When: 7.00pm on Saturday 19 May 2012
Where: St Ann’s Church, St Ann Street, Manchester, M2 7LF

We’re delighted to be welcoming Ireland’s Gemma Hayes to one of Manchester’s few Grade I listed buildings: St Ann’s Church!

It was sheer force of will, and no little talent, that brought Irish singer/songwriter Gemma Hayes her first record deal with French label Source Records, as the singer had spent the best part of half a decade working and performing around the capital’s music venues. While her debut EPs were relatively spare and folksy affairs, her label’s electro legacy came to bear on subsequent recordings, where Hayes demonstrated a proclivity for chilled electronics and swampy, My Bloody Valentine-style shoegaze effects alongside the subdued melancholy of Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. This cross-genre appeal would see Hayes mentioned regularly alongside female contemporaries Beth Orton and PJ Harvey, and earn her a Mercury Music Prize nomination.

In 2001 Hayes released her first EP, entitled 4.35 AM, which along with 2002′s Work to a Calm saw the singer tentatively dip her feet into the world of recording. Interest in the EPs was sufficient to create a buzz for her debut album. Turning down the opportunity of working with the label’s preferred producer, Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck), Hayes instead chose to work with Mercury Rev’s Dave Fridmann and her then-boyfriend, Dave Odlum (Kíla, the Frames). Fridmann’s influence allowed her to realise the shoegaze and noise rock textures that the EPs had only hinted at. The resulting album, Night on my Side, charting at number eight in her home country. It proved a critical success, and it was just edged out by Miss Dynamite in the race for 2003′s Mercury Music Prize.

Hayes returned in 2005 and, with the help of Joey Waronker (Beck), self-produced The Roads Don’t Love You. Lead single Undercover was co-written with Jellyfish supremo Roger Manning, Jr, piercing the Irish Singles Chart at number 38 and hitting number 60 in the UK, while noted influence Lisa Germano added guest violin to the album. The Roads Don’t Love You was an overall more accessible effort than its predecessor, and it reached number 13 in the Irish Album Chart.

In late 2006, the now Los Angeles-based Hayes announced that she would work on a third album with Dave Odlum. Released on her own Gemma Hayes Music label, The Hollow of Morning took over a year to create, a torturous process that was more akin to guest producer Kevin Shields (of My Bloody Valentine) than Hayes. Other producers included Bell X1 frontman Paul Noonan and singer-songwriter Joe Chester. The album debuted at number 12 in the Irish Album Charts upon its release in May of 2008. A worldwide release with Nashville label ATC Records followed later that month.

Gemma Hayes’ much anticipated fourth studio album, Let it Break, will be released on 2 April and is an evolution of Gemma’s unique style of music, combining prog rock, folk and electronica. The album is a collaboration with producer David Odlum, and features Paul Noonan of Bell X1 and Ann Scott. Keep Running is the first single to be taken from the album.

Support comes from Sons of Caliber. Sons of Caliber evoke a sound once narrated as an echo from time’s past, and a sensation from time’s present. From time spent in the North Carolina mountains, Andrew Farmer was heavily influenced, and on returning home fused the rhythm of his native land with a beat from the American South. Now a five-piece troupe, you should expect a melodic journey of innocence, the kind where lyrics fall from his sleeve and you slowly leave your chair for home. Sons of Caliber emerge from the forest to tell you tales of Irish wolves and starry nights.

This special event takes place in the unique setting of St Ann’s in St Ann’s Square. Consecrated in 1712, the church is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Manchester and is an excellent example of 18th-century English baroque architecture. It was only the second church to be built in the then town after the original 15th-century parish church (now the Cathedral).

Tickets are available from Common (no booking fee), Piccadilly Records, Vinyl Exchange, Seetickets.com, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

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When: 7pm on Monday 21 May 2012
Where: Royal Northern College of Music, 124 Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9RD

We’re delighted to be promoting this triple-header of ‘post-classical’ artists from the FatCat imprint 130701.

Formed on 13 July 2001 (hence the superficially cryptic name), FatCat’s 130701 imprint was initially intended as a home for Montreal’s Set Fire To Flames and their non-traditionalist, drone and field recording-laced take on classical instrumentation and ‘post-classical’ compositions.

Since those first releases, via critically acclaimed albums from Parisian minimalist composer Sylvain Chauveau and the much-celebrated Max Richter, 130701 has come to represent a fine stable of some of the most recognisable names in the field.

