Category: BPreviews

Sunday 24^th May sees local Garage band/ Indie Rock promoters, Killerwave, throw an all day bank holiday party at the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath – for more info click here

Joining the Killerwave DJs will be a host of live acts, including Cedar House Band, Virals, The Mighty Young & Spit Shake Sisters. Tickets are priced at £6 advance / £8 on the night. Doors open at 8pm.

Cedar House Band are a trio based in Birmingham. No strangers to local stages having performing at similar venues such as The Victoria and the O2 Academy 3, they chaotically combine 1950s Rock ‘n’ Roll with boot stomping punk.

Covering songs such as Surfing USA as well as their own original songs, Cedar House Band are expected to bring some lively anarchy to the Hare & Hounds.

Originally hailing from Worcester, Virals is the brainchild of Shaun Hencher (former singer of Lovvers).With an intriguingly non-specific number of band members, Virals released their Strange Fruit EP in January 2013 which was followed up by a performance at SXSW festival in Texas. Penned as ‘Britain’s best new glam-grunge band…’ the Midlands based group are set to bring energetic power pop to the Hare & Hounds stage.

The Mighty Young are the nostalgia to Killerwave’s event. Also hailing from Birmingham, the 2 piece rock band draw heavy influences from The White Stripes, The Stooges and Jimi Hendrix the latter of which can be heard in their song ‘And Then the Rain Came Down.’

Together since 2009, The Mighty Young are well established in the local music scene having played regular sets at venues such as The Roadhouse and Adam & Eve.

Infamous for their live shows, Spit Shake Sisters are a guitar-based trio stationed in Brighton. Apparently forming after having met at an AA meeting, Harrison, Ben and Zal released their first vinyl single ‘Blasphemer’ in August 2014.

Described by Clash magazine as ‘dirty, demented rock ‘n’ roll delivered with a surf-pop twist,’ Spit Shake Sisters have supported acts such as The Black Lips and King Khan and The Shrines on national tours.

Killerwave’s all day Bank Holiday party comes to the Hare & Hounds on 24^th May – with the Killerwave DJs, alongside live sets from Cedar House Band, Virals, Mighty Young & Spit Shake Sisters. For more information, visit http://hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk/event-listings/event/?eventID=10035782

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For more from Cedar House Band, visit https://thecedarhouseband.bandcamp.com/

For more from Virals, visit https://www.facebook.com/prehistoricsounds

For more from The Mighty Young, visit https://www.facebook.com/ruttingdevil

For more from Spit Shake Sisters, https://www.facebook.com/SpitShakeSisters

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For more from the Hare & Hounds, visit http://hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk/

Sunday 10^th May sees Cheatahs bring their Royal Baby Upon Thine Tour to the Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, in a joint headline gig with Canadian quartet, No Joy.

Doors open at 8pm and tickets are priced £8.50, as presented by This is Tmrw. For gig tickets and info, click here.

Cheatahs were formed in 2009 and, although multi-national, are based in London. Their first full length, self titled album was released in 2014 – following a number of EPs and limited release singles.

Falling into the ‘shoegaze’ genre, Cheatahs are heavily inspired by pioneering bands such as My Bloody Valentine and Ride.

Cited by Mark Beaumont, for NME, as ‘fuzzadelic miasma’, the Cheatahs  are set to bring their four piece grungy guitar riffs and mellow vocals onto the Hare & Hounds’ stage – evoking memories of the 1990’s more independent Indie British music scene.

Cheatahs’ UK tour coincides with their recent Murasaki EP, having being released back in March on Wichita Records. This tour also sees them collaborating with, No Joy, a band also noted for their shoegaze potential, alternative sound and ‘notoriously loud’ performances.

No Joy are a Canadian Indie Rock (now) quartet, formed in late 2009 by Jasamine White-Gluz (vocals & guitar) and Laura Lloyd (guitar) – with Garland Hasting (percussion) and Michael Farsky (bass) joining later.

Releasing their first single in 2009, a 7” press double A side with ‘No Summer’ and the eponymous ‘No Joy’, it would be only six months before No Joy’s debut LP, Ghost Blonde, was also released via the Brooklyn based imprint, Mexican Summer. Martin Douglas celebrated the release of Ghost Blonde, citing No Joy’s ‘sometimes-melancholy, sometimes-violent sounds’ in a 2011 review for Pitchfork.

Coming to the Hare & Hounds with Cheaters, for their first gig in a 7 date UK tour, No Joy are on the road promoting their new album, More Faithful – set for release via Mexican Summer Records on 9^th June.

Following Sunday’s set at the Hare & Hounds, both Cheatahs and No Joy will be playing 6 more dates across the UK, before finishing their Royal Baby tour with a final date in Amsterdam on 22^nd May.

