The Louisiana, Bristol is giving up-and-coming and established ILLUSTRATORS, VIDEO ARTISTS, PHOTOGRAPHERS AND FINE ARTISTS the chance to showcase their work for up to 3 weeks.

It’s FREE TO EXHIBIT with us and we won’t be taking any commission on sales.

Whether you have JUST ONE PIECE OR ENOUGH FOR A WHOLE EXHIBITION, we are willing to give you a go.

Your art doesn’t need to be sellable, we just want to SHOW IT OFF TO THE WORLD!

PRIVATE VIEWINGS WILL NOT COST YOU ANYTHING; we want to support you in any way we can.

TRAFFIC through the venue is usually PRETTY SUBSTANTIAL, with sell-out gigs taking place all week, upstairs.

GROUND FLOOR AVAILABLE FREE OF CHARGE for any art related event (subject to avail.) : Degree fundraisers/ exhibitions etc (you can charge on the door)

FURTHER INFO:
We accept both group and solo shows.
Opening Hours: Noon-3pm, 5.30pm-Midnight
All work must be shown to us before it’s exhibition
Size limits: please organise a viewing of the space
White exhibition space.
subject to availability.

FOR MORE INFO, PLEASE CONTACT
art@thelouisiana.net

Renowned for her warm, engaging stage presence, Sarah McQuaid is a versatile and beguiling performer. In addition to her own elegantly crafted originals, she interprets traditional Irish and Appalachian folk songs, Elizabethan ballads, 1930s jazz numbers, surprise covers and lively guitar instrumentals with panache and poignance.

Dan Ashton – Untypical songwriter

Once a mere fresh faced folk singer from Vancouver, Canada, Dan Mangan now stands at the world’s doorstep. The evolution of Mangan’s music is instinctively in line with its breadth and sincerity. As his art has developed, so has the story behind its constant and exponential proliferation.

The proof is in the countless European jaunts. U.S. tours with The Walkmen, Decemberists and Okkervil River. The two performances at Glastonbury. Multiple trips to Australia. NPR features, endless critical acclaim. Sold out theatres across Canada.

The 2010 Polaris Music Prize short list nomination for his sophomore album Nice, Nice Very Nice capped a stellar year in which Dan won iTunes Album of the Year in the singer songwriter category, a trio of CBC awards and was named XM The Verge Artist of the Year.

Mangan and his band experienced life-changing door openings, new challenges and wonderful opportunities across the globe. Indeed, Dan’s musical passport now bears stamps from places – figurative and literal – many artists will never visit.

And so he arrived at the challenge of a new record. Oh Fortune, which itself arrives September 27 on Arts & Crafts, is a far more ambitious offering than its predecessor. A rich, textured, indie-folk(ish) statement that explores the genre’s boundaries with great influence from his band, which pushed Dan beyond his comfort zone sonically, even as he dug deeper within himself.

“The sound has been stretched in different directions by the players and how they’ve warped my mind over the last few years,” Dan admits, adding, “I always simply aimed to surround myself with people who were creatively inspiring.”

These players include free-jazz experimentalists Gord Grdina (guitar), Kenton Loewen (drums) and the inimitable John Walsh (bass), as well as a near orchestra that helped shape the production. There was also a ringer call to Seattle’s Eyvind Kang (Bill Frisell, Beck, Mike Patton, Marc Ribot) who helped write the lush arrangements on Oh Fortune.

“And yet with all of this amazing musical influence, I feel like lyrically and song-wise it’s more me than anything I’ve ever done.”

Produced by Colin Stewart (Black Mountain, Cave Singers) at The Hive in Vancouver, Oh Fortune still shines with those key Mangan components – the gravelly voice, that basic human element – but this time, it comes with a more mature perspective on creative intuitiveness that can only come from years of teeth-cutting.

“The last record did far more than I or anyone else thought it would… I felt like we stumbled by accident onto something that people liked. I feel now that if we tried to recreate something that already worked, I wouldn’t like it… and then they wouldn’t like it either,” Dan muses, “it has to be sincere, and relevant, and whatever we’re feeling right now.”

That sentiment is mirrored on Oh Fortune tracks like its closer, “Jeopardy,” which addresses social borders and the walls we build, both real and imagined. Written on the road, where Dan lived for the majority of the last three years, these new songs tackle bold new subject matter, playing on themes of societal manipulation, soldier shell-shock and urban sprawl with tracks like “How Darwinian,” “Rows Of Houses” and “Post War Blues.”

Currents of mortality, isolation, and desperation run through the album, and yet its title comes from Dan’s reflection of a ticker-tape parade celebrating the return of Gertrude Ederle to the United States in 1926. For a heartbeat, she was the country’s biggest celebrity. She had just become the first woman to swim the English Channel, and simultaneously the new world-record holder (previously held by a man).

There exists in Oh Fortune this chaos of juxtaposition. It could be taken as a sad or dark album, yet musically it kicks with more ferocity and tenacity than people may expect from Mangan. It debates melancholy while it anticipates incredible moments of glory and victory. It’s not sad, it’s simply honest. Life is just that.

The result is an album void of predictability, that is distinctively Dan Mangan, infused with his wit and personality, yet completely distinguished from everything prior. Simply stated, Oh Fortune makes good on the promise of every song Dan’s ever written, while setting a new standard for every song he’s yet to write. To be sure, this release marks the arrival of a new voice, with world-class charm and a universal appeal. Oh fortune, indeed.

For Spanish singer-songwriter Juan Zelada there has always been a mystique to London and its inhabitants. Having come to the UK with just his guitar on his back and his enigmatic talent Zelada has quickly become one of the most talked about names on the scene and has enjoyed slots touring with the likes of Amy Winehouse as well as writing sessions with members of Duran Duran. Plying his trade in the capital initially in restaurants and bars it was Zelada’s effortlessly summery vocals, instinctive ear for a melody and infectious enthusiasm which saw him welcomed into exclusive musical circles where the Madrilenian’s talent was immediately recognised and allowed to flourish. Indeed, during his time at LIPA he was awarded with a prize for song writing by legendary songsmith Paul McCartney – a fine endorsement for a stunning performer.