The imprint has, more recently, delivered records from the three artists undertaking the Transcendentalists tour: Hauschka’s jaw-dropping classical/techno crossover Salon des Amateurs, a wholly unique and original take on dance music, written for prepared piano, orchestral instruments and drumkit; the elegant and hushed beauty of Dustin O’Halloran’s studio LP for piano, electronics and strings entitled Lumiere, and Vorleben, a follow-up live album for solo piano; and Jóhann Jóhannsson’s The Miners’ Hymns, released in May 2011 – the powerful soundtrack to Bill Morrison’s found-footage documentary on the mining communities of north east England and their tragic end, recorded live in the Durham Cathedral (a focal point of the film) by a 16-piece brass ensemble.

The Transcendentalists tour will mark the first time Dustin O’Halloran, Jóhann Jóhannsson and Hauschka have hit the road together. A group of artists connected not only by complementary approaches to composition and performance (or, incidentally, by sharing a label), but also by the philosophical ideals found in Transcendentalism: a sense of self-reliance in their respective dual roles as composer and performer, and a rejection of the rigidity of convention and institution, leaving purity, individualism, intuition, invention and community.

All three artists will play a set of equal length for this triple headline show, which is a co-promotion with the RNCM.

Tickets are available from the RNCM box office, Common (both no booking fee), Piccadilly Records, Vinyl Exchange, RNCM.ac.uk, Seetickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

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When: 7.30pm on Monday 28 May 2012
Where: The Ruby Lounge, 28-34 High Street, Manchester M4 1QB

We’re excited to be presenting Johnny Dowd’s first Manchester show in over five years.

Texan guitar-slinger and dark, musical visionary Johnny Dowd is set to release his new studio album No Regrets, a record about ‘girls and women’, on 2 April on his own Mother Jinx Records. The Ithaca, New York-based musician has been constantly evolving sonically since his early, lo-fi gothic Americana releases and No Regrets marks another installment for an artist who has become one of America’s finest observers of life in the dark recesses of the American Dream. Recorded at The Shop, his own small recording facility and featuring the likes of Jennie Lowe Stearns, Mary B Lorson, and longtime collaborator Kim Sherwood-Case, No Regrets is one of Johnny’s most personal records to date.

Dowd was almost 50 when Wrong Side of Memphis, his debut solo record of wracked country-folk-rock tunes, drew comparisons to Nick Cave in the alternative press. To a degree, that parallel was justified, as Wrong Side of Memphis devoted itself to murder songs and tales of doomed sinners. Dowd had grown up in Texas, Memphis, and Oklahoma before operating a trucking business in upstate New York, and his songs veered close to the source of American creepiness. Yet gallows humour and Dowd’s crackly voice tended to undercut any traces of self-importance, while his debut album – dominated by his singing and guitar, yet featuring spooky dabs of organ and synthesiser that placed him outside of the rootsy Americana camp – immediately established Dowd as an important cult figure whose weirdness seemed to be wrought from true experience.

On his second album, 1999′s Pictures from Life’s Other Side, Dowd edged slightly away from the cliff, using a full band of musicians and a female backing singer to craft a punchier and less folk-rooted sound. His singing and lyrics, however, remained nearly as disquieting as they were the first time around. Temporary Shelter, issued in early 2001, and The Pawnbroker’s Wife, from the following year, were more accessible records. Cemetery Shoes followed in 2004, while A Drunkard’s Masterpiece (comprised of three opuses that flaunt Dowd’s patented mix of dark, mutant alt-country) arrived four years later.

‘Brilliantly macabre, rib-tickling, poised and admirably raw dirty rock ’n’ roll from the shaded supremo’ – Daily Mirror

‘A Drunkard’s Masterpiece is a creative car crash of Americana, beatnik rock, poetry, prose, jazz rock, rap, screaming metal guitar, retro pop, spoken word and country noir’ – MOJO

This is Johnny’s first Manchester show since a joint headline show with Jim White in 2006. His previous Manchester show, at Night & Day Cafe in 2005, has since been released as a live album. This show is a co-promotion with Classic Slum.

Support comes from another Hey! Manchester favourite, Walton Hesse. Burst into being from the sunny imagination of songwriter Matt Grayson, Walton Hesse are a lapsed congregation of optimistic outcasts standing on the shoulders of Big Star and Wilco, peering into the shaft of a 13th Floor Elevator. Frontier-facing and burdened by a twisted nostalgia this alt-country psych creation blend the melodious harmonies of Matt and Nicola Crosby haunted by the ghostly union of Gram and Emmylou to bring Arizona desert plains to the streets of Manchester.

