The Luminaire Events for March 2007

01 March - HEADLAND + The Slow Life + Microband

2007-03-01

Touchy Feely Records presents
Choc Ice IV
HEADLAND
+ The Slow Life
+ Microband

Doors 8.00
£2

The fourth installment of Headland\'s famed bi-monthly chocolate extravaganza returns to celebrate their new radio-busting single \'Love Hate\'.

FREE CHOC ICES AND MINI MILKS! ONLY £2!

It\'s difficult to argue with statements like that, we\'ve found.

\"Bringing art-school wit and urbane retro-pop collage to the festival mudbath\" [The Times at Glastonbury, 2005] and, according to Playlouder, blew Kasabian off the stage.

02 March - THE ORCHIDS + The Zebras [Aus] + Slipslide

2007-03-02

Fortuna POP! presents
The first show in over a decade from legendary Sarah Records' band The Orchids.
THE ORCHIDS
+ The Zebras [Aus]
+ Slipslide

Doors 7.30
£7 via WeGotTickets
£9 door

The Orchids - this enigmatic five piece band formed in Glasgow - have released some of the finest pop songs of their generation since humble beginnings in Penilee, a suburb of the city, where the three founder members grew up and started the band in 1986.

"A blissful mix of the best Scottish bands of the last few years" [NME]

Their first six singles and three albums were met with widespread critical acclaim, much of this from outside the UK. They graduated from the gentle lo-fi craft of their first album, 'Lyceum', in 1989 ["A minor classic - don't let is pass you by" said NME] through to the ground breaking and progressive sounds of their third, and aptly titled, 'Striving For The Lazy Perfection' ("lithe, evocative and memorable" - Melody Maker] iin 1994 with "sixth member" Ian Carmichael of One Dove at the studio controls.

In the intervening years they released 'Unholy Soul' in 1991 ["Sarah Records answer to the Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds'"] and some truly original singles and EPs that, in keeping with a stance sometimes perceived as awkward and single-minded, were always kept apart from album projects. The ethos was always more about value for money for their fans than genuine stubbornness, however. These included what many believe to be the high point of their career to date, 'Something For The Longing' as well as final single 'Thaumaturgy' in 1993.

Reformed in 2004 after a break of Paddy McAloon proportions they're now ready to take another swipe at the tedious world of the music business with an album that takes them back to their musical roots. Recorded at Riverside Studios, home to other better known homegrown acts such as Travis, Teenage Fanclub and Trashcan Sinatras, their new record 'Good To Be A Stranger' - released on Madrid based label Siesta on 5th February 2007 - is a fabulous collection of new songs that will feed the hungry appetite of the fan base that has grown over the intervening years. Ahead of their time in the early '90s, it is only now that many have realised how fascinating and mature those earlier releases were.

Following the album, a cover of The Go Betweens' song 'Magic In Here' will also appear on a Grant McLennan tribute album released on USA's Rare Victory Records.

"The best Scottish pop band since Orange Juice" [Melody Maker]

The Zebras were born about five years ago in the same Brisbane backwater that was once home to groups such as The Go-betweens and The Saints. In recent years they've formed a substantial and loyal following at home and their recordings have been widely acclaimed nationally and internationally.

Their sound is driving but clean. Uncompromising vocal melody with generous layers of chiming guitar give The Zebras' sound a unique sparkle. The songs are short and to the point and never outstay their welcome but certainly linger in the mind long after the first listen. As we speak The Zebras are launching their second album 'Worry A Lot' through Melbourne label The Lost and Lonesome Recording Company (brainchild of Mark Monnone of Lucksmiths fame). This album is certain to please the Zebras' loving fans, with its bountiful guitar and vocal melodies and distinctively modest Brisbane charm.

Home recorded and with modest arrangement and production, the songs are intelligent yet hummable as hell. The Zebras have been described as being reminiscent of The Go-Betweens or the Flying Nun bands of the '80s and '90s, so if that is your bag, The Zebras are sure to please.

"Beautiful vocals rest dreamily upon a light layer of sunny instrumentation that you just know is one of many logical next steps that stem from the C86 sound: sensitive, but not stupid." [You Ain't No Picasso, USA]

First on are Slipslide, brilliantly lush pop music from Graeme Elston and his band of ex-Astronauts which melds influences such as Aztec Camera and the Go-Betweens into a melodically breezy sound that has hints of Merseybeat.

Fans of classic songwriting, 12-string guitars and black turtlenecks won't go far wrong. Some say their album "The World Can Wait" on Matinee Recordings is that label's highwater mark.

"Listening to Slipslide's debut full-length is like taking a trip in a time machine back to the late '80s/early '90s when indie pop bands began to get signed by labels with money and headed to proper studios to make big, glossy POP! records. Think of the first Primal Scream album, or the overlooked East Village and their Heavenly recordings. Or think bigger and think about early Lloyd Cole & The Commotions or the Weather Prophets. These are bands with chiming guitars, crystal-clear vocals, and sparklingly clean melodies, bands that write songs that are emotional and immediate." [All Music Guide]

03 March - THE CHAP + Capitol K + Line + Furthur DJs

2007-03-03

Furthur presents
THE CHAP
+ Capitol K
+ Line
+ Furthur DJs

Doors 8.00
£6 here
£7 door

"The Chap are both gear and fab!" (John Peel)

The Chap are an experimental pop band from London. Their music is a mix of rock and pop with small quantities of almost every other genre thrown in for good measure.

