London Zine of Music, Arts and Miscellaneous Happenings. Monthly updates & seasonal physicals.
/ˈpɪnˌdrɒp/
1) adjective describing the silence produced when a performance leaves the audience speechless (ie: one could hear a pin drop)
2) verb to indicate the location of a particular happening
03
___Queer @ Genesis Cinema £14 [FILM] - In an adaptation of William Burrough’s 1985 novella, Luca Guadagnino (of Challengers and Call Me By Your Name fame) captures humid, insecure Mexico City nights rife with the delicate pining of junk-ridden 50s homosexuality. The semiautobiographical ‘Lee’, played by Daniel Craig, works to wean himself off heroin as his self-loathing tears apart the only relationship he finds dear. tickets
06
___John Coltrane's A Love Supreme: 60th Anniversary @ Jazz Cafe £18.15 - An opportunity to experience an album many consider the pinnacle of the ‘spiritual jazz’ style should not be quickly turned down. Especially if fronting the widely influential odyssey, on tenor saxophone, is the immensely powerful Kaidi Akinnibi of solo work and black midi fame – we are in good hands. Perhaps Trane’s magnum opus, the album is the culmination of the mach-speed development of jazz, unlocking a language able to describe his complex relationship with faith and alternative religions. tickets
07
___paper hats @ Shacklewell Arms FREE - The London post-hardcore quartet take inspiration more heavily from the American canon than the British. Under red strobes, their spitting, glitched-out guitars and desperate, emotional lyrics incite the chorusing shouts and moshing of the audience. Support comes from Pindrop favs Speedial – for no money, it’s a no-brainer. rsvp
08
___Butch Kassidy @ MOTH Club FREE - As part of Wide Awake’s pre-party series, the elusive Butch Kassidy return for a much-anticipated headliner, after nearly a year of not playing in London. Heavy riffs drenched in reverbs, drum chops sent from the heavens, and walls of noise culminate into an ascendant experience you’d be silly to miss. rsvp
___Eat Your Own Ears Recommends: Pem @ Shacklewell Arms FREE with Optional Donation North London Action For the Homeless - Pem Perry’s wide vibrato is at the forefront of her ballads. Over glistening guitar chords, her soft sonority translates emotion in such an engaging way. A great gig for a great cause. rsvp
09
___The Umlauts Residency No1 @ @ The Windmill £7 - The Umlauts mix both the languages of Europe with the continent's electronic music tradition, wiring the infectiveness of early Krawtwerk and Italo Disco into a grotty south-London melting pot. They’ve brought 2 of Pindrop’s favourite noisy dance groups for their premier residency night at the Windmill: Manchester’s SILVERWINGKILLER and Leed’s Bathing Suits. The groove will not stop. tickets
10
___The truth, the whole cat and nothing but the microplastics @ George Tavern £6.5 - What a bunch of weirdos! For a night of quirky, creative, more-than-folk bands look towards the George! The night contains not 1 but 2 Manchester bands who employ synthesis into their whimsical and progressive indietronica numbers: Truthpaste and catbandcat (whose studio releases promise great things for the gig) both demonstrate splendid sides of a similar coin. Openers MPTL Microplastics are an unbelievable, amorphous "anti-fascist anti-folk" amoebus that seems to be ravaging its way through the London gig circuit – their debut single ‘Plastic Princess’ is gosh-darn terrific. tickets
___C Turtle @ Two Palms £11.85 - With one of Pindrop’s favourite tracks of the 2024 ‘Melvin Said This’, C Turtle play with fuzz and feedback without compromising tight catchy tunes that ooze with the coolness of Dinosaur Jnr, Pixies or earlyish-MBV. This is one for those who severely missed out on coming of age in the 90s. tickets
11
___the Jesus Lizard @ Electric Ballroom £39.4 - One of America’s great noise rock bands is back in Brittania on their 2nd reunion tour (heard that one before). They’re still as gut-punching as ever with their mad frontman David Yow. Anyone who is severely missing some post-hardcore in their life should attempt to scrounge a ticket. tickets
13
___New Music Mondays @ The Windmill FREE - Perhaps the best opportunity to say you saw a band before they got big. NMM showcases the young acts that manage to weasel their way through the strong and admirable censoring of the Windmill’s bookers. Those who have played before include The Orchestra (For Now), BLACK FONDU and Ziplock. Acts TBC! rsvp
14
___Ugly @ MOTH Club FREE - A Pindrop favourite. Not much needs to be said that hasn’t been said before except that this gig is FREE and will be GOOD. rsvp
18
___Pindrop Presents: Bingo Fury @ The Windmill £6 - 2025 brings our biggest night yet! After extensive research, we present an exposition of Bristol's greatest bands, right on your doorstep (and with ticket prices lower than a National Rail coach to the southwest). Headlining is Bristol’s beat-jazz Sinatra, Bingo Fury, who conjures sultry slow burners that explode into manic no-wave dissonance. Support comes from the “Art frog snail prog” group Foot Foot, jazz-noisers Ex Agent (so good they’ve improvised with Lee Ronaldo of Sonic Youth) and inventive, unpredictable The Scuttlers. tickets
20
