THE ALIENS have history – between them they have been behind some of the most enthralling british music of the last decade. John Maclean and Robin Jones were members of the Beta Band. Gordon Anderson was a founding Beta Band member who went on to record two albums under the Lone Pigeon moniker. You could make parallels between Anderson and Syd Barrett, both geniuses blighted by psychiatric problems. The difference, of course, is that Anderson has come back – albeit as an Alien.
After a packed out Dingwalls in November tonight they step it up to play the Scala as they deliver an upbeat set of psychedelically inclined rock and acid dipped electronics, as they bring a freedom of spirit and a certainty of intent that immediately sets them out from the current crop of guitar slingers. Inspired by Sergio Leone and Serge Gainsbourg, Brian Eno and Brian Wilson, Larry David and Ol’ Dirty Bastard, their songs in the key of Fife reference the past whilst belonging resolutely to the future.
“… Like Quincy Jones stumbling into a kaleidoscope full of sherbet and acid… like something the Betas might have come up with if they also had Ben Folds, Prince and Beck on board… NME
Hotly tipped singer songwriter KID HARPOON delivers a set of catchy youthful storytelling taking Leonard Cohen, Billy Bragg and Syd Barrett as an influence on his songs.
Welsh folk outfit featuring members of the Super Furry Animals 9BACH play a selection of folk, poppy songs arranged for guitar, harp, drums and bass, drawing on influences from Zappa, Dylan to Will Self and Chris Morris.
BOOM BIP aka Bryan Hollon has been locked away in his home studio in LA writing and producing new material which he will present at Cargo, London on Wednesday 25th April, his first London appearance for well over a year…
Tonight Boom Bip and band will deliver their unique mix of rich electronics and precision avant-rock that recalls Can, Cornelius and the pastoral melodic electronica of Boards of Canada.
“Boom Bip’s music is remarkably subtle and has a beguiling, organic musicality… Moving from addictively propulsive, melodic electro, to chiming, dystopic folk, to the considerably stranger territory of alien gamelan fantasy… Boom Bip binds wildly disparate elements into a dynamic, affecting whole…” The Guardian
Plus special guests
HAPPY CHRISTMAS FROM EYOE
Have a good christmas from all at Eat Your Own Ears
Fionn Regan, Kid Harpoon, Findlay Brown play the Union Chapel on Dec 14th
Bella Union are delighted to announce the signing of the extraordinary talent that is Fionn Regan. The young singer-songwriter hails from the coastal outskirts of Dublin and first came to our attention through a tip off from the manager of one of our bands.
His beguiling debut album, entitled “The End of History” is due for release in August. It is a fascinating collection of musical pearls and marks the arrival of a unique new voice.
“A Wonderful album. Regan sets his cap at the genre and sweeps it off its feet.” – Sunday Times 4 Stars ****
?Woven through the wonder is Regan?s gorgeous voice, as spellbinding as anything his imagination can conjure up. Folk has a new Pied Piper? – The Guardian ? 4 Stars ****
?A beguiling amalgam of Jackson C Frank, Paul Simon and Mark Kozalek? A debut that oozes rare confidence, startling maturity and originality.? –MOJO ? 4 Stars ****
?With little instrumental decoration, this is similar to Dylan?s early albums, but with the flow of a Nick Drake ? a stunning combination.? – The Times ? 4 Stars ****
?a slow-burning beauty of a debut album? – The Independent on Sunday ? 4 Stars ****
?Despite evocations of folk/acoustic music?s long history here, the truth is there are no reference points and ?The End of History? is a singular and original vision of folk?s shining modernity.? – The Fly ? 4 Stars ****
?Fionn is one of the most gifted young Irish folk singers since Donovan was hailed as the new Dylan back in the mid-60s? he occupies an original space all his own.” – The Sun ? 5 Stars *****
?Fionn Regan?s greatest weapon is to coax dazzling rivulets of sound from his acoustic guitar, although his knack for vivid lyrics is a close second.? –Metro ? 4 Stars ****
?Flawless indie-folk? a joy to behold? – Drowned In Sound ? 8/10
?He’s as gifted a guitarist as Nick Drake, but his poetry is singular and pregnant with complexity? Fionn is a genius.? – Rock Sound ? 8/10
?Dublin?s most luminescent songwriter? – WORD
?these acoustic arias evoke a more rarefied world? Regan is possessed of a rare talent? – NME 7/10
JOSH T PEARSON confirmed for BAT FOR LASHES London Scala December 6th show
Eat Your Own Ears presents
BAT FOR LASHES
JOSH T PEARSON
JOHNNY FLYNN
Wednesday 6th December
Doors 7.30pm
Scala, 275 Pentonville Road, King?s Cross, London N1
After selling out the forthcoming October 31st Bush Hall show over a month in advance BAT FOR LASHES plays her biggest show to date at the Scala on December 6th 2006.