"Even as their sophistication requires them to appear semi-detached, they can't mask the intensity inherent in their music. It's fantastic fun. Serious fun." (The Wire)

Having released two critically acclaimed albums on Lo Recordings (2003's 'The Horse' and 2005's 'Ham'), The Chap have built up a deserved international fanbase with their avant-garde approach to rock, embracing krautrock, electronica, prog and disarmingly catchy songs.

"LCD Soundsystem on acid." (Boomkat)

Live, the band deliver one of the most intense sets you'll get to see, a wall of dissonant guitars, throbbing bass and martial drumming that often ends with exploding violins and cellos. Like Talking Heads being channelled through LCD Soundsytem, they can be funny, clever and very very loud.

"The Chap are the only group that have managed to combine the ruff and dirty energy of disco and rock with a sense of pastel warmth and melodic clarity." (Straight No Chaser)

With a new album set for release this year, The Chap are back in the shops with an EP of remixes from the likes of Hot Chip and Zilla.

"Like Underworld if they'd decided to be a lo-fi rock and roll combo instead of a stadium selling dance act. Stunning." (Vice)

Rising from U.K's fervent electronic music scene Capitol K has released various albums through Planet Mu, XL recordings , and his own diy label Faith and Industry. Having grown up on a life off Nomadic travel round the Orient, Capitol K took his collection of found sound and location recordings and playfully juxtaposed it with influence of Rave, and Guitar noise! to form a unique hybrid of lo-fi rock, electronica and pop, all topped off with his characteristic Falsetto vocals. Capitol K has now joined forces with two brilliant musicians Drummer Vladimiro Carboni (Italy) and Guitarist Felipe Pagani (Brazil) to develop a live repertoire that draws from there combined experience, alongside Capitol K's back catalogue off songs. the result? Infectious dancing, melody, & nerve quickening Psychedelia.

Opening are Line

More info from Furthur Promotions

07 March - THE LOW LOWS + The Parkbench Trio + Nic Dawson Kelly

2007-03-07

The Luminaire presents
THE LOW LOWS
+ The Parkbench Trio
+ Nic Dawson Kelly

Doors 7.30
£6 via WeGotTickets
£7 door

"Moody and hauntingly poetic...divine." [Time Out]

After the resignation of Lily Wolfe closed the books on critically acclaimed NYC dream-pop quartet Parker & Lily two years ago, the remaining members of the band reconfigured into the Georgia trio named (after Parker & Lily's third and final album) The Low Lows. 'Fire On The Bright Sky', their debut album, was released in October.

"A fantastic audio experience...slow, menacing but with a strange magic" **** [Maverick Magazine]

Stark Southern sweetness gives way unexpectedly to great storms of guitar noise, bright walls of country narcosis crumble into climactic, stomping feedback and distortion. Sheets of dissonance and Parker maverick Noon's arcing wail conjure Galaxie 500 or Electr-O-Pura era Yo La Tengo. Dark, brooding southern gothic sounds, the music veers from hushed sweetness to raucous reverb whilst never loosing its warmth or sensibility.

"The kind of record seeped in such sadness that baffled writers usually declare it genius due to its sheer human extremity. Count me in." [Is This Music?]

The Low Lows' live show is a dishevelled but exhilarating beast, typically faster and much noisier than the albums, saturated with Daniel Rickard's rolling, distorted Farfisa and driven by Jeremy Wheatley's insistent drums.

"Monstrously sad and brilliantly anachronistic... Three sparkling, slightly surreal rock icons that seem to have been constructed out of feedback and white noise. Like werewolves mutating, feedback drips from freshly exposed fangs... Then suddenly they return to us, playing pretty, remorseful songs about the carnage they caused." [Los Angeles Weekly]

Main support are The Parkbench Trio, which features vocalist Martin Thomas Wissenberg from the The Chinamen, bottleneck blues maestro Tom Rodwell on electric guitars and electro jazz fiend Etmo on Saxes and Kaoss pad. The music is mellow, lyrically interesting and sublimely delivered with great feel and attention, bridging the divides between folk, Americana, jazz and blues. Live, The Parkbench Trio is steeped in psychedelia and improv, with a tendency to explode slowly. Think John Martyn and Nick Cave sipping cocktails on Tom Wait's front porch.

Opening the evening is Reading's Nic Dawson Kelly, sitting somewhere between Ryan Adams, Devendra Banhart and Anthony & The Johnsons is Reading via Brighton singer/songwriter Nic Dawson Kelly. Having already played with Jamie T and forged friendships and plans across the capital, 2007 is shaping up well for this 23-year-old troubadour.

08 March - FIEL GARVIE + Wry + Hearts of Black Science

2007-03-08

Club AC30 presents
FIEL GARVIE
+ Wry
+ Hearts of Black Science

Doors 7.30
£5 via WeGotTickets

"Always disregarding fashion, and in the thrall of nobody, Fiel Garvie have honed their mastery of dark, sonic pop - bittersweet and beautiful". Rock DeLux (Spain)

Fiel Garvie have been described as one of the UK pop underground's best kept secrets. Theirs is a career that began ten years ago, with the single 'Glass Faced Warrior', and has moved stealthily through four other singles, an EP and three full-length albums in 'Vuka Vuka', 'Leave Me Out Of This' and the current long player "Caught Laughing" which have seen their critical notoriety spread through to France, Italy, Spain, and Japan.

"Fans of the emotions invoked by Mercury Rev and Cocteau Twins will want this beautiful album." - Blow Up (Italy)

In 2006 the band embarked on their first tour of Japan where the album reached number one in the prestigious CMJ-Tokyo chart - above such pop luminaries as Thom Yorke and The Kaiser Chiefs. In a surreal turn of events the band's debut Madrid gig in November was almost picketed by octogenarian supporters of former facist dictator General Franco.