Now, with an album of freshly crafted material, the multitalented pianist, guitarist and songwriter is set to welcome swathes of new fans with his timelessly crafted sound. With his monthly residency (featuring his show stopping 6-piece band) at The Troubadour in Earls Court frequently packed to the rafters with dancing, partying fans Juan Zelada look set to continue to be the name on the lips of the industry as we move through 2011.

Following on from the success of his first single Breakfast in Spitalfields which achieved Record Of The Week at Radio 2 and then spent a giddy 6 weeks on the playlist and becoming the second most played track on the station during the whole of July, Juan Zelada returns with an intensely soulful and uplifting number The Blues Remain released on 31st October 2011.

It’s been a sensational year for the now much industry hyped Zelada, culminating in a sold out single launch party at the Hoxton Bar and Grill in July, rave reviews in the press including Metro & Time Out and featuring a Radio 2 live session with Jo Whiley and a live session with BBC London Radio’s Joanne Good.

Laura Gibson & Ethan Rose — Boreas Borealis from Holocene Music on Vimeo.

Beast of Seasons opens with a hum and drone, a veil of fog conjuring a sense of atmosphere not unlike the Pacific Northwest coastal timber town where Laura Gibson was raised. A plaintive strum emerges with a voice in tow; a candle, a tender and flickering wisp of a voice suffusing the space with a warm glow. This voice, registering as little more than a whisper, rises above the subtle and evocative instrumentation with uncommon intimacy. Coos and cracks, chirps and slurs, clucks and purrs all come into focus with perceptive musicality.

Steeped in the fingerpick-guitar rudiments of folk music, inspired by the expressionism of classic jazz vocalists, and finding common ground in the minimalism and ear-taunting of the avant garde, Laura Gibson alights on a branch of the music tree that no one else has found. Gibson reveals that her own singing is more informed by a sensitivity and self exploration than by training. “I like to feel the rumble in my sternum and the vibrations in the back of my throat when I sing. I tend to gravitate toward simplicity and minimalism, but I am very conscious of the particular notes I play.”

Equally deliberate, and as a nod to the vinyl record era, Beast Of Seasons is split into two parts. Part 1: Communion Songs, and Part II: Funeral Songs. “In looking back over these songs, I found two themes arising: First, reaching towards something outside of ourselves, be it a lover or god or family (Communion Songs) and second, grappling with the idea of ultimate aloneness and acceptance (Funeral Songs).” The songs isolate distinct and familiar emotions from the many reactions to death, ranging from fear (“Where Have All Your Good Words Gone”), and denial (“Sweet Deception”), to brave acceptance (“Funeral Song”).

As a whole, the record might be interpreted as nine meditations on mortality. This is not to say it is a work of philosophy, but rather a group of meditations, or gut reactions to the idea of death. Written from a room in a house overlooking the mossy gravestones and mature maples of one of Portland’s oldest cemeteries, Gibson notes she finished the last song just days before moving out. “When I was finished I felt a great relief,” she offers, as if an epilogue to the opening line of the album: “I have carried beasts for many seasons…”

Drawing on anatomical imagery (words like bones, skin, tongue, and spine appear multiple times on this record) Gibson updates the pastoral imagery of Appalachian folk and country blues idioms with the landscape of the body. “I feel the seasons changing in my lungs, and I recognize grief as a weight in my bones,” Gibson explains. On “Funeral Songs” she blurs this line, “Ask no greater pardon than the pattern time is carving in your skin.” Though each song dances around the theme of death, ultimately, they reflect the urgency of life.

Her accomplice for Beasts of Seasons was friend and Grammy-nominated producer Tucker Martine. The project offered Martine a departure from the grand visions of bands like The Decemberists and Sufjan Stevens. The computer in Martine’s studio was eschewed in favor of a vintage, slightly shaky, two inch tape machine. Limited to sixteen tracks, many things were recorded live. Instead of laying down multiple horn tracks, they invited all of their horn playing friends over one afternoon to collaborate. Instead of multi-tracked vocal harmonies, they formed a choir of compatriots.

In fact, many friends dropped in to contribute, including musical collaborator Rachel Blumberg (M Ward band, Bright Eyes), Nate Query (Decemberists), Adam Selzer (Norfolk and Western, M Ward), avant-garde violist and composer Eyvind Kang, solo artists Laura Veirs and Shelly Short, Danny Seim (Menomena) and many of the people who have formed her touring band over the past two years (Cory Gray, Sean Ogilvie, Dave Depper, Jason Leonard, Micah Rabwin). The evocative artwork was painted by Evan B Harris.

Sprinkled between the tracks are field recordings of a parade that interrupted a quiet session on a sunny Saturday. The stark contrast of recording sober (occasionally somber) songs of mortality on a beautiful sunny day as a parade went by was not lost on them. Martine and Gibson embraced the dichotomy, both thematically and personally, and wove these audio snapshots in as a counterpoint.

“Glory is found in those closest to you,” said Gibson. For her own part she offers, “As a writer, all I could hope to be, if nothing else, is honest and generous in spirit. I have been alive for exactly 29 years, perhaps not as old as the trees, but certainly older than the birds. There are days I feel like an old women, and I find that death is a calm and familiar presence. There are days I feel like a young child, where death seems so foreign and shocking.

Perhaps, more than anything, Gibson’s songs might be quiet reflections of the human body, reflections both of strength, and of frailty.” With Beasts of Seasons, Gibson offers up an intimate affirmation of mortality, both vulnerable and courageous, dark and illuminating, ordinary and extraordinary.

Hello Lazarus are an explosive alternative rock band from Bristol creating “one hell of a sound for just a trio” (Red Hot Velvet). Following their critically acclaimed first single “Ladies Love Liars” they self-released their debut mini-album titled “All Alliteration” on 12th March 2011. It has seen strong support from magazines such as Venue and Big Cheese and been noted as “bloody brilliant” (Green Man Music), “an impressive look into the soul of indie rock” (Live Music Scene) and likened to “Tears for Fears played by The Mars Volta” (TapeToTape).

