The Luminaire Events for May 2007

01 May - CARRIE RODRIGUEZ + Tim O\'Reagan [of The Jayhawks]

2007-05-01

The Luminaire presents
CARRIE RODRIGUEZ
+ Tim O\'Reagan [of The Jayhawks]

Doors 8.00
£10 via WeGotTickets
£12 door

Five years ago, singer, songwriter and violinist More on Carrie Rodriguez had a simple goal: To get a gig playing fiddle with somebody great, be on the road and make a living. But ever since she was spotted at Cheapo Discs in her hometown of Austin, Texas, backing outsider country act Hayseed at an in-store gig during the 2001 South By Southwest music convention, Rodriguez has far exceeded her all-too-modest expectations.

Through her unique collaboration with veteran songwriter Chip Taylor, which began after that in-store and has yielded three critically acclaimed albums of duets, Rodriguez has enthralled record buyers and concert audiences throughout North America and Europe. Shes become an evocative vocalist and compelling composer now ready to take center stage on her own.

Seven Angels on a Bicycle, her solo debut, puts an urbane, seductive spin on alternative country and bluegrass, with artfully minimalist production that features melancholy echoes of pedal steel, finger-plucked fiddle strings, brushed snare, a whisper of saxophone and plenty of wide open space for Rodriguezs remarkable voice to fill. Rodriguez boasts an affecting twang and brings a wonderfully lived-in quality to her vocal performances.

Theres an intimacy, honesty and sexual frankness within them that makes Rodriguezs every breath worth hanging on to. Her listeners immediately become her confidantes. All the while she and co-producer Taylor push musical boundaries, stripping country-style tunes to their emotional and melodic essence. Theres an Austin-style warmth on these tracks, counter-balanced with New York City sophistication.

Where the main support is concerned, fans already know Tim O\'Reagan through his work with The Jayhawks, for whom he played drums and also wrote songs that were strong enough to find a place among those of bandleader Gary Louris. But though his distinctive vocals earned him a place in their vocal tapestry, he stayed in the background, as drummers must do, a few yards from the action that transpired at the front of the stage.

Well, those days are over for OReagan, whose self-titled debut is not what you might expect from a drummer whos stepping out on his own.

It is, for example, extraordinarily musical, beginning with the first track. These Things sets an immediate mood, with an accordion not a zydeco blast but a French musette that might have been sampled in some Left Bank café. The rhythm sets in, ambling and strolling, with someone whistling absently in the background behind the lyrics, Im looking still If you werent paying attention enough to notice the dark cast of the rest of the words, youd think this was a lovers wistful reverie.

02 May - COLLEEN + TRIOSK + Dave Miller + Phelan Sheppard [DJ set]

2007-05-02

The Luminaire presents
TRIOSK + COLLEEN
+ Dave Miller
+ Phelan Sheppard [DJ set]
On behalf of The Leaf Label
Supported by Arts Council England

SOLD OUT. NO DOOR SALES

Doors 7.30
SOLD OUT. NO DOOR SALES

We are particularly pleased to announce a particularly special event from two particularly talented artists, in association with The Leaf Label.

Though musically very different, both create deeply individualistic and rich sonic palettes from their own labyrinthine set of influences. Live, their micro-sensitive sounds blossom into expansive, dynamic and emotive performances.

Triosk were formed in Sydney in 2001 with an objective to perform improvisation-based traditional music in which electronics play an active and equal role. Laurence Pike (drums), Adrian Klumpes (piano/keyboards) and Ben Waples (double/electric bass) are three improvisers who came together searching for something beyond the conventions of jazz, combining the sound and unity of purpose of a classic piano trio with the textures and processes of minimalism and electronic music. In a live setting, Triosk fluctuate between the atmospheric soundscapes of their recorded work, and high-energy improvisations dedicated to the exploration of musical possibilities and limits.

This tour will support the release of their second album on Leaf, \'The Headlight Serenade\' (2006), which Mojo magazine recently named as one of their Top 10 Jazz Albums Of The Year. They have released two prior albums: \'1 + 3 + 1\' with Jan Jelinek in 2003, and \'Moment Returns\', their Leaf debut in 2004. Adrian Klumpes released his first solo album, \'Be Still\', in 2006.

A compelling glimpse of what jazz in the new millennium can become Triosk show how jazz, electronica and techno are collapsing at their respective margins. [Observer Music Monthly]

Colleen(Cécile Schott) is a Parisian musician who has been working within a minimalist and melodic aesthetic using acoustic instruments and modern technologies since 2002. Her beautiful and haunting song cycles blur the boundaries of modern electro-acoustic composition, folk and ambient music.

Her music is one of magical details - instrumentals filled with warmth, melody and soul, phasing in and out, on the verge of collapse. For her live shows, she has developed a specific repertoire, not reliant on any pre-recorded elements. The variety of instrumentation reflects her deep love of acoustic instruments, and the occasional use of looping and delay pedals brings her live music closer to the layered feel of her albums. On this tour Cécile will be playing the rare viola da gamba (the seven-string ancestor of the cello), classical guitar, clarinet, music boxes and wind chimes.

She has released two albums on The Leaf Label; \'Everyone Alive Wants Answers\' (2003) and \'The Golden Morning Breaks\' (2005), a live recording in the cult Mort Aux Vaches series on Staalplaat (2006) and an EP made entirely with music boxes, \'Colleen Et Les Boîtes à Musique\' (the result of a commission by national French radio station France Culture) (2006). Her third full-length, entitled \'Les Ondes Silencieuses\', will be released shortly after this tour, in May 2007.

Since she last played in the UK (October 2005), Colleen has appeared in the US and Japan, as well as numerous performances across Europe.

One of those rare, truly evocative abstract pieces of art where every observer takes away their own interpretation, and is left feeling a little more special about their experience as a result. [Pitchfork]

Opening the evening will be Dave Miller.

Incorporating elements of his early influences - the warmth and funk of Detroit house combined with the innovation and experimentation of electronica - his first releases on the deep, emotive and personal. In live performances Dave has shared stages with Jamie Lidell, Prefuse 73, Manitoba, Jamie Lidell, Greg Davis, Funkstorung, Four Tet, Portable, Andrew Pekler, Sutekh, Machine Drum and Jan Jelinek. Improvised collaborative performances with jazz musicians, pianists and fellow electronic music producers has helped keep his live shows fresh and dynamic.

\"Dave Miller puts a new spin on the virtual reality of sample-based composition, fusing snippets of jazz, minimal Techno\'s clicks and thumps, and sourceless hum into a quiet din that explodes like a chorus of lock grooves.\" [The Wire]

03 May - ROSE KEMP + Pravda + Plastiscines

2007-05-03

Les Femmes S\'en Mêlent presents
ROSE KEMP
+ Pravda
+ Plastiscines

Doors 7.30
£6 WeGotTickets
£7 door

I dont have any boundaries and I write for nobody but myself its very liberating! Its just this kind of uncompromising statement that has made Rose Kemp the toast of the UK DIY and underground scenes and brought countless bookings across Europe for her brave and edgy live shows. Solo, she accompanies herself with shimmering electric guitars, or loops her voice into complex, sumptuous, harmonised hooks, or simply sings unadorned, unamplified and acappella.
Always getting a rapturous response, Rose, with her range of styles and material, has stood her ground on stage alongside the likes of The Subways, Gravenhurst, Bat For Lashes, Oceansize, Seth Lakeman and Duke Special, and played a slew of festivals home and abroad. The release of her single Violence in November to Universal acclaim and heaps of diverse airplay (from Radio 3s Mixing It to Kerrang! Radio) confirmed her cult status: the release on February 5th of her \'A Hand Full of Hurricanes\' LP was met with universal critical acclaim. A second single from the album \'Little One\' will be released on April 30th, and followed by a European tour launched at the Luminaire tonight.

