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Casiotone For The Painfully Alone + Withered Hand @ The Other Rooms Fri 12th November

PLEASE NOTE: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN MOVED TO THE OTHER ROOMS, TIME SQUARE.

SEE DIRECTIONS TO THE OTHER ROOMS

We're so glad to have Casiotonetone for the Painfully Alone playing in Newcastle as part of his Farewell Tour.

Owen Ashworth has been making music since 1997, and has performed and toured as Cftpa for 13 years.

In that time he pioneered a an ultra lo fi aesthetic, using just some inexpensive battery operated keyboards and electronics and a 4 track cassette recorder to create an utterly idiosyncratic accompaniment to his occasionally funny and almost always heart rending confessional lyrics.

Its with this set up that he performs on this, his last ever tour.

WITHERED HAND:

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone will be supported by Edinburgh's Withered Hand on this date.
Withered Hand is on Absolutely Kosher Records (Mountain Goats, The Wrens) and is one of my favourite songwriters.
Here's Mojo's 4 star review
"his impressive debut Dan Willson’s alter ego attains the celestial lustre of that holy grail of lapsed evangelical folk nouveau, the first Palace Brothers album."

Damn right. Damn, Right?


For Fans Of:
If you've been lit up inside by the likes of Mountain Goats, Jeffrey Lewis, The Smiths, Magnetic Fields or Why? in the past, but haven't heard ctfpa; please don't pass over on this one.

Pictures:

CLICK HERE FOR HI RES PHOTOS OF CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE IN NEWCASTLE

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF WITHERED HAND

PRESS/ QUOTES:

CLICK HERE FOR PRESS FOR CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE


TICKETS:

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS FOR CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE

Wolves In The Throne Room @ Cluny 2, November 29th

portions for foxes presents:

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM (US, Southern Lord)
www.wittr.com
+ Khunnt
+ Wodensthrone

@ CLUNY 2, NOVEMBER 29th.

from Southern Lord Bio;
"During the Summer of 2002 at an Earth First rendezvous in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, guitarist Nathan Weaver was inspired to create a band that merged a Cascadian eco-spiritual awareness with the misanthropic Norwegian eruptions of the 90's. The band envisioned would strive to create a mythic space where artist and listener alike could strip away the mindset of the mundane to reveal a more ancient and transcendent consciousness. The mysterious and wild energies of the untrammeled forests of the Northwest would be channeled into sonic form."

"The fall of 2006 brought a pact with Southern Lord records and the beginning of a relationship with producer-engineer Randall Dunn. (SUNN O))), Earth, Grails) Their epic album Two Hunters is a masterfully dark and emotional document that further established Wolves in the Throne Room as a band totally unafraid to follow their own path."

Reviews:
"dark, haunting music that's as gorgeous as it is ugly. "
pitchfork 7.7.

MP3s
listen to Wanderer Above A Sea Of Fog:
http://www.southernlord.com/mp3/Wolves%20Edit.mp3

IMAGES and PRESS:
Click here for images and press for Wolves In The Throne Room Newcastle
Tickets here and at RPM Records and Beatdown:

TICKETS £10 Advance Click below or visit Beatdown or RPM Records
Click here for Wolves In The Throne Room Newcastle tickets

Last Lungs @ Head Of Steam, November 19th

portions presents:

LAST LUNGS (Deep Elm)
http://www.myspace.com/lastlungs

@ Head Of Steam, Friday November 19th

for fans of; Explosions In The Sky, Mogwai, Appleseed Cast

"A meticulous merger of glistening beauty and glaring power, LAST LUNGS glows on their debut with a sprawling display of melody, mood and superior sonic craftsmanship. Like am old grizzly bear walking ever so gently through the forest knowing it can exert tremendous force at will, the album alternates unpredictably between explosive intensity and sparkling serenity...whispering and screaming, all without words. The flawless flow of soaring guitars and storming soundscapes aside, it's really Last Lungs' keen ability to know just when to punch in and pull back that undoubtedly casts an anchor for this band on the modern instrumental stage. Look At That Old Grizzly Bear is elegantly epic, sweepingly cinematic music that always pays off."

support:
http://www.myspace.com/arcsandtrauma
+
www.myspace.com/waskerleyway

Tickets £4 on the door or at RPM Records.