The varied and dynamic release that is “All Alliteration” has helped the band share their high-energy live show with the likes of Flood of Red, Vessels, Tellison, Shapes and feature at Dot 2 Dot and Bristol Harbourside Festival.

Duologue are a newly formed four-piece band from London, initially founded last year by university friends Tim Digby-Bell and Toby Leeming as a song-writing project. In the time that followed they spent many hours in their home studio writing and recording material that blended and reflected their shared influences whilst also treading new ground. Confident in the songs and having received the ultimate praise from Steve Lamacq who admitted he was lost for words to describe them, Duologue set about recruiting two further band members, Toby Lee and Seb Dilleyston, to bring their unique, multi-instrumental sound to the stage. Drawing on their love of ‘band music’ as well as a broad range of electronic music, their sound combines all the capabilities that synths and electronics provide whilst never forgetting the need for solid melodies and songs. Duologue’s live performance now consists of two guitarists, live electronics and strings. With all the band members being multi-instrumentalists they are able to switch around when they want to and as the stages they play on grow in size, so undoubtedly will the scope of their live set. Everyone is sure to be hearing more of the band in 2009. With their music featured in the current BMI television advert, another track to be played on the new series of Skins, having performed their first NME radio live session and featuring, amongst other things, in Disorder Magazine and QX as ‘Ones To Watch’, there is no doubt Duologue are going places.

Having worked solidly for 18 months promoting her self-released debut album Telling Tales, Leddra Chapman recently took the next step in her musical evolution as she unveiled brand new material to her rapidly increasing fan base. Entitled A Trick Or Two, this EP was written in the autumn of 2011 by Leddra, Chris Leonard and Jake Gosling (producer of Ed Sheeran’s No.1 debut album +) who also took the helm at the producer’s desk for this release. Taking inspiration from some very personal experiences over this time, Leddra has crafted a set of songs that are both classic and contemporary both in the production and narrative and sure to thrill both her new legion of teenage fans alongside the folk influenced fan base she has gathered over the past two years.

With all three singles from her debut album garnering significant National and Regional radio support as well as some superb press appreciation, Leddra has slowly and organically established herself as one of the leading new songwriting talents in the country today.
 
Having kicked off 2011 with a bang completing a sold out 20-date UK headline tour, Leddra then headed straight into a promotional tour of Holland and Belgium, performing at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, at live radio sessions and also performed live on the biggest Belgian music TV show.
 
Summer saw Leddra personally invited to perform as main support to Tom Jones at three sold out concerts in London, Essex & Manchester. Performing to approximately 35,000 people over the three nights, Leddra performed a set of songs, old and new, to a rapturous reception. In between these dates Leddra also performed, for the second year running, at Signal FM’s live event in Stoke-on-Trent. Performing Summer Song and also new EP track Where You Want Me to an audience of 15,000 people. This led perfectly into a string of shows with her buddy and man-of-the-moment Ed Sheeran, whom Leddra has recently collaborated with on his debut album and also written with for her second album.

WWW.JOEBLOGGERS.NET PRESENT: LIZ GREEN
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With just a gently plucked acoustic guitar to accompany her, Liz Green is fast becoming one of the most talked about singers in the UK. Her hushed voice recalls Nina Simone, but filtered through the British folk tradition.

Harder, grittier and more malevolent than anything previously heard from Kill It Kid, new single ‘Pray On Me’ marries a punishing blues riff a la Black Keys to Chris Turpin’s dust bowl howl and Stephanie Ward’s softer but no less strident vocal. The strange, electrifying scream that opens the song is the righteous – not to say blood-curdling – voice of a certain Reverend J.H. Terrell in full evangelical flight, culled from a 1920’s Alan Lomax field recording.

Mistakenly lumped in with the crop of neo-folk acts on the release of their eponymous 2009 debut, Kill It Kid have been toughened up by relentless touring ever since, and, freshly inspired by old recordings like ‘I Had a Dream’ by Pops Staples, the band have fulfilled their identity as a blues band at heart. ‘Pray On Me’ is a positive affirmation of the path the band are now following, and indeed of the album that will follow in the autumn. “Throughout this whole album process we have endeavoured to really retain a sense of honesty and Britishness – of the blues boom of the 1960s – in what we do,” says Chris.

Following the departure of violin player Richard Jones, “We’ve naturally moved away from our old sound, no violin, no acoustic guitars”, explained Chris to Clashmusic.com at the end of last year. “Having spent a month recording our debut in the States we wanted our second album to have an immediacy… the whole thing was put to tape in London in just over a week.”

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Alice Gold (Alice McLaughlin) is an English singer-songwriter based in London, formerly signed to Sunday Best[1] and currently signed to Fiction Records.
Alice Gold performing solo onstage at Guilfest 2011

Her debut single “Orbiter” was released on 23 September 2010 through Pure Groove Records, with a single launch party at The Drop in Stoke Newington. The Guardian said it “showcases Gold’s mighty voice through its power-pop chorus” and described her as “One to watch”.

Her second single “Runaway Love”, released on Fiction Records, has received airplay on radio stations across the UK, entering the A-List on BBC Radio 2. On the official release date, 18 April 2011, an acoustic EP was recorded live at Toerag Studios where The White Stripes have previously recorded.

Gold’s debut album Seven Rainbows, released on 4 July 2011, was produced by Dan Carey (Franz Ferdinand, Hot Chip, Lily Allen). In an interview with PopCultureMonster.com she said of the album “the main bass, drums and guitars rhythm tracks were all recorded live and on tape like the old 60s records. The over-dubs are mostly made up of one-takes, whether it be guitar or vocal takes. My producer Dan Carey and I decided that if a take felt good then we’d keep it, so it is complete with minor ‘mistakes’ and quirky sounds through doing that, which we both like. Its a very honest album, quite autobiographical. The songs were born from a lot of darkness and grief but the lyrics are drenched in hope because of that, which is why I imagine people connect to it.”