Pravda are Frances sexiest export since Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot but with music combining the strength of Metal and the twirls of supersonic electro. The release of their first EP \'Tu es a l\'Ouest\' at the end of 2005 further solidified Pravdas huge fan base, initially attracted by their electrifying, no-nonsense electro punk sets. Not only are the Parisian band headlining most French Indie nights, they have also played alongside some of the biggest bands out there: The Go! Team, Robots In Disguise, The Kills, The Bravery, Cansei de Ser Sexy, Placebo (Brian Moloko likes them so much, he personally asked them to tour with his band), The New York Dolls and many more.
After a lot of touring, Pravdas first album \'A lOuest\' produced mainly by Jean Francois Coen and in part by Dimitri Tikovoi (Placebo / Goldfrapp / Kill The Young) is set to be released in March 2007.

The Plastiscines know full well that mere words can never quench the eternal flame of rock that burns in the heart. Their rock asks no permission before sweeping all before it. A tumultuous onslaught, by turns heedless, passionate and disdainful, their music is shot through with the arrogance of youth in all its fiery bravura. Not forgetting an exhilarating sense of melody.
Friends from the Saint-Cyr-LÉcole high school, one day they took it into their heads to plug in their guitars. Katty and Marine could strum a few chords, Zazie could manage some basic drumming. Louise, whom they met at a Libertines concert, then came along with her bass guitar. The Plastiscines were born. Appearing on the compilation \'Paris Calling\', they just released their first album \'LP1\' on Virgin.

04 May - MIRA CALIX + The Shadow Orchestra

2007-05-04

Sound Crash Productions presents
MIRA CALIX
+ The Shadow Orchestra

Doors 7.30
£10 via WeGotTickets

\"Overall it makes for a weirdly evocative concoction that charms and chills in equal measure\" [The Observer]

Many people would tell you that Mira Calix makes electronic music. What she really does is make music, electronically. Her art is music that breathes like an orchestra breathes; cutting edge soundscapes with emotional dirt-under-the-fingernails. Ambient but never dull.

\"Partly recorded in woods near suffolk, this is strong on atmosphere and ideas.\" [Q]

\'Eyes Set Against The Sun\' is Warp\'s beautiful first release of 2007. A whirling, hypnotic, creaking, unsettling, uplifting, lo-fi-hi-fi of a record, Chantal Passamonte has kept back her most intimate and personal music for this long player. The Luminaire will see her first, typically intimate public expression of this latest work as well some never heard before exclusives, just for a treat. Equally at home DJing, banging it out on a busted old 606 or hunched down amongst the trees, fiddling with gear, smoking like a chimney, Mira Calix makes folk music fashioned from broken beats and field recordings. You might call it avant-garde, but it\'s meant to make you smile; it\'s heart-warm. Laptronica built using knackered bits of wood, it\'s organic, electronic and totally involving.

\"Click, whirr, sproing. Mira returns from playing with insects at the National History Museum for this outing of unsettling, oddly beautiful and unapologetically experimental chimera of folk and electronica, incorporating uncanny violin and spectral children\'s choir. Not unlike Autechre re-scoring the Wicker Man.\" [Dazed and Confused]

Don\'t miss out.

05 May - BATTANT + Royal Treatment Plant + Unit

2007-05-05

The Luminaire & On The TV presents
Girls! Girls! Girls! with...
BATTANT
+ Royal Treatment Plant
+ Unit

Doors 7.30
£6 via WeGotTickets
£7 door
or £4 guest list if you register here.

Mixing punk attitude with an infectious electro-bass sound, London-based Battant deliver dark, haunting yet catchy pop songs. It all began with a birthday song lead vocalist Chloe wrote for her friend Mole. After a brief collaboration resulting in a couple of rough tracks, the duo recruited guitarist and programmer Tim Fairplay and the live act was born. Battant have played alongside an impressive array of artists including Primal Scream, Lady Sovereign, Acoustic Ladyland, Two Lone Swordsmen and Nitzer Ebb. They have supported both Ladytron and Adult on UK tours, to critical acclaim. In the words of the NME, \"Battant bleeds genius out of its ears.\"

Launching direct from the hell-hot brain of a preachers daughter who lost her virginity to rocknroll and never wants it back, Royal Treatment Plant will seduce you with their edgy punk pop. \"Aurally delectable.like Sonic Youth meets a scrubbed Babes in Toyland.\" (Artrocker), Royal Treatment Plant have been nominated for an Indy Award and made the finals of the Camden Crawl Indie Idle. Their \"headrush guitars and icily sweet vocals\" (the-mag) have seen them support The Sounds at Club NME, and gain airplay on BBC1, BBC6, Radio Scotland, BBC Newcastle, Xfm, internet radio and podcasts, and various stations on the east coast of the USA. Recently recording new tracks with Teo Miller (Blur, Placebo, The Auters), Royal Treatment Plant are ready to take over 2007.

06 May - LITTLE ANNIE + Pete Molinari

2007-05-06

The Luminaire presents
LITTLE ANNIE
+ Pete Molinari

Doors 7.30
£5 via WeGotTickets
£6 door

Frank Zappa in his 1980 interview with Songwriter magazine said of Little Annie; \"When I go to a place like Max\'s Kansas City in New York and see a group like Annie and the Asexuals, I can really enjoy it. I don\'t know if that band will ever get a record contract and I don\'t think they care. I watched them for an hour. Their show was real personal and disorganized. This girl was wearing winter underwear with a black leather coat on top of that, and she had a paper bag with a bottle of vodka in it, and she was backed up by five guys who had just bought their instruments, apparently. She was screaming about thorazine and being in a mental hospital and it was real! You don\'t get that commitment to just spewing your guts out among L.A. groups.\"

Little Annie-aka Annie Anxiety-aka Annie Bandez, who survived her teenage angst and matured into a smokey contralto, has been \"real\" ever since. She is an adventuress, chanteuse/lyricist, ordained minister, high school drop-out, juvenile delinquent, self-taught painter, multi-media artist and post-modern cabaret queen with a long, illustrious and eclectic recording career who has defied categorisation, limitation, restrictions and sometimes the law.

Her solo LPs and numerous collaborations (with Wolfgang Press, Crass, the ON-U Sounds stable, Paul Oakenfold, Kid Congo Powers, Current 93, Nurse with Wound, the late Bim Sherman, Coil, Fini Tribe, and Collapsed Lung, Christophe Heeman and many fine others) span the spectrum from reggae & hip hop to torch and avant-garde. She has written 3 volumes of prose, appeared in numerous plays, theatre pieces and films and continues to tour extensively with pianist and co-composer Paul Wallfisch Of Botanica.

She is currently residing in her beloved muse and hometown of New York, after a thirteen year residency in England, where she has recorded her new CD \'Songs from The Coalmine Canary\' produced by Antony (of Antony and The Johnsons) and Joe Buedenholzer (Backworld) for Dutro Records - released late last year - and painting for her Urban Saints, God and Science, and September Skyline series, and is completing the 2nd \'Legally Jamming\' CD; the dance project she does with Can Oral and Christian Jendreiko.

