Let’s take a future frolic through February in Birmingham…
Various spaces of the Internet have been blogging about Swim Deep’s latest single offering: ‘King City’. Blogs have been thrown into a race, trying to express how good the song is better than the last blog. The song in question is a corker and Birmingham’s music scene has collectively been wearing a smug grin ever since. Swim Deep have been a cult concern in Birmingham for a while now but now the cult seems to be getting a tad bulkier. Swim Deep’s ripple is slowly turning into a wave. Seek out ‘King City’ and let your ears talk it over with your mind to see if you love it as much as the majority.
What better way to show off this shiny new band than putting them on a support slot with Liverpool’s Outfit at The Rainbow? Well, we could build a statue of them but statues simply can’t perform like the real thing. Taking place on the 18th February it’s worth attending for the venue alone; The Rainbow is a delightfully dark setting with its black-clad walls and warehouse space (the colours of the rainbow are not to be seen anywhere).
The Rainbow won’t be closing its doors for very long throughout February as it is soon to be playing host to a lot of thundering and suit wearing. Spector are in town, and their gig on the 23rd February is yet another excuse for Birmingham to show off its grown at home talent. Silver Souvenirs are on support duty and they aren’t going to be sleeping on the job. They have been hard at work crafting danceable music from their guitars for an admirable amount of time. Why let the admiring stop? I’d be hopping on the train to catch this gig if I were you. I’m not you, no, but I’m still getting on down. That’s for sure.
Last September saw a bright eyed and bushy tailed bunch of University freshers added to the population of Birmingham. Some of these freshers were of the musical variety, with Flaming Fields and New Carnival being amongst the cream of the crop. New Carnival have been lapped up by This Is Tomorrow, one of Birmingham’s most notorious promotion syndicates, who chucked them on the bill for their Casiokids show at the Hare And Hounds. Flaming Fields have already found themselves on the Sunflower Lounge’s stage, bashing out their glamorous indie rock’n’roll. Expect to see more of these guys around sharpish-ly soon-ish.
Now where would all these bands be without a radio station backing them? Scratch Radio is the place to be for Birmingham’s new music. The New Music show broadcasts online, Monday nights from 6-8pm. The playlist acts as a home for Brummie bands such as Peace, Corelli and Troumaca among others on a weekly basis.
Your diary should now be full of the key words: Birmingham, Rainbow and Scratch. Ending this calendar month in style is the pleasure of SBTRKT and Disclosure who will be hitting up Birmingham on the 29th February at the HMV Institute for all those who crave the rave. SBTRKT being the dude in the mask with the Radio 1 friendly tunes and Disclosure being the band of brothers (two to be precise) with enough future dance diamonds to make the whole of Birmingham wiggle with delight. Farewell January, you didn’t harbour much. Come in February! I’ll put the kettle on, you can choose the music.
Words by Jack Parker