In October 2010, Gold was shortlisted for Q magazine’s ‘Next Big Thing’ award.[4]

In September 2011, Gold’s cover of the Billy Fury song “Wondrous Place” was used in an advert for the British beer brand Carling.

She has toured with Eels, Athlete, Band Of Skulls, Noah And The Whale, The Twilight Singers and has upcoming tour support slots confirmed with The Dears and The Bookhouse Boys.

Gold also played festivals in 2011, including Glastonbury, V Festival, T in the Park, Harvest at Jimmy’s Festival, Jodrell Bank Live, Kendal Calling, Cornbury Festival and Hull’s Freedom Festival.

Taken from The Guardian:

The BBC Sound Poll and all those other lists of who’s going to make it in 2010 already seem out of date and out of touch. Why? Because they didn’t have Summer Camp in them, and Summer Camp are going to be quite a big deal over the next few months.

Not that we know anything about them. Their MySpace says they’re from the “United Kingdom”, we’ve read that they’re from Chicago, and most write-ups of them thus far have been pretty convinced that they are, in fact, Swedish. They’re cool and clever enough to be a Brooklyn arthouse scam or one of those Stockholm never-never concept pop groups that make sublime music but never sell a record.

Actually, we have it on pretty good authority – we asked their press officer – that they’re a boy-girl duo from London, but we don’t know their names or who plays what instruments. However, there is an emphasis on soft female vocals, if that isn’t a contradiction in terms.

Meanwhile, they’re so keen to retain their anonymity at this point that instead of photos of them, they’re sending out for use various snapshots of kids and teenagers in the pre-punk 1970s in bad tanktops, supposedly enjoying themselves on some kind of seasonal holiday – or Summer Camp, as they’re often known. Unless that Polaroid of a couple drenched in beige and snogging at the kitchen table really is them, which would be weird.

They’re as slippery as they are seemingly shy, this Summer Camp pair. They fit in or flit in and out of various categories: the new surf-rock of the Drums, the C86-ish indie-pop of Pains of Being Pure at Heart, the girl group revivalism of Vivian Girls … There are elements in their lush lo-fi moments of chillwave, with some of the crackly intimacy of Perfume Genius. “If Washed Out offer the comedown from the utopian gauzy beach party,” wrote one blogger, “then Summer Camp are the band who played the prom the night before, peppier than their morning-after bedfellows.”

They’re not mono-fetishists: it’s not just the innocence of the pre-rock 1950s or non-rock mid-1960s they’re lionising here. Alongside the synth version of the Flamingos’ spectral 1959 hit I Only Have Eyes for You there are references to the mid-1980s – most of the songs on their MySpace start with a quote from an 80s Bratpack movie or other. Round the Moon – itself more electro-poppy than doo woppy – is prefaced by Molly Ringwald’s character Sam Baker saying, “I can’t believe I gave my panties to a geek”, during John Hughes’s Sixteen Candles. And Was It Worth It?, or at least the singing on the verse, is so Morrissey it’s not true.

“We’re big fans of the glo-fi/chillwave thing happening at the moment,” the duo exclusively told New Band of the Day. “Washed Out, Active Child, the Smith Westerns – there is something so nostalgic and heartbreaking about it, while still sounding really fresh and exciting. We also love Motown and the Beach Boys, and 80s pop like Cocteau Twins, Altered Images, Talking Heads and XTC. Stiff Records is a big influence – Wreckless Eric, Jona Lewie, Ian Dury and Devo. We just love synth-pop, though, ultimately. And we kind of imagine that we’re writing songs for an 80s teen movie. John Cusack is a huge influence on us.”

Cool. But why the secrecy?

“That came about completely by accident,” they said. “As things started happening it made sense to carry on being secretive, as it takes the pressure off us slightly. Plus, we don’t like how you can know everything about a band these days – we’re nostalgic for mystery. People will find out soon, though, and probably be disappointed that we’re not actually Cheryl Cole and Moby. Or are we …?”

The Chapman Family are a band from Teesside in the North East of England. Artrocker magazine called “All Fall,” their debut single from their debut album, “the best rock song of the year” in October 2010. Their debut album “Burn Your Town” will be released in March 2011, preceded by their second single “Anxiety” on 28th February 2011.

Biog
Martha Tilston is a captivating performer, an enchanting singer-songwriter blessed with a gloriously clear and seductively beautiful voice. Weaving her magic spell over listeners wherever she plays – from the concert hall to the campfire, from folk clubs to main festival stages – she is a rare gem who has the power to draw an audience into her world and create an intimate space where her words and music dance and delight, leaving all those present with a smile, a warm feeling inside, and a few issues to ponder, too.

It is hardly surprising that Martha is such an original and accomplished performer. She grew up surrounded by music, art, poetry and drama, always encouraged to express herself through the creative arts. Her father is acclaimed singer-songwriter Steve Tilston; stepmum the glorious London-Irish folk singer Maggie Boyle; her mum Naomi is a talented artist, while stepdad Frank is a theatre director.

The various creative influences combined. Hearing folk luminaries such as Bert Jansch, Ralph McTell and John Renbourn playing in the kitchen with her dad, and learning traditional songs from Maggie Boyle formed the background to Martha’s love of folk music. Having inherited her mum’s artistic talents, Martha paints the artwork for her albums.

It was acting, though, that first drew the young Martha and she studied at drama school, and appeared at the Edinburgh Festival, before deciding that the call of music could not be denied…

She formed the duo Mouse with guitarist Nick Marshall, releasing two albums, “Helicopter Trees” (2000) and “Mouse Tales” (2001), and becoming a firm cult favourite on the underground festival circuit.

At the end of 2002 Martha went solo, her first outing supporting Damien Rice on a tour of Ireland. A lo-fi release, “Rolling”, mostly sold through word-of-mouth and at gigs, followed in 2003. Steadily gigging, and adored by an ever-growing fanbase, in early 2005, Martha released her first full-scale album, “Bimbling”, on her own label Squiggly – an enchanting and intimate selection of songs, the tracks interspersed with ambient soundscapes from summer music festivals. The whole project was funded by selling the original canvases she had painted to provide the artwork for the CD. In 2006, a free download album, “Ropeswing”, followed, the first to feature her backing band The Woods.

