Free Christmas Records

So this is Christmas? And what have done? Only gone and diluted an already over populated internet of endless tunes by endless numbers of bands with a whole new range of Christmas ‘free downloads’. It’s not like bands aren’t giving stuff away for free ANYWAY is it? But at Christmas it seems the nice thing to do.

I haven’t been able to blink on Twitter this year without someone else popping up offering me a new vaguely xmas themed EP or track, some hastily put together acoustic reinterpretation of a old carol or weird remoulding of a ‘modern classic’. But some have been great. So I made a list, like any good boy should at Christmas. All the ones below are free too, so don’t worry about breaking the bank. Just enjoy. As a side note, one that isn’t free, but I have enjoyed all the same is the great ‘Oh! What a Not So Silent Night Before Christmas’ by Aidan Moffat. Brilliant.

St Gregory Orange

Wakefield electro DOOM merchants get in the festive spirit by releasing a free 4 track EP. Ok, so officially it’s a re-release as these tracks were given away individually as MP3’s last year. But hey, you probably missed that right? And it’s not especially festive. But the songs here have featured heavily in their live set for the past year or so, meaning they are well worth getting hold of. Fans of their debut album ‘Things We Said In Bedrooms’ may be surprised by the directness here and this could well be an indication for their long awaited follow up, due in March.

The Birthday Kiss

The Birthday Kiss played their debut gig at Long Division back in June. How they get away with that? Well there’s some previous pedigree here; Sarah from The Research and Ben from The Lodger. Which should give you a fair indication of what to expect; some bloody good pop music. A title of ‘Sentimental Christmas Time’ completes the picture really; it’s a lovely piece of gentle, swinging songwriting, with Sarah’s sweet croon coming over like Mimi from Low, which is ace. Actually, whilst I think, if you’ve not heard the Low Christmas album, you should check that out too.

Napoleon IIIrd

As well as featuring on the Rhubarb Bomb xmas EP (see below), everyone’s favourite…erm… gosh, what the hell is he? Whatever, NapIIIrd has busted out a real banging Christmas tune here. It’s kind of ‘Deck The Halls’ as you know it, but not half as boring as that sounds. It’s huge! Rhubarb Bomb utterly adores Napoleon IIIrd, so I demand you go listen to this now.

Joyzine advent calendar

Wow. Now this is good. I came across this due to Rob Dee’s generous face hiding behind ‘22’ on the advent calendar. This charitble man has allowed download of SEVEN Philophobia Music tracks by several different bands. If his beard wasn’t so ginger I’d suspect he was Santa Clause. But further exploration of the calendar has revealed a whole heap of other festive treats by labels and artists equally obscure and fantastic. I’m not gonna spoil it; seeing what’s behind those doors is all the fun.

The Passing Fancy

Jolly Wakefield Folkster The Passing Fancy will find any excuse for a celebration. This year he released his Valentines single, but way back in 2008 he released ‘Christmas Time At Wrenthorpe Club’, an ode to his tradition of ending up down the local WMC, by way of various drunken disasters on Wakefield’s legendary drinking challenge; The Westgate Run. The physical copy long ran out, but this amusing, silly and entertaining tale can be downloaded for free from his Bandcamp.

Rhubarb Bomb

Hey look! Yes, we got into the Christmas spirit this year too, albeit rather begrudgingly. WAY back in 2007, under more cheery stewardship, Rhubarb Bomb released a 4 track EP, free within its pages. And it was brilliant. An absolutely top set of tracks from legendary, but now departed, Wakefield bands The Research and The Old House, plus two from the still going strong Mi Mye and Napoleon IIIrd. Surely it’s worth it alone for a track called ‘For Christmas I Got Pityriasis Rosea’?

PYT

Fellow Zine people PYT, this year newly relocated to Sheffield have released a Christmas treat in the form of a two track EP from Advances in Mathmatics, called Sad Xmas Present EP. Nicely described as the ‘first twee Post Rock band’ the EP is a pair instrumental pieces that weave beautiful paths without resorting to tons of distortion, just smart and organic harmonics, giving off a warm feeling like the atypical open log fire.

