The Hidden Cameras release their new single Underage/Origin:Orphan on the 22nd March through Arts and Crafts, preceded by the re-release of their latest album Origin:Orphan on the 15th March. The band will be over from Canada for a series of UK dates which beginning in Brighton on March 17th at the Audio.

Full tour details are listed below.

In the meantime, Joel Gibb has kindly tackled the Suitcase Orchestra Q & A and you can kick back and watch the video for Underage here.

If I were to play just one of your songs to someone who hasn’t heard your music, which would it be and why?

Party shuffle! Let fate decide things. My songs are like my babies.

You are being sent to the moon. You’re allowed to take 1 album. What is it?

I wouldn’t take any album, what’s the point? You’re in space!!! I would be too distracted to listen to an album. But “Scott 4″ is good.

On the subject of being sent to the moon, what 3 things would definitely be in your suitcase?

Wouldn’t I have some sort of moon-pack instead of a suitcase? Toothbrush, long-johns and tooth paste.

Tell us about a band or singer we might not have heard of who should be featured on Suitcase Orchestra

Hmmmm, haven’t anything new in a while. I really do like the new Mocky record, have you heard it? It’s called “Saskamodie”…

What film would you be a character in?

To quote Sarah Palin, “Any of ‘em, all of ‘em”. My Left Foot would be a good start.

Recommend a book.

Mephisto – Klaus Mann

Which literary character would play you in the book of your life?

See above

What’s the worst record in your collection?

I couldn’t say really, I usually don’t have records I don’t like.

What question should I always ask in a Q & A?

How lazy.

And answer it please.

I’m even lazier.

The Hidden Cameras embark on a UK tour for the following dates:

Wed 17th March Brighton Audio

Thu 18th March London St Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch

Fri 19th March Nottingham Bodega

Sat 20th March Glasgow Stereo

Sun 21st March Manchester Deaf Institute

Mon 22nd March Cardiff The Gate

Tue 23rd March Leeds Brudenell Club

Wed 24th March London Hoxton Bar and Kitchen

Visit the Hidden Cameras MySpace here.

The uber-prolific (he recently announced that he was set to release 50 free ‘bootleg’ albums, each comprising improvised songs) Devonte Hynes returns with an impressively expansive record and UK tour.

Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You is the second offering from the former Test-Icicle in his Lightspeed Champion guise and pushes his sound into new territories.  The big production and melodramatic sound (Hynes doesn’t just wear his heart on his sleeve, he positively staples it to the cuff and reaches his arms out to you, all the time serenading  you with his pleading voice) mark this album out as being like Mika, but for music-lovers.

Hynes has been hugely ambitious with his sound, boldly chucking all sorts into the pot to create a genre-defying record – where else could you find the country-funk of recent single Marlene? Where else could you find the pairing of jaunty Eighteenth Century harpsichord and sci-fi keyboards of The Big Guns Of Highsmith? Somehow, he’s pulled it off. Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You is an almost maddeningly addictive record.

Not content with that and his self-bootlegging, Hynes and friends have put together what they call a  ‘TV show trailer’ featuring a medley of Lightspeed Champion hits and popular b-side 69 Année Erotique, a cover of the Serge Gainsbourg classic and announced a string of UK dates. (Details below)

Hynes will also find time on May 10^th to release a single, Madame Van Damme. ‘Kill me,baby won’t you kill me?’ he implores in the song…chances are he’ll have already worked himself to death.

Full tour dates are:

1          May           Leeds - Live at Leeds at Stylus

3          May           Nottingham – Bodega

5          May           Glasgow - King Tuts

6          May           Manchester -Deaf Institute

7          May           Newcastle - Cluny

9          May           Birmingham – O2 Academy 3

10        May           London - Heaven

11        May           Portsmouth - Wedgewood Rooms

13        May           Norwich - Arts Centre

14        May           Bristol – Academy 2

15        May           Cambridge- Haymakers

Although these are all the songs of Tim West, the guest list on The Climbers’ debut The Good Ship (there are appearances by members of Shoreline, Sons Of Noel And Adrian, The Leisure Society and The Laish Quartet , amongst others) gives the album something of the feel of a Willkommen compilation. Which, of course, ain’t necessarily a bad thing.

