New Show: Moon Duo

Moon Duo

Very pleased to announce that Moon Duo will be joining us in Birmingham to celebrate the release of their latest LP ‘Shadow of the Sun’.

Formed in San Francisco in 2009 by Wooden Shijps guitarist Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada, Moon Duo’s first two critically acclaimed EPs, Killing Time (2009) and Escape (2010), fused the futuristic pylon hum and transistor reverb of Suicide or Silver Apples with the heat-haze fuzz of American rock ‘n’ roll to create tracks of blistering, 12-cylinder space rock.

Their debut album Mazes, recorded in San Francisco and mixed in Berlin during 2010 as the band prepared to move to the mountains of Colorado, explores a far broader, lighter, sound. That’s most clear on the dreamy organ and skipping riff of the title track, which recalls the Velvet Underground, or the handclaps and swinging organ bloops over the potent shredding and guttural riff delivered by Johnson in When You Cut. Throughout, Mazes is the sound of Moon Duo carving out their own identity, looking to the horizon, and moving forward.

Late 2011 saw the release of the darker, mostly instrumental Horror Tour EP around the band’s fall tour of Eastern Europe; Record Store Day 2012 brought a limited edition LP Mazes Remixed which featured remixes by the likes of Sonic Boom, Psychic Ills, and Purling Hiss. Now Moon Duo are set to release Circles, their second full-length LP with Souterrain Transmissions. The band will also set off on a worldwide tour in support of the album in October and November.

Circles is the product of a long winter’s isolation in the Rocky Mountains, though the road to its fruition stretched over six months and several locations. The groundwork for the album was laid at the band’s home in Blue River, Colorado in the early months of 2012, where all songs were written, and the preliminary tracks recorded. For two weeks in early April, Moon Duo moved into a small apartment above Lucky Cat Recordings in San Francisco for an additional recording session with engineer Phil Manley (Trans Am, Life Coach). Like its predecessor, the album was mixed and tweaked at Kaiku Studios in Berlin.

Evolving the sound of their first two full-length records, Mazes (2011) and Circles (2012), Moon Duo — Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada — have developed their ideas with the help of their newly acquired steam engine, Canadian drummer John Jeffrey (present on the band’s last release, Live in Ravenna). The unchartered rhythms and tones present on this record are reflective of Moon Duo’s strive for equilibrium in this aforementioned new environment. You can hear it is the result of months of wrangling with a profound feeling of being unsettled – there are off-kilter dance rhythms, repetitive, grinding riffs, cosmic trucker boogies and even an ecstatically pretty moment. Mixing with Jonas Verwijnen in Berlin, allowed for a creative catharsis and dissolved the album’s formal technique into a cool and paradoxically sane sound of confusion.

MOON DUO PLAY THE HARE AND HOUNDS ON MONDAY APRIL 27TH WITH SUPPORT FROM SEELAND

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

 

 

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Top Albums of 2014

Another great year of music in 2014 …. Here are some of our favourite picks of the year..

OUGHT – MORE THAN ANY OTHER DAY

Montreal’s Ought floored us with their debut record with 8 perfect formed post punk gems…They also were one of the standout live acts of 2014 for us.

MARK BARROTT – SKETCHES FROM AN ISLAND

In a year that saw the resurgence of the ‘Balearic’ sound, its’ fitting that we include Mark Barrott’s killer LP that was recorded in the hills of Formentera using just a macbook and a keyboard. Lovely lo – fi blissed out goodness.

HAILU MERGIA – TCHE BELOW

Awesome Tapes From Africa (one of our favorite labels of the year) have provided us with many super rare African LPs this year, but this was definitely the stand out….Hailu Mergia’s offering of rich Ethiopian instrumentals is simply a must.

EAGULLS – EAGULLS

Eagulls long awaited debut delivered all that we expected and then some…Angry yet anthemic post punk with hits of 80′s goth and 90′s hardcore.

HAITI DIRECT

Sofrito Records Hugo Mendez compiled this killer comp of rare music from the 60′s – late 70s  from the Caribbean Island. We wore out this CD over the summer but it’s also a great feel good record for cold winter nights.

ANGEL OLSEN – BURN YOUR FIRE FOR NO WITNESS

Burn Your Fire For No Witness released on Jagjaguwar is Olsen’s second full length offering and one of our overall favourites from 2014. A fine collection of electric folk songs with enchanting and at times haunting vocals from Olsen.