07 May - OLLABELLE + The Epstein + Guests

2007-05-07

The Luminaire
OLLABELLE
+ The Epstein
+ Guests

Doors 7.30
£9 via WeGotTickets
£10 door

\"Ollabelle came together because of their love of this music, without thought of success or career or any of the other trappings of the modern professional music business. It has great value to our culture, adding new life to a tradition that is an important part of who we are. But mostly, they sound great. They sing great and they play great, and they are wonderful people.\" [T-Bone Burnett]

Ollabelle are a six-piece, New York City-based band that celebrates rural American roots music, as well as the joys of group singing, named in honor of country singer and songwriter Ola Belle Reed. They mix traditional songs (including \'Jesus on the Mainline\', \'Soul of a Man\' and \'John the Revelator\') with originals, the latter sounding every bit as timeless as the former.

Lead singer Amy Helm has had no shortage of exposure to honest music, her father being Levon Helm of The Band and the song she leads wrap themselves in spare and acoustic simplicity, embracing unobtrusively electric blues and funky gospel. Singing over a pulsing rhythm section or an organ-based combo, Helm sounds strikingly (and surprisingly) like Julie Driscoll (later Tippett), who fronted Trinity with Brian Auger in the 1960s.

A collection of songs of hard times, loss, compassion and hope\" is how Fiona McBain describes \'Riverside Battle Songs\', Ollabelle\'s second album and Verve Forecast debut. The 13-song set finds the New York quintet building upon the foundation of its self-titled 2004 debut, drawing from a deep well of gospel, blues, bluegrass, and country influences to create timelessly resonant music that honors the integrity of its sources while remaining effortlessly contemporary.

A multitalented, democratic collective whose participants share vocal and songwriting duties, Ollabelle gains strength from its members\' shared sense of mission, as well as their diverse musical and personal backgrounds. Although the group initially began as a casual sideline to the musicians\' individual projects, it quickly evolved into a fulltime creative entity with an unmistakable life of its own.

09 May - COUGAR + The Twilight Sad + Three Trapped Tigers

2007-05-09

The Luminaire presents
COUGAR
+ The Twilight Sad
+ Three Trapped Tigers

Doors 7.30
£7 via WeGotTickets
£8 door

\"Melodically lush, rhythmically compelling...gloriously precise and urgent.\" [The Wire]

Cougar was formed in 2003 in a cold Madison, Wisconsin basement and slowly, carefully, via a revolving door of like-minded musicians centred around the renowned Youngblood Brass Band, began to craft what they call Emergency Rock, each song a collage of voices and instruments, evolving together, interacting, growing and expanding, always moving, always beautiful.

\"When \'Law\' came to its conclusion, I had a moment of traquility engulfing me, until I panicked, searching for the repeat setting.\" [Outsideleft]

It brings to mind - in places - Four Tet, Sigur Ros, Tortoise, Nick Drake and Radiohead. And also The Sea And Cake, though given that it was mixed by John McEntire, who plays with both Tortoise and The Sea & Cake, that\'s maybe not such a surprise.

\"Law is a nearly flawless example of intelligent musical design.\" [XLR8R]

Cougar released their debut full length album, \'Law\', on Layered Music and PIAS in 2005 and early last year, they played their UK show here at Luminaire. It was really something special. In fact, we\'d go as far to say that this show tonight is the most anticipated here in a long time. From the minute they walked out the door we\'ve been trying to get them back.

Please, don\'t miss this.

\"This album has so much beauty that words escape me.\" [Liability Webzine]

Main support, from the fog-drenched streets of Glasgow, are The Twilight Sad: first, echoing from a distance as if calling out from a memory, then gaining a momentum powerful enough to lift anything in its path. Fuelled by its own energy, they wrap us in blankets of guitars and flat-out good songwriting. Take note, repeat listens of The Twilight Sad are inevitable.

Fucking transcendent. [Pitchfork]

The whole thing calls to mind far-away lovers, troublesome friends, and promises you have to keep. Spin Magazine Their songs build up gradually before exploding into a miasma of distortion - think Joy Division produced not by Martin Hannett but Kevin Shields. [The Guardian]

The Twilight Sad are purveyors of post-modern anthemic rock. Theyre winners. [Stereogum]

10 May - FINK + Guests

2007-05-10

Sound Crash Productions presents
FINK
+ Guests

Doors 7.30
£10 via WeGotTickets

\"He achieves a brooding power reminiscent of a stripped down Nick Cave. A leftfield delight.\" Observer Music Monthly]

This former purveyor of laidback cool Ninja Tune beats has done what very few recording artists would dare to do. He changed. Completely.

\"Bluesy laments and brooding soul....deep with emotion and intent.\" [Q]

What Fink has achieved is to have been reincarnated as Ninja Tune\'s first ever guitar-toting singer-songwriter. Immersed in a very personal labour of love, the Bristol-bred, Brighton-based artist has written, produced and performed a striking, stripped-down symphony of an album. Like a twenty-first century John Martyn, Fink\'s insistent songs are flushed with bruised basslines and skinny blues licks. And they\'re exceptional.

\"John Martyn with added digital traces... stunning.\" [Uncut 4/5]

Fink was, like so many, enticed away from the brooding sensibilities of the \'90s indie scene towards the illicit free spirited hedonism of the even more \'90s rave scene, and for a long time never looked back. But in the commercial and pigeonholed world of the contemporary music scene Fink has committed the unthinkable. Namely turned his artistic identity inside out, with startling results.

Will appeal to those who succumbed to the charms of Jose Gonzalez. This, if anything, is better.\" [The Sun 5/5]

The veteran of countless remix and production credits with inspirational artists including Martin Taylor, Amy Winehouse, Michael Pitt, and Robert Belfour, this night is an opportunity to see the work of one of Ninja\'s or indeed anyone\'s - most innovative artists on his own terms, fulfilling his artistry with an astounding candour.

\"As albums go this is near perfect and deserves to be an integral part of peoples\' lives.\" [The National Student]

After the roaring success of his tour last year with Zero 7, this is a rare and intimate gig but also an opportunity to see the artist his own label couldn\'t help themselves but offer a deal to. Even though they didn\'t know it was him at the time.

11 May - THE STRANGE DEATH OF LIBERAL ENGLAND + Rolling Dog + Captain Black

2007-05-11

The Luminaire presents
THE STRANGE DEATH OF LIBERAL ENGLAND
+ Rolling Dog
+ Captain Black

Doors 7.30
£5 via WeGotTickets
£6 door

The Strange Death of Liberal England is five different people with four different names. The Strange Death of Liberal England is stop/go happy/sad forward/forward. The Strange Death Of Liberal England sounds like an elephant arguing with a mouse. The Strange Death of Liberal England play instruments with varying ability and make more noise than silence. The Strange Death of Liberal England are influenced by lonely people in a flattened world the strange death of liberal England have something to say in not so many words.

The Strange Death of Liberal England have recently received glowing reviews for their debut E.P - \" The skill and diversity of instrumentation is brilliant. Abreath of fresh air in these times of samey guitar bands.\" [The Fly]

One track off of which has been played on Radio 1 by Steve Lamacq and other tracks are frequently aired on the radio station CISM in Montréal.

This success has led to them being Drowned in Sound\'s readers\' choice for 2006. Winning this online vote gave them a chance to play the London Barfly with the likes of Jeniferever, The Maccabees and Jamie T, which was reviewed by Mr. John Earls on Planet Sound. Here is what he had to say for himself:

\'Wholly silent between songs, they hold up placards with the band\'s name and \"Thank you\" for instant eerie charisma.\"

It\'s an odd move, as their music is joyfully noisy. Superficially chaotic, the instrument swapping, chanting, flutes, glockenspiels and howls are unsettlingly beautiful.

