Christmas Songs - Day 19

Day 19, seriously? Jeepers, December is flying past.

Once again a song came to my attention after a couple of these posts and promptly kicked it's way in to the front of the queue today. Not only is it cracking, but, well, if you watch the video (it's after the jump if you are reading the blog front page. Actually, you might need to view the whole post to get the embedded music player too, sorry.) you'll see why I got all excited.
I've missed Macabre Scene the last few times they've played, but the twice I saw them before I was dead impressed (I said so on the blog too, do a wee search if you want to read for yourself) so hopefully it won't be too long before I can catch them again.

I must confess to having a bit of a liking for this song anyway, being of a certain ages and apparently a bit of a sentimental girl. Go ahead and mock me, you know it is a Christmas Classic.



Macabre Scene MySpace


And the video:

Christmas Songs - Day 18

Wee bit later than normal with the Christmas song today, since I forget to schedule it.
This means that I can tell you a little bit about the wonderful night I had last night at the Glasgow PodcART Christmas Party. Panda Su, The Darien Venture, Kid Canaveral and Tokyo Knife Attack all played, and were all brilliant. Some lovely Christmas cover versions were played too, which was obviously a winner with me.
Met up with a good bunch of the people that have kept me entertained this year, as well as ssome new ones. And of course, me and Peenko danced like buffoons to Kid Canaveral. As the PodcART folk might say, ooft.

Today's song comes from Idlewild. They give Cliff Richard a metaphorical kicking in this one.

Idlewild - Misletoe And Wine

Idlewild Website

Best of 2009: You Already Know - Stop Whispering

I slacked off a bit from getting back to writing about my picks for albums of the year, but I'm getting back to it a bit now, starting with this one.

I've mentioned previously on Aye Tunes that instrumental bands tend to be tough for me to get on board with, mainly due to having seen and heard so many rubbish ones over the past year or two. Imagine my surprise then when I fell in love with not one, but two of them over the course of this year.

Stop Whispering is the debut album by You Already Know, recorded upstairs in Avalanche Records in Glasgow. Funnily enough, to me at least, there was a launch gig for it on my 30th birthday.
Words like "epic" and "incredible" are terribly over used, but they do fit the way I feel about this album. The songs hit all the right buttons for me, ranging from spine tingling and melodic one minute, to ear scorching riffs the next, and back again.

It can be hard for me to fall in love with songs without lyrics to latch on to, but with this album You Already Know kick that straight out the window. The way the songs build and climax grab me instantly, and take me on a ride I never want to get off.

Seeing the band, after missing out on several opportunities earlier in the year, last week in the cramped confines of Glasgow's 13th Note showed that not only do YAK work for me on record, but they also, pardon my french, fucking nail it live. My round up of the gig afterwards on Twitter was "You Already Know just had rough sex with my ears, and they loved it, the sluts", which is a very, very good thing indeed.

Stop Whispering is nothing short of glorious, and gives me chills every time I listen to it.
Visit their Website and MySpace to have a listen and find out how to buy a copy.
Also, if you swing by the I Need Musik website you can get hold of the song below and a couple of others for free.

Fireworks For New Beginnings (Alternative Mix)

You Already Know - Website - MySpace

The Scottish Bloggers and Music Sites Awards (The Scottish BAMS Awards) 2009

A wee while back Peenko sounded me out about a mass poll by all us Scottish types to put together a top 20 albums of the year. Unlike plans I hatch in pubs, he actually put it all together.
So now the votes have been cast and counted, it's time to announce the winner.


Andy from The Phantom Band had this to say: "This makes us feel very honoured because the opinion of people out there giving opinions is what matters most, rather than the financially influenced press. It always amazes me that people would take it upon themselves to go out and champion a band or an album or a band for no material gain, but it gives me faith in human nature. Blogs and reviews have been the only advertising we've ever had. Apart from all those people who got online and promoted us, we'd like to thank those little almost-stale doughnuts you get in big tubs from Sainsburys for keeping us fat during the recording. We obviously also have our Producer Paul Savage and the wonderful people at Chemikal Underground to thank for letting us do what we want. These guys are the quiet heroes of Scottish music for sure."


