Kings Heath Archives -

March 11, 2019March 11, 2019

BPREVIEW: Mutes @ Hare & Hounds 13.03.19

Words by Ed King

On Wednesday 13^th March, Mutes headline at the Hare & Hounds – with support from Robert Craig Oulton. Sofa King were originally scheduled to perform but had to pull out of the gig – so look out for someone possibly filling in.

Doors open at 7:30pm, with tickets available for £6 (advance +booking fee) – as presented by FOMA. For direct gig information, including links to online ticket sales, click here.

There’s probably a music journalist handbook out there that would help me with genres and comparisons, one that is updated every year to keep the lexicon cutting edge. I mean, seriously, who coined ‘trap’ music…?

But one of the joys to this job is the constant evolution, especially when it comes from an arena of intelligence and not some attention/chart grabbing pretender.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Swallowing-Light.jpg

Enter Mutes, closely followed by a list that will include My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, a couple of curveballs and an apologetic recognition as to the list itself. Sprinkle some clever metaphors, make a reference to Sub-Pop, throw in an opiate analogy and – if you’re feeling brave – a joke about revolving doors and band members. Mwah…. we mean it with love.

But it’s been just shy of two years since the James Brown led ghost in the music machine (…stir in some existential philosophy) released No Desire, the somewhat bold and beautiful debut album from Mutes. And now they’re back with Round Two. The as-of-yet unnamed new album (in the public domain at least) is set for release sometime soon, we think, we hope, but there is one single already dangling like the proverbial carrot – check out ‘Swallowing Light’ below, being performed live at the Hare & Hounds back in July 2016.

Now the more observant of you will note this is nearly a year before Mutes’ ‘dichotomy of extremes’ debut album came out, sans ‘Swallowing Light’ – so questions, questions, questions…

Now if we were to jump a gun or two, heaven forbid, it could mean that the ambient swirls and prolonged rabbit holes of No Desire have been set aside for the simple ball kicking grunge rock that Brown & Co can deliver so well. Which would be no bad thing. Or it could mean the sophomore LP is a reworking of some tried, tested, loved and live tracks from the Mutes back catalogue – with some new nuggets thrown in. Or it’s a coincidence, or an accident. Or it’s all a ruse and the rest of album two is a spoken word diatribe about penguins.

But with an album promoting gig at the Hare & Hounds on Wednesday 13^th March, you’ll probably get a sneaky peak and hopefully some clarity soon enough. Or not. But you might. In the meantime, I’m going to dust down my Roget’s Thesaurus and frayed copies of DIY, so I can be rhetoric ready for when the album does arrive.

The rest of you can keep yourselves busy with the link below, or click here to check out what happened when we danced this dance before – including an interview with James Brown about what brought No Desire to the table. Enjoy. And save some mental space for the next Mutes album, coming soon on FOMA Records. TBC…

‘Swallowing Light’ – Mutes

Mutes headline at the Hare & Hounds on Wednesday 13^th March, with support from Robert Craig Oulton. For more direct gig information and links to online ticket sales, click here.

For more on Mutes, visit www.mutesuk.bandcamp.com

For more on Robert Craig Oulton, visit www.facebook.com/RobertCraigOulton

For more from FOMA, visit www.wearefoma.bigcartel.com

For more from the Hare & Hounds, including full event listings and venue details, visit www.hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk

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NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To learn more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK campaign, click here. To sign up and join the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK campaign, click here.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this feature – or if you want to report an act of sexual aggression, abuse, or assault – click here for information via the ‘Help & Support’ page on the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK website.

November 21, 2018November 20, 2018

INTERVIEW: Jack Jones – Trampolene

Words by Sam Lambeth / Pics by Daniel Quesada – courtesy of Cloud PR

Trampolene, the brainchild of Swansea songsmith Jack Jones, have amassed two highly successful records, impressive support slots and admirable column inches – their latest single, ‘The One Who Loves You’ was released via Mi7 Records in October.

With a return to Birmingham scheduled on Thursday 22 November, playing at the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath, Jones spoke to Birmingham Review about gigging in the Second City, curry and sleeping in Sainsbury’s car park.

