Aye Tunes Vs Peenko II - The Final Plug

The second Aye Tunes Vs Peenko gig takes place tonight, so this is the last time I'll be trying to encourage you to come along (hey, you at the back, stop cheering. Yes, you) as it will be a bit pointless to continue promoting an event after it is finished.

A final reminder of the details then:

When - 8.30pm, Saturday July 17th.

Where - The 13th Note, King Street, Glasgow

Who - We're Only Afraid of NYC, Little Yellow Ukuleles, Randolph's Leap

How Much - Five quid.
Also might as well mention that me and Peenko don't get rich from this, we cover costs and all other money goes straight to the bands, so you aren't paying your £5 just for the pair of us to get drunk.

Hope to see some of you there!

We're Only Afraid of NYC - 0.3

We're Only Afraid of NYC's third EP, cunningly titled 0.3, is available right now, for free, from the band's Bandcamp page.

Now, given that We're Only Afraid of NYC are playing a gig for me on Saturday I've got a bit too much bias right now to write an objective review of the release, so I won't try at the moment.
What I will say is that just like 0.2 was a step up from the already good 0.1, 0.3 is another leap forward. Go get it then come along on Saturday, please?

Download 0.3 here.

Buy Aye Tunes Vs Peenko II tickets here.

Spaghetti Anywhere - Love Again

I don't make a habit out of posting every little thing that lands in my inbox, but I'm making an exception for this.

Remember Spaghetti Anywhere? I wrote about their EP a while ago, and really liked it. You can find that here. Their friend Marco Castrovinci has made a video for Love Again from the EP, and it has been the perfect thing to save me thinking about how I'm sitting at home on a miserable, dreary, wet afternoon in Paisley.

Spaghetti Anywhere: MySpace - Buy Vinyl - Download from iTunes

The Douglas Firs - Haunting Through EP Review

The Douglas Firs hail from Aberdeen - giving me a nice chance to escape from the usual haunts, at least in my ears - and are Neil Insh, along with whatever friends he could round up to help out.

This EP opens in an unusual style, with the crunch of footsteps, drumming in the background gradually getting louder, along with chatter building up too, before bursting into folky accordian and violin. The effect makes you feel like you've wandered into a warm, welcoming pub somewhere, and for the next 20 minutes or so of the EP you are unlikely to want to leave. The song - The Quickening - goes through sporadic shifts, the folky part at the beginning dying out only to reappear later, vocal sing-alongs, bursts of applause, before wandering into soundscape territory with more footsteps, creaking gates, hooting owls and all sorts. It is a bold song that can make me think of both the best forgotten sequel to Highlander and the opening of Wham's Club Tropicana yet still be compelling listening, but The Quickening does so in fine style.

Future State follows on, a short burst of ambiance and atmosphere, before Grow Old And Go Home introduces layers of sounds including a more electronic feel, and some luscious horns. Grow Old And Go Home at times feels like it could be two or three songs fighting each other from prominence in the mix, but avoids sounding cluttered or messy in the process. Again, another soundscape ending to this song leads straight into the final track, Soporific.
Soporific much in common with the preceding songs, starting with a lengthy understated intro, building atmosphere before exploding into life with a squeal of feedback around halfway through for a big chorus full of melody and instrumentation, then slowly fading off back into nothingness.

Haunting Through is frequently very sparse and at other times bursting at the seams with things going on, but the entire EP feels very organic, each part growing naturally from the others. There's a great sense of atmosphere, and a wonderful feel of a little surprise lurking just round the corner throughout, all of which makes Haunting Through a delight to listen to.

The Douglas Firs: MySpace - Blog
The Douglas Firs - Haunting Through EP is available as a free download, visit the blog for details.

Round Up Reviews #3

You might know the deal with these by now, but if not the point of the Round Up Reviews is to quickly cover short things - singles, lone tracks and the like - that I wouldn't otherwise get to.

So Many Animal Calls - Your House Is A Hospice
Described as a teaser for an upcoming EP, and knocked out in a week there's more than enough here to get me a bit excited about hearing that EP. There's some really good stuff here, much of which isn't what I'd usually listen to. Strong vocals and a couple of killer riffs get the blood pumping on the first two tracks, which also change the pace up throughout to keep things interesting. Final song Secrets is more sedate for the most part, hinting that there's more to So Many Animal Calls than you might originally think. As a statement of intent Your House Is A Hospice is a fine one, and one that is hard not to pay attention to.
I'm probably not going to make it along to their debut gig on Wednesday night at The Captain's Rest, so some of you should go in my place.
Your House Is A Hospice is available free from Bandcamp.

The Ray Summers - Heshka Rashka
Unashamedly retro indie fun. Maybe not credible or trendy, but The Ray Summers are a band I've long had a soft spot for. Heshka Rashka makes for a nice slice of summery, bouncy indie pop that'll no doubt be hated by the cool kids, but gets my head bobbing, that's more than good enough for me. It's ok to unclench and have some fun sometimes you know.
Heshka Rashka is released on August 2nd.

Beldina O - Chariots

A drastic change of pace and styles from everything else in this piece, Chariots is a gorgeous stripped back song. It's a bit of an unfair comparison to make, but this reminds me a little bit of Martha Wainwright. No particular reason, it just does. This is a very good thing. I know next to nothing about Beldina O to be honest, but you can bet I'll be doing my best to keep a look out for more from here. Lovely.
Chariots is available as a free download from Soundcloud.

q without u - Paper Cuts

I thought q without u had vanished, but happily not. This is the first I've heard of them in a while, and it is a welcome reminder that I'd really enjoyed Shut Up! I Invented You, the album they released. Paper Cuts is a teaser for an album coming later in the year, and is - again - plain fun. Heavily accented Scottish indie pop is always welcome round here, and Paper Cuts is a fine example of it. Bonus points for sounding like it is about to fall apart and come to a dead stop halfway through too.

