Barfly

This New Years Eve the barfly open their arms to celebrate a massive party put together by 4 of Brighton’s most exciting underground club nights.

Nervous Twitch - CONTEMPORY INDIE ELECTROPOP TRASH   

Shibby Shabblers - KAMIKAZE ALTERNATIVE QUEER MASHUP

Cavalcade of Pop - FUTURE-POP-RAVE-KRUNK-DISCO
 
Somewhere in the Universe - NEW & EXCITING ALTERNATIVE DANCE MUSIC
plus the boys dj’s from Luch Libre will be getting in on the antics

Lucha Libre - NO HOLDS BARRED DANCEFLOOR PARTY
 
www.myspace.com/clubnervoustwitch
www.myspace.com/shibbyshabblers
www.myspace.com/cavalcade_of_pop
www.myspace.com/somewhereintheuniverse
www.myspace.com/luchalibreparty
 
Please join their facebook groups to goad and abet the proceedings!
 
4 EPIC CLUB NIGHTS! ONE BIG VENUE! New Years Eve at the Brighton Barfly

Maps started at the end. The end of the night, the end of the music. When the last beat was dropped and the needle finally slipped off the groove, a lost soul began drifting through empty Northampton streets in the vague direction of home. Alas, he never arrived. For it was during his euphoric twilight stumble that this particular ending gave way to a bright new beginning; it was here, in the half light of a joyously desolate Sunday morning, that Maps made itself exist. Spinning through Earth's orbit, he was the first audionaut of our generation.

In reality, it was in a drowsy little village somewhere in the outer reaches of a nondescript midland satellite town that Maps came to exist. Floating through these most uninspiring of surroundings, Maps motherbrain James Chapman came upon a sound that was at once monumental and intimate; glorious and uplifting yet strangely melancholic.

His debut album We Can Create - recorded in his tiny bedroom, then co-produced in an Icelandic moonbase with Valgeir Sigurdsson (Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Björk) and mixed by Ken Thomas (Sigur Rós, Hope of the States) - is a work of heart-stopping extremes. Its eleven tracks run the full length of the transmission spectrum, from euphoric space-rock to folksy, downtempo whisperings and clattering, thudding noise-pop

"It will find you," he sings optimistically on the song of the same name. If you're reading this, it already has.

With a review like that what more do you want.

THE YOUNG GODS
‘Super Ready/Fragementé’
(PIAS)

Messrs Treichler, Comet and Trontin have never been ones to rest on their laurels and ‘Super Ready’ marks another sea change in their long and fruitful career. Finely honed over a couple of years of live performances, with songs bolted firmly into place by legendary producer and longtime collaborator Roli Mosimann, it signals a triumphant return to their rock roots. The adrenaline fuelled machine-tooled punk of ‘I Am The Drug’ and ‘Freeze’ share the clanging metal riff and glorious fuck-you attitude of ‘Envoye’ while the joyous, euphoric ‘Everyhere’, propelled by some amazingly fluid drumming from Trontin just might be the greatest ‘had a bad day dear?’ antidote known to man. Franz Treichler has never been on better vocal form, moving effortlessly from sensuous croon to seismic roar although on the curious ‘Machine Arriere’ he sounds more like Oscar the Grouch having a breakdown. The affecting ‘Stay With Me’ continues their longstanding fascination with late Sixties psychedelia while the title track, already a live favourite, dissolves beautifully into lysergic guitar fuzz, trampling over the burning embers of a Stooges riff. The sound of master craftsmen completely at ease and enjoying themselves immensely, these Gods might not be young anymore but their talents are ageless.
www.younggods.com
Neil Gardner 9

Having already received high praise from John Peel (the legendarily impassioned British DJ called "Lottery Winners On Acid" "one of the best songs I've heard in years"), SPIN (which deemed the band's 2004 SXSW showcase "an arena-worthy performance") and the Austin Chronicle ("consolidates all three Kinks eras – Sixties, Seventies, Eighties – in a slick '00 lathering of wit and whimsy"), the Crimea are poised to make more headway in America – certainly more than the Light Brigade did in the Ukraine.

"We want to be a timeless rock band, lyrically, musically and aesthetically," says drummer Owen Hopkins. The Crimea remain amazed their Wall of Sound and vivid lyrics found the U.K. press comparing them to such greats as The Flaming Lips and Leonard Cohen. Or that they were handpicked for opening slots with the likes of Kings of Leon, Dashboard Confessional and Ash. Or that their third single, "Baby Boom," came in at #8 on John Peel's 2003 Festive Fifty, just ahead of "Maps" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and "Seven Nation Army" by the White Stripes.