There’s a moment when Jack Jones has a glint in his eye. At first, you think it’s a detached retina, but it happens so frequently you realise it’s merely introducing another clever and witty answer. Jones, the 26-year-old wordsmith behind alternative rockers Trampolene, has a seemingly endless slew of soundbites. He’s a raconteur, a purveyor of shaggy dog stories that will, in years to come, rival the great warblers like Noel Gallagher and Ian McCulloch.

This particular glint preludes a yarn about Birmingham, in which Jones was tasked with picking up muse and sometime bandmate Pete Doherty (Jones performs in Doherty’s busman’s holiday Puta Madres) for a gig in the Second City. “Pete asked me to pick him up and he never showed up,” Jones laughs. “Long story short, I ended up sleeping in Sainsbury’s car park!”

You’d think dozing next to some shopping trolleys but would enough to put Jones off the Midlands, but the truth is he’s used to sleeping a tad rough. Years before, he was in the usually plush suburb of Muswell Hill in a shitty room. It was here where he penned the tracks that make up Pick A Pocket Or Two, a recently-released collection of songs that have shaped Jones’ career from urchin poet to arena rocker.

“It was the fans idea and these songs built the fanbase that we have now… and without the fans we’d be nowhere… so we owed it them and ourselves to put the songs somewhere and make them easier to find,” Jones says. “I also like to think the next album will be our third as we have already swerved the difficult second album syndrome.”

Pick A Pocket Or Two and its predecessor proper, 2017’s Swansea to Hornsey, have given Trampolene gigs with the likes of Liam Gallagher, RAT BOY and The Libertines. However, Jones is always happy to return to Birmingham, where he’ll be playing the Hare & Hounds as part of the nationwide This Feeling promoted Alive tour. “I think they (This Feeling) have been essential in giving new bands a break,” Jones says, “we always get a great reception in Birmingham and the crowds love seeing live bands and are always fabulous.”

As for the Midlands scene, Jones thinks there’s a plethora of talent. “Birmingham has a great tradition of producing amazing bands; Sabbath – Slade -Dexy’s – ELO – Denim – Swell Maps – they must be putting something in the curry,” he chuckles. “A great new band, The Surrenders, are on the Alive tour with us, Paper Buoys… The Cosmics… The Lizards… The Americas all sound cool.”

Whether it be in the curry or in the noggin, Birmingham certainly does conjure up some great talent, and Jones – and his glint – fits right in.

‘The One Who Loves You’ – Trampolene

Trampolene play at the Hare & Hounds on Thursday 22^nd November, with support from The Surrenders and Lacuna Bloome – as presented by This Feeling and Metropolis Music. For direct gig information and online ticket sales, click here.

For more on Trampolene, visit www.trampolene.co.uk

For more on This Feeling, visit www.thisfeeling.co.uk

For more on the Hare & Hounds (Kings Heath), including venue details and further event listings, visit www.hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk

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NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To learn more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK campaign, click here. To sign up and join the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK campaign, click here.

September 11, 2018

BREVIEW: The August Showcase with Lice, The Lizards, The Hungry Ghosts, Whitelight @ Hare & Hounds 12.08.18

Words by Ed King / Pics by Paul Reynolds

Urrgghh… a gig on a Sunday, who has the energy/serotonin left?

Apparently quite a few people, as I saunter (stumble) into the Hare & Hounds Room 2 alongside a very respectable crowd. Numberswise that is, they could all be slow boiling lost children at home for all I know. Or care. My Sunday roll call of compassion is often woefully one-sided. But a strong tail end of the weekend audience have turned out to support RDE and Setting Son’s August showcase – with local lads (and it is a bit of a sausage fest tonight) Whitelight, The Lizards, and The Hungry Ghosts all supporting Joe Talbot’s label champions, Lice.

Whitelight, a band I’ve not heard of before tonight but who I’m reliably told have come from the aftermath of Shaake, take up the first space on the bill – a stripped back twosome, guitar and drums, delivering a big room sound that far surpasses their square inches on stage.