Opening the show will be Richard Warren. Driving folk-punk, full of the fire and working class pride, stripped to a brutally sparse frame and conjuring up spirits of the death-balladeers of the Fifties. His musical career began in the mid-1990s and has encompassed everything from the dynamic power-pop of The Hybirds to an ephemeral burst of cult success as sonic explorer Echoboy, not to mention a few revolutions of the planet as guitar-man for hire with Spiritualized and Soulsavers (featuring the legendary Mark Lanegan). Warren’s shows have been described as ‘Lynchian‘, with one reviewer commenting that ‘he plays songs of a man who’s seen it all and was largely unimpressed’.

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

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When: 7.30pm on Wednesday 30 May 2012
Where: Moho Live, Tib Street, Manchester M4 1SH

We’re delighted to be presenting the The Melvins, who are making their first visit to Manchester since 2008.

The Melvins formed in Aberdeen/Montesano, WA in 1983 the founding members were Buzz, Mike Dillard (drums), and ex-Mudhoney bassist Matt Lukin. Buzz, Mike, and Matt all went to high school in Montesano. The name Melvins came from a grocery clerk at the Thriftway in Montesano where King Buzzo served as clerk and vandal. Melvin was the most hated fellow employee and they felt it to be an appropriately ridiculous name.

When Mike couldn’t cut it, as rumour has it because the songs were getting too mathematically complex, Dale was recruited out of the Iron Maiden cover band he played in at the age of 15. Matt was replaced by Lori Black (Lorax) (Shirley Temple’s daughter) when they left Aberdeen for San Francisco.

The Melvins have had quite a few bass player changes during their tenure. The Melvins live in Hollywood, CA right now.

The Melvins Discography is an exhaustive resource of their many releases. They were on a major label Atlantic Records for three albums, although most would agree they’re not the type of band that would appeal to a major label. They are often quoted as knowing this while they were on the label and just took advantage of the drunken blitz the record companies were on in signing any band connected to a supposed Seattle “grunge” sound. Melvins have also released music on Ipecac Recordings, Boner Records, Alchemy Records, Amphetamine Reptile Records, Alternative Tentacles Records, and numerous others in the manner of 7″s and whatnot.

Buzz has a side project called Fantômas with Mike Patton (Faith No More/Mr Bungle) who is also owner of Ipecac Recordings, the label the Melvins are currently releasing material through. He also played guitar in the hardcore/grind supergroup Venomous Concept, featuring members/former members of Napalm Death and Brutal Truth (also released through Ipecac).

Dale filled in for Nirvana when they were between drummers, he appears on Incesticide and Bleach as a result of those sessions. Dale has two major side projects: one called Altamont in which he sings and plays guitar; the other he drums in and is known as PORN (The Men Of) or just PORN.

The Melvins have toured with KISS, White Zombie, NIN, L7, Primus, Tool and Rush, among others and were also on the Ozzfest tour in 1998. They toured with a second guitarist, David Scott Stone, at one point. Former bassist Kevin Rutmanis used to be in the band Cows, and was also in another Mike Patton project, Tomahawk, along with Duane Denison of the Jesus Lizard. If you ever get the chance to see them live be sure to give them gifts – they prefer Cracker Barrel gift certificates.

This show is a co-promotion with The Truth and Mutiny Manchester.

Tickets are available from Seetickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

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When: 7.30pm on Saturday 2 June 2012
Where: The Ruby Lounge, 28-34 High Street, Manchester M4 1QB

We’re excited to be bringing Anaïs Mitchell to Manchester for the first time, with her Young Man Band.

In case you haven’t met her, Anaïs Mitchell is not a man. She’s a woman, quick to laugh and to cry, a fan of Jane Austen and miniskirts. She came of age reading the diaries of Anaïs Nin and blasting early Ani Difranco records. So it may catch a few listeners off-guard when Mitchell cries out, in the opening sequence of Young Man In America, her latest album, ‘I’m a young man!’ And it may come as a surprise when, over the course of eleven songs, she seems to be channeling spirits from the Old Testament to modern America—but mostly, well, from the Y chromosome.

Taking on voices other than her own is not exactly new for Mitchell. In 2010 Righteous Babe Records released the recorded version of her folk opera Hadestown, a modern retelling of the Orpheus myth, featuring guest singers Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Ani Difranco and Greg Brown. The album became something of a critical phenomenon in the UK, making ‘Best of 2010′ lists in the Guardian, Sunday Times and Observer, thanks in part to the skillful production of Todd Sickafoose, who also produced and arranged Young Man.

