It’s fair to say that one of the acts of 2012 so far has been Grimes. Canadian artist Claire Boucher released her third album Visions to considerable acclaim earlier in the year (read our thoughts here). She’ll be appearing at various festivals over the summer but on Wednesday you can see her play a smaller show at XOYO. It may be slightly busy.
Another name to have made a quiet impact on the music world this year has been Perfume Genius. Here at musicOMH, we were quite taken by his second album Put Your Back N 2 It and you can see him play at St. Pancras Old Church on Thursday. Elsewhere, Ladyhawke plays Shepherd’s Bush Empire on Friday (read our interview with her here), Friends play the Scala on Wednesday (read what we thought of their last London show here) and Trailer Trash Tracys play Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen on Tuesday (read what we thought of their debut album here). We’ll be publishing photographs from that gig in the days after.
I Like Trains promote new album The Shallows at the Borderline on Monday, whilst Ben Kweller plays a show at Water Rats in support of latest release Go Fly A Kite on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Brooklyn outfit Milagres have had a lot of nice things said about them this year and they play from debut album Glowing Mouth at a show at the Barfly on Wednesday.
There’s also a fair few shows by bands/artists that have been around a little longer. Garbage make their return to the live arena with a gig at the Troxy on Wednesday, The Happy Mondays and Inspiral Carpets reunite for a pair of shows at Brixton Academy on Thursday and Friday, whilst erstwhile, fellow Mancunians The Fall appear at the Coronet on Friday. Echo & The Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch also plays a solo show at Union Chapel on Sunday.
Also taking place this week:
Monday
Richmond Fontaine - Cecil Sharp House
Tuesday
A Place To Bury Strangers - Cargo
Yacht - XOYO
Sea Of Bees - Cafe Gallery, Bethnal Green
Wednesday
Geoff Mullen/Petrels/John Chantler - Cafe Oto
Hannah Cohen - Vortex
Laura J Martin - Cafe Gallery, Bethnal Green
Tellison - Garage
Thursday
Mmoths/Solar Bears - Birthdays
Seams - Shacklewell Arms
Friday
Optimo & Planningtorock - Nest
Dub Pistols - Brixton Electric
Saturday
Amon Tobin - Brixton Academy
Cocknbullkid - Macbeth
Just announced:
The xx - Electrowerkz - 14th May / Chats Palace - 15th May / Battersea Arts Centre - 18th May
Poliça - CAMP Basement - 6th & th June
Beirut - Hammersmith Apollo - 14th September
Sharon Van Etten - Shepherd's Bush Empire - 8th October
This week also saw the first announcement of artists due to appear at this year's Meltdown festival on the Southbank. It is being curated by Anthony Hegarty and the line up is already looking special - he's managed to persuade Elizabeth Fraser to play a pair of shows, whilst the likes of Diamanda Galas, Laurie Anderson, Marc Almond, CocoRosie and William Basinski are also due to appear over the course of the fortnight in August. Read more details here.
