This week sees the musicOMH London gig diary emerge like a hibernating animal from the darkened undergrowth of the festive period, blinking in the harsh light of the new year, and once again contemplating the joys of hearing live music in the capital.
Gracious Tide, Take Me Home, the debut album by Newcastle six-piece Lanterns On The Lake featured in several end of year album lists and they play Cargo in arguably the stand-out gig of the week on Thursday. Support comes from Norwegian shoegazers Maribel.
Other notable gigs include a pair of shows on Tuesday and Wednesday by the Grammy-winning Ani DiFranco at the Union Chapel and a special audio-visual show on Saturday featuring Warp electronica veterans Plaid amongst others at KOKO.
During January 2011 Darren Hayman wrote and recorded one song per day and this month he will play them all over the course of two nights at Archway's Hideaway Bar. He plays the first of these shows on Friday (featuring the first 15 songs).
Elsewhere, the Lexington hosts gigs by Eliza Carthy, Emily Barker and Left With Pictures on Tuesday, the hotly-tipped Trailer Trash Tracys on Wednesday and David Thomas Broughton on Friday. Meanwhile an evening of "creeping dread, electro-acoustic sorcery and rural punk" is promised at new Haggerston venue Power Lunches in a show on Tuesday by Corpsekisser, Way Through and (the promisingly named) Slushy Guts. Finally, electonic newcomer Halls plays the Shacklewell Arms on Friday in support of his forthcoming Sounds Of Sweet Nothing EP.
There is also (as usual) a good selection of jazz/impov gigs at the Vortex and Cafe Oto. See below for details.
Dominic Lash / Tim Hodgkinson / Denman Maroney + John Butcher / Hannah Marsall – Café Oto – 9th January
Dunmall / Bourne / Davis / Kane – Vortex – 9th January
Nat Birchall Group – Vortex – 11th
Clara Sanabras – Vortex – 12th
Partisans – Vortex – 14th
Finally, it’s not a gig strictly speaking, but Café Oto hosts another The Wire Salon event on Thurday 12th where Adam Harper will be discussing his book Infinite Music: Imagining The Next Millenium Of Human Music-Making. The evening will also include audio and video clips and musicOMH would be in attendance if it wasn’t for the Lanterns On The Lake gig taking place at Cargo on the same night.
Just announced:
James Ferraro - Tufnell Park Dome - 1st February
Real Estate - Seabright Arms - 20th February
Grouper - Swiss Church, Covent Garden - 2nd March
Future Islands - Scala - 6th March
Natural Snow Buildings - The Victoria, Dalston - 10th March
Shearwater - The Celler - 2nd April
Of Montreal - KOKO - 25th April
Mazzy Star - Shepherd's Bush Empire - 3rd June