Paper Cuts is available from Bandcamp, where you can also pick up their debut album for free.

This Week's Records

Lets see, what is out this week for you to spend all your pennies on? Actually, don't spend all your pennies, remember to save a fiver for Saturday night.

Mitchell Museum - The Peters Port Memorial Service
The Mitchell Museum is out! Yay! Vinyl available direct from the band, in Avalanche, Mono, Fopp, HMV in Glasgow and Rough Trade in London. Also available to download from iTunes, Amazon, and most likely other places too.

So Many Animal Calls - Your House Is A Hospice
So this came out at the tail end of last week, but I've not had a chance to mention it yet. Grab the free download from Bandcamp.

Dems - Lioness
Another freebie download that popped up last week, also available from Bandcamp. Think I need to do another Round Up Review to cover all this stuff...

Burnt Island - Hiding Out/Gamblers Dream
I talked a bit about this the other day, and now you can have it - for free at that - from Wiseblood Industries.

Tired Pony - The Place We Ran From
Debut album from Gary Lightbody and friends. No idea if it is any good or not, I've not heard it.

Tango In The Attic - Bank Place Locomotive Society
Another debut album, this time from Glenrothes five piece Tango In The Attic. Haven't heard this either yet, but I've liked some of their previous stuff. It is a penny under four quid at Amazon, which isn't half bad.

The Boy Who Trapped The Sun - Fireplace
Rounding off the debuts for the week is this, The Boy Who Trapped The Sun's first album. You can get a free download of the title track in return for your email address here.

We're Only Afraid of NYC - 0.3 EP
Not released until Friday, so consider this an advance tip. Get the (really, really good) EP from Bandcamp for free on Friday, then come see them at Aye Tunes Vs Peenko II on Saturday.

The BAMS World Cup - Final Standings

Since the last post on the BAMS World Cup was the most read post on Aye Tunes in the past month, here's another now that the competition is all done and dusted.

Team Aye Tunes held steady to claim a credible third place, while there was late drama as Dear Scotland overtook A Tidal Wave of Indifference following Saturday's Third/Forth place play off, and just about hung on to top spot to win the whole shebang.
Dear Scotland also collect the Golden Boot, with their higher number of assists being used to break the tie on goals scored.

Further down, Elba Sessions clearly paid the price for having greedy players, as they racked up 20 goals, but a mere 6 assists. Phil Elba takes the bragging rights from the two Elba Sessions teams, placing a few points above Chris.

Down in 12th spot The Vinyl Villain is claiming a moral victory for not making any changes to his squad since the competition started.

Jockrock ended up stranded at the bottom of the table, but we'll be nice to them, they were unable to access their team throughout the entire World Cup, so ended up with a bit of a duff line up. They still managed to pick up some goals though.

Most shot shy was Jim Gellatly, who will have delighted most of us mean bloggers with his poor showing. With a mere 7 goals and 7 assists Gellatly's Goal Getters failed to live up to their name.

This Week's Gigs 12th - 18th July

Last week was quiet, this week is insane. Typical. Do try not to wear yourself out early in the week please, we need as many of you as possible alive and in The 13th Note on Saturday.

Monday:

Comma. Pivo Pivo.
These gents impressed a few weeks ago with their new EP, which we covered in the Round Up Reviews, so I'm looking forward to checking them out live.

Tuesday:

Scott Hutchison, Ross Clark, My Cousin I Bid You Farewell. Stereo.
Acoustic shenanigans from people in bands you might have heard of, with proceeds going to the A-T Society.

Wednesday:

So Many Animal Calls, Queen Jane, 100 Paper Boats. Captain's Rest
Go get our mitts on a free download from So Many Animal Calls here, it is really rather good.

Mitchell Museum. Album launch, Secret Location.
See the Mitchell Museum blog for more details on this one. There's also an instore gig at Fopp on Union Street on Wednesday too.

Thursday:

Silver Columns, Midnight Lion, Nevada Base, MOPP. King Tut's.
Tut's is attempting to dominate the Glasgow gigs for the next few weeks, starting with this, the first of their Summer Nights series. Some are good, some are a bit ropey, and their website has a good handful of spelling errors. Tonight's gig features two bands I like and two I don't much care for, you can work out who is who yourself if you want to.

Cuddly Shark, The Lava Experiments, The Red Show. Captain's Rest.

A line up where I don't have to go out for fag breaks to avoid the dross means this is a much better choice of gig for the evening. Cuddly Shark had one of my favourite albums last year, The Red Show have been entertaining when I've seen them previously, and I've blethered at length before about my enjoyment of The Lava Experiments, so this looks to be a winner all round.

Saturday:

Saturday is, of course, all about Aye Tunes vs Peenko II. Advance tickets available here, where you can also listen to a song from each of the bands. Buy a ticket and get a free three song download. Go on go on go on go on.

In case you have forgotten, or can't read the poster above, playing live are:
We're Only Afraid of NYC who Lauren Laverne said "I've heard some amazing Scottish bands and one that stands out is an unsigned Glasgow band called We're Only Afraid Of NYC" about.
Randolph's Leap who The Scotsman called "nonsense of the best kind"
Little Yellow Ukuleles, about whom Tom Robinson said "even in a city reknowned for fresh and original guitar pop, you'd have to say that is a remarkably assured debut record"
See, it isn't just us that loves these bands! Do come along to The 13th Note on Saturday, you'll make me and Peenko ever so happy. We might even give you sweets, and a hug.