Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Shopping Bags Tour - SBT 1 (Apr 1st, Brighton)


New photos added from Sunday's gig (April 1st) at The Hydrant, Brighton. Thanks to everyone who came or saw it on the net. (Videos to follow after editing.)





Sunday, March 11, 2012

Shopping Bags Tour - south coast early April 2012


The start of an ongoing British tour ...


South coast visitations and salutations from Badgertrap (from Bristol), Pete Gioconda (nowLondon, exBristol, exBrighton), Gavin Goliath Clegg (northern now-London drywit-ukeplayer), The Magpies with singer-bassist Piers Wildman (Bournemouth, exWinchester, exBrighton), Dane Cobain (London) ... more even. Local/ guest poets DJs cabaret where we can fit it.


We're touring at the start of April with a merry line of bands and solo artists, mixed in a Fugsian way across acts, inc semi-surreal badger band Badgertrap, from Bristol, myself Pete Gioconda (raw tuneful solo poetic mode) - plus some talented oddballs we've picked up along the way.


We're playing -


Brighton (The Hydrant)

  • Sun Apr 1st (our April Fool's Night Party) - FREE entry free parting gifts (while stocks last) - creative receipts to be traded. "Bring your own mind." Planning to livestream it ourselves.

Bournemouth (On The Rocks)

  • Wed Apr 4th. Entry FREE or cheap TBA.

Portsmouth (RMA Tavern, as part of Nick Courtney's "Play" night)

  • Thurs Apr 5th (just Badgertrap 10.45pm + Pete Gioconda 10.15pm on this one, but tons of great local bands, for FREE!). Live stream video I believe. 

The sounds and appearances within each artist's own work are all varied, as well as without it, including spontaneous excited energies, music and words.


(+ We have lots of pretty sorted online profiles in all the main slots.)


Badgertrap and I have been on BBC Introducing Bristol a few times, inc. in session. Badgertrap came second in BBC3 TV's Upstaged in Bristol (2008) with lots of wild antics in a big glass box, and the cameramen in stitches.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Live streaming video of "Shopping Bags Tour"


Will be live streaming "Shopping Bags Tour" gigs from this video Channel, starting on Sun Apr 1st at The Hydrant, Brighton.



Watch live streaming video from threefacemusic at livestream.com

http://www.livestream.com/threefacemusic

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Shopping Bags Tour - south coast


Gigs coming up


....  More Easter tour dates to be announced ....


  • Thurs Apr 5th, 2012

Badgertrap + Pete Gioconda + lots of acts
   @ RMA Tavern, Portsmouth. Free.
   Part of "Shopping Bags Tour". New songs. Rock'n'roll. Folk. Mayhem. Hilarity. Surrealism. Satire. Fun.



  • Tues Mar 6th, 2012

Pete Gioconda + lots of acts
   @ Little Johnny Russell's, Portsmouth. Free.
   Acoustic solo with harmonica. Pete getting it together for Portsmouth. New songs.



  • Tues Feb 21st, 2012

Skiffle & The Piffles + Pete Gioconda + Badgertrap
   @ Power's Bar, Kilburn, London. Free. 
   Fun night in great venue. Pete + Barry the Badger getting it together for the Shopping Bags Tour.



  • Sun Feb 19th, 2012

Pete Gioconda + lots of acoustic acts
   @ The Hideaway open mic, run by Treana Morris, nr Archway/Tufnell Park, London. Free.
   Enjoyable night with a lot of talent.







Friday, October 7, 2011

Pete Gioconda - an appreciation by The Bow Shots

Pete isn’t the kind of artist you can put in a box. We tried it and he kept escaping – even when we took turns to keep watch. By the wee small hours, it was us four in the box and Pete had made off into the Southville night, taking a bottle of our best table wine with him. (He left some money – he’s an anarchist, not a crook.)

