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Harmacy, Laura Groves, Kubera at Fagins Bar, Halifax

These is something impressively beatnik about Fagin's bar in Halifax - scene of the would be double header of Bradford's slack rockers - and would be Pixies - Harmacy and the pixified Laura Groves. It is a bar where lager is drunk from tall stem glasses without staying into real ale territory. It is a place without irony and enjoys that fact.Opening band Kubera lack irony but not quality. They wear rough coarseness as a badge and wear it well going through a six or seven strong set with a heaviness a darker territory. Every song is tagged as sleazy, every song is gravel voiced.

Never one to stay too far down the path to darkness is Laura Groves whose melancholic twang of guitar always is a constant delight. Tonight she is done no favours by the venue which cries out for brick shaking but still commands the room in a way that is rare on a Sunday night in this small Northern town. Imaginary Flights is wistful and dreams away. Six songs pass too quickly.

Local residents and worries about noise cut the night before Harmacy can play and wandering back to the taxi rank two officers of the law pass us and one looks at how the only resident within earshot is a gaudy lit MacDonalds.

Some way to go.

Laboratory Noise at The Delius, Bradford

Laboratory Noise - Live Review

Laboratory Noise at The Delius in Bradford is hardly the stuff of huge comment or massive missives but after watching another of the collection of bands that are making up a currently nameless scene in Bradford and West Yorkshire I get heartened by the idea that there is - to steal a phrase - something going around here.

Sounding like Kevin Shields produced Grunge meets Mode Laboratory Noise are worth a listen and the projected film means they are worth a watch too. They sit as further proof of the depth of quality around the nameless scene at the moment. This was Thursday night with a few beers in a pub and the band were good.

fourteencorners were playing at the Love Apple two hundred yards away and the talk was of going to see Harmacy and Laura Groves in Halifax next months and it certainly seems like something.

The Long Blondes, The Lodger at Metropolian University, Leeds

Well... The Lodger Really. Such a necessary evil playing support to the band that energises young listens so much that you get a 18+ stamp on your hand on the way in and such a thankless task.For sure later on Kate, Dorian et al would impress and in the mean time Leeds based The Lodger have to fill ear time.

The come on looking strangely confident and set about a set with steady precision.

Lead guitar and vocals Ben Siddall projects and disinterest turns to curiosity. Feet tap and comparisons are draw. Are The Lodger The Cure mixed with The Wedding Present? Are they Maximo Park from Yorkshire?

A few tracks in and The Lodger seem to have cut away from such guessing and have won over those who made their way from the bar to watch. Siddall's guitar work recalls the jangle of the late 1980s and his kitchen sinkist lyrics are straight out of the big book of Northern Singers.

Single Many Thanks for Your Honest Opinion stands out and the mental note taking when Siddall comments that the album will follow in April is almost audible.

And so quick The Lodger depart leaving a good impression behind - off to slip down some Leeds side streets no doubt.