Gruel, Jovian & State Icons @ The Cowley Club Brighton 14.08.10

Gruel, Jovian & State Icons @ The Cowley Club Brighton 14.08.10

Possibly the loudest gig I’ve been to since I saw Motorhead this was certainly a serious amount of noise for such a cosy venue.  It was Gruel’s last ever gig so despite them being from 300 miles north of Brighton the Cowley was still pretty packed.

State Icons opened and whilst, it was Gruel’s last gig, it was State Icon’s first and a pretty solid start it was!  I must admit a slight bias towards this band as up until about 5 weeks ago I was playing bass for them but my imminent move north has meant that they’ve managed to upgrade!  Made up of former members of Staathat, Rainydayfuckparade, Plague Sermon, Red Stars Parade, The Devils, Duckstab and a fair few other bands, the band certainly do have good pedigree.  You never would have known it was their first gig as they came across tight, experienced and confident.  Check out the video below for a flavour of the set then download the full set by right clicking and ‘saving as’ here

Jovian were next on the bill.  Brighton’s best kept secret is the rest of the UK (and world’s!) loss.  They’re booking a UK tour soon so get involved when they come to you as never has a band so well blended all out noise and doom with such catchy riffs.  Members of Cat on Form and End The Agony certainly give you a vague point in the direction of their sound (well much more so with the End The Agony sound..!).  Again have a gander at the video below then right click and save as here to download the full set

Gruel finished off the night with what was their last ever gig.  I wasn’t too familiar with the band beyond knowing that  among mates into their psychedelic noise type music they were seen as top of the pile.  I checked them out online before and enjoyed what sounded like quite pleasant riff fueled 60’s influenced doom but live it was another prospect entirely!   Whilst the music was awesome (as you’ll be able to hear below) the visual spectacle took it to another level, for those of you who know the cafe/library/social space that is the Cowley (check out pic’s on their site if not) imagine the place plunged into darkness, filled with smoke and then a dude in a cowl with a scythe and covered in blood walking through and just screaming at everyone!  Then spot lights shoot up from the floor and the band kicks in with weird images being projected on the back wall – awesome right!  Below is a short clip just to give you a tiny impression of the fun that was had.  Just gutted I won’t see them again.  Right click here and ‘save as’ to download the full set for your listening pleasure!

The Dead Beat @ Cowley Club Brighton 01.04.10

The Deadbeat @ The Cowley Club Brighton 01.04.10

The Dead Beat are a 50% London, 50% Brighton post-rock ‘n’ roll machine.  If that isn’t enough hyperbole for one sentence then this is a new(ish) band that developed from the remnants of The Small Mercies and then added in one Dan Bowden from the much missed Bastion.  Sounding absolutely nothing like their past bands The Deadbeat invoke the sounds of The Bronx, Shellac and at times Fugazi or The Hot Snakes, no bad thing as you can imagine.

This set saw frontman Dan also acting as promoter for the night which might explain the slight sense of urgency in their set as they try to keep things on time (at a punk show at the Cowley Club?  Good luck with that one!).

If you enjoy their set head over here for a free download of their incredible EP.

Set List:

THE DEAD BEAT ARE FUCKING DEAD

THE EMPERORS NEW CLOTHES

THE THIRST

THE FLY

EVEN THE MONA LISA IS FALLING APART

YOU CAN’T ARGUE WITH THIS SKEWED LOGIC

right click and save as here to download this set

Caution Horses @ The Cowley Club Brighton 01.04.10

Caution Horses @ The Cowley Club Brighton 01.04.10

This was another set from the Cowley Club gig that the Apologies I Have None download below also came from.  It was a jam packed night with Dan from The Deadbeat stressed out to the max in promoter role (I actually thought his head might explode at one point when the backline failed to appear).  As it happened the gig was a roaring success; Dan did an ace job creating a great mixed bill and Caution Horses played an urgent, pummeling set with the new drummer giving the band a much more aggressive and powerful edge.  If you haven’t heard of them before imagine a fine melting pot of Shellac, Mclusky and The Pixies – yes that good I shit you not.   With more tours and bigger gigs coming up there is no better time to be checking this lot out and getting hold of one of their lovely handmade CDs.  Do not miss out and be crying over ebay in a few years.

