Thanks to all who made it on Sunday for our event at IKON. Part of the gallery’s Autumn Almanac series, celebrating the city’s cultural activity, we were invited to program a night of music and sound art. This seemed a wonderful way to round off our wonderful Home of Metal year, celebrating the sound of Birmingham with two exciting performances that explored the concept of Heavy Metal and created something entirely new.

Fresh from their Supersonic debut, Ore played their tuba doom. Referencing Metal, Classical and Experimental sounds.

Andrew Moscardo Parker took inspiration from the newly reformed godfathers of Metal, taking the first three notes of the song ‘Black Sabbath’ ( these notes were known as the Devil’s Intervals in Medieval times) and creating a 30 minute string piece. Eight string players surrounded the audience to create a truly immersive piece of work.

Capsule’s very own Ms Sara Fowles (centre) contributes viola

Huge thanks to all the players, to SOUNDkitchen for contributing field recordings based around the notion of ‘Metal’ and to IKON.

After reading these stellar reviews of the new Phosphorescent album we’re getting more than a bit excited about his show on Saturday…

“…an undiscovered gem” Q Magazine

“…this is a really amazing album. Incredibly honest, very human, emotionally brave, musically coherent, with moments of real poetry. Thoroughly recommended, with a tear in the eye.” The Line of Best Fit

Saturday 5th June
Phosphorescent
Forest Fire
Rich Batsford
@ Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath
Adv tickets here

Have been meaning to draw your attention to this artwork produced by Drew Millward for the Oxes tour which starts in a couple of weeks time, the Birmingham date is at the Hare & Hounds on Friday 24th of October. We love it! You can check out more of his designs on gigposters.com

While on the subject of poster art here are some other exciting examples of artists who produce gig posters that are worth checking out including Seldon Hunt

and Burlesque Of North America whom we discovered at SXSW a few years ago at Flatstock and ended up parting with a fair bit of cash and now a lack of wall space.

Flatstock is co-presented by the American Poster Institute (API) and South by Southwest (SXSW), and displays the works of more than 100 artists from across North America.

Thanks for the wonderful turn out on Tuesday night for Approximately Infinate Universe show at the Hare & Hounds, for those that missed out, shame on you! A big congratulations to NoFi for putting the tour together. It was an amazing and really quite unexpected treat in terms of its diversity of collaborations. A new discovery for me was Finnish artist ISLAJA, she has an incredible voice and was well complemented by Blevin Blectums electronic beats.

Blevin was one half of the SF duo Blectum From Blechdom, we saw Kevin Blechdom perform at Sonar a few years ago, and she brought tears to the eye with the most painful rendition of ‘I Will Always Love You’. A stroke of comedy genius.

For those of you based in Birmingham or near by, tickets for ATP Halloween Party with performances by Lightning Bolt, Shellac, OM, Pissed Jeans and Wooden Shjips are on sale at Ideal Skate shop based at the Custard Factory.

Ideal
18 / 20 Gibb Square
The Custard Factory
Digbeth
Birmingham
B9 4AA
Opening Times
10.30 am – 6.00 pm Monday through to Saturday.
12 Noon – 4.00 pm Sundays.

Also selling tickets are
Polar Bear
10 York Rd
Kings Heath, Birmingham, B14 7RZ
0121 441 5202

Swordfish
Cheltenham House
14-16 Temple St, Birmingham, B2 5BG
0121 633 4859

We’re over joyed to announce that ATP in collaboration with Capsule will present probably the best line up of the year right here in Birmingham.

RELEASE THE BATS 2008 Halloween Party with:
SHELLAC
OM
WOODEN SHJIPS
PISSED JEANS
LIGHTNING BOLT
+ DJ ANDY WEATHERALL
@ Space 2 . Custard Factory . Birmingham
Sat 1st November

Fancy dress welcome: we’d love it if you could come dressed as something inspired by one of the bands (Perhaps you could simulate some Pissed Jeans? Or arrive in a…Shjip?) or as something spooky to help us with creating the Halloween mood.

We put on Lightning Bolt in 2004 in the theatre space at the Custard Factory and for many in the audience it was a night of musical revelation. If you don’t know much about the band check out this documentary ‘The Power of Salad’ and you too will become a convert to the power of the Bolt, easily one of the most exciting live bands of the last 10 years!

and then of course there is Shellac featuring Big Black guitarist Steve Albini, a band that Capsule have been wanting to bring to Birmingham since we started back in 1999. Probably one of the greatest songs ever written ‘`Prayer To God’

For further details on tickets/recommended hotels and band info check:
http://www.capsule.org.uk/event/release-the-batsatp-halloween-party
Let us know just how excited you are on scale of 1 to 10, we’re pretty much on 11!

for the following Capsule shows which include:

Wednesday 17th September 2008
Pelican + Torche
@ The Factory Club
http://www.ticketweb.co.uk