Young Man is not an opera, but it is a story: a sprawling tale with multiple protagonists. And while Mitchell delivers the lead vocals herself this time around, she’s joined by a tribe of musicians that make the album feel like a collective ritual. Sickafoose assembled some of Brooklyn’s most sought-after rock and experimental jazz players: guitarist Adam Levy and violinist Jenny Scheinman, to name a couple. Chris Thile shows up on mandolin as well as alongside songwriters Jefferson Hamer and Rachel Ries in a harmonic chorus. Michael Chorney, the man behind Hadestown’s remarkable score and the producer of Mitchell’s two previous albums (2007′s The Brightness and 2004′s Hymns for the Exiled) makes a guest appearance on guitar. And in a departure from those early recordings, Young Man features not one but two stick-wielding drummer/percussionists—Andrew Borger and Kenny Wollesen—that give the album some of its swagger.

If there’s a common thread in Mitchell’s work—from her earliest ballads, to the opera, to this new chapter—it’s that she’s as interested in the world around her as the one inside her. She has a way of tackling big themes with the same emotional intimacy most artists use to describe their inner lives. ‘That’s why,’ as one journalist put it, ‘there’s a sexual ambiguity about her work and why, even in her most intimate moments, she never sounds like a confessional songwriter.’ It doesn’t matter whether the stories she tells are her own or someone else’s. ‘The emotions are my own,’ says Mitchell.

‘This is music of rare boldness and reach. A sensational album’ – CD of the Week, Sunday Times

Support comes Leeds-based Sam Airey. Raised in rural North Wales on various types of folk and country music, Sam blends these influences with the sounds and experiences he has encountered along the way. He plays a variety of instruments, but is sometimes joined by friends, both in studios and on stages. Gaining an ever-increasing amount of plaudits, his live performances have garnered comparisons to such notable songsmiths as Nick Drake, Conor Oberst and Leonard Cohen.

This show is a co-promotion with Ceremony Concerts.

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

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When: 7.30pm on Friday 8 June 2012
Where: The Deaf Institute, 135 Grosvenor Street, Manchester M1 7HE

PLEASE NOTE: This show has been cancelled for reasons beyond our control. Refunds are available from the point of purchase. 

We’re proud to welcome Introducing, who are back in town to recreate the sound of seminal album Endtroducing.

‘From listening to the records, we just knew what to do.’

The seminal Endtroducing album is considered by most to be uncoverable – but Introducing are not your average ‘covers’ band. The 1996 album inspired a generation. It made the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s first completely sampled album. Introducing take the whole thing full circle, and return those samples into live musicianship, in the image that its creator intended.

Introducing’s note-for-note nine-piece recreation has already been turning heads on the festival circuit. After their debut at Festinho in 2008, Radio 1′s Rob da Bank booked them for Camp Bestival and Bestival in 2009, shortly before Ireland’s Electric Picnic picked them up too. Matt Derbyshire, the brains behind the band, has a smile on his face. ‘It seems to be gathering momentum now,’ he says. ‘We’ve put a lot of work into it, so it’s great that it seems to be paying off. We have gone to great lengths to recreate the exact sounds used in the original. The most important thing about these albums we are recreating is the sonic content. Also, there are sometimes a lot of parts, so Mick (sax), Andy (Keys) and myself all have a keyboard to hand to play sounds. I think we’ve only got one loop in the whole set and the concept of any backing tracks were outlawed from day one!’

Introducing bring their impressive Endtroducing live set back to Manchester following acclaimed performances at Band on the Wall and Club Academy in previous years. Book early for this more intimate outing at our favourite small venue.

This show is a co-promotion with One Inch Badge.

PLEASE NOTE: This show has been cancelled for reasons beyond our control. Refunds are available from the point of purchase. 

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When: 7.30pm on Monday 18 June 2012
Where: Cornerhouse Annexe, 70 Oxford Street, Manchester M1 5NH

For our third event at Cornerhouse, we’re excited to present a rare ‘acoustic evening‘ with The Miserable Rich.

Tinkering with a winning formula can be a dangerous tactic, but after two critically lauded albums and three years of touring, The Miserable Rich decided that their third album warranted a different approach. So they holed themselves up in a stately home in Norfolk to write and record, bringing in a recording engineer and a drummer. Blickling Hall, the haunted ancestral home of the Boleyn family, provided the setting, and they spent a dark, bitter month isolated from the outside world, putting together the new tracks. Miss You In The Days adds drums, electric guitar and piano to the band’s more recognisable core of violin, cello and double bass, achieving the desired heavier, more rhythmic sound (yes, you can dance to The Miserable Rich!), and the lyrically the songs play with themes of sex, death and possession. The resultant album was unveiled at Halloween 2011 to immediate critical acclaim at home, in Europe and across the internet, making several critics’ top tens of the year.

