#WhatsInNotts returns for it’s third instalment of the year; and what a week we’ve got for you! Kicking things off at Rock City is the NME Awards Tour, which brings with it 4 incredible bands headlined by Palma Violets. Jungle, Lola Colt and Years & Years keep the hype high mid-week with gigs at Rock City, The Bodega and Rescue Rooms respectively; The War on Drugs round off a hectic week of live music with an awe-inspiring set at Rock City.
Rock City // Rescue Rooms // The Bodega // Stealth // Rough Trade // The Maze // Brickworks // Spanky Van Dykes
Rock City
Rock City kicks off the week with an absolute barnstormer of a gig in the form of the NME Awards Tour, which stops in Nottingham midway through it’s tour of the UK on Tuesday. The NME Awards happened the other night in London, which saw Nottingham’s own Jake Bugg take home the award for ‘Best Solo Artist’, as well as performances from The Vaccines, Royal Blood and Suede. Topping the tour bill are Palma Violets, an indie band from Lambeth, with support from The Fat White Family, The Amazing Snakeheads and Slaves. Chilli Jesson, Palma Violet’s bass player had this to say about the upcoming tour “I think this will go down as one of the greatest package tours that NME has had. I’m really excited to be going on tour with bands I really respect and listen to in my own time. Amazing Snakeheads are the best live band I saw all last year and last time I saw Fat White Family they made the place absolutely light up. They’re bands that are giving everything.” – See more here: NME Awards Tour @ Rock City.
Energetic and upbeat band Jungle stop by at Rock City mid-week. Their self-titled debut, critically acclaimed for the track depth and musical complexity, rocketed the band to fame last year on the back of a Summer album release. The unique sound of distinct brass tones drawn from heavy funk influences sets Jungle apart from other music of this generation; lead single ‘Busy Earnin” can be found buried deep into your subconscious by now, and the best thing is you won’t realise until the harmonic synths echo out of your speakers; take a listen below and expect to melt into a soul paradise.
Completing Rock City’s week of headliners is American Indie rockers, The War On Drugs, “reside at the blurred edges of American music: overexposing studio limitations, piling tape upon tape to maximum density, and then — with each song — they pull off the scaffolding to reveal what sticks, keeping only what’s absolutely necessary and dig into what sounds like the best kind of fucked up.” – See more here: The War On Drugs @ Rock City.
Rescue Rooms
Little Comets have returned with their Top 40 album ‘Hope Is Just a State of Mind’ and tonight embark on their UK your starting in Nottingham on Monday. Prepare to hear their indie rock hits on all sorts of themes from domestic violence and politics on ‘The Blurred, The Line and The Thickness of the Onion’ to the more light-hearted ‘Darling Alistair’. Support comes tonight from High Tydes – get down to Rescue Rooms for what’s sure to be a brilliant display of the rising stars of the indie world.
Also on at Rescue Rooms this week: Blackmason 002 – Tuesday Tim Barry – Thursday Attila – Friday
The Bodega
19 year-old singer-songwriter Orla Gartland, born and raised in Dublin, rounds off her tour of the UK with an insight into her melodic, upbeat music at The Bodega on Monday. “Her emotional delivery and genuine passion for songwriting have been embraced with Orla’s new 4 track EP which includes title track ‘Lonely People’; the end result being a raw and honest body of work, which shows wisdom beyond her years, full of energy and purpose.” – See more here: Orla Gartland @ The Bodega.
Hauntingly beautiful psychedelic rockers Lola Colt play The Bodega on Friday. Receiving praise from across the internet world, The Line Of Best Fit claims their music “feels like walking into Andy Warhol’s factory, you are in for a mind expanding treat”, while Noisey describes them as “sexy yet hypnotic”. Imagine you’ve created a time-travelling device; take Florence & The Machine back to the 80’s. Fast forward to now and the love child of Florence’s escapades is Lola Colt. Take a listen to their upcoming single ‘Heartbreaker’ below.
Also on at The Bodega this week: Man Without Country – Wednesday Rusty Shackle– Saturday People On Vacation – Sunday
Stealth
When people turn to you and say the name Jon Gooch, many will question you. Perhaps if I were to rephrase the statement slightly, ‘When people turn to you and say the name, Spor’, heads all around the world will turn. Having produced under the alias Feed Me since 2010, Spor is finally back after infecting the bass-head brains of teens and twenty-something’s alike.
pic.twitter.com/o1Uc3rlbfL — Spor (@spor) February 20, 2015
Known for hits such as ‘Aztec’ and ‘Pacifica’, drum-and-bass icon Spor will play at Stealth on Thursday ahead of his long-awaited debut album, Caligo, which you can download now for as much or as little as you like; released solely on BitTorrent, Spor has made a breakthrough in this generation’s music by accepting free downloads as the norm, despite constant criticism from bands and music-buyers over the last few years. Here is a naughty little remix of his for The Prodigy’s new single ‘Nasty’. Expect huge things from Gooch, he’s already taken the world over once, don’t doubt him to do it again.
Rough Trade
To kick off our campaign into pushing people back into record stores, we’d like to let you in on a little secret. Rough Trade, Nottingham’s go-to record store, regularly host smaller gigs of the bands and artists you love. Adding to the already thriving music scene in Nottingham, taking recent names such as Little Comets and Indiana, many have performed unique, intimate gigs in the upstairs venue of Rough Trade’s record store. Quoted straight from their website, “Overall, our aims are simple: to shorten the distance between the artists and audiences, to faithfully represent the creativity and artistic talent of the music we recommend and sell.” If this isn’t enough to convince you, take a look at the listing’s they have this week. We’ll keep you up to date on who’s playing, all you have to do is buy the album and turn up to a night of musical gold, all through the year; if you’re asking me, we’ve got the hard job.
Wave Pictures – Monday Dutch Uncles – Tuesday Public Service Broadcasting – Wednesday and many more! … Full Rough Trade Listings
By Luke Matthews
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