"This is a more deliberate, expansive, and patient Fiel Garvie recording. Highly recommended!" - Somewhere Cold (Canada)

'Leave Me Out of This', the second album featured in over 50 lists of best albums of 2006. In the band's dreamy, swoonsome music, you'll hear distant echoes of such missing-in-action combos as Mazzy Star, Opal and My Bloody Valentine, but the band are in possession of a genuine songwriting gift that is totally their own.

"...a floating sort of dream-pop, but more structured than that implies. They're not making clouds, they're crafting songs. Their songs build and release, coalesce around remarkable melodies, and glide in the sophisticated manner of timeless balladry." - Dave Heaton, Erasing Clouds (USA)

The new album 'Caught Laughing', mixed by Geoff Allan (Mogwai, Arab Strap) has already been released to great critical acclaim in various countries around the world. It receives its UK release at the end of February 2007 on the dreampop's cognoscenti's favourite US label Words On Music.

"Caught Laughing is an album both ahead of time and completely timeless. Magnificently melodic and captivatiing". Foutraque (France) Main supporters are Wry, a perfect mix between punk and shoegazer rock. Live they are reminiscent of Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and early U2. After much success in their native Brazil, they flew out to London and have based themselves here for the foreseeable future.

Opening up, from Gothenburg, Sweden are alternative electro-rock act Hearts Of Black Science with their melancholic and sometimes dark pop with haunting melodies. Given their unique range of influences and unapologetic style, the band has gained many loyal fans in a multitude of genres from goth, alternative, electronica to pop, shoegaze, industrial and even metal.

09 March - BRAZILIAN GIRLS + Guests

2007-03-09

The Luminaire presents
BRAZILIAN GIRLS
+ Guests

Doors 7.30
£7.50 via WeGotTickets
£9 door

"Taking cues from everything from '70's disco to electro, 'La Bomb's 12 tracks - sung in English, French, German, and Italian (and on occasion all five on one song) - Brazilian Girls are aggressive, dizzying, and funky." [VH1]

Is 'Talk To La Bomb', the second album from New York quartet Brazilian Girls, the soundtrack to the end of the world, or the record that will ignite the planet's salvation? A polyglot of rhythms, sounds, and languages, their sophomore set throbs with the energy of a teeming mob. Those crowds might be the bejeweled revelers of carnival in Rio or frightened citizens filling Tokyo streets as Godzilla approaches. No matter. 'Talk To La Bomb' distills that surging energy-of all those cultures, those moods-into a single, dynamic album.

"The band's reputation as an energetic live act has set the table for a possible crossover to the mainstream this time around, in the tradition of other left-of-center, genre-bending acts from New York such as Dee-Lite or the Talking Heads." [LA Times]

These 12 new tracks bristle with immediacy, packing a sonic wallop that contrasts vividly with the group's sinewy, sexy 2005 self-titled debut. "We became a band by playing music in a lounge in New York," notes keyboard player Didi Gutman, "and that environment influenced the music on the first album." But as the accolades accrued internationally for Brazilian Girls, those impromptu Sunday night sessions at the intimate Nublu on Avenue C were replaced by extended tours, and the band found itself playing increasingly larger venues.

"Where many dance-music bands are satisfied with a beat, two chords and a come-on, Brazilian Girls are far more ambitious. The songs on their second album are more fully formed and thornier than those on their debut. They can veer toward new wave, electropop or French chanson as remained in a 21st-century lounge, where a suave melody could be peppered with a double-time break beat. Dance music runs on rhythm and desire, and Brazilian Girls put twists in both of them." [New York Times]

Their music incorporates reggae, electronica, jazz, bossa nova, and you name it, and despite their name, no one in the band is Brazilian. They are three men; Didi Gutman on keyboards and computers, Jesse Murphy on bass, and Aaron Johnston on drums, and one woman, Sabina Sciubba, who sings in no less than five different languages.

This New York-based band of vagabonds makes multicultural, cosmopolitan, intellectual dance music: Ibiza meets punk, dub goes tango, trance gets smart. And with her tongue-in-chic costumes and cool delivery, Sciubba could be the 21st century's first superstar-style siren-no translation necessary.

10 March - FUTURE OF THE LEFT + Infants + Get Crucial

2007-03-10

Infants & The Luminaire presents
InFest
FUTURE OF THE LEFT
+ Infants
+ Get Crucial

Doors 7.30
£6.50 via WeGotTickets
£7 door

After the break-up of seminal punk outfit Mclusky, singer/guitarist Andy "Falco" Falkous and drummer Jack Egglestone, along with Jarcrew's singer/bassist Kelson Matthias, formed like Voltron to create Future of The Left.

Expect incendiary verbal tirades, destructive drums and violent, jagged guitars twisting around an imaginative, cerebal core.

Main support and tonight's curators Infants are "London-based pop terrorists sounding like Melt Banana clawing the eyes out of Brainiac; only they were brought up on insane underground dance rhythms." [Drowned in Sound]

Get Crucial, first on, are a three piece from London consisting of two boys (Andrew Robert Doig and Mikey White) and a girl (Cesca). They are looking to create the ultimate song, though you'll have to ask them or listen to them to find out what on earth they're on about. Influenced by the likes of Brainiac and Arab On Radar to Polvo and Guvnor, they plough a loudly distorted and dirgy bass furrow, driven by minimal vocals and stabs of guitar and synth.

Click here for a particularly handsome flyer, created for the occasion. Thanks to Tim Hill.

