Three Syllables present the absolutely sublime, DAMON + NAOMI. The ex-GALAXIE 500 shoegaze darlings make their CAI debut following the success of their G500 remasters on DOMINO RECORDS. Guaranteed to be a show to make your spine shiver! And what’s more, it’s free before 10pm.I don’t really need to be more persuasive.

x 3S’s

THREE SYLLABLES presents

DAMON & NAOMI

THURSDAY 6th MAY 2010

DOORS 8pm – FREE BEFORE 10pm

CARDIFF ARTS INSTITUTE

Another ‘Live Music’ special from the the Institute. Another FREE offering and a rare chance to see She Keeps Bees duo, Jessica Larrabee and Andy LaPlant in an intimate setting. She Keeps Bees are future stars with Larrabee’s voice brings some stellar vintages to mind (Nina Simone, Cat Power, Patti Smith, even Janis Joplin) but the music has wonderfully bad-ass sounds, down-at-heel woozy blues, gritty explosions and sexy yearning hooks. Its first come, first served  – so our advice is :get in early.The band are supported by Cardiff’s very own,King Alexander

doors 8pm

Free b4 10pm

http://www.myspace.com/shekeepsbees

“If you are expecting consolation, I will become outrageous. If you expect me to be outrageous, I will become extra outrageous.” Xiu Xiu, Gray Death
In fish terms, Xiu Xiu are like salmon. We all get a little mesmerised by a band you can’t pin down, those cheeky morsels that swim left when you expect them to go right, but Xiu Xiu have turned twisting and turning against the tide of expected superlatives into their own fascinating and beautiful art. Some artists may think it’s enough to swim against the respected current but Xiu Xiu find creating and subverting their own tide far more interesting – swimming against their own downstream, jumping their own mischeviously-placed waterfalls. Funny how, like salmon, they make it look so effortless and graceful.
A disparate pool of temptuous folk, abrasive percussion, dissonant classical and electro, the enjoyment of Xiu Xiu stems from their unflinching ability to suck you from place to place; from meditative tranquilly to grinding generators, from murky electronica to wistful folk and swaying abandon
Just take one song from their new record, Dear God, I Hate Myself, as an example. Impossible Feeling is a four minute climb of clashing cello and piano, set against Jamie Stewart’s breathless vocals, sounding somewhere between Steve Reich’s Different Trains and a detuned Arcade Fire. It obliterates any essence of pop, yet is as wondrous and addictive as anything by Xenomania. 
Dear God, I Hate Myself, is out on 22 February..

words: Kai Jones (http://ilostifound.wordpress.com/)

THREE SYLLABLES present XIU XIU/STARS NO STARS

25th FEB 2010

doors 8pm

FREE ENTRY b4 9.30pm

http://www.myspace.com/xiuxiuband

“Just a short time ago — in a last ditch effort to supply a borrowed van with wheels to make a club gig — the four members of BLK JKS took turns hand-over-hand pushing a tire through the darkened, kinetic streets of Johannesburg, South Africa’s Soweto township. For bandmates Lindani Buthelezi, Mpumi Mcata, Molefi Makananise and Tshepang Ramoba it’s a simple and tough philosophy: every gig, everything at stake. They have shared stages in North America and Europe with artists as celebrated and disparate as Femi Kuti, Santigold, Dirty Projectors, Michael Franti and Cody Chesnutt; they have played festivals like Sasquatch and Soweto Arts Festival; and Ramoba has been celebrated by Billboard as “the best musician” at SXSW. It’s an inspiring juxtapose from that day when a Jo-burg gig hung in the balance. But to witness the frenetic energy and soaring celebration of a BLK JKS gig is to know that they have maintained that same ideology.”

We are incredibly proud to welcome BLK JKS to the CAI on 27th November, in an evening curated by Three Syllables featuring a DJ set by Midwife Crisis.