Jokingly I said words to that effect would be my review, but adding ‘fuck me they rock’ probably sums it up quite nicely. There may be a few disjointed moments tonight, in set relying too heavily on the ‘break… and kick in’ rock power play, but the musicianship from this arena filling sound is a more than a little impressive. I could even use the word ‘Hendrix’ and not feel like too much of a fraud. But keep an eye on those listings and make your own addled mind up about them. Whitelight; you have been warned.

Next up are The Hungry Ghosts, a band I love to the core but feel compelled to judge with an extra stern eye. And ear. And gut. And all those things I need to be truthful. But having a replacement bass player on stage tonight – with Miles Cocker filling in for Emily Doyle over a few of the summer months – the most immediate of my knee jerk commentaries is ‘an overwhelming newness’ to their performance tonight.

It’s exciting, it’s rock and roll, but it’s also a little… The stage, for a start, feels too small, with the proficient wall of blues rock tumbling over the first song and smothering ‘Death Rattle Blues’ – the sophomore on the set list tonight. I’ve seen The Hungry Ghosts crammed into much tighter corners, but something is uncomfortably full tonight. And yet there is a… about it all. And as I wrestle with the ellipses that will no doubt be haunting my copy later on, I write ‘too much of something’, ‘this band just keep getting better’, before adding ‘I don’t know’ to my drunk spider scrawl.

‘Lazaro’ follows, with Joe (INSERT SURNAME HERE)’s vocals feeling well rounded for a weekend finale, before a bit of a swing/miss from new song ‘Jesus Fever’ and a somewhat lacking rendition of the tried and tested ‘Super King King’ – one of my longstanding favourites from this band’s slaughterhouse repertoire. But when you’re close to perfection it’s hard to stay consistent, and exciting ebbs and discouraging flows continue from ‘the ghosts’ set tonight – yet I am, once again, left both curious and eager. For all its ferocity and fallacy, it feels like something is brewing in The Hungry Ghosts’ set list tonight, with this Sunday showcase perhaps just first public introduction to an exciting evolution. But never fear; we’ll see/hear from The Hungry Ghosts soon enough, and ‘Shake the Devil’ will no doubt be in there somewhere near the start.

It is now that I must issue an honest, albeit rather unsatisfactory, apology, as I miss The Lizards’ set due to cider and an earth shatteringly endearing band I fell afoul of at the downstairs bar. But I shall leave you with two pearls of wisdom: 1) Orchard Pig cider is not as benign as it sounds, and 2) Liquid Cheeks. And I’ll bet my pension (currently about £32 and a first edition Roald Dahl) that in 18 months time you’ll not need an explanation for the latter.

Time… enough. Attack ships on fire introduce the headline act for tonight, the Bristolian barrage of fun that are Lice. Well documented for bad time keeping and guttural prose, both attributes close to my heart, it is the band’s frontman that I’m most keen to see in full swing. But an army of low thumped drums, distorted feedback, and restrained punk pretensions (if such a thing can exist in the realms beyond oxymoron) are soon taking my eyes across the rough edged four piece. Frontman, Alistair Shuttleworth, who has set the stage for such anarchic atrocities as Fat White Family, owns the Sunday night dwindling crowd from the off – delivering his trademark prose in a way that makes me sit up straight yet miss every word. A linguistic trick I almost love and hate him for in the same short, sharp intake of breath.

But they are commanding, even to a room that seems half empty from the last time I stood in it (The Lizards, cider, downstairs bar, shit journalist…) and I am quickly moving my shoulders in that way a middle aged man does when he wants to let go. Lice last played in Birmingham “on this stage, almost exactly a year ago” as part of the Killer Wave all day August band Holiday event in 2017, and it’s good to see them headline after such a well earned 12 months.

Oddly, even incongruously (if I were a devotee of Paul Dacre) polite, each song gets a stomach propelled “thank you” as Lice blast though their short songs and punchy set – delivering a well meant audio assault that makes me want to invite them, and their backline, to my next birthday party. Superb, SUPERB FUCKING PERCUSSION. But jumping from the tirade of an angry child to the wisdom of someone with something to say, Lice live up to their hype – as the Joe Talbot endorsed ‘fuck you we don’t care’ send out a set that shows this band mean business. And, even somewhat perversely, I believe them. If my mum were here she would probably file for adoption.