12 March - ADRIAN CROWLEY + Jo Mango + Serafina + Ain + Barbarossa DJ set

2007-03-12

The Luminaire presents
ADRIAN CROWLEY
+ Jo Mango
+ Serafina
+ Ain
+ Barbarossa DJ set

Doors 7.30
£6 via WeGotTickets
£7 door

Adrian Crowley - our headliner - is a remarkable Irish singer/songwriter over for his first headline show in London, following magnificent appearances at this year's Green Man & Homefires festival, plus support slots with Adem, James Yorkston and Jose Gonzalez. Think Fence Records, Red House Painters and Nick Drake. More stark, more sparse but equally beautiful.

"The most brooding moment of shadow filled pop this side of Black Heart Procession." [Losing Today]

Opening proceedings are Serafina Steer, whose debut single came out on Static Caravan in December '06. It was single of the week on Piccadilly Records and has been played on Radio 3's Mixing it and Late Junction/ Radio 2's Bespoken Word and Radio 1. She has just completed an album to be released in May; co-produced by Mike Lindsey of Tunng and Capitol K. Serafina who plays the harp and keyboards, has been compared to Brian Eno, Joanna Newsom, Morrisey, The Flying Lizards."

14 March - REDJETSON + Cats & Cats & Cats + Buttonhead

2007-03-14

The Luminaire presents
REDJETSON
+ Cats & Cats & Cats
+ Buttonhead

Doors 7.30
£6 via WeGotTickets
£7 door

Tonight's Redjetson show is a launch for their new single to be released on Try Harder Records.

"Breathtakingly beautiful." [The Fly]

Redjetson deal with epic songs full of slow-burning grandeur, emotional intensity and imposing passion. Despite their glacial exterior, their music is infused with a deep warmth and beating heart, moving away from the constrictive forms of 'post rock', and into warmer, more soulful climbs.

A six-piece spread over the less glamorous parts of East London and Essex, the story began with the release their debut split 12" single with Oxford sorcerers Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies on Drowned in Sound Recordings in August 2004. This was followed by the release of debut album 'New General Catalogue' in the UK in January 2005 and across Europe in April 2006.

"Set to break all perceptions of post-rock being inaccessible and only suited to homicidal sociopaths. If you like your Joy Division, Mogwai and Radiohead then this is essential!" [this is fake diy] To support these releases, UK tours alongside Bloc Party (including Brixton Academy shows), Hope of The States and 65daysofstatic were followed up with a 2006 Headline tour of France with the Leeds based and Fierce Panda/Beggar's Banquet/Talitres signed iLIKETRAiNS. The campaign continued in Winter 2006/2007 with a pan-European tour as special guests of Archive, visiting France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Poland and Greece.

Following the release of new double-A side single 'The Unravelling / Racing In The Mire' on Try Harder Records in March 2007, Redjetson return to the studio in early summer to record their sophomore full length release. The band will reveal this new material to audiences at live shows in the UK and Europe in the Summer/Autumn.

Main support, Cats and Cats and Cats are an indie/experimental collective who make "glittering stop-start melodies" (Half a Pigeon Zine).
"A ferocious spectacle" say The Fly Magazine.

Opening are Buttonhead who began in mid 2005 when founding member Ross Blake was invited to perform a string of gigs Belgium with drumming Flemish drum maestro Jereon Stevens (of I Love Sarah) and guitarist Geert Dignef. However, this collaboration did not go on for long before geographical complications got the better of it. 2006 has seen the arrival of an entirely new set of London based musicians to fill the various rolls required for the full and final line up. These are Tobias Jones, Thomas Fuglesang, Valentina Magaletti, Kelly Jenkins and Eloise Goulder. The name is taken from years of recorded childhood ramblings, as are a few of the songs. The genre is intended to be marginal and ever-shifting, with lyrics inspired by car boot sales, psychotic woodland people, long-diseased corgis and unsung pagan shakers.

15 March - JOHN & JEHN + Emma McGlynn and the Monorail + Spinmaster Plantpot + The Tall Poppies + DJs CharlieNo4 + One Imaginary Girl

2007-03-15

One Imaginary Evening presents
A fundraising event for Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity. All door monies will be donated to them.

JOHN & JEHN
+ Emma McGlynn and the Monorails
+ Spinmaster Plantpot
+ The Tall Poppies
+ DJs CharlieNo4 + One Imaginary Girl

Doors 7.30
£5 cash

John & Jehn sprouted from the fertile soil of Nicolas Conge and Camille Berthomier's love garden, situated somewhere between their hometowns; Poitiers and Angouleme. Almost instantaneously, in July 2005, they became the happy parents of a 5 track EP, 'Lamour ne Nous Dechirera Pas' [Love Will NOT Tear Us Apart).

Influenced by Serge Gainsbourg, The Velvet Underground, Gang of Four, Joy Division, Johnny Cash; the music is a shambolic collection of sonic experiments in space, carried by dark humour on pulsing melodies. Having given up their livelihoods, John et Jehn are currently locked in a room in Londons suburbia surrounded by piles of recording equipment and various musical toys. You can find the EP in Rough Trade Records, and there's already oodles of label interest so dont be surprised to find John et Jehn skipping through your mind, arm in arm, in the New Year.

Where Emma McGlynn & The Monorail are concerned, think Regina Spektor meets PJ Harvey with older guitars and more songs about weapons. Emma and her band The Monorails will be releasing their new album on Impatio Sound in March. The 2nd single to be taken from the album is due for release late Feb and has featured heavily on BBC6, Radio 2 and Xfm.

