GUILTY FEET HAVE GOT NO RHYTHM

It would be a tiny bit of a lie to say that in the ‘80s, Clwb Ifor Bach was a haven for pastel-coloured suits, feathered haircuts, and girls in fluorescent leg-warmers. But allow us to rewrite history, just for a bit, with the launch of The Breakfast Club – Clwb’s very first night dedicated to the decade that fashion forgot (until pretty recently). Expect to hear: Grace Jones, The Human League, Boy George, Adam and the Ants, New Order, Haircut 100 and more. It’ll be a bit like Club Tropicana, except drinks aren’t free – they will be reasonably priced, mind – and it’ll take place on the third Thursday of every month. Come suitably dressed, and ready to groove for 9pm sharp.

MYSPACE IN CLWB SPACE

CLWB IFOR BACH AND MYSPACE.COM PRESENT MYFESTIVAL, JUNE 8TH

Clwb Ifor Bach joins forces with premier online networking site MySpace to present a leg of MyFestival, the UK’s biggest emerging artist showcase. In celebration of the unveiling of MySpace Music UK, MyFestival has invited users to see 50 of the hottest emerging bands on MySpace lovingly chosen to play in some of the best venues across the UK.

The Cardiff leg features longtime Clwb favourites The Automatic, limbering up to release debut album ‘Not Accepted Anywhere’ on B-Unique, the label that brought you the Ordinary Boys and the Kaiser Chiefs. Support comes courtesy of the Zane Lowe-touted Isle Of Wight quintet Jackson Analogue and Swansea’s Viva Machine. Tickets cost £6, available now through Ticketweb on 08700 600100 or Ticketweb.co.uk or the Clwb website at Clwb.net. Doors 8pm.

LIBERATION TRANSMISSION

Lostprophets, Clwb Ifor Bach, April 25th

REPUBLIC OF THE BORED AND BORING

LESSON NO.1 PRESENT VIALKA/THE ART OF BURNING WATER/THE DEATH OF HER MONEY/FSTE100, JUNE 4TH

The dynamic duo of Marylise Frecheville and Eric Boros have been bringing their gypsy turbofolkpunk music and lifestyle to all corners of the world for six years, originally as the rhythm section of the Swiss based performance striptease jazz-punk trio NNY, as the experimental/noise performance project Hermit, and now with Vialka. They have lived in Switzerland, Slovenia, Canada, and are currently calling France their home between tours. Vialka's music, based on the interaction between Marylise's drumming and singing and Eric's guitar playing, draws its influences from traditional and modern music from around the world, played with ecstatic energy and a sophisticated musical language all their own.

They released their first two albums "Tonight I Show You Fuck" and "Republic Of The Bored & Boring" on Manufracture Recordings, and have released "Everywhere & Nowhere", a DVD documenting their work together over the first five years, and their latest album "Curiosities Of Popular Customs", recorded by Bob Drake at Studio Midi-Pyrénées; both on their newly-founded "VIA" label. Vialka is not just a musical project, but a social scientific experiment, attempting to meet and communicate with interesting and unknown musicians and artists from around the world - with particular interest in polluted dictatorships, bleak colonies, and monarchic democracies...

Doors: 7.30pm, £5

POSTERS ARE US

THE HARDEST WALK

LOOSE CLUB PRESENT SOLEDAD BROTHERS/DAN SARTAIN AT CLWB IFOR BACH, MAY 30TH

Anyone on shot-chugging terms with rock’n’roll in 2006 should be familiar with the name of the Soledad Brothers. Born from the self-same garage stench-pool that spawned close peers the White Stripes, this blues-rock trio – that’s vocalist/guitarist Johnny Walker, drummer Benjamin Swank, and multi-instrumentalist Oliver Henry – have eschewed the limelight and embraced the torchlight, crawling the world’s leather bar stools and cold back-rooms in search of true blues Nirvana and a receptive audience for their new album ‘The Hardest Walk’, out now on Loog Records.

Support on the night comes courtesy of Dan Sartain, barefoot preacher-boy from Birmingham - no, not home of Jasper Carrott, Birmingham, Alabama - with a skill for ramshackle rock’n’roll to shame his peers and his elders alike. Tickets cost £8, available now from Spillers Records and Clwb.net. Doors open 8pm.

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

LESSON NO.1 PRESENT BIG BUSINESS/CREEPY MORONS/ZONDERHOOF/ZUMA, MAY 15

Balls-out, metal-edged heavy rock from a US duo with a past in bands including Karp, The Whip and Murder City Devils, Big Business are currently setting tongues wagging for their moonlighting role as the rhythm section for legendary Seattle rockers The Melvins. But as anyone who's heard their excellent 2005 Hydrahead release 'Head For The Shallow' can attest, even as two, this is a band capable of throwing down the rock with muscular power, devious complexity and an inclusiveness that so often eludes the knuckle-draggers. "For years, hard-rock shows were a place for women to hold their boyfriends' coats while the men went off to mosh, explains bassist Jared Warren. "I don't want us to be exclusive to the segment of society that just wants to kick some ass. I want people to feel comfortable coming to our shows - not like they might get beat up there. That's not what we're about." Support on the night comes from London's Creepy Morons and new South Wales outfits Zonderhoof and Zuma.

Tickets cost £6, with doors at 8pm

THIS IS THE NEWS

PAIN NECESSARY TO KNOW

EPHEL DUATH/THE DEATH OF HER MONEY/ANDTHEYWILLRIOT!/DRAMA IN THE HARBOUR PLAY CLWB IFOR BACH, MAY 2ND

Named after a mountain range in JRR Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings, it’s plain that Italy’s Ephel Duath don’t sup from the same shallow wells of inspiration that sustain most rock bands. Fusing the diabolic intent of Black Metal with a devious, progressive technicality indebted to the likes of King Crimson, they’ve turned out two albums for Earache, The Painter’s Palette and Pain Necessary To Know, that mix free jazz and simmering electronics into the equation.

Support comes from the cream of the South Wales underground rock scene in the shape of down-tuned sludge merchants Death Of Her Money, experimental hardcore types Andtheywillriot!, and expansive post-rockers Drama In The Harbour. Tickets cost £6 on the night, with doors opening 7.30pm.

CALL AND RESPONSE

THE LONGCUT/WE START FIRES /KLAXONS PLAY CLWB IFOR BACH, MAY 12TH

Signed to Deltasonic, the label that spawned The Coral and The Zutons, The Longcut are part of a new wave of Manchester youth rejecting their home city’s baggy musical legacy in favour of a clanging, Sonic Youth-influenced alt-rock sound. Live sets simmer with energy, thanks chiefly to frontman Stuart Ogilvie, who darts between microphone, drum machine and live drum-kit with a driven urgency, but importantly, beneath the fizzing dynamics, debut album ‘A Call And Response’ boasts a suite of songs that threaten to become mini-classics.

Support on the night comes from electro-punks We Start Fires and new NME darlings Klaxons. Tickets are available now from Spillers Records and Clwb.net, priced at £8.50