Ever brave in her songwriting and never compromising her principles of independence when questioning and confronting social issues and drawing attention to causes close to her heart, this album featured “Corporations” which highlights the immorality of corporate culture and relentless materialism. She also lent her name to the Big Issue’s “Peace Not War” compilation album, contributing “The Saddest Game”, written about the plight of child soldiers in Africa, and in line with her environmental concerns has more recently played at Climate Camp in London.

It was in 2007, though, with the critically acclaimed “Of Milkmaids & Architects”, that Martha began to come to the attention of a more mainstream audience, and in that year she was nominated for best new act at the BBC Folk Awards. The album included “Artificial”, a song that struck a chord with so many of her audience, telling of the frustrations of working in an office and dreaming of an escape route…

It was this song that formed one of the central points of her imaginative, Arts Council funded “Into The Woods” tour, where her dramatic and musical backgrounds combined. With inventive stage settings, Martha managed to bring the woodland and campfire experience vividly to life in venues throughout the country.

Since then, Martha has released an EP, “Till I Reach The Sea” (2008), appeared on “Woman’s Hour” and “Loose Ends”, been guest vocalist on the track “Pop Art Blue” which she contributed to Zero 7s latest album “Yeah Ghost”, toured Australia, and the UK, as well as headlining various prestigious Festivals, Martha also opened the Acoustic Stage at Glastonbury. Despite her main stage appearances, Martha continues to adore small, underground, alternative festivals where she will still no doubt be found playing unannounced sets around the campfire at three in the morning.

Having had a break from live performing last year to have a baby, Martha has now completed new album “Lucy and the Wolves”, to be released in the UK in April. The album, which again features members of the Woods – including Lamb bass player Jon Thorne – is a stunningly beautiful selection of 11 songs. Throughout, Martha expresses herself in her trademark, endearingly direct, yet wonderfully poetic manner, putting forward her philosophy of life, and examining relationships in an accessible, universal way.

As always, she remains the free spirit questioning without confrontation, and finding a way directly to people’s hearts with her exquisite words and music.

Ever wondered what would Foals would sound like if they were Irish? the Cast of Cheers are a maths rock four-piece from Dublin, the land of Eire. The band all started when singer/guitarist Conor started writing some songs in his home’s attic. Later on, joined by Kev, John and Neil (Conor’s brother), the band started recording their debut album ‘Chariot’.

‘Derp’ is my favourite song by them from ‘Chariot’, with an exceptionally long intro filled with catchy guitar riffs, soon joined with some thumping drum beats. The vocals fades in and out the song, thus creating a very dynamic feeling. ‘Derp’ is extremely intense and it feels like it’s the fastest 3 minutes I’ve ever spent in my life.

‘I Am Lion’, another track off ‘Chariot’, seems to follow what I think of as “the Cast Of Cheers songwriting formula”. Again with some heavy bass and intense drums, ‘I Am Lion’ also features some distorted vocals provided by Conor. It is definitely a song which will grow on you the more you listen to it.

Though unsigned, the band are currently working on a follow-up to ‘Chariot’, entitled ‘Rockets’, which is due to be released soon. But in the meantime, you can listen to ‘Chariot’ and download it for free below. And just if you’re asking yourself, who are some of the Cast of Cheers’ famous fans? None other than Two Door Cinema Club.

Spotlight Kid continue their assault against sonic mediocrity with an assuredness and an emotional depth so many guitar bands are currently lacking.

This is the sound of a band rising to the top of their game, while wearing their hearts on their sleeves and performing live shows like their next meal depends on it. Influences from the likes of The Cure, Swervedriver and My Bloody Valentine have allowed Spotlight Kid to produce a heady mix that runs through the entire gamut of emotions.

The new album moves from the brittle melodic “Haunting Me”, a towering epic, underpinned by hopeless romantic loss, before plunging without warning headlong into the Mary Chainesque two-minute punk blast “Plan Comes Apart,” providing a marvellous wake-up call to the senses. This is exactly what the album is about. You’re in the arms of your lover one minute and then cast into a dark void the next.

Spotlight Kid’s music features mixtures of Shoegaze, Krautrock and 90s Psychedelia. Fuzzy guitars wrapped in layers of reverb and boy/girl vocals subtly building on the layered walls of distortion. In the last year Spotlight Kid have supported The Joy Formidable on their UK sell out tour, been chosen by BBC introducing to play at this year’s Glastonbury and have been play-listed on Radio 1 as well as numerous plays on 6music and XFM.

Here is a link to the Jools live A capella performance of ‘Old Stepstone’

Cold Specks is Al Spx, which is pretty amusing because Al Spx is just as enigmatic as Cold Specks and she could have just left it at that. Not that there’s anything funny about Spx/Specks – this is deathly serious, eerily stark modern blues that harks back to old blues. It’s blues, basically. And it’s sung by Spx in such a way that you can picture the effect it’s going to have on people in this voice-obsessed age. As soon as she utters the opening phrase, “Rotterdam, goddamn”, on her debut single, Holland, you just know there will be one hell of a fuss about this woman and her vocal chords. Yup, she’s one of those. Remember Clare Maguire? Here’s this year’s one. Only without the 80s makeover, and kept raw. The Clare Maguire who was allowed to sound like her heroes – Mahalia Jackson and Sister Rosetta Tharpe – and not just namecheck them in interviews.

This is as close to a field recording as it’s possible to get without Alan Lomax to see it through. There is production here as the song builds up, but it always goes back to the voice and guitar. There is some multitracking, but it doesn’t need it – that voice has some power. The man at the controls is Rob Ellis, PJ Harvey’s producer, and there is some of Harvey in Specks’s stentorian boom. The tremulous cello at the start reminds us of My Bloody Valentine’s No More Sorry, which was blues from another dimension – when you think about it, that’s precisely where it should be coming from in the 21st century. Then when the guitars, bass and drums pile in, it threatens To Go A Bit Maguire, which is now officially an industry term; its 90s variant being To Go A Bit Moyet.