Set List:

SEXXX

HEAT

SUGAR COATED

EASY TIGER

HANNAH IS HANNAH BACKWARDS

MUSIC AS A WEAPON

Download the set by right clicking here and saving as

Apologies I Have None @ The Cowley Club Brighton 01.04.10

Apologies I Have None are shit hot, that is all you need to know.  If you would like to know more though, then in the words of Chris Morris, ‘here is the news…’.  AIHN used to be a two piece (Josh and Dan) they were fucking sweet and the songs were shit hot.  Then a little while ago they announced they were becoming a four piece, moving Josh from drums to second guitar and getting in a drummer and bassist; uh oh! said everyone, change is bad!  We were all apprehensive but then we found out PJ (of Rooftops, Neil Sutherland Band and mostly importantly of all PJ & Gaby fame) was to be the bassist, this made the world less sceptical as he’s a well known cool dude and wouldn’t be in a shit band.  Then I saw AIHN as a four piece and all was good with the world.  The songs are now bigger, warmer, dare I say better and with some bad ass motown-esque bass lines.  Rejoice!  Here they are playing at the Cowley Club in Brighton in fine fettle, a slightly shorter set than usual as shit was tight on the night with lots of bands but I like short sets (leaves you wanting more innit).  So tuck on in then go and buy their new 7″ from here its ace and has some cut out and fold animals, what more could you want?!

Set List:

BENT STRINGS

100 CLUB

SAT IN VICCY PARK

JOINERS AND WINDMILLS

GREEN GREEN MABLEY GREEN

right click and save as to download from here

Brighton Zine Fest!

From February 18th-February 21st we (the Brighton Zine Fest Collective) put on the Brighton Zine Fest 2010.  This involved a social trading evening with acoustic bands, a gig, a zine fayre, an evening cabaret meal and a Sunday roast.  Find out more about all the events and upcoming ones at our website

Here’s a rather fetching photo of an e-numbered up crowd at the Friday night gig, click on it and it should take you to a load of other pictures from across the weekend that I (badly) took.  Apologies for the repitition of some photos, when I get some much needed time I’ll be sure to sort that out.

On the Thursday night at Coachwerks (the swap shop bit) Brighton (via Exeter)’s Will Rene wooed us with his acoustic protest anthems.  Here’s most of one of his songs (yes I won’t be giving up the day job to pursue a career as a cameraman just yet…)

On the Friday night we put on an old fashioned punk rock shin dig at the rather fantastic Cowley Club.  The Arteries headlined and it was good to see them finally getting the recognition they deserve, crowd surfing, sing a long and a specactular finish with a Bon Jovi cover all occured.  The rest of the bands were pretty bloody special too.  It was a proper honour to have The Social Club down, if you’re into the idea of Weezer with Andrew WK on keys, then get involved.  Rooftops ripped it up as well and if the rumours are true, certainly left a mark on the Brighton party scene afterwards.  This Business Is Closed surprised quite a few people by not being another boozy Norwich band (not that there’s owt wrong with that!) but by in fact being fine purveyors of Fugazi influenced post rock and Sauna Youth showed a side of Richard Phoenix that terrified and excited in equal measures.

Here’s some live sets from the weekend for your enjoyment…

SAUNA YOUTH

Brighton’s Sauna Youth play a rather delicious brand of snotty garage punk with a healthy dose of humour, intelligence and quaintness for good measure.  With quite a good pedigree between them in terms of past bands SY aren’t breaking the mould but are definately putting a good spin on it and having a bloody fun time at it by the looks of things (more bands should spend their petrol money on doing shots after the gig).

Download their full live set from the Brighton Zine Fest at the Cowley Club on February 19th here.

Set list:

DELTA CAPS

E2 BANG BANG

BIG BOBBLES

ROLANDO

EUROZONE

PICTURES OF CATS

DES ANIMAUX

MILD HORSES

DEAL CASTLE

WEIRD FRICTION

VACUOUS IDIOT

On the Saturday night at the Westhill in Brighton we had a punk rock cabaret, this involved the Anarchist Teapot cooking up an awesome three course vegan meal (mmm chocolate pie!) with a zine reading from Seb Wheeler, a DJ set from Dr. Keyboards and fantastic sets from the Bobby McGees and The Lovely Brothers.

Here’s the (almost) full set of Dr. Keyboards across two videos.  Punx, goths, crusties and scene kids were united in utter confusion (and a little bit of joy I’d like to think but probably also a smidgen of disgust) by this mysterious euro-DJ who’d found his way to the zine fest.