Door 7pm

Titus Andronicus @ Cluny 2 November 23rd

portions for foxes presents:















TITUS ANDRONICUS (US, Xl Records)

...Titus Andronicus is a punk/indie rock band from Glenn Rock New Jersey.

Their two records 2008's 'Airing Of Grievances' and 2010's 'The Monitor', with their sprawling song lengths and euphoric sing along moments, give an impression of what Bruce Springsteen would sound like if he were raised on Neutral Milk Hotel or My Bloody Valentine records rather than Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison.

'The Monitor', Titus' loosely conceptual album based on the American Civil War (with a lyric sheet that reads like Albert Camus if he were Not In Education, Employment or Training) is the funnest, most singularly giant sized 'FUCK YOU' to the modern world ever commited to plastic.
Pianos crash, lead guitars howl squealing rock and roll jigs over velvety beds of shoegaze fuzz, harmonicas, trumpets, strings and bagpipes swell and lift, grab you by the gut, by the ear; yelling sweat-drenched, feverish glee between the earlobes. It's almost impossible not to sing along,

Large size photo of band:
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF TITUS ANDRONICUS IN NEWCASTLE

Band Website:

http://www.myspace.com/titusandronicus

Reviews:
punknews - 4.5/5
pitchfork 8.5
drowned in sound 9/10
guardian 4/5
rock sound 7/10

fans of: Springsteen, Desaparecidos, Arcade Fire, My Bloody Valentine

Tickets are £7.50 advance.

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS FOR TITUS ANDRONICUS IN NEWCASTLE

Edwyn Collins @ The Cluny November 9th

The legendary scottish songwriter, Postcard Records co-founder and ex frontman of the seminal 80's post punk act Orange Juice.

We are so proud to be bring a living legend with such an incredibly influential 30 year history of pop music to Newcastle.

Edwyn is touring in support of his seventh studio album 'Losing Sleep', which comes in leui of his miraculous recovery from a serious brain hemorrhage and illness in 2005, which left him paralysed down one side and with a condition called aphasia, hindering his ability to speak.

The album features an diverse array of contributing artists and co-writers from some of pop and rock's most well known acts, past and present: Ryan Jarman (The Cribs), Johnny Marr (uh, The Smiths), Roddy Frame, Alex Kapranos, Nick McCarthy (both Franz Ferdinand) Romeo Stodart (Magic Numbers) and The Drums.

______________

Collins was a leading figure on the alternative Scottish scene in the late 1970s and 1980s, forming his first band, Nu-Sonics, aged 17. The band was later renamed Orange Juice, their first single released on Postcard Records (who later became home to Aztec Camera and Josef K). They then inked a deal with Polydor and released four studio albums whose jaunty, lustrous take on post punk; bouncing on David Mclymont's rubbery basslines and floating on Collin's chiming diminished chords and his breathy, sinus inflected voice, took a knife-blade eccentricity and carved out a hole in the belly of Post Punk .

The band briefly broke into the mainstream with Rip It Up in 1983, a hit so big that Simon Reynolds chose the name for his definitive book on post punk music.
The band disbanded a year later.
Edwyn then pursued a solo career with mixed results until A Girl Like You, a top 10 hit in seven countries in 1995 that anyone over 18 is guaranteed to have heard on the radio at some point in their lives.
Collins has recently turned to producing, working with acts including Sons and Daughters, The Cribs and Little Barrie.

Edwyn tours now after making an incredible return to the stage following a cerebral hemorrhage in 2005.

TICKETS:

TICKETS ARE £15 Advance available at RPM Records. or online:
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS FOR EDWYN COLLINS AT NEWCASTLE CLUNY

IMAGES:

CLICK HERE FOR HI RES IMAGES FOR EDWYN COLLINS @ NEWCASTLE CLUNY

pff presents: Melt Banana @ Star And Shadow Cinema, October 18th

Melt Banana are a 'noise-punk' band from Tokyo, Japan.

