this is a record full of intelligent rhymes, deft beats and plenty of humour. A fantastic full length debut, only beaten into second place by a Scroobius Pip beard-hair’s breadth. The title track is a particular treat.

Also in the running for album of the week was Campbell & Lanegan’s second collaboration, Sunday At Devil Dirt. Deciding that the formula of 2006′s Mercury-nominated Ballad Of The Broken Seas was too good to break, the second LP is much the same. However, it is no less intriguing or satisfying. A rootsy, bluesy, cracked record full of songs about love and loss.

Death Cab For Cutie Narrow Stairs MP3: I Will Possess Your Heart

Pendulum In Silico . MP3: Propane Nightmare

Flight Of The Conchords S/T . .

Death Cab For Cutie release their second major-label LP, Narrow Stairs this week. The band claim the record to be wildly different to previous outings, a dangerous game to play when your last record was so critically acclaimed. Pendulum also try and follow up a massive success with In Silico. Flight Of The Conchords follow their cult TV hit with an album of their fun folk songs that made the series.

Martina Topley-Bird The Blue God .

Gemma Hayes The Hollow Of Morning MP3: Out Of Our Hands

Santogold S/T MP3: L.E.S. Artistes

Three great singers, three new albums. The most hyped of the bunch is Philadelphia’s Santi White, aka Santogold. Her debut, self-titled album has been preceded by storming single L.E.S. Artistes. I hope the album follows that track more than her contribution to Mark Ronson’s Version, I found her vocals on Pretty Green really annoying.  The other two hae been relatively quite since their nominations for the Mercury Prize in the early 2000s. Both those albums, Quixotic and Night On My Side, were a complete treat. Having heard several tracks on Jools Holland recently, The Blue God isn’t as hot. Hayes’ form since her debut has been patchy too, but I haven’t heard The Hollow Of Morning.

Adem Takes . .

The Black Angels Directions To  See A Ghost MP3: Science Killer

The Shortwave Set Replica Sun Machine . .

Finally, amongst the featued releases are three diverse albums from three diverse artists. Adem presents an album of covers as his third LP, featuring tracks by artists who inspired the Fridge bassist. The Black Angels’ second LP, Directions To See A Ghost is an unexpected treat. Picking up good reviews in most places is The Shortwave Set’s Replica Sun Machine, so that finds it’s way into this list.

Also out this week are the following: Duels – The Barbarians Move In, Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours, Wiley – Grime Wave, Drive By Argument – S/T, Matmos – Supreme Balloon, Shout Out Louds – Our Ill Wills, Stapleton – Rest And Be Thankful. Truly a bumper week.

Don’t forget to vote for your favourite release of the week, the poll is in the left sidebar.

Last week’s top 3 as voted by the readers were:
1. No Age – Nouns
2. Elvis Costello - Momofuku
3. Delays – Everything’s The Rush

 

No Age Nouns MP3: Miner	Tokyo Police Club Elephant Shell MP3: Tessellate	Delays Everything The Rush MP3: Girls On Fire
Elvis Costello Momofuku . MP3: Stella Hurts	Hadouken! Music For An Accelerated Culture MP3: That Boy That Girl	Russian Circles Station . MP3: Harper Lewis
Fleet Foxes Sun Giant MP3: Mykonos	Devon Sproule Upstate Songs .	We Are The Physics …Are OK At Music .
The Declining Winter Goodbye Minnesota	Fear Falls Burning Frenzy Of The Absolute	Wave Pictures Instant Coffee Baby

This week is a relatively quiet week due to the Bank Holiday in the UK, but there are still a few gems. Taking album of the week honours this week is the debut full length from Los Angeles duo No Age. Nouns follows on from last years fantastic compilation Weirdo Rippers. They have remained high in my playlists this year through their involvement with the superb Stereogram-Björk covers compilation, Enjoyed. Released on Sub Pop, Nouns is no disappointment. Noisy, fuzzy and distinctly lo-fi, this is a great set of tracks. Loose instrumentation tied with intense, shouted vocals all drowned in layers of feedback. A real return to the heyday of the great Seattle label.

Runners up this week are Chicago three-piece Russian Circles. Heavy as anything I’ve heard this year, this is epic instrumental stuff. Comparisons to stuff like Isis and even the prog-rock brigade headed by Mogwai etc abound, but this is more post-metal than rock. Cycling between bass-driven riffs and more introspective passages, the six tracks are a proper treat.

Also well worth checking out is the debut full-length from Canadian indie-rockers Tokyo Police Club. Stepping up their game from relatively samey and uninterestind EP A Lesson In Crime, the group have produced a taut, yet melodic, record. The main problem still remains the love or grate vocals. Single Tessellate is a particular highlight.

Definitely worth avoiding is the debut platter from haircut rave-rockers Hadouken. This is about as cynical as marketed music can get, finger on pulse referencing by numbers. I mean their Myspaz page claims them to be Asbo-Disco. Who the fuck would want to go there? It doesn’t even have the sense of humour of scenemates Does It Offend You, Yeah?. Awful.

Elsewhere a personal favourite of mine, Southampton’s Delays, release their third LP Everything’s The Rush. Still dishing out sunny rock to ever diminishing returns, this record unfortunately sees them take a step towards self-parody, with nothing to really grab you like Valentine or Lost In A Melody. A perhaps inevitable shame, but a shame nonetheless.

Folk-indie brings us a couple of peaches this week too. Devon Sproule re-releases her acclaimed 2003 record Upstate Songs, and the much-chanted Fleet Foxes put out the Sun Giant EP. Amongst the fans of the Seattle five-piece are Bristol legends Massive Attack, who included them in their Meltdown line-up. The EP itself has some gorgeous melodies, a real taster for the upcoming album.

More straight up indie can be had from both We Are The Physics and The Wave Pictures. The former come off as an updated Blondie, all jerky rhythms and urgent stabs of guitar. Looking forward to catching them at New Slang this week, supporting US greats Les Savy Fav. The Wave Pictures take a twee-er slant on things, not so much Belle & Sebastian as My Life Story, minus the orchestration. Not really my thing but recent single I Love You Like A Madman is great.

Elsewhere, Elvis Costello clouds the 30th anniversary of the seminal This Year’s Model with the patchy and absurdly titled Momofuku. Belgian noisemaker Fear Falls Burning follows his split LP with Nadja with another slice of ambient-noise, Frenzy Of The Absolute. Sounds like a Muse title, that. Norman Records’ album of the week is by Leeds’ The Declining Winter, whose Goodbye Minnesota is a beautiful piece of work. Check out Summer Turns To Hurt on his Myspaz.

Last week, WoW readers voted these as releases of the week:
1. Half Man Half Biscuit – CSI: Ambleside
2. Portishead – Third (How? I mean, come on!)
3. Madonna – Hard Candy

Don’t forget to vote for this week’s poll, situated in the left sidebar.