If you’re wondering what Spx would sound like completely unadorned, try the B-side Old Stepstone, which is a cappella. The retro maniacs who love this kind of stuff will look at each other knowingly, mouths agape. It’s a voice. Get over it. Yes, it’s better than most of the clothes-horses and karaoke kids on The X Factor, but so what? Can she write, sing, play on, produce and arrange a pop masterpiece? Then she’s only doing a fraction of the job she should. You want modern blues? Try What You Need by the Weeknd. What’s the difference? Cold Specks takes you back in time. With the Weeknd you luxuriate in the moment.

Sorry, not sure what came over us there. Back to the article. Ah, yes. Specks. Apparently, she used to record as Basket of Figs and the Hotel Ghost, and in 2009 released a collection of demos called the Soft Science, as well as several EPs with titles such as Dead Language and 666. Now the Canuck blues wailer is living in London and about to launch her “doom soul”, as she calls it, on an unsuspecting public. Although, of course, it’s not unsuspecting at all because the public has been lapping up this sort of period-fetishising warbling with vintage accoutrements for years. Well, here’s some more.

Beth Jeans Houghton was born in Transylvania to a pack of albino wolves who raised her on chewing tobacco and stuffed clams. Despite they’re hospitality, love conquers all and she soon eloped to scotch corner with her shiny new stallion peter Andre.

Beth was his mysterious girl for as long as she could be, but sadly he yearned for bigger baps. taking the wrong end of his tanned stick she searched up and down the Parisian market stalls for the biggest loaf’s she could find, but alas, when she returned home, he was gone. He is currently residing somewhere in the vicinity Jordan’s breasts. Beth was gutted……Until one day, she was on a family holiday with her albino wolves in Buttermere in the Lake District.

During a dispute about the severe lack of chewing tobacco Beth left the yurt and went for a late night trot around the serene lake. not serene for long though. She soon heard a splishing and a splashing in the darkest corner of the lake. She carefully began bare-footing along the waters edge to take a closer look at the commotion.

As the sun rose golden over the nearest mountains, the waters began to swell and curdle, and three delightful heads appeared. Seeing three boys rise from the lake, Beth stared in disbelief as they emerged to show their glorious furry hind-quarters and scintillating hooves. ‘jesus on a bike’ she cried as the half men, half goats trotted gleefully towards her. ‘WE ARE YOUR DESTINY!’ they cried and Beth and the three forns embraced in a glorious two footed, six hooved love-in and vowed to make bestiality cool again and make beautiful music until their hooves fell off.

And so began the beautiful relationship between Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves Of Destiny….

Hot on the heels of his highly aclaimed Solitary Soul tour and EP, Graeme Clark returns to the stage promoting the release of his first album – Mr Understanding.

Graeme’s pedigree as a song writer is proven. After all, he was a key writer of many of Wet Wet Wet’s 30 chart hits. And now he’s writing songs to perform himself.

The move to centre stage has shown Graeme to be a natural and talented performer. Intimate, accoustic shows provide the perfect environment to see the man and to hear his music in a more natural way. As a well-known music industry insider put it “GC is without ego. He lives to perform and just loves getting close to the audience)”. No suprise that he’s always pleased to say hello after his shows.

On stage Graeme is joined by Wet Wet Wet guitarist, Graeme Duffin, and old friend, Iain Duff, on accordion and piano.

The songs are tuneful, thoughtful and, as you might expect, soulful with a interesting range of influences.

The music has been well-received. Naturally there’s a hint of The Wets in parts of the music. But there’s much, much more to Graeme’s musical vocabulary. Free from the limitations that a successful band can bring, his music is flourishing and exhibiting the best of his creative seams. A natural enthusiasm is evident on the album and in the live show.

But, as Graeme says “I love that band and it would be pompous and foolish to turn my back on it”. As a result, the set includes some old favourites in addition to the new material – a set that aims to welcome everyone to the world of GC.

Mr Understanding is available in January and the Solitary Soul EP is available to buy on Graeme’s website. You can hear song snippets there too.

“Splendid Stuff” – Tom Morton, BBC Radio Scotland

Electro minded indie outfit The Ramona flowers have been in the studio writing and recording their debut LP (Distiller Records, Summer 2012) alongside Andy Barlow (Lamb/Lowb) and Jason Cox (Gorilliaz, Blue, Jamie T). The band will be making their live debut supporting LAMB on their forthcoming European tour this February. The album will feature the bands first single ‘Dismantle & Rebuild’ – a synthesis of guitars, club beats, moods and surprises. To hear the track and find out more on The Ramona Flowers visit –

Electro minded indie outfit The Ramona flowers have been in the studio writing and recording their debut LP (Distiller Records, Summer 2012) alongside Andy Barlow (Lamb/Lowb) and Jason Cox (Gorilliaz, Blue, Jamie T).

The band will be making their live debut supporting LAMB on their forthcoming European tour this February.

The album will feature the bands first single ‘Dismantle & Rebuild’ – a synthesis of guitars, club beats, moods and surprises.

Spector: they’re kind of asking for trouble calling themselves that, aren’t they? A bit like that 80s hard/jazzcore band fronted by Wire magazine favourite Kevin Martin, God, or Brilliant, that other 80s group with a superlative, begging-for-a-kicking name. If you title yourself after the greatest record producer in history, one with a reputation for the magnificent and grand, with probably the most recognisable signature sound in pop, you’ve put yourself under pressure from the start.

Now, you may be expecting us at this point (otherwise known as the Debunking Paragraph, in which we refute the proposition of the introduction – in this case that the band need to be amazing and great to match the ambition suggested by their name) to announce that Spector don’t live up to their own self-hype. But operating under the maxim that if you haven’t got anything nice to say about someone, say nothing, and in our new capacity as concert organisers with one ear on how a band will come across live, we’re going to praise Spector. They may not have a River Deep, Mountain High in their set just yet, let alone a Baby I Love You or a I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine. But they have plenty to recommend, not least a frontman who has pretensions towards the foppish literacy of a Jarvis and musicians striving to frame those lyrics in a suitably epic context. They’re hardly the Wrecking Crew, they don’t have that commitment to detailed bombast, and there are no strings or horns. But for a five-piece unit they make a decent fist of giving Fred Macpherson’s wordy navel-gazing (“My self-esteem is at an all-time low”) an impressively oomphy backdrop.