The Wind Up Birds

Finally! A simple ode to the poor buggers who have to work over Christmas. I get sick to death of the Facebook updates and Twitter tweets from mid December saying ‘Finished for Christmas!’. Though that’s coz too many of my friends are teachers I guess. The Wind Up Birds, in typically dour mood, but with pleasingly funny lyrics tell the other side of this story in a swaggering, rambunctious style, fitting of the circular grind of another dull Christmas party. It’s free, but if you choose to pay for the track it’ll all go to Barnardo’s.

Zoey Van Goey

I think regular readers will know we’re quite the fans of Glasgow’s Zoey Van Goey at Rhubarb Bomb. We had them down on Bonfire Night for an amazing gig and they’ll be back for Long Division in 2012. That short November tour was based around the release of a remix EP of tracks from their second album (which is popping up on A LOT of end of year lists). As they’ve now given all the physical copies away, the whole thing is now up on their bandcamp. For nothing! It’s not Christmassey. Not even slightly. But it’s bloody good. And haven’t you had enough of sleigh bells yet? I have. Wake me up when all the free Easter themed downloads arrive.

Dean Freeman

Podcast Special

The new Rhubarb Bomb Podcast is now available to download

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/rhubarb-bomb/id381555466

It could be described as a 'special' as opposed to the regular episodes as we have based it around the almost obsolete idea of the B-Side, instead of the usual collection of newer records we've come across. I was joined in the studio by Tim Metcalfe of St Gregory Orange and together we searched through our record collections, picking out and playing our favourite B-Sides and talking inanely in the gaps inbetween. Its a pretty eclectic mix, but we hope you will enjoy it.

We were also lucky enough to have Tim perform a live acoustic version of a new song from the forthcoming St Greg album which can be found amongst all the mutterings. It's rather good. And maybe, one day, it'll be worth something...

Piskie Sits / Godspeed VLOG

Here's our latest VLOG, a video review of the Piskie Sits EP launch at The Hop, some clips from our Cafe Rhubarb launch night at Henry Boons in Wakefield and some (lousy) footage from Godspeed you! Black Emperor at Manchester Academy. The sound is ok though and the projections look pretty cool. Enjoy!

Podcast Apology

In the new Issue (1.4) we interviews Tim of St Gregory Orange and mentioned you could hear his exclusive live rendition of one of the new songs off the forthcoming album on our new podcast - a special where Tim and myself play our favourite B-Sides. Well, its coming along, but there has been a bit of a delay... massive technical problems. It will be along soon enough though, do not worry. We will announce it on here, and on the facebook too, so keep yr eyes peeled.

Issue 1.4 has arrived

Issue 1.4 of Rhubarb Bomb has now arrived. First up, i want to reiterate what i say in the editorial; it's been a great year for us, we feel we've really taken the Bomb somehwere different and interesting, and will continue to do so in the new year. So thank you to you all for your continuing support.

In this issue we have features / articles / interviews with the usual mis match of interesting characters including Pulled Apart By Horses, Allo Darlin' at their last gig of the year, Mark Lanegan, Wakefield Legends Pylon, Being 747, St Gregoryt Orange, Arab Strap & Malcolm Middleton alongside the usual bits and pieces.

As of tonight it will be available in WAKEFIELD: The Hop, Henry Boons, Inns of Court, Trad Music, The Art House, Balne Lane Library LEEDS: Jumbo Records, Crash Records, Nation of Shopkeepers, Adelphi, Carpe Diem, Brudenell Social Club, The Hop, The Packhorse, Dry Dock, Paper Scissor Stone, North Bar, Birds Yard HUDDERSFIELD: Wall of Sound GLASGOW: Avalanche Records LONDON: The Windmill (Brixton). More will follow in due course!

Hope you enjoy the issue

Dean Freeman x

Issue 1.4 Launch Night

In celebration of the new, and final 2010 issue of Rhubarb Bomb, we are opening the doors to Cafe Rhubarb for the first time. Cafe Rhubarb is a small gaelic cafe where all kinds of creative and interesting people can come to meet friends, discuss the latest music, drink fine wine or just simply find a quiet corner and read the latest issue in peace. Often gigs can be loud and sweaty, and you dont get chance to just HANGOUT. Cafe... Rhubarb is a more laidback affair. Gentle music in the background. Candles in wine bottles on tables. Friendly waiters to show you to your table. Its at the end of an exciting weekend of gigs...so why not come down and let us know what you've been up to?

