THE BRAINIAC 5 SET TO EXPLODE!

After setting their house in order with the widely approved career retrospective When Silence Was Sound, the reunited, reconfigured and reinvigorated Brainiac 5 return with Exploding Universe. This new offering shows the enthusiasm and drive of those recordings have not been dimmed, and that the Brainiacs are still developing in new directions. Horns have now been added and a wider range of musical styles mined, yet this is still clearly very much a Brainiac 5 record, brimming with energy and invention. As before, few areas are truly off limits as they traverse their psych-punk blueprint through the neighbourhoods of funk, reggae and jazz on what is their most adventurous, yet focused, recording yet.

Recorded at Alchemy Studio in Wood Green, North London, Exploding Universe features ten new songs performed by the Brainiacs’ nucleus of Charlie Taylor, Duncan ‘Mad Dog’ Kerr and John ‘Woody’ Wood plus drummer Wayne Worrell and Nick Onley on sax and flute, with contributions from Ethan Landis (Hackney Brass Band) on trumpet and percussionist Phil Overhead. It was lovingly mixed by their longtime engineer, Hawkwind’s Martin Griffin at his Roche Studio on the edge of Dartmoor. The album also features a cameo from founder member and renowned Cornish poet Bert Biscoe, alongside appearances from the equally renowned Gertrude Stein and G I Gurdjieff.

Formed out of the ashes of free festival favourites the Half Human Band (also featuring Griffin), The Brainiac 5 made a name for themselves on the isolated yet thriving mid-70s Cornish pub, club and festival scene. Praised by the NME for their Mushy Doubt EP, the band made the move to London to enjoy the fruits of a gig circuit enlivened by punk. Yet despite sharing stages with The Soft Boys and The Barracudas and coming to the attention of the likes of John Peel and Alex Chilton, they split before their debut album World Inside could be released. The album eventually saw the light of day in 1988 via Reckless Records, also responsible for releases by such psych legends as Bevis Frond, Black Sun Ensemble and Mu.

Fast forward to 2013 and the opportunity to reconvene the Brainiacs resulted in the Sun Ra-inspired Space Is The Place, a 10-inch EP of new recordings on Bucketfull Of Brains magazine founder Nigel Cross’s Shagrat label, garnering effusive reviews from the likes of The Wire and Shindig!, with the following When Silence Was Sound retrospective receiving similar praise from Mojo, Record Collector, R2 and Vive Le Rock magazines.

The Brainiac 5 play a special all-day launch party at The Betsey Trotwood, London on Saturday 27 June with special guest Mark & The Clouds, Jowe Head and more.

The group’s music has a freshness and verve that makes their recent reformation seem entirely justified. Prog Magazine

It’s like finding something you never knew you’d lost. The Wire

The West Country’s answer to Television. Shindig!

Punk energy harnessed to a serious Ladbroke Grove attitude, the result a wonderful cornucopia of sound. Terrascope

**** R2 Magazine 

**** Record Collector

www.facebook.com/TheBrainiac5

www.brainiac5.co.uk

https://twitter.com/TheBrainiac5

LADIES & GENTLEMEN... THE ALAN TYLER SHOW!

As the world awaits the next album from the reformed Rockingbirds, singer and songwriter Alan Tyler kicks back with a new acoustic trio aimed at taking his songs – and some well-chosen country covers – to the bars and folk clubs of the land.

Rounded out by longtime cohort Fiddlin’ Jim Morrison plus Rockingbirds new boy Patrick Ralla on harmonies, guitar and banjo, The Alan Tyler Show sets out their stall with neat renditions of songs by many of Alan’s favourite artists – including Gram Parsons, George Jones and Townes Van Zandt – alongside some of his previously unreleased ‘River Songs’, exploring London’s country heritage; the hidden waterways and the “fields beneath” which enrich and breathe life into England’s capital city.

Alan Tyler is best known for fronting Camden Town country-rockers The Rockingbirds whose trend-bucking releases for Heavenly during the early-90s anticipated the alt.country revolution alongside US contemporaries The Jayhawks and Uncle Tupelo. Touring widely, with memorable performances at Glastonbury, Reading and Cambridge Folk Festival, plus appearances on Jools Holland’s Later and Top Of The Pops, the band called it a day in November 1995. With various members going on to serve with the likes of Edwyn Collins, Manic Street Preachers, Beth Orton and Dexys, Alan released two solo albums and a further two with his band The Lost Sons Of Littlefield. He also founded the long-running Sunday afternoon club Come Down And Meet The Folks, now in its twentieth year.