Spinmaster Plantpot is an acapella, 21st century ranter who delights in straddling the poetry / comedy / music divide. His 30 second songs - bouts of pure primeval energy - and his ten, ometimes fifteen minute sets have become legendary on the London indie circuit.

Show openers The Tall Poppies are the perfect analgesic. This melodic indie-guitar pop band fronted by striking modettes are a fresh, colourful drop of bliss. Live, they are a confident, comfortably quirky act with strong harmonies, a real treat.

16 March - GENERAL AND DUCHESS COLLINS [ex-Beta Band] + Kid Canavarel + The Bicycle Thieves + Come In Tokyo + DJs The Pictish Trail, Dominic

2007-03-16

Astonishing Sounds Presents
GENERAL AND DUCHESS COLLINS [ex-Beta Band]
+ Kid Canavarel
+ The Bicycle Thieves
+ Come In Tokyo
+ DJs The Pictish Trail, Dominic

Doors 7.30
£5 via WeGotTickets
£6 door

The General & Duchess Collins is the new project from former Beta Bander Richard Greentree and accomplice Petra Jean Phillipson. Simultaneously loose and tight, effortlessly upbeat and always on target.

Kid Canaveral are the Fence Collective\'s \"Juicy, chewy, pop-kids\" from Edinburgh, in town to promote their excellent debut single \'Smash Hits\'.

The Bicycle Theives are a London based boy/girl harmony pop, via an NYC loft. Now with added country twist. They You Love.

Fence stalwart Little Pebble introduces his new outfit, Come In Tokyo, redefining the classic \'drums, guitar, some more drums and maybe a bit more guitar\' format.

DJs for the evening are The Pictish Trail (Fence Records), Dominic (Astonishing Sounds, Club Amino) and Deano (Untidy).

17 March - THE FRANK AND WALTERS + Pilotlight + Bucky

2007-03-17

The Luminaire presents
THE FRANK AND WALTERS
+ Pilotlight
+ Bucky

Doors 7.30
£13 via WeGotTickets
£14 door

Mixing up tracks from their most recent album \'A Renewed Interest In Happiness\' with back-catalogue classics, The Frank & Walters aren\'t likely to shirk their responsibilities as far as St. Patrick\'s Day in Kilburn is concerned.

"A Renewed Interest In Happiness" by The Frank And Walters, tells us that everything is going to be OK. It is an antidote to the trials and tribulations we all face. Questions and answers beautifully packaged in unforgettably perfect melodies. Expect the same from their live show.

Pilot Light are a London-based four-piece hailing from Dublin originally. The band create intensely emotional music, verging from fragile and intricate to harsh and overwhelming. With three Irish independent releases under their belt - the last one reaching the top 40 of the national singles chart - Pilotlight decided to relocate to the UK in 2006. \'Bite Your Nails\' is Pilotlight\'s first UK single, out on Coercion Records, March 19th.

"Bite Your Nails is a beautiful rock exercise, with alternating light and dark, from loose spaces of melody, it rips unexpectedly to a fury of guitar outbursts" (Indiepop.it)

Opening, we\'re very pleased to say, are Bucky. It\'s Ritalin all round as attention-deficit-disorder duo Bucky begin to start getting around to commencing. Their clowning, distracted asides and high-jink japery draws the crowd closer and they have warmth in spades. They are the unholy love child of Sparks, They Might Be Giants and Momus, with songs about teenage hormonal misery, moody stropping and the vaingloriously misunderstood. Rocket-speed pocket opera jammed into square peg, round hole two-minute miniatures.

\"The best band in the world!\" [Crispian Mills]

\"GarageRock&RollBubblegumCountryPunkFun\" [TV\'s Iain Lee]

\"The best band I\'ve ever heard that I never got around to booking until now.\" [The Luminaire\'s Andy Inglis]

20 March - JOSH PYKE + Ed Laurie + Yael Naim

2007-03-20

The Luminaire presents
JOSH PYKE
+ Ed Laurie
+ Yael Naim

Doors 7.30
£6 via WeGotTickets
£7 door

This is the first of a three night residency for Josh [the others are March 27 and April 3] and this evening he\'s supported by Luminaire favourite Ed Laurie, and Yael Naim.

"...though his high voice will bring casual comparisons to Elliott Smith, the similarities lie more in the raw and mysterious imagery... of the kind most current singer songwriters wouldn't consider.... Pyke has particular promise." [Uncut]

It didn\'t take long before Josh Pyke\'s unique voice and song writing style, influenced by the likes of Elliott Smith, Evan Dando, and Sparklehorse, began to find favour amongst music tastemakers, critics and Triple J listeners in his Australian homeland. The first taste, the assured \'Kids Don\'t Sell Their Hopes So Fast\', found high rotation on JJJ and soon \'Silver\' and the gently sweeping \'Doldrums\' followed to similar praise and airplay.

"Memories & Dust' is a classic example of one-man acoustic story-telling - quirky, sullen and akin to a more upbeat Elliott Smith. This is a world-class album from the Australian songwriter who signed to Island last year. A very bright talent." [Music Week]

Earlier this year Josh signed to Ivy League Records and shortly afterwards travelled to New York for some further writing, performing and demoing and upon return set about recording what will be his debut release under his own name, a mini album entitled \'Feeding The Wolves\'.

\"Feeding the Wolves\" signifies a great deal more than a change in name: It reveals a huge step in the development of Josh as an artist and songwriter. The subject matter is as broad as titles like \'Beg Your Pardon\', \'Private Education\', \'Middle Of The Hill\' and \'Goldmines\' suggest, however it\'s Josh\'s lyrics that draw this collection of songs together into a complete package. He cleverly dissects human emotion and feelings and shows them for what they are: complex, abstract, fascinating.

