FANFARLO + RACE HORSES @ STATIC GALLERY, LIVERPOOL 25 February 2012

My last encounter with Welsh wonders Race Horses was a cramped and rushed affair in the back room of The Castle following a 6Music session. Tonight's gig at Static Gallery (what's it like I asked, "a bit Islington Mill, a bit Tan Hill Inn barn" was the perfect and accurate response) was a bit rushed for band too - a swift set-up with minimal checking of sound levels following opening band Pixels. But from their near-faultless performance and the excellent sound, this clearly wasn’t a band feeling any pressure. In fact I think this was the best set I've seen from Race Horses: energetic, tight, sweaty and both fuzzy and ferocious in the excellent ‘My Year Abroad’ or sweetly melodic and playful in ‘Pony’ or ‘What Do I Have To Do’.







Four-fifths of the band (the male four-fifths) are all tall, gangly and looked a little - well - awkward setting up their kit on stage. But once the playing starts they move seamlessly between instruments and stage positions. And singer Meilyr becomes a magnetic front-person – electric-shock twitches whilst playing bass during ‘Grangetown 02920’, towering erect with eyes closed and singing direct into hand-held mic for the final section of 'Marged Wedi Blino' or kneeling on the concrete floor amongst the crowd to whack the hell out of a bass-drum for ‘See No Green’. The new songs – a bit raw and rough-at-the-edges last July - here sounded sharp, well-drilled and immense. Only question is when is album number two with these new songs on out?





The Race Horses Set List:

Furniture
Mince
Pony
Grangetown 02920
What Am I To Do
My Year Abroad
See No Green
Sisters
Marged Wedi Blino

My last live encounter with Fanfarlo was also after a 6music session, in November 2011 when they followed that recording with a set at the Deaf Institute. And guess what? The new songs that then sounded tentative and even a little rough-edged, tonight sounded slick, assured and sat beautifully alongside the re-arranged older songs.





The set started in near-darkness with ‘Replicate’ lit only by a red spotlight initially and occasional strobe flashes. As the set progressed, more sophisticated lighting was introduced plus video projections on to a hexicon-shaped screen at the rear of the stage. However this wasn’t what made this such a compelling performance. Again it was the excellent songs performed by the five-piece – the rhythm section sticking with bass and drums throughout but the multi-instrumentalist front-line of singer Simon Balthazar, Cathy Lucas and Leon Beck moving between guitar, keyboards, violin, trumpet, saxophone, bell – and the largest tambourine I’ve ever seen.



I had been playing new album “Rooms Filled With Light” fairly constantly all day, it slowly worming its way into my head and my affections. I don’t think it will supplant 2009’s "Reservoir" in my affections but the mixture of songs from both tonight in this modest-sized venue, with great sight lines and superior sound was an utter delight. Possibly gig of the year so far (despite some stiff competition already).





The Fanfarlo Set List:

Replicate
Tightrope
Feathers
I’m A Pilot
Lenslife
Comets
Deconstruction
Finishing Line
Atlas – A Flood
Luna
Dig
Shiny Things
Harold T Wilkins
---
Bones
The Walls Are Coming Down

Tonight was a Harvest Sun promotion and this joint tour has three more UK dates left before Fanfarlo head to the States.

ALLO DARLIN, THIS MANY BOYFRIENDS + STANDARD FARE @ DEAF INSTITUTE 23 February 2012

I’ve written about both Standard Fare albums on here plus run a Q&A with Emma and Dan in September 2010 but until tonight I had never seen them live. And despite the overdue nature of this encounter, I’m pleased to say the Sheffield-based trio did not disappoint. There’s a casual nonchalance to Standard Fare on stage – plainly dressed, nothing showy, no stage moves, no between song chat except putting down a brief moment of anti-Yorkshire sentiment – but as the nine song set progresses they subtly but surely up the aggression – and the shouting - on their spiky power-pop punch.



My only quibbles: no ‘Suitcase’ and no lighting. What is that strange ‘etiquette’ that forbids opening acts to have the same lighting state as following bands? To my mind, Standard Fare should not only have the spotlights but should be headlining venues this size. Sheer class.



