It’s always worth looking at the listings when arranging gigs to make sure that you don’t clash with anything big, and this time round it couldn’t have been with anything musically bigger in Birmingham – as Capsule’s annual Supersonic Festival was taking place just down the road.

It is a bit of a shame as this gig is the closest that the Autumn Store has come to pushing the boundaries of indiepop towards what you might consider Capsule territory - but these things happen. I was mainly glad to finally be able to get Japanese band Andersens to Birmingham, with their co-headliners The Starlets and give The Sunflower Lounge a little night of diverse and lovable music of it’s own.

Local duo Bavarian Country Singers & Comrades kicked off the live music of the night in a perfect fashion. They play their own brand of lo-fi-country-pop using guitars and the occasional banjo and toy accordion.

They also did a great and unexpected cover of Jay-Z’s 99 Problems, which reminded me of the good old days when Autumn Stores Discos used to finish with the Ben Folds cover of Bitches Ain’t Shit.

One of the great things about BCS&C is that they both have really lovely singing voices that made the harmonies utterly spellbinding, and you just can’t help smiling at it all. There will always be a home at The Autumn Store for slightly shy and thoughtful acoustic pop duos like this.

The Starlets on the other hand have a more expansive sound gained from both the clever use of guitar pedals to enhance the arrangements (rather than for the sake of it) and by adding a violin and trumpet to the indie band 4-4-2 of drums, bass and two guitars.

The last few days of gigs left them sharp and definitely on form when they played the Autumn Store and the diversity of the song writing really did come through in the set – switching between quiet and hushed songs with whispered vocals to louder songs with good use of dynamics.

There were four members of Andersens who had come over from Japan for the tour, and at the start of the set they were joined by a saxophonist and the trumpet player from The Starlets to give the songs the type of depth that they achieve on record.

You could never accuse Andersens of not having a bold and unique songwriting vision. The songs often take in the gentler and relaxing elements of pop bands such as Architecture In Helsinki but always surprise you by pushing them in interesting directions.

They also have a very good way of filling their musical landscapes with snippets of melody that remain firmly with you for the day. Christmas Eve in particular has been following me round since the gig, just popping in to my head every so often to remind me that complex and quirky arrangements can be mixed with a sense of tunefulness.

At times Andersens pass through transitional jazzy moments, as a way of changing their songs but they always retaining that playful touch that prevents the songs from ever becoming as tedious as the word ‘jazz’ would usually suggest in a review. Towards the end of the gig, the brass section left the stage and the Andersens were left as a four piece, their last song featuring some clever guitar work over a flute led rhythm section.

It was also pretty exciting to find out afterwards that Andersens were responsible for Jens Lekman’s third favourite gig ever.

The night ended with some DJing and dancing. Remembering my love of acoustic covers of non-acoustic songs from earlier the Jeffrey Lewis version of Punk is Dead had to finish things off!

Commercially Inviable Records is a label based in Birmingham who have been around for a few months now. They’ve got a great slogan – “You record it, we release it…and we shall head off to the poorhouse together.”

There are three acts on it at the moment, two are local -
· Friends of the Stars
· James Summerfield
· Sleepy Eyes Nelson

This one will appeal to you if you like music from the folk and/or blues end of the spectrum. I think I’m going to keep an eye on it because I like Friends of the Stars, especially when they do handy posts of home recording tips.

I’ve been looking for support for the Andersens & Starlets gig on 12th July and stumbled across a nice collective of local bands called Adventures In Static Monochrome. It’s kind of like a record label but without the records, in that it’s a statement of intent and beliefs by a collective of bands who like each other, and like any good indie label, liking one band makes you want to check out the rest.

Hopefully good things will happen as part of this - there’s already talk of a compilation CD and it seems that various collaborations take place too.

These are the bands currently in the collective -

Bavarian Country Singers and Comrades
I’ve not seen these play live yet, but hopefully I will soon if they can play the Andersens gig. They’re kind of a folk lo-fi in the same way as Andersens which makes me think it’ll work really well. They use a good mix of instruments to great effect - the banjo works really well on A Stormy Day At Sea and I love the brass instruments which kick in about a minute into Hooks Pt 1.

Dan Hartland
Solo acoustic performer who plays a lot around Birmingham and has a residency at The Queens. He’s joined by a cello player from time to time too by the looks of things, and there’s some songs with more arrangement on his myspace too if you want to have a look round.

