A dependable friend in these troubled and faddy times, Rough Trade Shops’ RoTa afternoons have been running like clockwork for 10 years now, every Saturday 4pm – 8pm and ALWAYS FREE ENTRY. TLOBF were asked to curate our first RoTa of 2010 this weekend, and suffice to say – we did it in style.

Causing a huge queue down the street before the doors were even open, the stellar lineup of The Last Dinosaur, Stairs To Korea, Yuck and the live debut of Summer Camp was the talk of the town. We’re still coming down from the sheer awesomeness of it all. Wonderful bands, a venue packed to the rafters with splendid human beings and not to mention the excellent DJing skills of the Transparent Blog crew.

Check out the wonderful shots taken by our resident photographer Paul Bridgewater below. If you were there, we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below! Until next time… Continue Reading

FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE | LAST.FM | SONGKICK

A dependable friend in these troubled and faddy times, Rough Trade Shops’ RoTa afternoons have been running like clockwork for 10 years now, every Saturday 4pm – 8pm and ALWAYS FREE ENTRY. The first TLOBF curated RoTa event of 2010 will take place on March 13th as an “unofficial warm-up” to the Grizzly Bear and Memory Tapes shows happening either side of town later in the evening. Tempted?

BLOODY NOSE
In the words of omnipotent Star Trek space douche Q, “If you can’t take a little Bloody Nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It’s not safe out here. It’s wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it’s not for the timid.” So gird your loins, and don’t forget your cameras. You won’t want to miss this.

THE LAST DINOSAUR
The Last Dinosaur release their epic debut album “Hooray! For Happiness” on April 19th. Featuring a breathtaking collection of songs that flawlessly tie together lo-fi late night bedroom recordings with flourishes of sweeping post-rock and gorgeous strings. Think of it as a soundtrack to the film playing in your head; the greatest film never made.
www.myspace.com/thelastdinosauruk

YUCK
Barely a few months old and Yuck have already been picked up by Pitchfork and The Guardian. Formed from the ruins of Cajun Dance Party and signed to Transparent, the band met in the desert; Danny was wearing a Daniel Johnston T-shirt; Jonny was wearing an Animal Collective one. They bonded over iced-tea and a mutual love of J Mascis and decided to create their own freak scene. Yuck was born.
www.myspace.com/yuckband

STAIRS TO KOREA
Stairs To Korea is Will Vaughan, a frighteningly talented half-Icelandic multi-instrumentalist who crafts skewed pop music using an array of effects, synthesisers and a dinky white guitar. Sugar-coated harmonies meet bended brass lines and intricate guitar motifs in his unique paens to growing up, going out and getting lost in the 21st century. “Your New Favourite Band Is Here” – Huw Stephens, BBC Introducing
www.myspace.com/stairstokorea

+ DJ SETS FROM TRANSPARENT & TLOBF
www.transparentblog.com / www.thelineofbestfit.com

“Shhh”
Saturday 23rd January 2010.
Cecil Sharp House, Gloucester Avenue, Camden NW1

Why “Shhh”?
When was the last time you were at a show and the audience were actually quiet during the performance. Where all you could hear in-between songs was the faint hum of an air conditioning unit… Where you didn’t dare exhale, or press “click” on your camera – just in case you disturbed the performer(s). See, the phrase “you could hear a pin drop” shouldn’t just have to be associated with the Bon Iver’s of this world. All artists deserve the respect of the paying punter… They’re on stage, performing their arts and crafts for US – the discerning music fan. So why are venues up and down the world filled with noisy, foolish oiks who prefer to chitter chatter their way through a bands set – ringing their mate and holding their mobile aloft – filming every moment on a crappy camera phone and uploading it to [a.] typical Social Networking site… Why can’t they just shut the hell up? Listen. “Shhhhhhhh!”

“Shhh…” is standing up against the noise mongers of the world and hitting back with an all day celebration of quiet music. Taking place in the beautiful surroundings of Cecil Sharp House in Camden, North London – the event will be a chance for performers and audience alike to come together in quiet unison. Now into it’s fourth year, starting at The Spitz back in who knows when, The Local has presented all manner of the quiet stuff in sympathetic surrounds, and the good news is: everyone listens.