This Many Boyfriends are another band I hadn’t seen previously live and only know via the odd song from compilations. But an opening song called ‘I Don’t Like You (‘Cos You Don’t Like The Pastels)’ and a new song called ‘Tina Weymouth’ instantly endear the Leeds-based four piece to me. This Many Boyfriends could almost be a walking indie-pop cliché: said Pastels reference, a song about being bullied at school and a new single released as a fanzine. But there’s a punkish energy, a we’re-uncool-but-we’re-going-to-enjoy-ourselves-anyway vibe and great deadpan Beat Happening/Moe Tucker drumming behind it all that for me was a winning recipe. This was their first gig since November – and only five months since the tragic death of band mate Peter Sykes – but it all felt positively fresh and upbeat. Two singles bought, I await the album eagerly.



Now Allo Darlin’ are a much more familiar prospect live and on record but tonight they are touring their new album “Europe” which is not out until May. But lack of familiarity is no barrier to enjoying their excellent set – six new songs plus older favourites. They open with current single ‘Capricornia’ which still delivers on its promise to sound “somewhere between 'A New England' by Kirsty MacColl and 'Cattle and Cane' by The Go-Betweens”. Other new songs are more subdued or reflective like the quiet, almost acoustic ‘Some People Say’ which contrasts with the bouncy energy of ‘The Polaroid Song’ or ‘Dreaming’ but the smart song-writing still shines through.





Three-quarters of Allo Darlin’ maintain the dress-down, no frills casualness of this evening. But Elizabeth Morris is a world apart, an unassuming but magnetic front-person in short black dress and Doc Martens who can switch between the skipping joy of ‘Kiss Your Lips’ (here added in before final song ‘ Heart Like A Drummer’) and the heart-breaking, closed-eye stillness of Go-Betweens cover ‘Dive For Your Memory’. I’ve seen Allo Darlin’ consistently livelier on stage before night but as the enthusiastic cheers seemed to agree, as the breadth of their song-writing expands they can still maintain the assured quality. ‘Indiepop’ can be a dead-end street of a tag but tonight showed three very different takes on how vital and smart and varied it can be.

FIRE ISLAND PINES Rickie Lee Jones

The cover artwork for the second release from Fire Island Pines portrays that idealised picture postcard glamour of hotel life in Post-War America, before the optimism – and the short-lived opulence – faded. The band name also turns out to be an upstate and upmarket New York holiday resort. But the six-piece are in fact from Cornwall. And rather than living - or vilifying - the American Dream, Fire Island Pines are instead maintaining some very British traditions.

‘Oh Therese’ perfectly demonstrates this is a limber two minutes: the shy sophisticate sensitivity of Felt meets the swoon of early Postcard jangle as covered by a wet-behind-the-ears Tindersticks with some lovely muted trumpet. (The Stuart Staples comparison is also found in the faltering anguish of third track ‘I Was A Runaway’). ‘Carpathian Elegy’ extends this in a more leisurely manner reminding me of lighter moments of The Pale Fountains: sunshine pop guitar jangle tinged with brittle regret. Final track ‘Rickie Lee Jones’, all finger-clicking bounce and sway, delicately recounts an fixated encounter with one of the eponymous singer’s albums in a second-hand record shop (“in 2003”). It is sung with the soulful croon of young Edwyn Collins but so bashfully done it refuses to look you in the eye. From here return to the opening track and you realise just how (relatively) confident and upfront ‘Oh Therese’ is.

I hope I don’t make this EP sound overly inhibited or retrograde. Fire Island Pines may know their indie-pop lineage but are never in thrall to it. And yes they maybe softly reticent but they have also turned in a bittersweet gem, opulent and optimistic in its own neatly formed way.