The Miserable Rich’s story began in Brighton in 2007 when Will Calderbank (cello), Mike Siddell (violin) and James de Malplaquet (vocals) met while playing in the much-loved alt-folk band Shoreline. James had a collection of songs of his own, and he, Will and Mike set about revisiting some of those songs using cello and violin to play all the lead parts, much like a baroque chamber ensemble. Inspiration came from an afternoon listening Colin Blunstone‘s 1970 classic Say You Don’t Mind and Kronos Quartet’s Kraftwerk covers album. Over the summer months of 2007 (mostly in James’s flat in Hove) they put together a debut album with a little help from their friends, now more widely known as The Willkommen Collective (Shoreline, The Leisure Society, Sons of Noel and Adrian). The band’s lineup was completed when Rhys Lovell (double bass) and Ricky Pritchard (guitar/piano) joined.

That first album, Twelve Ways to Count, was described as ‘heartbreakingly beautiful’ by NME and was 6Music Album of The Day in November 2008. First single, Boat Song, was iTunes Single Of The Week, and has become a long-term favourite of Marc Riley and Guy Garvey on 6Music. Sophomore album, Of Flight & Fury, saw the band extend their reach, with sessions on Radio 4?s Loose Ends and Mark Lamarr’s Radio 2 show, God’s Own Jukebox. Two videos were filmed with Wasp Video, leading to the band being invited to score the short film The Girl Is Mime for the 48hr Film Project. The film stars Martin Freeman (The Office, Sherlock); it won the top awards in the International 48hr Film Project competition and was shown at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and at the prestigious LA shorts Festival.

‘Like Beirut hosting a Wuthering Heights theme Halloween party, it’s a record that grows goose-bumps in the night’ – Mark Beaumont, BBC Online

‘TMR produce consistently beautiful, haunting music, and with this third album they’ve produced something of a masterpiece – sounds like the house band for Mary Shelley’s hen night’ – The Word

This show takes place in the Annexe of Cornerhouse, Manchester’s main cultural hub, situated on Oxford Road.

Tickets are available from the Cornerhouse box office, Common (both no booking fee), Piccadilly Records, Vinyl Exchange, Seetickets.com, Cornerhouse.org, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

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When: 7.30pm on Thursday 21 June 2012
Where: The Castle Hotel, 66 Oldham Street, Manchester M4 1LE

We’re delighted to be working with long-term Hey! Manchester favourite Vinny Peculiar.

Uncut Magazine described Salford-based singer songwriter and poet Vinny Peculiar (aka Alan Wilkes) as ‘the Tony Hancock of Pop’ upon the release of his 2002 album Ironing the Soul. Since this inspired debut, which included the almost hit single Jesus Stole My Girlfriend, he’s put out nine albums of ‘outsider pop’ music to great critical acclaim. Artistic collaborations have included the making of SOUP ART with Bill Drummond (KLF), video installations with Tom Robinson (BBC 6Music) and his various bands have included ex members of the Smiths, Aztec Camera and the Fall.

Peculiar’s live solo shows are song- and poem-based; self-deprecating monologues prevail. Comparisons to Jarvis Cocker, John Cooper Clarke and Wreckless Eric are occasionally cited in dispatches. Vinny has played European and US dates opening for the likes of British Sea Power, Edwyn Collins and Luke Haines, and he’s a former compere on the Glastonbury Acoustic Stage. He is presently writing and recording a new album with Bonehead from Oasis, scheduled for a September release.

Released on his Billy Liar-inspired label Shadrack & Duxbury, the recent glam rock-inspired album Other People Like Me continues to attract rave reviews:

‘Imagine a surreal episode of My Two Dads where said fathers are Jarvis Cocker and David Bowie, who bully their child into liking them and everything they like, like glam stomp, kitchen sink vignettes, mordantly witty lyrics, nostalgia, dreams and a sneer. A splendid success’ – Sounds XP

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

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When: 7.30pm on Friday 22 June 2012
Where: Kraak, off Stevenson Square, Manchester M1 1DB

We’re pleased to be working with one of this city’s best bands, Easter, to present the launch show for their debut album.

Hailing from Crumpsall, North Manchester, Thomas Long has been writing, jamming and gigging in the city since he was fifteen. Easter is the outlet for his songs, given form by a band that has existed in some form since 2009, when the beautiful Hob Talk EP was released.

For two years it was tough to find a settled band and gain momentum but things came good and now Easter have a choice line up of musicians in place – Lonelady drummer Andrew Cheetham, experimental musician Danny Saul on guitar, and bass player Gavin Clarke. Having played with David Pajo, Tall Firs, The Phantom Band, Rangda, White Hills, The Fresh and Onlys, Yuck and Pontiak, Easter have built up a solid underground fan base and ‘couldn’t be any more different or intriguing than anything on the current rock scene’.

