NEW SHOWS

2 May 2012

We have confirmed plenty of new shows in recent weeks, including Dan Deacon, Black Dice and Quintron and Miss Pussycat, which stretch out into autumn. Be sure to scroll down for the full details.

NTS RADIO SHOW 5

12 April 2012

The fifth episode of our monthly radio show for NTS is online now. It's an 'Easter Special' and features many joyous sounds for spring.

You can listen to it here or take a look at the track list on the here.

NEW NEWS

16 February 2012

Gentle Friendly, Way Through and Peepholes have just completed the UTR Kingdom Tour, performing in the near and far of the British Isles.

They blogged the experience, so you can find out more about the shows - and the sights seen along the way - over at Tumblr.

If you'd like something to listen to while you're at it, then check out the third instalment of our monthly radio show for NTS.

HUNX AND HIS PUNX aren't the first group to marry the effortless, sugary pop of 60s girl groups with the rock-n-roll revival, but they might be the first whose skuzzy songs are explicitly homoerotic. You may recall front man Hunx, aka Seth Bogart, from Oakland's garishly theatrical, ambisexual band Gravy Train!!!! Here though there is a wry dissonance between the songs' edging three-chord strums, resonant organ flourishes, and hand-clapped percussion, plainspoken lyrics and their dazzling performance. Although Hunx takes centre stage his all-girl Punx back him up, featuring members of Shannon & The Clams, they only sweeten the love rush and heartbreak further. New album, 'Hairdresser Blues' was released through Hardly Art earlier this year, dealing with decidedly darker emotions than previous records and recorded by Ivan Julian, original member of Richard Hell and The Voidoids.

RADIOSLAPS are a brilliantly fuzzy garage trio, 2 girls, 1 guy; Alba on farfisa, Pumu on guitar, and Melissa on the drums and yelps threefold! They tackle the never-ending conundrum of everyday existence in an unromantic world exactly like how the golden era Damaged Goods hordes used to do it. Radioslaps do frazzled pop primitivism like it's going out of fashion, minimal production, maximalist teen terror, turning an urgent panache into a wonderful drongo atmosphere. Radioslaps have a 10 track album out now and a new song included on Deathbomb Arc's 100th release comp.

LE PECHEUR are our weird and wired French cousins. Having shared wax with the JC Satan previously, Le Pecheur on their first full lengther, 'Medieval Dreams', ascend by flipping their noisy squall into horrified new landscapes, peppered with psychedelic meltdowns - like the experimental excursions of the red crayola in parts - and even jangle-down 60s underbelly pop. With rabid vocals sounding at times like they're within a cough of disease and minimalistic percussion that powers the whole degenerate mess it's striking that avant-garage practitioners can still wring new ideas and sounds from old ideas but Le Pecheur do it brilliantly.

U.S. GIRLS is the moniker of Philadelphia's Meghan Remy, a chanteuse from (perhaps) the future, guiding all who choose to sail on an evocative trip through her unique hallucinogenic soundscapes. With U.S. Girls, Meghan's approach is deceptively simple and ethereal; a lithe ray of keyboard murk beamed over percussive loops and her unapologetic hazy pop vocal. After two albums on Siltbreeze which saw her reinterpreting Suicide via Diamanda Galas and hailed as an Eno of the 23rd century, her recent third full length 'U.S. Girls on Kraak' found a home on Kraak Records. Remy's vocal abilities get centre stage on this record, clearly laying bare her 60's girl band and 90's R'nB influences, without losing touch with her early roughness en experimentalism. In barely 30 minutes, Remy is able to move from the hit parade favourite 'Island Song', over to her sublime cover of Brandy & Monica's 'The Boy Is Mine', to a classic country song. This is all intertwined with her usual talent for shortsong-writing and raw esoteric adjuncts, simply inspired.

FEMALE BAND are Anna and Melissa who write music aching with atmosphere. Their songs are sunk in restless samples, processing slow-sung vocals and shifting dual guitar creep-alongs. Creating a similar brooding intensity to Grouper in places, Female Band retain an almost elegiac punk resonance at the same time, allowing their music to follow you about and haunt all empty rooms.

GOODBYE LEOPOLD combine the ethereal sound of three blended voices, choreography and a unique aesthetic to communicate their ideas, intrigues and passions. Their holistic approach to delivering music stimulates all the senses, recalling Liz Frazer at her most wild and worldly or Mountain Man at their glacial best. Their focus is to create alluring atmospheres, their work either self-composed or original arrangements of obscure songs from across the globe. They experiment with the extremities of the human voice in improvisation, adopting abstract sounds and techniques and playing with tension and release in their dynamics, at the moment Goodbye Leopold are experimenting with singing carols and sonnets in reverse, like in backwards, sdrawkcab...

BLEACHED are two sisters from LA creating rough-hewed, high-collared, melodic Rock & Roll. Formerly part of Mika Miko, Jessica and Jennifer Clavin were best known for their freewheeling '77 punk and riot girl lawlessness. In Bleached, they share the same slant towards the hard-edged, but instead veer towards a more vintage ensemble of Ramones bubble-gum, Merle Haggard country, and 60's psychedelic rock. Raised up deep in the San Fernando Valley, their suburban isolation nurtured the girls' creativity, as they started making their own music at a young age. Sneaking into punk shows over the hill in Hollywood, they grew up to become teenaged underground staples at the all-ages Downtown DIY venue, The Smell. Signed to Kill Rock Stars and Post Present Medium, their all-girl punk band Mika Miko drew international acclaim and won them slots on tours with No Age, Black Lips, and The Gossip. After the breakup of Mika Miko the Clavin sisters vowed to continue working together on music and formed Bleached. Bleached's playful harmonizing masks the dark topics they sing about: the struggles experienced upon failed relationships and all the sad themes that Stevie Nicks once eloquently expressed. That's the goal, the sugary and sour re-purposed by two aggressively harmonic musicians and songwriters. Bleached have 7" singles available now through Ooga Booga, Suicide Squeeze and Art Fag Recordings now.

PAWS bash out infectious, lo-fi, garage pop-rock, that can quickly shift from cute melancholia to an unnerving territorial roar. Their live show blends the dynamics of that of a kitten and that of a grizzly bear. Soft, warm and comforting verses that lead you unknowingly into a vicious, claws out attack for the chorus. Energetic live performances have built up a strong history of audience interaction and participation. On top of the pulsating fuzzy noise, sit dreamy melodies that bare the bones of their author. Lyrical topics slide between sarcastic self analysis and onto more so than often, brutal home truths. Having recorded the majority of their releases from bedrooms/living rooms, the band hold strong DIY ethic and never spend too long on recording. So far they have released a couple of cassettes in small numbered runs, a split 7" single for Edinburgh based Gerry Loves Records as well as their "Mermaid E.P" which was mastered by Bob Weston of Shellac.

WEIRD MENACE have only played a handful of gigs so that they come draped in a fog of mystery. Their sound is steady and strung-out, showered in a gritty wall of fuzz with the guitar sounding abrasive whilst the bass and drums grind out tight angular rhythms. There are the usual noise rock references in their loud squall such as Sonic Youth, however Weird Menace have more of an ice cool air about them, letting their echoed vocals creep through the nodding rhythms into stranger realms.