Oh Therese by Fire Island Pines

Rickie Lee Jones by Fire Island Pines

Fire Island Pines Rickie Lee Jones [BUY]

RANDOLPH'S LEAP The Curse Of The Haunted Headphones

Listen to any of the songs on this 15 track release and it is no surprise to discover it was recorded in singer Adam Ross’s bedroom. It has a casual, no-frills feel: the drums (when they feature) are tinny and up-close-loud with the sweetly fragile vocals placed shyly further back. You cannot help but picture the band cosily huddled around a single microphone (and probably an unmade single bed too). What does come as a surprise is discovering that Ross’s band Randolph’s Leap actually numbers eight members in total - for the stripped-bare acoustic folk-pop on “The Curse Of The Haunted Headphones” sounds more a solo turn accompanied by occasional recorder. And it turns out many are: “the rest of the band don't feature much, but at least I don't have to share the profits with that miserable rabble".


There’s a curious decade-spanning feeling to these homespun tunes. Sometimes, a trad Scots folk take on 60s coffee-house folk revivalism permeates the broken spirit laments of ‘Deep Blue Sea’ or ‘Cassie O’Tone’ with quietly strummed guitar and mournfully triumphant fiddle. At other times, a 30s comic ballad whimsy takes hold, like when Woody Guthrie dropped the politics and anger and penned childish rhyming ditties, in songs like ’Dying In My Sleep’ or ‘The Will To Shave’ – the former about “my long term plans....a distant goal but one I’ll share / I’m dying in my sleep / at the age of 103”. Elsewhere there’s a happy-go-lucky naiveté and unspoiled simplicity to ‘The Nonsense In My Soul’ like King Creosote at his most spartan and softly melodic. To wrong foot the listener there’s also the console game sound effect interludes ‘Level One’ and ‘Level Two’ plus the neon cover artwork to interject some garish 80s references. ‘Bile’ is the moment when you feel there really is eight people crammed into that bedroom and the frugal alt-folk switches to distorted casio-fuzz pop.

For all its rudimentary recording properties and suggestions of whimsy or simplicity, “The Curse Of The Haunted Headphones” is a direct and deeply affecting record. The emotions – whether playful or serious – are honest and open and engaging. The closing song ‘Suitable’ softly asserts “you make me feel wonderful”. This is a heart-lifting and off-the-cuff collection of songs that has the same effect. It’s available now digitally or on limited edition cassette tape on Peenko Records.

 Randolph's Leap - The Nonsense In My Soul by peenko

Randolph’s Leap The Curse Of The Haunted Headphones [BUY]

SEX HANDS Season 1

The ‘zine quality, single colour cover with grinning skulls pasted on to heads of the cast of “Friends” suggests diehard DIY movement. Then the music of Sex Hands confirms it or rather screams it: clanging guitars, sludgy drums, distorted, shouted vocals are all lost in the murky, head-pummelling noise. Everything about “Season 1” suggests hastily assembled cassette release home recording. It was in fact “recorded by Patrick Crane in 2011” - but clearly with the aim of capturing raw abrasiveness rather than nuanced sonic clarity - and is released at name-your-price via Bandcamp (“it’s fine to put zero in there - we won’t judge ya”). There is melody and jangle and more here too – plus a cover of New Zealand’s The Clean – but all lies shrouded in various shades of no-fi murk.

‘Parker’ yokes a hippy-trippy 60s freak-beat swing to garage-rock bludgeon. In ‘Janice’ math-rock churn with a hint of warped Beefheart blues sits under barked tannoy announcement vocals - but sludgy no-fi wins out again. There is a melodic chug to ‘Jingle Bitch’ despite the wailing vocal despair but again more of that sludgy no-fi. The band claim “these are songs about Joey, Chandler, Ross, Rachel, Monica and Phoebe”. ‘Rembrandts’ with its “I’ll be there for you” vocal refrain is the most explicit reference despite sounding filled with bleak desperation rather than the cosy unity of the show’s theme music but other than these fleeting references or character names as song titles I really can’t hear this. But the angry, head-pounding caterwaul of Sex Hands is exactly the reaction I have to the smugness of that long-running TV series so maybe there’s a deeper truth at work here.

