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The main act, Tom Walker, is a Scottish born, Manchester raised singer-songwriter who has recently started to make his way on to the music scene. Signed to Sony’s Relentless Records he’s already supported acts like Samm Henshaw and Gallant. |
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Squeezing through a packed Brummy crowd, fresh faced James TW emerged from a very glamorous side door and hopped onto the stage ready for action at The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham. Grabbing his guitar and bursting straight into 'Naked' almost immediately his voice was on top form from the get go, effortlessly gliding through trills and runs with ease much to the delight of the already excited crowd. |
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Moody moog sounds of Break begin the headline set from Charlotte Carpenter and band. The three-piece, two guitars, drums and a mass of effects draw the nicely filled venue into respectful silence immediately. The questioning emotive track builds with brewing, swirling soundscapes before it dissolves into a deserved round of applause. Meantime, also from the new E.P. The Fault Line follows and with heads beginning to nod approval amongst the crowd - it’s quickly apparent the new songs are as good, if not better, than music from the four previous E.P.’s. |
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Liverpool's band of the moment, The Vryll Society, performed at the Sunflower Lounge on Wednesday, accompanied by local bands Semantics and Institutes for an energetic and intimate gig, with a variety of genres and great sound. It was a high quality performance at a venue well suited for these three up and coming bands. |
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It’s been quite a week for noisy cult Birmingham based bands to reform for a ‘one off’ gig. Last Saturday witnessed the second coming of Distophia during the rather excellent All Years Leaving festival and tonight was the turn of much loved shouty, screamy, punky trio Untitled Musical Project to deafen the nation’s young...and not so young... once more. |
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Ahhhhh springtime, dontcha just love it? Longer days, buds on the trees, daffs springing up everywhere, the sudden reappearance of our old friend Mr Sun...except someone, somewhere seems to have failed to read the script this year as the temperature allegedly plummeted to a nut shrivelling -10 today (with wind chill). Good grief. Happily tonight’s compact and subterranean venue rapidly achieved a slightly more tropical feel courtesy of This Is Sinister. They’ve been knocking around for a few years now and what was once an odd mix in their early gigs seems to have gelled remarkably well. Psych, prog, country, rock, beat...no genre’s immune but somehow they make it work. Musical trainspotters might make links to Pearl Jam and At The Drive In in places but this lot are frankly impossible to pigeonhole and there aren’t too many bands you can say that about these days. Pick of the set included Idle Pleasures and the country rock tinged Never Find A Way, complete with added harmonica, neither of which I can find online anywhere so you’ll just have to go and see ‘em instead. Oh, and ask them to do tonight’s closing number too, a spirited and pant wettingly enjoyable version of Twist and Shout that might just be one of the greatest covers of all time... |
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There’s a limb flying through the air. It’s difficult to tell if it’s still attached to its owner. It seems unlikely given the mayhem that’s unfolding in a compact basement in Birmingham. Welcome to the world of The Computers... Lordy, it’s been a while since my last live gig. Nearly a month in fact. I’ve got some decent excuses though, what with the nut shrivelling cold, 3 cm of snow and a misguided attempt to go ‘dry’ for most of the month. Avoiding booze at home is tough enough, not drinking when you’re out at a gig...well...it just don’t seem right. What better way to pop my 2013 gig virginity then than a gig from The Computers eh? Rock and motherhumpin’ roll. |
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It’s always an odd time between Christmas and New Year. Most of us are still recovering from turkey overdose (quite literally going ‘cold turkey’) and desperately necking those chocolate liquors that always seem to find their way into the house somehow (who buys those things?!), eager to stave off the inevitable return to work and the horror that is... JANUARY. Urgh. Bears have the right idea, hibernate through the whole darn thing and wake up just as the daffs are daffing and the bees a buzzing. That would certainly explain the absence of bears at last night’s gig but a surprisingly decent number of humans managed to rise from the sofa... and ruddy glad they were too I bet. |
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Ho ho ho. Whilst Christmas may mean carols, hymns, X Factor nonsense and Cliff singing about ickle baby Jesus to most of the population happily some people are still fighting the good fight, musically speaking at least. So a Santa’s sack full of respect to Distorted Tapes / Rhi Lee for putting together four bands that well and truly stuff most of the musical turkeys around at this time of year. Not Cliff obviously. Cliff is God. No... really... he actually is... a tramp outside Wetherspoons told me. |
