HOMEFIRES III
Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1 Tel 020 7242 8032
Saturday June 3rd
Isobel Campbell – late of Belle & Sebastian, Isobel recently released
‘Ballad of the Broken Seas’, her debut album of duets made with Seattle
superstar Mark Lanegan. For this show Lanegan’s place will be taken by
Eugene Kelly, Glasgow superstar late of The Vaselines and Eugenius.
www.isobelcampbell.com
The Aliens – Early show from reconstituted early members of the Beta Band
(John and Robin, plus missing in action member Gordon, who went on to make
the classic Lone Pigeon record). Their first EP, ‘Alienoid Starmonica’ has
just been dubbed Single Of The Week by NME, and is if anything Single Of the
Year. Homefires is changing; here’s how. www.myspace.com/thealiens1
u.n.p.o.c – Adem’s Domino label mates u.n.p.o.c. is Tom Bauchop, an
occasional player in the Fife-based Fence Collective, including James
Yorkston, King Creosote and Pip Dylan among others. He is a visionary, with
a mission: to visit mountains. www.unpoc.co.uk
Pictish Trail – residents of the East Neuk of Fife report sightings of a
bearded pot-bellied pigmy, guitar in hand, with a penchant for mad-cap folky
nonsense, soft melodic meandering, and custard creams. Under the moniker
‘The Pictish Trail’, this man has been known to stun crowds with his
dazzling inability to tune his guitar properly. Recommended!
www.fencerecords.com
Grizzly Bear – all the way from Greenpoint, Brooklyn, come Warp’s newest
signings GB. Acclaimed for their home-made debut ‘Horn Of Plenty’ and now
on the cusp of the follow up, ‘Yellow House’, Grizzly Bear have been
described as “reminiscent of the dry, mundane beauty of The Beatles’ White
Album” by no less a source than Wire magazine. www.grizzly-bear.net/
Adrian Crowley – Adem’s current touring partner, and a man from Dublin with
a Smog-gy turn of phrase and a new, yet-to-be-named fourth album in the
offing. Lots of stellar people played on it. James Yorkston, Marja
Tuhkanen, Kate Ellis, Sinead the Harpist, Bushey from estel, Thomas ‘Hulk’
Haugh, Steven Shannon. www.adriancrowley.com
Alexi Murdoch – Someone gave LA’s KCRW radio a tape of Alexi’s demos a
couple of years back. When they played them on the air, the phones rang off
the hook. These songs became his first EP and sold – get this – 45,000
copies out of Alexi’s apartment. He has now finished a debut album, ‘Time
Without Consequence’, which is stunning and due out in the USA in June. This
is his first ever English show. www.aleximurdoch.com
Elysian Quartet – two members of Elysian Quartet, Emma and Vince, play in
Adem’s current band. They are ace. Here they do there own thing to get the
party started, right? ‘…outstanding coolness and flexibility…quicksilver
tonal variety…sharp musical and technical reflexes.’ The Strad.
www.elysianquartet.com
Sunday June 4th
Vashti Bunyan – legendary English female vocalist with possibly the longest
hiatus in history. 35 years elapsed between the pure beauty of ‘Just Another
Diamond Day’ and it’s 2005 follow up, ‘Lookaftering’. Selling only a few
hundred records first time round, Vashti is a true hero of the information
age, with her debut passed around as a cherished secret for half a decade of
burgeoning rediscovery. Here she will play songs with a variety of
performers including Homefires host, Adem. www.forthstreet.demon.co.uk
Emma Pollock – founder member of The Delgados, one of the most interesting
and influential bands to emerge from the mid-90s Glasgow music scene. Not
only did they make a string of questing, ambitious albums, often working
with Flaming Lips / Mercury Rev producer Dave Fridmann, but The Delgados
also founded the pioneering – and still highly active – Chemikal Underground
record label. Now signed to 4AD, this is a rare London show.
www.emmapollock.com
Final Fantasy – one man, a violin and his delay pedal… Final Fantasy is a
ridiculously impressive and ambitious venture from Owen Pallett, sometime
collaborator of a little band called Arcade Fire. Has a new second album,
‘He Poos Clouds’, coming on Tomlab. “In Final Fantasy you hear how Mr.
Pallett’s art is born of contrast, not only between pop and contemporary
composition, but between the organic and the electronic, the fantastical and
the domestic, the abrasive and the sweet. A perfectionist who adores the
rough-hewn, he is at once hopelessly nerdy and improbably cool” NEW YORK
TIMES DEC11, 2005. www.tomlab.com
Pierre Bastien – (born Paris, 1953) post-graduated in eighteenth-century
French literature at University Paris-Sorbonne. In 1977 he built his first
musical machinery. For the next ten years he has been composing for dance
companies and playing with Pascal Comelade. In the meantime he was
constantly developing his mechanical orchestra. Since 1987 he concentrates
on it through solo performances, sound installations, recordings and
collaborations with such artists as Pierrick Sorin, Karel Doing, Jean
Weinfeld, Robert Wyatt or Issey Miyake. Released by Rephlex.
www.pierrebastien.com
El Perro del Mar – First show from Memphis Industries latest signing,
straight outta Gothenburg. “El Perro Del Mar is simply the name of the music
I?ve been dreaming of and planning on making for a long time. Having finally
done that I realized there was no real trick to it – except doing it. El
Perro Del Mar simply is the easiest and most direct way for me to say and do
the things I cannot do in real life.” www.elperrodelmar.com
Chris Stills – OK, there’s no way round this, so, son of Stephen Stills and
French chanteuse Veronique Sanson, Chris is freshly signed to V2 Records and
opens up our Sunday with this his debut London show. www.v2.fr/chrisstills
International owl project – wood is good. Don’t believe us? Go to
www.owlproject.com
Tickets from: www.ticketweb.co.uk Tel: 08700 600 100 www.seetickets.com and Rough Trade, Covent Garden, London Tel: 0207 240 0105l