The latter half of this eight track mini-album has less impact as the rickety punk flail becomes familiar or when the instrumental shredding guitar duelling of ‘Jam Sandwich’ stretches itself too thin. It finishes with the surprisingly almost-triumphant, quasi-indie-rock swagger (still buried in no-fi murk) of ‘The Moist Maker’. It’s a closing statement that makes you want to punch the air rather than say punch the faces of the cast of a US TV show. “Season 1” is over in 27 minutes but is one series that has episodes definitely worth re-running. The next live outing for Sex Hands is Sunday 19 February on a seven band bill of fellow-travellers from Manchester and beyond with Pheromoans headlining. Kicks off at 5pm with tickets just £4 in advance.


Parker by SEX HANDS

Sex Hands Season 1 [BUY]

ROB ST JOHN Weald

Rob St John is one quarter of Edinburgh’s anti-drum core (but wavering) post-folk ensemble eagleowl. But his own music is a very different strain of alt-folk to that of the full group. “Weald”, his debut album for Song By Toad Records, is eight songs of darkly atmospheric and steady-paced freak-folk exploring the “imagined contour between the bleak Lancastrian moors and the cobbled wynds of Edinburgh”. Like David Thomas Broughton fronting Mount Eerie or Alexander Tucker conducting a psycho-geographical field study.

Songs vary from 2.5 minutes to over 7 minutes but all conform to a similar pattern: opening with roving, liquid golden electric guitar notes, gently droning harmonium and St John’s deep booming voice before adding in denser layers of sound and instruments – bowed saw in ‘Vanishing Points’, haunted, distant piano in ‘An Empty House’, violin in ‘Stainforth Force’ and even underwater hydrophone in the same song. Picking out individual instruments doesn’t convey the combined effect of layered textures that swell and contract, making the album sound cavernous despite a lingering intimacy.



Throughout Rob St John’s voice is peculiarly astonishing: blunt Lancastrian tones that spill and surprise and waver like his guitar, sometimes a deep bottomless pit boom as forceful as granite, other times a darkly forgiving sigh. It’s a voice that speaks of years of experience ruminating on eternal mysteries – extraordinary then that Rob St John is in his early twenties. The graceful beauty of the seven-minute ‘Stainforth Force’ is the epic midpoint of the album (or opener of side two if you buy the vinyl) but ‘Domino’ that follows usurps its centrality by notching up the intensity with a bleak prison-irons clanking tale of guilt, cross words and cold beds. It’s so anguished and intense, ‘Emma’s Dance’ the sprightly Bert Jansch-like instrumental that follows is blessed relief. “Weald” is an album rich with a thick, marshy atmosphere but proves a rewarding and uplifting journey. The record came out last November and I paid it scant attention until earlier this year. What a terrible disservice to an exceptional recording.

Rob St. John - Sargasso Sea by Song, by Toad

Rob St John Weald [BUY]

WHISTLE PEAK Half Asleep Upon Echo Falls

The emerald green waters upon which the couple float on the front of ‘Half Asleep Upon Echo Falls’ reminds me of a copper sulphate-saturated lake in North Wales I saw as a child: a welcoming, brightly coloured pool of mineral-enriched balminess. The Louisville electro-folk of Whistle Peak is a similarly buoyant and luxuriant experience: eleven tracks of melancholy-tinged Vaudevillian alt-pop floating on banjos, xylophone and egg-shaker with washes of electronic flutter and mechanical scrape that soothes and surprises.

At the gentler end of the album’s spectrum ‘Sleepy Pants’ is an unhurried early morning stretch of the arms, a mellow half-asleep, half-awake lullaby. ‘In A Boat On A Lake’ chimes and bobs with carefree calypso-flavoured contentment on strummed ukulele, wobble-board and brushed drums. Elsewhere ‘Us Two At Play’ is darker and more ponderous, with metallic twanging guitars over mysterious rasps and rattles, like a poppier version of Califone. ‘Hurry Hurry’ is infectiously downbeat, the sound of a troupe of sad-faced sideshow barkers who know no-one is listening but persevere with their morose melodies and pots-and-pans percussive beats regardless.


