Smokey Brights recently released their EP ‘Different Windows’, the second the band has released this year on Freakout Records. The first EP ‘Come to Terms’ was released in January of this year

Smokey Brights is fronted by Kim West and husband Ryan Devlin. They say “We love 70’s rock and disco records, early MTV music videos, and thrift shop fashion, all of which informs our warm vintage sound. We’re backed by our steadfast rhythm section of Nick Krivchenia (drums) and Luke Logan (bass). We put on an infectiously positive and high energy show that’s been selling out rooms in our native Seattle for years”.

The band are playing Rough Trade Nottingham on October 22nd followed by a week of dates throughout the UK, including a show at the Fulford Arms in York on the 23rd, before an appearance at London’s Shacklewell Arms on Sunday the 28th. Full dates below:

10/22 Rough Trade – Nottingham*
10/23 The Fulford Arms – York*
10/24 Le Pub – Newport
10/25 The Parish – Huddersfield*
10/26 Surf cafe – Tynemouth*
10/28 The Shacklewell Arms – London

*w/ Vuromantics

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smokeybrights/

Texas’ genre-bending rock ‘n’ roller ISRAEL NASH released his fifth studio album ‘Lifted’ earlier this year to widespread acclaim, and today he has announced he will be touring it in the UK in 2019.

Kicking off in Glasgow on 23rd Jan, the tour will see Nash visit cities including Manchester, Leeds and Bristol before rounding off at Birmingham’s Institute 3 on 30th Jan.

Full dates listed below, tickets on sale from 10am on Friday: http://www.israelnash.com/

A modern day hippie-spiritual, ‘Lifted’ finds Nash continuing his tradition of creating a sonic landscape that is at once both vast and intimate – soaring and untamed at times, placid and sincerely personal at others. Accompanied by his longtime band, with arrangements by Jesse Chandler (Mercury Rev, Midlake), horns by members of Austin’s cumbia/funk compadre’s Grupo Fantasma, and strings from Kelsey Wilson and Sadie Wolf (Wild Child), Nash, alongside co-producer and engineer Ted Young (Kurt Vile, The Rolling Stones), presents an album that soars with meticulously crafted, multi-hued rock and psychedelia.

‘Lifted’ opens with an extended instrumental introduction before blossoming into lead single ‘Rolling On’. The track acts as the album’s manifesto, an anthem of urgency, encouraging the listener to let go of yesterday’s troubles and move forward with positivity.

The album was recorded at Israel Nash’s own studio, a Quonset hut structure called Plum Creek Sound at his home in Dripping Springs, Texas. During the process the studio became a sanctuary for Nash, a creative environment where he often reached a meditative state of escapism, creating a space where he could leave behind his downhearted feelings about the current political landscape and the bigger, existential questions those concerns raise.

Being able to finally use Plum Creek Sound to its full potential, Nash set about recording found sounds and field recordings from his Texas ranch, with the aim of creating a listening experience that was almost an immersive representation of his environment. Drums played in rain collection tanks, water rushing against the limestone, frogs, crickets, and even a rattlesnake all appear throughout the record. Taking inspiration from methods pioneered by John Cage, Nash then randomized the sounds and music before rearranging them according to the I Ching (The Book of Changes). This process of experimenting, as Nash explains, was key to the making of ‘Lifted’

“It’s all about finding, searching for little sparks of inspiration. It may be a sound, a groove, a colour, or even an object. Old things are inspiring. Whatever it is, when you find it, it spreads like a conflagration that is out of your control. It doesn’t matter if you’re making a record or living your life, find these inspirations with a vigil eye and watch them change both you and your world.”

‘Lifted’ is Israel Nash’s opus, a fully realised, psychedelic, experimental, Americana rooted epic. From the familial harmonies of ‘Sweet Springs,’ recalling the Beach Boys at their most joyous (almost all performed by Nash himself), to the country rock of ‘Lucky Ones’ and ‘SpiritFalls’ to the sunshine laden album closer ‘Golden Fleeces’, it is a startlingly accomplished work from beginning to end.