Of course the bands are not ALWAYS super quiet, but the audience is. We’ll be bringing in our ShhUshers for the event, and you can be guaranteed a perfect listening environment for some of the finest artists around. And some surprises too. It will be a tranquil affair to say the least, featuring special performances from DAVID THOMAS BROUGHTON, SAM AMIDON, DAN MICHAELSON & THE COASTGUARDS, JON HOPKINS and TIM AND SAM’S TIM AND SAM BAND WITH TIM AND SAM. (full lineup listed below)

Tickets priced at £12.50
On sale now from SeeTickets

Visit the Facebook Event Page

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We’re slowly recovering from a heavy night on the sauce after our sister company – ILL FIT – celebrated Christmas in style last night at The Social. A truly star-studded affair with The Duke Spirit, Ryan Jarman from The Cribs, Josh Weller, Huw Stephens and Wichita Records all in attendance. Some great music from The Lost Levels and The Forest & The Trees who entertained the throng up ’till 1am. ‘Twas good fun indeed. But why stop there…. Let’s do it all over again!

Yes, along with London promoters The Local, we’re hosting the official TLOBF Xmas Party tomorrow night at The Rest Is Noise, Brixton (next to the Brixton Academy). Playing live, The Forest & The Trees – the incredible new signing to ILL FIT Recordings and a headline set from The Tailors – whose recent album Come Dig Me Up has received rave reviews left, right and centre.

We’ll kick things off at about 8pm and run until 1am. There will be DJ sets from both TLOBF and The Local and it’s FREE ENTRY all evening. Come on down and meet some TLOBF staff writers for some face to face chit chat, instead of all this Twitter nonsense. See you there!

The Rest Is Noise
442 Brixton Road, Brixton, London, SW9 8EJ
www.therestisnoisebrixton.com

We’re thrilled to be able to announce a very special, one off performance next year from The Willkommen Orchestra: an outfit made up of various members of Shoreline, The Leisure Society, The Climbers, Sons Of Noel and Adrian and The Miserable Rich.

The show, which takes place at Kings Place, London on 27th February 2010 will feature about three or four songs each from Shoreline, Sons Of Noel and Adrian, The Miserable Rich and The Climbers repertoires all scaled up and played by one big band – ie. The Willkommen Orchestra. Interestingly, it’ll be the first time any of The Climbers (a side project from Nick and Christian of The Leisure Society) songs have been played live, ahead of their debut album release in March.

It’s safe to say that 2009 has been the most successful yet for the Willkommen Collective; Sons Of Noel and Adrian have supported Laura Marling at Royal Festival Hall, Efterklang at the Barbican and doubled up with Shoreline for a tour with Mumford and Sons; The Leisure Society have gone from headlining the TLOBF Club Night in front of 100 people just over a year ago, to selling out shows left, right and centre – not to mention the Ivor Novello nomination and their debut album The Sleeper appearing in Rough Trade Shops end of year list for best album of 2009. *phew* – With the release of The Climbers album and new material from The Leisure Society in the pipeline, 2010 is set to be just as good.

An ever expanding co-operative – the Willkommen Collective is a group of like minded souls who gathered along the way when Shoreline’s Tom Cowan and Jacob Richardson from Sons of Noel and Adrian made their pilgrimage to Brighton’s pastoral, bohemian climes with the view to creating a self-sufficient musical alliance. After Cowan grouped a dozen musicians together to perform his music in Shoreline, many revealed themselves to be songwriters and used the ready assembled pool of musicians to realise their ambitions, resulting in countless wildly different projects utilising many of the same band members. Aside from the Collective’s welcoming nature, the name Willkommen pays homage to cellist and beard cultivator, Will Calderbank, who almost every group have in common.

Tickets for this amazing show are available now from the Kings Place website and are priced between £9.50 – £15.50 (depending on seat location).

As we’re the official media partner for this event, we’ll be bringing you exclusive mp3’s, interviews and competitions in the run up to the show. Keep your eyes peeled, and, if you’re worried about missing out on any breaking news – you can sign up to our weekly email based newsletter here.

