Album Review: Mammoeth - Nascent

Mammoeth, once known as Team Turnip, is mostly multi-instrumentalist Russell Kostulin. Given that I can barely get a "ting" out of a triangle I'm always filled with a mixture of awe and disgust at people like Russell who can seemingly turn their hand to anything, but I'll try to keep my bitterness in check.

I'd mentioned Nascent a wee while ago when I talked about opening track Lapdog in a Round Up Review and promised a full review nearer time of release. Since the album comes out on Monday and there's a couple of launch gigs at the weekend it is time I got round to keeping that promise.

On the surface Nascent is an album of mostly upbeat summery pop music, with a few more gentle songs mixed in, and if listened to just on that basis it would do its job very well indeed. There's a bright and breezy feel to much of the album, at times echoing Super Furry Animals at their poppiest and upbeat. There's even handclaps and whistling!

Pay a bit more attention to the lyrics on the album and it becomes clear that the sweet melodies and jaunty tunes are masking a darker side. Tales of war, car crashes and stalkers unfold, frequently over songs that should be far too happy sounding for the less than cheery subject matter. There's a certain playfulness and wit to the lyrics that means that even thought the music and subject matter at had should be at odds both mesh together very nicely.

Disengage your brain and Nascent is a lovely little summer pop album, pay a bit more attention and you'll find that, as fun as summer pop is, there's a lot more going on. Either way it is a debut album well worth a listen.

Mammoeth: Website

Nascent is released on July 26th and can be ordered on Bandcamp.
There's two album launch gigs this weekend, First on Saturday at The Wee Red Bar in Edinburgh, then on Sunday at The Classic Grand in Glasgow. Support on both nights comes from Randolph's Leap, with Georgina Seddon and Sunset Song also on the bill for Sunday.

Housekeeping

As you might have noticed I've been messing around with the layout of the blog again.

What do you think? So far reaction has been a mixture of positive, confused and being told it looks like a St Johnstone forum, anything else to add to the list?

Everything seems to display fine on my screen, using Chrome, but since many of you will be using a different browser and presumably none of you are using my screen let me know if anything looks weird or doesn't display right.

The old layout accidentally resulted it me breaking the site search, and screwing up comments. I think both of those are fixed now, if not then leave me a comment telling me so. Wait, that won't work...

You might also notice that I still can't design a half decent site logo, there's no need to make fun of me, I know already.

Ok, that's all, you can go back to what you were doing now. Well, except you, for Heavens sake don't you know that'll make you blind?

This Week's Gigs 19th - 25th July

Before I get on to the gig guide, a huge thank you to everyone that came along to The 13th Note last night, everyone that helped us get the word out through a blog post, a tweet, or by carving messages in the oldest cliff face in the World, and of course to our three fantastic bands. Our first act was a hard act to follow, but I think we just about got away with it.

Now, what's on this week? The King Tut's Summer Nights gigs dominate evenings in Glasgow this week, but there's a few other things going on too.

Monday:

The Boy Who Trapped The Sun, Lou Hickey, Crow Road, Bear Bones. King Tut's.
The first of this week's Summer Nights gig is quite a tempting one. Were I not skint till Tuesday I'd be heading along to this, but alas I am poor.

Tuesday:

Second Hand Marching Band, Julia and the Doogans, Martin James & Associates, Kitty The Lion. King Tut's.
Tut's again provides a cracking gig for Tuesday. I'm not familiar with Martin James, but he is from Paisley, so he is OK by me. Everyone else is well worth catching, and I'm long overdue seeing Kitty the Lion. For discount tickets hit up Julia and the Doogans or SHMB.

Wednesday:

Here Is Where 2: Wounded Knee & 7VWWVW. CCA.
Wounded Knee and 7VWWVW (pronounced Mammal, turn it upside down) combine to perform a specially composed score to the best bits of Weir's Way. Now there's a sentence I don't get to type often. More details on Facebook.
Dave Hughes, Gecko. 13th Note.
Trembling Bells, Hidden Masters. Stereo 

Thursday:

LightGuides, Make Sparks, Penguins Kill Polar Bears, Oliver Stays. King Tut's.

Friday:

The Ideal Crash, St Deluxe (acoustic), Lewis Wilson. Captain's Rest.
Little Yellow Ukuleles, The Void. Bloc. Free.
AvP co-stars the Yooks play a freebie, along with The Void. Chances of someone drowning in a sea of Balkan = high.

Saturday:

Astral Planes, Galleries, Cancel The Astronauts, Casino Brag. King Tut's.
Looks like I'm spending a significant amount of time in Tut's this week then? Astral Planes and Cancel The Astronauts are two bands that we like a lot round here, yet I've never managed to catch live before. About time I sorted that out. Contact Cancel the Astronauts for super cheap tickets and they'll throw in a free download of their new EP!

Sunday:

Mammoeth, Randolph's Leap. Classic Grand.
Launch gig for the Mammoeth debut album, Nascent, with support from AvPII co-stars Randolph's Leap you say? Sold, I say. My wallet and liver might hate me by the end of the week.