Autumn Stores in May, June, and July
Rightyho, it’s been a busy time booking bands and venues recently and I’ve got a few coming up to tell you about now. I’m a bit scared that I’ve been overusing the work ‘pop’ recently so I’m going to try and use it to describe the bands as little as possible and do a tally at the end
GIGS
Wednesday 20th May
At The Victoria (map link)
KateGoes
Northern Portrait
Lime Chalks
A midweek one this time, and the long overdue KateGoes/Autumn Store gig. Really genuinely excited about this because in terms of catchy clever intricate and pretty pop in Birmingham, not much comes close to KateGoes.
Northern Portrait are over visiting from Denmark to play a few gigs. They’ve released a few rekkids on Matinee which is a wonderful pop label (interview with Jimmy from Matinee on A Layer of Chips here) and collects some of the sweetest vocalists.
Lime Chalks pay their second visit to The Autumn Store too for some more, slightly shambolic and under rehearsed but smiley and really friendly all the same. There’s a video here too.
ALSO! Brilliantly, the Atta Girl DJs will be DJing during the gig! They’ve set up a website here and it’s well worth a look as it’s got sections on knitting and making wine as well as some lovely illustrations which sum up the whole ethos of the night. They’re organising a night of their own soon and I’ll be certain to jump up and down on this blog here telling you about when and where.
Saturday 13th June
At The Sunflower Lounge (map link)
MJ Hibbett and the Validators
Waldo Jeffers
Moofish Catfish
MJ Hibbett is coming to play a gig in Birmingham with The Validators. The exciting thing about having MJ Hibbett play is that it’ll be dutifully recorded on his stats page for generations to come. They’ve got a new album out too called Regardez, Ecoutez et Repetez and we’ll be treated to some songs off it, as is rock tradition when you have a new album out.
Waldo Jeffers are a well hidden gem and the latest pop band from Birmingham (well, I say latest but they’ve been going for quite a while - but I also said they were well hidden so that makes sense I suppose. Any more hidden indiepop bands out there? Let me know if you are). Foolishly missed them off the 101 West Midlands Band list recently and have been ruing it since.
Moofish Catfish make it a Scandinavian hat-trick over the last three Autumn Stores as they’re over from Sweden and signed to a brilliant label there called Cosy which put out The Deirdres amongst others. When ordering that single I added this to the shopping cart because of the name, it does pay to have a good band name.
Tuesday 21 July
At The Victoria (map link)
The Smittens
One Happy Island
+1 More
The now annual pre-Indietracks warm up gig, and now annual visit from The Smittens. I’m still listening to The Coolest Thing About Love from last time because it’s such a great album. Their Indietracks set was one of the highlights of last year and it’s so lovely to see a band enjoying themselves so much.
One Happy Island are over from Boston too and doing a little tour with The Smittens. There are two main facts that I know about One Happy Island a) they released a single on WeePop recently b) it was really amazing. Really glad to get them in Birmingham!
And thems the next few months at The Store
Pop count = 4. That’s less uses of the word pop than I thought.
