Upcoming events

Our Monthly night of comedy.

Headline: CARLY SMALLMAN

Carly is a musical and observational comic, with a flair for telling hilariously animated stories during her shows.  She has starred on BBC’s The Rob Brydon Show and ITV’s Viral Tap among numerous other TV and radio appearances.

https://www.carlysmallman.com/

with STUART BLACK, DAN OFFEN, JAKE PICKFORD

Compere: AMY HOWERSKA

R*E*P*E*A*T Presents (in no particular order) Glue, Kepler, Fix and Frenzy

Glue
“alternative/indie rock drawing on a mixture of different sub-genres and influences”
https://www.facebook.com/musicofglue/

Kepler
“bringing rock and roll to the masses.”
https://www.facebook.com/theoneandonlyKepler/

Fix
drummin/guitarin/electronicin/programmin/bassin/singin/bandin
https://www.facebook.com/FIXBANDUK/

Frenzy
Alternative rock
https://www.facebook.com/thisisfrenzy/

£5 on the door, £4 in advance from band members.

“Camaraderie can’t “be faked. You can spot a lack of chemistry from a million miles away.

Whether you’re a duo or a much larger collective, actually getting along and wanting to spend time together works wonders for your music. It’s why Little Mix, despite being manufactured, work – because they actually seem to like each other a lot.

The Big Moon have that bond in buckets. From interviews through to their live shows, there’s an electric chemistry between the four of them. They’re just four mates having a laugh. And with something as simple as that, they’ve become a band that really feel special.

With their debut album, Love in the 4th Dimension, they’ve captured lightning in a bottle. It’s an album that brings back that giddy feeling of finding a band that’s just pure fun to listen to. There’s no pretension here. In fact, it’s an album that embraces its imperfections and makes it part of the DNA.

You’ll find coughs, you’ll find yelps and you’ll find drum rolls imitated through blown raspberries. “Pull the Other One” even ends with someone dropping their tambourine. Keeping these things in, rather than letting them fall to the cutting room floor, only adds to the carefree image that The Big Moon like to radiate. If anything, cutting those fun little moments would probably have been to the album’s detriment.” The Line Of Best Fit

https://www.facebook.com/commoonicate/

Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult

Flyte is a young alternative four piece from London. Rooted in classic pop songwriting and propelled by the sound and sensibilities of New Wave, Flyte’s songs are infectiously melodic and compellingly lyrical.

www.facebook.com/flyteband

Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult

Strawberry Fair Benefit

A night of experimental psychedelia with Australian artist Orryelle Defenestrate Bascule

local militant electronica 10 Digit Grid

local psychedelic band Warning Shadows and projections

+ avantguard antics from the Sextoy Library.

Micah P. Hinson’s new album “Presents The Holy Strangers” is described by the artist as being a “modern folk opera.” Telling the story of a war time family, going from birth to love, to marriage and children, to war and betrayal, murder to suicide – spanning all of the strange and glorious places life can lead. We follow their story, we see their decisions, we see their faults and their beauty. We live with them, we die with them.

Two years in the making, Micah wrote and recorded The Holy Strangers in Denison, Texas, incorporating ancient reel to reels, analogue keyboards, old Tascam and Yamaha desks. The recording only entered the digital realm once pre-mastering took place.

Split across two pieces of the vinyl, the 14 tracks which make up The Holy Strangers are at times sparse and haunting; at other times luscious, maybe even euphoric. From the Johnny Cash-style country single “Lover’s Lane,” to the album’s broad, spoken-word centrepiece “Micah Book One”,

The Holy Strangers covers a lot of ground over the course of its hour long running time, appealing to both long-time fans and new ones alike.

https://www.facebook.com/micahphinson/

Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult

Charity event raising money to send volunteers to Kenya to help build a classroom.

Acts performing are:

Next Stop Mars (twitter @NSMband)
Big Jacket Band (twitter @bigjacketband)
Four A.M (twitter @FourAMOfficial)
Jessica Alice (twitter @TheJessicaAlice)
Jake Skingle (twitter @JakeSkingle)

ON SALE FRIDAY 30TH JUNE, 10AM

https://www.facebook.com/msjuanitastein/

Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult

“Howling Bells have been and remain one of our favourite bands to emerge during all our years of blogging. They really should be a band of stadia-straddling hugeness. So with that in mind, it’s no great stretch to imagine our excitement when we heard frontwoman Juanita Stein was to release a solo album.