With almost half of the songs featuring Nick Hemming on lead vocals, and an additional track with vocals provided by Christian Hardy, listening to the album, it’s difficult to avoid drawing comparisons with the Leisure Society but to do so would be to do it a disservice. This is not a Leisure Society record and to be fair, at no point does it attempt to be. The instrumentation gives The Climbers a more muscular sound than many of the bands which make up their composite form and the songs lack the ornate prettiness of Hemming and Hardy’s main vehicle, offering instead something with a darker, more brooding edge to them. A sort of lush folk-noir if you will.

This is no more evident than on Uncommon with Sharon Lewis singing ‘you turn all the lights out before the party is over, you beat me, police me,’ while Dan Michaelson growls along huskily. The guitars are drenched in reverb and distortion and there’s a menacing sea-shanty chorus for good measure.

The decision to hand responsibility for so many of the vocals over to Nick Hemming is easy to understand. His presence brings a sweetness to set against the melancholy of In A Circle, while his performance on the gentle country ballad I Will Never suggests that Hemming has it in him to one day record an out and out country album in full Merle Haggard style.

The Good Ship is released on Willkommen Records shortly. In the meantime, catch them on Marc Riley’s BBC 6Muisc show on 25th February or visit their MySpace here.

Of all of the current crop of bands who could be described as chamber pop, Brighton quintet The Miserable Rich stand out as that which embrace the concept most whole heartedly. While other bands use the chamber pop sound to add an extra dimension to their folky or indie backbone, The Miserable Rich are as pure as they come. Strip James De Malplaquet’s timbrous vocals from the mix and what you have here could easily form part of the soundtrack to a BBC period drama, so baroque is their sound.

Somerhill , a preposterously pretty song about hidden love , will be the first release from their forthcoming album, the follow up to the velvety 12 Ways To Count.

Somerhill, backed with Bye Bye Kitty will be released 8^th March on Humble Soul Records. The album Of Flight And Fury will follow on 31st March.

The band have also announced the following UK tour dates.

February

25^th Cellar, Oxford

26^th Folk House, Bristol

27^th With the Willkommen Orchestra, King’s Palace, London

March

2^nd Cluny, Newcastle

3^rd The Yorkshire House, Lancaster

4^th Glee Club, Birmingham

5^th The Black-E, Liverpool

6^th Red Rooms, Glossop

7^th The Deaf Institute, Manchester

The Miserable Rich MySpace is here.

Portland noise-pop trio Quasi’s eighth album, their first since 2006’s When The Going Gets Dark, sees them walking the line between the dirty guitar sound of the Stooges and the spiky melodies of Sonic Youth.

American Gong is a battle between sprawling noisescapes and catchy pop riffs, best captured on Bye Bye Blackbird, a slice of sixties Mersey Beat which jangles along nicely before repeatedly collapsing into a snarling maelstrom of distortion and wailing guitars. It’s wonderful stuff.

Elsewhere, Little White Horse is a helter-skelter paced sonic explosion and Rockabilly Party sounds like a Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton duet rewritten by a Bandwagonesque-era Teenage Fanclub.

The band have also announced European tour dates which include a performance at All Tomorrow’s Parties, curated this year by Pavement.

14/05/10 : All Tomorrow’s Parties – Minehead (UK)
16/05/10 : Paradiso – Amsterdam (NL)
17/05/10 : Tsunami – Köln (D)
18/05/10 : AB – Brussel (B)
19/05/10 : C-Halle – Berlin (D)
20/05/10 : Hafen 2 – Offenbach (D)
21/05/10 : 59:1 – Munich (D)
22/05/10 : Rocker Fest @ Covo Club – Bologna (I)
24/05/10 : Point Ephemere – Paris (F)
25/05/10 : The Freebutt – Brighton (UK)
26/05/10 : Hoxton  Square Bar & Kitchen – London (UK)
27/05/10 : Night & Day – Manchester (UK)
28/05/10 : Captains Rest – Glasgow (UK)

American Gong is released by Kill Rock Stars in the U.S. and Domino in the UK and Europe on 22nd February.

Quasi’s MySpace is here.

