mostly on a music tip

SWN SELECTOR presents TRUCKERS OF HUSK

SWN SELECTOR presents..

TRUCKERS OF HUSK
GALLOPS
KUTOSIS

Hosted by DJ GOLDIEROCKS
This show will be recorded for broadcast on www.selector-radio.com

Saturday 3rd March 2012
The Globe, Cardiff
7.30pm / 18+ show
£6 adv from swnpresents.com

| www.seetickets.com |
| www.wegottickets.com |
| www.gigantic.com |
| www.ticketlineuk.com |
| www.cardiffboxoffice.com |
| Spillers Records |

TRUCKERS OF HUSK

Truckers provide an essential service to industrialized societies by distributing mathematics and raw materials over land, typically to and from manufacturing plants, retail parks and gig venues.

Through their use of abstraction and logical reasoning, truckers evolved from counting, calculation, measurement, and the systematic study of the shapes and motions of physical objects. Practical ‘truckermatics’ has been a human activity for as far back as written music exists.  

GALLOPS

A blur of a four-headed machine, weaving mechanically pivoting structures of sound that evoke imagery of retro videogame dystopias and B-movie horror soundtracks; it’s fair to say that Welsh instrumentalists Gallops are a band whose music transcends the sum of their basic components.

The band made an initial impression last year with a debut self-titled EP that saw them take carefully calculated segments of math-rock and gleefully throw them together with force, before feeding the resulting amalgamations through what sounded like a mutated ZX Spectrum - a result of, as they admit, “the 16-bit computer games we grew up playing.

KUTOSIS

Following their recent single ‘Shadows’, KUTOSIS release their debut album ‘Fanatical Love’ this November on Barely Regal Records.

The Cardiff three piece took just 6 days to record, mix and master the album with Rory Attwell, known for his recent work with Male Bonding, Yuck, Screaming Tea Party and Veronica Falls to name but a few.

'Fanatical love' sees the trio not only hone their craft but really push the boundaries of their multifaceted sound - from the infectious, guitar-driven hooks of 'Shadows' to the hypnotic electronic rhythms of 'Battle Lake'. 

Not content with just experimenting musically, the release heralds the start of an ambitious video project working with 10 film-makers, each of which making a video for one of the tracks on the album for a special one off screening at Cardiff’s Chapter Arts Centre.

SWN presents THE HORRORS

THE HORRORS
plus support

Sunday 20th May 2012
Solus, Cardiff University
7.30pm
18+

£14 adv from
| www.swnpresents.com |

| www.cardiffboxoffice.com |
| www.seetickets.com |
| www.ticketlineuk.com |
| www.wegottickets.com |
| www.gigantic.com |
| Spillers Records |
| Bristol Ticket Shop |
| www.TheHorrors.co.uk |

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SWN presents THE MILK

THE MILK
plus support from
THE METHOD

Monday 12th March 2012
The Globe, Cardiff
£5 adv from
www.swnpresents.com

www.seetickets.com
www.cardiffboxoffice.com
www.ticketlineuk.com
www.wegottickets.com
www.gigantic.com
Spillers Records
www.globecardiffmusic.com

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The Milk's contemporary twist on classic soul, hip-hop and ska has already won a wealth of support. With fans everywhere from NME, The Guardian and Neon Gold to Zane Lowe, Huey Morgan and The Sun, the band are sure to be one to watch throughout 2012. This massive twenty-eight date tour will see them preview songs from their forthcoming debut album, produced by celebrated DJ and remixer Brad Baloo (The Nextmen).

 

Having been friends since school, The Milk began life as a teenage punk band: after some disastrous efforts to act rock-and-roll, the group soon split, though lead-singer Rick’s belting soulful voice arguably benefited from these loud, formative years. Sometime later, the boys revisited the classic Motown, Stax and Trojan Records that had soundtracked their teens, intent on putting on a club night. Instead, they hit a creative breakthrough. Holed up in the shed at the bottom of their garden, all new songs and sounds were experimented with, which were written in-between and sometimes in response to a series of make-do jobs in Wickford, Essex. 

The Milk have since penned a deal with Sign Of The Times / Sony, and following their latest EP ('B-Roads & B-Sides', December 19), they will announce further plans for release shortly.

 

SWN presents DOG IS DEAD

DOG IS DEAD
plus support

Saturday 17th March 2012
Cardiff Arts Institute
8.00pm
18+
*FREE ENTRY* (PLEASE READ BELOW)

There are 50 free entry spaces available now exclusively on a 1-per-person basis via www.swnpresents.com.

