Rock and Roll has always been the music of the outsider, it’s always been a snub to the mediocrity of mainstream norms and aspirations. Yet, in a world where marketing rules, rock and roll has too often been co-opted as a method of selling records. One day a band is a nu-folk sensation , and then they’re leather clad poster boys posing in front of Triumph Bonneville’s. But for Two Wounded Birds, there’s always been Vince Taylor on the stereo and Elvis’ picture on the wall. There’s no marketing strategy with this band, no friends in high places, no favours to pull in. They’re from Margate for fuck’s sake.

But there’s a benefit to being so isolated. As wave after wave of the next big things have engulfed England’s cities, singer Johnny Danger has quietly amassed a mountain of classic records in his quiet corner of the country, collecting everything from doo-wop to New York punk of the late 70s. From this fountainhead of pop, Two Wounded Birds have steeped themselves in the defining sounds of the last 60 years, creating their own micro-community in an unreceptive, generally hostile home town.

This all-encompassing love of rock and pop has acted as a block to the relentless buzz of the hype machines and instilled in the band a fervent appreciation of melody and a deep reverence for the song. And it comes across in the music: listen to All We Wanna Do and try and get that melody out of your head, or put on Night Patrol and try not to catch a chill.

In other words, for once, this is the real deal.

Two Wounded Birds- Two Wounded Birds by Two Wounded Birds

Advance Tickets – Facebook Event

When Saints Go Machine are a hard band to pin down, four young men doing things with electro pop that no one has done before.

The Danish four-piece formed in 2007 — Nikolaj Manuel Vonsild (vocals), Jonas Kenton (keyboards), Simon Muschinsky (keyboards) and Silas Moldenhawer (drums) — are a complicated mix of influences. There’s dance music in there, for sure, but also post punk, some experimental electronica in the Aphex Twin mould, and, crucially, a healthy dose of pop. You could describe the end result as a heady mix of Caribou, The Knife/Fever Ray and Arthur Russell. But, really, it doesn’t sound like anything else out there.

Yellow by When Saints Go Machine

For Citizens! aesthetics in music is all-important – ‘pop is not a dirty word’ they proclaim. Debut single ‘True Romance’ was intended to sound like Kanye West producing an Arcade Fire song, and they have succeeded. lush 80′s synths and beats combined with classic Bowie glam, Hot Chip vocals and a disco-indie sheen. Alex Kapranos has given his seal of approval and is so enthralled he is producing their debut album.

Citizens! Minimix by CITIZENS!
 
 
When Saints Go Machine and Citizens! both play the Shacklewell Arms stage at Field Day this year.

Field Day takes place in Victoria Park on Saturday 2nd June. We’ll be hosting our own stage with a line-up full to the brim of exciting bands and DJs. For more info and tickets visit the Field Day website.

Tickets for Field Day are also available at the bar with no booking fee!

SAVAGES are a London-based-four-piece who played their first show with British Sea Power in January ; vocalist Jehnny Beth (John & Jehn) guitarist Gemma Thompson, bassist Ayse Hassan, drummer Fay Milton, deliver an inspired, assertive performance, a mixture of guitars with a groovy no wave/punk rythmic session.

The band have been to The Shacklewell Arms before, playing a show at the beginning of the year. Watch their live performance of debut single City’s Full below.

Support comes from Verity Susman, a keyboard player, singer and composer who makes experimental, psychedelic, improvisational music-noise-performance: like the captain of a ghost ship, playful and wild, suspended in an obscure hermit landscape of sound waves. She is a founding member of cult UK indie band ELECTRELANE and has also spent some time as ageing songstress Vera November.

There’s also a special DJ set from Micachu to round things off nicely.

Austra’s debut album is a dark, danceable masterpiece suitable both ritual incantations and clubs; an album hearkening back to the sleazier side of New Wave but still deeply rooted in Stelmanis’s classical and operatic upbringing. Austra’s music has been compared to Kate Bush and The Knife but with a seedier side of early 80s british new wave.

01 BEAT AND THE PULSE by AUSTRA
 
 

The Buckinghamshire bred Baxter Dury brings his ‘seaside psychedelic’ melodies to Field Day 2012. 2011 saw the release of Baxter’s third album ‘Happy Soup’. Its ten tracks narrate everyday tales of dancing on the patio in Marigolds and seedy sex in Portugal, yet Baxter’s lyrical playfulness and acute character analysis ensure the songs are anything but mundane. Just take the amusing picture painted of London’s Portobello Road in love song ‘Trellic’ or ‘The Sun’ in which Madelaine Heart’s honeyed guest vocals swim in-between bursts of Baxter’s mad, infectious laughter and colourful, rippling guitars.

Baxter Dury – Claire by pimscat
 
 
Austra and Baxter Dury both play the Shacklewell Arms stage at Field Day this year.

Field Day takes place in Victoria Park on Saturday 2nd June. We’ll be hosting our own stage with a line-up full to the brim of exciting bands and DJs. For more info and tickets visit the Field Day website.

Tickets for Field Day are also available at the bar with no booking fee!