They are never going to tear the roof off a place or whip anyone up into a frenzy – the secret to success with Beach House is to submit to them. Hand over your senses for an hour and let them do what they will with them. Once you do, it feels like that split-second between normality and oblivion when you have just been given a general anaesthetic. About number 7 when they ask you to count down from 10. The precise moment when the room turns swimmy like the beginning of a dream sequence in a film.

Tonight,Baltimore’s Beach House glide effortlessly through the stand out moments from their mesmerising Teen Dream album. Zebra, Walk In The Park, Norway and Used To Be all translate perfectly to the live setting, with Victoria Legrand’s newly sonorous vocals providing a fine counterpoint to the woozy looping organ, lazy drum rhythms and reverb drenched guitar. The only notable absence tonight is Wedding Bell, the opener to their 2008 album Devotion, though that record isn’t completely left behind as evidenced by an excellent sprawling version of Gila.

Those who do submit to Beach House tonight find themselves in a dream like state, not unlike that which Galaxie 500 had the power to induce in their audience. The trouble is that not everybody makes that sensory leap and those who don’t find themselves discussing their favourite flavour of Monster Munch crisps – which is to miss the point rather and which is irritating in the extreme when it’s right down your lughole.

Beach House Myspace is here.

New independent record label, One Bird Records, will be officially launched at Puregroove in London on February 24th.

After meeting at a gig they were both reviewing, founders Laura Scott and Natalie Shaw decided to form a new label aimed at putting some soul into buying downloads.

One Bird, which will be a digital singles label, allows fans to purchase the single with limited edition liner notes designed by up and coming artists. ‘We  want to bring a tangibility back to the ever-present digital download, and make the single precious once again,’ Laura and Natalie state.

The label also aim to nurture their bands by keeping management and PR in-house.

To celebrate the launch of the label, One Bird is throwing a party at Puregroove. Pop along for a chance to find out what One Bird is all about, listen to its founders spin some of their favourite records and check out a small exhibition of artists’ reinterpretations of their favourite album covers.

Visit One Bird Records here.

Manchester artist Michael Gutteridge is currently showing ten brand new paintings in a joint exhibition with Dia David at Mooch Art Gallery, Manchester. The exhibition runs until 2nd March and admission is free.

The exhibition’s title, All That Jazz, refers to how elements of jazz have been utilised as a source of inspiration in the artwork of both artists featured at the gallery.

Michael’s earlier work has previously been used in a video by Manchester band The Tides.

For more information visit the Mooch Gallery website here.

Or better still, visit Michael’s site here.

Mooch Art Gallery can be found at The Triangle,

37 Exchange Square,

Manchester M4 3TR

Owen Pallett is the man behind the strings on Arcade Fire’s albums, The Last Shadow Puppets and Suitcase Orchestra favourite Luxury Pond. He’s also just released the excellent Heartland album and has kindly completed the Suitcase Orchestra Q&A.

If I were to play just one of your songs to someone who hasn’t heard your music, which would it be and why?

Couldn’t say, really.  I always like to discover music on my own accord, so I’m hesitant to play my own shit for people.

You are being sent to the moon. You’re allowed to take 1 album. What is it?

Tomita’s album of Debussy pieces seems suitable.

What was the last album you bought?

I bought Vampire Weekend last weekend because I liked the album cover.

Tell us an interesting fact.

Anne Murray has a daughter named Dawn Langstroth.  If she and Dave Longstreth had a son, his name could be Dan Langstroth-Longstreth.

Tell us about a band or singer we might not have heard of who should be featured on Suitcase Orchestra.

Larkin Grimm is really pushing all my buttons lately.  She has a concert up on NYCTaper that is a must-listen.

What film would you be a character in?

Ennh, probably Richard E Grant in something.

Recommend a book.

Haven’t been reading anything heavy lately, mostly Kingsley Amis, it’s great on tour.

What’s the worst record in your collection?

I stopped grading records.

What question should I always ask in a Q & A? And answer it please.

You’re doing fine!

Owen Pallett’s myspace is here.

If you are one of the many people who have been admiring Jo Cameron’s beautiful Suitcase Orchestra logo, you can now cut a dash in a Suitcase Orchestra t-shirt. Or perhaps a tote bag or a mug are more your style.

Visit the Suitcase Orchestra Storechestra for more information.