May 2019 @ The Lexington

2B7B7623-166

Our pick of the best gigs this month at the Lexington AKA the countdown until we get the slushie machine out for summer…



Lily & Madeleine

+ Holiday Oscar

Wednesday 1st May

Lily and Madeleine Jurkiewicz create candid music with deep emotional and personal resonance. The sisters, who record under the moniker Lily & Madeleine, boldly explore what it means to be women in the 21st century, and aren’t afraid to use their music to call out injustices or double standards. This fearless approach has permeated their three albums, which are full of insightful lyrics and thoughtful indie-pop.

Tickets: https://dice.fm/event/lily-madeleine-1st-may-the-lexington-london-tickets


BBC Introducing Presents

Everyone You Know + Mosa Wild + Dextric + BYFYN

Thursday 2nd May

Everyone You Know
“Everyday poets, musical adventurers… they sound like nine at night and seven in the morning” – Steve Lamacq (BBC Radio 6 Music)

Fusing a sound that is a heady mix of punk and rave, guitars and hip-hop, with influences spanning The Prodigy to Arctic Monkeys, Shy FX to Kanye West; half-brothers Rhys and Harvey are EVERYONE YOU KNOW, blending their own sound of the suburbs into something that is fresh, full of fire, ferocity and passion.

Mosa Wild
Mosa Wild have announced their return with the release of a brand new single, ‘Night’ available to stream everywhere now, with accompanying video set for release w/c 8/4. ‘Night’ is taken from the band’s forthcoming debut EP ‘Talking In Circles’, which will be released on Glassnote this summer.

‘Night’ is one of the EP tracks produced by Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Bombay Bicycle Club) whilst other tracks on ‘Talking In Circles’ were produced by James Kenosha (Pulled Apart By Horses, Dry The River). The pairing results in a cohesive experimentalism to this debut EP that is grounded in the band’s huge guitar riffs and walloping drum lines, but it’s the gentle lilt of lead vocalist Jim Rubaduka’s smooth vocals and the spacious backdrop of their songs that elevates Mosa Wild beyond typical British indie tropes.

Dextric
Teaming up with GRAMMY award winning mix engineer Dan Parry (Rag n Bone Man, Adele, Loyle Carner) to release their first explosive single of 2019 ‘Wish I Could’, Dextric announce their second release of the year with ‘Sink or Swim’ – out April 26th.

Dextric AKA James Fitz-Gibbon and Charlie Jordan have an immediacy and maturity in their songwriting and production quality, drawing influences from the likes of JUNGLE, Chet Faker and Parcels amongst others.

BYFYN

BYFYN is producer and singer Ellie Isherwood. Taking influence from Grimes, Kate Bush and Animal Collective, she fuses ambient electronica with synth pop, to form her own brand of atmospheric yet catchy tracks. Following her support slot for Wyldest at London’s Sebright Arms last month, Ellie announces new single and video ‘Me and You’ set for release this May, as well as supporting Rhumba Club at The Shacklewell Arms, Tue 14 May.

Tickets: http://gigst.rs/BBCintro


Hotel Lux

Monday 6th May

Hotel Lux are back with new single ‘English Disease’, a track that initiates a new era and clear step up in songwriting for the band. The five piece have taken their time to discover their sound, finding a dark side after their “Sleaford Mods Tribute Act” beginnings, and now towards a chorus driven, true reflection of the everyday voice.

Whilst juggling tours with shame, Slaves, Fontaines D.C. and The Chats and writing new songs, the band have been watching, laughing and and deliberating over the state of the country, and the people within it. Rather than re write and re do the Hotel Lux that people expect, with dark dissatisfaction, the band, this time, mock and poke fun. This is all to be seen in ‘English Disease’ where frontman Lewis Duffin drones lyrics about The Pub, Danny Dyer and Lady Diana. Highlighting those boozy pub chats and exposing everyday british frailties and failures.

