Not so much a recommendation for Booking Ahead this week but a book now and go and see them tonight. If you can get to Crouch End then we'd highly recommend you head down to the King's Head to see Damon and Naomi. "Who?" we hear you ask. Faithful readers who love their alt.country-psychadelic-hypnotic-lo-core should start foaming at the mouth now. For the rest of you who have no idea what we're talking about then if you have a Mazzy Star, Low or even a Velvet Underground album that you still play lovingly then that means you. Damon and Naomi are two thirds of what used to be the very lovely Galaxie 500. The final third, Dean Wareham, went on to form the equally awesome but also sadly no longer Luna.
Damon and Naomi play with King Creosote whom we have to admit we've not heard of but nonetheless it should be a damn fine show. For no other reason than we can, we recommend you check out Luna's cover of Sweet Child O' Mine. Oh and then check out the Schmoof version and never have to listen to Guns'n'Roses again.
But enough streaming goodies for now. "More bands" we hear you cry. Oh ok then.
Not wishing to miss out on the whole reunion reformation thing are Seattle's The Posies. For reasons known only to Londonist we kind of see them as a US Charlatans, but any REM fans worth their fanclub membership will be at The Islington Academy on July 30.
It's not unfeasible that many of those at The Posies show will also want to make their way across to Kokos on the 20th September for Stephen Malkmus, provisionally without Jicks but it's hard to tell who's in the touring band at the moment. Either way it'll be challenging and intelligent post college rock. And maybe a few Pavement songs.
'Brixton cowboys' and 'those guys who did the theme song from The Sopranos', the Alabama 3 are at Shepherd's Bush on Sunday 29th of this fair month of May. With a new album out Monday expect more 'urban country' of the highest order. OK so we made up the urban country bit but it works for us. Check out the site for their latest incarcerated video.
Something that's been sitting in our inbox for a while but no less worthy of mention, is The Bees' event Electric Heads taking place on Friday 3rd June. This all-nighter is curated by The Bees themselves and features special guests, DJs and films. Oh, and The Bees.
Tickets are a relatively hefty £17.50, available from Ticketweb but The Bees are an amazing live band and Chicken Payback is an insanely catchy tune you can't help dancing to, so the entry is well worth it when you consider that you get a full bill: The Bees headline the Main Room with support from Ambulance Ltd, Sonic Boom (ex Spacemen 3), and The Works. Room 2 is given over to electronica with artists and DJs from the Warp & Rephlex records roster, including Cylob & Chris Clarke. The Bees Soundsystem takes over Room 3.
Not strictly a gig but a show worth mentioning seeing as the world is currently preparing to bow at the feet of League Of Gentlemen Apocalypse is the... wait for it...
League Of Gentlemen who are currently inviting 'local people' to the Hammersmith Apollo from the 1st to the 4th of December. We still feel they nicked half the plot of the movie from an old episode of Eerie Indiana though.
For fine listings of gigs ahead check out the Stargreen site. We like it because it has a nifty week ahead panel, and for a fine list of tunes check out Funeral by the Arcade Fire because it's quite simply the best album of the year so far and is going to be very hard to beat.
