Antifolk Festival 2024

After ten mad years at the 12 Bar in Denmark Street, the Antifolk Fest made its debut at The Windmill in 2022. It went well, so we’re returning for a third bite with lots of new acts and some favourites. In the words of Medders, LOSE IT!

3:20 Amelia Blackwell - https://soundcloud.com/amelia-blackwell-333626947 Raw, shimmery, intense alt folk combining intricate guitar and intimate writing.

4:00 Bobby Fire Radio - https://bobbyfire.bandcamp.com/ Bobby Fire is an (anti)folk singer and songwriter who takes inspiration from his time spent loitering planet earth. He has carved out his own style of raw and honest folk-style music through storytelling and song. Blending Americana and Apocalyptic Folk with the mood and angst of 90s alternative, Bobby perfectly exemplifies the intensity and rawness of one man, a guitar and his voice.

4:40 Everever - https://everever.bandcamp.com/album/faith-roadkill Everever is a singer-songwriter who writes songs about feelings that are hard to put into words and plays various instruments badly.

5:20 Joe Buzfuz - http://www.sergeantbuzfuz.com/ Sheffield's synth-punk troubadour Joe Buzfuz promoted the UK's first regular antifolk nights at Soho's 12 Bar Club in 2002. Three years later he created the Blang label. His band Sergeant Buzfuz have played three 6 Music live sessions (Marc Riley and Tom Robinson) and released seven albums. As a solo act he now combines electronic backing tapes with guitar to create melodic observations of everyday life which have had audiences in South Yorkshire grooving with joy.

6.00 Fruity Water - https://fruitywater.bandcamp.com/ Fruity Water are Adam Bell and Alan Odgers, an electronic indie duo from Brighton. Fruity Water's second album Fuzzy Orange was released in 202, following an EP, Telephone Song.

6.40 Brer Brian - https://brer.bandcamp.com/music Brer Brian was born Brian T. Homa to Tom and Linda Homa in 1976. He attended Binghamton University in his twenties, and failed to distinguish himself. It was this failing to distinguish himself that he discovered was his calling and his passion. To further his goals, he moved to New York in the winter of '99 and partied like a rock star. These days Brian plays in black churches all over Brooklyn and hangs out with his girlfriend. He still finds time to cut a cool track every now and then. Along with Jeffrey Lewis, Brer Brian is considered to be one of the true geniuses of the New York Antifolk scene.

7.20 National Playboys - https://open.spotify.com/artist/2l7oFuQHG77d0qMa6psZMT First gig in South London! Edinburgh's hedonistic post-punk group National Playboys draw upon their brooding sonic accompaniments, surrealistic storytelling and their cathartic exploration of genre to ascertain their ambitions in creating honest and contemporary art through their music. The underground musical collective was formed by frontman Kyle McFarlane in the winter of 2022. One to watch – and you saw them here first.

8.00 En Heat – https://enheat.band/ Back to the fray after a few years recuperating from the antifolk debauchery of the early century with his Carthaginians, Filthy Pedro returns with his new outfit. En Heat bring the disco to those antifolk roots and freak show tales are set for skank and vogue. A dissection of the absurdity of our post-industrial, socio-economic system and an incitement to go out and have a damn good time. It’s a hot mess of wrestling masks and songs about walking in on your parents’ orgy and trillionaire buffoons on the moon. It’s nonsense. It’s not.

9.00 David Cronenberg's Wife - https://blangrecords.bandcamp.com/album/bluebeards-rooms Fresh off supporting antifolk legend Jeffrey Lewis all around the UK, DCW return to one of their spiritual homes. Described as “where genius meets idiocy” by Mark Lamarr, DCW have been entertaining and shocking listeners over the last two decades with their subversive storytelling. With several BBC 6Music sessions under their belt (Marc Riley and Cerys Matthews) and having supported such legends as The Fall, The Nightingales and Wreckless Eric, DCW promise their usual mix of bizarre tales featuring Lot’s daughters, the president of Kazakhstan, and erotic encounters with mermaids.

10.00 Paul Hawkins & The Awkward Silences - https://theawkwardsilences.com/ Paul Hawkins & Thee Awkward Silences began in 2006 as a collaboration between antifolk songwriter Hawkins & former Death in Vegas guitarist turned producer & drummer Ian Button in order to develop Hawkins’ then mostly-acoustic songs into the compelling, twisted outsider pop that existed in Hawkins’ imagination. Over the next decade and a half, they have evolved through various line-ups, garnering a fearsome live reputation as one of the most original & uncompromising live acts in London supporting the likes of Blood Red Shoes & Wreckless Eric The band have been championed by the likes of Radio 1’s Huw Stephens who rejoiced in their “energy, individualism & off-kilter rock n’ roll” & have drawn comparisons with outsider punk champion Ian Dury, the melodrama of Nick Cave & the uncompromising post-punk of The Fall, PiL & The Pogues but have a take that is uniquely their own.