Tickets: https://www.alttickets.com/hotel-lux-tickets/london-the-lexington/2019-05-06-19-30


Altopalo

Tuesday 7th May

altopalo is a four piece band formed and based in New York City. Originally coming together in school because of a love and appreciation for similar music, the group began playing with and around one another in the city. Made up of Mike Haldeman (guitar), Jesse Bielenberg (bass), Dillon Treacy (drums), and Rahm Silverglade (vocals, keys), the band escapes away to Rahm’s childhood home in Indiana a few times a year to take a break from various tours and create the unique and genre-defying music of altopalo. Their music is elegant and provoking without pretension. After receiving the glowing approval from PItchfork, DIY Magazine, Consequence of Sound and beyond for their debut album frozenthere, they are certain to continue pushing boundaries for their second project due out in 2019.

Tickets: https://www.gigsandtours.com/tour/altopalo


Hand Habits

Wednesday 8th May

Meg Duffy grew up in a small town in Upstate New York and they cut their teeth as a session guitarist and touring member of Kevin Morby’s band. The Hand Habits project emerged after Meg moved to Los Angeles; it started as a private songwriting outlet but soon evolved into a fully-fledged band with Meg at the helm. Hand Habits’ debut album, Wildly Idle (Humble Before The Void), was released by Woodsist Records in 2017. Two years later, Hand Habits has returned with their sophomore album, placeholder, due out March 1st on Saddle Creek.

SOLD OUT


Prateek Kuhad

Friday 10th May

Kuhad’s songs are poignant and introspective, transcending genres and borders in order to speak to the deeper truths of our shared human experience in all its messy splendor. Sometimes whisper soft, sometimes tenaciously resolute, his voice is utterly mesmerizing, often floating out over gently fingerpicked guitars or ethereal synthesizers to tap into deep wells of emotion. The music calls to mind everything from The Tallest Man on Earth to The Head and The Heart, but it’s all filtered through Kuhad’s uniquely global perspective and vivid, richly cinematic lyrics.

SOLD OUT


Big Joanie

+ Emily Breeze + Ye Nuns

Sunday 12th May 2pm (All Ages Matinee)

Big Joanie are a black feminist punk band. They’re like The Ronettes filtered through 80s DIY and 90s riot grrrl, with a sprinkling of dashikis.

Emily Breeze – “Rebel music, the lovechild of P.J Harvey and Johnny Cash” (The Sunday Times)

Ye Nuns – “All female Monks tribute band Ye Nuns are fantastic. Way better than any obsolescent nu-garage rock revolution group I’ve ever seen.” The Quietus

THIS IS AN ALL AGES SHOW – ALL CHILDREN MUST BE ACCOMPANIED – the Lexington becomes 18+ at 5pm – the show will finish around 4.30pm

Tickets: https://www.wegottickets.com/event/463513


Kōenji_Hyakkei

+ The Brackish

Sunday 12th May

Koenji Hyakkei is a Japanese Progressive Rock band formed by Tatsuya Yoshida (of the renowned drum and bass duo Ruins.) and Kubota Aki (the first singer who passed away last year) in 1991. In the early period of the band activity, they took over the musicality of Kubota’s predecessor band MALINCONIA, and aimed for fusion of Kubota’s operatic voice and punk rock. By the time they released the first album in 1994, the band got progressive rock color stronger, becoming a Magma like sound as saying to put a threatening chorus on the irregular beat unison. The language of the lyrics is a coined word, which is also greatly influenced by European languages such as Magma’s Kobaian, Italian and German. However, Yoshida’s lyrics have no meaning, only emphasis on the sound of words. on their album Angherr Shisspa in 2005, they have replaced the guitar player to soprano sax. With this change in instrumentation, their style has veered into a new direction to match the change in tone color, shift to Chamber Rock or Rock in Opposition style, also elements of jazz included.Through their evolution of style, their rhythmic and formal complexity have expanded greatly, incorporating polyrhythms, asymmetrical time signatures, as well as more complex and varied sections, often containing polyphony and counterpoint. in this period band has been played in world wide Prog Festival such as FIMAV (2007) Nearfest (2008) Gouveia art Rock (2008) Rock In Opposition (2009). After a couple of years after the suspension of the activity, the band resumed activities with a new guitarist. And finally they released the studio album for the first time in 13 years last year, and they are highly appreciated in various places.