Rolling Dog have just signed to Hungry Kid Records (Winter Kids, Dustin\'s Bar Mitzvah), and serve up infectious, danceable indie.

Opening are Captain Black, who spent a year or so recording in schools, bedrooms and barns in the fields of Hampshire before they felt set to take thier tales of love, loss, prostitution, brutal murder and heart broken swines to London. All the stories are set to a blend of folk, punk, country and skiffle beats and you can hear their sound all over the city. All five members live together in a cosy little house in Camden Town where they continue to write songs and break noise regulations. Take a look at the web site and come to a show to see what all the fuss is about. I\'m sure you\'ll love their sound as much as they love you.

Click here for a handsome flyer, created for the occasion.

12 May - THE IRREPRESSIBLES + Simon Gibson + Adam Green + Sam Rawlings + Guy J. Jackson + DJs

2007-05-12

Lazy Gramophone presents
The IRREPRESSIBLES
+ Simon Gibson
+ Adam Green
+ Sam Rawlings
+ Guy J. Jackson
+ DJs

Doors 8.00
£7 Guest list if name emailed by 9th May to this email address or with flyer on entry
£9 without guest list or flyer

Once again Lazy Gramophone serves you a splendid night of music and spoken word at the venue of venues. Need anymore be saidy!

Well, let us speak of The Irrespressibles\' 10 piece orchestra.

The Irrepressibles ride on the cusp of danger. [Flux]

Inhuman, and incredibly moving [Playlouder]

Where old rebellions have lost their way, their shapes carved out and replicated, A troupe of merry makers made new paths and slept deep dreams with hands dug deep. They pulled out instruments from forgotten times and opened gates to forgotten lands.

Fantastically theatrical [BBC Collective]

Simon Gibson plays a lush involved acoustic set reminiscent of John Martyn, Ben Harper and CSNY. Accompanied by virtuoso percussionist Pax Amphlett. Voted best upcoming act of the southwest, Mr Gibson is not to be missed.

Adam Green will be reading from his debut novel and Lazy G first publication Satsuma Sun-mover.

\"Satsuma Sun-mover\' is Adam Greens first novel but you wouldnt think that from its confident picaresque stance, somewhere on the hinterland between Beckett, Flann OBrien, and Saul Bellow. [Outside Left]

Sam Rawlings will be reading from his first published collection of poetry (Lazy Gramophone Press) Sams sketches are simple and honest, these poems seek to placate experience and depict the eternity beyond our landscape.

Guy J. Jackson writes stories and then performs them, a foolish cross between Garrison Keillor, Mick Jagger, and A. Whitney Brown. Biographically speaking, Guy is a male, lives in London these days, and you can also hear him regularly on Resonance FM.

The night will be finished off by our in house DJ nochancemilega and others.

13 May - MY SAD CAPTAINS + Mono Taxi + The Lovebirds [CANCELLED]

2007-05-13

Ciao Ketchup presents
MY SAD CAPTAINS + Mono Taxi
+ The Lovebirds
+ DJ set Plastic Penny

DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES OUTWITH OUR CONTROL, WE\'VE HAD TO CANCEL THIS SHOW. TO THOSE WHO\'D PLANNED TO ATTEND, PLEASE ACCEPT OUR APOLOGIES.

14 May - COLIN MACINTYRE [Mull Historical Society] + Gavin Thorpe + Actual Boy

2007-05-14

The Luminaire presents
COLIN MACINTYRE
[Mull Historical Society]
+ Gavin Thorpe
+ Actual Boy

Doors 7.30
£10 via WeGotTickets
£12 door

A pure pop nugget. All hail Colin!\" [NME]

\"Macintyre gets emotional without losing his sense of humor, with a sharp ear for melody. A hit. [Rolling Stone]

Colin MacIntyre, AKA Mull Historical Society, the songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, has released 3 highly acclaimed albums under that most recognisable pseudonym, and has achieved 4 top 40 UK Chart hits and 2 Top 20 UK Chart albums.

\"A warm and welcoming album.\" [The Independent]

\"Macintyre is full of epic expectations, whimsical choruses and love.\" [The Guardian]

Having dropped the \'Mull\' moniker, he\'ll be releasing his 4th album \'The Water\' under his own name, though it doesn\'t represent any artistic changes for Colin.

\"A bonkers master stroke.\" [Mojo]

\'Its important for me that my fanbase realises that nothing has changed here on a creative front. They are still The Society and I\'m still from Mull. By dropping the MHS name I\'ve not suddenly gone solo I already was solo. What I\'m doing, by changing to my own name, is part of the continuation of my creative journey, and I wont be doing anything differently from the way Ive operated before, except that I think this change will help me grow more as an artist. \"A great albummelodies with the sticking power of industrial strength Velcro. [Time Out]

Classic pop. Macintyre writes and sings with utter conviction about the things that matter most.\" [Daily Telegraph]

\"His most ambitious and deeply-felt album to date.\" [The Times]

\"His third and effortlessly best album. Sonically ambitous pop that reaches near perfection.\" [Observer Music Monthly]

Main support is Gavin Thorpe. More on him soon. Opening is Actual Boy; lo-fi acoustic guitars combined with beat-box tape recorder drums and the catchiest choruses this side of the McFly. Add to that a whole load of contempt towards people he doesn\'t like anymore and you\'ve a particularly refereshing approach to playing live.

\"Superb stuff, just beautiful.\" [Hubgigs.co.uk]

15 May - ERASE ERRATA + Ebony Bones

2007-05-15

Upset The Rhythm presents
ERASE ERRATA
+ Ebony Bones

THIS SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELLED
PLEASE REFER TO TICKET OUTLET FOR REFUND

Due to an injury to one of the band, Erase Errata have regretfully had to cancel their tour, including this show. More information here.

16 May - ADJAGAS + Ed Laurie + Guests

2007-05-16

The Luminaire presents
ADJAGAS
+ Ed Laurie
+ Guests

Doors 7.30
£7 via WeGotTickets
£8 door

Rarely has the phrase youve never heard anything quite like this before been more accurate

Hypnotic, open-ended and sweetly dolorous Should hit the spot with fans of Bonnie Prince Billy, Sigur Rós and Cowboy Junkies. [Uncut]

Adjágas music is gentle, peaceful, hypnotic, quietly passionate, dreamlike, deeply spiritual and utterly engrossing. It is, at the same time, strangely alien. Lyrics are unrecognisable, startling vocals delivered in a style that veers between whispered but crystal clear sweetness, unbridalled emotion and all points in between, sometimes hitting notes that may previously have never existed.

Few are more beguiling than Adjágas. [Q]

Produced by Andreas Mjøs (Jaga Jazzist, Susanne & The Magical Orchestra), Adjágas songs sound as though they were recorded in a small hut in a snow covered forest clearing, or perhaps around a campfire. There is an unfamiliar intimacy to it all. Moments sound reminiscent of other artists, but nothing with which one can draw a straight comparison. Talk Talks Laughing Stock comes to mind, as does The Cowboy Junkies The Trinity Sessions, or Low, La Mystere Des Voix Bulgares, even an acoustic Sigur Ros. But none of these really do the record justice.

