Boards
MAHJONGG (Chicago - K recs) / MENOMENA (Portland - Drag City/Barsuk) - LEEDS Dec 4
Saturday 4 December
Brudenell Social Club
LEEDS LS6 1NY
Door: tbc
£6.00
The Brudenell Social Club & Petit Machins present....
MAHJONGG (Chicago - K Records)
MENOMENA (Portland - Drag City / Barsuk Records)
CISSY (Leeds)
RUNNERS (Leeds)
HOOKWORMS (Leeds)
MAHJONGG formed in Columbia, soon moving to Chicago. Their debut EP Machinegong (Cold Crush Recs) was released in 2004, followed by Raydoncong (Cold Crush) in 2005, Kontpab (K Recs) in 2008 and The Long Shadow Of The Paper Tiger (K Recs - described by Slant magazine as “Like a kid’s birthday party without the damper of adult supervision”) in July 2010.
Mahjongg occupy a world of frenetic beat-heavy agitation and jittery dance-punk, fuelled by wonky, aggressive analog synth tones, tempo and time-shifting dance beats both acoustic and electronic, heavily manipulated rallying calls and clattering hypersonic percussion. Pitchfork said recently “It’s hard to find a dance party as distinctive as Mahjongg”. This performance will be one of only two UK slots this year (the other is at the ATP festival in December).
MENOMENA is an experimental Indie rock band from Portland (‘The City of Roses’).
The band formed in 2000, initially as a side project of Danny Seim’s solo project Lackthereof, but became a full band when Brent Knopf and Justin Harris joined. Their live act is an attempt to replicate the dense instrumentation found on their records, via the use of triggered MIDI samples, backing tracks, a foot synthesizer, guitars, saxophones, drums and glockenspiel.
The band’s song writing process involves a computer program called the Digital Looping Recorder, or Deeler for short, which, in Seim’s words “helps keep the process democratic”. Their new album Mines (City Slang) was released in July this year, being both their fourth long player to date and their most eagerly anticipated. This gig is one of only five UK shows in 2010.
CISSY is a band from Leeds. Employing drums, guitar, bass, a Mikrokorg, a MIDI controller, cowbells and claves, Cissy make a swirling Afrobeat / Post-punk noise. Their mission is to make fun, wonky pop songs with a playful heart, using an unlikely synthesis of South African rhythms like the Bikutsi (literal meaning ‘let’s beat the earth’), guitar that evokes the spirit of D. Boon, synth melodies that jab and push and pull at you and bouncing Afropop bass lines.
They began their recent July tour (scheduled to coincide with the release of their ‘Tour EP’ on Bandcamp) as backing for Damo Suzuki in London. They followed that with shows around England, the vast majority of which were as hot and sweaty as hell. That didn’t stop people dancing though. The tour was their third in three years and the band are now working on material for a debut album, scheduled for 2011.
RUNNERS is four friends from Leeds. They share a collective love affair with both the analog synthesizer and the rolling rhythms of Krautrock.
Their debut set at Chinchillafest earlier this year was widely thought to be one of the highlights and since then they’ve been enthusiastically developing the Runners concept, from the songs themselves to their blog and excellent ‘Monthly Marathon’ download mix.In keeping with recent LS6 music traditions Runners are all about the pursuit of fun and a damn good time. Their songs are brimming with a playful intent and a keen understanding of simple, hella catchy melodies and the fundamental joy of repetition.
http://soundcloud.com/runners/runners-stay-frosty
http://longdistancerunners.wordpress.com
HOOKWORMS is a band from Leeds. Their sound is cavernous and expansive, with thick, effects-drenched guitars making the kinds of noises you might expect to hear in an iron ore smelting plant. The drums and bass weave a forward / backward spell on the brain, which creates a tide you want to give in to. so far they've had slots supporting Mi Ami, Brilliant Colours, and Wooden Shjips.