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The Notwist & The Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra

The Arctic Circle in association with The Line Of Best Fit are incredibly excited to be announcing a very unique concert involving one of our favourite bands.

After many a celebrated concert in Hamburg, Amsterdam, Munich and Cologne, The Notwist & The Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra will be playing at the Union Chapel in London on the 12th December.

The combination of a 20-piece orchestra with a 5-piece band from Bavaria, holds a lot more promise than the typical “Rock meets Classical” set up. Instead, old and new Notwist songs are elaborated upon to form extremely complex and intelligent orchestral arrangements that are sometimes moody and often happily insane but live up to high expectations.

The Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra make music in their very own galaxy – a similar one to which Raymond Scott, Sun Ra or Bach and Beethoven must have once passed by.

These evenings celebrate a new interpretation and elaboration of the Notwistian songbook, which due to logistical reasons can only take place on a few very special occasions.

Last year, The Notwist released their album The Devil, You and Me via City Slang, for which the The Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Glatzel, contributed important orchestral arrangements. The Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra released their first album Take Off in May, on Notwist’s own label, Alien Transistor. Over the last two years the Munich based documentary filmmaker, Jörg Adolph, filmed the coming together of these two ensembles on stage and off. The DVD of the film Music, No Music will be available in stores from December, right on time for the tour.

Tickets for the show will go on sale this Friday 11 Sept at 10am. For further information visit: http://www.jointhecircle.net/

Need convincing? Watch the following clip of ‘Boneless’ below.

Photo credit: Susen Mueller

Day 3 of our Willkommen Week. Todays audio interview is with sometime member of Sons of Noel and Adrian, full-time singer songwriter Rowan Coupland. News reaches us that his set at the Willkommen Evening this Friday (12th June) at Union Chapel will see Rowan perform a suite of songs based around birth, life and death. He’ll be backed by a Willkommen choir and there will be lyric sheets for the audience. He plans to turn the Union Chapel into a reverberating sound cave. Sounds epic huh?

Hear what else Rowan has to say below, and remember (as if you need reminding) the TLOBF Sponsored Union Chapel show  is taking place THIS Friday (12th June). For more information and to purchase a ticket, visit the Arctic Circle website.

Audio Interview: ‘Rowan Coupland’
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Following on from yesterdays The Leisure Society audio interview and Sons Of Noel and Adrian live session, today Tom Cowan – one of the main guys responsible for Willkommen Records talks to Ben Eshmade about the history of the label and indeed one of the many bands he plays in: Shoreline.

Keep checking back all week for exclusive content from Sons of Noel and Adrian, Laish Quartet and Rowan Coupland.

Tickets are still available for the TLOBF Sponsored Union Chapel show that is taking place this Friday (12th June). For more information and to purchase a ticket, visit the Arctic Circle website.

Audio Interview: ‘Tom Cowan of Shoreline’
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Anyone looking for an excuse to go to the Willkommen evening at the Union Chapel this Friday night (12th June) seriously needs to download this exclusive recording which is, funnily enough, taken from a Sons Of Noel and Adrian set at the very same venue last June.

Brought to us by Arctic Circle, the guys behind the Willkommen evening that TLOBF are proudly sponsoring, enjoy ‘Kernow’, ‘Inside Olympia’ and a rousing rendition of ‘The Wreck Is Not A Boat’.

Keep checking back all week for more exclusive content from Sons of Noel and Adrian, Laish Quartet, Rowan Coupland and Shoreline. We’ll be featuring competitions and audio interviews from each of the bands playing on the 12th.

Tickets are still available for £10. For more information and to purchase a ticket, visit the Arctic Circle website.

Live Session: ‘Sons Of Noel and Adrian: ‘Live at Union Chapel 2008′
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Photograph by Sonny Malhotra

To coincide with perhaps the most exciting show TLOBF have been involved with so far (that being the Willkommen Records evening taking place at London’s prestigious Union Chapel on 12th June) we are running a special Willkommen Week featuring exclusive content from all the bands playing at the event.

To kick things off, we have an audio interview with Nick Hemming of recent Ivor Novello nominees The Lesiure Society. Ben Eshmade, the driving force behind the Willkommen evening caught up with Nick last week to chat about what the label means to him as an artist.