In honour of this more relaxed, social vibe, we have lined up 4 rather special acts, all of whom will be performing unplugged. There's no stage / audience divide at Cafe Rhubarb, they just find a spot in the Cafe and sing their songs. We're proud to present:

THE WAITERS

Your attentive and hard working waiting staff take time out from their busy duties to entertain you with the traditional music of their youth.

TIM METCALFE (ST GREGORY ORANGE)

Tim takes time out from the recording of the new St Gregory Orange album to give us a sneak preview of some of those tracks, as well as others from his plethora of side projects and pseudonyms. A very rare acoustic only gig from the Ex-Lapel.

RAN TAN WALTZ

The Ran Tan boys punk spirited classic noise making will be presented in a totally new light tonight, playing some tracks from their upcoming split EP on Philophbia music.

JAMIE LOCKHART (MI MYE)

The loveliest man we know will perform tracks from his recently released, and fantastic, album 'Senc to the Shaking', as well as some much newer stuff. We've had a sneaky peak of said new tracks, and the stripped down, fiddle and vocal approach is totally amazing.

THIS EVENT IS A CELEBRATION OF RHUBARB BOMB ISSUE 1.4. IT'S BEEN A REALLY COOL YEAR FOR US. WE WANT PEOPLE TO COME DOWN, TALK GOOD MUSIC AND LOOK FORWARD TO ALL THE EXCITING THINGS NEXT YEAR WILL BRING. THIS EVENT IS FREE ENTRY, COZ WE WANT YOU TO BE THERE x

Artsbomb - 28th July

"Artsbomb" was a collaboration between Rhubarb Bomb and The Art House in Wakefield. We teamed up two musicians with two artists and the aim was to create a unique, one-off gig experiance that combined experimental soundscaping with visual arts. And that was pretty much the entire remit for the participants; if you pardon the pun, they effectively had 'blank canvas' to create something engaging and exciting. The event took place as part of the Wakefield Artwalk, more of which can be found here - www.artwalk.org.uk and was a great success in that it brought people from Wakefields thriving music and art scenes together.

Carrie Scott Huby and Rob Fisher aka Salvage My Dream paired up to create a series of performance pieces, each around 15 minutes long, using a series of loops Rob built up using a plethora of pedals and effects. Here is a video excerpt that was filmed and editted by Dave Hanvey

- apologies, problems with the video, will be up shortly -

Bruce Rimell and Tim Metcalfe / Harry Rhodes aka St Gregory Orange paired up and performed a live art performance during which Bruce created, over the course of 4 half hour sets, a huge design on the wall of the performance space. Tim and Harry were largely improvising and Bruce was using this as inspiration for his work, pictures of which can be seen below. Fingers crossed for some video soon

Issue 1.2 Live Reviews

As the new issue is nearly ready to go, here is 'Wall of Text' Live Review from Issue 1.2.