How to describe Melt Banana is so difficult that it's easier to look at the facts and the panaroma of their career of over 15 years, 10 albums and 23 EPS and try to see which adjectives stick best.

Most obvious is a furious inventiveness that has burnt like a gasoline bonfire for nearly two decades without any sign of burning out. In the ash left behind: years of music that somehow melds ultra fast, twitching punk and hardcore with huge riffs and moments of constant feedback to squawking half cartoon half hip hop vocals. If Melt Banana was a spray tin can of sugar infused cream cheese (which it could be) it'd come with added e-numbers and a 5% digital hardcore 10% noise-trash extra Free.

BUT! To focus on their recorded output wouldn't be the best marker for how much of a treat this live show will be: Melt Banana's live shows and sets have been issued around the world as a recording of how incredibly they can intersperse their hits with seconds long ultrasonic musical hand grenades and freeform improvisation. Something worth trawling youtube for, if you aren't worried about spoiling the surprise.

Tickets are £10 Advance, available at RPM Records.

or Click Here for Tickets for Melt Banana in Newcastle.

Click Here for the Star And Shadow Website.

Photographs:

Click for Photographs for Melt Banana in Newcastle

Support:
support acts TBC

About Portions For Foxes

Hi,

Loads of great bands have played for us* in the North East since Portions started in earnest in 2006, coming to Newcastle or Sunderland from all over the world:

Dum Dum Girls, Diane Cluck, Kissaway Trail, Fang Island, The Slits, Harlem, Nina Nastasia,Vivian Girls,Daniel Johnston, Laura Marling, Wave Pictures, Isis, Wavves,Neva Dinova, Russian Circles, Emmy The Great,Parts And Labor, Daughters!, Jeffrey Lewis, O'Death, Okkervil River,Caribou, Lucero, Jason Molina, Pelican,High On Fire, The 101, Awesome Color, Settlefish, Final Fantasy, Beezewax, Make Believe, The Usaisamonster, Jeniferever,Ned,Great Lake Swimmers,Maria Taylor, Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin,Hot Cross.

I hope you find all this as fun as I do.

Thanks,

David

* Officially, I book the bands, but a lot of people have and do help and its unfair to use a single person pronoun for these reasons. **

** Not like you care anyhow.

Independents Day, 4th JUly @ RPM

This from Newcastle's RPM record store, who are celebrating 'Independent's Day' with food, music, DJs and record deals this weekend:

"To coincide with Independence day in America RPM thought that it would celebrate Independents Day, celebrating everything that is great about Independent stores in general and particularly Independent Record Store. Things kick off around midday and we've got around 5 bands playing to be confirmed very shortly in the courtyard by the pub, great music played throughout the day as well as a load of great new stock racked out all through the shop so you can grab yourself a bargain. There'll be free tea and coffee throughout the day, and if you're lucky even a biscuit or two as well as some ice cream and ice lollys.. assuming we can find a freezer of some kind in time. Also, DJs throughout the day tba


The other things we've got planned are a free raffle which you can enter just by turning up with great prizes as well as loads of reduced items for your purchasing pleasure!

Bands Confirmed to play
1pm - Rainfalldown
http://www.myspace.com/rainfalldown
2pm - Our Imaginary Friends
http://www.myspace.com/ourimaginaryfriends
3pm - Maybe Myrtle Tyrtle
http://www.myspace.com/maybemyrtletyrtle
4pm - Cult Image
http://www.myspace.com/ignoranceinthunorf
5pm - 'Im & 'Im
http://www.myspace.com/imandim"

Fang Island @ Cluny 2 Monday Sept. 6th

Portions for foxes presents:
Fang Island
+ Support

Fang Island is an incredibly explosive, heavily caffeinated, monster. One likely to seize, besiege, and overpower your senses in a pink/purple spray of Diesel ( does anyone still drink that?) vomit strewn with chunks of riffs, soloing and vocal harmony...yawned straight from the party mouth of Andrew WK.

