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Offshore 44 is a strange place for a gig. Amid the nautical paraphernalia that covers every available inch of this usually townie-dominated pub is a stage so small that the drum kit has to be set up at the side rather than the back. With a cramped live room that has all the feel of Liverpool’s legendary Cavern Club, it’s a brilliantly off-kilter choice for brand new indie night Roxy.

First up are Newcastle’s ownNight Of Sevens. Ideally suited to the claustrophobic surroundings of Offshore, the band’s explosive drone-rock is simply breathtaking. From the minute front man Bobby takes the stage amid a howl of feedback to the final overdriven squeals of their incendiary set closer the band are mesmerising. Walking the same indie-psych walk that turned Kasabian into arena fillers, bigger stages surely beckon for the talented five-piece.

Fresh from a string of summer support slots with now-defunct Manchester rock gods Oasis, headliners Twisted Wheel slip effortlessly back into performing in front of an audience of hundreds rather than tens of thousands. Like the maximum r ‘n’ b of High Numbers-era The Who, the band’s explosive mod-punk cuts straight through the crowd. Loud, brash and loaded with swig-along melodies, it’s the perfect soundtrack for the clusters of drunken Fred Perry, Ben Sherman and Pretty Green-outfitted indie boys packed into Offshore’s back room.

Through the closing chants of “Whee-uuullll, Wheee-uuullll, Whee-uuullll,” it’s pretty clear it’s been a triumphant opening night for Roxy. A great venue with an even greater line-up, local outifits Love Bites & Bruises and Manila Chapter will have a lot to live up to next week.

For all of Roxy’s forthcoming listings check out their Facebook page here:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000616591916

This year’s Shockwaves NME Awards Tour kicks off at the O2 Academy in Newcastle tonight with live sets from The Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Big Pink and The Drums. I managed to get my hands on a couple of complimentary tickets (thanks Matt) so can avoid the usual ‘am I/aren’t I’ guestlist shenanigans and bring you all the action as it happens. It’s my first attempt at liveblogging anything so there’s a pretty hefty chance that it’ll go tits up. Point your browser back here at around 7pm and see for yourself. Read the rest of this entry »

Apologies for the lack of posts over the festive period but I’ve been too busy. Getting drunk. Now the hangover has cleared, I thought it was time to give you a run-down of my favourite musical moments of the last twelve months, starting with my top album of 2009; The Fruit Bats‘ The Ruminant Band:

Fronted by regular Shins guitarist Eric Johnson, The Fruit Bats deliver defiantly major-key SoCal-drenched alt-rock heavily influenced by seventies heavyweights Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young and James Taylor. Fusing sun-kissed country-folk, bluegrass and indie, The Ruminant Band is a sublime slice of laidback alt-pop bliss. An avid reader of Sports Illustrated and National Geographic, Johnson takes little interest in the contemporary music scene, preferring instead to lose himself in classic LPs from The Incredible String Band, The Kinks, Love and The Band. Signed to Sub Pop in 2002, The Fruit Bats have grown in ambition, delivering a delightfully rambling neo-country-rock fourth album that stands head and shoulders above anything else released this year.

Watch the video for the title track:

Marrying the chiming distortion of early nineties shoegaze with the Big Apple swagger of The Strokes, New York City five-piece The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart reprise the pre-Britpop days of British indie when outsider outfits like The Smiths, My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus & Mary Chain painted from a rich palette of melancholy, fuzz and fifties melodies. Signed in the UK to the defiantly DIY Fortuna POP!, the band are spearheading a new wave of US alt-rock that eschews the traditional REM and Sonic Youth influences in favour of overdriven Anglo-centric guitar-pop.

Opening with the shimmering bubblegum of “This Love Is Fucking Right,” softly-spoken front man Kip Berman drives the band through a breathtaking set of intoxicating neo-indie drenched in echo-laden arpeggios and hushed harmonies. By the time he dedicates the lead track from the band’s recent Higher Than The Stars EP to Newcastle’s RPM Records, he has the near-capacity crowd in the palm of his hand. Laid back and unassuming, Berman lets his songs do much of the talking.

In the ten months since the release of their debut, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart have risen from relative unknowns to darlings of blogosphere tastemakers and mainstream critics alike. Effortlessly cool in a way only New Yorkers can be, the band meet the hype that surrounds them head on and deliver a dazzling set of upfront fuzz-rock that, in less than an hour, does much to reinforce their burgeoning reputation.

More than five thousand miles separate the rain-soaked monochrome of Manchester and the sun-kissed Technicolor of California but Brooklyn-based four-piece The Drums straddle the musical divide with style. Marrying the embryonic post-punk of early Factory Records with the surf guitars of Jan & Dean, debut mini-album Summertime! is an incandescent blast of lo-fi garage rock. Formed by childhood friends Jonathan Pierce (vocals) and Jacob Graham (guitars) in a bid to chase the perfect pop song, The Drums are among New York City’s most invigorating newcomers. Mashing up US indie-rock swagger with stylistic nods to The Beach Boys, The Smiths and The Cure, Summertime! is an extraordinary slice of riff-driven alt-pop that oozes Big Apple cool.