The Bow Shots love Pete’s music because he isn’t like anyone else. Yes, you can trace the influences (Dylan, the Pistols, Syd Barrett, The Kinks, Jim Morrison . . .), but he’s been able to forge a sound from them that’s very much his own. That was once considered a good thing. Maybe now people want everyone to be ‘the New [type name here]’ because it makes writing boorish reviews a lot easier, but I still want to turn up to a show and hear something unique. And I guarantee you’ll get that if you go and see Pete live. No two shows are ever the same.

With his acoustic guitar and blues harp I’ve often heard people refer to early Dylan when describing him, but I’d point much more towards Billy Bragg in terms of a solo artist with a punk sensibility. One who’s going to challenge you; bringing a rare edge to the ‘oh-a-guy-alone-on-stage-with-guitar’ assumption that something folksy or ballad-driven is about to ensue. Which is not to say he sounds like Bragg, he doesn’t – he sounds like Pete Gioconda. But go and see him play and you’ll understand what I mean. He’s not there to tell you something pretty.

Mind you - that said, there is genuine pathos and tenderness to some of his material – such as the openness of ‘Union True’, or the weary longing in ‘Twitch Doctor’. In other words, his songs cover a range of emotions and moods. In fact, one of the first times I saw him I was struck by his ability to switch so convincingly between emotions when performing – being as real in his anger as he was in regret.

In today’s musical landscape there is precious little diversity. Acts may dress differently, but they converge in their desire to be somebody. Pete appreciates that he already is. Just as you are and I am. What he wants to do is make a connection. He has music he believes in and he wants to share it, but it’s not about you adoring him. Or even him adoring you. (You needn’t even be friends.) It’s about art and feeling. Entertainment too – but the type that makes you think, not the type which assumes you can’t.

Pete used to run a night of music, poetry and comedy in Bristol. All were welcome, but the slogan on the flyers read: ‘bring your own mind.’ If you have one, I recommend listening to his music and letting it make itself up.


By Johnny Soul, of Bristol band ‘The Bow Shots.’

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

REVIEWS: Learning to See (album) by Pete Gioconda


PETE GIOCONDA's new album Learning to See contains songs fused from new wave, pop and folk/rock influences, mingling poetic lyrics with a punk attitude and playful unpretentiousness. Youthful songs of mischief, desire, loss and sadness, plus transcendent perceptions. 
It starts out quite rocky (Heaven's Wild Flower), with a hint of Velvet Underground, and after moving through indie pop (Darkened Images), sci-fi folk (We Are Real) and a ska-Caribbean song about a carefree girl (Little Monkey), settles for a while in the elements of folk rock and rhythm and blues (albeit not your usual flavours). Alien coldness of no intimacy, mysterious vision, sweetheart muse . . . On into dance territory and sequenced synths, catchy lyrics plus psychedelic guitar break and bubblegum French verse (Queen of the Future).
The title track (Learning to See) is the first of two visual songs, culminating in a surreal coda (Save Your Dreams) - "You are your soul / And only you can save your dreams . . ." After a grinding guitar, we're at the final song (The Charm of Making), which derides "the burnt out shell of rock'n'roll" for its dead vision, asking "Is there no one out there waking / To whisper the charm of making?"
There are all sorts of stories running through this album - in sound, in words, and the strange and startling sound effects which crop up to colour the picture. Quite a journey.
I look forward to seeing where this all leads . . . 
Highway Ellen
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"This music is the sort to get you bopping joyfully without even realising it. Loads of cheeky lyrics and strutting guitars. It could have been made yesterday, five years ago or ten years ago . . . music that any girl in a flowery dress with a '60s haircut is bound to love - one for the students." - Tubs, scout at Besonic
Tubs' recommended tracks: The Charm of Making, Darkened Images



Download from
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Listen on
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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Blog Standard: Pete Gioconda and The Red House Sessions

Blog Standard: Pete Gioconda and The Red House Sessions: "Our friend and fellow musketeer, Pete Gioconda recently released 10 live video clips to the website currently known as YouTube. After a ser..."