This is what happiness sounds like!
http://www.myspace.com/fangisland
http://fangisland.com/bio/

Tickets:
Tickets £7.50 advance
Click forTickets for Fang Island in Newcastle

Photos:
Click Here for Hi Res Photographs of Fang Island

Listen:
Click Here for 'Daisy' (its a video.)

Quotes:
"llike some crazy jam session between Fairport Convention and Faith No More, or between the Incredible String Band and Deep Purple as conducted by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, only played by people dressed as human-sized furry cartoon animals because it seemed like a fun idea"
The Guardian

"Fang Island are simply Killer Fun"
Mojo 4/5

"A Joyous, jangling, low fidelity mess of riffs and shout a long choruses"
Vice 8/10

"This music is just honest and life-affirming and infectious, and it's that rare concentration of directness and simplicity that makes Fang Island so uniquely and wonderfully inclusive"
Pitchfork 8.3/10.

The band have a perpetual smile on their face, a sun shiny, achingly positive mix of Trans Am, The Fucking Champs, Don Caballero and Boston'
Rock Sound

FACEBOOK EVENT:
Click here for Fang Island Newcastle Facebook Event

Diane Cluck at Morden Tower, Newcastle September 21st

Diane Cluck plays a low key gig for us this September in the turret room of Morden Tower, a Newcastle poetry reading room with an incredibly rich history (read more about Morden Tower here)

Frequently associated with the New York anti-folk scene, Diane's music makes an awkward fit among the likes of Moldy Peaches or sometime collaborator Jeffrey Lewis. On her records to date, including the best known 'Oh Vanille, Ova Nil' she writes like a creepier, more agitated Joni Mitchell or Karen Dalton. The minimalistic acoustic arrangements leave the focus almost entirely on her incredible voice, its wonderful range given to coiling into a dissonant wail on 'Easy To Be Around' or 'My Teacher Died'.

In 2007, when Diane last played Newcastle, hearing such an arresting instrument live was an awkard joy t0 behold, equally unnerving and beautifully arresting. As though a vinly recording of an exotic songbird were being played backwards.

For this gig Diane will play with Anders Griffin, (Regina Spektor, Frank Lowe, Jeffrey Lewis) a multi-directional drum set player who performs with a range of choreographers, jazz musicians and song writers. He is characterized by his unique, supportive accompaniment and ability to play in acoustic situations with sensitivity and nuance. He holds a degree in music composition and is the head catalog librarian at the Manhattan School of Music.

A very limited amount of tickets are available. Gig is Bring Your Own Beer.

Click Here For Tickets for Diane Cluck in Newcastle

or get tickets for Diane Cluck in Newcastle at RPM Records.

PHOTOS:

Click here for Photos of Diane Cluck

MP3s:
Click here for 'Easy To Be Around'

CONTACT:

get me on portions for foxes at gmail dot com for details.

reccomended gigs june-july

A little bit quiet this summer but in addition to the bands Permanent Vibes tempts me with, I hope to visit The SummerTyne festival this year, if only to get on the Americana Boat i've heard so much about. Also see Narc Fest, where we have Kissaway Trail playing with a load of other bands for free around Ouseburn Valley.

all gigs listed at the Sage Gateshead visit their website: LINK

details of the Summer Tyne festival here: LINK


JUNE:

Extra Life @ Star and Shadow 8th June:
Facebook

The Wave Pictures @ Head Of Steam, 9th June:
Facebook

Brilliant Colours @ Star and Shadow, 11th June
Facebook

Harlem @ Head Of Steam, 14th June
Facebook

Rival Consoles @ The Tyne, 19th June
Facebook

High Wolf @ The Culture Lab, 23rd June
Facebook

Elvis Costello @ The Sage, 30th June

JULY:

Narc Fest: Kissaway Trail, The Heartbreaks, Withered Hand and more:
17th July in the Ouseburn Valley
Facebook


Regina Spektor: 20th July @ The Sage Gateshead

Murder, Misery and Then Goodnight: An evening of murder ballads and old time Americana:
Kristin Hersh, The Handsome Family, Tim Eriksen, Eliza Carthy, Howe Gelb and special guests.
@ The Sage, 23rd July

Dum Dum Girls 26th July @ The Cluny
Facebook

Zappa Plays Zappa 27th july @ The Sage Gateshead

DUM DUM GIRLS @ The Cluny, July 26th

prmnt vibes are helping us with this, visit their blog here:

Dum Dum Girls play girl-group rock and roll which, with the help of Richard Gotterher's production work, buries insanely catchy melodies beneath a shimmering cloak of ethereal echoes and twinkling lead guitars.