With production by the much-lauded Wayne Connolly (You Am I, Underground Lovers, Youth Group, just about any Australian act of note...), \"Feeding The Wolves\" has the artist now rightly known as Josh Pyke letting his talent flow without constraint. The words seem to tumble out of him: honest, evocative, and emotional all at once. The playing - again mostly all Josh - is one moment sweetly melodic, then turning urgent and insistent as needs be. This range of feelings, packaged so they bounce around inside your head like good songs do, and given so generously, go together to make \'Feeding The Wolves\' the sound of an artist beginning to realise an enormous potential.

Main support is brought to you by Ed Laurie, \"a singer-songwriter with a similar emotional warmth as such legendary troubadours as Leonard Cohen. A sweet offering if ever we\'ve heard one! [The Stool Pigeon]. Ed paints a haunting and exotic landscape with his unmistakable baritone and Latin-tinged rhythms picked out on a nylon-stringed guitar. Musical magical realism. Think the child of Cesaria Evora if she was involved in a bizarre love-in with Jose Gonzalez, Leonard Cohen and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Opening the evening is Yael Naim, a Paris-born, Israeli-raised singer, pianist, composer, songwriter and producer.

21 March - BRAKEN + SJ Esau + Gareth S. Brown + DJ Buddy Peace

2007-03-21

Let's Go Baboon presents
BRACKEN
+ SJ Esau
+ Gareth S. Brown
+ DJ Buddy Peace

Doors 8.00
£7 via WeGotTickets
£8 door

Let's Go Baboon present another evening of fine music. Witness:

New venture from Hood main man Chris Adams is Braken. The glorious debut, 'We Know About The Need' (released on Anticon 12th February), mixes claustrophobic electronica, dubbed out experimentation and darkly beautiful melodies, forging a path somewhere between Boards of Canada, Third Eye Foundation and Hood. Bracken walks that rarely tread turf between the electronic and the organic, where complex arrangements sound free and easy.

"Pick of the bunch is 'Fight or Flight' whose frazzled luminosity betrays an affection for both the Durutti Column and The Beta Band." [Uncut]

Main support is SJ Esau, a glittering collage of experimental pop which builds, skips then splinters across the feted lands of Beach Boys, Jim O' Rourke & Why? whilst remaining perfectly unique. New album 'Wrong Faced Cat Feed Collapse' is released by Anticon, February 22nd

"So sweetly wonderful... so incredibly homemade and so brave for letting you see exactly how they put everything together, no magic, which of course was all the magic they needed." [Plan B]

Opener Gareth S. Brown creates vividly autumnal, enchanted soundscapes through the prism of glockenspiel fuelled electronica. Influenced by Eastern European folk music, funeral marches and jewellery boxes, 'Iron Henry' (released on Misplaced Music January 22nd) is a gorgeous work of layered beauty with nods towards Philip Glass, Terry Riley, Michael Nyman, Max Richter and Aphex Twin.

"It is very beautiful, very epic and needs to be listened to repeatedly." [Sandman]

"A fragile beauty, so secret its kept in a box but when its allowed out it twinkles like the stars." [I'd Rather Be Fat then Confused]

And before and between and after all that we've a DJ set courtesy of Budy Peace.

22 March - VIKING MOSES + Adam Lipman + The End Springs + George Thomas & The Owls + Joker's Daughter

2007-03-22

The Luminaire presents
VIKING MOSES
+ Adam Lipman
+ The End Springs
+ George Thomas & The Owls
+ Joker's Daughter

Doors 7.30
£6 via WeGotTickets
£7 door

Raw, howling folk and intimate, intriguing story-telling. Viking Moses is music as seen through the lens of Brendon Massei's truly nomadic life.

Many musicians adopt a bohemian persona to fit their music, but Viking Moses is the real deal. Brendon has released banjo and acoustic guitar albums under several names. Perpetually on tour (since 1996), he has played with Will Oldham, Cat Power, Songs: Ohia and Devendra Banhart, to name a few, yet his body of work has received little commercial or critical attention.

His newest full-length under the Viking Moses moniker, the story-song cycle 'Crosses', is by far his most accomplished work, and ranks among the best of the newest crop of American folk recordings. For anyone who has seen Massei perform live, the delicate mood of 'Crosses' may come as a bit of a surprise. While a Viking Moses show often finds Massei on his knees wailing like a man possessed, 'Crosses' consists of nothing more than a softly picked nylon-string acoustic guitar, a bass, and some piano flourishes, with Massei's trademark baritone rarely reaching its cathartic heights.

For that particular treat, you need to come tonight, when he'll be playing songs from his due-in-the-Spring album 'The Parts That Showed', on Pop Tones.

Before that, we've Adam Lipman, who sings in hushed tones with an unexpected youthful solemnity. The closest comparison would be with Owen Ashworth of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, though his barebones lo-fi songs also recall the earnestness of early Mountain Goats. His latest record features stellar songwriting and includes lots of session work by members of Quem Quaeritis and Aum Rifle plus vocals by Larkinn Grimm and Hazey Jane. This is folk music twisted and warped by an optimistic tropicalism and is unlike any record you've ever heard.

The End Springs spins six-string patterns like spider webs, all quiet bossa-nova wanderings and neo-Fahey dusty landscapes, spruced with poignant sunrise/sunset delay and subtle sampled naturalism. Total tranquility base.

This is the debut London solo show for George Thomas & The Owls, coinciding with the release of his first album 'Concert for Two Bicycles' through Red Deer Club on the 19th of March. A unique songwriter and live performer of rare and shambolic charm, he has been variously likened to Andy Kaufman, Leonard Cohen, and 'Simon and Garfunkel on Ketamine'.