Their secret weapon is Macmanus' voice – instead of composing and arranging the material on actual instruments, he'd sing the different parts, then turn those vocal melodies into guitar and keyboard lines. It is definitely worth having a listen.

Their acclaimed debut "The Neon Handshake" was released in early 2003 and earned unexpected critical praise from NME to The Guardian, including album of the year in Rocksound and the dubious honor of a top 20 UK chart place. “equal parts fury and celebration, an emotionally-fraught rollercoaster ride, and the sound of a band searching for – and finding – its own voice.” Kerrang, Albums of 2003.

The band returned to the studio in 2004 on their own label with seminal punk producers Pelle Henricsson & Eskil Lövström (Refused, Poison the Well). The result was an album infused with a revolutionary punch and a deeper, darker side. “Gold-plated and with a granite core, the strongest and most glorious fuck you of the year” Rocksound, 2005 With endless months of touring, hell is for heroes have built a community of deeply loyal followers that has enabled them to become one of the only genuine self-sufficient rock bands in the UK.

Drawing inspiration from Dischord to the Zapatistas, they continue to grow and reinvent themselves with every new song and every show. Through serious injury, reckless abandon and a rejection of almost everything they ‘ought’ to do, Hell Is For Heroes have established a track record of unbreakable resilience.

Tickets will go on sale on Tuesday 8th May at 8am

Recently signed to Columbia Records Nashville, Christian Kane is taking some time out from recording in Nashville to visit the UK once again.  Showcasing the talents of both Christian Kane and bandmate Steve Carlson, last year this show sold out tickets to The Troubadour and to Barfly B-sides @ The Enterprise extremely quickly.  Get your tickets early or you may be left out!  Performing an intimate, but high energy, acoustic show has become an annual event for Kane.  Expect each night of this Barfly Tour to bring its own surprises.

Christian Kane has had success not only with his band, but also with numerous film and television roles.  In a role that has given him worldwide exposure, Christian starred as "Lindsey McDonald" in a major role on the WB television series ANGEL.  Christian most recently co-starred in Jerry Bruckheimer’s TV series CLOSE TO HOME.  Christian was also featured in the TNT miniseries INTO THE WEST and feature films including JUST MARRIED, LIFE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT, SECONDHAND LIONS, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, HER MINOR THING, and SUMMER CATCH.  Gaming fans may know him from his appearance in 24: THE GAME where he plays a computer-generated antagonist challenging Kiefer Sutherland to try to stop his evil plan.

A new album is in the works for release through Columbia Records Nashville. Come hear the new songs long before they are released on CD. 

Music samples and more available at www.myspace.com/kanecountry and www.kanemusic.com.

SoD aka Benjamin Darvill is anything but sanitised and dull, but no doubt he’s good for you. Formerly of the Crash Test Dummies (‘mmm’ I hear you mumble?) he has spent the last few years living in London and honing an interpretation of the devil’s music that fuses human beat-box, sampling, blazing harmonica and yelping vocals in a dazzling tech-blues workout that’s completely his own.

Sporting a trim 1950’s suit, 2-tone brogues and a Hollywood tie, he works his arsenal of instruments with a cool dexterity, the odd grin or grimace emerging from under the brim of his hat between rasps of harmonica. He beatboxes the rhythm section, looping results through a pedal sampler - building layers of grunting and ka-chickk-ing, assisted by foot-stomping and the slow shaking of a maraca in one hand. The other hand clasps a harmonica or ‘harp’ as he likes to call it, and this alternates with the seemingly limitless range of his voice to fashion a unique blue wall of sound.

Recent single Goddamn / San Francisco (released on Husky Records) demonstrates the depth of his ability. Whereas ‘Goddamn’ sounds like he swallowed several kilos of tarmac washed down with a gallon of Scotch before recording, flip over and the spine-tingling lamentation of San Francisco leaves you baffled as to how it could be sung by the same cat, but chuffed to bits you’ve got two such original songs on one seven-inch.