We came across Lucas Renney twice in recent months, first at Henry Boons in Wakefield where he performed tracks from his ‘9 out of 10 in the NME’ album, Strange Glory (he cheekily repeated that fact at least twice). Tonight he plays his sad but dryly whimsical songs alone, his Mackem charm holding the audience throughout. He was supported by St Gregory Orange, possibly their last show for a long time. Despite this, new tracks like ‘The Party’ benefit from some fairly post rock noise terrorism in the closing minute and are impressive. Apparently they will return, albeit in a completely different form. Lucas popped up again supporting Field Music at Brudenell Social Club, who were promoting recent album (Measure). They played an initially bewildering set, first coming across like The Phantom Band’s elongated ‘jam structures‘, the second was an update of Ob-la-di Ob-la-da, with full on McCartney wandering bass. Then it went all 70’s prog, with an (intentionally?) bad funk breakdown section. And the fourth was some ‘Boston’ / Elton John twinkly ballad mash up, that sojourned into a ’Low’ era Bowie style stomper. Bizarre. But eventually the cleverness of what they were doing came through. Excellent song craft, but maybe too much ‘head’ and not enough heart. The Passing Fancy, expert at making you feel good about those bad, boozy times returned at Bodega Bar with a reworked set. He was joined by Jamie Roberts, recently finalist at the BBC 2 folk awards on Fiddle and Mandolin. Good to see folk music with a sense of fun, the spritely tunes benefited greatly from the additional staff. Piskie Sits held their launch night at Escobar, for new single ‘Churp Churp’ (praised last issue). It seemed every band in Wakefield came out to wish them well. For the first time, in terms of decibels, they sound like a six piece. Its thunderous. Whilst it feels like I’ll have to wait for the a new record to hear the nuances behind it all, it makes for a thrilling evening. The ever entertaining Imp popped up too, joined by Runaround Kids guitarist/singer George. Again, a much noisier raucous sound than usual, but still one of the best live bands around at the moment. Sam Barratt of Nine Black Alps offered a delicate acoustic set too that was surprisingly engaging. New Chemikal Underground signings Zoey Van Goey played a free gig at Oporto in Leeds . Based in Glasgow, it was a hugely entertaining evening, with genuinely warm banter and big smiles. Zoey Van Goey completely surpass my expectations and pull out a storming set, of intelligent, feel good unashamed pop. Its hard to pin down their sound exactly, there’s a certain folk element, but its about a million times more than that. They remind me of The Delgados in a way, not musically, but in their ability to craft marvellous pure pop moments from deceptively simple ideas expressed without sounding cheesy, contrived or insincere. Best new band we’ve heard, without a doubt. Finally, reliably wonderful ‘On the Ride’ promotions put on another stormer at Wakefields Red Shed, with a pleasingly crunching performance from Mi Mye, a sweaty, jolly, brand of joyous fiddle-y folk noise, along with The Tailors, adoptive Wakefield legends (they like to record up here) impressing with beautiful renditions from their recent album ‘Come Dig Me Up’. And then Tiny Planets, who simply improve every single time we see them, which is scary coz they are already astounding. Treecreeper rounded things off. Admittedly RB was pretty drunk by this point, but the album sounds amazing, well worth a look. RB

ArtsBomb

On July 28th we are hosting an exciting Music / Arts event at The Art House, Wakefield. For a while i have been trying to think up new venues to host gigs, interesting unique places that would feel more 'special' for the audience, as well as the bands involved. I came upon The Art House and devloped the idea for the evening we are now presenting.

We have teamed up 2 of our favourite 'bands', though in reality they are, in terms of recording at least, one man projects, with two artists. The artists have a space within The Art House studios to do with as they please. The musicians will then perform within the space. It's a pretty simple but effective way to bring together musicians and artists, and im sure will make for a interesting and engaging experiance. There's nothing wrong with gigs in pubs and bars - in some cases you cant beat it - but there is so much scope for different ways of doing these things, and hopefully this will be a positive example of that.

St Gregory Orange and Bruce Rimell will perform a number of sets throughout the evening. St Gregory Orange will take a more improvisational approach whilst Bruce will create and develop the space in reaction to the music, using the walls as a canvas.

Salvage My Dream and Carrie Scott-Huby will perform 10/15 minute sets on the hour, every hour incorporating live loops and instrumentation along with audience activated sensors.

The whole event co-insides with the Wakefield Art Walk which takes place on the last Wednesday of the month, every other month. That means The Art House opens its doors to the public who are free to wander round. The doors will be open from 17:00 til 21:00. No tickets are required, just come on down, follow the sounds and come and see whats happening. The Art House is in the centre of Wakefield, next door to Drury Lane Library.

(further details on times of performance will likely appear on the facebook event - http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=127536330621759&ref=ts )

www.the-arthouse.org.uk
www.myspace.com/bleechindustries - (st greg orange)
www.myspace.com/salvagemydream - (salvage my dream)
www.biroz.net - Bruce Rimmel
www.pinkmooninspires.co.uk - Carrie Scott-Huby