Edinburgh Popfest

This weekend, Edinburgh’s ballboy, who also run Pony Proof Records, will launch the first ever Edinburgh Popfest, a three day festival of independent music at different venues across Edinburgh. Edinburgh Popfest is joining its other ‘Popfest cousins’ in San Francisco, New York, London, Athens, Copenhagen and Turin to showcase independent bands and musicians.

The bill for all three days is stunning, with a good number of Aye Tunes favourites playing. Edinburgh dwellers are highly advised to get themselves along and support this.

Weekend and Sunday tickets have sold out online, but Friday & Saturday day tickets are still available here. Tickets are also available from Avalanche Records.

Full line-up and stage times:

Friday: The Wee Red Bar

Randolph’s Leap 19:45
Withered Hand 20:30
ballboy 21:30
UNPOP! club till 3am
UNPOP are also celebrating their first birthday, so give them a pat on the back.

Saturday: The GRV

Bearsuit 15:20
Second Hand Marching Band 16:10
Red Shoe Diaries 17:00 (a band name I thought twice about Googling. Followers of David Duchovny's career will understand)
Be Like Pablo 18:10
Pocketbooks 19:15
Internet Forever 20:00
Kid Canaveral 21:00
The Just Joans 22:00
Suburban Kids With Biblical Names 23:00
Half My Heart Beats club till 3am

Sunday: The Lot

Gordon McIntyre (ballboy) 14:30
eagleowl 15:15
Bobby Baby 16:00
The Bobby McGee's 16:50
Darren Hayman 17:50

Gig Preview: Favourite Son & Oxjam Present...

Fed up with Oxjam gigs yet? No? Good, cause there's still a couple more worth mentioning before the month is out. Yes? You heartless bastard, I hope someone stabs you in the eye with a fork.

Our pals over at Favourite Son - I say that like we aren't both one man operations - have an event coming up at The Classic Grand on October 29th, with a rather tasty line up to boot.

Playing on the night (with quite shamelessly nicked bios) are:

The Winter Tradition

The Winter Tradition are a noisy pop-rock quartet from Scotland. Their energetic live performances are emphasized by various dynamics that excite and involve the audience and they have succeeded in creating their own sound that is instantly recognisable to any listener or follower. The Winter Tradition have used the combination of many artists from different backgrounds and traditions to create a blend of music that they could listen to and enjoy themselves.

Nevada Base

The songs are about noise-control officers, mental illness, robotics, geographical obstacles, mysterious women from space, electricity, love and the importance (or otherwise) of timeliness. The end result is about making heartfelt, thoughtful - danceable - pop; Or is it poppable-dance? Either way, if this leaves you confused as to whether you should dance or think, then just dance.

Kochka

Kochka make music that will make you dance your feet off or rip your heart out; Electro-Cabaret-Bolshevic-Folk-Trotskyite-Soul-Klezmer-Rock-HappyBluesPop-Post Surf-Circus Dance-Tribal Screaming-Yeah!? and whatever else may come to your mind.

The Clyde

The Clyde are a group of four musicians all hailing from the Glasgow area with a shared passion for playing, writing and performing good music. Formed in late 2009 and recording their first EP 'New Beginnings' in January 2010, The Clyde signed to Scotland's Delicate Records in July 2010.

Tickets are available here for £4 in advance, or you can pay £5 on the night. Doors are at 7pm, so get along early.

Find out more about Oxjam here, and visit the Favourite Son blog here.

This Week's Gigs: 18th - 24th October

We're a day late again, as Sunday was given over to recovering from Oxjam Takeover, watching football and attending the incredibly special Unwinding Hours gig at the Oran Mor. If you missed it you missed out big time. Anyway, onwards with this week.

Monday:

The Phantom Band. Fopp, Union St, Glasgow, 5pm.

The Phantom Band release their second album, The Wants, today and are doing an instore appearance in Fopp this afternoon to celebrate.

Marshall Chipped, Sugar Crisis. the Rio Cafe, Partick.

Tuesday:

Glasgow Slow Club: Amber Wilson, Debbie Kate. Bloc, free entry.

Laid back acoustic loveliness.

Wednesday:

Maple Leaves, The Hardy Boys, Dear Red. The Captain's Rest. (Tickets)

Launch gig for the rather splendid new Maple Leaves EP.

Thursday:

Dosh, Cheer, theapplesofenergy. Nice n Sleazy.

Don Bronco, Aspen Tide, Call Me Ishmael, The Darien Venture. Capitol.

I don't know a thing about Don Bronco, but that selection of support bands is worth a look alone.

Barn Owl, The Lucky Oatcake, Go Lucky. 13th Note, £1 entry.

At £1 to get in it is hard to go wrong. Plus, the flyer for the gig has a rabbit smoking and is my new favourite gig flyer ever. Oh, the bands are pretty good too.

Friday:

Oh bugger off Friday, you have too many good things on again.

Shambles Miller, Andrew Lindsay & The Coat Hooks, Reverie, Florynce & Lauryn. The Liquid Ship. Free entry.

Shambles Miller launches his new EP, Shambles Sails The Clockwork Sea, with the help of a few friends.

Emma Pollock, Julia and the Doogans. Paisley Arts Centre.

The List: 25 Years. The Arches. (Tickets)

The List celebrates its 25th birthday with one of the finest line ups in recent memory. For full details go here, but edited highlights include Errors, AVP3 co-stars Come On Gang! the always excellent RM Hubbert, Malcolm Middleton's new Human Don't Be Angry project and some spoken word stuff presented by the wonderful people of Cargo Publishing. Buy tickets from the link up above and use the discount code listemail to save a few quid.

Miss The Occupier. The Wise Monkey. Free entry.

Saturday:

Edinburgh Popfest actually kicks off on Friday and continues through to Sunday, but I'll slip it in here where it won't get lost. Visit the website for all the details, and I'll have a bit more to say about it a little later in the week too.

Your Loyal Subjects, Pensioner, Penguins Kill Polar Bears, Min Diesel. Hustler's, Dundee.

Skies Fell, Futuristic Retro Champions, Pareto. The Arches.

Skies Fell play their debut Glasgow gig, and they aren't messing about with it. Entry is free, but you need to apply for tickets here.

Sunday:

Mimas, Union Sound Set, Penguins Kill Polar Bears