Live music in Liverpool this week: 8 - 14 July

We dive into the listings to bring you this essential guide to gigs in Liverpool this week – plus the latest news on festivals, tour announcements and more. Think we've missed something? Hit up will@theskinny.co.uk with the details...

Fri 8 Jul

What better way to get your weekend funk on than with Amp Fiddler? Hailing from Detroit, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer Joseph Fiddler is best known for his work with George Clinton's Parliament and Funkadelic projects, although he's also worked with Was (Not Was) and the sadly-departed Prince (sniff). Which isn't too bad at all really. His own material covers funk, soul and electronica, but doesn't fall particularly neatly into any of those categories, and his rowdy live shows are pretty essential stuff to boot. Worth a jaunt on a Friday night, basically.
24 Kitchen Street, 8pm, £9-12

Anyone with an eye on local flavour might prefer to head over to The Jacaranda, where moody types Bad Mood launch their recently-released debut single May 2nd. Self-described as 'socialist puke punk', they're a much less pacy, more thoughtful beast than you might think, but their righteous ire is beginning to turn heads in the city. Sittingbourne indie-heads Simple Poets help flesh out the bill, alongside Kirkby rock'n'rollers Lags, rough-edged Mancunians Lyerrr and singer-songwriter Alex Holbourn.
Jacaranda, 8pm, free entry

Not so much a gig, more of a free-for-all for vinyl fanatics is the grand return of Seven Inches of Pizza to Maguire's. It's a simple format: bring down any five 7" records of your choice and hop on the decks. Free drinks for anyone who gets up to play, plus the chance to wow your friends with sonic gold from the depths of your Stiff/Tamla Motown/K collections.

No genres are specified – in the words of promoters Howl at the Moon, "expect dirty funk, leftfield sounds, film soundtracks, scratchy indie, northern soul and some fairly obvious hip hop." What's not to love?
Maguire's Pizza Bar, 7pm, free entry

Sat 9 Jul

You might already be familiar with Aristophanes. She's the Taiwanese rapper who guested on Grimes' track scream, one of the many highlights from last year's all-conquering Art Angels LP. She's also a fast-rising star in her own right, blending a deliberately femme approach with kaleidoscopic hip-hop and overlapping textures to create something fun and fascinating. Her first visit to the Buyers Club promises to set pulses soaring and hairs standing on end: truly magical pop music.
Buyers Club, 8pm, £8

Glasgow noiseniks Jutland Songs head to Liverpool next, bringing a thoroughly melodic bent to the angularity of classic American indie rock – they number ex-members of Scots favourites Dananananaykroyd and Eska among their ranks, but their sound is straight outta Chapel Hill in 1993. Marvellous news for fans of Polvo and Chavez, while the show is completed by Superchunk fanatics Good Grief, swoonsome DIY champions Puzzle and the murkier sounds of Oh Well, Goodbye (more on whom later in this column).
Maguire's Pizza Bar, 8pm, £5

Hailing from the same city as Jutland Songs, but on a very different tip are Twin Atlantic, whose tour bus stops off at the Arts Club ahead of their fourth album GLA, due for release in Setpember. Originally formed in 2007, theirs has been a steady rise to the top, moving from a spikily anthemic brand of pop-punk to their current incarnation as refined alt rockers. Expect riffs, sweat and a whole lot of bouncing in the front few rows. 
Arts Club, 7pm, £16

All the city centre action this week takes place across Friday and Saturday nights, and it's back across to the Jacaranda we go for an appearance from brass/hip-hop fusionists The BlowBack Horns. A many-legged collective, mashing up rap and soul with brass-punctuated breakbeats, they're a live phenomenon that's best witnessed up close and personal. Support comes from the flashy chops of blues-rockers Tosin Salako Band.
Jacaranda, 8pm, free entry

X&Y Festival, 8-10 July

There's a full-on yoof takeover in the leafy surrounds of Sefton Park's Palm House this weekend, as X&Y Festival returns for another outing. And a fine line-up it is too: Frank Turner's libertarian folk-rock stylings top the bill on Friday 8 July, propped up by the likes of Theme Park and Beans on Toast; they're followed by neo-soul and tripped-out electro from Honne, Babeheaven and more the following day. Sunday 10 July, meanwhile, sees an absolutely packed bill starring Ipswich emo stars Basement and noisepoppers Nai Harvest alongside a plethora of new acts, both local and not-so-local.
Sefton Park Palm House, 6pm, day tickets from £19.50

Now booking...

Peaches, playing Invisible Wind Factory in November

Following the announcements of John Carpenter and Warpaint recently, Liverpool Music Week unveiled the latest additions to its line-up this week. Horrors side proect Cat's Eyes and Mercury nominees GoGo Penguin will headline shows at the 2016, as will hotly-tipped locals Clean Cut Kid and She Drew The Gun, who will each curate their own nights during the festival. Keep an eye on these pages for more news on this year's Liverpool Music Week line-up, and book tickets over at the LMW website.

Elsewhere, alt country troubadors The Low Anthem return following a four-year absence from the city. With new album Eyeland in the bag, they head to Leaf on Friday 18 November – their 2012 performance at the Kazimier still lives long in the memory for the city's Americana cognoscenti, so you're advised to pick up tickets pronto.

And in utterly spectacular news, electroclash survivor and genuine star Peaches makes her Liverpool debut on Friday 11 Nov at the Invisible Wind Factory. Warning: this will sell out. Grab tickets here while you still can. This promises to be one for the ages.

In other news...

Post-punk revivalists Oh Well, Goodbye are a busy bunch. Having released their debut cassette BG092 via California's Bleeding Gold stable last summer, they now have a grand total of three new singles in the pipeline, plus a European tour in the works for later this year. Keep an eye out for concrete details on the new releases here, catch 'em at Maguire's on Saturday 9 July (see above), and whet your appetite with brand new track f.f. here: