The full programme this year includes:

July 07 TIM MINCHIN

July 08 KATY B

July 09 JILL SCOTT

July 10 JILL SCOTT

July 11 THE TEMPER TRAP

July 12 ANNA CALVI

July 13 THE ENEMY

July 14 DJ ABRANTEE presents AFROBEATS featuring Olu

Maintain, Capo Snoop, Atumpan, May7ven and Vibe Squad

July 15 TINDERSTICKS

July 16 M83

July 17 PALOMA FAITH

Tickets from £22.50 – £35.00 (plus booking fee) available online at

www.ticketmaster.co.uk and www.somersethouse.org.uk

Liverpool Sound City has announced its full line up with D/R/U/G/S, Chew Lips, Pond, Eleanor Friedberger, Fossil Collective, Theme Park, PEACE, Post War Years joining the bill.

The event takes place on 17th-19th May with 3 day wristbands priced  at £45

Full details here:

Interpol frontman Paul Banks will release a new e.p. Julian Plenti Lives on Matador on June 11th. It’s the first time he will release a record under his own name rather than his Julian Plenti alias and will feature a mix of original songs and covers including Frank Sinatra and J Dilla and The Running Man theme song.

US Synth- Pop duo Tanlines are retuning to the UK for two gigs as part of their forthcoming European tour. These are May 10th at Brighton Great Escape Festival and May 18th

Check out the Julian Barrett-directed video for All of Me

Opener ‘The Blues are Alright’ is wistful, confessional storytelling with the kind of vocal delivery that sounds like a British Paul Simon and sets the mood well for the rest of the record.

The child-like ‘Yammma Yamma’ sounds a bit like post-Beatles George Harrison doing a jig with Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci. Imagine that if you will. Go on, it’s an enduring image.

‘Hook Me Up’ is one of the most catchy tracks; handclaps, an infectious chorus and sweet harmonies explode everywhere and it feels like very Rufus Wainwright-esque territory, which is no bad thing in my book.

‘Roll Me Over’ is the stand out track for me: starting out as a simple melancholy ode and building into a bitter sweet crescendo when the backing vocals come in at the end – with bonus laughter.

The record is an homage to simple, classic songwriting and owes a lot to orchestral 70s pop,  particularly ‘Out Of Your League’ which has more than a little ELO about it. While there are lots of interesting arrangements and vocal harmonies at play, it’s not just a “musicians” record.

‘Carousels’ is a twinkly, dreamy waltz and another favourite, here at KV’s London division.

Rumours abound that Mr Lewis is hitting the road for a while, let’s hope that fuels the next chapter in the RWP story. This is the feelgood soundtrack to your winter.

The album is available as a free download, courtesy of the Great Sheiks label.

Drugstore have announced a new single, ’Aquamarine’, to be released on Rocket Girl on April 2nd. There will also be some live shows

.MAR fri 16th HEBDEN BRIDGE/Trades Club -
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/148681
.
.APR fri 6th LONDON/The Lexington (single launch party) -
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/150675

.w/ special guests: VADOINMESSICO
.APR fri 13th NORWICH/Arts Centre -
http://norwichartscentre.co.uk/drugstore/

You can listen to Aquamarine here http://drugstore-aquamarine.blogspot.com/

Maps & Atlases release their second album Beware and Be Grateful on April 16th in the UK on Fat Cat and April 17th in the US on Barsuk. Their April UK tour dates are
16 Mon BRISTOL Cooler
17 Tue LONDON Garage
18 Wed MANCHESTER Night and Day
19 Thu GLASGOW Nice ‘N Sleazy
20 Fri LEEDS Brudenell

The album trailer featuring the track ‘Remote And Dark Years’ is at www.mapsandatlases.org

Denison Witmer‘s new album The Ones Who Wait is out in the UK on April 23rd on Asthmatic Kitty.

Denison Witmer – Brooklyn With Your Highest Wall

Hospitality – Friends of Friends from fire records on Vimeo.

New York trio Hospitality have signed to Fire Records in the UK, and will release their debut album in April. To get a taste of their music, watch the video for ‘Friends of Friends’ above, or download the track.

North Carolina band Bowerbirds have made another track from their forthcoming album ‘The Clearing’ available to download: Bowerbirds – In the Yard.