The full top 20 is:
1. The Phantom Band - Checkmate Savage
2. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
3. De Rosa - Prevention
4. King Creosote - Flick the V's
5. Withered Hand - Good News
6. The Twilight Sad - Forget The Night Ahead
7. We Were Promised Jetpacks - These Four Walls
8. Beerjacket - Animosity
9. Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
10. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
11. My Latest Novel - Deaths and Entrances
12. Malcolm Middleton - Waxing Gibbous
13. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - s/t
14. You Already Know - s/t
15. Broken Records - Until the Earth Begins to Part
16. The XX - s/t
17. The Antlers - Hospice
18. Sufjan Stevens - The BQE
19. And So I Watch You From Afar
20. Wilco - The Album

Taking place in the voting were 17 Seconds, Me, Dear Scotland, Earz Mag, Elba Sessions, Glasgow Podcart, Hooligans Lament, Jim Gellatly, JocknRoll, Jockrock, Kowalskiy, Last Years Girl, Love Shack Baby, Manic Pop Thrills, My Portiswasp Says, Off the Beaten Tracks, The Pop Cop, Products of a Gaseous Brain, Song By Toad, The Blues Bunny, The Daily Growl, The Spill, The Steinberg Principle, The Vinyl Villain, Under the Radar and of course Peenko. All sites worth visiting.

Christmas Songs - Day 17

Today's song comes from Dan Lyth, taken from his new Christmas album The Fat Man and Baby Boy.
Have a wee listen below, and if you like it you can go get a swanky CD, plus a download of the full album, from the links below.
Thanks to Jocknroll for the tip on this one.

Dan Lyth - She Spent Thirty


Dan Lyth Website

Christmas Songs - Day 16

Before I get into today's song, just a reminder that the eagleowl single Sleep the Winter is out now, and is fantastic. Playing around with link things at the moment, if I've done it right there's a link to buy it from iTunes somewhere below. The band will get more money if you get the download from their Bandcamp page though.

I caught eagleowl on Monday in The 13th Note, it was very good. If I can think of more than "very good" to say about it I'll attempt a wee review.

Onwards to our Christmas song then. Today comes from Belle & Sebastian. Picking a Christmas song for them isn't easy, as there's loads. It ended up being a lucky dip, and this is what came out.

Belle & Sebastian - Are You Coming Over For Christmas?

Belle and Sebastian Website

Doing Some Last Minute Shopping?

Alright, I'm aware this is completely shameless, but hey, worth a try.

If you've got a bit of last minute shopping to try and squeeze in, and are going to be doing it online, how about doing it through one of these links so I get a wee bit of extra beer money for myself?
Below are links for Amazon, and over on the right there's wee adverts for HMV, eMusic and iTunes.

Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com

Shameless, crass advertising over, cheers.

Christmas Songs - Day 15

There's something about Christmas and Camera Obscura that seems to me like they are a perfect fit for each other.
Their recently released Christmas single, a cover of Jim Reeves' The Blizzard does nothing to change my mind about that. Since that only came out last week I won't be posting it, maybe next year.
Instead we are going back a few years for a Christmas classic recorded live round at John Peel's house.

Camera Obscura - Little Donkey

Ahh, it's like being back in Primary School, except much less tuneless.

Camera Obscura Website

Christmas Songs - Day 14

We make our final festive visit to Paul Vickers territory today, as we finally get back round to Dawn of the Replicants.
As I mentioned before, I was really into this band a while back, round about the time of their debut album One Head, Two Arms, Two Legs. Also, fun fact, I used to talk a bit with co-founder Roger Simian in, of all places, a 2000AD newsgroup, many years ago.
The band did four sessions for the late, great John Peel, and you can (and should) listen to all of them here.

As for today's song... Well, this is a song which actually had the ability to make me violent. Years of working in retail, and therefore years of hearing it about a dozen times a day for all of November and December, will do that to you. Oddly enough, all other Christmas songs I'm fine with, even though I've similarly heard them a million times, it's just this one that makes me want to punch people in the throat.
Fortunately, the Dawn of the Replicants version doesn't make me want to punch folk, though it can't quite redeem the song entirely.

Dawn of the Replicants - Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time

Dawn of the Replicants - Website - MySpace

Remember, you can easily find all the previous Christmas songs by clicking on the cunningly named "Christmas" label at the bottom of the posts.
There'll be a big list of all the songs once I'm finished too.

Christmas Songs - Day 13

Just past the halfway point of our countdown to Christmas. I'm starting to run out of songs now, so any suggestions, send them over.

Today's song comes from Synonym, which is a project by You Already Know's Allan Swan.

Synonym - Festiv’ Biznis (Santa’s Goin’ Crazy)

Head over to the I Need Musik website to grab two more tracks from the single, and a whole load of other stuff, for free.

Synonym MySpace