New VITAL IDLES 7" EP + London shows for Kristin Hersh, The Shifters and Wolf Eyes (solo sets)

Hello there!   Glasgow’s Vital Idles return next week with an epic 7" extended player for Upset The Rhythm. ‘EP’ collects four astonishing new tracks of intensity, momentum and minimal pop practice. With this next step, Vital Idles have sharpened their observational approach and grown into their stripped-down sound, they are truly on a mission. Don’t take our word for it though, have a good listen yourself to lead single Break A.   March 8th sees this crucial spiral of music hit record shops, you can also pre-order the 7” from our very own web-shop here.

To coincide with this momentous release, Vital Idles have also announced the following tour dates too! Such places!   20/03 - Brighton, UK @ East Street Tap 21/03 - Paris, FR @ Le Zorba 22/03 - Brussels, BE @ Super Fourchette 23/03 - Rotterdam, NL @ Roodkapje 24/03 - Amsterdam, NL @ Butcher's Tears 25/03 - Antwerp, BE @ Cabron 26/03 - Lille, FR @ DIY Cafe 27/03 - London, UK @ The Dome 28/03 - Glasgow, UK @ CCA 30/03 - Manchester, UK @ White Hotel

Those last three dates are part of our Upset The Rhythm 15th anniversary label celebrationsth anniversary label celebrations across the UK too.   Quick reminder of those bountiful concerts for you here, not long to wait now for the fireworks:   27/03 - London, UK @ The Dome 28/03 - Glasgow, UK @ CCA   29/03 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club   30/03 - Manchester, UK @ White Hotel   31/03 - Cardiff, UK @ Clwb Ifor Bach

We’ve some select London shows coming up this month for you. See below for in-depth write-ups of next week’s Kristin Hersh electric trio shows at Bush Hall. We’ve also detailed March 14th’s outing to The Lexington with Melbourne quintet The Shifters and March 22nd’s Wolf Eyes solo concert at Iklectik with Nate Young and John R. Spykes Olson.   Alongside those and the UTR label tour, we also have March shows the David Nance Group and Xiu Xiu too! Now don’t say we don’t spoil you rotten! ha

Since we last spoke, Upset The Rhythm has also lined up a host of future live performances from the likes of Brigid Mae Power, Irma Vep and Es for April, Chris Cohen, Hen Ogledd, Lankum, Ana da Silva & Phew for May and Advance Base (Owen Ashworth) this July.   Tickets for all of these can be found in our programme of events that concludes this missive, enjoy!

Upset The Rhythm presents…   KRISTIN HERSH (Electric Trio) With ROB AHLERS (drums) & FRED ABONG (bass) FRED ABONG (support set) Sunday 10 March & Tuesday 12 March Bush Hall, 310 Uxbridge Rd, Shepherd's Bush, London, W12 7LJ 7.30pm | £25 | TICKETS FOR MARCH 10 /  TICKETS FOR MARCH 12   KRISTIN HERSH, most recognised as the front person for the influential art-punk band Throwing Muses and power trio 50FOOTWAVE, will be touring the UK in Spring 2019 with Rob Ahlers (50 Foot Wave) on drums and Fred Abong (Throwing Muses, Belly) on bass. Throwing Muses first gained traction in the early '80s, playing with similarly singular artists, such as The Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. They continue to release ground-breaking music, most recently with 2013's double CD masterpiece 'Purgatory/Paradise'. Kristin's solo career spun off in 1994 with the release of 'Hips and Makers', a widely acclaimed album that included 'Your Ghost', a duet with R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe. Since then, Kristin has released a steady stream of distinctly individual solo albums, including 2010's 'Crooked', released as her first in the inventive book/CD format for which she is now known.   2016's 'Wyatt at the Coyote Palace', on which Kristin played all of the instruments, received rave reviews; an explosive defined by blistering guitars, powerful drumming and her signature visceral vocal technique. Her poignant true stories bring the listener into what the BBC calls Hersh's "dark and dizzy world". In 2004, Kristin formed the noise rock power trio 50FOOTWAVE, releasing a series of frighteningly intense mini-albums, all available for download free of charge. Their most recent 'Bath White' EP was described as "a series of loud explosions, of velvet like dreams all intermingled at the same time. Bath White takes no prisoners." Kristin's writing career has flourished with the highly acclaimed 'Paradoxical Undressing' (released as 'Rat Girl' in the USA) and the award winning 'Don't Suck, Don't Die', a personal account of her long friendship with the late Vic Chesnutt, as well as the enchanting books which now accompany each of her record releases. Kristin's tenth studio album, 'Possible Dust Clouds' (out this October on Fire Records) is a highly personalised sociopathic gem delivered as a futuristic rewriting of how music works, a melodious breeze with a tail wind of venomous din. Enveloping the juxtaposition of the concept of 'dark sunshine', a brooding solo record created with friends to expand her off-kilter sonic vision; a squally, squeaky mix of discordant beauty. 'Possible Dust Clouds' is a glorious return to form for one of alternative rock's true innovators. https://www.kristinhersh.com/   FRED ABONG will be supporting Kristin on her current UK tour dates. Fred is a friend of Kristin’s and former Throwing Muses and Belly bass player. Fred will be touring his new solo acoustic EP, described by himself as sounding like a “ragged Replacements”. http://www.fredabong.com/music/

