Tickets on sale Friday 14th November at 10:00.

A lovely bill featuring the Irish debut of Jack Cooper’s wonderful Modern Nature project and American visitors Styrofoam Winos who are signed to Ryan Davis’ sophomore Lounge label. 

“There is music that feels like it was born out of a white-hot spark of inspiration, and there is music that feels like it has come together gradually, like accrued wisdom; the music that Jack Cooper records as Modern Nature falls into the latter category. Across three studio albums, Cooper—a musician originally from the English seaside town of Blackpool, now located somewhere in the countryside of Cambridgeshire —has invented and refined a quietly introspective, semi-improvised acoustic style that nonetheless feels richly sensual and radical in its approach.” – Pitchfork

Modern Nature

When Modern Nature toured their last album, 2023’s No Fixed Point In Space, it became apparent to Jack Cooper–the band’s main creative force–that they were already pulling away from the free, open-ended approach they had spent five years working towards; almost as if the music had become so abstract and elasticated, it now had to snap back towards something more structured. As they found themselves naturally locking into more fixed grooves, he realised a new direction had been set. Their new album–The Heat Warps–is the triumphant manifestation of where that new direction took them. In the aftermath, Cooper’s songwriting, which had become increasingly impressionistic, found a new focus and the idea of making an album that followed a similar path to the last two increasingly seemed obtuse. The purpose was to forge a radical change.

The core trio of him, Jim Wallis (drums) and Jeff Tobias (bass guitar) were augmented by a new guitarist–Tara Cunningham. Modern Nature’s recent records have reflected an insular life. Cooper had moved out to the countryside in 2021and had, in his words, been “hibernating” while he started a family. He felt this new band was a symbol for his reawakening and the perfect vessel for him to continue to explore themes that he’s sung about with Modern Nature–collectivism, our relationship with the natural world, the weight of consciousness–but with more directness and purpose. The key was the new dual guitar sound. “I’ve always been drawn to bands where two guitarists work as a unit to move around and colour the rhythm section,” explains Cooper. “I’d been listening to the demos Television did with Brian Eno in the day and then that night I played with Tara for the first time at an improvised music show. We have a very similar approach to the guitar and that extends to the way we sing, so it gives the music an interesting balance. “What we do is mirrored; a symmetry on either side of what Jim and Jeff are doing in the rhythm section. We’ve played with lots of amazing musicians who continue to orbit around what we do, but Tara joining the band feltlike finding the other side to the square. Previous records have been performed by upwards of fifteen people but it was apparent the four of us could achieve something more powerful and more direct. ”In the time Modern Nature has been a band, the world has undoubtedly changed. The words Cooper had been writing previously were somewhat ambiguous but it had started to feel like he was sitting on the fence and that was something he needed to address.“ Every day we’re confronted with a confusing and scary world,” he says. “Making music and creating things can feel flippant or unnecessary, but my own world view was defined and influenced by art and artists who weren’t afraid to highlight and offer solutions: Public Enemy, The Smiths or a wider American counterculture.”

“The community we’ve built our life around–artists, musicians and the people who gravitate to these things asway of communicating–are struggling to reconcile how they fit into an increasingly cruel world. This album, the themes and the lyrics are directed towards them because I think there are still reasons to be optimistic. There are amazing things happening all around us and it’s up to communities like ours to double down on the things we believe in. It feels as if being part of a group like Modern Nature and making an album that’s open, optimistic and ambitious is in itself part of the solution.” As the new band started to play together more, the energy, excitement and telepathy between them gained momentum and it became clear they needed to make a record that captured that. They locked into a process where they booked a couple of shows, directly followed by four days in the studio (the all-analogue Gizzard Recording in east London). They’d spend two weeks living in each other’s pockets–a very condensed rush of creativity. “It’s rare to hear a recording of a band playing in a room together,” adds Cooper. “And that interaction, the discrepancies in timing, synergy, in pitch, that’s where the magic really is, I think, and that’s what we wanted to capture.”

