Home of Metal have teamed up with photographer Steve Gerrard to offer an unsigned band the chance of winning a free Band Photoshoot!
Steve has been an accredited photographer for bands such as Radiohead, Metallica, Kiss, Muse, Nine Inch Nails, Iron Maiden, The Sex Pistols, Bon Jovi and Kings Of Leon. His work has been published in magazines including Rolling Stone, Kerrang!, NME, Terrorizer, Metal Hammer and Rock Sound.

You could win your band a variety of great portraits to help you stand out from the crowd.

To be in with a chance of being photographed by Steve, all you have to do is tell us in less than 200 words: who your local West Midlands music hero is an why?

Email the answer along with the name of your band, location and contact phone number to [email protected]

Closing date for entries is 14th March.

The competition coincides with our Home of Metal open day at The Public on March 26th. Fans of all ages are invited to bring along their memorabilia and stories to be recorded for the digital archive. Home Of Metal is looking for everything from concert tickets to photographs, badges, album covers, t-shirts and flyers relating to Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, Diamond Head, Magnum and Napalm Death.

Hosted by Kerrang! Radio DJ Johnny Doom who will be talking to former ‘Raw Power’ presenter, Ozzfest compere and all round metal expert Krusher. In addition Juneau Projects will be showing you how you can make your very own DIY guitar + loads of rockin fun family activities!

Free event all ages welcome 11am – 4pm
http://www.thepublic.com

And what could be more romantic than being in love and making noise music together? Blue Sabbath Black Fiji on stage at Supersonic Festival 2010 – they later had a little kiss on stage…

…you’ll hopefully be getting ready for the first Capsule gig of the year.
16th February sees Kayo Dot + Bilbao Syndrome at Hare and Hounds, Birmingham. Doors at 8pm. Here’s a clip of Kayo Dot on their current tour, from only 2 days ago, a pretty good indicator of what’s to come.

Tickets can be purchased here or at Polar Bear and Swordfish.

The Quietus recently interview Kevin Martin and he had lots of lovely things to say about his time at Supersonic last year, and about the festival in general – follow the link to read more.

Kevin Martin in The Quietus:

In a weird sort of way Supersonic were responsible for me rethinking what I wanted to do with King Midas Sound. I’d seen Corrupted play a year or two before and they helped me remember the roots of where I’d come from musically…To be honest we just love the festival. It’s an extremely positive experience to just wander around and check out all the other bands.

King Midas Sound live at Supersonic 2010

Woods blew us away when they played for us as part of the Shred Yr Face tour in 2009. Stunningly crafted songs take on a whole new direction live, with unexpected tangents, twists and turns.

I’ve been hearing this Spectrals track pretty much on repeat on 6music, so looking forward to hearing it live. He makes blissed out, disjointed guitar pop – a perfect support for Woods.

Disjointed psych experimentation comes from The Doozer (Slitbreeze), who is gaining much comparison to Syd Barrett for his vocal style.

Tickets for this show are available here, or in person at Swordfish Records and Polar Bear.

1. Blood Ceremony – I’m Coming With You (4:45)
2. Epic45 – England Fallen Over (4:26)
3. Health & Efficiency – Red drapes from my dream (7:13)
4. Matmos – Polychords (3:30)
5. Dead Fader – JBE Zorg (4:07)
6. Spectrals – Chip A Tooth (Spoil A Smile) (2:22)
7. a.P.A.t.T. – Fukin Hostile (1:33)
8. Seefeel – Folds (4:21)
9. Ghost – Stand By Him (3:56)
10. Woods – Suffering Season (3:06)
11. Bilbao Syndrome – vi (3:15)
12. Arbouretum – Another Hiding Place (5:16)
13. Kayo Dot – Right Hand is the One I Want (6:53)
14. Earth – Engine of Ruin (6:28)

We’ve hooked up with the super talent that is, Chris Brumcast to bring you a taster of forthcoming Capsule shows. It’s a real treat and hopefully will get you all excited about our amazing program of shows, kicking off with Brooklyn based mavericks KAYO DOT on Wednesday 16th Feb at the Hare & Hounds. Followed shortly by a combo of lo-fi rock and spook campfire folk in the form of WOODS, with support from SPECTRALS + DOOZER on the 14th March. A real delight on the 22nd with SEEFEEL feat. by Shigeru Ishihara (DJ Scotch Egg) and former Boredoms drummer Iida Kazuhisa (E-Da) with support from DEAD FADER + EPIC 45 (be warned tickets are flying out for this show).
The very next day on the 23rd we have a Supersonic favourite ARBOURETUM for fans of Earth and Lungfish, not to be missed with support from multi-instrumentalists HEALTH & EFFICIENCY.

In April we welcome back the godfather of drone EARTH with support from LORI GOLDSTON who has played with Nirvana, David Byrne & Cat Power to name but a few. On Saturday 30th April BLOOD CEREMONY who play a distinctive brand of flute-tinged musical sorcery with support from Swedish prog band  GHOST will be playing at the Hare & Hounds.

Tickets for all shows can be found at www.theticketsellers.co.uk
Polar Bear on York Rd in Kings Heath or Swordfish on Temple Street in Birmingham city centre

We look forward to seeing you at one or all of the above shows, and a huge thanks to Chris for putting this fantastic podcast together for us, a perfect soundtrack for a day in the office!

Next month sees Kayo Dot making their Birmingham debut alongside avant metallers Bilbao Syndrome. It’s the first Capsule gig of the year – look forward to seeing you there!

Kayo Dot

Bilbao Syndrome

Tickets are available here, or in person at Swordfish Tickets and Polar Bear Records.

Happy New Year, and Capsule have tons of gigs planned for the forthcoming months:

16th Feb – Kayo Dot + Bilbao Syndrome @ Hare & Hounds: Heavy, experimental music from the Hydra Head label; this is Kayo Dot’s first appearance in Birmingham and they’re bringing extreme metal/jazz outfit Bilbao Syndrome along with them.

14th March- Woods + Mr Underwood @ Hare & Hounds: We at Capsule fell in love with Woods when they played with Espers back in 2009; trippy psych and lo-fi rock frame noise freak outs. Support comes from peddler of curiosities Mr Underwood AKA Glatze.

22nd March – Seefeel + Dead Fader + Epic45 @ Hare & Hounds: The influential electronic indie band have reformed and have a new LP. Also on the bill are noise dubstep outfit Dead Fader, whom some of you may have caught at Supersonic and the Midlands’ own Epic45.

23rd March – Arbouretum + Hush Arbors + Health & Efficiency@ Hare & Hounds: Heavy psychedelic folk in the form of Thrill Jockey’s Arbouretum. Support comes from the gorgeous country psych of Hush Arbors as well as Health & Efficiency.

3rd April – Earth + Sabbath Assembly @ Hare & Hounds: Firm Capsule favourites Earth, the godfathers of doom, are back in Brum with the majestic apocalyptic folk of Sabbath Assembly

30th April – Blood Ceremony + Ghost @ Hare & Hounds: 70s occult rock, massive riffage and flute solos, Blood Ceremony are a must see live act, support comes from Sweden’s Ghost.

Unfortunately the scheduled Secret Chiefs 3 gig will no longer be going ahead due to personal reasons within the band. We hope to get them back soon.

Tickets for all the above gigs can be bought from theticketsellers or in person at Swordfish Records and Polar Bear Records.

The lovely posters are designed by Tom J Hughes