Upset The Rhythm presents…   THE SHIFTERS DRY CLEANING THE COOL GREENHOUSE Thursday 14 March The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle Street, Angel, London, N1 0XT 7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS THE SHIFTERS are a quintet from Melbourne, who after two 7” singles and demo tape, just unveiled their first proper full-length album entitled ‘Have a Cunning Plan’ (Trouble In Mind). Recorded at Al Montfort of Total Control/Terry’s home studio, ‘Have A Cunning Plan’ ups the fidelity a bit, tempering the up-front crunch of their previous demo. The sonic space suits the band, allowing the unpretentious complexity of the songs & lyrics to generate the “oomph” rather than bludgeoning the listener with treble and feedback. The album showcases ten new tracks by the band at their best; scrappy, self-destructive, stumbling and brilliant pop music that seems tossed off or nonchalant on the surface but is rife with rewards upon further listening. Early album bangers like “Molasses” and the first single “Work/Life, Gym Etc” are instant earworms, (as are “Straight Lines” & “Pyramid Scheme”, the latter reworked from a recent 7-inch) but it’s the simple-yet-sophisticated songcraft of tunes like “How Long?” or the languid strum of “Andrew Bolt” that are heavy on mood and are vehicles for vocalist/guitarist Miles Jansen’s erudite lyrics that simultaneously celebrate and decry the banality of life, while also tackling larger issues of colonialism conservatism’s effects on society at large. On the surface, there’s no denying the band owe a heavy debt to The Fall, but whatever seeds were planted by the late, great Mark E. Smith, have gestated into an animal all their own. ‘Have A Cunning Plan’ aims to take them towards a greater plane. https://theshiftersofmelbourne.bandcamp.com/ DRY CLEANING are a south London quartet who carve out vast post punk canyons with a dry, narrative-driven vocal. You can hear the everyday collide with the profound in their songs, which are as insightful and acutely honest as they are highly catchy. Check out their ‘Sweet Princess’ tape right now! https://drycleaning.bandcamp.com/releases THE COOL GREENHOUSE make lo-fi, repetitive post-punk with a social conscience. Their debut 7” on Market Square is a treat of elusive DIY moves and sarcastic wit. Very reminiscent of the early 80s post-punk cassette scene and messthetics compilation groups. https://thecoolgreenhouse.bandcamp.com/releases

Upset The Rhythm presents… NATE YOUNG JOHN R. SPYKES Friday 22 March IKLECTIK, Old Paradise Yard, 20 Carlisle Lane, London, SE1 7LG 7.30pm | £11 | TICKETS  NATE YOUNG is a founding member of seminal Detroit noise band Wolf Eyes. More recently he's been honing an equally distinctive solo sound that blends myriad sources from musique concrète, vintage film atmospherics, layered synths and archive library recordings into something thrillingly intense. Summoning up crushingly ominous crepuscular soundscapes and synth-washed phantasmagoria, Young undercuts the brutalism of Wolf Eyes with the kind of ambient dread that conjures images of lost horror soundtracks from the 70's. Minimal analogue synth violence is punctuated by thunder cracks of metal percussion ala the early Akita/Null Merzbow duets, massively doomy beat hypnotics and an atmosphere that's somewhere between the most apocalyptic Throbbing Gristle recordings. This February sees the release of ‘Dilemmas of Identity’, volume one in a new multi-part series of solo releases from Young for Lower Floor Music. These songs were commonly made as a distraction from grief, seasonal depression and isolation. Sometimes severely ridiculous and unrelenting, other times slow, sparse and strange. https://soundcloud.com/nate-young        JOHN R. SPYKES aka Inzane Johnny Olson of Wolf Eyes and American Tapes will be treating us to a solo slice from his mind platter, featuring damaged rippers and modulations galore. As a part of Wolf Eyes, John Olson is responsible for augmenting the USA's longest-running homemade, primitive, electronic, poetry & radical vibes trio. They don't just release albums they launch scotched, taped nuclear audio fronts on humanity. Spykes is a project Olson has visited many times since its inception in 1999, constantly unearthing new sounds from the same old grey feelings of Midwestern winters inside. Absolute free jams promised, firing on all cylinders, a warped madness of atomised sonics. https://soundcloud.com/john-olson-14/john-r-spykes-january-hangs-onto-nothing-one