FLOWERS – DO WHAT YOU WANT, IT’S WHAT YOU SHOULD DO

This debut album from London trio Flowers is minimalist, melodic indie-pop at it’s finest, enhanced by the ethereal vocal talents of front lady Rachel Kennedy. They supported Fear of Men for us back in September and were as captivating live as they are on record.

NAOMI PUNK – TELEVISON MAN 

A tough, post punk & grungy offering from the Washington based three piece, intertwined with unexpected softer melodic interludes such as ‘Plastic World No.6′. Really excited to have them play for us early next year.

ULTIMATE PAINTING – ULTIMATE PAINTING

Jack Cooper of Mazes and James Hoare of Veronica Falls join forces for this minimal, breezy 60′s inspired self titled debut record full of catchy jangly-pop. One of the finest being lead single ‘Ultimate Painting’.

CHET FAKER – BUILT ON GLASS

Melbourne based producer Chet Faker delivers a brilliant electronic, R&B & soul-influenced debut full length record with Built on Glass. Released in early April and still getting regular listens in the office.

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New Show: Cloud Nothings

This is Tmrw are proud to present the debut Birmingham headline of Cleveland, Ohio punks upstarts ‘Cloud Nothings’..

Cloud Nothings was founded in a Cleveland basement, the one-man recording project of Dylan Baldi, an unassuming, then 18-year-old student of song with a breathtaking ear for melody. Prolific from the start, Baldi’s early work was rough but immediate: crudely recorded, spring-loaded spasms of Buzzcocks-informed pop that quickly found an online following among the lo-fi-inclined. When an opportunity presented itself to open a small show in Brooklyn, Baldi abandoned a still-in-progress final project to be there. The gamble paid off — he’s been touring ever since, using every available break to write and record more.

In 2010, Carpark unveiled Turning On, a retrospective introduction that combined early 7″ singles and the full-length debut (a limited release on cassette and vinyl) from which it took its name. The following year, Cloud Nothings made its proper Carpark debut with a thrilling self-titled LP that found Baldi in a studio for the first time, shedding the many layers of hiss and distortion that had once obscured (or enhanced) his every sugary hook. What followed was an unexpected breakthrough, 2012′s Attack on Memory, an album that very loudly (with the help of producer Steve Albini) announced the arrival of Cloud Nothings as the sound of more than just Baldi: Caustic and gargantuan, it marked the first time our young hero wrote with and for his longtime touring band, drummer Jayson Gerycz, bassist TJ Duke and since departed guitarist Joe Boyer. Touring intensified, rock critics slobbered, and the ceiling was raised considerably.

Enter yet another first: the highly-anticipated follow-up. Here and Nowhere Else is the sound of Baldi further realizing his potential not just as a collaborative bandleader but a singer as well. The sometimes frightening interplay that galvanized its predecessor is refined here, Baldi’s cyclonic guitar parts and Gerycz’s seismic drumwork more tightly clenched and nuanced than they’ve ever been before. It’s an album every bit as ferocious as what we’ve recently come to as what we’ve recently come to expect — only smarter.

Tickets go on sale Friday at 9am.

Click here for tickets

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New Show Announcement: Merchandise

We’re pleased to announce that we’ll be bringing Merchandise back to the Hare & Hounds on Friday 21st November.

The band Formed as a trio in Tampa, Florida in 2008, and has undergone ceaseless revision and reinvention. After putting out numerous records and tapes on independent punk labels and touring the underground, the band truly hit its stride with the release of their second LP Children of Desire in April 2012. Merchandise’s first album for 4AD, After The End, will be released on 25th August 2014. Check out the video for the bands latest single ‘Enemy’ below:

TICKETS ON SALE HERE

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Burning Alms ‘In Sequence’ LP Launch Party this Friday at the H&H

This Friday 1st August we bring Birmingham’s finest, Burning Alms, to the H&H  for the launch party of the bands début LP ‘In Sequence’.

“In Sequence”, the eagerly-awaited album from Burning Alms (former Calories/Distophia members John Biggs & Tom Whitfield), and released via Smalltown America,  recently scored an impressive 8/10 review on Drowned In Sound here.

Recorded with producer and multi-instrumentalist Dom James, the album’s 16 tracks betray influences as diverse as Hot Snakes, Glenn Branca, Swans and Sun Kil Moon. Noisy pop nuggets rub shoulders with yearning acoustic ballads, bookended by droning jazz-tinged instrumentals and found-sound vignettes, which showcase the band’s more experimental tendencies. Check out the video for the bands latest single ‘Mid-Storm?Still Ending’ below;

Support on the night comes from Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam, Kagoule, Bad Blossoms plus Milque and Muhle DJ’s. It all kicks off at 8pm with tickets only available on the door and priced at £5 on a first come first serve basis.