The Sleuths
Former Autumn Storeists who played at the Monkey Swallows The Universe gig just under a year ago. They’ve got an absolutely brilliant track called The Other Sleep on the Adventures in Static Monochrome page at the moment. *tries to click on it to download it and keep it forever*. Hopefully it’ll make the CD.

Jay Krause
He’s from Manchester so not as local as the rest of the collective, though you can download his songs from his myspace. It’s reflective solo songwriting, and he does some short film soundtracks too - there’s a Youtube of one on his myspace.

Mellow Peaches
I’d not had chance to listen to these before today but I’d heard good things. They’re quite bluesy with some lo-fi thrown in for good measure. I quite enjoyed the bouncy tune of ‘Fireflies’ which is on their page at the moment, and there’s some nice guitar work going on.

Gurdan Thomas
I accidentally walked in on a Gurdan Thomas gig a while back and stayed for most of the set. He’s got a really inventive use of melody and there’s a great song called I’d Have Her which you can download off his myspace. Ooh, and his myspace has recently filled with loads of local gigs.

I got a Bearos Records e-mail list thingy earlier today, which pointed out that Bearos has quietly reached a decade of activity, I hadn’t realised, but it’s true - and it’s such a mindblowingly long period of time for anything musical to be going on.

I’ve always had a huge fondness for Bearos, which started when I first arrived in Birmingham and purchased a copy of We Brought our Friends and Shorebound by Epic45 on my first ever trip to Tempest in an effort to find out something that was happening locally. I couldn’t have picked a better Birmingham Music Instruction Manual.

I was a little late to watch some of the brilliant bands interviewed in We Brought our Friends - like Novak - but the label poured out a stream of excellent releases - and for me the guiding ethos behind it all wasn’t based on what genre a band was, or who they knew, or what they looked like - it was based on what was happening in Birmingham which was good and needed cataloguing permanently into the 7″ history books.

As a pop-kid through and though, the obvious band who I saw time and time again was The Regulars (arguably the only band in history who formed 7 years too late and were 7 years ahead of their time when they broke up) but there was more too. Jameson’s Somewhere Inside Forever was a lovely triple 7″ which features the sublime ‘Majik Band’, The Starries bounced around with that lovely intense mix of tunefulness and inventiveness, Baxxter’s ‘The Girls are Looking Good This Summer’ reminded me why I should listen to more spazzy-pop songs and stop being so twee all the time (I can’t find a link to Baxxter online so I’ll just have to send you here) and Ben Calvert’s ‘Leeds for the Winter’ recalling a snapshot of a time and a place from a singers life.

It was also the temporary home of bands like The Workhouse, and Saloon, who were everything that I loved about Stereolab, but with more magic. I still remember the Saloon Peel session where John Peel introduced ‘Girls are the New Boys’ with a story about being undertaken by a woman in a Merc. That song later found itself at pole position in a festive 50 in 2002.

In later years, Bearos has mainly kept releasing material by the artists who were around in the late 90s early 2000s - some have new projects, some of which sound incredibly different, some have gone solo. Although you could argue that this means it’s not as relevant a label to the new bands who have been forming and breaking up since Bearos started - this continuity is a wonderful thing to be treasured, especially in today’s here’s-an-album-oh-didn’t-like-it-well-here’s-the-next-big-thing-to-buy conveyor belt marketing strategy which is forced upon us. There’s a sense that you actually grow older with the musicians while they evolve.

I could tell you all kinds of amazing gigs that I went to to see Bearos bands, but I suspect they’ll come up in conversation during this blog anyway. They were formative years so it’s fairly unavoidable. I’m sure some of you have lovely Bearos memories of your own, and if ever there was a time to dig out the old releases or fill holes in your back catalogue, then this is it.

Was the Betty & the Id gig really 12 days ago! That’s really flown by, at least I didn’t promise you a live review on this blog “soon”, over a week ago. That would have been embarrassing.

A few interesting things about this gig – mainly it was the first time I’ve put on a band from a different country, and it was Liechtenstein’s first trip to Birmingham, and they took the opportunity to spend a few days here.

Actually, I was a bit worried when they first said they were spending a few days here – what do you advise an out of town band to do in Birmingham? The nature centre is closed during the week in the winter (see the otters - it was my first thought) but most other things cost money. Most of the tourist sights seem good for evening events, sports, and shopping - or tell you to go to Cadbury World, which isn’t much good if you have no idea who Cadburys are (in Sweden, they have the worryingly tasty Plop bars).

As it was they had a potter round some canals and went to Ikon Gallery – but if you have suggestions for things that I can recommend to visiting bands on a budget, then let me know.

Betty & The Id sound checked first with relatively few problems (equipment spotting – one copicat, which made the geek in me very happy), though we did have some problems with Liechtenstein and feedback – which sadly lingered a bit into the set too.

Horowitz were on first, and to sum it up in a word they were ace. They’re a band at their best when the guitars are fuzzy and constant, so that the short songs merge. They have a style of innocent melody that’s influnced by C86 music (maybe the bumper book of Razorcuts) but the tunes are also matched by the melody of the guitar work – Sister is a perfect mix of the two.

Liechtenstein provided more influences from that era of guitar music, and it’s easy to see why they’ve been picking up so many fans – and I hope that they made a fair few friends in Birmingham with this visit. I’d compare them to The Shop Assistants, with four vocals adding depth to the songs.

Betty on the Id took us further back in time with 60’s Garage influnces and I have to admit, I’m a bit stumped about how to review them because my references are a bit shaky when you get pre-post-punk so I can’t just throw band names at you in the hope that you get the idea which is what I increasingly do when describing bands.

What I can tell you that without following it up with… “like band X do” is that they use music imaginatively. They accentuate extra beats because they don’t just 4/4 at you all of the time, they break up verses with beautiful little complimentary scales on different instruments – it’s intensely listenable. And danceable, as proved by the happy dancing people down the front.

One interesting thing was the number of good Birmingham bands which members of Betty & the Id have played in – bands that I like too! The list includes L’Augmentation (ace free downloads, follow the link), The Bee Men (they still have some 7” singles left – it’s well worth asking how to get hold of one) and best of all, a pre Pristine Christine iteration of The Sea Urchins, which brings us nicely back round to that C86 in a good old circle.

And thank you to Betty & The Id for bringing a drumkit and backline too.

More News! That’s two news’s in the space of a day - must be some kind of record.

I love talking about indiepop, and I love talking about local bands - and occasionally there’s cross over on the big old Venn diagram of music. It’s happened today, I hear from the organiser that KateGoes are the latest band to be confirmed for Indietracks - which is officially the best festival ever if you’ve not encountered it. It’s a subtle blend of indiepop and steam trains, you’ll never know how much fun it is dancing to Camera Obscura on a moving steam train until you’ve tried it.

Having said that, I don’t know if there is a disco train at the festival, but the flickr group will give you some idea of the sights you’ll see there.

The Autumn Store Christmas party has been and gone, wow, what a day! 

First things first, the press round up - to see if the e-mail addresses I fire listings off to work! I was quite excited to see it listed in Saturday’s Guardian, which is very exciting, the Birmingham Metro also carried the listings (thank you both!).

Completely predictably, the NME didn’t include the listing - and only informed readers about gigs at The Barfly and two of the Academy Venues. I’m not saying that I or anyone has a divine right to waltz into the NME printed listings but it’s just a bit disappointing that the one music publication which is available in most local news agents is writing itself out of local music scenes, all around the country. 

Having said all this, I think one of the things that I learnt from Falling and Laughing’s recent London gig is that a good press release with full on descriptions of the bands (and maybe a photo) may go further than the bare details. I’ll try sending something like that through to them next time and report back to you on how that works out.

It was a fair slog to the venue with guitars, guitar amp, bass amp and all the DJing records. I need to start convincing bands to bring more equipment next time… Arctic Circle were the first band to arrive for the sound check, which ran over a bit and so the doors opened at 8.45. This also meant that the night ran over a bit and so apologies if anyone missed the end of Pocketbooks due to public transporting.

I suppose this is one of the difficulties when sound checking a large 7 piece band, and we were scared to move any of the equipment after they had sound checked, so when Falling and Laughing came on, we had to tiptoe round Arctic Circle’s forest of instruments. Glockenspiels and Keyboards lived on top of guitar amps as every square foot of space counted.

I really enjoyed this Falling and Laughing gig, probably the last one with this line up sadly, and Birmingham is going to again miss Stu’s melodic basslines. In true ‘potentially the last gig with this line up’ fashion there were loads of tuning problems at the start which led to shambles - although during our first gig Darryl managed to kick through the skin of his bass drum during a particularly energetic ska rhythm and tuning problems pale into insignificance compared to the power of a split drum skin.