ISRAEL NASH PLAYS:

22 Nov – LONDON Scala (support from Treetop Flyers)

23 Jan – GLASGOW Queen Margaret Union (supporting Cake)
24 Jan – MANCHESTER Deaf Institute
26 Jan – NOTTINGHAM Bodega
27 Jan – LEEDS Brudenell
28 Jan – BRISTOL Thekla
29 Jan – BRIGHTON Komedia
30 Jan – BIRMINGHAM Institute 3

DREAM WIFE, have announced the support artists who will joining them for their upcoming UK & EIRE tour dates. Earlier this summer they announced a support slot open call for women & non-binary artists in select cities across their international tour. They received over 400 submissions and they have shared all of their UK selections – see below for all openers. In collaboration with non-profit organizations Girls Rock London, this open call doubles down on the band’s mission to smash society’s objectification of women, and aims to take Dream Wife’s already fierce live shows – where inclusivity is not only encouraged, but required – to the next level.

Dream Wife on the open call: “One of the best things about touring is getting to meet, exchange ideas with, and play music alongside kickass bands from all over the world. For our autumn headline tour dates we are calling for women/non-binary artists to come share their music, thoughts, the night and a stage with us.

“Gender diversity in the music industry is still an issue and the aim is to provide a platform for women/NB musicians regardless of experience, financial backing, number of online followers etc. If you’ve got rock ‘n’ roll in your soul, if you’ve got something to say; we want to hear from you.”

OPEN CALL SELECTIONS

Dublin, Ireland @ Whelans – Girlfriend
Glasgow, UK @ SWG3 – Bobby Kakouris
Leeds, UK @ The Wardrobe – Cat Apostrophe
Manchester, UK @ Gorilla – Dollie Demi
Portsmouth, UK @ Wedgewood Rooms – The Hippaes
Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2 – ARXX
London, UK @ KOKO – Big Joanie

Since forming in 2015 as a college art school project, Dream Wife – a name chosen as commentary on society’s objectification of women – have become one of the foremost up-and-coming bands in the U.K. The band came together while they were studying at Brighton University, initially intended as a performance art piece and a way for the trio to obtain a dream trip to Canada. They quickly realized that their chemistry was too powerful for them just to be a one-time thing, so they took themselves out on the road under their own steam, and started touring with only four songs and without a booking agent, promoter or a tour manager. Fast forward to 2018, Dream Wife have released their debut album with guns blazing, armed with strong messages of empowerment backed by unparalleled live shows.

UK Tour Dates

17/10/18 – Dublin, Ireland @ Whelans
18/10/18 – Galway, Ireland @ Roisin Dubh
20/10/18 – Cardiff, UK @ SWN Festival
21/10/18 – Birmingham, UK @ All Years Leaving Festival
22/10/18 – Glasgow, UK @ SWG3
24/10/18 – Nottingham, UK @ Rescue Rooms
25/10/18 – Leeds, UK @ The Wardrobe
26/10/18 – Manchester, UK @ Gorilla
27/10/18 – Coventry, UK @ Central Library
29/10/18 – Portsmouth, UK @ Wedgewood Rooms
30/10/18 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2
31/10/18 – London, UK @ KOKO

Dream Wife:

http://www.dreamwife.co

Los Angeles quartet THE AMERICANS are returning to Europe to support St Paul And The Broken Bones on tour.

Supporting energetic US Southern soul rockers St Paul and The Broken Bones as they tour their upcoming album, the UK leg of the tour, kicks off in Leeds on 14th November, and will stop off in Manchester, Glasgow and Nottingham before finishing up at London’s Roundhouse on 19th November.

The Americans released their debut album I’ll Be Yours via Loose last year to critical acclaim. Having started out as a roots band enthralled by pre-war American country and blues, they have evolved into a blistering amalgamation of those influences, injected with a fiery blue collar rock”n”roll attitude, absorbing and reconfiguring the history of American music from Chuck Berry and Tom Waits to Bruce Springsteen. They named themselves after the controversial photo series by Robert Frank, which was first published in 1958 with a foreword by Jack Kerouac. Like Frank’s photos, The Americans’ songs are miniature biographies, intimate and empathic portraits of individuals that leave much unsaid.

