For too long Birmingham and the West Midlands have failed to celebrate what is rightfully theirs, to claim the city and the region as home of “heavy metal”.

Throughout late 2008 Capsule will be building a digital archive and carrying out a series of open days starting on the 25th October at Wolverhampton Art Gallery as part of “Helllo Digital” We want you to help us create a ‘people’s archive’ of memories, images and pictures to tell the story of this unique moment of Midlands’ musical heritage. This project is being delivered in partnership with, Black Country Arts Partnerships, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, New Art Gallery Walsall, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.

Capsule are looking for a small team of dedicated volunteers, with a passionate interest in either local history, music (specific or otherwise) or a desire to be part of a ground breaking project, which aims to bring a sense of civic pride to the region celebrating Birmingham and the Black Country as HOME OF METAL.

In return for your time commitment you will receive the following:
Training in recording oral histories / archiving digital data – including photography
Being part of a team delivering a unique project.
Travel cost will be covered.

For further info + to down load an application form:
https://www.capsule.org.uk/event/home-of-metal

Deadline for applicants: Friday 12th September

This project is led by Capsule in partnership with BCAP, WMAG, NAGW, BMAG as part of Hello Digital

Here is a slideshow of photos taken by members of the audience at Supersonic 08, gives you a real feel for the event, thanks to all those that joined the group

You can read all about how to use this new Flickr embedd tool here:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/flickr_releases_handy_embeddab.php

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

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.

MARS plays Theremin

Combines the beauty of both a small dog and ‘beautiful’ music.
Please feel free to add your suggestions

Just found a cat playing theramin.

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.

Capsule were invited for the 3rd year running to produce a showcase at this years Sonar Festival in Barcelona. We put forward two Birmingham bands ZX Spectrum Orchestra + Pram, which took place in the Sonar Hall on Thursday 19th of June. Both acts performed to a full to capacity hall (3000 +) with an overwhelming response from the audience, this was our best response yet.

ZX Spectrum Orchestra were recorded live for a show on BBC Radio 1 and interviewed by Rob Da Bank:

ZX Spectrum Orchestra Sonar 2008 – interview by Rob Da Bank

Listen to ZX Spectrum Orchestra
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/robdabank/

We also had a stall in the record and media fare, selling our wares. With thanks to Ben Javens/Pram/ZX Spectrum Orchestra/Jacob + Kate/Dan Davies/Film Ficciones/Geoff Dolman/Juan Rae/Ian Rogers/Katherine Godfrey who all took it in turns to man the stall and promote Birmingham.
We produced ‘Capsules Guide to Birmingham’, a free leaflet which is by no means a definative guide to our fair city but trys to give an alternative view to visitors who will attend Supersonic and to intice those at Sonar. It includes recommendations of things to do/places to stay/eat and shop. It was co-ordinated by Capsule, written by Dan Davies and designed by Ben Javens.

Jenny took some amazing photos from the showcase and the stall which are now on Flickr

The highs n lows:

5 highs
1. Proud moment with 1 in 1 out for Capsule showcase as it was so busy
2. discovering happy hour mojitos (3.50 euros)
3. discovering raspberry mojitos
4. visiting Frederic Mares Museum (Barcelonas equivalent to Pitt Rivers museum)
5. street beer + falafel

5 lows
1. Getting stuck in a lift on the 9th floor of our hotel
2. The windy landing at Birmingham International
3. The van breaking down just as it reached Barcelona
4. 35 degree heat and not knowing how to work the air conditioning and in fact putting on the heating
5. happy hour was only for 2 short hrs a day