Keep checking back all week for exclusive content from Sons of Noel and Adrian, Laish Quartet, Rowan Coupland and Shoreline. We’ll be featuring competitions, special live recordings and indeed – more audio interviews from each of the bands playing on the 12th.

Tickets are still available for £10. For more information and to purchase a ticket, visit the Arctic Circle website.

Audio Interview: ‘Nick Hemming of The Leisure Society
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We are thrilled to announce that Scottish quintet and firm TLOBF favourites My Latest Novel are to launch their brand new album Deaths & Entrances at a special concert at Bush Hall, London on May 25th.

The show, which TLOBF have arranged in conjunction with The Moonshine Jamboree will also feature the folk-loveliness of Stars Of Sunday League and chamber pop favourites Left With Pictures and 4AD’s newest signings It Hugs Back. The world famous Bella Union DJs Carpet Byrne and Jupiter Bottleburst will be spinning tunes in between acts. An evening of sheer joy – guaranteed.

Tickets are on sale now priced at £8. Get yours here. Or, if you follow TLOBF on Twitter, you can get yourselves on the cheap list for £6! Just look at past tweets for info how.

For those of you that are itching to hear the new album, we posted an exclusive track ‘All In All Is All’ a few weeks ago.  Defiant and dramatic with soaring instrumentation and gorgeous harmonies – the song is a definite standout from an all round glorious album. Give it a listen here.

We will be announcing two support acts very soon, so keep your eyes peeled. For now, feel free to take guesses as to who they may be!

Deaths & Entrances will be released via Bella Union on May 18th. My Latest Novel will be touring the UK in full throughout May, check their website for further details.

White Denim, set to headline this months TLOBF club night

ILL FIT and ADVENTURES IN THE BEETROOT FIELD
present

ILL FIT 5:  SWEAT & BLOOD

WHITE DENIM (live)
THE GAY BLADES (live)
AIR FRANCE (DJ set)

+ ILL FIT DJs
+ free CDs, free shots and free, full and frank expression of views.

Good line-up, right?   Daaaaamn straight.

WHITE DENIM are doing a whistlestop tour of the UK;
THE GAY BLADES are settling in for a three week trek around the whole country (visit their MySpace for details) leading up to the June 8th release of their debut lp GHOSTS;
AIR FRANCE are over to host the party at St Etienne’s pair of Bloomsbury Lane shows and to remix a track from Fox Base Alpha and are staying to play this night too.

Now if this isn’t the coolest, hottest, sweatiest and dammit, sexiest night of the year so far, then I don’t know what is.

The summer starts right here.

We will of course be bringing for you a ton of swag, CDs, T shirts general loot as well as those stunning bands. Maybe even we will have the new free SIC mixtape, Listening Is Easy, for your delectation.   All new shit from SIC and close personal friends with a running order that will knock your fucking socks off.

Alas it ain’t free this time.  Don’t blame us.  But it’s £6 only.  It’s up to you but all I’m saying is.. Tickets here.

If you are thinking “that will sell out right away”, then I agree with you, smartypants

See you there.  Don’t bring a coat, it’s gonna be HOT as hell.

After a series of happy episodes at The Old Blue Last, ILL FIT (TLOBF’s club night) ups sticks and moves to an entirely new venue, the luxurious Scala, Kings Cross. A bigger room, a bigger stage – how better to fill it than with some of our favourite, music-making friends of ours?

Predictably, by the time The Leisure Society open up the night and break out of the stalls for the all-new ILL FIT  the place is bristling with TLOBF regulars, including the very slightly bizarre spectacle of a full-roster of TLOBF London-based photographers clustered around the stage. The show tonight concludes The Leisure Society’s debut UK tour, so obviously the band are on top form and fine voice. Playing a condensed set of album favourites ‘Save It For Someone Who Cares’, ‘Last Of The Melting Snow’ and ‘Love’s Enormous Wings’  they also toss in a cover of the Gary Numan classic ‘Cars’. Lucky.

