CLR010: In Liverpool, We'll Barn Dance

How does it feel to be British Born Chinese and line dance in Liverpool? How does it feel be pummelled into submission in the boxing ring by a movie director? How does it feel to fail gloriously with your very best friends?

Creature Lab's tenth release will be Duck Thieves' new EP which will help you to answer these burning questions! It will appear on all major streaming services on October 22nd.

The record's release will be marked by a spectacular party at a special venue. The UK's only professional shopfront theatre, home to Theatre Absolute, will play host to four of the most creative and unique musical acts that the local DIY scene has to offer:

Delightful Young Mothers will perform a full band set of their beautifully written, accordion driven, punk-influenced songs with a lineup that includes members of Batsch and Marker Starling.

Nim Chimpsky describe their music as "by chimps, for champs" and have quickly become cult favourites on the local scene since they first appeared less than a year ago. A noisy, technicolour monster.

Invitation to Love are named after the trashy television romance from Twin Peaks... after that, describing them gets tricky. Surrounded in mystery, ITL shows are rare and never fail to be worth seeing.

Of course, topping the show will be Duck Thieves themselves, telling their tales in a style a bit like pantomime soundtracked by Queen. Expect chaos, dance routine, barely believable numbers of props and costume changes, and expect to smile and dance for forty minutes solid.

Creature Kucha (feature length!)

Steve's presentation about the DIY music scene in Coventry is now available to watch and listen to. This was part of the "My City of Culture" event in July hosted by Coventry Artspace, which part of Coventry's bid to become the City of Culture in 2021.

Evans the Death, Gunther Prague, Porridge Radio...

Gunther Prague will be providing the local support for London's Evans the Death at the Tin on July 29th. This is another show booked by our good mates at Kitchen Club who are continuing their link up with Fortuna Pop! Records to bring Evans to the city for the second time in year. See you there!

Creature Kucha

Steve was really pleased to be asked to speak at the recent Pecha Kucha Coventry event "My City of Culture". Coventry is bidding to be the UK City of Culture in 2021, and this one of a number of events planned in the run up to the submission of the bid itself in 2018. Steve spoke about the importance of DIY gigs, and why Coventry is perfect for musicians who are brave enough to take responsibility and put on their own  shows. The slides and audio will eventually be uploaded in the Pecha Kucha Coventry website and we'll provide a link when they go up.

Creature Lab vs The Siren

The show at Inspire at the end of May was easily one of our favourites of all time... a real reminder why DIY gigs are so much fun and worth the hard work. We'd like to record our thanks to everybody that came out (the venue estimated 120+), the bands for putting on such good shows and particularly Mick Leape and his staff at Inspire for hosting us.

Ghosts of Dead Airplanes

Gunther Prague

Ravens

Jaghana

Charlie Jack

This was our first even "Pay What You Want" gig, and we're pleased to report that people gave generously when prompted by The Lieutenant and we were able to split a decent pot between the acts. DIY! 

The Lieutenant 

Live at Inspire: May 28th

For our next gig, Creature Lab will be teaming up with The Siren to take over Inspire - a venue in the base of a 13th Century church spire - on May 28th. We're really proud of the bill which includes you some of the finest bands from the city and beyond. We've previewed the lineup below...

Headlining will be the excellent Ghosts of Dead Airplanes who are warming up for a "dirty, miserablist summer" (their words not ours) ahead of the third instalment of their Yr Welcome festival over in Birmingham.

CLR will be represented by our very own Gunther Prague. If you're taking the trouble to read this, your probably know them by now: deliberately awkward, louder than necessary, they're that Ligs band

We are particularly excited about getting a look at Oxford's Cherokee: an all-out two-man attack of distorted bass and drums. Here's a live performance of their song "Smoking Gun" .

Another band warming up for bigger things this summer are Ravens: Cov's own post punk favourites who have just been announced for the main stage at this year's Godiva Festival.

Jaghana will bring us their dreamy pyschout rock fresh from what we understand was a pretty special show in at the South Bank Club in Bristol at the end of March. Hear their "Forest Behind The Dreams" EP here.

It is really good to see Delightful Young Mothers back in action after a quiet few months. Don't make the mistake of thinking that an accordian player is out of place on this bill. Cedric's punk inspired songs will change your mind if you're still not sure, we promise.

Gunther Prague Live Review

Here's a nice live review from Gunther Prague's recent show at The Brixton Windmill by Mark Gordon Palmer, who was pretty impressed with Chris's dress sense (as well as the show itself of course!)

"Other support bands were also rightfully angry and really very good, especially the raucous rampaging roof beam-lifting of metal band GUNTHER PRAGUE (from Coventry it seems) who, with their quietly-stanced bassist in a sharp suit who looked a little like Mike from the Young Ones and who I had also shared a space at the bar with earlier (yep - I'm starting to sound like a proper stalker now) amid a wealth of sweaty guys in black cotton, proved that it's always the quiet ones who know how to make enough noise to burst your eardrum's heart. Impactful of pure red rash sound and stage presence, this is a band certainly worth remembering and following, so I will."