___In The Dark: Funny Sounds with Talia Augustidis @ MOTH Club £9.79 [MISCELLANEOUS] - In 2005, Sky Travel used pseudoscientific mathematics to calculate the saddest day of the year, Blue Monday, occurring usually in the 3rd week of January. For the last 12 months, producer and community organiser Talia Augustidis has been combing through audio archives to compile a heartwarming and surreal compilation of ‘funny sounds’, that, this year, will chase everyone’s blues away. tickets
21
___Index For Working Musik @ Shacklewell Arms FREE - With songs that fall into either dark, whispered tracks or 12-minute free-form soundscapes of janky, climaxing strings and tape loops of deformed voices underpinned by unflinching drums, Index For Working Musik are an enigma. Not playing live often, it is unsure what you can expect from the group; however, their 2 albums and recent single ‘Purple Born’ predict something interesting. rsvp
22
___Westside Cowboy @ Sebright Arms £6.12 - Multi-part harmonies, occasional slide guitar, and an appreciation for disciplined compositions transform the Manchester quartet’s engaging indie rock into what they describe as ‘Britain-icana’. One listen to their debut single I've Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love (Until I Met You), released on Nice Swan Records, and you’ll buy a ticket instantly. These guys are really going places… tickets
___Morgan Garrett @ The Windmill £8 - Catch the disturbing noise of Philadelphia artist Morgan Garrett as he brings havoc to the UK. Sometimes playing twisted Appalachian folk on a broken acoustic or wailing over what might sound like a noise-grind record slowed down beyond comprehension. His recent track ‘Alive’ manages to push the blood-curdling lethargy of Swans’ ‘Filth’ into even more freakish heights. tickets
26
___Milkweed @ Cafe Oto £14.5 - Joined by a plethora of friends, the bewildering and terrifying avant-garde folk duo will be taking on Oto with braying horses, chopped-and-screwed banjo and loose interpretations of American folksongs. Feel goosebumps flare up as the band conjures new, harrowing material. tickets
27-1
Independent Venue Week
The UK's annual celebration of grassroots music, empowering local communities to put on some of the most exciting line-ups of the year. Some really smashing gigs from a lot of Pindrop's favourite acts – too many to name! Here's some that peak our interest:
27
___Broadside Hacks: Tribute To Bob Dylan @ MOTH Club £15 - If Timothy Chalamet’s performance in ‘A Complete Unknown’ has left you longing for even more Zimmerman, trot down to Hackney Central in your tiny double denim and shades for a night dedicated to one of the greatest American songwriters. Performances come from Clara Mann, Brown Horse and more TBA! tickets
___The Orchestra (For Now) @ The Windmill £7 tickets
28
___lots of hands @ MOTH Club FREE - With the crackle and bitcrusher crunch of watching Vine compilations on your older brother’s Nintendo DS, the Newcastle duo’s lofi indie-pop creates melancholic, nostalgia-dripping songs that weep with nursery rhyme sentimentality. Accompanied with glitches and synths, textural easter-eggs complete their sweet sonic arsenal. rsvp
___Glasshouse Red Spider Mite @ George Tavern £6 tickets
___Rabbitfoot @ The Windmill £9.04 tickets
29
___UNIVERSITY @ The Windmill £7 tickets
30
___Ut @ Cafe Oto £15/17 - Forming in 1978, the all-girl NYC No Wave trio concocted clanging masterpieces (listen to their track ‘Evangelist’ and be converted!) before moving to the UK and touring with The Fall and The Birthday Party. Guitars sprang wild chords that are as rhythmic as they are harmonic, propelling minimalist drum beats and repetitive bass into wild non-structure songs. Disbanding and reuniting, they playing every now and then – this time they hit up Cafe Oto to celebrate a reissue of their catalogue. tickets
___DHP's INTRO25 Present: thistle. @ The Grace FREE tickets
___Ebbb @ The Windmill £7 tickets
31
___Rosie Alena @ Morocco Bound £15 tickets
For even more crucial dates that couldn't fit on the list...
Add January's Recommendations to your calendar: Click Here
by MGB
The past ten years of the Windmill scene, and the bands within it, weave together a string of disparate stories, narrating them into something which almost approaches coherence. Perhaps most enigmatic within this tapestry is the band Famous, whose relationship with the wider scene is at once obscured and comprehensible. It approaches a paradox, the band’s name and marketing occupying an opacity bordering on anti-SEO, contrasted by their music’s messy, confusing, and beautiful concreteness. They have played with a variety of different lineups, usually including backing tracks which many might find very unorthodox. However, tonight in Elephant and Castle, the band favour a more orthodox approach, featuring drums, keyboard, guitar and Jack Merrett as the vocalist. Corsica Studios is typically a club venue, and the crowd appear to be the usual mass of casual gig enjoyers and dancers. Yet, looks can be deceiving. As ‘Blues’ by Geordie Greep fades out of the house speakers, the band emerges to ‘What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?’ Originally sung by Frank Sinatra, the tune was retrofitted for Famous’s debut LP, Party Album.