She creates an intimate, cinematic world, reminiscent of the nocturnal wanderings of Kate Bush and the heartfelt prayers of Cat Power. Natasha composes songs that rise out of a dark, heartbreak wilderness and take you on a journey in to the light. Taking influence from 70’s film soundtracks, weather phenomena, childhood Halloween parties and a David Lynchian vision of suburbia, they occupy the tenebrous space between innocence and a loss of innocence and come straight from the storyteller’s heart.
Tonight she plays material from her critically acclaimed debut album Fur and Gold with a live set as she delivers majestic vocal howls, whispers and hiccups to a backdrop of soaring strings, esoteric folk instruments, distorted guitar, bass rumbles and thunder-clap drums. There are also interludes of exquisite heartbreak ? the piano ballad ?Sad Eyes? has on more than one occasion left audience members in tears.
?a neverending story of fantastic dreams and heartbreaking reality? the
chapters unfold with a sense of wonder and slow, powerfully evoked drama?
Bat For Lashes inhabit a magical kingdom you won?t want to leave? 5/5 The Guardian
?Bat For Lashes has clearly and equivocally her own voice? entrancing. One
of the year?s most exciting debuts? Music Week
?reinvent Siouxsie/Kate Bush/Bjork mystical sex, musical travelogue and
poetic dreamstate for the contemporary singer-songwriter milieu. The results
are nothing short of breathtaking? 4/5 Observer Music Monthly
?a divinely phantasmagoric affair packed with elemental images both
beauteous and beastly? to listen to Bat For Lashes is to be pulled into some
exotic otherworld ? a place sometimes dark and disturbing, at others sweetly
exultant. Expect magic? Time Out
Plus special guest JOSH T PEARSON was the charismatic and enigmatic leader of LIFT TO EXPERIENCE, tonight he plays a solo set that is akin to hearing Jeff Buckley fronting My Bloody Valentine, Godspeed! or Slint? a beautiful, intoxicating experience for sure.
?Vast and majestic? the most spectacularly handsome guitar-led rock music since the invention of the plectrum?. Uncut ? Album of The Month (5 Stars *****)
Drawing on influences from John Fahey, Langhorne Slim, Bob Dylan and The Pixies JOHNNY FLYNN plays a solo acoustic set of folky pop songs…
SPANK ROCK unfortunately cancels whole tour and SCALA show
Spank Rock has cancelled their whole European tour due to personal reasons but look to come back in 2007…
Refunds are available from point of purchase or you can exchange your tickets for JUNIOR BOYS tickets who are playing on the same night (November 16th) at Cargo, London and get a ?2 refund on entrance, please find details below
Unique canadian electronic pop digital disco outfit JUNIOR BOYS promote their new album ‘so this goodbye’ out at the end of September on Domino with a live set that sees them pay homage to kraftwerk, scritti politti, and ‘violator’-era depeche mode as they blend synth-pop with a melodic slice of electro and live drums.
‘…suggest talk talk produced by timbaland…. junior boys’ spectral vision of electronic pop is an understated, unpredictable delight. THE GUARDIAN
‘junior boys blenderize the long-underground sound of electro with the overground sound of me decade bands such as talk talk — the end result is something fresh.’ ROLLING STONE
‘its heights eclipse virtually all other music this year.’ PITCHFORK 8.9/10
“both ‘birthday’ and ‘last exit’ pair quaint synthpop arpeggios with irregular rhythms more suggestive of contemporary r&b; the array of wiry analog tones highlights greenspan’s
shadowy voice as though illuminating him in profile.” THE WIRE
Dubstep garage pioneer KODE9 plays a live set as he mixes digital bleeps and sonorous basslines, rasta-style meditative vocals with broken step beats…
“…low bass pulse stilling your heartbeat into hibernating half-speed while pads flicker like the green flash of dusk, a swathe of spaceship hum over stop-start syncopations” The Wire
“Irresistably fresh, improbably deep and radiantly warm, the sonic vapour trails froms a dystopian soundscape, as electronic music targets the next millenium..” IDJ
“As deep as Rhythm & Sound, as funky as Moodyman and as filthy as grime?s fiercest, this is head stunningly fresh and shrouded in claustrophobic atmospheric pressure. Sounding like a dervish ritual for existential dreads, this is death disco for deviant dub fiends? Urb [USA]
TO MY BOY a futurist pop guitar and computer duo from liverpool and chesterfield deliver songs rich in melody with a well-developed pop-sensibility while retaining an edgy underground feel. TO MY BOY seem to have drawn their inspiration from just about every corner of pop counterculture, sounding both familiar and totally fresh, as they bring something a bit special to the discount-disco low-fi scene while charming the new-new wave rock/pop crowd.