These will guarantee entry so long as you arrive between 8.00pm and 9.00pm on 17th March. The remaining free spaces will be available on the door, first come, first served. If any of the 50 free entry spaces are not redeemed by 9.00pm then those will be given to people on the night on a first come, first served basis.

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FREE CHRISTMAS SINGLE DOWNLOAD –  AVAILABLE 13^Th DECEMBER

UK HEADLINE TOUR CONFIRMED – FEBRUARY/MARCH 2012

http://www.dogisdead.co.uk

www.facebook.com/dogisdead

‘This upcoming Nottingham quintet have quite the knack for making bright, breezy and infectious indie pop’ – The Guardian

It’s been a massive year for DOG IS DEAD, having toured with Bombay Bicycle Club, released a compilation EP of their self release singles, started work on their debut album with David Kosten (Everything Everything, Bat For Lashes) and released limited edition ‘Hands Down’ - their debut major label single which gained support from the likes of Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, XFM, Q Radio and even a spot play on Fearne Cotton’s Radio 1 show. Furthermore, they appeared as themselves in hit TV show ‘Skins’ and played an array of festivals across the UK this summer.

DOG IS DEAD will finish off 2011 in style with a massive hometown headline show at 1900 cap Nottingham Rock City on Saturday and will follow with a headline slot at London’s Koko for Club NME’s NYE celebration. In addition to this, to celebrate the festive period, the band have recorded a special version of The Waitresses ‘Christmas Wrapping’ which you can download for free here There’s also a video which you can watch here

As one of 2012’s hottest new bands, they announce their biggest UK tour to date in February/March with a single to coincide (details to follow early next year).

Full dates below:
February 18 – Norwich Arts Centre
February 19 – Oxford Academy 2
February 20 - Birmingham Academy 3
February 21 – Bristol Thekla
February 23 – Leicester Academy 2
February 24 – Stoke Sugarmill
February 25 – Hull Fruit
February 26 – Leeds Cockpit
February 27 – Newcastle Riverside
February 29 – Aberdeen Café Drummonds
March 1 – Inverness Hootenanays
March 2 – Ullapool The Arch
March 3 – Stornoway The Woodlands Centre
March 4 – Aviemore Old Bridge Inn
March 6 – Glasgow King Tuts
March 7 – Edinburgh Electric Circus
March 8 – Belfast McHughs
March 9 - Dublin Academy 2
March 10 - Lancaster Library
March 11 - Sheffield Plug
March 13 – Manchester Deaf Institute
March 14 – Brighton Komedia
March 16 – Southampton Joiners
March 17 – Cardiff Arts Institute

 

SWN presents THOMAS TRAUX

THOMAS TRUAX
plus support

Ten Feet Tall, Cardiff
Wednesday 8th February 2012
8.00pm
£6 adv from
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| www.seetickets.com |
| www.wegottickets.com |
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| Spillers Records |

 

New York City's Thomas Truax (pronounced troo-aks) is a left field troubadour and inventor/player of strange self-made instruments like his now legendary 'Hornicator' and a motorized mechanical drum machine called 'Sister Spinster'. He employs these and other contraptions as well as traditional instruments in exceptionally crafted, witty and often touching songs. Splendid magazine recently called him "one of the five or ten best singer/songwriters in the world that you've never heard of...an exceptional talent, unique and resistant to comparison, yet fairly accessible even to casual listeners."

Thomas has toured nearly constantly for the past seven years, mostly as a headliner but also doing large scale support tours with the Dresden Dolls and Duke Special amongst others. He's played Glastonbury, the Edinburgh Fringe festival, at Lincoln Center in New York and appeared on MTV.

Thomas's 'Hornicator' is constructed on the shell of an old gramophone horn. It resembles something that might have been dreamt up by Dr. Seuss. He taps out rhythm loops recording them live into his looping machine,then adds layers of plucked strings, springs and noisemakers, building a backdrop of hypnotic sounds on top of which he delivers striking stories about clones and prostitutes.