The full text is here.

March Releases

Our two latest releases - Gunther Prague's Blue EP and Duck Thieves' Copycat - have now arrived, and both bands put on triumphant shows to mark the occasion. (We would freely admit to being biased and make no claims as to the objectivity of this statement.) The GP gig was filmed and we'll be releasing videos from two or three of the songs shortly. 

Duck Thieves - Copycat - CLR009

DUCK THIEVES are back! On March 19th, "Copycat" will be released via Creature Lab. The three track EP  features three favourites from the band's superb live show: "Copycat", "Golden Ninja Warrior" and "Nowa Huta". Expect the usual big guitar solos and subject matter including the counterfeit art from China, feuds over terrible kung fu movies and even communist town planning. 

The band will perform at Revolt, Coventry's excellent DIY / Riot Grrrl /  Ruckus night on March 19th to mark the release.

Gunther Prague - Blue EP - CLR008

Our first release of the year, and our eighth all told will be Gunther Prague's "Blue EP", which will be available from March 5th.

This is a speedy follow up to the band's "Green EP" which was released in September, and like it's predecessor it was recorded in just twelve hours. The release is being marked with gigs in Coventry and London, with the main launch at The Tin on March 5th.

Gunther Prague have already started work on a full length album, with the first sessions at the Moonbase Recording Studios booked for early February.

Duck Thieves at Love Music, Hate Homophobia, Biphobia, Transphobia

This weekend, Duck Thieves had the privilege of headlining the Love Music, Hate Homophobia, Biphobia, Transphobia gig at The Tin in Coventry, which was organised by Coventry Pride.  The gig was also part of Independent Venue Week, and we were really proud to have a Creature Lab band supporting two good causes in one go. Here are some of Adele Reed's pictures from a brilliant evening. The gig was also filmed, and we will tell you a bit more about that soon.

Gunther Prague on Film

Not movie film, but proper analogue film that you develop in a dark room... Here are some of Adele Reed's shots of Gunther Prague from December. We're planning to use some of these in design for the band's next release - "Blue EP". A preview song is available here.

Gunther Prague at Dumb Luck

There are still one or two things left to wrap up from the back end of last year, including these pictures from Gunther Prague's performance at the Dumb Luck Xmas Hoopla on December 22nd.

Photos by Antony Weir

CLR's 2015 in Pictures

Now that 2015 is done and dusted, we've finished choosing our favourite pictures from CLR related events over the year.

"Crackle Ok" Review

What better way to start off Creature Lab's 2016 than with a 2015 review of an album that we put out in 2014? 

In November, Tom Claybrook of Noisy Dirty City wrote some very kind words about our first ever release which he calls an "astronomical and fantastical voyage"... You can read the full review here.

NDC is well worth a bookmark. Their review of the latest Evans the Death album is also well worth a look, and we happen to know that band themselves were pretty pleased with it. (Yeah we've got connections and that!)

2015 Wrap Up...

We are pretty much finished for the year here at Creature Lab...  We've managed four new releases and two re-releases, and put on some really fun shows. There are a couple to report back on since we last posted here:

La Bete Blooms

Late Starters celebrated the launch of their Pigtown and C-Boys EP by supporting the excellent La Bete Blooms at the Tin on October 30th.

Resurrection Men

On November 29th, Gunther Prague and Resurrection Men had a good go at destroying the foundations at Drapers with what was comfortably the loudest show we've ever put on.

Finally, last weekend Duck Thieves had the privilege of opening for two excellent bands signed to Fortuna Pop! at a packed Kitchen Club Presents... night at The Tin. Chorusgirl and The Spook School both put on amazing shows, and our own Duck Thieves went down a storm too. Possibly our favourite show of the year... We had Chorusgirl staying at Creature Lab HQ and they were lovely house-guests!

Silvi Wersing of Chorusgirl

There will be one more outing for a Creature Lab band this year, and we'll let you know about that shortly. 

Late Starters and Resurrection Men

It's been a busy few weeks here at CLR HQ. Both the Gunther Prague and Duck Thieves EP releases were marked with really exciting gigs, and Duck Thieves also confirmed that they will be entering Eurovision again (!). The next two shows for Creature Lab bands are these:

Duck Thieves Act One EP Launch

We're all set for the launch part of Duck Thieves' "Act One" EP, which take place at the Coventry Music Museum on Saturday October 3rd. We're particularly pleased to have the excellent Hula Girls on the bill. See you there.

Gunther Prague EP Launch - Full Lineup

Gunther Prague EP Launch - The Tin, Coventry, Sept 25th 2015

Gunther Prague will play a headline show at the Tin, Coventry next month to mark the released of their "Green EP".  Support bands are still to be confirmed, but we are very pleased that Neil Kulkarni will be our guest DJ for the evening.

Gunther Prague will perform as a three piece, having recruited Late Starters' Chris McNamara for bass duties on the night. Physical copies of the EP will be available for the first time on the night. Preview songs are available here.