Help Those Meddling Kid Canaverals

Kid Canaveral are going to America. However since that isn't cheap, they need a little help from you to do so.

The band are playing two fundraiser shows next week to help raise funds (well, obviously) to get them over to New York and Austin for the South By Southwest music festival. Considering how well they did in the Aye Tunes Readers' Poll at the end of last year I know you lot like them as much as I do, so go along to one of the gigs, and take some pals, aye?

On Thursday 24th February Kid canaveral play Stereo in Glasgow, with support from Randolph's Leap and Martin John Henry. Tickets for that one are available here.

Then on Saturday the 26th they play in Edinburgh, at The Wee Red Bar. Support on that night comes from The Last Battle and Blue Sky Archives. Tickets available here.

They also have a rather ace new video for We Only Went Out To Get Drunk Last Night which you can watch below.

Valentine Treats

Alternate names for this post included "Any excuse to use that card from The Simpsons" and "Oh God, Peenko is going to kill me again"

As you may have noticed from the screaming red shop window displays, lovey dovey couples, and muttering bitter single people (Hiya!) it is apparently Valentine's Day. We at Aye Tunes could care less about it, but some bands have gotten into the spirit and are giving away some free music, so we'll gladly tell you about that.

Spring Offensive are offering a new acoustic EP for one week only. It is available on a pay what you like basis. You can have it for free if you want, but if you feel like splashing out you can get a credit on their next release if you pay more than £4. Get it over at their website.

de Selby is Alistair Beith and some of his fellow Second Hand Marching Band/Benni Hemm Hemm/Tannahil friends, and they have a one day only free download, a cover of Prince's "If I Was Your Girlfriend". You can find it over on Bandcamp. While you are there check out the recently released Sisyphus EP, which I've forgotten to mention here until now. It is really rather good though.

Taken At The Flood I know nothing about, other than there's a Valentine download from them (Him? Not sure) over on Bandcamp. There's an EP up for grabs there too, and Taken At The Flood will be supporting the excellent Trapped Mice at their upcoming Edinburgh EP launch gig, alongside the also excellent Loch Awe on the 5th of March at The Wee Red Bar.

The Belle Hops have made their wee EP free for this week only as a special treat. Isn't that lovely of them?

Karlyn King is offering up a free download too. Nothing to do with Valentine's Day, but I might forget to mention it later, so it is getting included here anyway. Blue Painted Gates is a collaboration with Bill Wells, and can be found here.

Maple Leaves left their entry till late, but we'll forgive them since it seems churlish to complain about getting really good stuff for free. They've bundled up two of their previous single for a free EP, titled Threads. If like me you already have the singles then it is still worth a look, since the EP includes a previously unreleased Miaoux Miaoux remix. You can download Threads on Bandcamp.

This Week's Gigs: 14th - 19th February

Last night the Aye Tunes team (all one of us) made a rare venture through to Leith for the Come On Gang! album launch/final gig. Pretty sure I had more fun than is medically safe. If I happened to talk to any of you from roughly 10pm onwards I apologise for everything I said. More on the album to come this week, but for now I'll just suguest that you go buy it. You can get Strike a Match from iTunes just now.

Now, on with this week's gigs.

Monday:

Don't take your partner out for dinner, everywhere will be mobbed. Better options for spending your night include:

Harrys Gym, Midnight Harlots, How Garbo Died. Stereo. (Tickets)

United Fruit, Pensioner, Illness, P Is For Persia. 13th Note.

Tuesday:

Tuesday is apparently a good night for the poor, or the cheapskates.

Glasgow Slow Club: Withered Hand, Alan McKim. Bloc, free.

Cheer. Mono, free.

Wednesday:

Aidan Moffat's Valentine Revue. Oran Mor.

Aidan Moffat will be doing three sets - one solo, one with Bill Wells, and one with The Best-Ofs.