Brooklyn duo Cultfever have also made the opener of their self-titled debut album from last year available for free download. Cultfever – Knewyouwell

Having had a chance to listen to a selection of the remastered tracks, they don’t disappoint. Keeping the recordings mono allows a lot of the raw strength of the analogue recordings to shine through. The collection shows the Kinks as the pioneers they really were, from the R&B covers and raw power of Kinks to the satirical pop of Arthur…

The full track listing is

CD 1: Kinks (Pye NPL-18096, 1964)

1. Beautiful Delilah
2. So Mystifying
3. Just Can’t Go To Sleep
4. Long Tall Shorty
5. I Took My Baby Home
6. I’m A Lover Not A Fighter
7. You Really Got Me
8. Cadillac
9. Bald Headed Woman
10. Revenge
11. Too Much Monkey Business
12. I’ve Been Driving On Bald Mountain
13. Stop Your Sobbing
14. Got Love If You Want It

CD 2: Kinda Kinks (Pye NPL-18112, 1965)

1. Look For Me Baby
2. Got My Feet On The Ground
3. Nothin’ In The World Can Stop Me Worryin’ ‘Bout That Girl
4. Naggin’ Woman
5. I Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight
6. Tired Of Waiting For You
7. Dancing In The Street
8. Don’t Ever Change
9. Come On Now
10. So Long
11. You Shouldn’t Be Sad
12. Something Better Beginning

CD 3: The Kink Kontroversy (Pye NPL-18131, 1965)

1. Milk Cow Blues
2. Ring The Bells
3. Gotta Get The First Plane Home
4. When I See That Girl Of Mine
5. I Am Free
6. Till The End Of The Day
7. The World Keeps Going Round
8. I’m On An Island
9. Where Have All The Good Times Gone
10. It’s Too Late
11. What’s In Store For Me
12. You Can’t Win

CD 4: Face to Face (Pye NPL-18149, 1966)

1. Party Line
2. Rosie Won’t You Please Come Home
3. Dandy
4. Too Much On My Mind
5. Session Man
6. Rainy Day In June
7. A House In The Country
8. Holiday In Waikiki
9. Most Exclusive Residence For Sale
10. Fancy
11. Little Miss Queen Of Darkness
12. You’re Looking Fine
13. Sunny Afternoon
14. I’ll Remember

CD 5: Something Else by the Kinks (Pye NPL-18193, 1967)

1. David Watts
2. Death Of A Clown
3. Two Sisters
4. No Return
5. Harry Rag
6. Tin Soldier Man
7. Situation Vacant
8. Love Me Till The Sun Shines
9. Lazy Old Sun
10. Afternoon Tea
11. Funny Face
12. End Of The Season
13. Waterloo Sunset

Disc 6: The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society (Pye NPL-18233, 1968)

1. The Village Green Preservation Society
2. Do You Remember Walter Mono
3. Picture Book
4. Johnny Thunder
5. Last Of The Steam Powered Trains
6. Big Sky
7. Sitting By The Riverside
8. Animal Farm
9. Village Green
10. Starstruck
11. Phenomenal Cat
12. All Of My Friends Were There
13. Wicked Annabella
14. Monica
15. People Take Pictures Of Each Other

CD 7: Arthur, or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire (Pye NPL-18317, 1969)

1. Victoria
2. Yes Sir, No Sir
3. Some Mother’s Son
4. Drivin’
5. Brainwashed
6. Australia
7. Shangri-La
8. Mr. Churchill Says
9. She’s Bought A Hat Like Princess Marina
10. Young And Innocent Days
11. Nothing To Say
12. Arthur

CD 8: The EPs (Kinksize Session – Pye NEP 24200, 1964, Kinksize Hits- Pye NEP 24203, 1964, Kwyet Kinks – Pye NEP 24221, 1965, Dedicated Kinks – Pye NEP 24258, 1966)

1. Louie Louie
2. I Gotta Go Now
3. Things Are Getting Better
4. I’ve Got That Feeling
5. You Really Got Me
6. It’s Alright
7. All Day And All Of The Night
8. I Gotta Move
9. Wait Till The Summer Comes Along
10. Such A Shame
11. A Well Respected Man
12. Don’t You Fret
13. Dedicated Follower Of Fashion
14. Till The End Of The Day
15. See My Friends
16. Set Me Free

CD 9: Mono Kollectables, Disc One

1. Long Tall Sally
2. You Still Want Me
3. You Do Something To Me
4. Beautiful Delilah (Alternate Mono Mix)
5. I’m A Lover Not A Fighter (Alternate Mono Mix)
6. Bald Headed Woman (US Mono Mix)
7. Ev’rybody’s Gonna Be Happy
8. Who’ll Be The Next In Line
9. I Need You
10. Never Met A Girl Like You Before
11. Sittin’ On My Sofa
12. I’m Not Like Everybody Else
13. Dead End Street
14. Big Black Smoke
15. Act Nice And Gentle
16. Autumn Almanac