Born an illigitimate son of Screamin' Jay Hawkins, as a young man Thomas attempted to build a synthesizer out of an old radio. He put on magic shows and made stop-motion animated films with a Super 8 camera. He has done mandatory day-job time as an animator on MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch and Cartoon Network's Robot Chicken. Time travelling with the Toby Tyler Circus inspired him towards a career in show business. His acclaimed rock noir trio Like Wow toured and released several CDs, but Thomas grew frustrated with a seemingly endless line of drummers with expensive appetites often resulting in stomach aches before gigs, forcing their cancellations. He finally decided to build his own motorized mechanical drummer and 'go solo'.

'Sister Spinster' is a variable speed, proudly pre-digital 'Flintstones-era drum machine' that features spoked wheels and percussive parts which can be readjusted between songs to create different rhythms. Newer instruments include 'The Stringaling' and the 'Backbeater', a rhythm wheel made to be worn on the back, which Thomas promises will eventually also double as a mechanism for flight. He has no engineering background and while constructing these inventions has repeatedly subjected himself to inadvertent electrical shocks which he claims have stimulated his creativity and expanded his vocal range.

A stubborn DIY enthusiast, Truax self-released his debut full-length solo CD 'Full Moon Over Wowtown' on his own label in late 2003. It was quickly snatched up by London-based Breakin' Beats for release in the UK and Europe, who also released his second album 'Audio Addiction' (2005). Truax's third album is 'Why Dogs Howl at the Moon' (SL Records, 2007) and his fourth, 'Songs From The Films Of David Lynch'(SL/Psycho Teddy records 2009), is his first all-covers album. A three-song 'Singles Club' cd has also been released internationally on the Italian label Homesleep, and a 7" vinyl single, 'Have We Been Left Behind'(2006), was released by Akoustik Anarkhy records of Manchester.

Truax has been featured in two feature-length films: 'Instrumental', from director Gabe Shalom (US, 2005) documenting the lives of for artists who make their own instruments, and Adam Clitheroe 'One Man In The Band' (UK, 2008).

Wowtown is a surreal place from which some of the characters and events in Thomas's songs originate. He's been writing The Wowtown News, an email newsletter that he sends to a long list of faithful subscribers, for over five years. His own radio serial version of The Wowtown News, broadcasts on Resonance FM in London, where Thomas is currently residing.

"Inventive and Romantic" -TimeOut

"Beguilingly Bizarre" -Uncut

"Genius." -NME

www.thomastruax.com
www.myspace.com/thomastruax

SWN presents WILD BEASTS

 

WILD BEASTS
plus guests

Friday 16th March 2012
The Coal Exchange
7.30pm

*****TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE*****
£13.50 adv from
| www.swnpresents.com |
| www.ticketlineuk.com |
| www.gigantic.com |
| www.cardiffboxoffice.com |
| www.wegottickets.com |
| www.seetickets.com |
| Spillers Records |
| Bristol Ticket Shop |

 
WILD BEASTS
 
Tom Fleming        Benny Little     Chris Talbot   Hayden Thorpe
 
It starts with a simple nagging pulse, some sparse piano and Hayden Thorpe’s opulent falsetto – only here he’s never sounded so haunted, threading through the skeletal arrangement and ominous spaces of ‘The Lion’s Share’ as it almost builds into a crescendo but then, brilliantly, doesn’t quite, maintaining instead its eerie tension until it evaporates. “It’s a terrible scare,” he sings, “but that’s why the dark is there: so you don’t have to see what you can’t bear.”  For a brief delirious moment there’s a tiny icy blade right through your heart, and it’s clear that whatever our expectations of Wild Beasts, a band who’ve always gone their own strange, sweet way, they are about to be both confounded and exceeded.
‘Smother’ is the third album by Wild Beasts, four young men from Kendal who, despite journeying towards the centre of things, on a trajectory that took them from Kendal to Leeds to London, still make music that retains the outsiderdom and intimacy a childhood spent in the Lake District informed.  Like its predecessors ‘Limbo, Panto’ and the Mercury-nominated, much-loved ‘Two Dancers’, it is a genuinely brave, beautiful record that stands outside the vicissitudes of fashion, and sounds like nothing so much as itself. If ‘Two Dancers’ was a night on the tiles, dizzy and giddy and pulsing with hedonism, then ‘Smother’ is pillowtalk. Intimate and sensual, it has the courage and confidence to talk softly, knowing that once it has the listener, it has them forever.
As ‘Two Dancers’ refined elements of ‘Limbo, Panto’ and veered off into uncharted territory, so ‘Smother’ explores the ‘erotic downbeat’ first hinted at on ‘Underbelly’ and ‘When We’re Sleepy’ from ‘Two Dancers’. For the first time on a Wild Beasts album, there are ten love songs. Often delicate, never wimpish. Born out of an intense six week period of writing in East London and a month recording in remotest Wales, the songs make most sense in each other's company - as a suite whose full force isn't felt until the final notes die away. These ten songs reflect a band certain only of themselves. Like all the best art, it isn’t second-guessing its audience. It doesn’t even know if there is an audience. It’s born out of a moment of vulnerability (is anyone listening?) that, conversely, brings out the singular strengths of this most singular of bands. When they say “we never wanted to be four white boys playing guitar forever; we hope to be the kind of band that shouldn’t exist,” then you realise ‘Smother’ is the wonderful sound of four musicians being entirely true to their vision.
 