Often solo albums evolve from writing songs that perhaps don’t quite fit into an artist’s band’s oeuvre or emerge when a band takes a break. Or, alternatively are the result of a gargantuan ego that assumes the announcement ‘ and the next track is from my new experimental, ‘less song-oriented’ album featuring field recordings of Himalayan Yaks’ will be greeted with wild applause rather than tumbleweed.

In this case, it was perhaps a little of the former and definitely not the latter as Juanita’s solo work started to take shape around the arrival of her first child and since has grown into a full-length album entitled ‘America.’ The latest track to emerge ‘Dark Horse’ perfectly encapsulates Juanita’s vision of the ‘tone’ of the album. There’s a sense of familiarity, of wistful nostalgia and of faded glamour as Stein’s mellifluous, elegant vocal weaves it’s way around chiming guitars and a subtlety propulsive percussion.

Whilst it may not sound a million miles away from Howling Bells music, the album is very much Juanita’s own take on the ‘dark heart of America’ . Of the album, Juanita says “ I’ve forever idealised American life – growing up in Australia we were fed the American dream through film and television. The dichotomy between what was real and a dream is forever intriguing to me. The music of Roy Orbison, Dusty Springfield, Lee and Nancy and Patsy Cline all informed my musical sensibilities. They opened up this wide screen universe for me.” NME

http://www.andrewoneill.co.uk/

Andrew’s combination of sci-fi twists on real life, long hair and impeccable manners have led him being revered on the London comedy circuit. Activist, misanthrope and transvestite waxes comical about the decline of British industry.

‘One of the funniest comedians on the circuit at the moment… hitting new heights
of comedic brilliance’ (Timeout)

‘So funny I put him on my new TV show’ (Steve Coogan)

‘… talented, intelligent and unique. Bringing the spirit of the alternative ’80s back into the comedy circuit’ (Dazed & Confused)

‘clever comedy for those who like their laughs original, off-kilter and cliché-free’ (Three Weeks)

‘… comedian, metalhead, amateur occultist and musician… Sharp, artistic and unique, his innate confidence and fondness of absurdity leaves his audiences feeling full of glee’ (Funhouse Comedy).

http://www.thejeffreylewissite.com/

Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult

“Longtime fans of Jeffrey Lewis treat each of his albums like a returning old friend. We know what to expect by now scratchy, lo-fi punk and croaky anti-folk yet we also know his lyrical wit still has the capacity to surprise. Outta Town is a perfect example, a Cribsesque love song that appears at first to conform to standard tropes Is it Friday, is it Monday, I can’t tell without you? but it transpires that Lewis’s lover hasn’t left him; she has just gone to visit her mum for a couple of days, leaving him to confront the fact that he’s barely able to look after himself: The recycling starts to pile up and smell without you. Elsewhere he wrestles with neighbourhood crackheads, the pressures of settling down and who else could tackle this? the stress of having to pay your drummer on support tours. Lewis is unlikely to ever dramatically change; instead his music slowly develops and wizens, as we all do. It’ll be fun growing old with him.” The Guardian

So, it’s finally happened. We’ve got the legend that is Mr Mik Artistik to come to Cambridge.

BBC Radio 6 music single of the week, Plastic Fox! ” Best live band I have seen this summer”

– Gideon Coe , BBC 6 music DJ6

Mik Artistik’s Ego Trip are a strange and beautiful beast of a band.
The show is edgy, hilarious and poignant ,with lashings of power chords,funkiness, and chaos.
Mik ponders, chats, makes up songs , throws drinking straws and generally, creates mischief ,
while Benson Walker and Jonny Flockton behave impeccably on bass and guitar.

‘Musician,performance artist,surrealist and fantastic raconteur…Brilliant!’
Observer Review

‘Sensational!’
John Cooper Clarke

‘Trying to explain the energy and the imagination of the performance in a few words is well nigh impossible.
..the whole irreverent experience has a fantastic feel to it . ‘
The Guardian

SIDIOUS (Black Metal/Death Metal)
Blackened Death Metal done in the most unholiest of ways! Anyone who has seem them before will undoubtedly tell you of how good they are live and not to be missed!

BODY HARVEST (Death Metal)
This Bristol-based Death Metal Machine write fast and relentless brutal Death Metal, taking influence from the likes of Morbid Angel and Decapitated!

RAISED BY OWLS (Grindcore/Death Metal/Party Grind)
Derby-based legends Raised By Owls return to Cambridge! Give their excellent debut EP ‘The Great British Grind Off” a listen, featuring songs such as ‘Harry Potter And The Curse Of The Student Loan’, ‘The Art Of Queuing’, ‘David Cameron’s Favourite Band Is Pig Destroyer’ and my personal favourtie ‘Rot Stewart’. Best of British!