Famous clearly do not have casual fans. As the set takes off, the crowd immediately launch into dance, pushing and shoving as Merrett focuses on the older songs in their catalogue. The drums are a mix of live and hybrid. The start of “Surf’s Up!” features pre-recorded drums to allow for audio manipulation, an iconic feature of the song that made it instantly recognisable. The crowd takes it all in stride as if they all had been rehearsing beforehand, perhaps in the smoking area of the Wetherspoons nearby. Merrett’s intensely personal lyricism is transformed by the audience into a larger and more communal experience. The backing band add expertly to this feeling, and all of the emotion and excitement in the room make it feel like an important night for everyone.
Merrett's stage presence is particularly impressive: while the frontpeople of bands like Bar Italia often compensate for the intimacy of lyrics about love and life with a certain aloof coyness from the crowd, Merrett engages with his audience directly. At some points, his eyes lock with a single audience member for an entire verse, or holds their hand while shouting “When your whole life flashes before your eyes, was it worth it?”. The effect of such a stage presence is the feeling that he is engaging in an intimate conversation, singing and smiling with you rather than at you.
Having begun with old classics, the band switch gear to their new material halfway through. There is a new unreleased piano ballad which engages in similar themes to the rest of Famous’s music, such as revelation in Christianity, attributable to Merrett’s university degree in Religion and Philosophy. Much of the final half of the set is from their latest release, 2024’s Party Album. Although only released in October, the crowd know its songs by heart, as if it is a religious text in and of itself. These tracks hit harder than on the new album due to Merrett’s stronger vocal delivery, choosing to shout and sing in a higher register for many songs. ‘2004’, a classic from their debut album that was rerecorded for Party Album is energetic and emotional, and ‘Boxing Day’ closes out the night, despite being the stage-setting opener from the new album. Despite Famous’s unorthodox approach to performing and releasing their music, it is working for them, and their approach to crowd engagement is admirable.
by MR
Bjork is an artist who needs no introduction. Her ability to weave fine tapestries of sound interspersed with strikingly emotional storytelling is often imitated but never quite replicated, producing a clear lineage in both pop and experimental music. Artists as disparate as Kelela, Prince, and Amy Lee have cited her as an influence and it takes only a moment scrolling the alt-pop charts to understand how profound her impact is. Upon surveying the eclectic crowd assembled at Rough Trade East, it becomes apparent that this influence extends to her audience as well. Rateyourmusic nerds and Twitter stans bump shoulders to get a look at the laptop perched on the Rough Trade Stage. An American man offhandedly asking if the record store has a cloakroom lurks next to a woman dressed in an outfit made entirely out of spoons: Björk’s appeal, it seems, is near universal.
The kaleidoscopic clothing of the crowd is reflected by Björk’s own commitment to avant-garde fashion: she emerges on stage in a boxy black outfit that resembles something you’d punch in a martial arts exercise. After waving with both hands outstretched to the crowd, she cheerfully presses play. It’s an instrumental of ‘Jingle Bells’, the bell tone of which eerily resembles ‘Frosti’ off her fan-favourite fourth album Vespertine. She quickly switches the mood, with a track from her early influence Kate Bush. “December Will Be Magic Again’ indeed! The rest of the set is a bric-a-brac assemblage of disparate soundscapes, Björk handily oscillating between the propulsive artificial soundscapes of the likes of SOPHIE and quaint Icelandic Christmas songs. Every track, be it Destiny’s Child’s RnB-infused rendition of ‘Carol of the Bells’ or Shygirl’s banger “Immaculate” is treated with equal enthusiasm and care.
The audience never properly starts dancing, but this is perhaps to be expected in a record store. After all, it’s only so often one gets to see Björk in such an intimate setting. This is the most notable element of the set: Björk herself, or rather the overflowing sense of joy she seemingly brings to music in all its myriad forms. She jumps around the stage, mouthing the lyrics to Icelandic carols or Eartheater’s ‘Pure Smile Snake Venom’ with equal delight. Even when faced with technical difficulties to the extent she has to briefly go backstage, she smiles and thanks the crowd. Before leaving the stage, Björk transitions a Mica Levi track into a Bach number. It’s a move only Björk can pull off, and she finishes the set to rapt applause. Long after her absence, the audience remains, eagerly awaiting an encore in sheer delusion. She never comes back out, but the air is still electric, and seemingly that on its own is enough.
GKA
___Love Takes Miles by Cameron Winter (2024, US)
___Revans by Sora (2003, Japan)
___Destroy the Tabernacle! by TTNG (2016, UK)
MLT
___Rock Show by Peaches (2002, Canada)
___Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above by CSS (2006, Brazil)
___Creator (vs.Switch & Freq Nasty) by Santigold (2008, US)
MR
___Baby by Gal Costa and Caetano Veloso (1968, Brazil)
___$ome drugzzz by MGNA Crrrta (2022, US)
___Spiral Staircase (AFX remix) by Aphex Twin (2024, UK)
SE
___Cut Self Not by Faraquet (2000, US)
___Creature of the Sea by catbandcat (2024, UK)
___Kalimankou Denkou (The Evening Gathering) by Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir (1975, Bulgaria)
Pindrop is GKA, MLT, MR, & SE
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