They call the sound the 'Blissed Out Buzzsaw', which sounds like it could be heavy metal, but rather than jarr your ears, Dum Dum Girls record 'I Will Be' is eleven of the most sugary sweet pop songs in existence right now.

TICKETS:
TICKETS ARE £8 advance at RPM
or CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS TO DUM DUM GIRLS IN NEWCASTLE

PRESS:
CLICK HERE TO READ PRESS FOR I WILL BE


PHOTOS:
CLICK HERE FOR HI RES PHOTOS OF DUM DUM GIRLS:

MP3s:
Click here to hear 'Jail La La' from 'I Will Be'

The Kissaway Trail to Headline Narc Fest

Portions For Foxes and Narc presents

THE KISSAWAY TRAIL

@ The Cluny, Byker, July 17th.

from their Bella Union Site:
"The Kissaway Trail are Thomas L. Fagerlund (vox, guitar), Søren B. Corneliussen (vox, guitar), Daniel Skjoldmose (guitar, keys, backing vocals), Rune Pedersen (bass, backing vocals) and Hasse Mydtskov (drums, backing vocals).

Euphoric and evocative, listening to The Kissaway Trail is an intoxicating experience. The debut album released in 2007 was filled with songs of immense ambition and scope, the music soars, filled with majestic guitar lines, dramatic melodies and epic arrangements. The Kissaway Trail have that rare power to lift people out of their lives and transport them to a world of drama, beauty and wonder.

The Kissaway Trail list the likes of Sonic Youth, Grandaddy, Daniel Johnston, Pixies and The Beach Boys as being their main influences, though in their native Denmark, where they have recently taken off massively due to their incendiary live shows, the band have quickly developed a unique sound of their own. Forthcoming album ‘Sleep Mountain’ out March 1st 2010 is a remarkable return. Recorded in Denmark, the band then heard from Peter Katis, legendary producer of Interpol, The National, Twilight Sad, Tokyo Police Club who expressed a desire to work with the band. And just a month or so later, he was indeed mixing the album in his own Tarquin Studios in Connecticut. The result, well you’ll hear it soon enough, is spectacular."

The band Headline Narc Festival: check out www.narcmedia.com for more updates.

PRESS:

MP3s:
email:
jason.rackham"at"cooperativemusic.com

PHOTOGRAPHS:
email:
jason.rackham"at"cooperativemusic.com

The Wave Pictures @ Head Of Steam Wednesday June 9th

After wonderful shows in support of Daniel Johnston and at the Star And Shadow last year, we're pleased to bring back The Wave Pictures around the release of their new 'Sweetheart' EP.

Wave Pictures are a long running, ultra DIY troupe of doomed romantics, currently on Moshi Moshi Records (of slow club / the drums fame). One with a huge catalogue of records behind them; including collaborations with darren hayman, mountain goats and herman dune. Their literate, kitchen sink drama pop borrows from jonathan richman, herman dune and imbibes them with a smithslike profundity and an obvious and sharply observational englishness-ness.



QUOTES:
Pitchfork: 7.8
"Like sometime collaborators and fellow logophiles the Mountain Goats, the Wave Pictures write songs for fans of songwriting"

Guardian
"charming, witty pop songs shot through with Jonathan Richman's gawky glee and Suede's doomed provincial romanticism... They owe a certain debt to The Smiths, and Tattersall has Morrissey's knack of marrying the ridiculous and the sublime"


PHOTOS:
CLICK HERE FOR HI RES SHOTS OF THE WAVE PICTURES,
or email:
amanda'at'freemanpr.net

MP3S;
CLICK HERE FOR MP3s
amanda'at'freemanpr.net

HARLEM (US, Matador) @ Head Of Steam, June 14th

I can't think of any better way to spend a summer's evening than in front of Harlem live.