In addition to critical acclaim from the press, the record was also championed by key record stores ØC Rough Trade made it one of their Albums Of The Month ØC ”From crooning laments, rich and glorious with sweeping sweet orchestrated lushness to disheveled, bluesy, rocking, frantic party time hoedowns, this album lifts you up and gently drops you down”

The Americans were plucked from obscurity by Jack White, T Bone Burnett and Robert Redford to appear in the recent PBS/BBC4 series American Epic. Featuring artists such as Beck, Elton John, Nas, Willie Nelson, Alabama Shakes and many more, the film reconstructs the story of the first American music in the 1920s and re-assembled the recording apparatus that was used at the time. As experts in early music, The Americans were invited in to figure out the equipment and make the first recordings. Once the sessions were underway, they functioned as the house band, backing up various artists and suggesting songs to the filmmakers. Burnett was quoted as saying; ”The Americans are part of this group, these genius 21st century musicians, that are reinventing American heritage music for this century. And it sounds even better this century.”

The Americans presented their American Music lectures on the pre-war recording era at Liverpool and Edinburgh Universities earlier in the year as well as at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, the PBS Annual Meeting in Austin and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin. They’ll be bringing the lecture to Berlin, Göttingen and Münster this summer.

They have performed on the Late Show with David Letterman, have backed up Nick Cave, Lucinda Williams, Ashley Monroe and Devendra Banhart, and played the first dance at Reese Witherspoon”s wedding.

Tour Dates:

November

14th – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
15th – Manchester, Albert Hall
16th – Glasgow, Barrowland
17th – Nottingham, Rock City
19th – London, Roundhouse

http://www.theamericansmusic.com/

Me and My Friends have announced their new album ‘Look Up’ the release date as December 6th via Split Shift Records. Album highlight, ‘High As The Sun’, has been released as a first taster. It’s a gorgeous sun-drenched track with a chorus that’ll keep you warm throughout winter. The band are also playing several live dates beginning later this month.

Me and My Friends play soulful, poignant, and gloriously danceable music, subtly referencing many styles, including vintage Ghanaian highlife, Jamaican roots and Afro-Brazilian folk. The UK-based quintet create a timeless sound with a global outlook, performed with an infectious energy, and the result is instantly recognisable, highly original and truly genre-defying.

On their new album ‘Look Up’ the elegant voice and West African finger-picking guitar style of songwriter Nick Rasle is cradled by stunning vocal harmonies and the evocative combination of cello and clarinet, all underpinned by a rhythm section with a deep sense of groove. ‘Look Up’ draws heavily on early 70s acoustic soul, as well as the modal ‘Ethiopiques’ of Mulatu Astatke and the minimalism of the Penguin Café Orchestra.

Built on deceptively simple, yet richly satisfying grooves, the songs explore timeless themes of friendship (‘Another Lifetime’), commitment (‘Promise Me This Much’) and nostalgia (‘High As The Sun’). Having worked in a volunteer kitchen on the Greek island of Lesbos at the height of the refugee crisis in 2016, Nick Rasle recounts a tale he heard over and over on the haunting roots reggae track ‘Good Life’. Drawing on the determination of the people he encountered to feel hope, to look forward and to be acknowledged, the song is a call for empathy and understanding in our increasingly intolerant society.

From the title track ‘Look Up’ with its energetic afro-beat, addictive melody, and jazzy breakdown, to the atmospheric ‘All Of This I Know’ that has clear influences from avant-garde British folk, the album takes the listener on a journey through many genres and cultures.

Me and My Friends released their critically acclaimed second album ‘Hide Your Way’ on Soundway Records in 2016. After support from the likes of Songlines, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4 and BBC 6 Music in the UK, the group also had recognition from nu-jazz DJ, Will Holland, as the album headed up Quantic’s ‘favourites of the year’ mix.

Pre-order ‘Look Up’ via Bandcamp

Dates

Friday 5th Oct – The Marshall Rooms, Stroud
Saturday 6th Oct – The Jam Jar, Bristol
Friday 12th Oct – Franz Mehlhose, Erfurt, Germany
Friday 26th Oct, Old Abbey Taphouse, Manchester
Saturday 27th Oct – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Friday 2nd Nov – Y Plas, Machynlleth
Saturday 3rd Nov – Assembly Rooms, Presteigne
Thursday 6th Dec, Rich Mix, London
Saturday 8th Dec – Cobalt Studios, Newcastle