On 11 June their debut album Innocence Man will be released on White Box Recordings. The album was recorded live in a single night in a Northern Quarter loft studio – it should have been two but the first session was completely erased and with no spare cash or time left, this fuck-up served only to enhance the raw, intense vibe of a perfectly lo-fi recording situation. Innocence Man also features a wonderful turn on backing vocals and cello by Julie Campbell on the Americana-infused centre-piece Begin Again.

Genre mixers in the manner of Sebadoh, Easter possess hooks born from screeching, wailing guitars and lead-heavy drums. Songs veer wildly from their expected course into psyched up jams and Crazy Horse wig-outs, but there is always a hint of introspection, a sense of place, that underpins the songwriting itself. The release of Innocence Man sees Long’s ‘Crumpsall pipe dreams’ becoming reality.

‘Easter blur the lines between pop structures and loose experimentalism, a musical backdrop of Godspeed and Sonic Youth melded together with the atmospheric vocal delivery of Red House Painters’ Mark Kozelek. Wonderful stuff from outta nowhere’ – Piccadilly Records

‘By pulling in influences from Explosions post-rock to Sonic Youth noise to lo-fi indie, it’s kind of everything you needed to know about alternative guitar music all in one band’ – Manchester Music

Kraak is a performance and exhibition space in the Northern Quarter. It’s down a cobbled street, just behind Fit To Dance off Stevenson Square.

Tickets are available from Common (no booking fee), Piccadilly Records,Vinyl Exchange, Seetickets.com, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260. Book in advance to get £1 off the album Innocence Man at the show.

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When: 7.30pm on Thursday 28 June 2012
Where: Leaf, 65-67 Bold Street, Liverpool L1 4EZ

When: 7.30pm on Friday 29 June 2012
Where: The Brudenell Social Club, 33 Queen’s Road, Headingley, Leeds LS6 1NY

When: 7.30pm on Saturday 30 June 2012
Where: Manchester Academy 3, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PR

We’re excited to be presenting three shows for Jesca Hoop, to mark the release of her new album!

Jesca Hoop returns with her third album The House That Jack Built on her own label on 25 June. The House That Jack Built deftly showcases its author’s unflinching tendency to pull focus from widescreen to close-up. Part siren song, part grim warning, it achieves a perspective-warping balance between the haunting intimacy of Hoop’s delivery and an unconfined air of horizon-scanning grandeur from the outset. It arrives with more than a few splashes on its hands. Life and death; light and dark; sex and war; head and heart: The House That Jack Built offers up as much in celebration of the macabre as it does in mistrust of the familiar, with a twist of humour.

The follow up to 2009’s critically acclaimed Hunting My Dress, the new recording is a co-production between Jesca Hoop and three other producers and this visceral album will open a whole new world of listeners to Jesca’s music. Returning to Tony Berg’s Zeitgeist Studio in Los Angeles, where she recorded Hunting My Dress, Jesca enlisted old friends Shawn Everett, Blake Mills and Tony Berg himself as her co-producers.

Since self-releasing Hunting My Dress, Jesca Hoop has continued her knack for collecting fans in high places. Having been endorsed by Elbow’s Guy Garvey, she’s been invited to present his 6music show in March, she’s joined Eels on their US and European tour, and was invited by Peter Gabriel to sing backing vocals for his David Letterman and Jools Holland TV performances, and support and duet with him on his South American tour last year. With the release of The House That Jack Built, Jesca is set to pick up a host of new fans, high profile or otherwise.

‘Hunting My Dress confirms her as one of alternative folk-pop’s most arresting recent arrivals, singing like an outcast angel and writing like a restless explorer’ – The Sunday Times

‘A sensual, eccentric and often frankly odd-sounding record, Hunting My Dress exudes oodles of charisma and originality, thanks mostly to Hoop’s delightfully freaky take on traditional folk convention’ - BBC Music

‘Jesca Hoop’s music is like a four sided coin. She is an old soul, like a black pearl, a good witch or red moon. Her music is like going swimming in a lake at night’ –  Tom Waits

LIVERPOOL: Tickets are available from WeGotTickets.com, Ticketweb.co.uk, Seetickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0161 832 1111.

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LEEDS: Tickets are available from Crash Records, Jumbo Records, Seetickets.com, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketweb.co.uk, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0161 832 1111.

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MANCHESTER: Tickets are available from Manchester University Students Union, Common (both no booking fee), Piccadilly Records, Vinyl Exchange, Seetickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0161 832 1111.

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When: 7.30pm on Friday 5 October 2012
Where: The Deaf Institute, 135 Grosvenor Street, Manchester M1 7HE

We’re excited to be working with Smoke Fairies for the first time.

