Side A - Cafe Tarifa, Cowley Rd, Oxford
Saturday 12th March '11
Saturday 12th March '11
- Doors
1pm 'til 10.30pm - Entry
Free! - Facebook
Attend the Facebook Event
Tarifa Saturday 12th
Saturday 12th March @ 13:10
As well as working hard for charity MIND and teaching guitar, Trev Williams (ex-leader of The Follys) somehow finds time to pen some smile-inducing acoustic ditties, and strum them out in every cranny of Oxfordshire. Oxfordshire Music Scene said he was the highlight of last year's entire festival, so you owe it to yourself to stroll along to Tarifa and find out what he gets up to.
Saturday 12th March @ 13:50
Helen's quiet fractured acoustic songs remind us of Johnny Trunk's sub-genre "fuzzy felt folk". The video for "Labrador Song" on her site gives the best idea: homemade, wispy, wise, melancholic, hopeful, melodic, sweet, and slightly inscrutable. There more you listen, the more you'll find.
Saturday 12th March @ 14:30
A gloriously bleak Welsh balladeer of jet-black folk, something like Cave channelling Cale in Ballard's footwear. "This album deserves to be heard in its magnificent entirety. Ideally you should probably listen to it in a Victorian dive in Aldwych zonked out of your head on absinthe or shivering in a granite hovel in the Cairngorms" - www.oxfordbands.com.
Saturday 12th March @ 15:10
Midnight Boatman make old-fashioned, old-time, old-world music. It's sometimes difficult to remember that this is not a crime. Songs like "Forward" take a tried-and-tested approach: a guitar, a couple of doleful voices, a song about love, loss and life. Honest voices nip and tuck, and the guitars buckle under the weight. It's a song racked with self-doubt but infused with optimism; accurately picturing the pinprick of light that spurs the sad onwards. Perhaps Midnight Boatman have found a new way to be innovative simply by using old techniques. Perhaps I'm trying to look for something that isn't there. Either way, in Midnight Boatman, charm abounds - anewbandaday.com
Saturday 12th March @ 15:50
Lee Christian fronts sleaze punk stalwarts Smilex, but clearly he felt the need for an occasional trip into something less concerned with nudity, broken glass and screaming, and more in line with rootsy, bluesy feel-good music. Enter PSC, a loose conglomeration of acoustic musicians who perform something in the vein of Terence Trent Darby, The Beatles and - surprise surprise! - Prince. "Like a mushroom ingesting cult pretending to be Kid Creole & The Coconuts"- www.oxfordbands.com
Saturday 12th March @ 16:30
Ross Bennett is a young singer/songwriter originally from Scotland. Although he only taught himself to play guitar this year, he is starting to get some recognition as a talented performer. He has a sound likened to Damien Rice or Jamie Cullum which is gaining him a steadily increasing fanbase due to his highly professional live shows, and at such a young age, the future looks bright for this "one kid and his guitar" performer.
Saturday 12th March @ 17:10
Like listening to Stephen Fry tinkling the ivories and doing his best Noel Coward impression. Whether he's singing about cardigans, or simply promoting his Myspace page there's a wonderful playful humour to his lyrics and stage presence ... The addition of a cello to his tunes adds a slightly mournful edge to proceedings, but the intelligence and wit of his writing provides adequate counter-balance.
Saturday 12th March @ 17:50
Jess Hall has only been playing her winsome tunes around Oxford for the past year and a half, but she's already garnered a devoted group of fans. Her clear, wistful voice can turn a noisy pub into a breathless whisper within about seven seconds. Iyou ask her she'll tell you she likes Laura Veirs, Eva Cassidy, Nick Drake and her fellow Devonian Seth Lakeman. Jess sings unpretentious melodies with thoughtful lyrics infused with innocence, longing and unguarded earnestness
Saturday 12th March @ 18:30
Erm. My name is Max and I bleep and yell and strum as King Of Cats.
Saturday 12th March @ 19:10
Oxford based poet, raconteur and good-natured performer of things he often likes to call poems.
Saturday 12th March @ 19:50
One of Oxford's greatest musicians, Ally Craig, leader of the excellent Bug Prentice, makes music that is angular, obtuse and lyrically obscure that still somehow manages to be heart-rending. This is a relatively rare solo show. He claims his "influences range from Deerhoof to Thelonious Monk, with nods to Orson Welles and Futurama".
Saturday 12th March @ 20:30
Psych folk warrior Anton is from Sacramento, CA, but Oxford has claimed his as their own. "calling him a 'singer/songwriter' is a bit like calling Jimi Hendrix a 'strummer'." - Dorset Echo. ""Brain-burrowing melody and mystical psych-guitar fuzz" - Stewart Lee, The Sunday Times. "A genius" - BBC Oxford.
Saturday 12th March @ 21:15
Talented saxophone and accordion duo Huffenpuff have been favourites of the local scene for many years. Performing catchy and danceable Balkan, French, traditional, and self-penned tunes, Jo and Rupert have brought their wonderfully warm and infectious sound to weddings, functions, parties, and played to a packed house at last year's Oxford Folk Festival.
Saturday 12th March @ 22:00
Right, first up: Samuel Zasada is the name of a band, none of whose members are called Samuel or Zasada. Second up, Samuel Zasada make astounding dark-minded acoustic music, topped off with an astonishingly rich voice. Third up, some very astute people said these things: "Samuel Zasada's CD has stayed pretty close to the Nightshift stereo since winning Demo of the Month last summer, unveiling new riches and subtleties with each listen" - Nightshift. "Enormously likely to end up on Oxford best of year lists" - www.musicinoxford.co.uk.