Cheatahs + No Joy come to the Hare & Hounds on Sunday 10^th May, as presented by This Is Tmrw. For further gig info & tickets, visit http://hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk/event-listings/event/?eventID=10035439

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For more on Cheatahs, visit http://cheatahs.net/

For more on No Joy, visit http://nojoymusic.com/

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For further listings from the hare & Hounds, visit http://hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk/event-listings/

For more from This Is Tmrw, visit http://thisistmrw.co.uk/

Kwabs will be performing at the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath on Saturday 25^th April, as presented by Metropolis Music & Live Nation.

Doors open from 7pm, with entry charged at £10 (advance). For further gig details & tickets, click here.

N.B. At the time of publishing, this event was billed as sold out. Please check with the venue or official ticket outlets.

Kwabs began his serious affair with music after being put forward for the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO) by his then music teacher – where he would become the orchestra’s lead singer for three years.

Kwabs was then picked up by Goldie for his TV show, Goldie’s Band: By Royal Appointment, becoming one of 12 musicians to compose and perform their original pieces at Buckingham Palace. Kwabs also sang a cover of song ‘Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child’ – a song most associated with the American slave trade.

After releasing two cover songs via YouTube in 2010, ‘Like a Star’ by Corrine Bailey Rae and ‘The Wilhelm Scream’ by James Blake, Kwabs was picked up by Atlantic Records – releasing his debut Wrong or Right EP through the label in February 2014.

Kwabs’ subsequent Pray for Love EP was released in May 2014, with his latest and most commercially successful release, Walk EP, came out in October the same year. The title track from Walk EP went on to reach top twenty positions in Germany (No1), Austria (No3), Switzerland (No4) and Norway (No12), whilst positioning at No 71 in the UK Singles Chart.

Kwabs’ debut album, Love + War, is scheduled for release through Atlantic Records on 18^th May. To watch/hear the official video for the first single, ‘Perfect Ruin’, click here or on the link/image below:

‘Perfect Ruin’ by Kwabs

Kwabs will be performing at the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath on Saturday 25^th April. For further gig details & tickets, visit http://hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk/event-listings/event/?eventID=10035327

For more on Kwabs, visit http://kwabsmusic.com/

For more from Atlantic Records (UK), visit http://atlanticrecords.co.uk/

For further listings from the Hare & Hounds, visit http://hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk/event-listings

Oscar Levant once said “there is a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.” But The Electric Cinema are bringing back the grey area with a double screening on Wednesday 22^nd April.

On Screen One (9pm) / Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

On Screen Two (8:30pm) / The Found Footage Festival’s Salute to Weirdos

Bit of a coin toss, but both screenings merit some attention. For a further introduction see the indiviual profiles below.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

Twin Peaks was the phenomenally successful David Lynch/Mark Frost TV series, first shown in April 1990, that tells the discovery (and subsequent investigation) of a dead local girl Laura Palmer.

Set in the fictional Washington town of Twin Peaks, the series dissected the white picket fence nightmares that lurk behind the seeming status quo of rural, white North America – as the history of abuse, that surrounded the apocryphal girl-next-door, unfolds.

Told in Lynch’s inimitable voice, with the mundane and routine getting a strychnine gloss, Twin Peaks created as many questions as it hid answers – with Fire Walk with Me retrospectively offered as the ‘last seven days’ of Laura Palmer and an attempt at conclusion. Regardless, the story and the storyteller are a ferocious balance of sinister and intelligence; Fire Walk with Me is a certainty for anyone hooked into the original TV series.

Click the link below to watch the official Fire Walk with Me trailer:

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with me – official trailer

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Found Footage Festival’s Salute to Weirdos

The Found Footage Festival is an ongoing collection of videos that archive the quite surreal embodiment of some human beings, as captured on film – from dating to dancing, from funny to frightening.

The Festival’s Salute to Werdios is a specific light shine at those VHS ‘stars’ that would have found their way into the public domain a couple of decades ago, but have mercifully been gathering dust in charity shops and attics.

Until now, when they tour 11 dates across eight UK cities – which is more than most X Factor finalists.

Crippling humorous and ultimately heartbreaking, it’s possibly easy to see than to believe – click on the link below fro a taster/warning of what’s to come:

The Found Footage Salute to Weirdos – ‘Video Dating’

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is being shown at The Electric Cinema (Screen One) at 9pm on 22^nd April. For further info & tickets, visit https://www.theelectric.co.uk/programme.php?film=1118

The Found Footage Festival’s Salute to Weirdos is being shown at The Electric Cinema (Screen Two) at 8:20pm on 22^nd April. For further info & tickets, visit https://www.theelectric.co.uk/programme.php?film=1108

For more from The Electric Cinema, visit https://www.theelectric.co.uk/