Alt Citizen’s Guide to London Bands

We’re headed across the pond for some shows with our favorite UK bands. Here’s what you can look forward to from the best in the London music scene.

Lunacre

“Whether it be the slow and dreamy “Love Being Lost,” or the dark and brooding lyricism on their EP Schtum, this band has always excelled at creating unique and self-reflective music with an edge.”

The electronic indie four piece has been causing a stir in Cambridge and beyond since 2015, each release more impressive than the last. We chatted with them about their latest single, “Red Sky” off their upcoming EP Pearl Tabloid. Read about it here.

 

The Big Wheel

“Ollie Deans, Joe Collinson, and Tom Orrell create energetic indie rock with a slight twang and surprising twists”

From the time we heard The Big Wheel’s “Foolish” we were fans. The trio from Leeds has an understated surf-pop sensibility, but leans into unexpected chords and melodies for hooks that can stand the test of time.

Sleep Eaters

The members of Sleep Eaters are no strangers to the London music scene, but this formation of musicians is. A conglomerate supergroup compiled from Whistlejacket and Puffer, Sleep Eaters’ punk infused garage rock has been tearing through London with a bright ferocity. Check out their video for “Ghost on Fire” below.

Nuha Ruby Ra

You probably know Nuha Ruby Ra from The Arrows of Love , but you’re about to get to know her as a solo artist. She will be premiering her solo effort on October 27 and trust us, you don’t want to miss it. Get inside her mind with her Death trax below — the custom playlist she curated for her own funeral.

 

Goodies

Goodies will be joining Nuha Ruby Ra at our show at Old Blue on October 27! We’ve decided that since it’s October, Death trax are our new favorite way to get to know people — deeply personal, but also with an air of mystery, you feel? Goodies shared with us their fave poem to accompany their playlist down below.

The After Life – Billy Collins

While you are preparing for sleep, brushing your teeth,
or riffling through a magazine in bed,
the dead of the day are setting out on their journey.They’re moving off in all imaginable directions,
each according to his own private belief,
and this is the secret that silent Lazarus would not reveal:
that everyone is right, as it turns out.
you go to the place you always thought you would go,
The place you kept lit in an alcove in your head.

Some are being shot into a funnel of flashing colors
into a zone of light, white as a January sun.
Others are standing naked before a forbidding judge who sits
with a golden ladder on one side, a coal chute on the other.

Some have already joined the celestial choir
and are singing as if they have been doing this forever,
while the less inventive find themselves stuck
in a big air conditioned room full of food and chorus girls.

Some are approaching the apartment of the female God,
a woman in her forties with short wiry hair
and glasses hanging from her neck by a string.
With one eye she regards the dead through a hole in her door.

There are those who are squeezing into the bodies
of animals–eagles and leopards–and one trying on
the skin of a monkey like a tight suit,
ready to begin another life in a more simple key,

while others float off into some benign vagueness,
little units of energy heading for the ultimate elsewhere.

You can catch these bands at our upcoming London shows! More info here and here.