These fantastic new Matador signings play a kind of grungey garage rock with the warmth of a 10pm beachside sunset and the sweetness of a pair of ice cream cones.

And so infectious! tunes like "Gay Human Bones" and "South Of France", with sparse materials: a guitar, a drum kit, some singing, a bass, will incurably bury themselves in your mind like some jungle dwelling monkey Tick. So deep that no doctor in the western world could ever remove. I'm speaking as the chronically infected here.



Tickets are £6 advance.
at RPM
or HERE

for fans of:
the pixies, black lips, sic alps, wavves, jay reatard, surf rock, stooges with a load of echoes


Photographs:
Click Here for Hi Res Photographs of Harlem

MP3s:
Click here for Mp3s from their latest album 'Hippies'

Get yourself on the North East Music Forum

Are you looking to meet hot guys and girls just waiting to listen to your opinions on the latest leaked B-side from the new The National album?

Come and join the North East Music Forum!

Nina Nastasia @ Cluny 2 May 26th

Honey throated songstress and (John) Peel darling Nina Nastasia comes to Newcastle for an intimate concert in Cluny 2.

She'll be touring Outlaster, her first record since 2007's You Follow Me, the collobaration with Jim White of Dirty Three.

Hollywood-born but now resident in New York City, Nina has carved out a career as a singer-songwriter there since the early '90s, making grand-sounding chamber folk bouyed with sumptous string orchestrations that lie somewhere between Bill Callahan, Will Oldham and Vashti Bunyan.
To date her six albums - 'Dogs' (2000), 'The Blackened Air' (2001), ‘The Blackened Air’ (2002), ‘Run To Ruin’ (2003), ‘On Leaving’ (2006) and ‘You Follow Me’ (2007) – have garnered widespread critical acclaim and a devoted fanbase. Dogs was a favourite of the late John Peel, and legendary producer Steve Albini had this to say about the record:

"In the process of making a record, you hear it so many times that the charms of even the best of them can wear off through over-exposure. On rare occasions, records I've worked on have withstood this scrutiny and ended up being personal favorites. Nina Nastasia's 'Dogs' is a record so simultaneously unassuming and grandiose that I can't really describe it, except in terms that would make it (and me) sound silly. Of the couple thousand records I've been involved with, this is one of my favourites, and one that I'm proud to be associated with."

TICKETS:
CLICK FOR TICKETS TO SEE NINA NASTASIA IN NEWCASTLE


Photographs:
CLICK HERE FOR HI RES PHOTOGRAPHS OF NINA NASTASIA

MP3:
or check out the new single here:
http://fat-cat.co.uk/fatcat/release.php?id=315

Facebook:
Click here for the Nina Nastasia Facebook Event

Recommended Newcastle gigs April and May

Here's a list of gigs in Newcastle that you should see in April and May. Even if it's a recession that's affecting you so bad that you're eating you're own shoes. Back in my day shoes was all we ever had to eat and we didn't complain, we just went to gigs anyhow. Click for Facebook invites and more details.

APRIL:

15th: G.Involved Presents: Gold Panda


23rd: Pmnt Vibes presents: A Grave With No Name
f=ts

30th: Pmnt Vibes presents: Talk Normal

May:

1st: G.I. Presents Crystal Antlers

2nd: ex libris presents Darren Hayman

8th: P4foxes Presents THE SLITS

10th: G. I. Presents: Think About Life

11th: Cluny Presents Ted Leo and the Pharmacists

16th: The Sage Ghead Presents Randy Newman

19th: Pmnt Vibes presents: Ganglians

26th P4foxes presents NINA NASTASIA

30th/31st May: Jumpin Hot Club Presents:
Dawn Landes, The Unthanks, King Creosote, Donovan, Slow Club, Lissie @ Evolution Festival

Hear Minotaurs "Eat Yr Hate" Online

Up until now, I haven't used this blog for scene reports, figuring Toonwaves.co.uk does that pretty well anyhow, but I'm going to look to pitch in now and again with some reccomendations.