This is the sophomore release from the Kentucky quintet (David Boston, Billy Petot, Mike Snowden, Jeremy Irvin and – missing from the above photo - Garrett Crabtree) coming four years on from their debut and being my first introduction to the band. But what a delightful introduction. At first listen these “children’s stories told by grown men” appear almost unremarkable but the album’s curious combination of old and modern, of acoustic and electronic, of dreamy and dark provides a deep tug on the head and the heart-strings. It’s subtle but sure-footed, introspectively glum but also strangely celebratory and at various points reminds me of Panda Bear, Beirut, Joe Henry, Eels and Tuung. ‘The Laws’ closes the album, a gorgeous undertow of deep soul melancholia combined with a suppressed sense of triumph, all in a lo-fi happy-sad shuffle. And it only makes we want to float off on another boat-trip around Echo Falls.

Hurry Hurry - Whistle Peak by FollyOfYouth

In A Boat On A Lake - Whistle Peak by FollyOfYouth

Whistle Peak Half Asleep Upon Echo Falls [BUY]

TOWN HALL Sticky Notes and Paper Scraps

Town Hall declare they are "not your run-of-the-mill Brooklyn folk group" and claim kinship with Woods, Beirut and The Middle East. The core three-piece – multi-instrumentalists Stefan Weiner, Phoebe Ryan and Jesse Kranzler – recall from that list a miniature The Middle East, smaller in numbers and less expansive than the now defunct Australian chamber-folk six-piece but just as intricate and precise in their gently orchestrated alt-folk musings.


Supported by a host of string and woodwind players and a respectfully-in-the-background rhythm section, their second EP release is a name-your-price digital five track EP. The quiet simplicity of ‘Just Watching My Breath’ opens “Sticky Notes and Paper Scraps” with gently picked mandolin, breathy, sweet harmonies and understated string arrangements and clarinet; it’s as fresh as the morning air it sings of. ‘Alright’ is more complex affair: Weiner's flat-toned rendition of more obtuse lyrics over subtly undulating backdrop of shifting time signatures, clicks and whirrs and the softest hint of campfire-psychedelic guitars. ‘Pandora’ has a more straightforwardly enjoyable bluegrass-and-banjo jauntiness. It is the band at their liveliest but briefest with Phoebe Ryan's alluring but cutesy yodel undercutting any darkness of the genre. ‘Mary A Longden’ is a more muscular and intriguing track, a quasi-historical biography in song of a mysteriously ageless woman. The EP finishes with the contrasting ‘Charlie’, a gentle, meandering piece that is so frail it can fade away from attention if the listener isn’t fully attentive.

The EP title suggests a messiness and random approach that just isn’t present. If anything the five varied tracks are a little too meticulous, a little too studied in their delicate preciousness. The You Tube covers of Jimmy Eat World and a 1930s blues song discovered via 78rpm recording maintain the intricate acoustic arrangements but being played live lends them a slightly more playful looseness. Despite these minor gripes, it is clear Town Hall are indeed not “run-of-the-mill” and there is plenty here to stoke anticipation for the band’s debut album due this March.

Just Watching My Breath by TownHall

Pandora by TownHall

Town Hall Sticky Notes and Paper Scraps [BUY]

BAPTISTS AND BOOTLEGGERS ...Of The Wolves

The first release on new record label and publishing enterprise Baptists and Bootleggers is a limited edition, five track, white 12” vinyl (or CD) EP. But “...Of The Wolves” is part of a larger and very impressive assemblage – two short stories, four pieces of art, a CD EP from one of the musicians Vei plus a cloth checklist-cum-credits for all involved. And the price to own this handsome collection? Zilch. Because on Baptists and Bootleggers “everything released will be completely free. We are strong believers in the idea of free music and free art and feel it’s a fair way to give back to the people who support your work.”


The music on ““...Of The Wolves” is five instrumental pieces from different musicians sound-tracking an extract of a 1930s film of “Dante’s Inferno” (the stories and artwork are a response to this too). Sounds arcane but it makes for a cohesive listen: the five tracks are near-identical in length and though varied not dramatically so. Many of the pieces are largely digital creations but possess depth and richness; and although a creepy mood pervades the EP it never tips over into full-blown spook-out.