Since their 2010 debut album, Through Low Light And Trees, Smoke Fairies’ Jessica Davies and Katherine Blamire have been on an epic journey, both physically and spiritually. Touring Britain, Europe and America; in tour buses, ramshackle vans and even driving themselves 3,000 miles across the US, drawing increasingly devoted audiences with their exquisitely original and mesmerising music.

All these experiences bleed from every pore of their brilliant new album, Blood Speaks, undeniable proof of a tougher and more fearless Smoke Fairies. Suddenly that debut album feels somewhat shy and innocent by comparison, though at the time Through Low Light And Trees certainly cast a powerful shadow, with spectral melodies driven by an uncanny symmetry of sound that reflected the duo’s long friendship. Friends since school in Chichester, Sussex, bonding over their parents’ guitars and Jessica’s mum’s vinyl collection, the pair subsequently lived and worked in New Orleans and Vancouver, met and recorded with Jack White for his Third Man label in Nashville and recorded their debut in a remote Cornish studio – all of which added and embellished their haunting, deep-reaching musical impact.

Head, the venerated producer, returns for Blood Speaks, and their live band was brought in, adding their intuitive version of the duo’s evolving sound.

‘This lovely album is reminiscent of early-70s acid folk, heartfelt and sensual, poised and elegant’ – Mojo

‘A haunting piece of work; spectral song-craft executed beautifully along the border of traditional English folk and Neil Young-esque blues’ – The Fly

‘With healthy lashings of classic folk, Fairport Convention-style, and a twist of the blues, it’s really rather intoxicating stuff’ – NME

This show is a co-promotion with Wotgodforgot.

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

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When: 7.30pm on Friday 12 October 2012
Where: The Brudenell Social Club, 33 Queen’s Road, Headingley, Leeds LS6 1NY

We’re proud to be taking one of this city’s finest bands across the Pennines to Leeds.

The Travelling Band are an alternative folk band from Manchester, famous for their vocal harmonies, honest song-writing and exciting live shows. Their shimmering blend of cosmic-country-pop and nu-folk has made them one of the most talked about artists to emerge from the city’s music scene.

A 2006 recording project in New York City led a collective of like-minded souls to record what was to become Under the Pavement, their first studio album. It was very well received by the British media, gaining BBC 6Music’s Album of the Day, BBC Radio 2?s Single of the week and a featured song in the Ian Dury biopic Sex Drugs & Rock n Roll.

The band have become firm favourites on festival scene: after winning the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition, they have since performed at Glastonbury, Kendal Calling, End of the Road, Moseley Folk, Summer Sundae and Hop Farm festivals. In 2010 the band released a live album, Arrears not Careers, and their festival anthem Sundial. A limited edition 7? vinyl of The Horizon, Me and You was released on the Too Pure Singles Club. Last year the band released the album Screaming is Something, their debut release on Cooking Vinyl (home to American Music Club, Billy Bragg, Camper Van Beethoven and Cowboy Junkies).

This autumn’s ‘Hands Up’ tour will feature all the fan favourites and plenty of new songs from the soon-to-be-released album.

‘The sounds they generate took me back to my musical roots. Marvellous music to savour and enjoy’ – Michael Eavis, Glastonbury Festival

‘Sparkling harmonies and bright chirpy guitars pepper this album full of bright-eyed optimism’ – Jerome Blakeney, BBC 6Music

‘They produce an inventive brand of guitar-laden country folk pop with a cosmic aesthetic and sprinkles of trademark Manchester’s musical lineage’ – Clash Magazine

‘If you consider the term ‘Mancunian Americana’ to be an oxymoron… try listening to The Travelling Band. Brilliant’ – Marc Riley, BBC

‘Their harmonies are tight, guitar picking deft and tunes melodic’ – Q Magazine

Tickets are available from the bar, Crash Records, Jumbo Records, Seetickets.com, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

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When: 7.30pm on Sunday 11 November 2012
Where: The Kings Arms, 11 Bloom Street, Salford M3 6AN

We’re delighted to welcome back one of the country’s most talented duos, Jonny Kearney and Lucy Farrell.

Delicate, haunting and heartbreaking are just a few of the words that have been used to describe Jonny Kearney and Lucy Farrell’s music. After meeting at Newcastle University six years ago, they formed an unlikely alliance – unlikely because Jonny with his bittersweet kitchen-sink dramas, shows sympathy with American storytellers like Bob Dylan and Tom Waits, while Lucy’s traditional folkie upbringing and vocal style couldn’t be more English. Just as likely to appeal to fans of Gillian Welch and the Low Anthem as the traditional folk world, their six-track EP entitled The North Farm Sessions received four stars from the Guardian and Q, BBC Radio 1, 2 and 6 airplay, and sold heavily on tour supports with The Unthanks and Bellowhead, and at summer festivals including Green Man, End of the Roadand Cambridge. To The Boy from The North Farm Sessions EP is being used in an independent Irish film staring Andy Serkis entitled Death of A Hero, which premiered recently at Toronto Film Festival.