Anyone that was at the Okkervil River gig in November of 2007 will have seen South Shields' Minotaurs providing the opening support slot.
To the best of my know how, (and I've been a scene exile for a year), the band haven't played all the much in the interem period. Here's why: they've been working on putting together Eat Yr Hate, their long anticipated debut record.

The band are shipping 500 copies of the LP, and you can order it at: http://minotaurs.bandcamp.com/

Here's some words:
"Originally birthing in 2006, South Shields sextet Minotaurs have been all too quiet for the past year or so. Luckily the bulk of that time has been spent writing, honing and recording their long-awaited debut album 'Eat yr Hate' in deepest Northumberland with Woodpigeon producer, Arran Fisher. Giving weight to their choice of name, as performances by the band became less frequent their mythology seemed to grow. A live performance being treat with a similar reverence as the sniffing out of a truffle. In 2007 The Guardian writer, Laura Barton, dedicated an entire column to the band after stumbling upon them on a whim and its only recently they've thankfully started gigging again. Supporting Twilight Sad in October.

Despite being preoccupied by the darker side of human nature, Minotaurs are far from cynical gloom peddlers. Their music is loaded with two things rare in contemporary British guitar music; sincerity and substance. They find the lust behind sentiment, the worm in the apple, shards of glass in the glitter and make lifes ugly truths both beautiful and haunting. Old Hollywood images of red-dress clad women being carried into the sun are contrasted with the uncomfortable reality of relationships red in tooth and claw. Intricate arrangements and striking melodies take the edge away from lyrics dealing with loss, co-dependence, the stifling and occasionally recuperative nature of home.

Each song on 'Eat Yr Hate' is like a contemporary ghost story loaded with snapshots of regret, stagnation and missed opportunity but amongst there lies one important quality, hope. That hope is achieved through escapism and tenderness. While Sarah's pitch-perfect vocals soar, Andrew's crack and falter striking a heartbreaking dichotomy. While Belle and Sebastian, Fairport Convention and even Prefrab Sprout have been used as reference points Minotaurs are that rare thing; a band that sound more like themselves than anyone else. In an age dominated by cynicism, careerism, imitation and artifice they're something to cling to."

Andrew Richardson, January 2010

THE SLITS: Trapped Animal Biog

Please credit the below to Vivien Goldman.

This truly her-storical album marks the return to the studio of the Slits, London's original wild girls of punk. Yes, call it a major comeback, because on "Trapped Animal" the core Slits possee of dynamo singer Arri-Up and bassie Tessa Pollitt, now grown women, join forces with a new generation of junior Slits, Hollie Cook, singer/keyboard player, drummer Anna Schultz, guitarist Adele Wilson and part-time Slit, Ana Ozawa to form what Arri describes on 'Reggae Gypsy' as "a tribal warrior princess, gathering a tribe of tribal woman warriors, breaking down the barriers..."

Three decades after their raucous birth, the Slits are the undisputed godmothers of every feisty female from Madonna to the riot grrrrls, Pink and Lily Allen. Witty and provocative, the glory of Trapped Animal proves what the faithful always believed -- the Slits are the real deal and the "Trapped Animal" is all of us.

Steered by dubmaster Adrian Sherwood, the Slits' sound voyages into a free zone of extravagant texture and timing. In this sonically splendiferous, cinematic soundscape, the Slits' dub-based beat both defines punk and transcends it. Mind-bending dub sections illuminate tracks like 'Babylon,' a deep roots steppers track, the album's only cover, which puts our cynical system in its place. Most of the tracks are composed by the legendary dreadlock'd Arri-Up, who famously co-founded the band in 1976 when she was fourteen years old.