A reunited Rockingbirds received a standing ovation for their part in Heavenly’s 18^th Birthday celebrations on London’s South Bank in 2008. They made good on their reunion with the release of the highly praised The Return Of The Rockingbirds on Loose in 2013. A new album – More Rockingbirds – is due later this year.

“Tyler is one of the best songwriters of his genre and era.”  The Independent

Dates…

1 May 2015 - The Green Note, Camden, London
15-17 May 2015 - Wood Festival, Braziers Park, Oxfordshire

10 June 2015 – What’s Cookin’, Leytonstone, London
28 June 2015 - Leigh Folk Festival, Essex

4/5 July 2015 – Maverick Festival, Woodbridge, Suffolk

The Alan Tyler Show is now taking bookings.

http://www.alantyler.com/

https://www.facebook.com/TheAlanTylerShow

https://twitter.com/tylerinfo

(photo: Dave McGowan)

THE PAYROLL UNION - PARIS OF AMERICA (BACKWATER COLLECTIVE)

Paris of America, the new album by The Payroll Union, continues the band's fascination with America's dark past. These eight songs explore the violence of the 'riot era' in Philadelphia during the 1830s and 1840s. Inhabiting the stories of radical writers, anti-Catholic brawlers, firebrand preachers, and violent ward bosses, the album imagines a city in great tumult, tearing itself apart. 

The record is a result of a collaborative project with Arts Enterprise at the University of Sheffield. Songwriter, Pete David, worked with historian, Dr Andrew Heath, to look at how stories of the past can be told in different ways. Along the way, they worked with a film-maker to chart the process of their work together, Sheffield illustrators and artists, and a number of other musicians, to bring to life these complex, interweaving narratives of a 19th Century American city. 

Formed in 2009 in Sheffield, The Payroll Union have shared stages with Johnny Dowd, John Smith and Bellowhead. They have played Galtres, Off The Tracks, Music In The Gardens, Tramlines, Magpie's Nest, Kendal Calling, Dragonfly and headline slots at both Sensoria 2012 and 2013. After releasing two EPs - Underfed & Underpaid and Your Obedient Servant - they toured the UK with their debut album, The Mule & The Elephant, in February 2013.

Album launch Friday 27 June at Club 60, Sheffield. London date to be confirmed…

Here’s what’s been said….

"Switching from indie rock riffs to the more familiar dark folk melodies complementing the murderous lyrics, the album keeps you on your toes, leaving you unaware of what is coming next… The emphasis is entirely on the dark lyrics, which combined with Pete David’s grizzly and delicious vocals makes for a real success. I really can’t wait to see the band play this track in particular live." Now Then

"Heck, some of the themes are so human that you’d assume they are as old as the human race." Sloucher 

"Dark, sombre and macabre, each track tells its own tale. This is a record that demands your attention. Your focus will be duly rewarded as you find yourself transported to a distant time and place. If you close your eyes you can smell the smoke, the air of despair..." Counterfeit Magazine

http://thepayrollunion.com/

https://www.facebook.com/thepayrollunion

https://twitter.com/ThePayrollUnion

THEE FACTION - READING, WRITING, REVOLUTION (SOVIET BERET)

This is Thee Faction’s 5^th album since re-appearing (as a result of the discovery of the At Ebbw Vale tapes) in 2010. They would be celebrating their 30^th anniversary this year if that wasn’t so spectacularly bourgeois.

Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development encourages the formation of larger units of production at the expense of small ones. The result: an oligarchy of private capital - the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. Members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature.

So, representatives of the people have no need to protect the interests of the any other sections of the population but their paymasters. Private capitalists control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, TV, internet, schools). It’s very difficult for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of politics.

The artist, therefore must dissent, to provide a bulwark of criticism. Rock music has long been seen as a portal to intellectual freedom, but is, in fact, co-opted by capitalists and sold as a plastic rebellion. Large media organisations control music output, and therefore remove any art from it. This is why pop music is standardised. But you can take these traditional forms and add ANALYSIS.

It’s pointless complaining. We must show the joy of freedom. The power of the class. Squares out!