Opening is Joker's Daughter who plays a solo acoustic set from her electro folk collection of dark, quirky songs. She has collaborated with the likes of Danger Mouse and Sparkelhorse. If you're lucky, she may even sing a tune in Greek with the accompaniment of her bouzouki.

23 March - DEVON SPROULE + Adrian Crowley + DJs

2007-03-23

Tin Angel Productions
DEVON SPROULE
four piece including the mighty BJ Cole on slide guitar
+ Adrian Crowley
+ DJs

Doors 7.30
£6 via WeGotTickets
£7 door

Tin Angel, Waterbug and City Salvage Records, proudly announce the release of 'Keep Your Silver Shined', a new collection of songs from 24-year-old singer and guitarist Devon Sproule.

Produced by Jeff Romano in the heart of Virginia's Blue Ridge mountains, Keep Your Silver Shined highlights Sproule's talent for combining Appalachian, folk and jazz influences. From the front porch thump of "Old Virginia Block" to the high lonesome traditional "The Weeping Willow," featuring fellow Virginia-native Mary Chapin Carpenter, this record finds Sproule making another important contribution to the Great American Songbook.

"'Keep Your Silver Shined' rings with a sweet, heartbreaking majesty; these songs are beautiful, timeless and transporting." [Davy Rothbart of This American Life]

Though she may thrive on the road, Keep Your Silver Shined shifts the light to Ms. Sproule's domestic life in Charlottesville, VA, with husband and fellow musician Paul Curreri. The record includes a duet by the two, "Eloise & Alex," a Curreri original.

"'Keep Your Silver Shined' proves Sproule worthy of holding her own on a shelf with anyone from Joni Mitchell to Gillian Welch, while reminding you less & less of anyone you've ever heard before." [Brady Earnhart, Poetry Professor, University of Mary Washington]

Sproule's previous effort, 'Upstate Songs' (City Salvage Records) was included in Rolling Stone's Critics Top Albums of 2003. Critic Julie Gerstein called the record, "perhaps the sweetest and most honest folk-pop album recorded this year," and added, "Sproule's vocal and lyrical beauty is unmatched."

In "Stop By Anytime," sparse drums hint at a bossanova. "Stop by anytime / I've got the bookshelves loaded and the backyard is green and blooming / Stop by anytime / Let the humidity curl your hair / And the mulberries stain your toes / If you could come around, I could show you down / To where the knots of the day untie / So stop by, stop by anytime."

Sproule's own jazz standard "Let's Go Out" playfully complains, "There's nothing in the fridge / Nothing in the cupboard / The jelly jar is empty / And I'm plum sick of peanut butter / A groundhog ate the lettuce / Right out of the ground / Honey, let's go out!" A clarinet picks up the tune, backed by the brushes and bass of an able rhythm section.

"Devon Sproule has noteworthy guitar chops and an undeniably soulful vocal sensibility." [The New Yorker]

Born to hippie parents on a commune in Kingston, Ontario, Sproule claims dual citizenship with both Canada and the US. After moving between private, public and home schooling, she eventually left high school, recorded her first record, and began touring nationally -- all before the age of eighteen.

'Keep Your Silver Shined' presents an honest and sparkling portrait of Devon Sproule: candid, poetic and right at home.

Adrian Crowley - supporting - is a remarkable Irish singer/songwriter over for his first headline show in London, following magnificent appearances at this year's Green Man & Homefires festival, plus support slots with Adem, James Yorkston and Jose Gonzalez. Think Fence Records, Red House Painters and Nick Drake. More stark, more sparse but equally beautiful.

"The most brooding moment of shadow filled pop this side of Black Heart Procession." [Losing Today]

24 March - BATTLE + Pete and the Pirates + Sunny Day Sets Fire + Clash DJs

2007-03-24

Clash Magazine presents
Clash Club supported by Oakley
BATTLE
+ Pete and the Pirates
+ Sunny Day Sets Fire
+ Clash Magazine DJs

Doors 7.30
£6 via WeGotTickets
£7 door

Battle peddle a melody-lashed contempo-retro sound that belies some deliciously crafty experimental edges. The London foursome made a major splash when all 1,500 copies of \'Demons\', their first single for label Transgressive, passed through the tills on the week of issue. Follow up \'Tendency\' went one better, forcing its way into the chart\'s lower reaches. Battle are currently in the studio working on their long-awaited debut album.

Pete And The Pirates: romantic, chivalrous, quixotic and humorous, Pete and the Pirates are the type of band that can be an antidote to any kind of adversity. With a little of the quaint English charm of the Mystery Jets and a subtle sprinkling of the lascivious indie soul of Hefner, they have the kind of arch and informed strut to satiate the desires of the most ardent indie outsiders.

Opening are the \"wonderful pop-music alá \"Belle and Sebastian and Architecture in Helsinki\", Sunny Day Set Fire Click here for a lovely flyer, created for the occasion. Thanks Molly.

25 March - INFINITE LIVEZ + Kid Acne

2007-03-25

Soundcrash Productions presents
INFINITE LIVEZ
+ Kid Acne

Doors 7.30
£8 via WeGotTickets £9 door

Count up the artists you've heard recently which don't sound like anything else. The ones which don't artfully reference previous classics or jump on to a revivialist trend. Artists which seem to come out of no particular space or time and do so with such force that you have to admit this really is something different. Got any fingers up yet? No? Then drop "Art Brut Fe De Yoot" into the cd player.