Florida’s TORCHE, who have risen from the ashes of beloved FLOOR + CAVITY, joined by heavy duty cinematic soundscapes by PELICAN.

and then for something a little more mellow…
Tuesday 23rd September 2008
APPROXIMATELY INFINITE UNIVERSE – A CARAVAN OF RAW SOUND MAGIC FROM FINLAND AND THE US
Kemialliset Ystavat & Axolotl + Es & Fursaxa + Islaja, Blevin Blectrum & Samara Lubelski + Dream Triangle
@ The Hare & Hounds . Kings Heath
http://www.ticketweb.co.uk

Each performance a unique and brand new collaboration, each of the acts features a combination of Finnish artists from FONAL, who have invited a US counterpart to collaborate on a composition, highlighting the parallels in strands of the recent evolving trend of ‘weird/avant folk’ between the US West coast and Finland’s northern communities.

Friday 24th October 2008
Oxes + Beestung Lips + Bilge Pump
@ The Hare & Hounds . Kings Heath
http://www.ticketweb.co.uk

“Eardrum-shattering, technically awesome math rock; listen and become the coolest outcast at your school.” A welcome return to Birmingham for this infamous trio, unleash the chaos as they wander amoungst the audience with their guitars!

Sunday 16th November 2008
Murcof with live strings
Oren Marshall
@ The Hare & Hounds . Kings Heath
http://www.ticketweb.co.uk

Esteemed Mexican electronic composer with live strings in a synchronised visual environment.

Feel free to spread the word, more info about each of the bands in the coming up section of the website.

Jenny and I will be taking a bit of time off from Capsule now, hopfully able to enjoy a little of our British summer. (its hard to say which is which in this highly accurate depiction of the Capsule Grannies at leisure enjoying a glass or three of bubberly)

However do not fear we never rest for too long and have already got in place some awesome shows for the coming months including some Japanese psychedelia in the form of ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE who will be playing a 2hr set at the Hare & Hounds on Friday 1st August. Advanced tickets from www.ticketweb.co.uk or from Polar Bear in Kings Heath or Swordfish in Birmingham city centre.
Poster designed by Ben Javens

Following in September with old friends of Capsule, the mighty TORCHE (ex Cavity whom I might add are one of my all time favourite bands and Floor), these guys are not to be missed and will be joined by PELICAN. Tickets will be on sale soon. In the meantime check out this film footage of Torche from a Chunklet show we had the pleasure of being at in Austen, Texas, it was a truely moving and sweaty experience and reminded us of why live music is so darn exciting! 200 kids squeezed into a 50 capacity warehouse space in 35 degree heat in the middle of no mans land.

and footage of the mighty Cavity RIP

Italian design company Malleus, whom we met earlier in the year at Roadburn Festival in the Netherlands have produced a series of limited edition screen prints for Supersonic Festival 2008. They will be on sale during the weekend in our ‘Market Place’ which will be held in the Old Library at the Custard Factory, along with a great selection of record stalls and other treats for your buying pleasure.

With only a week to go till Supersonic, things are starting to hot up. Not only is our office a hive of activity but there have been some great articles appearing on the web. Including a piece by James Knight for Vice Magazine Festival Guide

Supersonic
July 11-13, The Custard Factory, Birmingham
The Capsule gang are local Birmingham promoters of good shows who have slowly grown Supersonic from being a well picked all dayer into a raging three day contender for the best festival anywhere ever. Supersonic has the balls to book the kind of bills that the laughably complacent ATP once made their name promoting. This years lineup is no exception. It looks like the kind of bill that a Wire reader would come up with if he was being balled into submission by a burly Terrorizer reader. You get the mathy twiddles of Battles, the komische flourishes of a reformed Harmonia, the lumpen sludge of Erath and Harvey Milk’s first ever UK appearance as well as a whole raft of straight weirdoes like the Fuck Buttons kids, Scotch Egg and Justice Yeldham. All of this before you get to the exclusive screenings our forthcoming Heavy Metal in Baghdad documentary and the fact that you can while away hours in record fairs and lectures when you’re not falling over sideways into that big paddling pool thing from all the cheap Brummie larger and you should basically be getting the message here that Supersonic is not to be missed. Check out capsule.org.uk/Supersonic for tickets which are just £65 for the whole weekend.

and an interview on Channel 4.com

Stuart Fowkes doffs his hat respectfully to Capsule’s Supersonic Festival 2008 and gets math-rock headliners Battles’ and past performers Kling Klang’s take on an extraordinary boutique music festival in Birmingham’s Custard Factory.

and on BBC Birmingham

As Birmingham’s most eclectic music promoters, Capsule continually bring some of the biggest names in alternative and experimental music to Birmingham. For the sixth annual Supersonic festival they have again put together another diverse and adventurous bill, featuring local, national and international acts from a wide span of genres.

Let us know if you’ve found anything else on the web to do with Supersonic.