Darkstar. Nice N Sleazy (Tickets)

I'm always a wee bit disappointed when I see this name because for a minute I think they are mid 90s group Dark Star. I loved Twenty Twenty Sound. Sleazies might still be shut on wednesday, if it is I'll let you know where the gig moves to.

Detour. Bloc, free.

Stanley Odd, Kitty The Lion. The Captain's Rest. (Tickets)

The Last Battle, Letters, Oso Street Outreach. Henry's Cellar Bar.

Letters launch their debut single. As always, we really like The Last Battle.

Thursday:

French Wives, Pilots, ISwimWithSharks. Nice N Sleazy. (Tickets)

Launch gig for Feel Safe Small, the new French Wives EP. More on the EP coming up during the week, but until then you can pre-order and hear a song from it here.

The Black Atlantic, Blue Sky Archives, Where We Lay Our Heads. (Tickets)

Must confess I know next to nothing about The Black Atlantic, but the levels of love we have round here for Blue Sky Archives and Where We Lay Our Heads borders on the worrying and stalkerish.

Friday:

Black International, Angry vs the Bear. The 13th Note.

We like Black International a lot too.

Barmellodie: The Scottish Enlightenment, Randolph's Leap, 30 Pounds of Bone. Bloc, free before Midnight.

Armellodie hijack Bloc again, with another rather splendid selection of bands.

Saturday:

The Japanese War Effort, Fox Gut Daata, Wounded Knee, Miaoux Miaoux. The Captain's Rest. (Tickets)

If we had some kind of "gig of the week" award then this one might just come out the winner. Belated Glasgow launch gig for the Gerry Loves Records split 12" featuring all the folk playing this gig. You can buy the 12" here. I did and I don't even own a record player. It comes with downloads though, I didn't just go mad and buy something I can't listen to.

The Ides of Toad: Rob St John. Ziggy Campbell, 30 Pounds of Bone. The Wee Red Bar. (Tickets)

The second Ides of Toad gig, which also has an ace line-up.

ALSO!

The Margins Book and Music Festival is running over a few days at the end of the week. I'll quite shamelessly copy/paste the info given by the lovely people at Cargo Publishing.

Over four days, seven shows and over 30 performers, Margins brings you the biggest names in Scottish literature, like Liz Lochhead, Tom Leonard, Ewan Morrison, Doug Johnstone, Alan Bissett and Rodge Glass, to brand new talent and collaborations with the most popular regular literary nights in Scotland, including Words Per Minute, Golden Hour and Seeds of Thought.

To cap it all off, the final night has music from the critically acclaimed Withered Hand, joined by Burnt Island and Where We Lay Our Heads.

Here's all the events, with each costing a mere £1. Yes, one pound. Bargain. Afternoon shows start at 4pm, evening shows at 7pm, all taking place in Stereo. Both the venue and the sound, I presume.

THURSDAY 17TH FEBRUARY

Evening:

MONOSYLLABIC-MARGINS OF ERROR POP-UP THEATRE

_________________

FRIDAY 18TH FEBRUARY

Afternoon:

SEEDS OF THOUGHT SPECIAL

Evening:

LIZ LOCHHEAD ALAN BISSETT

ANNELIESE MACKINTOSH

_______________________

SATURDAY 19TH FEBRUARY

Afternoon:

GOLDEN HOUR SPECIAL

(RYAN VAN WINKLE NICK HOLDSTOCK ERICA DUFFY

SMALL FEET LITTLE TOES BILLY LIAR TOBY MOTTERSHEAD)

Evening:

RODGE GLASS DOUG JOHNSTONE KIRSTIN INNES

_______________________

SUNDAY 20TH FEBRUARY

Afternoon:

WORDS PER MINUTE SPECIAL

Evening:

TOM LEONARD WITHERED HAND

EWAN MORRISON BURNT ISLAND

ALLAN WILSON ANDREW RAYMOND DRENNAN

WHERE WE LAY OUR HEADS