The Answering Machine are a local Manchester band I’ve been a big fan of since their early days. I think the first time I saw them live was during July 2006 – at an Akoustik Anarkhy night at the Manchester Rampant Lion and a few days later at Salford Islington Mill.
Since those humble Fallowfield beginnings, the band have:
upgraded their drum machine (‘Mustafabeat’) with full-time member Ben Perry
been selected to appear on the FIFA 10 soundtrack next month
The Answering Machine released their excellent debut album Another City, Another Sorry back in June this year ("perfect pop songs… a fantastic debut" NME 8/10). Annoyingly the only Answering Machine tracks on Spotify are the two from their 2007 lo-fi single ‘Lightbulbs’, but if you like the sound of the YouTube videos from their recent Manchester Ruby Lounge gig (posted today), you can pick up the album from Amazon.co.uk – or even better, go and see them live next month!
The Answering Machine embark on a UK tour in October:
I love the band’s sleeve artwork… the logo, typeface and layout are wonderful but what really stands out are the beautiful images of Manchester by talented photographer Nicola Chipman
Back in those hazy summer days of June, Beat The Radar supported The Longcut at the Manchester Deaf Institute. You can check out below a few video clips I shot from the audience (NB: the HD 720p videos below might play smoother if you click on the direct YouTube links)
I first found out about Alessi’s Ark through Adam and Joe’s 6Music show and their repeated plays of the magical single ‘Over The Hill‘. I missed the opportunity to catch Alessi live in Manchester back in May, so I was happy to spot her on the line-up for Hard Rock Calling in London’s Hyde Park (alongside Neil Young, Fleet Foxes, Seasick Steve, Magic Numbers, Johnny Flynn, Priscilla Ahn, The Pretenders). Whilst the other artists were scheduled for the ‘Main’ and ‘Pepsi Max’ stages, Alessi’s Ark played on the much more intimate Bandstand stage.
Alessi and her band played 8 tunes and I videoed 7 of them for you:
Alessi’s Ark – Hard Rock Calling setlist:
1. The Robot
2. Over The Hill
3. The Dog
4. Dancing Feet
5. Asteroids Collide [not videoed]
6. The Horse
7. Neighbour’s Birds
8. Glendora
I’m particularly fond of the beautiful lyrics to ‘Dancing Feet’, and the whig-out jam towards the end of ‘Glendora’ :)
The video was shot on a handheld camera (Panasonic Lumix TZ7) – apparently in HD (1280×720), although the quality isn’t that great…
Alessi’s Ark – The Robot (live at Hyde Park 27th June 2009) [1/8] 3m07 YouTube
Air Cav played a gig at the Manchester Night & Day a few weeks ago (Saturday 10th May 2008), and the Channel M cameras were there to record the show. The gig was broadcast on the channel over the Bank Holiday weekend (Mon 26th May @ 10pm) – but if you missed it you can check it out below:
The songs aired were:
‘A Call to Arms’
‘Friendly Fire’
‘Alliance’
‘Branches’
‘Embers’
You can catch Air Cav live at the Wychwood Festival in Gloucestershire on Friday 30th May, and at Manchester Fuel on Saturday June 7th
The band release their new single ‘Embers/Picking at the Bones’ on 7th July 2008 and plan to hold a party to celebrate the release of the record on Saturday 5th July
The very wonderful Manchester-based The Tim and Sam band (and their tune ‘Put Your Slippers On’) have been used by the Co-operative bank in an advert to “celebrate the Co-Op’s 15th anniversary of their unique customer-led Ethical Policy”
IndieMusicBlog were lucky enough to catch the band (billed as Tim And Sam’s Tim And Sam Band With Tim And Sam) live last month at Blowout in Chorlton, and we’re definitely new converts.
We’ve been obsessed with San Diego’s The Album Leaf for the best part of a year, so we were delighted to discover a homegrown band that plucked similar heartstrings
The band are currently recording their debut album, and have a few Manchester dates coming up in the next month – check their MySpace for details
Manchester In The City 2009 - use the Twitter hashtag 