Summertime! is released through Moshi Moshi on October 12.

Single ‘ Let’s Go Surfing’ is released on September 28.

Anthemic young rockers The Xcerts have announced details of a full UK tour that includes a series of dates with Scottish indie legends Idlewild. The band will play a mammoth 30 dates throughout August, September and October, arriving at Fibbers in York on September 30. The full dates are:

August
15th – Leefest, Kent
20th – Harley’s, Bathgate
22nd GRV – SOS Festival, Edinburgh
29th – Greenbelt Festival, Cheltenham
31st – Beachdown festival, Brighton

September
17th – Cavern, Exeter
18th – Inn On The Sqaure, Barnstaple
19th – Southsea Festival, Portsmouth
24th – The Tap House, Kidderminster with This City
25th – Unit, Southampton with This City
26th – Club Revolution, Peterborough with This City
27th – Fat Sam’s, Dundee with This City
28th – Tunnels, Aberdeen with This City
29th – Oran Mor, Glasgow with This City
30th – Fibbers, York with This City

October
2nd – Rock City, Nottingham with This City
3rd – Academy 3, Birmingham with This City
4th – Bivouac@Scy, Lincoln with This City
5th – Audio, Brighton with This City
6th – Barfly, London with This City
7th – Roadhouse, Manchester with This City
9th – Mad Ferret, Preston with This City
10th – Manchester University, Manchester supporting Idlewild
11th – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham supporting Idlewild
12th – Phoenix Centre, Exeter supporting Idlewild
13th – Arts Centre, Colchester supporting Idlewild
15th – Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea supporting Idlewild
16th – Electric Ballroom, London supporting Idlewild
18th – O2 Academy, Oxford supporting Idlewild
19th – Waterfront, Norwich supporting Idlewild

The band’s new single ‘Nightschool’ is due for release through Xtra Mile Records on October 5.

Check myspace.com/thexcerts

Words: Toby Rogers

Already nominated for an Ivor Novello award for their debut single ‘Last Of The Melting Snow’, London and Brighton-based folk-pop collective The Leisure Society are winning friends in all the right places. Originally released in March to rapturous applause from the nation’s music press, The Sleeper is a sublime slice of melodic neo-folk drenched in the band’s overt Beatles, Beach Boys and Crosby, Stills & Nash influences. Fronted by former She Talks To Angels man Nick Hemming, The Leisure Society deliver beautifully understated folk-infused indie that wouldn’t feel out of place on The Byrds’ Gram Parsons-fuelled country-rock masterpiece Sweetheart Of The Rodeo. Drawing on the skills of Brighton’s talented Willkommen collective plus former Hope Of The States violin-player Mike Siddell, The Sleeper is simply breathtaking; a remarkable first effort.

Watch the video for ‘Last Of The Melting Snow’ here.

Check myspace.com/theleisuresociety

If there’s such a thing as progressive indie then Northern newcomers White Belt Yellow Tag are amongst its finest exponents. Blurring the lines between Doves, Radiohead and Muse, the duo’s second single is a sublime blast of intense cinematic pysch-pop. Built around a stuttering drum beat layered with lush piano, incendiary guitars and haunting vocals, ‘Tell Your Friends (It All Worked Out)’ is a staggering slice of contemporary prog-rock. (TR)

‘Tell Your Friends (It All Worked Out)’ is available now through Distiller Records. Click here to see the video.

Check myspace.com/whitebeltyellowtag

The latest single to be lifted from electro maverick Dan Black’s forthcoming debut, ‘Symphonies‘ is a stunning blast of synthetic space pop. Built around a Rhianna drumloop, it’s an inspired slice of Dylan-esque electro. The video’s pretty cool, too. (TR)

‘Symphonies’ is released through Polydor on July 6 backed with an impressive Passion Pit remix.

Check myspace.com/danblacksound

Layering beautiful boy-girl harmonies over pop-tastic rockabilly-infused anti-folk, the debut LP from Sheffield-based duo Slow Club is a beguiling collection of lo-fi acoustica. Recorded almost entirely in their hometown under the stewardship of long-time Richard Hawley engineer Mike Timm, Yeah, So is driven by the subtle interactions of joint vocalists Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor. From the girl group-tinged stomp of ‘Giving Up On Love’ to the achingly sparse piano soul of ‘There Is No Good Way To Say I’m Leaving You’, Yeah, So is an incredibly mature introduction to one of the steel city’s sharpest exports. (TR)

Yeah, So is released through Moshi Moshi on July  6.

Check myspace.com/slowclub