“All the best bands change shape,” says Benny Little, and all four Beasts speak volubly of their love of Talk Talk, another British band whose gradual metamorphosis
opened up extraordinary, impossible-to-predict vistas in their music. Along with Talk Talk, they’ve been listening to Beach House (‘that record is like a hug’), Oneohtrix Point Never, Caribou’s Swim. Listening to ‘Smother’, you can hear what drew them to those records: atmosphere, space, understated rhythm. It’s these qualities in part that make ‘Smother’, as Tom Fleming says with a half-smile, “a more grown-up record. With all the perils and horrors that can bring… It’s less performative and more intimate.”
 
Hayden says ‘Limbo, Panto’ “sounds like a 20 year old,” and as such it reflected the brash youthfulness of its makers. “We’re more familiar with our dialect now.” There’s a sense of fluid intuition at play here, between the four musicians and de-facto fifth Beast Richard Formby, that makes listening to ‘Smother’ feel like a privilege. As Hayden says while discussing Talk Talk “the best parts are unquantifiable.”
 
Deeply personal, and as brazen in its fragility as ‘Limbo, Panto’ was brash and baroque, ‘Smother’ is like a candle lit in the teeth of a gale. Huddle round it, draw closer, get warm.
 
“I have to know how it feels and I am not afraid; this is the house we built – all else falls away” Deeper
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Barely Regal and SWN presents TUBELORD

Barely Regal and SWN presents..

TUBELORD
OLYMPIANS
SAMOANS

Sunday 8th January 2012

Undertone, Basement of Ten Feet Tall, Cardiff

7:30pm

Tickets £6adv from
| www.swnpresents.com |
| www.wegottickets.com |
| www.seetickets.com |

SWN presents

&

barelyregalrecords.com

WWW.ASKTUBELORD.COM


"....A fetish for screenprinted wares, cryptic lyrics and obsessions with fifth dimensional time travel helps garner sense of their erratic sensibilities.

Original members Joseph Prendergast (guitar/vocals) and David Catmur (drums/vocals) being joined by Tom Coulson Smith (bass) and James Elliot Field (keys), Tubelord are reincarnate. Beginning 2011 with a mammoth 40-date headline tour of Europe, developing on from a Glastonbury 2010 slot, touring alongside And So I Watch You From Afar and Oceansize, a devonshire cabin is where they have chosen to record the follow up to debut ‘Our First American Friends’ (Hassle/Vagrant) and the subsequent EP ‘Tezcatlipoca’. The band have left their roots of London for Bristol, their reasoning, according to drummer David Catmur, being “”there’s a better internet connection here”, “and if the theme we’re tackling is the internet, we’d best nest up here” adds ivory-banger James.

For now, Tubelord are broken projectors, patiently awaiting someone to plug them in to a power supply (preferably with wi-fi to stream their imaginations into your screens) and a helping hand to focus their lens. In the meantime, the new video for ‘Bazel’ will have to do...." TUBELORD BIOG, www.Last.fm

 

SWN presents HOWLER

SWN presents

HOWLER

with support from

MAN MADE
KUTOSIS

Friday 27th January 2012
Buffalo Bar, Cardiff
7.30pm / please arrive early - curfew 10.00pm
18+
£8 adv from
www.swnpresents.com
www.wegottickets.com
www.seetickets.com
www.ticketlineuk.com
Spillers records

 

Howler is the brain child of Jordan Gatesmith.  The 19 year old picked up the guitar only 5 years ago,  and learned quickly.  After being the guitarist for several regionally successful projects,  Jordan felt like it was time for his voice to be heard,  and wanted to write and sing his own songs.  He has always had a natural affinity towards early 60’s American rock and pop songs,  as well as 80’s punk,  he makes these influences his own. 