Tickets: https://babayagashut.seetickets.com/event/koenji-hyakkei/the-lexington-london/1306694


Stonefield

Monday 13th May

Australian, psych-rock luminaries Stonefield, have hit the ground running with a busy, and very exciting 2019. As they wrap up their first tour of the year, supporting King Tuff on his North American dates, the band has announced they will be entering the studio with King Gizzard’s Stu Mackenzie and Joey Walker for the follow-up LP to last year’s Far From Earth (Flightless), as well as a UK/EU Tour in May and June. The tour includes several festival stops including Desertfest, The Great Escape, Maifeld Derby and Tomavistas.

Tickets: https://rockfeedback.seetickets.com/event/stonefield/the-lexington/1315186


Ohtis

Wednesday 15th May

The beautifully dark country-Americana and vivid lyricism on Curve of Earth is a fitting introduction to songwriter Sam Swinson’s autobiographical journey through indoctrination and addiction; an endlessly inviting confession from his past battles with substance abuse, and the religious demons lingering from his upbringing in a fundamentalist evangelical cult.

Ohtis originally formed when Swinson and co-founder Adam Pressley were sophomores at high school in Normal, Illinois. They self-released their first material on small run CD-Rs while still teenagers, primarily to a local audience. Their partnership has defined Ohtis, accompanied by a revolving cast of local musicians joining the live act over the years, including re-joining mainstay member and multi-instrumentalist Nate Hahn.

At times unbearably sparse, at others lush, Curve of Earth is a brutal yet alluring creative achievement. “The songs happen spontaneously,” Sam explains. “I like to do it that way. The songs have been around for so long, and they weren’t intended to be on a record, but they kind of seemed to follow my life as it was happening. All those songs felt like they would fit with each other on an album.”

Tickets: https://birdonthewire.seetickets.com/go/ohtisthelexington


 

The Murder Capital

Thursday 16th May

The Murder Capital are outrageously exciting live. The young Dublin quintet’s brutal art-punk rock is thrilling on the edge of terrifying: new year fireworks in a metal tent.

You won’t hear much on streaming sites yet, and what’s there can’t quite capture the unreasonable thrill of their brooding stage presence. Schoolyard-forged friends looking like a Victorian gentlemen’s boxing gang on parole – even sometimes playing while gently butting heads – they simmer with menace while weaving around each other on the tiny stages their pawing intensity has long outgrown.

Tickets: https://www.livenation.co.uk/show/1252759/the-murder-capital/london/2019-05-16/en


Glitter Machine

+ Oh Baby

Saturday 18th May

The burning question on everybody’s lips is just who the hell are Glitter Machine? So why not do yourselves a favour and give them a listen. With current viewing figures on YouTube of 730k for Take The Pain and 100k for Black Bird it appears that quite a lot of people out there already know just who this band are and what it is that they’re up to. One thing is for sure, if they continue to write, record and perform music like this, then they certainly won’t be hanging out for fame too much longer. They promise a tour of Europe this spring which really is one to look out for. The band say “We make music….. Music is what we do” So if you like your music loud with raw vocals, searing guitars, a driving bass, and thumping drums then keep the 18th May free and get yourself over to The Lexington in London.

Oh Baby was created ‘to fill a void in our own record collections, specifically between the letters N and P’. With a sound that depicts ‘factories at dusk, an aversion to sentimentality and an electronic take on the human condition’, they are writing and recording their first mini album between London, Manchester and LA, set for release in 2019.