Sunday gigs are hard to promote, Lord knows I know – having spent over a year of my life doing it week in week out. But Setting Son and RDE have delivered this end of the weekend ensemble with fine fettle, setting a backbone of local luminaries against a visiting headline act who well deserve the attention. And, wonderfully, there was a good crowd to receive it. Even if the previous 48 hours have left the room’s frontal cortex a little bereft… well, mine at least.

Ha, and now to write a review about it (my ‘get it down as soon as you get home’ policy). But beyond ‘research Whitelight’, ‘The Hungry Ghosts’ new stuff’, ‘buy The Lizards a drink’ and ‘see Lice play on their home turf’, the South Park back catalogue is about all I have left. I bet Burroughs never had this problem. Possibly a bad comparison. Now, where’s that corkscrew and laptop power cable gone…

Lice @ Hare & Hounds 12.08.18 / Paul Reynolds

For more on Lice, visit www.facebook.com/licebristol

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The Lizards – supporting Lice @ Hare & Hounds 12.08.18 / Paul Reynolds

For more on The Lizards, visit www.soundcloud.com/allyourfriendsarelizards

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The Hungry Ghosts – supporting Lice @ Hare & Hounds 12.08.18 / Paul Reynolds

For more on The Hungry Ghosts, visit www.thehungryghosts.co.uk

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Whitelight – supporting Lice @ Hare & Hounds 12.08.18 / Paul Reynolds

For more on Whitelight, visit www.officialwhitelight.com

For more from Setting Son, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.facebook.com/settingsonrecords

For more on the Hare & Hounds, including venue details and further event listings, visit www.hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk

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NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To sign up to NOT NORMAL – NOT OK, click here. To know more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK sticker campaign, click here.

August 11, 2018August 11, 2018

BPREVIEW: The August Showcase with Lice, The Lizards, The Hungry Ghosts, Whitelight @ Hare & Hounds 12.08.18

Words by Ed King

On Sunday 12^th August, Setting Son Records and RDE present The August Showcase – with Lice, The Lizards, The Hungry Ghosts, and Whitelight all playing at the Hare & Hounds.

Doors open at 6pm, with advance tickets available for a mere £7 sterling plus a smidgen of a booking fee… which works out at around £1.75 a band, so literally cheaper than chips. Although a small cone of chips are available across the road for £1.25, so literally cheaper than some chips.

For direct event information and links to online ticket sales, click here. For the rest Google ‘Charlie’s Chippy Kings Heath’.

Lice have been steadily creating that kind of hard earned hype for a couple of years now – burrowing deep into the Bristolian live music circuit, snapping up support slots with The Fall and Fat White Family, then heading out across the UK to open for Idles on a sell out nationwide tour.

But the latter didn’t stop on stage, with Joe Talbot signing Lice as the first band to climb aboard his relatively recent imprint – Balley Records. And with fearsome mix of reverberation, guttural prose, swagger, more swagger, alongside an almost poetic approach to bass playing (see their Facebook page) and equine immolation (see below) you can see a well justified postcode partnership emerging. As Talbot told the NME back in April, “to act as a Trojan horse and allow bands that we like to be in a sphere of opportunity that we didn’t get is great. It’s a bit like having a plus one to a party. It feels amazing, it feels exciting and it feels like a privilege that we have that in our hands.”

Lice released their It All Worked Out Great double EP, through Balley Records, in May this year – described by Louder than War as a ‘rabble-rousing selection of wryly dark and humorously unhinged tales, sound-tracked by a dissonant post-punk noise.’ So, erm, yeah. Sold. But coming back to Birmingham after last appearing at the Killer Wave bank holiday all dayer in August 2017, this is another chance to see Lice live on stage and in all their glorious Sunday goodness. And that’s not a bad way to wave goodbye to your weekend

But if you need a more regional reason to drag yourself off the sofa and out the door, then we have three – with The Lizards, The Hungry Ghosts, and Whitelight also playing at The August Showcase. So, sold. Sold. And sold again. All for less than a tenner and a potato based snack, pass the ketchup.

