A sad farewell to a great garage rock band. The Abjects always wrote catchy garage rock songs and put on a good show. Songs were usually sorted out within 4 minutes and never overstayed their welcome. I have seen them several times in London and also caught them at SXSW in 2016 and 2019. Both times playing to an appreciative crowd. Singer Noemi is going back to Spain. Hopefully, this isn’t because of Brexit, but I think we might see more of this over the next few months as EU citizens decide to give up on the UK.

Support on the evening was from Dancehall, Something Leather and Platypus Complex.

Artists I liked

Spring King, Fizzy Blood, Nadine Shah, Ezra Furman x2, Abjects, Colleen Green, Hookworms, Soliloquy, Protection Spells, The Orielles x2, British Sea Power x3, Gurr, Mr Ben and the Bens, The Lovely Eggs, Matt Emery, Poppy Ackroyd, The Blinders, The Solo Collective,

Artists that were okay

Blushes, Alice Phelps, Tiny Leaves, Bennet Wilson Poole, Grawl!x, Penelope Isles, DunningWebsterUnderwood, Phobophobes,

Artists I won’t be going out of my way to see again

Cozy, Zkeletonz

Best Gig

It was a good month for gigs. British Sea Power are always good value. Ezra Furman played a fantastic two hour set at the Lexington. But I’ll have to give it to Nadine Shah at the Roundhouse. She stepped up to the occasion and proved that she can play any size of venue

Best new artist

There wasn’t any outstanding new bands this month.

Albums of the Month

• Twin Fantasy – Car Seat Headrest
• Silver Dollar Moment – The Orielles
• Basic Behaviour – FRIGS
• Resolve – Poppy Ackroyd
• This is Eggland – The Lovely Eggs
• Microshift – The Hookworms
• Transangelic Exodus – Ezra Furman

Best photo

The Abjects were meant to be on at 3pm. But for whatever reason, they didn’t turn up on time and it was well after 4 when they finally turned up.

The great / bad thing about bands playing in a record shop is that (other than Rough Trade East), it’s a record shop. They’re not really setup for a band to play in, so the sound can be poor. But it does mean that you feel like you’re inside the performance. In Flashback’s case, there really is no place for a band, but somehow they managed to fit in.

The Abjects are a great little band. They’ve got a simple garage rock sound but it’s done well. I think most of the gathered crowd didn’t know the band, but they seemed to enjoy their performance.

After the Abjects finished, it was far too late to get to the next gig on my list, Prom at Flashback’s sister store in Islington. But I decided to head down anyway to see if Fake Laugh were playing and was surprised to find that they were still playing. I say they, but this was a solo performance. I actually prefer their solo performances. The lead singer’s actually got a really distinctive voice which I think stands out better when playing solo.

I had been interested in getting hold of the Robert Plant live EP. Neither Flashback store had a copy. So I decided I might as well walk down to Rough Trade. It turned out they had copies but they were £24 – too expensive for an EP. Luckily it also turned out that there last band, the Riddles, were still playing. They seemed an odd choice for Record Store Day. The Riddles aren’t the normal indie fodder that you’d expect to see on a mixed bill. They’re firmly \m/ rock!

I like bands that don’t take themselves too seriously and just enjoy playing live music. I’d say the Riddles fall into this category. The lead singer looks like he’s escaped from the set of Spinal Tap. In fact he even joked about playing ‘Stonehenge’. They are an unapologetic unreformed ‘Black Sabbath influenced’ rock band. They themselves describe their sound as ‘space rock’. They’re look the kind of band that could turn any three minute rock song into a 20 minute long psych experience. By the time they’d finished, they’d managed to climb the riggings, played over their allotted time so that Rough Trade switched on the lights but they’d also managed to entertain quite a diverse crowd. I’m not sure I’d listen to any of their recordings. But they’re definitely a fun band to watch.

It’s also the first time I’ve seen crowd surfing at a Rough Trade gig.

I like the Shacklewell Arms. But it’s timings are woeful. Unfortunately, I try to keep to an 11pm cut-off. To give me enough time to get back to Kings Cross or Finsbury Park and to account for any late night shenanigans with the trains or tube. Tonight was of those evenings. Despite there only being three bands, the last band, Froth, hadn’t even started to set up at 1030. So I dipped out early rather than wait simply to hear a song. Apparently they didn’t go on until 11. Not great for us out of towner’s.

The reason of the late running was a last minute lineup change, with the Abjects stepping in at short notice.  I’d seen them once before and I really like their EP. So it was a pleasant surprise.

To say they turned up at the last minute and had no soundcheck, they put in a fine performance, better than the last time. I think this was partly due to the singer’s voice being more forward in the mix than last time.

Next up were Mozes and the First Born, a band hailing from the Netherlands. I enjoyed their performance. Not sure why. The music didn’t really grab me. It seemed rather generic. But for some reason I really enjoyed their set.