Take Courage presents the first London exhibition of work by collective project Not Abel. Utilising all available mediums ( painting, sculpture, sound / music, video, photography, performance, recontextualised detritus, etc… ) Not Abel re-evaluate and re-present particular cultural references. They are emphatically a collective project, maintaining an openness to the outside, their work both sucking in and leaking out into the external world, plugging into pre existing networks and spinning new webs of associations – practicing art as cartography of the collective unconscious, conjoining lines of force between ostensibly disparate sources and themes to generate fresh narratives and map occluded connections.

Not Abel ( b.1973 Limerick, 1986 Dublin, 2008 Cork ) Live and work in Cork and Dublin.

Recent exhibitions include, Galway Arts Centre (2012); Static Gallery, Liverpool (2012);
Mina Dresden Gallery, San Francisco (2011); Pallas Contemporary Projects, Dublin (2011); The Black Mariah / Broadstone Studios, Dublin (2011); The Second Act, De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (2011); Terminal Convention, Cork (2011)

Forthcoming exhibitions include, Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam; The Curfew Tower, Antrim and Atelierhof Kreuzberg, Berlin.

Gallery open Saturdays & Sundays midday to 5pm, or by appointment.

Take Courage
17 Shacklewell Lane
Dalston E8 2EB

Rowdy Superstar is a London raised singer/rapper and producer, inspired by the likes of Prince, Bowie and M.I.A. and using light as his muse, Rowdy’s music embodies the ethos of early hip-hop, punk and 90′s pop to concoct arrestingly bold songs, wily structures and melodic top lines.

He will launch new single Look Into The Light, taken from the forthcoming album Battery, with a show will at the Shacklewell Arms. The track is available from May 21st through Accidental Records.

01 LOOK INTO THE LIGHT – ROWDY SUPERSTAR by Accidental Records

05/05/12: Luke And Rusty’s Rodeo Show – Fraser Moss (YMC), S.C.U.M & Apple Cart Fest ticket comp by Strongroomalive on Mixcloud

Our good friends Luke & Rusty serve up another couple of hours worth of music and shenanigans, plus win a couple of tickets for Apple Cart festival!!! Welsh crate digger, You Must Create founder and designer, Fraser Moss drops by with a fistfull of his 7 inches and a bit of informal chittery-chattery, S.C.U.M keyboard botherer Sam 7 with a mix of motor-psychedlicacies, The Horrors Tom Furse with the weather, and thorough traffic analysis from their sonic advisor and rouge aficionado, Chris Rotter.

Club Motherfucker are taking over dancefloor from from 5:30 – 10:00, they’ll be serving appropriate musical delights from the decks along with their buddies The Creeps, think vintage RnR, 60′s Girl Groups, 90′s 120 Minutes, Classic Power Pop and whatever else we think is a good idea after a few of those margaritas. Aussie garage-pop fittiez Step-Panther will be kicking off things live style and then it’s time to get sexy with your man Hunx.

Tell your friends, bring your brethren and start the evening right, right? ?

Facebook Event – Advance Tickets

Following their acclaimed debut release ’1 Inch: ½ Mile’ in 2010 Grasscut return with their second album outing ‘Unearth’. Drawing heavily on vocals and featuring collaborations from legends such as Robert Wyatt and Gazelle Twin ‘Unearth’ sees Grasscut delve into new depths.

On June 20th Soundcrash host the album launch for ‘Unearth’. As a duo Grasscut have wowed crowds across Europe, alongside shows in London at the likes of Tate Britain, Koko, Cecil Sharp House and the ICA. Gathering an assemblage of fans along the way, their new live show takes in live drums and strings, adding further dynamic to the stage.

A dab hand behind the mixing desk Grasscut have remixed Coldcut, Bonobo and Jaga Jazzist and, in turn, have been remixed by Nathan Fake and Bibio. Ahead of the ‘Unearth’ release Grasscut have hidden ten boxes around the country. Each contains a Walkman and a cassette, comprising not only the relevant album track but also a unique shadow version of the same piece. Video and GPS clues as to the location of these boxes are available at grasscutmusic.com.

Their album launch at The Shacklewell Arms looks set to a special evening.

Advance Tickets are available here.

From Towns & Fields by GrasscutMusic

Los Angeles based band BLEACHED will be crossing the Atlantic to play live at The Shacklwell Arms on May 16th. Sisters Jessica and Jennifer Clavin – formerly of MIKA MIKO – have a reputation for irrepressibly fun live shows and they will bring their blend of sun-drenched, punk influenced, pop to London in the spring.

Support comes from Manchester’s garage pop four-piece and long-time SEXBEAT love affair, MAZES. Also performing on the night are BONEYARDS. The high-octane lo-fi punk band will add some sweaty, raucous riffs to the summery pop jams of the L.A. headliners.

Bleached originally formed when the Clavin sisters resolved to continue working with each other upon the break up of Mika Miko. Plans were postponed when Jennifer was asked to join NY band, Cold Cave, where she toured extensively and relocated east. With Jennifer away, Jessie began to play with the popular LA band, Cold Showers. Since moving back to her hometown, Bleached now serves as both girls’ chief creative outlet.

Facebook Event – Advance Tickets – Bleached – Mazes – Boneyards