Indie pop label Fortuna Pop! celebrate 15 years of fun. With a with three nights in a row at the Scala in London on November 1st, 2nd and 3rd, four bands every night, doors at 6:30pm. The full line-up thus far includes: Crystal Stilts, Allo Darlin’, The Primitives, Comet Gain, Darren Hayman & The Secondary Modern, Bearsuit, Shrag, The Ladybug Transistor, Tender Trap, Evans The Death and Mark Monnone from The Lucksmiths’ solo project Monnone Alone. More info on most of these artists can be found on the Fortuna POP! website: http://www.fortunapop.com/
Tues 1st Nov The Primitives + Bearsuit + Monnone Alone (ex-The Lucksmiths) + Special Guests
Wed 2nd Nov Crystal Stilts + Comet Gain + Shrag + Evans The Death
Thu 3rd Nov Allo Darlin’ + Darren Hayman & The Secondary Modern + Tender Trap + The Ladybug Transistor
Doors 6.30pm each night
Scala, 275 Pentonville Road, King´s Cross, London N1 9NL
Nearest tube/train : King’s Cross / St. Pancras
Tickets £11.50 Advance per night
Tuesday – http://www.wegottickets.com/event/131292
Wednesday – http://www.wegottickets.com/event/131293
Thursday – http://www.wegottickets.com/event/131297
£25 season ticket for all three nights
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/125680
Scala box office between 10am and 6pm Mon-Fri
www.ticketweb.co.uk
Tel: 08444 771 000
Hey, it’s our 15th birthday this year and we’re celebrating There will be guest DJs and free aftershow parties at The Lexington every night too.
Fifteen years of fun. Put it in yr pop diary.
Those dates again, in more detail…
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Tuesday 1st November 2011
The Primitives + Bearsuit + Monnone Alone (The Lucksmiths) + Special Guests
The Primitives
Fronted by indiepop blonde bombshell Tracy Tracy, The Primitives emerged from the independent scene of the mid-80s that spawned The Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine. Their sound distilled the shimmering guitar jangle of the Byrds, the buzzsaw style of The Ramones and 60’s girl group melodies into two and a half minute pop gems (including the smash hit “Crash”) which lead to regular session guests on John Peel’s radio show. The split in 1992 but reunited in 2009 to play a memorial show after the passing of their original bass player Steve Dullaghan, this lead to further gigs including a headline slot at the Indietracks Festival and they even recorded an EP called “Never Kill a Secret” which was released on Fortuna POP! last year.
http://the-primitives.co.uk/
“Rattle My Cage” video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsB333ckdzo
Bearsuit
Bearsuit are a boy/girl five-piece from Norwich who were also favourites of the late John Peel. Known for their electric and outlandish performances, especially their many and varied onstage outfits, from blood covered zombies to majorettes, Bearsuit have supported the likes of Crystal Castles, Future of the Left, Lightspeed Champion and Hot Chip. Their latest album on Fortuna POP! The Phantom Forest features their new edgy sound of dirty synths and fierce guitars and was recorded with Gareth Parton – producer to the Go Team!, Foals etc. Their new single “Princess, You’re a Test” is out on 6 September.
“Sleazy synth-pop jabbing a finger in the direction of Of Montreal with the odd nuance of Le Tigre. A riotous, beat-laden, dance floor-filling affair” Rocksound
http://www.impbat.co.uk/bearsuit/
video for “Princess, You’re a Test” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu0kDDHCZIQ
Monnone Alone (The Lucksmiths)
Monnone Alone is Mark Monnone with an assorted cast of friends, buddies, pals, cronies, deadbeats, etc. As bass-player-about town, Mark is a regular casanova, musically seducing the likes of Sally Seltmann, Darren Hanlon, Bart & Friends, Guy Blackman, amongst other lucky sods. However, between the years of 1993 and 2009 inclusive, Mark was best known as the bass player for The Lucksmiths and was responsible for penning such familiar favourites as “T-Shirt Weather”, “Myopic Friends” and “Take This Lying Down”. From their northern corner of Melbourne, armed with songwriting smarts and a warm live rapport, The Lucksmiths gathered a loyal fanbase that stuck with the band for near-on a dozen albums.
