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Sat Oct 18th
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Random Number + Cathode
 Unfortunately,
Marianne Nowottny has cancelled her UK dates. This was to have been her 1st
UK visit (also taking in an appearance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in
London). But hey, we've still got a great night of electronic music... Random
Number (aka Matt Robson, ex Hood) delivers dark, brooding electronica -
beat-frenzied and epic!! He recently toured with Kid606, and has releases on
Mogwai's Rock Action label and 555 Records, amongst others. Plus the clean,
atmospheric, Kraftwerk-style electronica - with itchy and scratchy rhythms -
of Cathode (555, Static Caravan). Note that the door price has been reduced
to £3.
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£3
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Mon Oct 20th
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MJ Hibbett & the Validators + Being 747 + Dr N.Brown
 A hometown gig for
Leicester's indie supergroup MJ Hibbett & The Validators. Playing tracks
from new album "This Is Not A Library" ("Literate, sassy,
HUMAN pop music" - Careless Talk Costs Lives, "GENIUS!" -
Steve Lamacq), their joyous live set'll be "a ray of sunshine blasting
through overly serious indie pop" (FAC193.com). Support comes from Wrath
Records' hotly tipped Scaramanga Six offshoot Being 747 (fresh from working
on their new album with members of Crass!), and, emerging from retirement for
one night only, Dr Neil Brown. As part of John Sims and Voon, he helped shape
Leicester music at the end of the last century - this is your chance to hear
how he intends to deal with the new one.
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£3
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Sat Oct 25th
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Sodastream + The Chemistry Experiment
 Baroque pop from
Australia's answer to Belle & Sebastian. Whilst singer Karl Smith's voice
is remarkably similar to Stuart Murdoch's, musically Sodastream are a lot
darker than B&S, closer perhaps in shade to Nick Drake or Bonny Prince
Billy. Plus support from
Nottingham’s very fine The Chemistry Experiment.
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£4
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Sat Nov 1st
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Volcano the Bear + Scatter
 Surreal?
Expressionist? Dada? Music Concrete? Volcano the Bear experiment with an,
er, orchestra of instruments from violins to drinking straws, manipulating
sounds, textures, timbres, rhythm and tunes. Plus Glaswegian ensemble, Scatter - disciples of Sun Ra
and free jazz/free folk expression.
Debut release on Pickled Egg in the New Year.
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£4
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Mon Nov 3rd
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The Lucksmiths + Anthony Atkinson + Frankie Machine
 Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, The Lucksmiths
are truly special, one of those bands that genuinely makes you feel good.
Their sharp, trim sound - one drum, one bass, one guitar and vocals, with an
occasional organ or horn - puts their superb melodies, hooks and lyrics right
in front. Songwriter and guitarist Marty Donald’s lyrics rely on clever
wordplay and heart-on-sleeve emotion, to convey day-to-day life, places and
situations in a humorous, humane way, reminiscent of the way in which
Morrissey constructed "William, it was Really Nothing" or David
Gedge exported kitchen sink dramas on "George Best".
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£4
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Sat Nov 15th
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Mister Lee + DJ Shane Quentin + Pacific
Ocean Fire
 An aura of experimentation cloaks Misterlee's
sets... theirs being a kind of jazz/lo-fi, primal dub thing. As eclectic as
it's possible to be without being annoying, is to Misterlee's credit... with
mucking-about-bits rubbing happily with fine off-kilter tunes. Plus Shane’s
Soundtrack: mixes by the Head Gardener from the Garden Of Earthly Delights
cable radio show (which may or may not include the likes of.... Low, The
Boggs, Calexico, Morphine, Belle & Sebastian, Captain Beefheart, Elliott
Smith, The Fall, Pixies, Baptist Generals), and Leicester’s very own and very
fine Pacific Ocean Fire.
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£4
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Fri Apr 9th
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Black Forest / Black Sea + Deerpark + The
Fabulous Foxes - Upstairs at The
Attik, £3
 From Providence, Rhode Island (US of A), Jeffery
Alexander (formerly of the Iditerod) & Miriam Goldberg, aka Black
Forest / Black Sea, are an unusual folk-styled duo…. Backwards backwoods
playing, electronic effects, a shortwave radio & some knob twiddling are
all incorporated into their sound, which twists from traditional folk
Americana to beatbox improv & back again. Nothing is quite what it seems, giving BF/BS an edge over
the competition in the ‘New Weird America’ (copyright The Wire) cult. BF/BS are genuinely strange. Deerpark are a nine-piece(!)
folk-ish ensemble from Leeds, featuring (in no particular order) drums,
guitar, violin, banjo, harmonium, flute, double bass, bouzouki and
trumpet. Shades of Will Oldham,
Ali Roberts / Appendix Out. When
Bob Cluley discovered Neutral Milk Hotel, he immediately formed a new band! The resulting Fabulous Foxes
possess the same mixture of folk, psychedelia and general all-round
strangeness that forms the basis of NMH, and are one of the best new bands to
emerge from Leicester in recent years.
