Ryan's Gig Guide - May 2019

On the eve of the seventeenth annual International Pop Over- throw festival at Liverpool’s fa- mous Cavern Club, three of the regular performers will be stop- ping off in Stourbridge to show- case their guitar-infused pop sounds. Stourbridge band, Amoeba Teen, hit upon the idea of getting some of their peers to join them en route to Liverpool for what promises to be a great night of power pop. Fresh from getting airplay on BBC 6mu- sic, their new single ‘Suit & Tie’ was released in April and is taken from their forthcoming album Medium Wave (Big Stir Records), and the band are looking forward to playing new material alongside some fan-favourites. Joining them for the night are Spygenius from the UK and Caper Clowns from Denmark.All three acts have impressed over the last few years at the festival and have growing audiences around the world thanks to being showcased on the most recent IPO compila- tion CD which was released in 2018 on the Omni- vore label, also home to the Beach Boys. Spygenius is a classic British four piece pop-combo based in Canterbury and South London. Definitely at the ‘and more’ end of the ‘power pop and more’ spectrum, they formed in the mid-2000s with the aim of writing, recording and performing original songs for as long as they could get away with it. Their music has echoes of all those classic 60s ‘B’ bands – Beatles, Byrds, Beach Boys, Buffalo Spring- field, Bonzos. But it equally resonates with college-ra- dio darlings of later generations like XTC, the Smiths, Robyn Hitchcock and REM.  www.facebook.com/spygeniusband Caper Clowns released their second album,A Salty TasteToThe Lake in October 2018.Already a handful of the songs from the album have enjoyed airplay on both Denmark`s national radio DR, as well web-ra- dio stations around the world. Their debut album, The Buca Bus was well received in both Denmark and abroad and American radio host Alan Haber from Pure Pop Radio awarded The Buca Bus debut album of the year.They boast more than 300 gigs un- der their belts, including support gigs for bands like The Broken Beats (DK),The Eclectic Moniker (DK), The Crookes not to mention Level 42.  www.facebook.com/CaperClowns Tickets cost just £5 and are available in advance from  www.amoebateen.com Friday 17th May Claptrap, Stourbridge  Check them out in our Spotify playlist www.ryansgigguide.com/audio  Amoeba Teen Caper Clowns WIN 2 TICKETS ONLINE: www.ryansgigguide.com/popera Closing date: 14/05/2019  Spygenius www.ryansgigguide.com rgg May 2019 17