http://www.lostandlonesome.com.au/band_info.php?id=32&desc=monnone-alone
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Wednesday 2nd November 2011
Crystal Stilts + Comet Gain + Shrag + Evans The Death
Crystal Stilts
Crystal Stilts burst out of Brooklyn’s storied post-punk indie scene in 2008 with a string of releases that culminated in their fantastic debut album Alight Of Night. Deftly combining the spooked 60s Texas psych of 13th Floor Elevators and Red Crayola, the gothic blues/punk howl of Gun Club, the dark, experimental DIYism of early Flying Nun/Xpressway groups and a dash of classic 60s pop by way of early Mary Chain b-sides, Now the release of second album In Love With Oblivion on Fortuna POP! sets the bar even higher as they reach dizzying, fuzzy heights as first class purveyors of haunting, atmospheric post-punk pop.
“Weirdly life-affirming and very fun, Crystal Stilts are moody-sounding f*ckers who make fabulous stripped-down, C86-like garage-pop.” (Pitchfork)
New video for “Shake the Shackles” here: http://www.vimeo.com/25036443
Comet Gain
Led by songwriter David Feck, Comet Gain have released a string of critically acclaimed records on Kill Rock Stars, Track & Field, What’s Your Rupture? and, of course, Fortuna POP!. Unapologetically literate and emotional, Comet Gain seek out inspiration as much in the music of girl-group era pop, heartfelt Americana, British post-punk, and 60s psychedelia, as in the words and images of the beat poets and in the cinema of both the British and French new-wave of the late 50 and early 60s.
Comet Gain insist on locating and articulating the romance and the heartbreak that permeate and terrorize the everyday, whilst refusing to slip into sentiment or mawkishness. From artists like The Make-Up and Jens Lekman to a younger generation of DIY musicians like The Cribs, Love Is All, Veronica Falls, Comet Gain’s influence remains a traceable and tangible thing.
“The band’s diehard convictions and carefully wrought lyrics seem even more vital these days, when “indie pop” often signifies a marketable sound rather than a lifestyle commitment. Comet Gain cling to the vestiges of that lifestyle with a convert’s zeal.” Pitchfork
www.myspace.com/thecometgain
Shrag
An exhilarating blend of dirty, distorted post-punk guitars, shouty riot grrl-style vox and fantastic pop songs, alongside nods to everyone from Le Tigre to Penetration. Their debut album garnered comparisons to Love is All, Gang of Four and B-52s, and led to a UK tour supporting The Cribs, appearances at both London Popfest and Indietracks festivals, and a session for Marc Riley on BBC 6music. Their second album Life! Death! Prizes! was released on WIAWYIA Records in October 2010 and was named Album of the Month in Artrocker Magazine. The band are currently working on their third album.
“A spectacularly bitter indie girls-set-on-stun dual vocal attack, in what is one of the better bands to juxtapose schmindie twee and angered literary abstraction since 1990s unsung legends Prolapse.” (The Guardian)
http://www.myspace.com/shrag
Video for “Rabbit Kids” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rXs9O2Tq90
Evans The Death
Evans the Death make frenetic and infectious punk pop which exudes the kind of unbridled charisma, intelligence, and runaway energy that promises a singularly exciting future for the band. Having evidently spent a good proportion of their young lives attuned as much to the lyrical dexterity of Morrissey, Lawrence Felt, Edwyn Collins, and Jarvis Cocker, as to the scuzzed up melodic exuberance of early My Bloody Valentine, Pavement, The Pixies, and the I Am Kurious Oranj era of The Fall, the band effortlessly blend precocious musical literacy with the kind of unerring self-awareness which makes for a perfectly pitched pop sensibility. Their new single “I’m So Unclean” is out on 6 September.