This debut is an enchanting snapshot of another world that will keep you going back for more. [Time Out 5/6]

Adjágas are a surprisingly young Sami duo, Sara Mariella Gaup (23) and Lawra Somby (26). Sara, from Guovdageaidnu / Kautokeino, has been singing since she was a child, performing on stage since the age of 12. Sápmi is the territory at the very northernmost parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland, spreading into Russia. Lawra learnt his musical skills from his father Ánde. Despite growing up in Oslo city centre, he comes from a proud Sami family, and to this day travels almost perpetually, within and outside Norway. The two deeply charismatic yoikers work with a revolving core of musicians and producers, and their live show which sheds a different light on their music and its tradition is as captivating as their debut album.

Strikingly beautiful. [The Times, 4/5]

Adjágas is the Sami word for the mental state between waking and sleeping and as a name it is utterly appropriate. Dont tag this as simply world music, though, unless you already label the likes of Sigur Ros or Cocteau Twins as such. ADJÁGAS appeal encompasses that, but simultaneously stretches far beyond. They will no doubt bring the concept of Sami culture to many people for the first time. But, first and foremost, they will bring a music of immediate, immaculate, intimate beauty to people, one that crosses all cultural boundaries. It is the definitive Music For Ever.

The dialogue between ancient and modern, known and unknown, is spellbinding. [The Guardian, 4/5]

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.

When people talk of modern classics, this is the kind of thing they mean. Outstanding. [Play Music Magazine]

17 May - JUSTIN NOZUKA + Guests

2007-05-17

Big Wheel presents
JUSTIN NOZUKA
+ Guests

SOLD OUT

Doors 7.30
SOLD OUT

Startling Canadian talent Justin Nozuka returns to London for his second headline show. Only 18 years old he has already been described as \"a prodigious talent. Instantly captivating... a singer-songwriter with that extra-special edge\" [London Lite].

Free download here.

18 May - APARTMENT + The Matadors + Velofax

2007-05-18

JIL Promotions presents
Laissez Faire Club, with
APARTMENT
+ The Matadors
+ Velofax
+ DJs

Doors 7.30
£6 via WeGotTickets
£7 door

Apartment are, in their own words, "a thumping 8-legged indie rock machine in full flight". And they might be onto something. After early support slots with The Killers, Jimmy Eat World and Editors, a couple of Fierce Panda singles and some memorable shows of their own, their long awaited debut album 'The Dreamer Evasive' a collection of taut, anxious, exciting, hook filled pop songs - has recently arrived to much critical acclaim. "A very accomplished debut," said The Fly. We say 2007 is finally going to be their year.

The Matadors are a quartet from London via Dorset who create, according to the NME, "painfully catchy songs destined to get the indie kids dancing". Indeed, fans of Larrikin Love, The Strokes and Kings Of Leon will find plenty to love in their unique brand of charismatic, highly energetic, cowbell assisted, dancefloor filling indie-pop, something which has landed them gigs with The Young & Lost Club and support slots with The Wombats.

Opening the night will be Velofax, a band from Jersey, France and London who lay claim to fusing elements of post-punk with experimental krautrocking disco funk. This concoction has charmed many, including XFM's John Kennedy and Steve Lamacq, from whom they've received airplay, as well as the likes of Clor, Roland Shanks and New Young Pony Club, who have all personally handpicked the band to support them.

19 May - THE KOOKS [solo acoustic] + Cat The Dog + Twisted Charm

2007-05-19

Clash Magazine presents
Club Clash
THE KOOKS [solo acoustic]
+ Cat The Dog
+ Twisted Charm
+ Clash Magazine DJs

SOLD OUT.
NO RETURN TICKETS
NO DOOR SALES

Doors 7.30
SOLD OUT.
NO RETURN TICKETS
NO DOOR SALES

Clash Magazine returns once again to our monthly spiritual clubbing cathedral in North London, to bow down and worship at the altar of the UKs best live venue 2007 (as voted in Music Week). Yet again we bring you a musical melee you will struggle to better anywhere, both in terms of absolute quality all through the line up, and value for money as you eagerly bounce in and ecstatically fall out of our welcoming front door.

Click here for a handsome flyer, created for the occasion.

20 May - AU REVOIR SIMONE + Slow Club + We Are Marching On

2007-05-20

Live Nation presents
AU REVOIR SIMONE
+ Slow Club
+ We Are Marching On

Doors 7.30
£7.50 here
£9 door

The Brooklyn indie pop outfit Au Revoir Simone features Heather D\'Angelo (vocals/drum machine/keyboard), Erika Forster (vocals/keyboard), and Annie Hart (vocals/keyboard). Borrowing their name from a minor character in Tim Burton\'s comedy favorite Pee-Wee\'s Big Adventure, the Casio-centric group came together in late 2003; Forster and Hart befriended one another while traveling by train from Vermont to New York.

From there, they became fast friends and began writing songs. D\'Angelo and Sung Bin Park (keyboard/vocals) were added to the dreamy pop fray after sitting in on many practice sessions, but Park left in January 2005 to pursue other projects. A year later, Au Revoir Simone issued their debut album, \'Verses of Comfort, Assurance & Salvation\'. It was self-released in the United States and appeared on Moshi Moshi throughout Europe. \'Through the Backyards was included in the season finale to Grey\'s Anatomy in the Spring of 2006.

Main support are Slow Club and, in Slow Club\'s own words;

I am Charles I like chocolate covered peanuts. I play guitar and move my lips to a backing track. I am Rebecca I love tea and cake, anything can be solved with a cup of tea and a piece of cake, I play a rhythm station, its mega. And I sing with my mouth.

We are Slow Club. We met after the millennium, in a garden with fences, but have been travelling as our two man band bonanza since September 2006. In this period instruments have come and gone. Some even made their way back. Still trying to find a place for Miles the friendly organ. He just cant seem to get his act together and stay in tune though.

We tell stories with our voices and put them to music with a guitar and drums and spoons and chairs and anything that you can hit with a stick. We didnt have traumatic childhoods that we want the world to know about. We just like to do things that make us happy, and it\'s great if it makes you happy too. And even better if makes you dance.

Opening are We Are Marching On. Singing with bass, keyboard, drums and guitar, the four boys of WAMO find great joy playing with parts and bringing shit to life. Rock, Pop and Experimental permutations coalesce into a sound that welcomes anyone and everyone to join in.

\"What this band lacks in meaning on paper they make up for in sound.\" [Exclaim]

21 May - BEN\'S BROTHER + Sam Isaac + Laura Welsh

2007-05-21

Big Wheel presents
BEN\'S BROTHER
+ Sam Isaac
+ Laura Welsh

Doors 7.30
£6 here
£7 door

New London 5-piece Ben\'s Brother unveil tracks from their debut album \'Beta Male Fairytales\' (released by Relentless - KT Tunstall, Seth Lakeman). Combining Coldplay\'s happy knack for an anthemic, wide-screen chorus, with vocals as intimate and soulful as a young Cat Stevens, the band are destined to be one of the break-out acts of 2007.

22 May - WILLY VLAUTIN of RICHMOND FONTAINE + Bob Frank & John Murry + DBC Pierre

2007-05-22

The Luminaire presents
WILLY VLAUTIN of RICHMOND FONTAINE
+ Bob Frank & John Murry
+ DBC Pierre

Doors 7.30
£11 via WeGotTickets
£12 door

Richmond Fontaine is a four-piece alt country band based in Portland, Oregon. The band was formed in 1994 by guitarist / lead vocalist Willy Vlautin and bass player Dave Harding at the Portland Meadows horse race track. Many of the band\'s songs relate to horse racing.