‘Stammering Bill’ – Lice

Setting Son Records and RDE present The August Showcase – with Lice, The Lizards, The Hungry Ghosts, and Whitelight all playing at the Hare & Hounds on Sunday 12^th August. For direct event information and links to online ticket sales, visit the Facebook Event Page by clicking here.

For more on Lice, visit www.facebook.com/licebristol

For more on The Lizards, visit www.soundcloud.com/allyourfriendsarelizards

For more on The Hungry Ghosts, visit www.thehungryghosts.co.uk

For more on Whitelight, visit www.officialwhitelight.com

For more from Setting Son, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.facebook.com/settingsonrecords

For more on the Hare & Hounds, including venue details and further event listings, visit www.hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk

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NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To sign up to NOT NORMAL – NOT OK, click here. To know more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK sticker campaign, click here.

March 5, 2018

BPREVIEW: Plaid (live) @ Hare & Hounds 10.03.18

Words by Ed King

On Saturday 10^th March, Plaid… let me say that again, PLAID bring their live set to the Hare & Hounds (Kings Heath) – with support from Automaton, ADJ, Monoform (live) and Errorbeauty. Live visuals on the night will come from Plaid and Cromatouch.

Doors open to the Hare & Hounds main room at 9pm, with music going on until 3am. All Early Bird Tickets have flown the nest, but you can still get some Standard Tickets priced at £10 – as presented by Scratch Club. For direct event info, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.

There are certain words that will set a portion of the electronic dance music fraternity all aquiver. ‘Warp Records’ are two of them, ‘Plaid’ is another. So, when the three appear on a poster together some ambient/electronica heads begin desperately scratching the corners of their minds for a trace of serotonin. It’s a big deal. And rightly so, as The Black Dog spawned two-piece have been a further cornerstone of the electronica evolution for over two decades. Or, at least, the good bits. I don’t think they had much to do with Tony di Bart or the Vengaboys.

Plaid formed in the late 80’s – back when rock was still rife, pills were still good, and raves were still illegal. Ah, the glory days. Made up of two thirds of The Black Dog (Messers Handley and Turner), the splinter duo jumped around a few monikers ‘post Dog’ but settled on Plaid for the release of their debut album, Mbuki Mvuki, in 1991. It means ‘the desire to take your clothes off and run around’ in case you were wandering. Plaid’s latest album, The Digging Remedy, was released through Warp Records in June 2016 – check out the album’s opening track, ‘Do Matter’, featured below.

Already revered from the pioneering techno of The Black Dog, Handley and Turner were quick to carve out a new and equally as respected corner of electronica with Plaid. Their second album, Not for Threes, went on to be an established EDM classic – featuring the vocals of a then rising Icelandic balloon, Bjork, on ‘Lilith’. But, for me, it’s ‘Rakimou’ all the way; if you can listen to that track without feeling the glory of God/Shiva/Primark, or whatever you pray to, then you are quite simply dead inside. Click here and see if you’re still pumping blood.

But nine albums, countless festivals, and a seemingly endless international tour schedule later, and Plaid are still at the very respectable sharp end of electronica – whilst having also garnered remix requests from artists including Goldfrapp, Bjork, U.N.K.L.E., and even Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five.

So, the boys done good. And getting to see Plaid at such a superb suburban venue is somewhat of a Christmas come early situation. Just no more snow, please. Enough with the snow.

‘Do Matter’ – Plaid (from The Digging Remedy)

Plaid bring their live set to the Hare & Hounds on Saturday 10^th March – as presented by Scratch Club. For direct event information, including venue details and online ticket sales, visit http://bit.ly/2oRJuEF

For more on Plaid, visit www.plaid.co.uk

For more from Scratch Club, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.facebook.com/scratchclubbirmingham

For more on the Hare & Hounds (Kings Heath), including venue details and further event listings, visit www.hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk