Sounds Around Town....with Dave Franklin (From This Is Wiltshire)

Sounds Around Town....with Dave Franklin

10:42am Thursday 7th January 2010 in

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So here we are in a new year, a new decade.

The Christmas turkey mountain and the New Years’ Day hangover are now just distant memories, tenuous resolutions have been made and life has settled back down to the run of the mill routines.

Let’s get back to some serious gigging.

The first Songs of Praise night at the Victoria, tonight, has a wonderfully eclectic bill on offer.

The experimental soundscapes of Thought Crimes head the night, with Iberian/Swindon based psych-prog rockers Ghetto Defendants making a rare return to the stage.

Black Sheep Apprentice bring some dark country vibes to the proceedings and Tommy Galati will be doing his thing too, I still don’t know quite what it is . . . maybe a sort of an English folk-punk take on Seasick Steve? That will have to do for now.

Down the hill and Zoë Mead brings her delicate art to the Rolleston.

Anyone who hasn’t yet experienced the chilled out indie-folk songs and the amazing voice of this girl needs to make sure they get to this gig. Support comes from Mike Still.

As if by contrast, Riffs Bar is offering up something much more punchy on Friday as it lines up the musical leviathans that go by the names of The Dead Lay Waiting, In The Absence of Light, Senturia and The Finest Bloodlust.

Not for the faint hearted, the night promises Byzantine heavy, guitar-led onslaughts from some of the finest noise merchants in the area.

Also up for grabs on Friday is Gaz Brookfield at the Rolleston.

He’ll be playing a mixture of his own energetic and beautifully crafted songs, which stretch back through the days when he fronted Durera and beyond, plus some well chosen covers.

He may even be persuaded to play “that song” which seems to straddle both camps. Buy him a beer, it normally works.

There is a one-off Transmission Club Night of New Wave, Indie and Electro pop at the Victoria, courtesy of DJ Dust and Mark E Moon, spinning everything from Kraftwerk to Blur and Ash to Chemical Brothers, so something a bit different from the small exuberant one and the tall grumpy one (just kidding).

Saturday night is the big draw for me; Martin Degville’s Sigue Sigue Sputnik sets up shop at the Victoria.

Although this is a two piece, electro version of the original dystopian glam scammers, it still promises to be mad, bad and totally off the wall and featuring songs from the first two albums.

Hotel 75 will be kicking the night off with their post punk garage rock.

Something a bit more predictable is down at the 12 Bar with a tribute to Status Quo.

Just Supposin’ offer a two-hour set from the classic line up, and more impressionism over at Riffs Bar comes in the form of Pretty Vacant playing tribute to The Sex Pistols.

After all that excitement a leisurely pint at the Beehive may be just the ticket, where music is provided in the form of the laid back, romantic balladry of Billyjon, who hopefully will be road testing some of the songs from his forthcoming EP The Darkness of the Night.

The Roaring Donkey goes all Americana with The Pignose Band, southern country blues with a large helping of gospel for good measure, basically the nearest thing you can get to being in O Brother Where Art Thou without leaving the country.

A nice midweek option on Wednesday is Bex Marshall who will be at the Beehive. Described recently as “An explosion of blue hot acoustic slide roots/rock, poker twisted with a whippin’ of Bluegrass, a versatile guitarist with a unique earthy melting pot of a voice” . . . sounds good to me.

Looking a liittle further ahead, Riffs Bar will be hosting Monstershark Promotions 1st Anniversary Celebrations on Friday January 15. The mighty Mortdelamer headline the show with post rock stalwarts The Colorado playing second fiddle.

This is a band who I certainly liked when I first saw them 18 months ago but who totally blew the audience’s collective socks off at the Victoria recently. Please check this band out. Also featuring are I Am Bodhi and Energy Without the Sun.

So it looks like the year is off to a grand start.