BARmellodie

Normally when there's another gig on the same night I'm promoting one the blog turns a bit of a blind eye to it. No sense in gibing the competition free promotion after all, is there?

Sometimes we make an exception though, like for next Friday's first BARmellodie gig.

Not content with putting out some of our favourite singles and albums of recent years from the likes of Cuddly Shark, Super Adventure Club, Thirty Pounds of Bone and The Scottish Enlightenment, Armellodie Records are taking over Bar Bloc on the third Friday of every month for a six month resident.

The gigs will showcase bands from the Armellodie roster along with other special guests. They've also roped in some local blogger types to play some records alongside the ArmelloDJs till the small hours.

The first BARmellodie gig takes place on Friday 21st of January. Entry is free before Midnight, £2 after. The bands don't start until around 11pm, while my Aye Tunes Presents gig at Stereo will be kicking out at around 10:30pm, so why not go to both and make both myself and the Armellodie crew very happy people?

Playing at the first gig are:

Le Reno Amps

The Douglas Firs

Battery Face

Guest DJ: Phil Elba (Elba Sessions)

BARmellodie #2 follows on February 18th, with The Scottish Enlightenment, Thirty Pounds of Bone and Randolph's Leap playing live, and Halina of Glasgow Podcart on DJ duties.

For more info on Armellodie and to buy the records they release visit the website.

Look, It Moves!

Looking through my inbox I've been sent quite a few videos recently.

Rather than leave them all in there, all sad and lonely and ignored, here's the first of a probably irregular round up of some of them.

The Son(s) - Radar

Serious favourites round these parts, and of quite a few of the other blogs too, The Son(s) release the fan-flipping-tastic single Radar on January 17th through Eli and Oz. An album follows in March, but more on that nearer the time.

Aaron Wright - Trampoline

Aaron Wright has announced a load of tour dates for the rest of January which you can find by visiting the link above the video, and will be releasing Trampolines as a single on February 21st.

Cities and Skylines - Holes in the Snow

Cities and Skylines launch this single with a gig in Bloc on Thursday (13th January). The single is available from iTunes now.

Blinding Sunlight - Let's Just Sit Around

Blinding Sunlight's Particles albums was one of my favourite impulse purchases of last year. Me being me despite loving the album and playing it to death I've completely forgotten to mention them on the blog so far. So here's a look at a video they made with Glasgow based film maker Mark Davitt.

Fiction Faction - Apparitions

Fiction Faction release Apparitions as a single through 17 Seconds Records on January 31st.

Polly and the Billet Doux - Follow My Feet

Finally, stepping out of Scotland for a minute because I like the band, here's a live version of Polly and the Billet Doux's upcoming single Follow My Feet, set for release on February 21st.

Lou Hickey - Minutes, Hours, Days

It is all too easy to sneer at pop music, especially if you ever inflict listening to the top 40 on yourself and drown in a sea of identikit, characterless autotune nonsense.

Thank goodness for people like Lou Hickey then, who in a few short minutes can remind you of the glory of a catchy little pop song.

Minutes, Hours, Days is exactly that, just under four minutes of catchy pop music that neither tries to reinvent the wheel, or compromise itself to fit into any current trend. Poppy, a bit jazzy, unashamedly retro and featuring something that will always make me like a song a bit more - handclaps! - Minutes, Hours, Days is a sweet, cheery song with more warmth and personality than half the charts put together. If you liked the first Pipettes album - y'know, the one that was actually good - then do check this out, there's a similar kind of vibe to it.

Have a wee listen below, and keep an eye out for much much more from Lou Hickey this year.

Lou Hickey: Website - MySpace - Facebook

This Week's Gigs: 10th - 16th January

So much for January traditionally being quiet for gigs.

Monday:

Young Aviators, Pareto, LightGuides, The Gap Year Riot, The Winter Tradition (in the bar). King Tut's. (Tickets)

New Year's Revolution continues at Tut's.

Tuesday:

The Seventeenth Century, Martin John Henry. The Captain's Rest.

Launch gig for The Seventeenth Century's EP, which I gushed about a little on Saturday.

Park Circus, Fiction Faction, Michael MacLennan, Dante, Yusuf Azak (in the bar). King Tut's. (Tickets)

Wednesday:

Penguins Kill Polar Bears, Carnivores, Flood of Red, .Scores. King Tut's (Tickets)

For a chance to win tickets enter my competition.

Thursday:

Trapped Mice, The Ketterleys. Bannermans, Edinburgh.

Cities and Skylines, Vukovi, Fatherson (acoustic). Bloc, free entry.

Simon Doherty, Duck Hunt, Borthwicks. The 13th Note.

Washington Irving, Open Swimmer, Blue Sky Archives, White Heath, This Silent Forest (in the bar). King Tut's. (Tickets)

Oooh, very nice line-up there.

MakeThisRelate, Aspen Tide, Broken Indigo, Another Option. Classic Grand.

Jamie Cameron, John Condron. The Liquid Ship.

How To Swim, The Paraffins, The Sundancer, Mike Nesbit. Captain's Rest.

Very nice line-up there too. Damn you Thursday!

The Whisky Works, The Darien Venture, El Dog. Stereo.

With this gig Thursday establishes itself as the first "taking the piss" night of the year.

Friday:

PAWS, Johnny Reb, The Dirty Beggars, Donald McDonald and the Islands. Captain's Rest.

Saturday:

Supermarionation, Steel Rose, Fireproof Match, Deco Arcade, Augustalia. Maggie's Chambers, Edinburgh.

Moon Unit, Frams Torners, Small Scale Collisions. Nice N Sleazy.

edRock.net Acoustic: The Fourth Wall, Jonny Downie, Angie Clark (Scrap Brain), Garry Hall. The Forest Cafe, Edinburgh.

Sunday:

Noma, Guanoman, Messiah Complex, Imperium, Public Spaces. The Liquid Ship. Free Entry.

Not one for the faint hearted this. If you like your music off kilter, challenging and basically noisy this is worth checking out. I'm only familiar with Noma and Guanoman, but both of them do good stuff.