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New Show Announcement: Childhood to Play H&H

We’re delighted to announce that we’ll be bringing Childhood back the H&H on Thursday 9th October.

The London based band will be doing a short run of dates across the UK before heading out on tour with Johnny Marr later in the year. Check out their latest single ‘As I Am’ below. Tickets go on sale this Friday 18th July at 9am.

TICKETS ON SALE HERE

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INTRODUCING: KULT COUNTRY

Next Thursday we welcome Manchester’s KULT COUNTRY for their debut Birmingham show at Bulls Head in Moseley. Fellow crusaders of the much lauded Salford based Sways Records cultural regeneration which blessed the world with MONEY and GREATWAVES, these are an absolute must-not-miss for all the dreamers and admirers of soaring spectral songs oozing ambience, and intoxicating ideology. The blood lust distorted lullabies of a new preacher in part, wall of psychedelic sound the rest, going by the last time we saw them in Manchester this is going to be very very loud and very energetic. Musically akin to their former Sways’ labelmates with the addition of elements of SLOWDIVE, MY BLOODY VALENTINE and SPIRITUALIZED it’s going to be hopefully the start of your love affair with them and theirs with you. This all comes with support from distorted newcomers CURB and a solo show from RICK WELLINGS plus a DJ set from VICTORIES AT SEA’s Steve Edgehill. Check out the new single Trembling Moon out this week on No Self Records:

Click here for tickets

Words: JP WHITE

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NEW SHOW: THE GARDEN

Introducing: THE GARDEN (BURGER RECORDS)

The Garden is a constantly evolving, conceptual punk band based in Orange County, California. Established in in 2011 by twin brothers Wyatt and Fletcher Shears, the band consistently defies categorization and continues to break ground in their self inflicted ‘Vada Vada’ genre. They are the auditory invaders of the new world; borderless, informed and decentralized, slick sound released from constraint and old ideologies.

The twins draw inspiration from a background in punk classicism but remain unfettered and unselfconscious enough to infuse elements of 90s hip hop and big beat electronica. The Garden is the intellectual refute to critics of the post modern, pantheistic generation of music listener with an equal dose of punk irreverence and undistilled fury.

Their two-piece bass and drums essence is dirty, raw and very immediate but equally nuanced with echoes of the hive mind of the Vadaverse, the ephemeral architecture that exists both inside and outside of the duo that the listener enters and never quite escapes. Together the twins are an acidic concoction; unstable, sexy and probably toxic.

The Garden’s shows are experiential, as powerful and philosophically confounding as they are glib and tricksy. There never is any time for explanations, only a sense of urgency and a rapid spiral into their parallel world. To be seduced and ensnared by mirror-image raconteurs, operating an addictive carnival ride of sound and movement that stops as abruptly as it starts, is a close approximation of The Garden experience.

The Garden play their first Birmingham headline show for This is Tmrw at The Sunflower Lounge on Friday August 15th.

Click here for tickets

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All Years Leaving Festival – First Announcements

We’re delighted to announce the first line up announcements for 2014′s All Years Leaving. Last years Inaugural year saw performances by Dutch Uncles, Yuck, Sky Larkin, His Clancyness, Best Friends and many more…

This year is set to be even bigger with some of the brands favourite acts / DJs coming together for 2 days of madness at the Hare and Hounds on Friday 24th & Saturday 25th October. The stables will house Street Food, pop up bar, live art and beyond, whereas the main room will feature all the live acts and DJs from some of the top club brands.

The first line up announcements have been made with EAGULLS & GOD DAMN! playing the Friday and CHARLIE BOYER AND THE VOYEURS set to play the Saturday.  Check out the video for Eagulls single ‘Tough Luck’ below;

Advanced tickets are on sale now with Friday & Saturday tickets priced at £13 and limited weekend tickets at £20. Find them on the links below;

FRIDAY//WEEKEND TICKETS: HERE

SATURDAY//WEEKEND TICKETS: HERE

OR AVAILABLE IN PERSON FROM THE HARE AND HOUNDS

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New Show Announcement – METZ

Delighted to announce that we’ll be bringing METZ to the Hare & Hounds on Monday 11th August

The 3 piece noise rock band from Toronto, Canada consists of guitarist/vocalist Alex Edkins, bassist Chris Slorach and drummer Hayden Menzies. Check out the video for their single ‘Wet Blanket’ below. Advanced £10 tickets go on sale this Friday at 9am.

TICKETS ON SALE HERE

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