CD 10: Mono Kollectables, Disc Two

1. Afternoon Tea (Canadian Mono Mix)
2. Susannah’s Still Alive
3. Wonderboy
4. Polly
5. Lincoln County
6. There’s No Life Without Love
7. Days
8. She’s Got Everything
9. Hold My Hand
10. Creeping Jean
11. Plastic Man
12. King Kong
13. Mindless Child Of Motherhood
14. This Man He Weeps Tonight
15. Australia (Australian Single Version)
16. Lola
17. Berkeley Mews
18. Apeman
19. Rats
20. Apeman (European Single Version)

Having had to be sensible and adhere to day job commitments, your humble scribe did not make the inaugural awards show but by all reports it was a fun and raucous affair, but there’s plenty of atmosphere left to soak up as we arrive at XOYO for the live show.  Gary Numan was awarded a ‘Legend’  gong and has been DJing upstairs and in the live room three of tonight’s winners  are gearing up to play.

First up are winners of the best ‘heavy’ category and they certainly bring the noise. Don’t be mislead by the name though, their sound is much more guitar based than electronic. Swaggering on in matching white outfits replete with skinny ties; the Exeter band play scuzzy garage punk. Think a thrashier  Hives  - It’s not wildly original, and there is alot of posturing and bratty song titles like ‘Music is Dead’ and ’Teenage Tourettes Camp’. It is however, a highly entertaining and energetic performance with the lead singer spending part of the gig crowd side and playing guitar while sitting atop his friend’s shoulders and throwing his shoes into the crowd. After the gig, we high five said excitable frontman. “Thanks that was fun, I needed that” I tell him, he nods and goes in search of beer and shoes.

Next up, a firm KV favourite Mr Gruff Rhys brings his conceptual (and now Artrocker award winning) album Hotel Shampoo to the basement stage. Gruff Rhys walks on, looking very dapper and stands in front of a table full of interesting gadgets and gizmos which make an array of joyous sounds underneath his guitar playing and singing. He delivers a set of beautiful, off beat pop from said album album including ‘Shark Ridden Waters’ and the latin-tinged ‘Sensations in the Dark’ as well as older tunes including his sweetest one, ‘Candy Lion’. While his solo stuff is quite a separate entity to Super Furries; it’s nice to see some of their props like the “Applause”,“Woah” and Thank You” signs being used in his set.

Things take a distinctly rockabilly turn next: glamorous raven-haired girls emerge from the shadows in fabulous 50s attire and the Jim Jones Revue explode on to the stage. I chose my words deliberately as these dudes are leather clad, lacquered and loud. I could also see them sharing a fuzz box ridden stage with my beloved  Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Jim Jones is equally fond of howling and hip shaking and everyone is dancing. As with The Computers, their music is fairly rooted in days gone by but JJR obviously love their rock and roll and it’s not all posturing, they certainly deliver.  Former single ‘Shoot First, Ask Questions Later’ sounds massive and threatens to bring the industrial piping that lines the ceiling crashing down – it’s a really fun way to start the weekend. The bar has been set pretty high for the first Artrocker Awards Show, long may it continue.

It’s very cold out, and an eerie blanket of mist envelopes the Somers Town Church. It looks quite spooky and isolated as we approach, like the opening scene to a Hammer Horror film. Fortunately inside is candle-lit and parochial and full of people in knitwear: the Vicar of Dibley for indie folksters.

I arrive just in time to hear the end of Snorri Helgason’s set. He is soft-voiced, and liltingly lyrical. When Ms Arnalds arrives for her set she thanks him profusely then dedicates a song to him “I hope his wife won’t think this is inappropriate” she says with a smile before singing a sweet song to thank him for his tour support. That sets the tone for the evening, charming stories and beautiful songs from start to finish.

Occasionally singing acapella; what stands out in this venue particularly is her haunting child like vocals that veer from smouldering, old school chanteuse to ‘Milk-Eyed Mender’ era  Joanna Newsom.  She is flanked only by some acoustic guitars and her beloved Charango (An Andean stringed instrument made with the shell of the back of an Armadillo and sounds like a Uke).

This tour is largely in support of her Ólöf Sings covers e.p. and she talks about the old wedding tradition of “Something new, something old something borrowed and something blue” which pretty much sums up the set. She plays Caetano Veloso’s ‘Maria Bethania’ an old Irish folk song (during which she stops mid way through to act out bits of the story include building an imaginary wall) songs in her native Icelandic and also English from her back catalogue. The show stopper for me is her rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘I’m on fire’,  it sounds particularly moving in this intimate setting. Considering the delicate performance and close proximity of the 100 capacity venue; she is remarkably at home playing songs and telling tales. Even when church bells loudly toll their ten o’clock chant, she remains unfazed, even pausing between chimes and incorporating them into her song.

A charming performance and a rare treat, I hope the arctic wind carries her to us again soon.