I Am Kloot are an English band formed in Manchester, in 1999 by John Bramwell (guitar/vocals), Peter Jobson (bass) and Andy Hargreaves (drums).
Formed out of the ashes of The Mouth, a band Bramwell co-fronted with Bryan Glancy and released one single in the U.S., I Am Kloot released their debut album, Natural History, in the UK in March 2001 on the Wall of Sound offshoot ‘We Love You’, followed by the I Am Kloot album in September 2003, on the Echo imprint.
Echo had originally planned to release “Proof” as a single to promote the second album, but after agreeing on artwork and a track listing (and commissioning a video featuring Christopher Eccleston, directed by Krishna Stott), the label shelved these ideas and subsequently issued the single as a download only (though a few copies were issued in Europe on the PIAS imprint).
This action is commonly seen as the start of the dispute that would subsequently see the band leave the label. The band remained with Echo for their third LP, Gods and Monsters (2005), but left the label citing a lack of financial support after another planned single, “I Believe”, was cancelled at short notice. Later that year they issued a limited edition single entitled “Maybe I Should” on November 21, following some of their biggest headlining concerts in the UK, culminating in a show at the London Astoria.
In April 2006 “Only Role in Town”, was made available for free download, followed by the release of an album of BBC Radio One DJ John Peel session tracks in October 2006, recorded over two sessions in 2001 and 2004.
I Am Kloot’s fourth studio album, I Am Kloot Play Moolah Rouge, was available at gigs in November 2007 as a limited edition of 2000 copies, before going on general release on 14 April 2008.
In October 2009, they released a double album compilation of B-sides, rarities and unreleased songs collected under the title of B.
I Am Kloot’s next studio album, Sky at Night, was released on 5 July 2010 through Shepherd Moon Records. The album was produced by Craig Potter and Guy Garvey from Elbow. The Sky at Night album was shortlisted for the 2010 Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize.
The sixth studio album, titled Let It All In, is slated for release on 21st January 2013. • • • Wikipedia
plus special guest: JESCA HOOP
Jesca Hoop has lived all over the map, and her rich life experience is reflected in her distinctive voice and natural gift for inventive song craft.
Hoop learned to sing at an early age, harmonising with her musical Mormon family in northern California. She began writing highly idiosyncratic songs at the age of 14 to keep her company on her long walks to school. At 16, Hoop broke away from her strict upbringing and began what she calls her ‘life as a racoon’, off the grid & close to nature. Rambling through the high mountain deserts of the Southwest and along the coastlines of the Northwest, she worked as a wilderness survival guide and chalked up skills in farming, surveying, and carpentry. Her songwriting continued throughout, shared on porches, in deep river canyons and around campfires.
In 2004 the desire to share these songs on a broader scale set in. She settled in Los Angeles, where she honed her songwriting craft and developed a reputation as a unique and beguiling live performer of real substance. Though she now resides in Manchester, England, Hoop returned to Los Angeles to record her third album, The House That Jack Built.
Jesca has quite the growing collection of fans in high places: Tom Waits described her music as being “like a four sided coin. She is an old soul, like a black pearl, a good witch or red moon. Her music is like going swimming in a lake at night”. Peter Gabriel took her to South America to sing with him, and in recent years she has been hand picked to play as support on tour for Eels, Andrew Bird, Punch Brothers and Elbow: Elbow’s Guy Garvey even had her do a stint as guest presenter on his BBC radio show in early 2012, to great reception.
The follow up to 2009’s critically acclaimed Hunting My Dress, this new record displays a striking duality: light and dark, head and heart, it juxtaposes the macabre and visceral with a disarmingly candid intimacy. The resulting combination is powerfully evocative, with overarching themes of biology, nature and humanity – Hoop’s stone-turning observations are mired in the equal beauty and violence of a nature that, for her, is clearly red in tooth and claw.