I protested when the word ’shambolic’ appeared on the poster (poster making duties have been subcontracted/kingly taken over by Debbie) as I think we’re relatively tight, only to have the reply “yes, but what about the 5 minutes of talking and faff between songs”. Fair point.

Arctic Circle were on next and didn’t take that long to re-set up the equipment, before launching into a stunningly beautiful set. It really was beautiful and expansive, having seven members really did fill the room and during the set there were drums on the floor, holding hands, instrument swopping, (more) songs about light pollution, girl/boy vocals and excellently written songs. I hope they sold some copies of their great album during their trip to Birmingham.

Also during the Arctic Circle set I got chance to look through the pile of CDs which were for the secret santa compilation swap, there looked like there were some lovely submissions with nice covers and a very wide range of bands between the CDs, I find it fascinating looking at what people put on compilation CDs.

Pocketbooks were up last and played an excellent Pocketbooks set, despite Andy struggling with a cold *and* being unfairly forced by the band to sing more than one song in a row at one point. As always the twin keyboard and (more) girl/boy vocals worked well and at one point I was even invited onstage to play the sleigh bells during their christmas song. I felt like a twee christmas Bez.

The Pocketbooks gig was also of note because we found out that Leon had won X-Factor during the set (to the dismay of the crowd, seems there were a fair few Same Difference fans present that night). The Autumn Store, keeping you up to date with DisposablePop culture since 2007.

There was DJing until 1 in the morning, and then that was it for another year. Thank you for all the bands who have played and people who have come down to see them in 2007, none of this would be fun without you, and hopefully see you next year!

A quick reminder that KateGoes are playing their last Birmingham gig of the year at the Jug of Ale tomorrow.

One of the supports comes from Betty and the ID, who I’ve been trying to see for ages but keep clashing with my own gigs and/or events at the same time. They feature bits of former Birmingham bands who I’ve enjoyed so I’m very certain that they’ll be good.

(PS, there will be a blog about the Christmas Party up soon, technical errors prevented it from going up last night)

I’ve previously got excited about Voluntary Butler Scheme before on this blog, as they’re a great local one man indiepop act.

He’s got a gig at The Selly Sausage on Monday 10th December if anyone’s free and in the mood for indiepop. Not quite sure what the details are as I’ve never been to the night before. Or been to see a gig in a cafe, wacky students.

Ahh Christmas. Responsible for some of the most awful music ever written, as well as some of the best (The Fortuna Pop! Christmas CD’s anyone?). Today The Birmingham Christmas Lights were turned on!

There was a good spread of bands put on for the ceremony, cumulating in Sugababes switching the Birmingham christmas lights on (Push The Button I suppose being the song which virtually guaranteed the Sugababe’s involvement in turning-the-lights-on events all around the country). As much as I think Too Lost In You is a great pop song, I only really wanted to see Misty’s Big Adventure, so today was a swift in and out job.

Misty’s were on at 3.45 and were introduced by the BRMB presenters as “the band with loads of instruments” which is an excellent comment – seemingly throw away but you can read so much from it. Loads of instruments. Imagine that.

It was a short Misty’s set but included many of the old and new favourites, kicking off with I Can’t Turn The Time Back and finishing with Hey Man! The best bit was their performance of Fashion Parade (which was kicked off by Grandmaster Gareth asking everyone if they were looking forward to McFly) featuring the usual Franz Ferdinand “Lots of money/Do you wanna” chorus but as an added bonus also contained that Kaiser Chiefs style “ahhhhhhhhh” build up in between the verse and chorus.

I do feel a bit sorry for Franz Ferdinand that they’re Grandmaster Gatreth’s target in that song to be honest. Alex Kapranos has always come across as one of the few people in modern popular music who has his head screwed on, and who is performing a style of music that he’s grown up with rather than because he thinks he should sound a certain way (see for example, putting Fire Engines on as their support at The SECC - that’s the Glasgow equivalent of a Birmingham band playing The NIA with Felt as support). Still each to their own and Gareth’s general point about music definitely still stands.

I really wanted to see the Erotic Volvo/large youngish non-Misty’s crowd interaction too. I’m happy to report that he seemed to have a good time; although I worry he lost a hand on his right shoulder in the fray down at the front.