Jordan claims to be terribly A.D.D. and needs to be working all the time.  Fortunately for music fans he is not medicated for it, so he is constantly creating.  After starting a new band each week for about 2 months straight Howler became the clear standout,  and he now offers up the This One’s Different E.P.  Jordan decribes Howler as "an 80’s punk band cleaned up just enough so you could stick a corsage on it and take it to prom."  His vocals sound like a slightly twee Lux Interior, while his guitar skills remind one of Lou Reed on Transformer.  Howler’s overall sound can be described as a cross between the Cramps and the Replacements, with a dash of VU.

Jordan has since been joined by Max Petrek on keyboard,  Brent Mayes on drums, and most recently the great Ian Nygaard on guitar.

 

Indigo Live Event in association with SWN Presents BABYBIRD @ GLOBE CARDIFF

Indigo Live Event in association with SWN Presents

BABYBIRD
THE TRICKS
HOUDINI DAX

Thurs 26th January 2012
The Globe, Cardiff
7:30pm
Age | 16+ (ID will be required by those who appear under 18 when purchasing alcohol)

Tickets £10adv
from
www.seetickets.com
www.wegottickets.com
www.swnpresents.com
Spillers
Ticketline
The Globe

£12 on the door


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BABYBIRD

Babybird, aka Stephen Jones, has announced details of the release of a new 7th studio album- The Pleasures of Self Destruction. Recorded with Grammy-nominated producers Bruce Witkin & Ryan Dorn, which has just been released.

Babybird have sold over 2 million records since the mid-90s, having started writing songs and recording home demos as part of an experimental theatre group in Sheffield – his first collection, I Was Born A Man, was released in 1995 and 4 further homespun recordings were released in the same year – Bad Shave, Fatherhood, The Happiest Man Alive and Dying Happy. All were in the N.M.E. top 10 chart.

Babybird would later sign to Echo Records and reach number 3 in the U.K. charts with You’re Gorgeous. The album, Ugly Beautiful, also went gold.

Babybird released their last album, Ex-Maniac in 2009. Also produced by Bruce Witkin and Ryan Dorn, the album featured Johnny Depp who also directed the memorable video to the single Unlovable, which included the renowned English actor Stephen Graham.

Johnny also plays on Jesus Stag Night Club on the new album.

Expect more mood swinging, eccentric and bursting at the seams melodic delight in the company of Babybird...

This show is expected to be a sell out!... so be quick!!!!

http://www.babybirdmusic.me/
http://www.myspace.com/officialbabybird


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Supporting Babybird on their UK tour are THE TRICKS...

The Tricks bring energetic, guitar pop/ rock, with a bold, solid beat, punchy hooks and memorable melodies, steered by impressive lead vocals and sunny backing harmonies.

www.thetricks.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Tricks/101638053232925
http://www.myspace.com/itsthetricks

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Local hereos HOUDINI DAX of Cardiff's SEE MONKEY DO MONKEY label will open procedings with their brand of melodic self assured guitar driven pop in the classic sense. Influenced by everything from The Beatles to The Arctic Monkeys, Bethan Elfyn (Radio 1) has described their sound as glorious!

www.houdinidax.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/houdinidax
http://www.seemonkeydomonkey.com/

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Info | indigolive@hotmail.co.uk
www.facebook.com/liveatindigo
www.swnpresents.com

SWN presents EVERYTHING EVERYTHING

SWN presents

EVERYTHING EVERYTHING
plus support

Tuesday 17th January 2012
The Globe, Cardiff
18+
£11 adv from
www.swnpresents.com
www.Seetickets.com
www.Wegottickets.com
www.ticketlineuk.com
Spillers Records

Imagine a band who fuse three part harmonies with scalding post-punk guitars; floor-filling bass lines with syncopated rhythms and lyrics about everything from high-school massacres to R&B lotharios musing on their lot in a post-apocalyptic wilderness.

Not easy, is it? But then Everything Everything (Jonathan: guitar/vocals, Jeremy: bass, Mike: drums, Alex: guitar) aren't here to make life easy. They're here to challenge every knee-jerk convention of indie rock and dance on the grave of pointless retrogression

(Text taken from EVERYTHING EVERYTHING official website - www.everything-everything.co.uk)