All wars traditionally have had marching bands and comradely singing, so why not the Class War?

LIVE IN THE UK:

Wed 22 April: Kick Out The Tories pep rally, 100 Club, London
Sat 4 July: Matchwomen’s Strike Festival - Canning Town, London
Sun19 July: Tolpuddle Festival

 “Wildly galvanising, blisteringly angry, insanely entertaining blue-collar rock ‘n’ roll… scalp-prickingly good with nagging, catchy riffs. Lyrics range from heartfelt polemic to Jake Thackray-style observation.” Mojo

“…a critique of societal hegemony on the back of a grimy blues’n’b twang, rife with the contagious energy of people who know they’re right. In short, meet Comrade Feelgood.” Q Magazine

“ .. carrying on a proud tradition by providing the soundtrack to our marches and strikes against this government of millionaires trying to undo all the things we have fought for.” Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of the PCS

“How much do I love Thee? I love Thee as chimps love bananas, as bankers love bonuses, as Jeremy Hunt loves Rupert Murdoch” Francis Wheen, Assistant Editor, Private Eye

“… sharply dressed and ready for action... essential” Morning Star

“..barricade storming, smart, fun, instantly energising” Daily Mirror

“Absolutely brilliant. Tell your mates” Billy Bragg

“..taking down the Tories one song at a time” The Guardian

“Guthrie and Seeger, Lennon and Baez, Dylan and Crass changed views through song. Thee Faction do just that through sheer force of joy de vivre … Capitalism is good for corporations; that’s why you’ve been told socialism is bad all your life” Huffington Post

www.TheeFaction.org

www.facebook.com/TheeFaction

STIV CANTARELLI & THE SILENT STRANGERS HIT THE ROAD

Following on from the success of their second album Banks Of The Lea, Italian blues-punks Stiv Cantarelli & The Silent Strangers return to the UK in May for four dates as part of their European Tour.

They will play…..

The Asylum, Chelmsford                                            Wed 20 May

The Moon, Cardiff                                                      Thur 21 May

Shakespeare’s, Sheffield                                            Fri 22 May

Biddle Bros, Hackney, London                                   Sat 23 May

They will then travel to the Netherlands and France (dates TBC).

Stiv Cantarelli & The Silent Strangers’ second album Banks Of the Lea (released last October on Stovepony Records) was recorded on the banks of the River Lea at Gizzard Recording, Hackney Wick with producer Pete Bennett of noted Lancastrian post-punks Monkey Island and engineer (and studio owner) Ed Deegan (White Stripes, Mudhoney, The Fall, The Cribs, etc). The album received considerable praise in print and online media, including major features in Vive Le Rock, R2 and Tattoo Planet, and substantial airplay, including BBC 6 Music, Resonance FM, NTS and TeamRock.

Stiv Cantarelli initially came to prominence as leader of Italy’s number one alt.country band Satellite Inn, who were recruited by North Carolina label MoodFood as a replacement for the ascendant Whiskeytown. Touring the States intensively, Cantarelli became firm friends with Portland, Oregon roots legends Richmond Fontaine, releasing several records on their El Cortez label and employing them as his backing band on his solo debut Innerstate. It was this connection that found him at the wheel of a tiny Fiat beside Bob Mould for an Italian odyssey during the miserable winter of 2009.

In the Silent Strangers, Stiv is joined by former Satellite Inn rhythm section Fabrizio Gramellini (bass) and Antonio Perugini (drums) along with Roberto Villa (guitar and sax). They released their debut album Black Music / White Music in 2013.

Check out Banks Of The Lea at http://scandthess.bandcamp.com/

http://stivcantarelli.com/

https://www.facebook.com/StivCantarelliAndTheSilentStrangers

https://twitter.com/scandthess

"A thrilling post-millennial blues joyride. Richly rewarding, but not for the faint of heart. 5/5" R2 magazine

"Crackles with electric intensity. A glorious racket. 9/10" Vive Le Rock

"A dark brutalist beauty. A hot contender for my favourite album of the year." Louder Than War

“Banks Of The Lea is a triumph… Sometimes rock and roll can be scary as well as being very, very good!” Uber Rock

"In short this is all thriller and no filler. You won't hear anything else like this around. 9/10" Maximum Volume

"An album to throw yourself into, headfirst. Chase this one down. 4/5" I-94 Bar

RE-INTRODUCING CAT CANTERI

Mountain King Music is proud to announce the full UK release of When We Were Young, the debut album by Cat Canteri of acclaimed Australian trio The Stillsons.