Thanks for your time, have a brilliant weekend! Upset The Rhythm

UPSET THE RHYTHM UPCOMING SHOWS

KRISTIN HERSH (Electric trio)

With ROB AHLERS (drums) & FRED ABONG (bass)

FRED ABONG Sunday 10 March & Tuesday 12 March
Bush Hall, 310 Uxbridge Rd, Shepherd's Bush, London, W12 7LJ
7.30pm | £25 | TICKETS MARCH 10 /  TICKETS MARCH 12

 

THE SHIFTERS
DRY CLEANING

COOL GREENHOUSE
Thursday 14 March
The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle Street, Angel, London, N1 0XT
7.30pm | £7 | TICKETS

 

NATE YOUNG
JOHN R. SPYKES

 (Solo sets from members of WOLF EYES)
Friday 22 March
IKLECTIK, Old Paradise Yard, 20 Carlisle Lane, London, SE1 7LG
7.30pm | £11 | TICKETS

 

DAVID NANCE GROUP
YERBA MANSA

MÄDCHEN 84

Monday 25 March
The Shacklewell Arms, 71 Shacklewell Lane, Dalston, London, E8 2EB
8pm | £7 | TICKETS

 

XIU XIU

(Jamie Stewart, Thor Harris & Jordan Gieger)

JOHN BENCE
Tuesday 26 March
Islington Assembly Hall, Upper St, Islington, London, N1 2UD
7pm | £13.50 | TICKETS

 

Upset The Rhythm 15th anniversary label party!
SAUNA YOUTH
TRASH KIT
GUTTERSNIPE
VITAL IDLES
RATTLE
DOG CHOCOLATE Wednesday 27 March
Tufnell Park Dome, 2A Dartmouth Park Hill, London, NW5 1HL
5.30pm - 11pm | £10 | TICKETS  

 

JANDEK
Tuesday 2 April
Bush Hall, 310 Uxbridge Rd, Shepherd's Bush, London, W12 7LJ
7.30pm | £18 | TICKETS

 

THE FLYING LUTTENBACHERS
MOSQUITOES
Friday 5 April
Moth Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, Hackney Central, London, E9 6NU
7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS

 

COOLIES
THE RENDERERS

FUN FUN FUNERAL
Saturday 6 April
The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, Angel, London, N1 9JB
7.30pm | £8 | TICKETS

 

ALEX REX

MYLES MANLEY

Wednesday 10 April

SET Space, 27A Dalston Ln, London, E8 3DF

7.30pm | £6 | TICKETS

 

IRMA VEP
ES
POWERPLANT
Thursday 11 April
The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle St, Angel, London, N1 0XT
7.30pm | £6 | TICKETS

 

LEA BERTUCCI: Projection/Reflection

Tuesday 16 April

IKLECTIK, Old Paradise Yard, 20 Carlisle Lane, London, SE1 7LG

7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS

 

BRIGID MAE POWER
AOIFE NESSA FRANCES
Tuesday 23rd April
Cafe OTO, 18-22 Ashwin St, London, E8 3DL
7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS

 

HEN OGLEDD
Tuesday 14 May
Bush Hall, 310 Uxbridge Rd, Shepherd's Bush, London, W12 7LJ
7.30pm | £14 | TICKETS

 

PRIESTS

Thursday 16 May

100 Club, Oxford Street, London, W1D 1LL

7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS

 

ANA DA SILVA & PHEW
Monday 27 May
St Pancras Old Church, Pancras Road, King's Cross, London, NW1 1UL
7.30pm | £10 | TICKETS

 

LANKUM

Tuesday 28 May & Wednesday 29 May

In association with Cafe OTO, 18-22 Ashwin St, London, E8 3DL

7.30pm | £16.50 each day, £30 two-day pass | TICKETS

 

CHRIS COHEN
Wednesday 29 May
MOTH Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette Street, London, E8 1EL
7.30pm | £9 | TICKETS

 

ADVANCE BASE
Monday 22 July
Redon, Railway Arches, 289 Cambridge Heath Rd, London, E2 9HA
7.30pm | £12 | TICKETS