When: 7.30pm on Monday 2 August 2010
Where: The Deaf Institute, 135 Grosvenor Street, Manchester M1 7HE

We’re delighted to welcome back Hey! Manchester favourite – the reason we started promoting – Jens Lekman!

Jens Lekman was born in Göteborg, Sweden but relocated to Melbourne, Australia in 2008. He has released an extensive number of EPs, singles and CD-Rs that have been compiled on three full length records: When I Said I Wanted to be Your Dog (2004), Oh, You’re So Silent Jens (2005) and Night Falls Over Kortedala (2007). After each and every record he’s found himself a dayjob and sworn to never return to music ever again. But oh how the river longs for the sea.

The last two years he’s been working with Tracey Thorn and Drew Barrymore, as well as touring and finishing up new songs. The upcoming tour will feature a full band of musicians he’s picked up around the world.

We’re also delighted to confirm that The Blow will be supporting! The Portland, Oregon band, fronted by Mikhaela Maricich, have released albums on K Records and Tomlab and used to feature Jona of YACHT as a member. They are responsible for pop nuggets such as Parentheses.

Opening the show is another artist who played at the very first Hey! Manchester show: Bill Wells. Bill has collaborated with The Pastels, Belle & Sebastian, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Future Pilot AKA and recently Isobel Campbell. He’ll be playing a piano set just after doors open – so arrive early, people!

Tickets are available from the bar, Piccadilly Records, Common (no booking fee), Seetickets.com, WeGotTickets.com and on 0871 220 0260.

When: 7.30pm on Wednesday 25 August 2010
Where: Dulcimer, 567 Wilbraham Road, Chorlton, Manchester M21 0AE

We’re pleased to welcome Austin, Texas’ David Dondero to Dulcimer – as the first show in our new Hey! Dulcimer series.

David Dondero is a singer/songwriter whose music has been compared to such American folk music/troubadour greats as Woody Guthrie and Townes Van Zandt. He began in 1993 as a member of the band Sunbrain, and later played in This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb and The Flatwheelers. In 2006, American radio station NPR named David ‘one of the best living songwriters’ alongside Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and Tom Waits.

Dondero is currently on the Team Love Records label and has toured with such acts as Bright Eyes, Tilly and the Wall, Spoon and Willy Mason. His new album, scheduled for release this summer, will come out on Team Love in America and Affairs of the Heart in Europe.

Support comes from Manchester’s own Jerzey St Band, who count Crosby, Stills & Nash, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Traveling Wilburys among their influences, meaning they should fit very well on this bill.

This show takes place at Dulcimer, Manchester’s celebrated ‘folk bar’ in central Chorlton. Regular buses (85 and 86) run to Chorlton from the city centre, plus the 23 and 23A from Didsbury and West Didsbury, and the 168 from Fallowfield. We recommend using GMPTE’s JourneyPlanner to arrange your trip.

Tickets, priced £3, will be available on the door.

When: 7.30pm on Tuesday 14 September 2010
Where: The Kings Arms, 11 Bloom Street, Salford M3 6AN

We’re delighted to welcome back Hey! Manchester regulars (that’s twice so far) Horse Feathers – who will this time will play at the amazing venue that is The Kings Arms.

Justin Ringle moved to Portland in 2004 and began to play regularly under the moniker Horse Feathers. In 2005 Peter Broderick – himself a solo artist and part-time Efterklang multi-instrumentalist – heard two songs that Justin had recorded in a friend’s basement, and proceeded to track him down via the internet. Shortly after that, the two started playing music together. For the most part, Justin writes the songs and then Peter helps to arrange them. Last year’s House with No Home album, on Chicago’s Touch & Go Records, is a huge favourite of ours.

We have two excellent support acts lined up for this show: Chicago’s Joe Pug, who was last in town supporting Steve Earle at the Bridgewater Hall no less; and the Mountain & the Trees, aka Canadian Jon Janes. He playfully describes himself as ‘folk-pop or folk-n-roll’.

This show takes place at The Kings Arms, one of our favourite smallest venues in town. It’s a great independent theatre and arts hub, which also happens to be one of the best real ale pubs around, and is just a five-minute walk from Deansgate, just down Bridge Street.

Tickets are available from the bar, Piccadilly Records, Common (no booking fee), Seetickets.com, WeGotTickets.com and on 0871 220 0260.

When: 7.30pm on Thursday 16 September 2010
Where: Dulcimer, 567 Wilbraham Road, Chorlton, Manchester M21 0AE

Hey! Manchester is delighted to welcome Iceland’s Ólöf Arnalds to the city for an intimate debut headline show. (We put on her equally talented cousin Ólafur in the past, fact fans.)

In 2006 Olof graduated from the Iceland Academy of the Arts with a degree in composition and new media. She’s collaborated with múm for the past years, and has also played with several other Icelandic bands and musicians, such as Slowblow or Stórsveit Nix Noltes. One of Ólöf´s most recent collaborations was her part on Skúli Sverrisson’s critically acclaimed album Sería where she plays guitar, charanga, viola and sings her own lyrics.

Ólöf´s debut solo album Við Og Við was produced by Sigur Rós’ Kjartan Sveinsson and released in 2007 on 12 Tónar, the record shop-based Reyjakvik label that is home to Mugison, Jóhann Jóhannsson and Hildur Guðnadóttir among others.

Ólöf is due to release her sophomore album Innundir Skinni (translation: Under the Skin) on 13 September via One Little Indian. It features three songs sung in English, including upcoming single Crazy Car and future single Surrender (with Björk on backing vocals). Last in the UK in July supporting Air, Ólöf is currently in San Francisco, playing a residency with super-fan Jonathan Richman.

Tickets are available from the bar, Piccadilly Records, Common (no booking fee), Seetickets.com, WeGotTickets.com and on 0871 220 0260.

When: 7.30pm on Wednesday 1 December 2010
Where: The Deaf Institute, 135 Grosvenor Street, Manchester M1 7HE

It’s been a long time coming, but we’re glad to announce Menomena‘s first visit since we put their debut Manchester show on three years ago.

Menomena are an experimental rock band from Portland, Oregon, made up of Brent Knopf (guitar, keyboards, glockenspiel), Justin Harris (bass, guitar, baritone sax and alto sax) and Danny Seim (percussion). The band’s name was chosen for ‘the way it rolls off the tongue, sexually or something’ and has no specific meaning – although it is often assumed to refer to the Piero Umiliani song Mah Nà Mah Nà, a staple of The Muppet Show.

In America the band are signed to Seattle’s Barsuk Records, home of Death Cab and Rilo Kiley, while in Europe they’re with Berlin’s City Slang (The Notwist, Caribou, Calexico, Black Mountain). Comparisons have been made to Deerhoof, Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear and Fiery Furnaces. Personally, we’d add the Flaming Lips to that bunch.

Menomena’s first album, Friend and Foe, received critical acclaim all over the place. ‘It’s stunning how many clever and exciting moments stick with you – music this full of ideas, sections and material can come across as overstuffed, but this feels just right almost everywhere,’ said Pitchfork, giving it 8.5 out of 10.

Mines, the follow-up album, is being released this summer after a three-and-a-half year wait. The band also recently released Pilgrim’s Progress on a special split 7″ with The Helio Sequence for Record Store Day.

This is a co-promotion with the Deaf Institute.

Tickets are available from the bar, Piccadilly Records, Common (no booking fee), Seetickets.com, WeGotTickets.com and on 0871 220 0260.