Ty Segall

As far as four band bills go, this Thursday at The Deaf Institute is going to take alot of beating. First of all the headliner Ty Segall is finally back in the UK; for some reason he didn’t play last year when he was supposed to, probably got busted or something. If you like San Francisco at the moment then Ty Segall is for you. The other three are probably the three best bands in Manchester; Milk Maid, Former Bullies and Waiters, which raises the question; Who’s DJing at Suffering Jukebox on Thursday night?

Pumpkin Carving Competition

So it was halloween on Sunday and we had a pumkin carving competition* at The Deaf
Institute.

Some pics of the picks of the bunch here:





*that means we also had lots of pumpkin soup, rissotto stew etc on the specials board this week

Summer Camp

Summer Camp are a London duo, tenuously and lazily lumped in with something called 'chillwave'. Try not to spew... Summer Camp basically make beautifully sweet, nostalgic pop music; drawing more from beaten up VHS copies of John Hughes movies as any actual music. Initial blog excitement focussed on their mysterious personas, only for it to be revealed that Summer Camp were made up of music journalist Elizabeth Sankey and singer-songwriter Jeremy Walmsley. Anyway... none of this really matters.

Summer Camp are great and they play the Deaf Institute on 5th October with Frankie & The Heartstrings and Spectrals.

You can buy tickets HERE

So 'Summer Camp'...why has no-one ever used that name before? Tell us some of the lame names you came up with first...or was it always gonna be 'Summer Camp'?

Well we never planned to be a band, we did the cover of 'Only Have Eyes For You' purely for our own amusement, and then set up a myspace on a whim so that we could go back to it in ten years time and cringe. 'Summer Camp' came from when we were required to put in our 'About Me' guff, and we thought we'd say that we'd met at Summer Camp when we were 14. Then Jeremy said, "Let's call ourselves Summer Camp as well", so we did. Yeah, we know. GREAT story.

I'm completely guilty of this, but why do people our age seem to fetishize America? Was growing up in the UK sooo bad? I still slightly hate my parents for not moving to America like the rest of my extended family.

I don't think it's that there's anything wrong with the UK - we freaking love this place, but America is the place we see in movies, old photos, hear about in songs. So it's kind of aspirational and romantic. While England is the safe and solid marriage, America is the flirty affair, and you can pick and choose what you like from it. In our case - Disneyland, Bruce Springsteen, and John Hughes.

You're band's songs sound like Super 8 looks...does that make sense... is that something you were going for?

We never really had a plan for the sound, but we listen to a lot of old music, and we like pop that's a bit melancholy. The sort of bittersweet longing you have when you're a teenager, when it always seems like summer, and you fall in love with some idiot who you think is James Dean, but really he's more Jimmy Saville.

What other bands should we be listening to?

Fleetwood Mac, Take That and Fennesz.

DOWNLOAD Ghost Train by Summer Camp

Our Record Label

Suffering Jukebox is The Deaf Institute/Trof's record label. We like music over here and helping out some of our favourite local (and international) bands seemed like the logical conclusion to our plight. We've released a handful of 7" records and cassette tapes (yes people still buy cassettes) and you can read more about them on the Suffering Jukebox website. There's also 3 Suffering Jukecast podcasts to download and a whole bunch of stuff about other bands we love.

Suffering Jukebox

Troffice Playlist

My Whole Life - Gun Outfit

Gun Outfit threw everyone a total curveball with their demos. We thought they were another albeit brilliant american lo-fi band... Gun Outfit's album is a complete step up, splicing the best of Jim O'Rourke, Silver Jews and Sebadoh. There album's out now on No Age's PPM label and they play Trof NQ in October.

Fever Dreaming - No Age

We've always been pretty big fans of No Age...their first two albums were great and the way they conduct themselves as a band sets an example to all new bands in this major label-less void (thank god). The new album out really soon on Sub Pop is their most accessible yet, packed with hooks, melody but unmistakenly No Age

Oh Baby - Colleen Green

Avid readers of these playlists might realise that this is where the seeds of our record label Suffering Jukebox were sown. Colleen Green was our second release and the album 'Milo Goes To Compton' is our favourite this year. Great things are in store for our favourite Cali-stoner and 'Oh Baby' just shows how great a songwriter she is. Available on Colleen Green's MySpace

Twelve Roses - Beach Fossils

Beach Fossils seven inch on Captured Tracks was one of our number ones last year and the album carries on where they left off. This isn't lo-fi, were The Byrds lo-fi? It's just really well recorded pop music. Beach Fossils play the Deaf Institute in October

Celestica - Crystal Castles

How weird is it that Crystal Castles are this HUGE band? They make really weird, abrasive, experimental noise yet the strength of their songs and melodies make it totally immediate and catchy. The fact that they are HUGE makes us sleep better at night ha

Eyes Hands Mouth - Explode Into Colors

Just as we really got into Explode Into Colors they went and split up. Not completely sure how to describe them but they have alot in common with the New York No Wave scene, PiL and maybe even ESG. Really enamoured with their album 'Quilts'

Peppermint - Spectrals

Spectrals first seven inch on the Moshi Moshi label sees them disgarding the wilfully obtuse sound of their Captured Tracks debut. Peppermint could have been written at any point in the last 60 years and reminds us weirdly of 'Build Me Up Buttercup' from There's Something About Mary and there really is no higher compliment

Can't You See - Milk Maid

This is the B-Side from their forthcoming release on our label. Coming on like the best skewed romantic since Bob Pollard; Martin Cohen's Milk Maid are just going from strength to strength. This is awesome

Beach Fossils

We're thrilled to bits to announce a show by the mighty Beach Fossils; the latest in a long line of wonderfully melodic lo-fi bands from Brooklyn's Captured Tracks. You can buy tickets HERE

Here they are at this years SXSW in Austin

Trof Fallowfield & The Corner

Trof Fallowfield and The Corner are currently undergoing some major revamps... Trof Fallowfield is purely cosmetic, so we'll still be serving up the finest burgers and breakfasts in town but The Corner is having a total sprucing both physically and idealogically....that said, keep your eyes peeled over the next couple of weeks for some exciting announcements