Still only 23, Macpherson has already been in two bands, neither of which registered on our radar: Les Incompetents and Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man. We know their names but never checked them out, so we don’t know what they sounded like. Spector are being pitched, it is said, as “somewhere between Roxy Music and the Strokes, the Killers and Kanye West, Pulp and R&B and Frank Sinatra”. Good to aim high, of course, but that’s just silly. That said, we can hear the Killers amid the blustery choruses. The single, Never Fade Away, has the portent of a Killers track: portentous sound, portentous vocals, as though to convey the idea that they are talking about Important Stuff. We’re not sure about the Roxy and Kanye references, but to us this one sounds like Ultravox with Beach Boys harmonies, if you can get your head round such a clash of opposites.

Chevy Thunder is indeed thunderous, with a lyric about wanting to “take your father’s car and drive, drive, drive” that is pure Springsteen worship. Celestine is also Boss-y: imagine Bruce if he’d fronted a mid-80s synth-pop band. We’re not sure what Grey Shirt & Tie is about – we wish we had a rock equivalent of Rap Genius to use today because we can’t work out if this is a paean to something, a lament to lost youth, or a dart aimed at conformists. Still, its keen sense of drama renders comprehension less than essential. Finally, Lay Low – sadly, not a cover of the My Morning Jacket guitar apocalypse – sees them bring on the strings. It’s not the full-on assault you might get from THE Spector, but it’s a start, and it would certainly work on a small stage in a discreet London venue (hint, hint).

Charlene picked up her first guitar at the age of five. She played her first Open Mic night at the age of eight, and was a regular on the Open Mic circuit by the age of ten.

Completely self-taught, she won admission to the legendary BRIT School of Performing Arts despite failing to have the minimum requirement of a GCSE in Music. Once at the BRIT School she stopped performing acoustically and started playing in a band called Retrospect. She restarted her solo performances in 2008.

Charlene released her new EP entitled Daffodils & Other Idylls in March and has topped the uk Folk Charts on iTunes and will continue to play various shows around London in support of the record.

http://www.seetickets.com/Event/LONEY-DEAR/The-Louisiana/610347

www.gigantic.com
www.wegottickets.co.uk
16+ (Accompanied by an Adult)

Loney dear – Young Hearts from Loney dear on Vimeo.

After his last time touring the United States in support of 2009′s Dear John (Loney Dear’s fifth album and Polyvinyl debut), Emil Svanangen returned home to Sweden and began to play shows with chamber orchestras throughout the country.

To successfully accomplish this feat, he was forced to revisit his earlier material — re-writing and re-arranging these older songs for performance on a grander scale.

This experience had an indelible influence on the writing and recording of the appropriately titled Hall Music, an expansive record that finds Svanangen closer to creating the type of orchestral music he has always sought to bring to life on stage (whether he’s actually playing with an orchestra or not).

Above all, Hall Music – Svanangen’s sixth full-length under the Loney Dear moniker — is a study in merging contrasts, an album of impossible pairings brought to life at the hands of a skillful songwriter further mastering his craft.

The pacing is simultaneously fast and slow, with gently weaving harmonic structures propelled forward by quickly moving notes. On “My heart,” the frenetic overtones belie the relaxed, scuzzy bass vibrating underneath, while “Largo” matches the musical definition of its name more in its unhurried aura than its actual BPM.

The instrumentation is orchestral and synthesized; organic and invented. A church bell paired effortlessly with horns and an analog keyboard. Apocalyptically pulsing bass (“Durmoll”) and an angelic vibraphone solo (“Calm down”). At its heart, however, Hall Music is a concise album with an extended vision.

Though at first listen it occupies your ears for just over a half-hour, it is an all-consuming sonic affair. It is intimate music that effortlessly fills vast, empty spaces — in your head, in your room, in your life — with a grip so delicate yet unyielding that you can’t (and don’t want to) escape it.

‘See, now this lot from Brighton have a bit of skand to them but a very different bag of fish. Think Gomez, Maccabees even a bit of Bad Seeds. Very interesting.’ – Rhythm Magazine

“Forestears deliver the most idiosyncratic fusion of latina jazz, lo-fi acoustic garage indie and a grab-bag of other musical genres that we’ve ever heard. Like the La’s before them, their dishevelled, skilful skiffle-rock is something that isn’t easy to pigeon-hole – so be prepared to be surprised!”- Live & Loud

“Fast-fretted, noise-loving post-punk band whose new wave energy will get you panting like ten minutes on the travelator ” – The Great Escape Festival

“Another brand new band we’re found and fallen in love with recently. People keep asking us if this is These New Puritans when they hear it. They deserve to be as big. ” – Pure Groove Record, Unsigned Album Choice

“London’s DEAD WOLF CLUB deliver some heavy tunes I like, as you’d expect from yet another Wolf band. If they were just Dead Black Wolf, they’d have the trifecta of band names that are hot in 2008. Check out “Dissapear” – Futuresounds

“Music To Check Out” – Babble and Beat

“DWC come armed with the huge swathing melodies of Nine Black Alps coupled with the intensity of Die! Die! Die! and have the potential to explode!!!” – Windie Miller

Twin Falls – Tour Diary Jul-Sep 2011 from Twin Falls on Vimeo.

Communion Bristol is back for 2012
Before introducing the cracking line up for Bristol’s first Communion of the year we are rather delighted to announce that we’ve had a change of venue and Bristol’s nights now will be taking place at the Louisiana.
So what have we got for you? A line up of beautifully delicious musical loveliness that’s what.
Twin Falls – ‘lo-fi romanics’
After previously running the excellent indie label Exercise1, Luke Stidson decided that he was ready to go back to doing what he’d done before – writing and recording songs in his bedroom.