Borland’s ‘Nightmares’ alternates passages of tense, dark throbbing beats with drifting whirrs and whistles that effectively flips the mood of the piece at uniform intervals. The live improvisation ‘Decaying Bodice’ by Vei creates a more consistent and reflective mood: slowly drawn-out phrases with echoing string-like plucks that mimic gentle drops of water in an ornamental temple bowl. As it progresses the layers thicken and intensify but it remains serenely haunting.

A low droning foghorn creates an eerie undertow to Stagger’s ‘And The Flaw’ over which kettle drum-like beats and eerie swooshes of sound appear. ‘When The Game Is Over, The King And The Pawn Go Back In The Same Box’ by Daffyd Jones is not as ornate as its title – a distant female voice recites instructions just out of ear-shot over mechanical churning, like a looped air safety demonstration announcement stuck at the bottom of a ventilation shaft.

I’ve seen one live version of changing musical collective Go Lebanon indulge in noisy math-rock workout. Here with ‘Ishtar y Tammuz’ the nine musicians are all restraint for the first half before frantic distorted guitar is introduced but as quiet background texture rather than in the foreground. The guitar(s) build into louder, regular pulses which coalesce with anguished saxophone into an intense squawking conclusion.

Normally I’d link to where you can buy this release. But “...Of The Wolves” cannot be bought – it will be shared amongst these collaborators and their communities of supporters and fellow artists to distribute free of charge - and it will be given away at the label’s launch event at Islington Mill next week. Four illustrators, five bands and two writers plus the label all collaborated on this: a free physical release launched at a free-entry gig enabled by support from Umbro Industries. Great exposure but I hope that all the artists find financial reward for their creative endeavours at some point down the road. The political model behind the label’s name helps give an extra insight into this seemly contradictory stance for a publisher. I hope it pays dividends for all concerned – it richly deserves to.

Decaying Bodice - Vei by FollyOfYouth

MANCHESTER GIGS IN MUSIC: February 2012 Pt.1

A couple of record launches nestle discreetly amongst this leap month’s gigs. Nova Scotia’s Gabriel Minnikin’s launches his new album “Parakeets with Parasols” with a gig (or rather a 'Record Release Concert') at the Martin Harris Centre. The ex-Guthries member has been making solo country-rock records in Manchester since 2004, with this latest a collection of piano songs recorded in a Whalley Range church. The concert will be “the new record live, in its entirety, from start to finish. I will be playing the piano, accompanied by a chamber orchestra consisting of strings, woodwind, brass and singers.” Sounds lush.

In a grittier part of a different city two days before, Salford’s Islington Mill hosts the launch party for new label Baptists and Bootleggers. Three of the bands from their debut release. “...Of The Wolves” (more on this later this week) play: Go Lebanon, Borland and Vei. A free entry night of glitch, noise and experimentation plus - get this – a free copy of the EP too.

As ever a mixtape [56 mins/64 MB] of bands playing Manchester this month to help inform your gig-going decision-making - link in the post below this one.

Mcr Gigs in Music Mixtape: February 2012 - download/stream here.

My Sad Captains The Homefront Pt. II [4.21] (3 Feb Kraak BUY TICKETS)
Allo Darlin’ If Loneliness Was Art [7.50] (23 Feb Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Standard Fare Suitcase [10.53] (23 Feb Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Hanni El Khatib Build. Destroy. Rebuild. [13.50] (1 Feb The Castle BUY TICKETS)
Gentle Friendly Ride Around Shining [16.35] (4 Feb Kraak BUY TICKETS)
Blouse Videotapes [19.31] (6 Feb The Castle BUY TICKETS)
Butchers Promise To The Act [22.41] (3 Feb Fuel FREE)
Withered Hand New Dawn [25.17] (6 Feb St Ann’s Church BUY TICKETS)
Still Corners Into The Trees [29.14] (3 Feb Kraak BUY TICKETS)
The War on Drugs Baby Missiles [32.44] (27 Feb Sound Control BUY TICKETS)
Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr Morning Thought [36.16] (16 Feb The Castle BUY TICKETS)
Dawes When My Time Comes [40.19] (18 Feb Academy BUY TICKETS)
The Deep Dark Woods Westside Street [45.23] (20 Feb The Castle BUY TICKETS)
The Unthanks Lucky Gilchrist [50.13] (10 Feb Band on the Wall BUY TICKETS)
Vei Decaying Bodice [56.15] (9 Feb Islington Mill FREE)