"we are crystal castles
we are 1 boy and 1 girl
we are named after She-Ra's home
we play rough"

 www.myspace.com/crystalcastles

Bands often learn the hard way how signing to a major label can do more to end a career than help it. As many had before them, the Mooney Suzuki took that risk and got burned. For them, Have Mercy is simply the sound of a band coming back from the dead. When James was writing the album, there was no guarantee there would even be a Mooney Suzuki when he finished:Unsure of the band’s future, James began writing songs that, he hoped, could stand on their own, unaided by the usual Mooney Suzuki bombast.Bonding over a love for ‘60s-influenced, high-energy rock’n’roll, James and Tyler formed The Mooney Suzuki in 1997, while both were attending art school in New York, where in just a couple of years, the band was embraced by both mod kids and devotees of Lenny Kaye’s famed Nuggets compilation. During this time, “garage bands” and the NYC scene experienced a surge in popularity, and, dubbed “It Garage Band,” by Entertainment Weekly’s ’02 It List, the hard-working Moonies hit the late-night talk show circuit and embarked on tours supporting The Strokes and The Hives, as well as headlining treks across the U.S. and overseas.  With the original line-up intact, Tyler returned and the band recorded Have Mercy in tribute to his father, Robert, Through the purgatory he and the band endured leading up to Have Mercy, one lesson James says he’s learned is summed up by the album’s opener “99%”, in a lyric cribbed from Winston Churchill: “If you’ve been going though hell, just keep going.”

Two girls and a boy heavily influenced by Jackie Wilson / Sonics / White Stripes and straight outta 50s milkshake parlours. Detroit-esque street corner harmonies collide with a tricked out hot-rods drowning in doo-wop. Bluesy duets of heartache and jealousy with candy and hairspray 'n' all … Banish all thoughts of sad old bloke blues bands. This is the new garage blues. It feels like rock but licks up twice as good.

http://www.myspace.com/thesugars

You must’ve noticed that there’s something happening in british rock – many bands are sick of the way things are – major label US rock is over-hyped, over-cooked, over-here and it’s about to be over….period. The Charge Of The Dark Brigade has begun.

Zico Chain are three lads in their early twenties who are part of this new slew of UK guitar bands who are sick of (scr)emo-attention-seeking and are about to grab their slice of the pie. The trio have distilled the punk riffola of Motorhead, the druggy vision of QOTSA, the musical skills and visual impact of the White Stripes and a 21st century homegrown social consciousness to create a potent brew worthy of a hard-rocking, hard-living, hard-thinking east London outfit.

Touring the UK with Alkaline Trio, Thursday, Wolfmother, Fall Of Troy and Nine Black Alps before recording their album in LA with godfather of rock Joe Barresi (Bad Religion, Tool, QOTSA), Zico Chain have been winning over friends, lovers and bartenders on both sides of the Atlantic, with their message of celebrate yourself, use your voice, get fucked up. 

Their debut single ‘Where Would You Rather Be?’ sounds like survival itself, kicking off about hopelessness and mental escapism with a daylight shredding voice over a sick rhythm section rumble. “No future that’s for sure, so stop trying and pray for cures….low living your system crashed, God gave you an autograph.”

It started with a… well, not a kiss, exactly. "We met at a festival," she tells me. "I was the only chick on the bill, and I was singing what we affectionately call ‘tampon music'… You know, singer-songwriter, Ani Di Franco, Lilith Fair, Jewel-type music… tamponics! I didn't wanna be strumming my fucking guitar for ever. I was so bored of that scene." "I was in an improvisational, experimental, drum & bass and breakbeat trio", he tells me. "The fruit of this encounter between Dan and Martina was Dragonette, a duo, who make sharp, sardonically witty electronic pop music. Dragonette are not, it's fair to say, a band who've come up the hard way on the toilet gig circuit.Their second-ever show was supporting New Order at NYC's Hammerstein Ballroom, followed by a US tour supporting Duran Duran. Martina has accidentally become a pop star. When she wrote and sang lead vocals on a new Basement Jaxx track, "Take Me Back To Your House", she had no idea that it was to be their next single. Next, it's Dragonette's turn to become pop stars in their own right. If that's the correct description… "I don't see us as a pop band," says Dan, "so much as an electronic-rock band who write pop songs."

“Counting one, two, three four… the way I’m acting is ridiculous/like a dog in heat/following and sniffing your tail/what is wrong with me?” – ‘Counting To Sleep’ by Wallis BirdCounting to Wallis Bird: a numerical guide to the Irish singer-songwriter with the loud guitar and belting-pure voice:Six: the age, in months, Wallis was when she first got a guitar… ‘It was never forced on me,’ she insists. ‘I used to dance on it, before I realised you put it round your shoulder. ’Five: the number of songs on Wallis Bird’s five-song sampler that she describes as ‘cathartic’… ‘For sure they’re cathartic. They all mirror my life. I can’t help but be honest in my songs,’ she says. Beautiful ballad ‘All For You’ (“when I am with you I have magic”) is a brilliant case in point.