Adopting the moniker Twin Falls, Stidson released two well received EPs and soon found the likes of BBC 6Music’s Tom Robinson and Steve Lamacq giving the records some strong airplay.
2011 saw the release of his debut album ‘Slow Numb’
At points you’d be forgiven for thinking Neil Young was a big influence on the out-and-out folk/country moments (he is). You may think the nasty fuzz guitar and synth pop combinations were intended to remind you of Grandaddy (they probably were) and you may even think the ethereal light that touches the production as a whole makes a distinct nod to the late great Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse. All of this would be true, but it’s the finely tuned oscillation between these points that help give ‘Slow Numb’ its unique character.

Joyce the Librarian
Brizzle boys Joyce the Librarian are playing their Communion debut. A delicate mix

Paul Kelly has recorded seventeen studio albums as well as several film soundtracks (Lantana and the Cannes 2006 highlight, Jindabyne) and live albums, in an influential career spanning more than thirty years. He was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1997.

Songs From The South, a selection of his popular songs first assembled in 1997 and expanded to a double album in 2008,contains many of his songs now lodged deep in the Australian psyche.

He continues to cross musical boundaries. Recent albums include the bluegrass-inspired Foggy Highway, the wide ranging double set, Ways & Means and Stolen Apples. The Triple J tribute album Before Too Long, released earlier this year, featuring John Butler, Missy Higgins, Megan Washington, Paul Dempsey, Ozi Batla and many others is evidence of his influence on generations of musicians.

His first work of prose, a self described ‘mongrel memoir’, is out now on Penguin accompanied by a CD box set of live recordings.

The long-awaited memoir has its genesis in a series of concerts first staged in 2004. Over four nights Kelly performed one hundred of his songs in alphabetical order. From the stories he told in between songs grew How To Make Gravy – a memoir like no other.

How To Make Gravy’s four sections mirror the four nights of the A-Z shows. Each chapter starts with a song lyric followed by a story. Some stories tell Kelly’s personal and family history, some take you on a road trip with the band, some form an idiosyncratic history of popular music, others offer insights into the songwriter’s art – from the point of inspiration to writing, honing, collaborating, performing, recording and reworking.

A reflection on the big and little things in life, playful and honest, insightful and intimate, How To Make Gravy is also available with a companion CD box set entitled The A-Z Recordings that includes a 64-page booklet of photos.

There seems to be a surprising amount of incredible 2-pieces proving you can make as much noise as if there was double the amount of musicians working next to you. Run, Walk! is one of these duos.
Run, Walk! consists of Matthew Pickering-Copley on bass and vocals and Tom Clements on drums.
The 2 piece hail from Winchester and after exploding onto the live scenes, they were quickly snapped up by notorious hip hardcore and sound pelting label Holy Roar who also home Gallows, Rolo Tomassi, The Ghost of a thousand to name a few.

Their 3 track EP can be related to what you can experience live from the two.
Overall a 6minute journey of abrasive, hard-hitting, ferocious and intense noise beating from the duo. With strained vocals and tracks which exploit a hardcore side.

The EP opens up with track Virus- and sure enough those beats fused with the epic breakdowns are that like a virus, ruddy infectious.
But as that track raucously ensues into the title track Peekay, a wall of sound, carrying the tense vocals, riffs and the throbbing drums immediately hits you without warning. The bass throughout the track is simply trying to overcome a dirty fight with the feedback, (taco vs. grilled cheese sandwich style, prison rules?)
And then PEEKAY draws to a notable climax finishing with Throw Nothing At The Sea, with regular comparisons to that of the distinguished Lightning Bolt, this is the track which you can identify that influence. Its an intense sound frenzy.
Surround yourself in distortion, feedback, crunch and perpetual start stop progression.

Run, Walk! have previously released a 7 track EP titled “I hope this all works out so I can stop standing on even amounts of manholes in the street” which gained critical success shortly followed by the release of an instrumental 4 track EP. And now the release of PEEKAY. This band have managed to make each EP more different from the last, working on their strength as a band, their talent and a shit load of diverse tracks.

This band are continuing to gain an incredible amount of success with Airplay on Radio 1, XFM, BBC Radio 6, BBC Introducing, Artrocker Radio, NME radio and more!
Past tours and shows played with such acts as Rolo Tomassi, Young Guns, Gay Against You, This Town Needs Guns, Blakfish, Tubelord, Pulled Apart by Horses, Throats, Young Legionnaire. (Shows in UK+EU). 4 Sold out releases behind them and festival appearances including SXSW all of last year.

The Mantra Above The Spotless Melt Moon (a.k.a. The Mantra ATSMM) “hail from the outskirts of Naples, Italy. They are both members of a revered musical tradition (Naples) as much as they are steeped in contemporary rock [ Radiohead ] ~ [ Pink Floyd ]~ [ The Mars Volta ] ~ [ Bjork ] ~ [ Sigur Ros ] with strong leanings towards electronica, psychedelia and prog. Having met in their hometown of Naples while at school, the quartet joined forces to create something beautiful.
The Mantra ATSMM straddle the ground between prog rock, shoegaze and electronic indie. Their name is a jigsaw puzzle of a melting pot of influences from across several media including music, film and literature. They’re trying to make something new. The band recently played their debut shows in New York while mixing the album and while they’re constantly playing shows across Italy and Europe, only during their New York residency did they get to perform in front of legendary producer, Bill Laswell, who has previously worked with their label.”

Listen to The Haunting (Geoff Barrow Mix) –

Tubelord:
There are four of us in Tubelord. When we record we ask everyone we know to contribute. When we play live, it’s always a bit lonely on stage as a result.

Tubelord ? My First Castle from Sean Roy Parker on Vimeo.

PART 2
8TH – 16TH FEBRUARY
7TH FEBRUARY: PREVIEW NIGHT FROM 5PM

LOCATED IN THE ARTSIST CORNER (THE CELLAR)

A COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE LOUISIANA & THE FINE ART SOCIETY UWE