“…the debut Evans the Death single is a joy. This reminds me of the first time I heard Pixies or Tunabunny or Horowitz or any of those bands that seems to make such sweet sounds by physically abusing their instruments” A Layer of Chips
www.myspace.com/evansthedeath
Video for “I’m So Unclean”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZTebot8rJUb
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Thursday 3rd November 2011
Allo Darlin’ + Darren Hayman & The Secondary Modern + Tender Trap + The Ladybug Transistor
Allo Darlin’
Allo Darlin’ are many things. They can turn a room in a famous punk venue into a joyous, jumping, sweaty, pop-mosh pit. Or bring a room of 500 to hushed silence with the few strums of a ukulele and a love song about cooking. Coming very much from a DIY approach, they inspire true dedication from their fans, many of whom will travel hundreds of miles to see them.
In their brief lifetime they have toured the USA four times, sold out tours across the UK and embarked on an epic five-week European tour. The band have also been strongly supported by BBC 6music, recording several sessions including one at the BBC’s prestigious Maida Vale Studios.
Their self-titled debut was released to universal acclaim in 2010 with plaudits including being named No. 2 record of the year by online retailer eMusic, and a glowing 1,200 word essay by legendary Go-Between Mr. Robert Forster in the Australian critical magazine, The Monthly.
Despite all the activity, Allo Darlin’ have found time to write songs for their follow-up album which is being recorded now and is slated to come out early next year.
““Terrific, witty and heartfelt, like a less moody Belle & Sebastian” – The New York Times
http://www.allodarlin.com
Video for “My Heart is a Drummer” – http://vimeo.com/15866021
Darren Hayman & The Secondary Modern
Best known as the singer-songwriter of the phenomenally successful and much-loved Hefner, Darren Hayman is now six albums into an increasingly idiosyncratic career path; writing the theme tune and staring in a Spanish Sitcom, playing a 30 people capacity show in a 100 year old paper mache observatory and playing possibly Britiain’s most remote festival on the Isle of Eigg. Darren is also writing the best tunes of his career; increasingly complex and mature songs. In the latest incarnation of the constantly morphing Secondary Modern he has gathered together a set of musicians with the chops to do justice to his increasingly complex and mature songs; a tight, tough, but soulful folk-rock orchestra reminiscent of a more urban Incredible String Band or an Anglicized Lambchop. Following his January Songs project Darren continues one of his busiest years with a brand new solo album of subtle, drifting piano ballads called The Ship’s Piano out in October.
“London’s laureate of sexual dysfunction, discomfort, and dog-eared under-achievement… the match of Ray Davies, or any of the quintessentially English masters.” (The Guardian)
www.hefnet.com
VIDEO FOR “I Know I F*ed Up” with Elizabeth Morris HERE http://www.vimeo.com/18643115
Tender Trap
Led by ex Talulah Gosh and Heavenly founder Amelia Fletcher, the now five strong Tender Trap sound brimful with energy, ideas and that unquenchable pop spirit, making the kind of classic indiepop that puts most current bands to shame. Their recent album Dansette, Dansette was filled with riot-grrrl-esque tales of sisterhood and revenge that wouldn’t be out of place among the punkest moments of Amelia’s previous outfits Talulah Gosh and Heavenly. Tender Trap now have added vocal harmonies, oohs, ahs and sha-la-las of classic girl-pop with the stripped down beats and dirty guitars of the Shop Assistants and The Vaselines.
“In a nicer parallel universe, Tender Trap’s Amelia Fletcher is the most influential artist of her day” (NME)
http://www.myspace.com/tendertrap
Video for “Do You Want a Boyfriend?” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFbLEjsdQQY
The Ladybug Transistor
Formed in the mid-1990s around Brooklyn native Gary Olson’s collaborations with friends, over the course of some sixteen years and six remarkable albums, The Ladybug Transistor have confirmed their standing as the preeminent exponents of lush, formalist pop music. With a superlative new record, Clutching Stems, at the ready, their pursuit of a singular musical vision remains as true as ever.
http://www.theladybugtransistor.com/
“Clutching Stems”
VIDEO: http://www.vimeo.com/20573120
MP3: http://www.mergerecords.com/audio/ladybug/ClutchingStems.mp3