Richmond Fontaine first started out working the Northwest live circut on the back of their first two albums released on Cavity Search and down into Texas with friends Grand Champeen. The band self released their fourth album \'Winnemucca\' which started to get them noticed outside of the US. They have worked with a variety of musicians and a few labels over their career. Their big break happened in Europe during 2003 with signing to Decor Records and receiving two Albums of the Month in UNCUT Magazine which declared both \'Post to Wire\' (2004) and \'The Fitzgerald\' (2005) as masterpieces, unheard of at this time for an unknown band.

Their songs consistently evoke lyrical imagery of Reno, Nevada, Portland, the Western United States and Mexico while telling stories in a style that has been compared to Raymond Carver. Musically the group has cited influences such as Gram Parsons, X (U.S. band), Green on Red and Dave Alvin.

Lead Singer and songwriter Willy Vlautin has recently published his first novel \'The Motel Life\' and the band\'s new album \'Thirteen Cities\' is getting even more rave reviews across Europe.

Supporting Willy this evening are Bob Frank & John Murry whose Decor Records [Richmond Fontaine, Mark Eitzel] released album \'World Without End\' is \"a dazzling collection of blasted country folk and grimly haunting murder ballads, shot through with harrowing images of death, damnation and eternal suffering. Legendary producer Jim Dickinson describes the record as timeless as death and Frank as the greatest songwriter you never heard. On the evidence of this, Jims right on both counts.\" [Uncut]

As Frank notes, We were going to do an album of old murder ballads, songs that already existed. Like \'Omie Wise\' and \'The Banks Of The Ohio\' but when we started to record them we realized it didnt work. They had been done too many times. So John says, well have to write all new songs and make em sound old.

\'World Without End\' is a terrifyingly unique collection of ten original murder ballads by Frank and Murry recalling true-but-forgotten tales of murder, death and suicide from the annals of a dark American past, and has drawn comparisons to The Gun Club, Handsome Family, Willard Grant Conspiracy and the darker macabre dwellings of gothic noir.

Bob Frank is a forgotten folk legend that has toured the US throughout the 60s and early 70s sharing the stage with Tim Buckley and Townes Van Zandt. Bob released his first self titled album for the Vanguard label but was quickly dropped after he cursed the company boss from stage on his New York press gig! Bob quit the record business soon after and disappeared from sight until old songwriting pal and legendary producer, Jim Dickinson (Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, Big Star) convinced him to make a second record over thirty years later. His cohort, John Murry, is none other than the great nephew of William Faulkner and has played with the Dillingers and Lucero. This will be there first London performance ever.

Adding a little literary excellene to proceedings will be DBC Pierre, who won the MAN Booker Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Award for Comic Writing in 2003 with his debut novel, \'Vernon God Little\'. His second novel, Ludmila\'s Broken English, described in the Independent as \"thrilling, electric, visionary, vicious and brilliantly amusing.\" was published in 2006.

23 May - HANNE HUKKELBERG + In The Country

2007-05-23

Furthur Promotions presents
HANNE HUKKELBERG
+ In The Country

Doors 8.00
£10 here

£12 door.

\"Amazing there\'s something magical about it\" - [Four Tet]

Hanne Hukkelberg has been hailed as Norway\'s most beguling singer/songwriter of recent years. A wonderful singer whose boldly experimental music featuring the likes of pots, pand and bicycle spokes alongside the more traditional drums, accordian, keyboards and guitars has been universally praised for it\'s inventiveness and almost magical beauty.

\"An elegant charm that is very much its own. So compelling.\" [The Wire]

Her wholly unique music has won her fans from across the jazz, folk and leftfield electronic scenes and her all too rare live shows in the UK are eagerly anticipated events. Touring to support the release of her new album \'Rykestrasse 68\', we are delighted to welcome Hanne and her band to the intimate, award winning and much loved Luminaire.

\"An otherworldly quality while the instrumentation is folky, there is a power here that outmanoeuvres any kook or kitsch. Beautiful.\" [iDJ]

In support we have fellow Norwegians In The Country, a superb piano trio led by composer Morten Qvenild (Jaga Jazzist). Since bursting onto the international scene with Jaga, Morten has gone on to create the brilliant Susanna and the Magical Orchestra and to be a key member of Solveig Slettahjell\'s Slow Motion Quintet. In the Country refresh the traditional jazz piano trio with swaggering, youthful style.

24 May - HEADLAND + Player Piano + Neave

2007-05-24

Touchy Feely Records presents
Choc Ice IV
HEADLAND
+ Player Piano
+ Neave

Doors 8.00
£2

The fabulous Headland return for another helping of their chocolate- and ice cream-soaked clubnight with all the usual hilarity and nakedness, probably. Come along, the choc ices are free, so are the mini-milks, it\'s only £2 to get in, and what\'s more it\'s fucking brilliant.

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.

25 May - THE PEOPLE\'S REVOLUTIONARY CHOIR + The Flowers Of Hell + The Asteroid #4

2007-05-25

Club AC30 presents
THE PEOPLE\'S REVOLUTIONARY CHOIR + The Flowers Of Hell
+ The Asteroid #4

Doors 8.00
£5 via WeGotTickets
£6 door

Formed at the tail end of 2002, The People\'s Revolutionary Choir have built a stalwart audience by virtue of consistently powerful live shows. Proud to wear their influences openly, their music owes a certain amount to their forebearers; the white-hot noise and repetitiveness of Suicide, the dreamy drones and texture of Spacemen 3 and the sheer forcefulness of The Stooges in their prime are three prominent reference points.

The PRC have enough respect for the aforementioned that claims of totally originality would be inappropriate. That said, to the outside listener, the band\'s music is so life-affirming that anyone claiming them to be unoriginal or retrogressive would be missing the point.

Main support, The Flowers of Hell, are a London-based collective of musicians who mix guitars, organs, and orchestral instruments while fusing structured songs with soundscapes. Influences range from The Velvet Underground through to Spacemen 3, Beethoven, jazz, ambient sources, and abstract art (in a non-art wanker kind of way). Their recordings and live performances are largely instrumental - and there\'s a whole music psychology based philosophy behind why there\'s seldom any lyrics but we won\'t delve into an essay on neurosciences here!

The Asteroid #4 are from Philadelphia and began in the late 1990s with a series of singles, compilations and a debut full length dubbed \'Introducing the Asteroid No.4\'. The album was compared to all things psychedelic from Pink Floyd to early Verve. In 2000, the band began experimenting with a stripped-down aesthetic and explored abandoning what is best associated with their sound; effected guitars.

Looking to the mid-\'60s folk-rock and British Invasion artists for inspiration, they began writing the songs that would become the \'Apple Street EP. Following a tour with fellow Philadelphians, The Lilys, they enlisted the greatest retro-revivalist in the land. Lily\'s front-man, Kurt Healsey, produced the EP and it\'s corresponding full length, \'King Richard\'s Collectibles\' for their then new label, Rainbow Quartz.

Now, a few years on, the band celebrates their 10th year in existence with a new record. \'An Amazing Dream\' was released at the end of 2006. It\'s said to evoke all of the group\'s previous recordings, specifically the psychedelic and spacerock ambitions they are best known for. This is number 4 for the number 4 and again, a new course. Only this time it\'s slightly more familiar.