When We Were Young was initially released in Australia in September 2014. It has received outstanding praise in both the international press and on radio, with the song ‘See My Bones’ being aired on Bob Harris’ BBC Radio 2 show.

The album is a rare combination of emotional vulnerability and musical accomplishment. Canteri’s warm, charismatic vocal tones deliver her highly personal stories (e.g. anorexia, post-war friendship in an Australian timber town) with an easy, pop sensibility. When We Were Young is essential listening for fans of Carole King and Fleetwood Mac.

Canteri plays drums, guitars, and keyboards on the majority of the album, with contributions from highly regarded musicians such as Ben Franz (The Waifs, The Stillsons), Stevie Hesketh (The Drones, Jet), and Justin Bernasconi (The Stillsons).

When We Were Young was produced, recorded, and mixed by ARIA award-winning Craig Pilkington (Archie Roach, Gurrumul) at Audrey Studios, Melbourne. It was mastered by Adam Dempsey at Deluxe Mastering in 2014.

The Stillsons are a Melbourne based alt.country group, whose live performances are a must see for any fans of heartbreaking harmonies, eclectic songwriting, and high calibre guitar playing.

The band features two singers-songwriters, Cat Canteri (drums) and Justin Bernasconi (guitar). Their third release Never Go Your Way was voted ‘Country Album of 2013’ in the Rhythms Magazine (Australia’s premier roots music publication) readers’ poll, as well as receiving 4/5 stars in UK magazine R2 (Rock’n’Reel); and The Australian (national broad sheet).

“Canteri has strength and drive… so you're thinking a 1970s framework of rootsiness and rockiness… it's a very fine start” Sydney Morning Herald

“It’s great… sensual, warm and a ting of real quality, recommended” Americana UK 8/10 stars

http://www.catcanteri.com/

https://www.facebook.com/catcanterimusic

https://twitter.com/catcanteri

IN THE PICTURE WITH ROBERT CHANEY

Cracked Picture Frames, the bristling full-length debut of American-born, London-based songwriter Robert Chaney, opens with Black Eyed Susan - a scene of domestic violence sung from the point of view of an ashamed abuser - and sets off ticking through a further nine songs; chronicling assaults, traffic accidents (two, in fact), and all kinds of heartbreak.

"The record almost didn't happen," recalls Robert. "After moving from Florida to London, I didn't know anyone. I thought I was going to have to get into the open mic grind. So I went to one and showed up late and they put me on last." But it was on the strength of this performance that Robert was approached by producer Ken Brake (The Clientele, Louis Philippe), and the two started working in Ken's London studio, recording dozens of songs over a number of months. Most of the songs on the final record are first or second takes.

The negative space afforded by the spartan guitar-and-voice arrangements serves to bring the lyrical content into hyperfocus, and it is here the 33-year-old truly differentiates himself from his peers. “There was this great DVD rental place around the corner from me on Brick Lane,” Robert explains, “I started to get into old foreign films, art stuff. I started to think like a director or screenwriter. How to maintain tension, how to write from a character.” He pauses for a moment, and is then quick to add, “It’s not all exercises in storytelling, though. There’s a lot of personal stuff on there.”

This tension between love song and story song provides much of the motivating force behind the album. ‘The Cyclist’ is equal parts tragic romance and cliffhanging thriller, as a couple deal with the aftermath of a hit-and-run car accident. ‘The Ballad of Edward and Lisa’, written about a former co-worker of Robert's, offers a sly critique of organized religion as the song masquerades as an old-fashioned blood-soaked murder ballad.

Though he is still a relative newcomer, the past two years have seen Robert Chaney become one of the most talked-about performers on the London singer-songwriter scene, and with Cracked Picture Frames, he proves that the titular shattered glass isn’t the only thing about this record that’s razor-sharp.

See the video for 'Patch It Up'.

Robert plays The Railway Tavern, 2 St Jude Street, Dalston, London on Thursday 5 March.

http://www.robertchaney.net
https://www.facebook.com/robertchaneymusic
https://twitter.com/robertjchaney