EP Review: Cast of the Capital - Rotten Kids and Haversacks

Still trying to get caught up on listening to records. This one has been sitting on the to do list for a few weeks, so time to get to it.

Cast of the Capital are a four piece, formed in Aberdeen by brothers Steve and Matthew Morris, joined by Alastair Naylor and Jamie Watt. Since forming in 2006 they've done some intensive gigging, supporting the likes of Xcerts and Trapped In Kansas, playing Rock Ness and Belladrum and catching the ear of Steve Lamacq, Vic Galloway and Jim Gellatly.

The Rotten Kids and Haversacks EP is the band's first full release. It came out on CD in September and will be available through iTunes in November.

The first song, Comiston Springs, is pretty enough, poppy and jangly, with a bit of a Teenage Fanclub feel to it. Catchy, decent stuff so far then. For me the EP really comes to life with the second track, The Witching Hour, slowing things down and stripping it back a bit. This song actually reminds me a good bit of Mitchell Museum, but without making me think I'm listening to a different band than the rest of the songs.
From there we get Passing The Horse, again a jangly sparkly wee thing, which is just fine, once again catchy and danceable before slowing things down again for Crematory Blues. Like The Witching Hour, its the slower more acoustic sounding Crematory Blues that really catches my ear, before we switch back to something more cheery sounding in Tree Sleep to finish off.

A wee bit of a mixed bag then you might think, but it's a good mix. I preferred the quieter, slower songs to the indie-pop ones, but they do their job just fine and the quality never dips below "good". Were it not near the end of October I'd probably enjoyed the poppy songs more, they've got a nice summery feel to them, but since it's dark and freezing my brain isn't quite appreciating them as much as it would when the sun comes out. The EP as a whole is certainly well worth a listen.

Cast of the Capital MySpace
Buy Rotten Kids & Haversacks

Essential New Artists Showcase

There's always a ton of good gigs happening in Glasgow, but over the next few weeks - right up until the end of the year in fact - there's some particularly eye catching events happening. I've already mentioned a couple I'll be going along to, like next week's 17 Seconds Night and the upcoming Define Pop Festival, and here's another one, presented by the lovely folk at Glasgow PodcART.

The gig takes place on November 1st at The Classic Grand in Glasgow. Perfoming on the night are Debutant, esperi, Panda Su and Yahweh.

This promises to be a fantastic gig. I'll be going along and reviewing it, so if you can't make it be sure to swing back here so I can tell you how much you missed out.

Tickets cost £5 and are available from We Got Tickets

Also, aren't those posters pretty?

For a bit more info swing by Glasgow Podcart.

17 Seconds Night

Remember a couple of weeks back I posted about 17 Seconds Records? Well, the whole crew is coming to Glasgow for an evening of music.

Taking place in The 13th Note in Glasgow on the 30th of October there will be sets from Escape Act, The Dirty Cuts, X Lion Tamer and Chris Bradley.
All for a measely £4 entrance fee.
Not a bad way to spend the night before Hallowe'en.
So, we'll see you down there, aye? Don't forget to say hi.

17 Seconds Records MySpace

Define Pop Festival 2 Update

Last week I wrote a wee bit about the mouthwatering line-up for the second Define Pop Festival, taking place on the 14th and 15th of November in The Flying Duck, with a promise of any updates as I got them.

Well, tickets are on sale NOW from Tickets Scotland.

Single Review: French Wives - Halloween/Dogfight

Still got limited computer access, still got the attention span of a goldfish, still job hunting without luck. Due to all that I'm ridiculously behind in reviewing things I've either bought or been sent. One day I'll catch up.

Grabbing something randomly from the "to do" pile throws up the debut double A side single from French Wives. Confusingly they aren't French, and I don't think any of them are wives either. Instead, they are a five piece from Glasgow who have been gigging their wee hearts out for ages now.

Bringing us to this, the debut single, due out next Monday.
Cunning timing then, considering that one of the songs is titled Halloween. It isn't, by the way, a cover version of The Misfits song, even though that would have amused me greatly. Neither is it scary. In fact, it's quite a jolly wee number, with a violin, xylophone and some brass, alongside some jangly guitar and nice harmonies. It's a well crafted wee number that builds, soars, and does other things that make me sound pretentious. After all that soaring and building, there's a strong finish too, which is always handy. As always, my description does the song no justice at all.
The other A side, Dogfight, isn't miles away from Halloween, but is shorter, more direct, and catchy as heck. Nice is a terrible way to describe a song but yeah, this is nice. There's a summery feel to both songs too, which is perfect for times like now, when you are freezing cold and it is pitch black outside.

Sounds a bit like a jaunty My Latest Novel, but just a bit. There's some Aberfeldy, some Camera Obscura, even a bit of Belle & Sebastian in there too. If you likes those bands, you'll almost certainly like French Wives. If you don't, go have a listen to them anyway and stop being so judgmental will you?

For the purposes of reviewing I listened to these songs a few more times tonight and now they've taken up residence in my head and don't seem to want to go away. That makes them highly recommended then.

The single is out next Monday, October 26th, on Instinctive Racoon Records.

French Wives MySpace

French Wives play Bloc in Glasgow on Wednesday 21dt October with the also worth checking out We're Only Afraid Of NYC, before playing The Admiral Bar on the 25th as part of Oxjam Takeover.

Fatcat Want Your Money

Fatcat Records have a good singles coming out over the next wee while from their trifecta of fantastic Scottish bands.

Out today is The Twilight Sad's Seven Years of Letters, taken from the recently released Forget The night Ahead album. The B-side is a cover version of The Wedding Present's Suck, so worth buying for that alone really.

Following that on November 16th is much anticipated new material from Frightened Rabbit, in the shape of their new single Swim Until You Can't See Land. B-side Fun Stuff is a new version of Last Tango In Brooklyn, which has been knocking around for ages. Next year will see a new Frightened Rabbit album, so this'll have to do to tide us over. Sea related pun only half intended.

Finally on November 23rd We Were Promised Jetpacks release another single from debut album These Four Walls, unleashing double A side It's Thunder And It's Lightning / Ships With Holes Will Sink. No new B-sides unfortunately.

Fatcat records are available from record shops, generally show up on eMusic

, or you can get them direct from their website.