"All my life I have felt trapped, fighting for my freedom," says Arri. After the Slits went their separate ways in the early 1980s, she went to live among the tribes in the jungle in Borneo -- just as their ancestral hunting grounds were being seized. "They were amazing free spirit people," she recalls. Her next incarnation was as a dancehall queen in the Kingston, Jamaica ghetto, re-named Madusa. Arri's urge for liberation courses throughout 'Trapped Animal,' blasting an uncut view of human relationships so frank it's startling. Lyrically, 'Trapped Animal' is a savagely realistic, fiercely funny testament to everything these women have learned since their stormy saga began. Compulsive and insanely catchy, the group's wicked grooves march head on into serious topics like 'Issues,' about how people deal with abuse, and healing anti-love songs like 'Ask Ma' and 'Partner From Hell.' Though Arri might seem to sing to a man, as she says, the ideas can apply to either gender: "If abuse is going on, let's not say it's just down to either man or woman." For happier gender delight, Arri also supplies the tongue-in-cheeky eroticism of 'Lazy Slam,' one of the best ever evocations of how females really feel about sex.

One of the most exciting aspects of the record is the stubborn continuity, the way these women were compelled to continue their artistic explorations -- and how their tribe of "musical prophets" has grown. Bassie Tessa Pollitt traveled the deserts of Sudan and became a judo instructor in her time out from the Slits. She says of their re-formation, "I couldn't think of the Slits without Arri. And Hollie (whose parents are Paul Cook, Sex Pistols' drummer and Jennie, singer of Two Tone band, the Belle Stars,) is like the baby of the Slits and the Pistols. Reggae is in her blood." Pollitt's own eerie, film noir songs 'Can't Relate' and 'Had A Day' with their jazzy echoes of Kurt Weill's Berlin cabaret operettas, add a dark neo-emo gothic feel perfect for our disjointed times.

The positive energy generated by the Slits changed everything for the band's youngest new member, Hollie Cook. After experiencing disillusion in her previous flirtations with the music business, Hollie says, "I had no confidence to write songs. Really, the Slits liberated me." The sweet lover's rock of 'Cry Baby' is Hollie's first song and it makes you want more. And Anna Ozama, a part-time Slit, contributes a plaintive track in Japanese, 'Be It,' ensuring that the Slits live up to their "outernational" promise.

When the band began, radio DJ's refused to say their name on the air. When the Slits performed on the White Riot tour in 1977 with their cohorts, the Sex Pistols and the Clash, the bus driver had to be bribed to carry these crazy chicks. "Outcasts of the outcasts, with horizons so vast" is how Arri describes their relationship to society, let alone the pop world, on 'Reggae Gypsy' a dancehall flamenco statement of identity and intent that is in many ways the soul of this record. The bouncy ska of 'Peer Pressure' details Arri's alienation even when she was at school.

The Slits released three albums, the seminal CUT (produced by Dennis Bovell, it's one of just fifty albums from their vast catalog to be re-issued by Island/Universal as part of the Island 50th Anniversary tribute,) as well as the 'Return of the Giant Slits', with its jazzier post-punk feel, the much-loved live sessions from Britain's progressive John Peel radio show. Some tracks were also released on the indie label, Rough Trade. For all their originality and large cultural influence and contribution, the Slits have always remained proud outsiders, underground rebels with an attitude that now looks to be eternal. But there had never been anything like the Slits before, and their energy was an eruption of fresh invention, fuelled by the sort of struggle they sing about with such assurance in 'Pay Rent.' The Slits' youthful flourish attains full fruition on Trapped Animal's astounding cycle of songs. On the powerful surge of 'Can't Relate,' Arri's keening vocal says it right: "It's a Slits virus... infectious, infectious, infectious..."

THE SLITS @ Star And Shadow Cinema, Saturday May 8th.

The Slits bring their unique brand of punk/ethno/reggae boundary teasing, pigeonhole evading, rawk to the star and shadow, saturday 8th May.

Hear snippets of Cut, the band's massively influential, seminal, landmark etc. album wherein they wed grrl pnk attitude, razor blade wit, slash-punk chords and wonderfully counter intuitive, off-kilter vocal harmony to dub, dance reggae and drum beats pilfered from south of the equator. Also hear Trapped Animal, the band's first record in 25 years, which revamped and reinstated their approach to rock music on its release october 2009.


hear them on myspace:
www.myspace.com/theslits

PHOTOGRAPHS
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TICKETS
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