Oh, loads: the number of influences Wallis will own up to… Ireland. Family. Mates. Life. Love. Pubs. Ella Fitzgerald. Nina Simone. Fiona Apple. ‘I love jazz and I love women with powerful, gutsy voices. I really looked up to Ani DiFranco when I was growing up. She doesn’t give a fuck about anything. She’s a really strong woman. You had to listen to her, and she did everything independently. And she’s got a huge cult following for that.’ Wallis Bird – the Irishwoman with the heaven-sent voice who followed her dreams to Germany, who sings out her own feelings with full-force honesty, who once lost half her fingers but defiantly didn’t let that stop her – thinks that this is the way to do things. ‘If you can live your life, being happy, doing what you do, fair play. That’s what I believe in.’ 

The band will be road-testing tracks from their forthcoming album at the Liverpool Barfly on 11th November. Get your tickets NOW!

Sue Denim and Dee Plume are Robots In Disguise - the most exciting songwriting duo of the moment.

Dee's aerobic guitar solos and Sue's grooving bass lines dance over anthemic lyrics and pogo electro beats.

Dream ESG, Peaches and Gainsbourg in a pop clusterf*ck.

Live, they ROCK! The stage is their playground - on guitars, singing n shouting, RID entertain their audience, partying it up (throwing out DIY art and cool moves) n entertaining in true old-skool style.

Dee & Sue can also be seen playing the 'Electro Girls', Neon & Ultra, in the first series of The Mighty Boosh.

The majesty of rock, the mystery of roll, all underpinned by ferocious beats. Sohodolls are not afraid to bring in various musical styles – glam-rock, punk, hip hop and big band swing - put them through their mincer and shit out twisted dark pop songs. Lead singer and songwriter Maya, 'a female Iggy Pop', started the band a couple of years ago and brought in co-conspirator Toni who has been described by the NME as 'a more sinister Jimmy Page'. They have in tow a weird and wonderful collection of musical maestros who wouldn't look out of place in A Clockwork Orange or Bowie's Labyrinth. Weston Doll commands an eclectic array of synths while the rhythm section concoct rock-solid grooves beneath the anthemic melodies and rock and roll riffs. Sohodolls is first and foremost a live band that you must subject yourself to at least once in your lifetime. 

The band wants global domination - their tentacles are already stretching out beyond the safe outposts of LA and London. They have in their sights the Far East, South Africa and the Middle East! The band’s ethos is and always has been 'putting rock and roll back into music'. This doesn't mean bad behaviour fit for Channel 4 viewing, although it does rear its ugly head every now and then on the tour bus or backstage, but rather Sohodolls' ethos is one of bold creativity - riffs, songs, lyricsand intros that bands like The Who and The Stooges would dive head-first into. 

“Strong melodies, wonderful harmonies and clever bits verging on the Radiohead….a cause for celebration.”
(The Sunday Telegraph.)
It is an extremely exciting time for smallwhitelight. This adventurous Brighton four piece fronted by young and Bob Dylanesque Jim Oxborrow have been making considerable waves on both sides of the Atlantic.
In March they played a headline show at the 400 capacity Pavilion Theatre in Brighton to a rave review in the Fly Magazine. The band then jetted off to Texas to play a great open air show at industry honey pot SXSW. They were the runners up in the final of the Glastonbury emerging talent competition and are playing two coveted slots at Glastonbury in addition to a show at FOPP Records and a slot on Glastonbury FM.
They have been named as one of Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephen’s tipped bands and as a result were featured on a Radio 1 podcast. They played a buzz show at the Great Escape Festival and impressed Canadian Music Week who have invited the band to play at their 2008 convention. The Hitsheet Magazine also tipped them in their Great Escape highlights round up.
They have previously received airplay on the Rodney Bingenheimer show on KROQ and Passport Approved on INDIE101. They were also featured in the last edition of tip magazine Future Sounds and the latest A&R Worldwide newsletter. Previously they have had a single ‘Broken Silver’ championed on influential industry tip sheet Recordoftheday.com and received airplay on BBC6 Music and XFM. 
Plans are currently being finalised for a single release of their Indie Disco sing-a-long ‘Spite’ in early Autumn and the sharp and infectious DIY video which accompanies this 1 minute 30” gem is attracting considerable interest.