Tickets: https://dice.fm/partner/dice/event/babbv-glitter-machine-18th-may-the-lexington-london-tickets?_branch_match_id=329703936153659397


MF Tomlinson

Wednesday 22nd May

The songs of MF Tomlinson are the down-but-not-out chronicles of ordinary life, widescreen portraits of his relationships and neighbourhood painted with a cast of talented collaborators. MF’s on a musical mission to turn up the transcendental in his everyday experiences.

May 22nd will be the launch show of his first offering ‘Nature Boy’, set for release on the 17th of April. Cinematic soul synths grounded by a thundering baseline, a sonic collision between Todd Rundgren and Dr Dre. In vocals that alternately shamble and soar, MF evokes eden ahbez’s Nature Boy in 2019: asking how to do good in our maybe-doomed world.

While this is the debut for MF Tomlinson, it follows a series of packed out shows under the alias Nature Boy at Paper Dress & The Sebright Arms. He’ll be joined onstage by his collaborators Angus Rudd, Ed Grimshaw, Ami Koda, Connie Chatwin and Viljam Nybecka as well as some very special support acts.

Tickets: https://www.seetickets.com/event/mf-tomlinson/the-lexington-london/1361861


Lauran Hibberd

Thursday 23rd May

Lauran Hibberd deliver a punk rock happy-go-lucky track that oozes flavour from its core.

Sugardaddy is clearly a song about what it says on the tin, with lyrics like “you write me a cheque, its like you never care if I’m upset” brings out the humour in this feisty hit of a record. Lauran you are onto something here, I love it!!!

The Isle of Wight-raised, fuzzed up Indie/Rock artist claims: “Don’t tell me stories, I’ll write songs about them”

Listed by BBC Radio One’s Huw Stephens as ‘One to Watch’ in 2019, and supported by BBC Introducing, after picking up track of the week with Call Shotgun. – Fresh On The Net

Tickets: https://rockfeedback.seetickets.com/event/lauran-hibberd/the-lexington/1319468


Tomberlin 

+ Dana Gavanski

Friday 24th May

On her deeply moving debut album At Weddings, Sarah Beth Tomberlin writes with the clarity and wisdom of an artist well beyond her years. Immeasurable space circulates within the album’s ten songs, which set Tomberlin’s searching voice against lush backdrops of piano and guitar. Like Julien Baker and Sufjan Stevens, she has a knack for transforming the personal into parable. Like Grouper, she has a feel for the transcendent within the ordinary.

Tickets: https://rockfeedback.seetickets.com/event/tomberlin/the-lexington/1307314?fbclid=IwAR3LtBvWpmi_u7fSXbPgjf01nYEQyZRmeyRQKKiPy_EWK6cpHjtbGkbZhB0


Angie McMahon

Tuesday 28th May

Melbourne singer-songwriter, Angie McMahon oozes absolute charm and songwriting power. Soak up her bold vocals and beautiful guitar tones with her debut track ‘Slow Mover’. – June Unearthed

Tickets: https://tickets.lnk.to/AngieMcMahon


John

+ Girls in Synthesis + Bo Gritz

Fresh from a twenty-six date European tour supporting IDLES at the back end of last year, JOHN announce their biggest headline show to date – at celebrated London venue The Lexington. Following swiftly in 2018’s footsteps, the somewhat cryptically named duo have recently recorded a live session for influential Seattle-based radio station KEXP. A moment that cemented their reputation as their unique live force, demonstrating a mechanical solidity rare for only two bodies. With new material slated for release this year (following up 2017’s acclaimed debut God Speed In The National Limit), Club The Mammoth is very excited to present the uncompromising and unrelenting energy that is JOHN.

‘In this post-truth world where alternative facts get squeezed out via the distorted prism of social media, the simplicity of a band like JOHN makes for a refreshing tonic’ Loud & Quiet Magazine

‘It’s lean, fierce, and undeniably punk. London duo JOHN echoes that simplicity with their own name and possesses the frantic punk sound to back it up. They’ve found themselves in good company, touring with the current wave of UK punk acts like IDLES, USA Nails, and Pulled Apart By Horses’

Tickets: https://www.seetickets.com/event/john/the-lexington/1313818