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Diary Dates

Baskery – Wednesday 6 November
The Musician

Baskery is a Swedish blues / Southern rock band made up of three sisters. They started off ‘playing cover songs for drunk people’ and have created their own roots x Americana influenced style with a straightforward punk edge.

Bellowhead – Thursday 7 November
De Montfort Hall

Since their formation in 2004 Bellowhead have occupied a unique place in Britain’s musical landscape. Wild, joyous, perverse, bold, crazy, full-blooded, intricate, fearless, funny, epic and mostly BIG, the mighty 11-piece Bellowhead blend folk, jazz, classical, disco and world music influences with English music and cabaret to stunning effect.

Bare James – Friday 8 November
International Arts Centre

Bare Jams are an upbeat, fun lovin’ seven-piece collective. Self described as ‘Poppy-Funk with a sneaky bit of Reggae and Ska’. Their fun rhythms involve catchy lyrics about twists on day-to-day life, parties, their pet gnome and the Hokey-Cokey sometimes even some politics and other meaningful stuff. They’ll have you chillin’, then get you skankin’, even put a smile on your face. Organic and freshly brewed party vibes, which really shouldn’t be missed.

The Frank & Walters – Saturday 9 November
Firebug

The alternative pop band from Cork are back. It’s been a long, strange, beautiful journey for The Franks, who in the 90s flirted with the charts on this continent and others, but no-one can deny they made their mark. Hell, there’s even an all-girl Japanese Franks tribute band! Sing along to After All, Fashion Crisis Hits New York, This Is Not A Song and Happy Busman.

Benjamin Francis Leftwich – Saturday 9 November
The International

Benjamin Francis Leftwich is a singer/songwriter from York who has the sort of voice, delivery and material that tiptoes in to your soul, makes a big old comfy featherbed and refuses to leave. He has drawn comparisons to Damien Rice and José González, though he cites Arcade Fire, Ryan Adams, and Bruce Springsteen as his inspirations.

••••

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: MOUTH CULTURE

Leicester trio Mouth Culture have had a mega couple of years. Smashing stages at Download, 2000trees and Truck Festivals this summer, they were also included in Kerrang!’s Sound of 2024 at the start of the year.

Now they’re back with a new single which surges with terminally lovesick energy. The band say ‘Dead In Love’ is the perfect bridge between our latest record and what’s coming next. This track really captures the dynamic of who we are as a band, as people and as best friends. It has a fuck load of energy, attitude and prowess and we can’t wait for people to resonate with it – and with us. It is bold, brash and lovesick.”

Mouth Culture have also announced a clutch of headline dates in November including their biggest shows so far. AND includes at date at O2 Academy Leicester on 12 November.

This band of brothers released their EP’ Mishaps of My Mid Twenties’ in November last year – a scream into the ether in reaction to growing older and figuring out how all this works. They clearly struck a deep chord with a generation going through the same motions, racking up well over a million streams. Then, in hitting the road to meet those who had found such solace in their words, from touring with Teenage Wrist, supporting The Blackout, While She Sleeps and Honey Revenge and making their mark at Download, 2000trees and Truck Festival to taking over the UK on their own headline tour, they’ve seen their musings on modern life spread even further. A shared exorcism of the bullshit that we all go through without realising it and a marker for what putting your all into your passion can produce.

Musically, the trio are dialing even deeper into a sound that is quintessentially them. Where before they would just nod towards their heroes, they have now fully plunged themselves into embodying the things that made them fall in love with music in the first place. Their admiration of British rock is pinned proudly to their sleeves, with the cheekiness of Lower Than Atlantis and arena-ready acclaim of You Me At Six thriving within the folds of the new material that’s coming forth, but there’s so much more to uncover.

The Leicester collective… hammer elements of alt.rock, grunge and indie into a surging brand of pop-rock that could take them to superstardom.” – Kerrang! Sound of 2024

Imagine a fight between the Streets and Bloc Party in the late eighties, all siren guitar over car crash bass, and you’re halfway to picturing yourself immersed in the haze delight of their live set.” – Punktastic

“Mouth Culture are bound to explode” – When The Horn Blows

practically perfect” – Distorted Sound (9/10)

Mouth Culture will be at O2 Academy Leicester on 12 November. Tickets for Mouth Culture’s Leicester show are available HERE

Playlist

Discover one of the best acts coming out of Leicester and listen to Mouth Culture’s releases on our artist playlist this week.