26 May - JACQUES DUVALL + Juan Doultremont + Miam Monster Miam + Android 80 + Charline Rose + UFO Goes UFA

2007-05-26

The Luminaire presents
Freaksville Cafe, with
JACQUES DUVALL
+ Juan Doultremont
+ Miam Monster Miam
+ Android 80
+ Charline Rose
+ UFO Goes UFA

Doors 8.00
£5 via WeGotTickets
£6 door

Ladies and gentlemen, we\'ve rarely had a more inventive, talented, curious group of people inside Luminaire since we opened. Please, don\'t miss this.

Jacques Duvall is known as a sarcastic tunesmith for several french pop stars. His first claim to fame was \'Banana Split\', a worldwide hit for sweet sixteen Lio, in 1979. But he had been writing songs since the mid \'70s for French underground diva Marie France and for The Runaways - Joan Jett\'s all-female band.
He then succeeded Serge Gainsbourg as lyricist for Alain Chamfort, the french Burt Bacharach.
Other collaborations followed, with among others Jane Birkin, Etienne Daho, Sparks, Telex.

In short, this guy\'s a dude.

Now, some background:

Benjamin Schoos (guitar) created garage band Phantom with Sophie Galet (drums) and Pascal Scalp (bass). He then decided to sign Duvall on his newly born record label Freaksville Records.

Benjamin is a lunatic character, very much an original, kind of a mix between Syd Barrett and Tintin. The two nutheads got along fine and recorded the album in two days, one day for the backing tracks and one for the vocals. Duvall came along with lyrics that had been turned down by other singers, mainly because they were too risqué. The result would be the perfect soundtrack for a demented spaghetti western or a cheap but chic lesbian vampire movie.

\"Bambi is dead.\"
- Juan d\'Oultremont Juan d\'Oultremont was born on April 13, 1954, the same day Auguste Lumière, the inventor of the cinematograph, was buried.
In 1958, he decides to become an artist, but prefers not to keep his parents informed.
In 1972 he enters an Art School and makes them believe he\'ll be an interior decorator. He leaves there six years later with a painter\'s diploma and all without having to hold a brush.
In 1976, he founds the Cissite Movement behind the one he\'s gathering, for more than 30 years, all his practises : art, teaching (he\'s an installation and performances professor at the ERG - Graphic design school in Brussels), writing (novels, news, comics, theatre), songwriting (in September 1989, he\'s having a bath when he hears on Europe1 that one of his songs just replaced \'The Lambada\' at No.1 in the Top 50), graphic design (record sleeves for the famous label Blue Note), radio (taking place every day in the \'jeu des dictionnaires\' and the \'semaine infernale\', cult broadcasts on the Belgian radio- RTBF), television (in a Belgian television broadcast \'La Télé Infernale\'), Pom-Pom Boy (he founded seven years ago, a battalion of \'man-majorettes\' with his neighbours ... nothing surprising about the name of his society: \'Yes, but what\'s your real job y\' ) And now on the initiative of Benjamin Schoos (Miam Monster Miam), Juan d\'Oultremont has just recorded an unreal CD. Between performance and muting blues. Nine tracks that would tear off tears to Bambi if only this poor beast had not died during the recording sessions at the Soundstation. Bambi is deady That\'s precisely the title of the album And now a word about Benjamin Schoos aka Miam Monster Miam; \"l\'homme libellule\"

With his sixth album, Miam Monster Miam is more astonishing and amazing than ever. At 28 years old, Benjamin reinvents a french pop music which is familiar (Leo Ferré and Serge Gainsbourg are there), melodious , uplifting and typically absurds referring to the bands which filled with wonder and enchantement the past 30 years. A world apart, with the unexpected appearing after each note.

Before that, Android 80s is one Brian Carney (Briandroid), founder member and synthman of 80s/90s psychedelic freaks Poisoned Electrick Head, now resident in Belgium and in cahoots with the Freaksville posse. A one-man electronic spectacle with both feet still squarely planted in the bizarre zone.

A recent addition to the bill is Charline Rose, who delivers marvellous French Folk Pop songs, penned by Jacques Duvall, in the style of Benjamin Biolay and Françoise Hardy.

Charline Rose trained as an actress. She played theater, use her voice for commercials then she left Belgium for the united states, where she appeared as an extra in several movies, such as \'Rocky V\', Oliver Stone\'s \'The Doors\' and \'Cry Baby\' by John Waters.

As music is her passion, she went on tour with her friends Calexico and Giant Sand, with whom she occasionally sang. And so she met PJ Harvey whose song \'The River\' was covered and adapted in french by Charline. During a Christophe Miossec concert she met Jacques Duvall who later introduced her to Fred Momont. The newly formed trio then elaborated Charline Rose\'s album, entirely carried out in Fred\'s bathroom and garden.

Click And click here for more on UFO Goes UFA and here for Android 80s.

27 May - BANDALISM LAUNCH PARTY

2007-05-27

The Luminaire presents
A launch party for
\'Bandalism - Do Not Destroy Your Group\' by Julian Ridgway
featuring the fine talents of
THE BRIAN JACKET LETDOWN
+ Electric Cinema

Doors 7.30
FREE ENTRY by email, here.

Bandalism is a self-help manual for bands. It guides you from finding the right members through to breaking up at the right time, taking in such crucial steps as avoiding \'nervous exhaustion\' and how not to make a rubbish second album.

Bandalism is an occasionally ranting, diagram-filled guide on how to avoid screwing up your group for the same old predictable reasons.

And so, to celebrate the launch of this momentous book, The Brian Jacket Letdown and Electric Cinema will be performing on stage, and other stuff will happen too, which we\'ll tell you about in a minute.

28 May - ELVIS PERKINS IN DEARLAND + Jaymay

2007-05-28

The Luminaire presents
ELVIS PERKINS IN DEARLAND
+ Jaymay

Doors 7.30
£9 door

Elvis Perkins is a singer-songwriter who can speak from both head and heart in equal measure. That fusion, as well as some seriously beautiful melodies, is on display in Perkins new album, \'Ash Wednesday\'.

\"A beautiful debut. Perkins is often downbeat but in a surreal, impressionistic way [Rolling Stone]

\'Ash Wednesday\' feels both lived in and lived through, combining emotional intimacy with a warm-hearted studio sound that recalls Nick Drake and Astral Weeks-era Van Morrison. It\'s a beautiful album in which Perkins transforms circumstances of his personal life into compelling, dream-like songs with lyrics that teeter between the specific and the surreal.

\"\'Ash Wednesday\' already feels like one of those classic albums you keep around forever. [Paste]

For the last year and a half, Perkins (alongside his three-piece band: bassist Brigham Brough, keyboardist/guitarist Wyndham Boylan-Garnett, and drummer Nicholas Kinsey, known collectively as Elvis Perkins in Dearland) has been doing club dates in the USA to increasing acclaim; touring with such acts as Okkervil River, Dr. Dog, Matt Costa and the Pernice Brothers; appearing at events like Seattles Sasquatch! Festival, Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits; and performing on radio stations like Seattle, Washingtons influential KEXP and L.A.s KXLU.

\"A wholly engaging album.\" [Spin]

Perkins live reputation has grown, along with his audience, aided no doubt by enthusing on-line bloggers. After a performance at Rockwood Music Hall, on Manhattans Lower East Side, folks at Stereogum declared, We were sold on the spot fuss-worthy folkies just dont come easy...Double bass, harmonica and strings color these lyrical laments, but the mans easy melodicism is the real charm.