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£4
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Fri Apr 23rd
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Caruso + Cicaeda + Spin Spin
the Dogs (note: early
show: 8pm to 10:30pm) - Upstairs at The Attik, £3
 An aura of
experimentation cloaks Misterlee's sets... theirs being a kind of jazz/lo-fi,
primal dub thing. As eclectic as it's possible to be without being annoying,
is to Misterlee's credit... with mucking-about-bits rubbing happily with fine
off-kilter tunes. Plus Shane’s Soundtrack: mixes by the Head Gardener from
the Garden Of Earthly Delights cable radio show (which may or may not include
the likes of.... Low, The Boggs, Calexico, Morphine, Belle & Sebastian,
Captain Beefheart, Elliott Smith, The Fall, Pixies, Baptist Generals), and
Leicester’s very own and very fine Pacific Ocean Fire.
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£3
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Fri May 7th
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Volcano the Bear -
Downstairs at The Attik
"A National Treasure", according to BBC
Radio 3’s Mixing It show - and who are we to disagree? Volcano the Bear shows are going to
be very scarce
events in the
near future, owing to Nick Mott taking up a university place in
Cornwall. So this could be your
last opportunity to catch them in the UK
for a long
while. Plus DJ sets from
Brainwashed’s John Witnney and Pickled Egg’s Nigel Turner (www.pickled-egg.co.uk). The show will be filmed by Jon
Witney for inclusion on Brainwashed’s 'The Eye', and possible
inclusion on a future 'The Eye' DVD.
See www.brainwashed.com for details.
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£4
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Tues July 13th
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C & B
Metaphysical Circus UK Tour, featuring: Cotton Casino (Japan) (Acid
Mothers Temple) + Billawtm (USA) + Per Gisle Galaaen (Norway) + Monolab (Birmingham) + Daniel Skevington (Leeds). Downstairs
at The Attik. 8pm. £4
 The C and B Metaphysical Circus UK tour showcases
the work of Cotton Casino (vocals, theremin, synths) (of the Acid Mothers
Temple Soul Collective), and her partner and musical collaborator, Billawtm
(vocals, guitar, bass, fender rhodes), together with an international troupe
of like-minded underground musicians: Per Gilse Galaaen (Apartment Rcords,
Del, Slowburn) on vocals, guitar, bass and Fender Rhodes; Monolab (Droning
–on Records) on synths and theremin; Daniel Skevington (Like a Kind of
Matador) on drums and Fender Rhodes.
The show will comprise of 3 sets. Cotton & Bill will be performing songs from their
forthcoming debut album, in a very psychedelic, pastoral space-folk stylee. The collective will also perform as
The Birds (group improv – from very mellow to walloping heavt grooves), and
as the Monolab Experience (trippy soundscapes).
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Mon 28th Feb
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Need New Body + Dragon or Emperor + Fabulous Foxes + Spin
Spin the Dogs. The Looking Glass, 68-70 Braunstone Gate, Leicester 8pm to 11pm. £4 on door
 Bam! Crash boom screeech! (Ting!). Difficult to
define and eccentric to experience, Philadelphia sextet Need New Body is a phenomenon
for your senses. For the sake of your dancing shoes, for the love of
explosive beats, and to remember why exactly is it you love music, Need New
Body is an important outfit for this day and age of the musically redundant,
mundane and regurgitated. Hand-picked by David Pajo of Slint to appear at the
All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, Need New Body are "what !!! (Chk Chk
Chk) should have done" [Vincent Gallo]. This debut UK tour should prove
to be unmissable. Zappa and Beefheart are almost inevitable as points of
reference here, as is the weird, hypnotic splice and drone of Krautrock,
because Need New Body make music with a great deal of spontaneous humour and
an almost improvisational style, that seems to draw from vaudeville, free
jazz, and various ethnic sources, as much as it does the fundamental tenets
of pop music. Like Kraftwerk on a Tilt-A-Whirl, Need New Body spew out
dizzying electro-tinged grooves that shift and mutate with an abrupt
dexterity. This impressive bill also includes sets from Dragon or Emperor
(the amzing new experimental power duo, formed by Aaron Moore [Volcano the
Bear] and Stewart Brackley [Songs of Norway, Black Carrot]), young Leicester
upstarts and Neutral Milk Hotel wannabees, Fabulous Foxes, and Nottigham's
very fine spazzcore band, Spin Spin The Dogs.
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