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Sons of Noel and Adrian | Photograph by Owen Richards

It’s a busy busy time for the members of Sons Of Noel and Adrian. Not only are a moderate amount of the Brighton-based folk collective moonlighting with The Leisure Society on their (TLOBF Sponsored) UK tour, they’ve just announced a ten-date headlining tour of their own! Yes, the Sons – who are all a part of the hugely exciting Willkommen Collective (which in simple terms, is to folk what Broken Social Scene are to indie – only based in Brighton, not Canada) will be taking in all the major cities and towns throughout April, culminating with a homecoming show at the Pavillion Theatre in Brighton.

April
22nd: CANTERBURY - Orange Street Music Club 
TICKETS call 01227 760801 | FACEBOOK | LAST.FM 
23rd: LONDON - Indoor Picnic @ The Wilmington Arms - TICKETS | FACEBOOK | LAST.FM
24th: MANCHESTER - Red Deer Club @ Klondyke Bowls Club - TICKETS | FACEBOOK | LAST.FM
25th: GLASGOW - Nice n Sleazy - TICKETS | FACEBOOK | LAST.FM
26th: NEWCASTLE - The End Bar - TICKETS | FACEBOOK | LAST.FM 
27th: CARDIFF - Buffalo Bar - TICKETS | FACEBOOK | LAST.FM
28th: BRISTOL - Mothers Ruin - TICKETS | FACEBOOK | LAST.FM
29th: FALMOUTH - Miss Peapods - TICKETS | FACEBOOK | LAST.FM 
30th: WINCHESTER - The Railway - TICKETS | FACEBOOK | LAST.FM

May
2nd: BRIGHTON - The Pavillion Theatre - TICKETS | FACEBOOK | LAST.FM

In other news, the members of the Willkommen Collective (Sons Of Noel and Adrian, Shoreline, The Leisure Society) will be performing at a very, very special show at Londons Union Chapel on Friday 12th June. The collective will be joined by Sweet Billy Pilgrim plus other Willkommen artists yet to be confirmed. It is guaranteed to be an extra special night and will definitely not be your standard gig, oh no. There will be bands and artists performing all around the church, from the entrance hall to the balconies, the pews to the toilets (maybe). What’s more, the entire evening is being sponsored by TLOBF(!) – so expect competitions galore nearer the time of the show. Keep your eyes peeled for more info.

For now though, you can order your tickets here for £10.

Our dear friends The Leisure Society have today announced two very special things.

Special thing number 1:
They are set to play our TLOBF Club Night @ Scala on 14 April. Full details here.

Special thing number 2:
TLOBF have been chosen as official sponsors of their upcoming tour of the UK.

Yes, ’tis true. Look out for a daily tour diary, amazing competitions, interviews and whatever else we can think of in the meantime.

Tickets for the  tour are on sale now and being snagged very quickly. So act fast if you want a piece of the action. The eleven date tour is in support of their debut album The Sleeper, released 23rd March via Willkommen Records. Expect a ton of album cuts plus a few suprise cover versions along the way.

March
25th: BRIGHTON – Resident Records instore –  FREE! | LAST.FM
26th: LONDON – Luminaire –  TICKETS SELLING FAST! | LAST.FM
27th: BRISTOL – Louisiana – TICKETS | LAST.FM

April
3rd: MIDDLESBROUGH – Westgarth Social Club – TICKETS | LAST.FM
4th: LIVERPOOL – St. Bride’s Church – TICKETS : 0151 708 8815 | LAST.FM
5th: LEEDS – Royal Park Cellars – TICKETS | LAST.FM
9th: BIRMINGHAM – The Glee Club – TICKETS SELLING FAST! | LAST.FM
10th: MANCHESTER -The Ruby Lounge – TICKETS | LAST.FM
11th: GLASGOW – The Classic Grand – TICKETS | LAST.FM
12th: NOTTINGHAM – The Bodega - TICKETS
14th: LONDON – Scala* – TICKETS | LAST.FM | FACEBOOK

*supporting Loney dear

Don’t forget – The Leisure Society’s brand new single ‘Matter Of Time’ is released as a digital download on 16th March. It features two new tracks, ‘A Passing Thought’ and my personal favourite TLS track ‘Pancake Day’. Pre-order it here.

To give you an idea of what to expect on tour, check out this lovely rendition of debut single ‘Last Of The Melting Snow’ below…