Dearland is a family affair. Wyndham is Perkins godbrother. He doesnt play on Ash Wednesday, although he was present at the sessions, while Nick and Brigham contributed performances. Live, the quartet continually experiments with Perkins repertoire, tinkering with the arrangements, playing around with tempos and varying the instrumentation: marching drum, harmonium, trombone, organ, piano, bells and whistles. \"A momentous debut.\" [Filter]

\'Ash Wednesday\' conjures a powerful mood, with horn arrangements reminiscent of the both mournful and joyful brass bands played at New Orleans funerals and snatches of elegant, understated strings. Perkins divides the album into two distinct sides, with the title track as the metaphorical side-two starter, which, if you happen along - and you really ought to - you\'ll have the pleasure of hearing tonight.

29 May - KTL (Stephen O\'Malley & PIta) + Guests

2007-05-29

Upset The Rhythm presents
KTL (Stephen O\'Malley & PIta)
+ Blood Stereo
+ Shift
+ Blue Shift

Doors 8.00
£9 via WeGotTickets

It seems we can\'t escape the influence of a certain Stephen O\'Malley (Sunn O))), Khanate) at the moment. Not content with giving the world countless albums of horrifically enjoyable doom drone, he has now decided to team up with one of the world\'s most influential purveyors of extreme computer music, Editions Mego boss Peter Rehberg aka PITA.

KTL is the moniker under which the duo have recorded an eponymous debut (released through Mego on CD and Aurora Borealis on plush LP) - an abbreviation of Kindertotenlieder, a theatrical collaboration between French performance artist Gisele Vienne and American novelist Dennis Cooperset to debut in March.

O\'Malley and Rehberg were asked to score the piece, whose title - which translates as \'Songs on the Death of Children\' - has a long artistic history, first emerging as a 425-poem opus written by German poet Freidrich Rückert in 1834 after two of his children died within a few weeks. The result is a marathon of barren ambience, almagating O\'Malley\'s quaking low end and elongated sub-metal riffs with Rehberg\'s icey digitised soundscapes. Blood Stereo is the duo of Dylan Nyoukis and Karen Constance. Both hailing from Blackburn, West Lothian, a shitsville village in Scotland\'s central belt, these tubes relocated and married in Brighton, England.

Lungs full of sea air and bellys full of wine fuel much of the scab sounds of Blood Stereo. Outside of this unholy union Karen performs solo as Smack Music 7, as well as leading an ever changing all female outsider noise group, The Polly Shang Kuan Band. Dylan also records solo (under the imaginative umbrella of Dylan Nyoukis) and previously performed in Decaer Pinga (the artists formerly known as Prick decay) with his sister Dora Doll.

SHIFT had a quiet and humble beginning in Sweden in 1997. Now based in the south coast area of England SHIFT has had several releases on labels such as Hospital Productions and Freak Animal with a first full length CD on his own label Unrest Productions earlier this year.

Aptly named \'Unable to Abide the Silence of the World\' it offers a slow, drone infested and crushingly bass heavy take on the power-electronics genre. Carefully avoiding the use of playback and laptops SHIFT operates all equipment (analogue synths, effects pedals, contact mics, sheet metal, samplers etc) and vocals resulting in an intense and disciplined live set of murky subsonic gloom, executed in real time. For this date additional bass player Dan Bengtsson (of Deranged and Crowpath fame) has been invited to lend his support.

Blue Shift is Cybele Collins. A native of Providence, Rhode Island, she brings a maelstrom of sounds like a racing, whinnying, fire blowing, shrieking, iron dragon in a deep sickness, all born out of tons of loops of violin.

30 May - NEATPEOPLE + Simon Mastrantone + The Amberblacks + DJs Toby & Tim [Transgressive], WayOutWest Caius [Young Turks]

2007-05-30

NEATPEOPLE
+ Simon Mastrantone
+ The Amberblacks
+ DJs Toby & Tim [Transgressive], WayOutWest Caius [Young Turks]

Doors 7.30
£6 via WeGotTickets
£7 door

New London indie Rekabet Records present a night of showcasing what they have to offer in 2007. Established in March 2006, they\'ve fast become one of the most diverse labels emerging in 2007.

NeatPeople\'s effervescent, classic indie pop harks back the soul of Dexys, the tongue in-cheek nature of Blur, the summer-time feel of the Beach Boys and diversity of XTC (NeatPeople incidentally are managed by ex-Food Records boss Andy Ross), Their avowed mission from day one to stop pop becoming a dirty word.

\"A hearty bijoux bundle of fold out pop.\" [NME]

\"These fashionable unfashionable, XTC-loving indie dorks are making the kind of gleefully \'80s schmindie rarely heard since the woefully ignored Dogs Die In Hot Cars. Weve got something quite special here.\" [The Fly] Simon Mastrantone plays music that roams the lonely back roads between musical genres. Whether it be haunting balladry, twisted angular rock or outright in your face punk, Simon is a diverse modern day troubadour. \"Simon Mastrantone\'s demos have become X-Posure regulars. The prospect of a single later this year is already getting me excited.\" [XFMs John Kennedy in Dazed & Confused]

\"A rather special solo artist in his own right.\" [powpowpow.com]

Click here for a handsome flyer, created for the occasion.

31 May - BEN WEAVER + Nic Dawson Kelly + Dawn Landes

2007-05-31

The Luminaire presents
BEN WEAVER
+ Nic Dawson Kelly
+ Dawn Landes

Doors 7.30
£10 via WeGotTickets
£11 door

\"Ben Weaver is 24, has a beard and a dog and favours the woods of Northern Minnesota. For once, the work clothes tell a story. He\'s a startling new talent.\" [Time Out]

\"Weaver\'s voice - which makes Lee Marvin sound like Aled Jones - lends biblical portent to the most mundane detail. A one-man Brothers Grimm with no happy endings. Enjoy.\" [Uncut, ****]

\"Elusive, sometimes contradictory poetic imagery with phrases like \'dead sunlight\' and sentiments like \'the closer I get to Heaven the quicker they shut that door\' figuring prominently. Bleak, but utterly compulsive.\" [Q]

But Ben Weaver can speak for himself.

\"Over four records I have seen the darkness of the music industry. My goal is to tour my ass off, and keep this as independent as I can, within the family so to speak. We will beat the bastards at their own game, with pureness of heart. The rest is in the songs. Thanks.\"

Born in Eugene, Oregon, Ben moved around a lot when he was growing up and finally settled in St. Paul, Minnesota. Music was very important to him as early as he can remember. He never liked school, so when college only lasted a year it was no surprise. He had bigger dreams of finding his own experiences and wisdom elsewhere.

Being on the road gave him a lot to work with. The realities of the human condition became a huge part of his subject matter. Stories and characters quickly turned themselves into songs and the dark side of lives with strife became a common theme in the songs he began writing. \"Strange, skin-prickling tales picked up from the Moebius strip of a lost highway he\'s been compelled to travel on.... like a hillbilly Leonard Cohen.\" [Mojo]

During a break from touring he became sick of all the commercialism, dirty hotels and false hopes. The stories he was writing and the ideas he was having came purely from within his own head, as opposed to coming from the road, or people he was meeting. His third album \'Hollerin\'\' was listed as Mojo\'s #3 Americana album of the year for 2003, and was also Uncut\'s Americana album of the month. He wrote it secluded in a cabin in the woods, but brought me to see more places than he could have ever imagined.

He has a new album now and it is as remarkable as those that have gone before it.

Come listen.

And come listen also to 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.

Opening proceedings is Dawn Landes