One additional (and slightly unlikely) influence on the record was Andrew Weatherall. Before he passed away, he’d played Modern Nature on his NTS show and Cooper was thrilled that he liked them. He made it an aim to make a record Weatherall might have played to his friends late at night. His motto “Fail we may, sail we must” is what the Can-esque track Pharaoh is about. “It’s difficult to stay aware of the world around you without becoming despondent,” says Cooper. “Pharoah makes the case for finding a personal philosophy and trying to live a life that might inspire others or at the very least not hurt them. ”Elsewhere, Radio touches on the contempt capitalism has for the natural world. The line “there’s a fire all around” offers a kind of gallows humour. Cooper adds that recently they played the songs on a day that the news was showing footage of the Los Angeles fires. It occurred to him that it was perhaps an insensitive subject to be singing about but there again–in his words–he feels it’s “important not to turn away from these things.” The same desire not to shy away might also be attributed to Source, which touches on the recent riots in the UK directed towards asylum seekers, inspired by misinformation spread online. For all this wrestling with the grimmer realities of 2025,The Heat Warps is ultimately not a record entirely consumed by anxieties. Its frequently beautiful sounds offer consolation and a wide-eyed optimism amid all the upheaval. Nowhere is that more apparent than on the transcendent album closer, Totality. As Cooper explains: “It was fascinating spending time in America as the country geared up for the 2024 solar eclipse. The news stations covered the event in the same way they’d cover a big football game or the Oscars. Everywhere I went, people were talking about the eclipse and for a few days it really seemed to capture the public’s imagination. “My friend’s dad had organised a huge party and had obviously done his homework. When he was running us through his preparation and how the day was going to go down, he said, ‘We’re hoping for totality,’ and it blew my mind. “The day of the eclipse I was driving through New Mexico and we stopped by the side of the road with hundreds of other people gazing up to the heavens. It felt exciting to be part of something that clearly resonated with people on such a profound level. It’s a fitting album closer and somewhere in there is a philosophy; aromantic nihilism. ”And at its heart, right there is the core of Modern Nature’s appeal. Never more so than on this new record

Styrofoam Winos

“The Styrofoam Winos are that band that we love to have in our lives because they transcend the language of music, not by their individual parts, but by their oneness.

On Real Time, Styrofoam Winos 2nd full length of originals for the Sophomore Lounge label, you imagine – and firmly believe – that their relationship extends beyond studios and stages. You believe they not only play music together, but eat meals together, live down the street from one another, practice three days a week because it’s fun, read the same books, and that they’ve agreed in some wordless, musical bond that this is who they are. As a listener, and inevitable fan, you wonder if they found each other by a stroke of luck or the hand of destiny. You believe that they can probably read each other’s minds and that their music is as joyous to them as it is to you. After all, this is what we love about early R.E.M. records, the brainier grooves of Pavement, and the discographies of Yo La Tengo and The Breeders.

The Springwater Supper Club and Lounge in Nashville has been a dive bar since before a dive bar was a brand; a place where, in the early 2000’s, everyone would wonder if David and Dave (Berman and Cloud) would be sitting at the bar and a write-up in a weekly paper could fill the room. It seemed like everyone that bought you a beer was either in Lambchop or The Cherry Blossoms. This wasn’t a world that wanted to keep great music a secret. This was a world where great music was born and championed, when a community didn’t have metrics or boardrooms. The members of Styrofoam Winos were in elementary school back then, but they carry on this scene’s shaggy-dog torch that deserves a bigger audience.

Real Time was cut live to tape at The Bomb Shelter studio by Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, The Ettes, Margo Price) with few overdubs and over just 5 days, whenever the band had enough money to record. The members – Lou Turner, Trevor Nikrant, Joe Kenkel – all make wonderful solo albums on labels like Dear Life, Earth Libraries, and SPINSTER, as well as excellent self-releases. But unlike most bands where members compose alone before bringing a song to the table, the Winos write the music and lyrics together. Their van life, which has included tours with MJ Lenderman, has solidified this chemistry. They switch instruments in the studio, too, and allow the friend who found the seed of the song to sing the lead. Between the 3 of them (and a couple visits from pedal steel buddy, Will Ellis Johnson), Styrofoam Winos trade off on guitars, drums, bass, synths, vibraphone, percussion, and all the lovely vocals, like they’re on a cross-country road trip, taking turns behind the wheel, and singing along with each other because they all know the words. And Real Time is just that: a celebration of the present-tense and its ever-shifting moments of living. They’re going down the road, not feeling bad, but feeling.

On the opener, “Angel Flies Over,” it sounds like the Styrofoam Winos wind-up a melodic memory from their 2020 all Michael Hurley covers album for their own tuneage. And then, a left turn, and the road trip detours into a feel-good head-trip with the Feelies-ish “Magic Mind.” And on “Don’t Mind Me,” the Winos crib a riff from Little Feat to indulge the tempo-shifting storm clouds mid-song. Over the course of the record, the Winos continue to step on the gas and tap the brakes until “Found Round,” an improvisational finale, where they each take turns singing us the summary, “these are the things that we found,” like they forgot we’ve been listening the whole time.

And, yes: I’m wearing my bright yellow, size medium, Styrofoam Winos tee shirt as I type this.”

– Jerry David DeCicca, Bulverde, Texas