When: 7.30pm on Sunday 30 October 2011
Where: The Deaf Institute, 135 Grosvenor Street, Manchester M1 7HE

We’re excited to present a double-header of up-and-coming North American bands Other Lives and Young Galaxy.

Other Lives formed as an instrumental project in 2004 under the name Kunek. Based in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Kunek (who eventually added vocals to the mix) released one album (Flight of the Flynns) before making the transition to the similarly themed Other Lives. The group’s eponymous debut album was produced and recorded by drummer/engineer Joey Waronker (Walt Mink, Beck, REM) and released in late 2008. After getting a boost by having songs appear on Grey’s Anatomy, the band released their second album, Tamer Animals, this summer of 2011 on Play It Again Sam.

‘Thanks to the makeshift orchestra’s shaggy ringleader, Jesse Tabish, these wistful Americana-styled tracks (influenced by Tabish favourites Sigur Rós and Godspeed You! Black Emperor) rarely feel forced’ – 7.4/10, Pitchfork

‘File under Pastoral Americana alongside Fleet Foxes and Midlake, but there is a major difference: Tabish worships instrumental music, and classical minimalists Steve Reich and Philip Glass, which accounts for the album’s pulsating orchestrations’ – BBC Music

‘This is sublime, transportive music to spend hours with’ – 4/5, the Guardian

Young Galaxy formed in Vancouver as a duo in 2005. Their sound has been described as similar to Slowdive, Galaxie 500 and Luna as well as Pink Floyd and Spiritualized. The band toured with Arcade Fire, The Album Leaf, The Frames, Peter, Bjorn and John, Stars and Death Cab For Cutie. They later moved to Montreal, where they recorded their self-titled debut, which was released in 2007 on Arts & Crafts (Broken Social Scene, Los Campesinos!, Feist). They recorded their second album Invisible Republic in Montreal with Radwan Moumneh (A Silver Mt. Zion) and Jace Lasek of The Besnard Lakes engineering. Invisible Republic was released independently in 2009 and received a longlist nomination for the 2010 Polaris Music Prize. It was mixed by Tony Doogan (Mogwai, Belle & Sebastian, Snow Patrol) in Glasgow. Their third album, Shapeshifting, was produced by Dan Lissvik of the band Studio in Gothenburg, Sweden, and released through the Norwegian label Smalltown Supersound in April this year.

‘There’s the spacious, often almost sleepy sense of rhythm; the downy disco guitars that coast around core melodies; the sturdy, sticky bass; the soft synthesizer fills… a brand of arch synth-pop that at times recalls an updating of the Eurythmics or a leaner, calmer Cut Copy‘ – 4/5, Resident Advisor

This show is a co-promotion with Now Wave.

Tickets are available from the bar, Common (both no booking fee), Piccadilly Records,Vinyl Exchange, Seetickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook | Last.fm