Cape Town’s Ashtray Electric launch their new album this week, and the Interactive Art Fair offers something eclectic and fresh.
? Grizzled and clad in plaid, Bellville outfit Ashtray Electric have emerged from the studio to flaunt their brand of velvet indie rock. The nationwide trek in support of their sophomore album, Measured in Falls, kicks off in Pretoria this weekend and features bearded mates Wrestlerish at Arcade Empire. Tipped as the group most likely to follow in the footsteps of Cape comrades aKING, the lads are guaranteed to host a hazy evening of red wine, Marlboro reds and sweat in the capital.
Arcade Empire, corner of Hans Strydom Drive and the N4, Pretoria, on July 16 at 9pm. Tickets are R30 before 10pm and R40 after. For more information visit www.ashtrayelectric.co.za.
? Music, visual art, film and fashion will be celebrated at the colourfully eclectic and interactive Art Fair, taking place at Mash in Newtown, an area appropriately rich in culture, history and vibrant nightlife. This extravaganza, entitled Neon, will feature an abundant market, overhead sketch battles and live tattoo and graffiti demonstrations. There will also be a fashion show celebrating unusual and vintage clothing, as well as premieres of the South African films Moving the City and Adapt or Die. At 10pm the after-party will begin at The Woods and Town Hall, and will feature the notorious party-starter, DJ Doctor Khumalo.
The Mills Building, 66 Carr Street, Newtown, Jo’burg, on July 16. Free entrance before 4pm, R40 after. Tel: 079 490 1172 or visit www.thetownhall.co.za.
? South Africa’s most successful rock band, the Parlotones, have become known for blowing audiences away with their powerful and original stage act, a performance popular for featuring lead singer Kahn Morbee’s strange, theatrical make-up, searing rock anthems and the band’s distinctively sensitive and meaningful ballads. This Saturday they will be breaking creative boundaries as their performance, entitled Dragonflies and Astronauts, is broadcast live in 3D at Nu Metro cinemas.
July 16 at 10pm. Tickets are R100 and are available at www.numetro.co.za. Tel: 011 928 1000.
? Johannesburg’s fans of experimental music will be overjoyed to see that Cape Town guitarist Righard Kapp is returning for a one-off show at the Bioscope on July 15. Kapp is a self-described ‘dilettante of the guitar”, who aims to extend the sonic vocabulary of the instrument through various experimental techniques. Joining him will be JP Redpath, who recently released his EP, titled Shipwrecks. ‘I like to sing and I like to play guitar, especially in a finger-picking fashion, although I’m not impartial to a good strum,” says Redpath, trying to give fans an idea of what to expect. ‘This EP is the precursor to an album that will be out ‘some time in the near future”.
The Bioscope, 286 Fox Street, Maboneng Precinct, on July 15 at 9pm.