THE Wandering Step, Kinesis and Shake Babies are just a few of the bands on our ITC must see list.
THE WANDERING STEP
THE Wandering Step have been slowly picking away at the rock block with their delicious Beach Boy pop for most of the year. From Preston, they are the only band to ever go on record singing about longing to move to the Icelandic capital of Rekyavik. On current EP Now It's Time For... they've hooked up with Deltasonic, the Liverpool label that launched The Coral. But awaiting a major deal, they stand as front-runners for the In The City Live Unsigned tournament.
Guitarist Dan Step says: "It is kind of a showbiz event, it's not a real gig, because you're not playing for the same audience you do with a normal show. But we're not gonna go and play differently for A&R types or anything. A lot of people said we're manic, we're noisy and fast and furious. I've been pleased with the people who have been dancing and boogieing away to that sixties rock'n'roll vibe that we've got in our songs, the open-armed kind of attitude. I haven't been to Reykyavik. The song's more about doing something different . It's a cool, three syllable word."
Sunday, Roadhouse, 8pm. Monday, King's Arms Salford, 9.45pm.
MINORPLANET'S last gig was at the Panopticon Doctor Who convention at the Palace Hotel. Singer Suzanne Hughes says: "Last weekend was quite mad actually, it was one of our best gigs yet performance wise and we looked the part. It's not the sort of audience we're used to playing to. There were old guys at the end saying they loved it."
At In The City they take a more conventional route by sailing their good ship of ambient electro into Courtney's, just behind Kendal's. The fourth in their series of Eclecticity showcases, the last event took over Castlefield with a sunkissed younger sister G:percussion. Joining them are ace psychedelic oddballs The Brothers With Different Mothers. Any fears about dressing up should be put to one side. "This will be different from the Doctor Who thing," says Suzanne. "Live, we're really rocking."
Saturday, Courtney's, Parsonage Gardens. 9.45pm. KINESIS
EVERY year, the ITC Unsigned line-up hosts a band that will have the A&R men camped out the night before to be first in the queue with the chequebooks. Last year it was Nylon Pylon and Hoggboy, and this year it's the turn of Go's favourite band, Bolton riot rockers Kinesis. They've just recorded a new independent single, Billboard Beauty, but ITC should see them shake off the `teen-punk' tags and graduate to the big league.
Conor McGloin, guitar, says: "It's a good chance to have a free gig so all our friends can come down and we can repay everybody for their support in the last year. I'm sure it'll be novelty value playing at a working man's pub in Salford. Get back to out roots! We're looking forward a lot to recording an album and hopefully we can show that we're not relying on our age to sell records."
Sunday, King's Arms, 10pm. SHAKE BABIES
A YEAR ago, we got excited about a punk rockin' hip-hoppin' EP called Flicking Up The V-Sign. The band of posh Manchester MCs behind it, Shake Babies, were one of the most entertaining live acts in the city, but since then all has been quiet. Behind the scenes they've been demoing new, harder tracks and plotting their American assault. In The City Live Unsigned sees them return to the limelight. Brother B says: "The thing for me, even if the stage is a postage stamp and there's one light bulb, there's one other person there that I can impress... it's evangelical, spreading the message. We're four good looking chaps. Basically we're the Hives with a DJ, it's as simple as that. We don't do urban music. There may be elements of hip-hop in what we do, but we're a rock'n'roll band, and it's important that people remember that we are the most important band at In The City."
Monday, Black Lion, 10.30pm. BYNATONE
TOGETHER less than a year, south Manchester teenagers Rachael Elwell and Alan Wallace are Bynatone; the Jack and Kelly Osbourne of Manchester's electroclash underground. While their peers play with precocious lyrics (Roger) and Eastern Bloc-inspired performance-art (Stazi), Bynatone keep it lo fi and instrumental, playing anonymously, side-by-side behind a Casio-in-space set-up. Self-propelled 7inch Stargazer has charmed the pants off everyone in its wake, and at In The City they headline Transmission at Jabez Clegg, above the formidable likes of David Potts' RAM and Leeds noiseniks Lorimer.
Alan Wallace says: "We're on the lunatic fringe of music at the moment. A lot of bands at In The City are quite `indie', so we're a little bit nervous about that. `Electroclash' is a bit of a media term, it all started with Add N to (X) for me. I've tried to form bands, but I've never felt comfortable playing a guitar and singing. If anybody says to us, `here's 20grand, go and make an album', we'd find that scary, but we'd have to take them up on it anyway!"
Monday, Jabez Clegg, 11.15pm. Tuesday, Night & Day, 3pm.
OTHER ITC HIGHLIGHTS
BONKERS electro night Chips With Everything presents Stazi and the man behind the country cover of Ice Ice Baby, the Silva Surfa at In The Chippy (Saturday, Night & Day)
THE Youth Inclusion Project show at music can change the world, as the success stories of the fight-poverty-through-hip-hop project presents a special ITC showcase (tonight, Urbis).
THE Roadhouse shows its indie leanings with a rare show from the excellent-but-unfortunately-named Crestfallen (tonight, Roadhouse) supported by The Jocasta Project.
UGLYMAN Records present a too-rare appearance from the Cocteau-meets-Nick Cave outfit Silverman (Sunday, 42nd Street).
CHAIRSMISSING has a special day out with a day of ever-reliable Manc alt.rock from Go favourites Fi Lo Radio, The Obsession, The Sonar Yen, Tsuji Giri and Transelement (Sunday, Jabez Clegg.
THE former Soviet Union's smallest country gets a look-in at the Georgian Showcase, with Unsigned entrants Embryon getting jiggy alongside the Skydiving Penguins (Sunday, Bar 38). Tweet