Eighteen months after their acclaimed debut EP, Jonny and Lucy finally release their debut album, Kite, produced by Adrian McNally (The Unthanks), It speaks volumes about the quality and quantity of their songwriting that none of the EP tracks feature on the debut album.

‘Such a beautiful record’ – Lauren Laverne, BBC 6Music

‘Delicate, thoughtful and intimate’ – four stars, the Guardian

‘Folk music’s best kept secret’ – Uncut

This show takes place at the Kings Arms, one of our favourite small venues (and ale houses) in the city – just an eight-minute walk from Deansgate.

Tickets are available from Common (no booking fee), Piccadilly Records, Vinyl Exchange, Seetickets.com, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook | Last.fm

When: 7.30pm on Friday 16 November 2012
Where: Sound Control, 1 New Wakefield Street, Manchester M1 5NP

We’re delighted to be promoting a rare Manchester show for Destroyer, one of our favourite bands of the past few years.

Dan Bejar started Destroyer as a solo home-recording project in the early to mid-nineties. In 1996, he released his debut full length of stripped-down, lo-fi electric folk, Well Build Them a Golden Bridge. Soon the Destroyer template expanded to include a rhythm section, and Bejar was compelled to head into a proper studio to record City of Daughters in 1998. It was with Daughters that Bejar began to develop his own unique lyrical voice, a voice that continued to evolve and refine itself over the course of his next two records, Thief and Streethawk: A Seduction. Destroyer seemingly had produced its masterwork with Streethawk, a highly refined send-up and condemnation of popular culture, an idea honed to razor-sharp precision. The album became one of the most acclaimed recordings of 2001, and the Destroyer mystique captured music fans and critics alike.

This Night, Destroyer’s debut for Merge Records, is an epic full of indulgences and flights of fancy that seemed the perfect foil to the sleek and streamlined approach of earlier recordings. This Night both baffles and seduces, leaving jaws on the floor and confounding both fans and critics. Bejar took another turn towards the unexpected with Your Blues, his second recording for Merge, wherein he stripped Destroyer down to its barest essentials once again, with Midi synthesiser symphonies that explored what Bejar dubbed European Blues, a vainglorious retreat from American rock traditions, celebrating an exercise in old-world excess within limited means. Those who had been pining for a new Streethawk were left shaking their heads, forced to admit that the last thing Destroyer was ever going to give them was anything close to what they expected (or hoped for). Bejar had everyone right where he wanted: dazed, confused, and not knowing what was to come next.

What came next was yet another triumph. Destroyer’s Rubies was hailed as the second coming by many longtime fans and firmly established Destroyer as a critical and commercial success without ever having compromised Bejars vision at any point along the way. On its March 2006 cover, The Fader proclaimed him ‘Rock’s Exiled King’ and we could not agree more. But it was a case of self-imposed exile, as Bejar and company have never had much use for the trappings of indie-rock fame. Trouble in Dreams continued Bejars lyrical and musical assault on all that is stagnant in modern popular music. His is a body of work that consistently flouts convention in favor of musical leaps of faith, statements of purpose cloaked in subterfuge, and the joyous refrain of an optimists heart cloaked in cynicism. Anthems sprawl with shifting layers of guitar and piano, spinning just to the edge of chaos and back, while referencing fantastical realms and mysterious women who may or may not approve of our interloping voyeurism.

Kaputt is Destroyer’s ninth album, and Bejar’s most critically acclaimed to date – receiving five-star write-ups from the Guardian and Tiny Mix Tapes, and 8.8 (Best New Music) from Pitchfork. Upon hearing its lead 12″ and closing track, Bay of Pigs, Pitchfork declared Bejar ‘a songwriter of the highest order’, and The AV Club was one of many outlets to declare the same song, ‘a real epic a meditation on life and love in times of crisis’. Kaputt also topped Hey! Manchester’s best of 2012 list.

Over the course of his career as Destroyer, Dan Bejar has established himself and his band as one of the most unpredictable success stories in modern popular music. As a songwriter, Bejar is recognised as having few peers. As a musician, he is like the court jester, waiting in the wings, poking fun at those who take themselves too seriously and skewering those who would celebrate commerce as art.

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

Attend on: Facebook | Last.fm