Born To Be Wide presents German Night

Tomorrow night in Edinburgh club night Born To Be Wide celebrates it's sixth birthday. To do so, they've gone for a German themed evening.

Held in partnership with Edinburgh's German Consulate General, things kick off at 7.30pm with a seminar which promises all you need to know about the German music scene.

Following that there's a live set from Jeans Team, a German music quiz and German DJ sets.

For more info and tickets, go here

Super Adventure Club: Pick Up Sticks/SAC Attack - Single Review

I'm the World's worst Super Adventure Club fan. They released their debut album Chalk Horror last year, I don't own a copy. The gig pretty regularly, I've never been to see them. Determined to break this circle of shame I let out a little whoop of joy last week when it came to my attention that they'd snuck out this, their new single, a week early. Off I rushed to buy my copy, with the intention of listening, hopefully enjoying and getting a wee review done for here. Until now I only managed the listening and enjoying. I'm more than a bit rubbish.

Slightly ramshackle sounding, and endearingly so, the first thing to strike me about the single is that, much like Armellodie label-mates Cuddly Shark, Super Adventure Club don't seem to take themselves too seriously. You suspect that being in Super Adventure Club would be loads of fun.
Having fun and a healthy attitude doesn't mean you'll make good music obviously, so thankfully the songs here are good too.

Opener Pick Up Sticks is gently bouncy, filled with lovely boy-girl harmonies, and an unexpected instrumental breakdown near the end. It's so infectious that you do worry you might need a dose of antibiotics afterwards.
SAC Attack is a bit more in your face, at times it sounds like - and believe it or not this is a compliment - everyone involved is playing an entirely different song. Fortunately all those different songs that I've just invented manage to come together into one quite nicely. Plus the lyrics advise that you avoid zombies, and that's something I find hard to argue with.
B-side Maths Rock (UK Curriculum) rounds out the package nicely, complete with diversions into jazz drumming and what I think is a slide whistle solo.

Three songs full of fun, wit, bags of charm and good tunes? Nothing really to complain about? That'll be a big tick in the win column for the single then.

Pick Up Sticks/SAC Attack is out now on Armellodie Records. Look below to have a listen and buy from Bandcamp. The single is also available on the likes of iTunes and eMusic. There's a launch gig for the single on Thursday February 4th in Nice n Sleazy's. I should be there, do come say hi.

Frightened Rabbit: Nothing Like You - Single Review

Frightened Rabbit continue to build anticipation for their upcoming third album - The Winter of Mixed Drinks - with the second single from it.
Nothing Like You was one of a batch of songs shown off at last years Queen's Hall gig, where it was given the name Steve. If you caught Frightened Rabbit since then, or tuned in to some of their recent radio sessions, you'll probably have heard it.
Nothing Like You is a much more immediate affair than last single Swim Until You Can't See Land was. I must confess that one took a while to really grow on me, but Nothing Like You is one of those songs that grabs you from the off and doesn't let go until it's three minutes are up. The PR blurb compares it to The Cure's Inbetween Days and to be fair if you imagine that song kicked up a notch or two, that's not far off the mark.
Nothing Like You rattles along at a fair old pace, but is far from being a dumb three minute pop song. It's energetic, optimistic and packed with the lyrical dexterity we've come to expect from Frightened Rabbit.

B-side Learned Your Name is a more sedate affair. Slowed down and gentle, much more reflective and sober than the A-side it doesn't elicit the same excitement, but neither is it anything close to a let down.

After hearing Nothing Like You I'm officially very excited about hearing the rest of the Winter of Mixed Drinks. We just have to get this pesky short month of February out of the way first.

Embedded below is the video for the single, and if you visit the band's MUZU channel you can find out all about a competition to win gig tickets.

Nothing Like You is released by Fat Cat Records on February 22nd (23rd in the US and Canada), available on 7" or to download.



Frightened Rabbit on MUZU

And The Winner Is...

Remember I asked you all to go vote for me in the Scottish Roundup blog awards? Well, the votes have been counted and the results are in.
The top 5 music blogs, as voted for by readers and chosen by the panelists are...
5. Phuturelabs
4. Last Year’s Girl
3. Aye Tunes
2. The Pop Cop
1. Peenko

I'm pretty happy with third, and delighted for Peenko for winning it. The swine.
Last year's Girl also came top of the list for Photography blogs too. She's quite an overachiever.

Big thanks to everyone that voted for me, I owe you all a drink.

This Week's Thing

This week I'm fairly clueless about what is out and what's going on, to be honest. I had so many things to go to last week that looking beyond them mostly made my head explode. With that in mind I'll likely have to update this post a few times throughout today as I notice another record or gig I should have mentioned.
As always if I miss anything use the comments or email me to let me know.

Records:
Super Adventure Club properly release the single I mentioned last week. Pick Up Sticks/SAC Attack is out on Armellodie Records today. You should be able to find it at all the usual places, and both the CD release and download are available on Bandcamp. There's a launch gig for the single on the 4th, Thursday, in Nice n Sleazy's, with support from Young Avaitors, Mondegreen and Symbolics. I'd planned on doing a single review by now, but last week got away from me.

Factory Kids release their first EP today, cunningly titled EP1. It's out on 17 Seconds Records and just like with last week's Dirty Cuts single there's a free download available, this time of the EP's lead track They Used To Call Me Baby.

The new Isa & the Filthy Tongues album, Dark Passenger, is available on eMusic. There's a launch gig for that this week too, details below.

Punch & the Apostles have their self titled debut album out today. I had no idea this was due out till I saw it on eMusic, apparently I wasn't paying attention.

Gigs:
I've paid very little attention to gigs this week, to be honest. Again, after three last week planning ahead just caused headaches.
In addition to the Super Adventure Club single launch mentioned above, Thursday also sees a Socks Off night at The Admiral. The line up boasts Haight-Ashbury, Alan McKim, The Seventeenth Century and Aye Tunes favourites Julia & the Doogans. Since I've seen The Seventeenth Century three times in the last four weeks I'll be opting for the Super Adventure Club gig, but The Admiral is certainly a very good alternative.
On Friday over in Edinburgh Isa & the Filthy Tongues are having an album launch gig at Cabaret Voltaire. You might remember that I rather liked their new album.

There might be updates later, once I've had a look around to see what else is out.