'Witty, wise and exceedingly talented London MC, Infinite Livez' as Time Out has it, returns to the stage.

For the uninitiated, Inf's vocal style is unique, switching between sing-song wailing, London-accented hip hop drawl and spoken word beat poetry, making plenty of use of numerous effect pedals which he uses to twist his voice into sounds and shapes worthy of the best free jazz instrumentalists.

People lucky enough to have seen an Infinite Livez show, will know to expect the unexpected!

The album is released on the 12th March on Big Dada (the label responsible for Roots Manuva, Spank Rock, Ty, Diplo).

27 March - JOSH PYKE + The Leisure Society + Nic Dawson Kelly

2007-03-27

The Luminaire presents
JOSH PYKE
+ The Leisure Society
+ Nic Dawson Kelly

Doors 7.30
£6 via WeGotTickets
£7 door

This is the second of a three night residency for Josh [the final show is on April 3]

Opening the evening is Reading\'s Nic Dawson Kelly, sitting somewhere between Ryan Adams, Devendra Banhart and Anthony & The Johnsons is Reading via Brighton singer/songwriter Nic Dawson Kelly. Having already played with Jamie T and forged friendships and plans across the capital, 2007 is shaping up well for this 23-year-old troubadour.

28 March - ROBB JOHNSON & THE IRREGULARS + Swill & The Swaggerband + Tracey Curtis

2007-03-28

Complete Control and Irregular Records are honoured to present
ROBB JOHNSON & THE IRREGULARS
+ Swill & The Swaggerband
+ Tracey Curtis

Doors 7.30
£5 via WeGotTickets
£7 door

Robb Johnson [and the Irregulars] is now widely recognised as one of the finest songwriters working in the UK today. His songs feature in the repertoires of a wide variety of musicians, from folk legend Roy Bailey to acclaimed cabaret diva Barb Jungr and he enjoys a similarly diverse spectrum of critical acclaim a modern-day Dostoyevsky said the USs Dirty Linen, Mojo made the double CD \'Gentle Men\' Folk Album Of The Month, while The Daily Telegraph made it their Folk Album Of 1998, and Tony Benn says Johnsons \'Winter Turns To Spring\' is his favourite song. Such an accoldade.

He has played pubs, clubs, pavements, pickets and benefits, arts centres and festivals, local radio, BBC Radio 3 & 4, Belgian Radio 1, Nicaraguan TV & Channel 4, the Albert Hole in Bristol and, as part of Roy Baileys 1998 concert, the Albert Hall in London. Robb has worked with a variety of bands, with friend & fellow songwriter Leon Rosselson, as well as solo. In 1997 Robb wrote the song suite \'Gentle Men\', an ambitious family history of the first World War, for the Passendael Peace Concert, and subsequently toured it successfully in Britain too. He also plays extensively in Belgium, Holland and Germany and he has toured Britain supporting Chumbawamba and in the U.S with David Rovics.

As Punk celebrates its 30th birthday, the musical trajectories it inspired still continue to criss cross the genres in a most fantastic way. No more so than in the case of this artist and this record. Swill (his original punk name) is Philip Odgers and 28 years ago he stood onstage in an electric blue suit and leopard skin shirt as his first band Catch 22 supported the Clash on the infamous 16 Tons tour.

Now, stepping out from the shadows of his other life as one half of the vocal attack in legendary UK folk rockers The Men They Couldnt Hang, Swill has made his own record and infused it with the age old punk ethos of DIY. All of his trademark passions are present; Americana, folk, Celtic rhythm, blue eyed pop and country. Imagine Glen Campbell, Kirsty MacColl and late period Joe Strummer all rolled into one and backed by the best little picking band this side of the bayou.

Having previously been a part of pop punk band Shelleys Children, Tracey Curtis\' solo career was launched almost by accident when she was encouraged by her children to write a protest song against a planned by-pass that would ruin their local riverside dens and rope swings. Tracey joined Chumbawamba, Attila the Stockbroker and American political singer/songwriter David Rovics on tours of the UK during 2006.

Her new album \"Picture Postcards\" is one of the finest of it\'s kind so far this year and we are delighted to have her play some songs from it tonight.

29 March - SILVER SUN + The Duloks + Wodjtek Godzisz

2007-03-29

World Domination League presents
SILVER SUN
+ The Duloks
+ Wojtek Godzisz

Doors 7.30
£7 via WeGotTickets
£8 door

Silver Sun released their critically acclaimed eponymous debut album in 1997, characterised by strong vocal harmonies and energetic choruses. This London quartet are fronted by the bespectacled James Broad, a man whose sometimes perverse lyrics are surrounded by sugar-coated melodies drenched in a heavy buzzsaw guitar attack and heavenly harmonies which fall somewhere between the Buzzcocks and Cheap Trick. The band reformed to produce a third album in 2004, and have just unleashed album number four, 'Dad's Weird Dream' in late 2006.

The Duloks played their first gig just six months ago at a fancy dress \'Jocks and Nerds\' themed party, their costumes stuck and the trio have been wearing shorts and knee socks ever since. With a repertoire of pure fun, their songs include gems such as \'Bad Vegetarian\' and \'Help! I\'m Turning Into Mick Jagger!\', fired by sexy synths and blistering drum beats.

Wojtek Godzisz makes his long-awaited return to the world of music after a youth spent writing and playing in Symposium [\'Best Live Band In The UK\' - Melody Maker]. Still a phenomenal stage presence, Godzisz\'s solo material is at once triumph over adversity and tainted with a new worldly experience. His debut EP, 'Burning Ideals', is released on 12th March.