Friday lineup | Sunday lineup

+ 3pm - 1am // £5 on the door

STARRING:

Peter 'Field Music' Brewis may have been slower off the mark getting his musical project off the ground than brother David - the debut The Week That Was album comes out on Memphis Industries a week after the Distraction Weekender - but that doesn't mean he's resting on his laurels. On the contrary, the few The Week That Was gigs that have already taken place have already caused many a jaw to hit the ground. There are still smoother, more guitar based numbers, as seen in the very excellent Airport Line with its ease of melody and instant appeal, but Peter's side of the Field Music legacy certainly does not adhere to the adage that less is more.

Layers of sound build an almost impregnable edifice from which different unexpected twists and turns constantly spring. The songs juxtapose minimalistic Phillip Glass-esque ticking-clock staccato keyboard stabs with warm, folk-y harmonies in a body of work that runs the gamut of musical emotion, from delicate illustrative fables to absorbing symphonies through various sonic seasons.

The Week That Was website
The Week That Was myspace
The Week That Was Facebook

In a short space of time, their interactive live shows have became the stuff of legend, packing in audiences to witness live Twister, silly string, custard pies, glitter by the skipload, Batman costumes, more balloons than a Thanksgiving parade and the most innovative crowdsurfing that you'll ever witness. Its like if David Bowie starred in Bugsy Malone, re-written by Roger Hargraves. But let's not forget the music: upbeat, fun, shambolic electro/guitar pop is the order of the day; think Hot Chip if they listened to The Orchids and The Field Mice instead of New Order, warm synths awash with indie guitar riffs and samples that Cassetteboy would be proud of.

If 'Rave Binchy' was a musical genre, Moira Stewart would be pioneers. Songs from their debut album 'Sweetness, Yes!' have had NME staff writers wanting to join the band, A&R reps declaring their live shows as "the most fun I've had in years", Radio 1's Huw Stephens enthusiastically giving them repeated plays, and asperational E4 yoof drama Skins featured the band in their last series. Quirky, jerky, bonkers and brilliant, Moira Stewart's star is ascending, and it's shiny.

Moira Stewart myspace

One-girl chiptune maverick Nicole Newcombe is Wroooaar! And never was there an more appropriate name to describe the hyperspeed bouncy chipcore techno joyousness. No wonder she's one of myspace's most popular unsigned artists at the mo. The best bits of Scott Brown's happy 'ardcore mulged with 8-bit Gameboy melodies, with a bit of Nicole's own X-factor = distilled awesome. Beats and bleeps to make you grin like a gurlging tit, she's also happens to own a pair of cool as fuck Nintendo trainers. What more do you want? Wipe that frown from your face, wanton chin-stroker! You love this stuff just as much as the rest of us. Wroooaar! myspace

Steve Jefferis and Andrew Hodson should need no introduction within Newcastle's burgeoning electronic music scene. Andrew Hodson is, of course the figurehead of clockwork-folk-techno purveyors The Matinee Orchestra (playing Friday), while Steve Jefferis is master-of-chambertronics Cathode, entrancing venues far and wide with drenches of static and hum and minitalistic beeps and clicks. Warm Digits is one of their current live side-projects, mixing up ear-troubling krautrock rhythm 'n' noise, free improv drumming, no-wave guitar and radiophonic electronics with a disseminating Sturm und Drang with little more than a laptop, bass and drums to back them up.

Imagine Delia Derbyshire, Zombie Nation and Lightning Bolt dancing in a field outside the M25 and you're halfway there. Watch some NME-twat describe them as "New Wave of New Rave" before long, you mark our words. . .

The not-so-subtly monikered BluntWoundTrauma may well be a surprise choice to play a Distraction Saturday; after all, old school hardcore riffing intended to batter, bruise, deprave and violate the listener isn't really the sort of thing the Saturday crowd would be used to. But, hey, expect the unexpected. This is harsh, unrelating no-nonsense metal at its finest - brutecore has never sounded so wanton, so adamantine, and yet so gratifying.

It's no surprise that readers of metal bible Terrorizer recently voted them Best Unsigned band of 2007 and 9th in the World's Best Unsigned Bands in a recent poll. All hail the might of the BluntWoundTrauma!

BluntWoundTrauma website
BluntWoundTrauma myspace

trrk-errk, trrk-errk, Crrk-trrk-. errk-trrk, SQQQQUUUUAAAAAAARrRWWWKKKK!! SQUAWKKK! SQuuAwk! Errk-er-erk-crrk-SQQUUAAAARRWWWWKK! Trt-trt-crrk-EERKK! ERRK! ERRK! ERRK! SQQQQUUUUAAAARRRWWWKKK! Trrk-SQUAwk! SqUAWK! Trrk-SQUUUAAWWWKKK! errk-tr-ek-SQUAWwWwWwWwWK! er-ERRk-trrk-trr-trrk-trrk-errk-EERRKK-squawk, SQUAWWK, errt-SQWAWWK-et-errk-trrk-errk-SQUAAAWWWKKK! errk-trrk-errk-SQQQUUUAWWKKkKkKkK! trrk-errk! erk! erk! erk! erk! erk! erk! erk! erk! erk! erk! erk! SQQQUAAAAWWWWWWWK! errk-trrk-crrk-crrk-crrk-SQQQUAWWWWKkk! B>E>A>K myspace

Black Static Of Summer are one of the splinter bands spawned from sadly-missed mathcore gods Construction Yards At Night and, like their predecessors, BSoS carry on that fine tradition of free-form post-hardcore with astute lyrical bite that has seen them likened to the likes of June of 44, Shipping News, Unwound, Shellac, and For Carnation. With an engaging live show where sudden bursts of pseudo-violence are common occurrences, Black Static also demand to be witnessed for their risky, invested vocal delivery as well as their blistering streamroller rock dynamic. Seek out. The Black Static Of Summer myspace

The Big Oaks were once described as "the sort of crippingly unfunny comedy music which could only be appreciated by the friends of the cretins involved, or Red Dwarf t-shirt wearing bell-ends who live with their mams." Thing is though, nothing could be further from the truth. Well, okay, we're stretching it a bit. A lot, actually. There are few bands who divide opinion in the North East like this motley crew; fans appreciate them for their soul-reflecting, bitter, sharply-observed biting lyrics and fuzzed up instrumentation that recall many of the great british indie bands that used to pepper the Peel Festive 50s in the eighties and love them for it. Non-fans simply do not possess any sense of humour and hence should be pitied.

In a local scene where unauthentic joyless dross seems to clutter the toilet circuit, The Big Oaks should come recommended to anybody with at least half an open mind. He's John The Rat, what do you think of that?

The Big Oaks myspace

Previously of retired Swedish poptastic scoundrels Candysuck, Nathalie Stern is known as one half of Lake Me, the stripped down blues-infused rhythms, delightful tunes and battered rock anthems of which have been bedazzling audiences worldwide. Nathalie will performing her own solo material, consisting of a choir in the form of pedals that loop, recut, and reuse her tender, evocative vocals that threaten to tear apart the fabric of emotions that lie inside you.

Her contemporary take on traditional Swedish folk has already netted her support slots for Daniel (AIU) Higgs and performances touring Canada and Switzerland as well as as over the UK; find out what makes her essential listening on Saturday 9th August.

Nathalie Stern myspace
Nathalie Stern Facebook

Friday lineup | Sunday lineup