And not forgetting:

1 Feb Jonathan Wilson Ruby Lounge / 1 Feb Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry Band on the Wall / 1 Feb Laura Veirs The Lowry / 2 Feb Everything Everything Islington Mill / 2 Feb Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! Academy 3 / 2 Feb Lindi Ortega The Castle / 3 Feb Janice Graham Band The Ritz / 3 Feb Golden Glow Fuel / 4 Feb Way Through Kraak / 4 Feb Jesca Hoop Cornerhouse / 6 Feb King Creosote & Jon Hopkins St Ann’s Church / 6 Feb Friends Deaf Institute / 6 Feb The Black Keys Apollo / 7 Feb Dead Wolf Club Night & Day / 8 Feb Niki and the Dove Islington Mill / 8 Feb Ren Harvieu + Dry The River The Ritz / 9 Feb Go Lebanon + Borland Islington Mill / 9 Feb Holly Throsby The Castle / 9 Feb Totally Extinct Enormous Dinosaurs Deaf Institute / 9 Feb La Femme + Great Waves Kraak / 10 Feb The Twilight Sad Ruby Lounge / 10 Feb Errors Islington Mill / 10 Feb The Electronic Exchange Kraak / 10 Feb Runaround Kids The Roadhouse / 11 Feb Molly Nilsson The Ape & Apple / 11 Feb Novella The Castle / 11 Feb Mozart Parties + Daniel Land and the Modern Painters The Roadhouse / 11 Feb Gabriel Minnikin Martin Harris Centre / 12 Feb Quiet Loner Briton’s Protection / 12 Feb Kobo Town Ruby Lounge / 12 Feb Deadbeat Darling The Castle / 13 Feb Rachael Sermanni The Castle / 13 Feb Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six Band on the Wall / 13 Feb Casiokids Deaf Institute / 14 Feb Midnight Lion The Castle / 14 Feb Vieux Farka Toure Band on the Wall / 14 Feb The Family Elan Kraak / 16 Feb Driver Drive Faster Dulcimer / 17 Feb We Have Band Ruby Lounge / 17 Feb Real Estate + Outfit Deaf Institute / 17 Feb Pulled Apart By Horses Academy / 18 Feb Ghostpoet Sound Control / 18 Feb Spector Deaf Institute / 19 Feb Grouplove Ruby Lounge / 19 Feb The Pheromoans Kraak / 19 Feb Field Music Deaf Institute / 20 Feb Michael Kiwanuka Ruby Lounge / 20 Feb Django Django Deaf Institute / 21 Feb Joe Pug The Castle / 22 Feb Ron Pope Night & Day / 22 Feb Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves of Destiny Deaf Institute / 23 Feb SBTRKT The Ritz / 23 Feb Lights Sound Control / 23 Feb Benjamin Francis Leftwich Academy / 23 Feb Deaf Club Trof Fallowfield / 23 Feb Heart-Ships + Douga The Castle / 24 Feb Dead To Me Night & Day / 24 Feb The Longcut + Victories At Sea The Roadhouse / 24 Feb First Aid Kit Academy / 25 Feb Cold Specks Deaf Institute / 26 Feb Kathleen Edwards Ruby Lounge / 26 Feb Funeral Suits Night & Day / 26 Feb The Minutes Sound Control / 27 Feb To Kill A King Deaf Institute / 28 Feb Jamie N Commons Sacred Trinity Church / 28 Feb This Is The Kit Band on the Wall / 29 Feb Rod Jones & The Birthday Suit Ruby Lounge / 29 Feb Hooray For Earth Night & Day / 29 Feb The Whip Manchester Academy

MANCHESTER GIGS IN MUSIC: February 2012 Pt.2

Manchester Gigs in Music Mixtape: February 2012

Manchester Gigs In Music - February 2012 by Follyofyouth on Mixcloud

Or download mixtape [56 mins / 64 MB] here.