What We're Up To

You might not think it from the irregularity of blog posts, but I've been working away setting up a few things, which mean I'll be a busy little bee over the coming months. Here's a little round up of upcoming Aye Tunes plans.

First up I'll be DJing the penultimate Barmellodie night at Bloc on May 20th. Don't let that put you off though, and instead come along to see Kill the Captains, Vendor Defender, Pensioner and Popcorn Fiend, who are all very fine bands indeed.

The week after that, Friday May 27th, I'll be DJing again for Pin Up Nights as part of their second Bloggers Delight night at The Flying Duck. As well as the usual Pin Ups DJs I'll be joined by Peenko, The Pop Cop, and members of Radar and Glasgow Podcart. Is now a good time to mention that I'm not actually any good at DJing? Randomly playing some records would be a better description.
We've picked the bands for the night too. The Aye Tunes selection is Mondegreen, while Radar have chosen Tokamak and The Pop Cop has picked Endor. Sadly Peenko's choice, Michael Cassidy, is no longer playing.

June, so far, is quiet. The final Barmellodie gig takes place on June 17th with Cuddly Shark, Galoshins, Something Beginning With L and Lady North playing, and Peenko on guest DJ duties. My birthday is June 18th, so I'll be at that, and I'll be very drunk.

July 1st sees the second Aye Tunes Presents gig take place after a longer gap than I'd intended since the first one. I'm chuffed to bits with the line-up for this, as The Last Battle will be launching their new EP, with support from the second hand marching band and - playing their first gig in Glasgow - Loch Awe. The gig is at Stereo, and I'll be mentioning it plenty over between now and then.

Just over a year since the first one, and six months since the last one, I'm happy to say that in August, something is coming back. Details are a closely guarded secret for now, but all will be revealed in good time.

News, Gigs & Bits - May 3rd

Normal service hasn't quite been resumed yet, so no gig guide again this week. Like last week I'll sling a couple of the more interesting ones in below, along with the usual round up of random stuff, new releases, and grumbling.

Gigs:

At the 13th Note tonight you have Esperi, Lady North, Dave Hughes and the Renegade Folk Punk Band and Mitchell Museum, all for a fiver and all for charity. The first band is on at 8:15pm, so get down sharp.

On Wednesday one of my favourite songwriters around, Ginger of Wildhearts fame, is back in Glasgow for an acoustic gig at Apollo 23. Gigner will be acompanied by Random Jon Poole and Jase Edwards, with support coming from Willie Dowling and John Steel of Jackdaw4. Ginger will also be playing a few songs in Love Music around 4:30.

Thursday has a tasty wee line-up at Bloc, with Lovers Turn To Monsters, Where We Lay Our Heads and Grandfather Birds. Entry is free.

The Wave Pictures, Le Reno Amps and My Tiny Robots play Nice n Sleazy on Friday, while The Mouse That Ate The Cat play their first gig at King Tut's on Saturday.

Also on Saturday is the launch night for No Colour Too Strong To Paint, a charity album in aid of The Sick Kids Foundation. The launch night is at Maggie's Chambers in Edinburgh. The album will be available to purchase at the gig.

You can also pick up a copy at Sneaky Pete's on the same night, where the third Brain Storm gig is taking place, with The Fire & I, Scrap Brain and Acrylic Iqon playing.

Sunday, as I mentioned in the news a few weeks ago, sees Words Per Minute celebrate their first birthday at The Arches from 4pm.

News:

Astral Planes have announced they are splitting up. Shame that, I liked them a lot. Jen Paley from the band can be found contributing guest vocals on Pleasure, the debut album album from She's Hit, when it comes out in June.

Y'all is Fantasy Island said goodbye earlier in the year, and we were sad about that too. Much happier news is that they are offering up their entire back catalogue for free download! Skip on over to Wise Blood Industies to get your hands on a big ole zip file containing 5 albums, including a compilation of unreleased tracks. Former Yifi frontman Adam Stafford will be releasing a new album - Build a Harbour Immediately - in August too. More details on that a bit nearer the time, but having heard the album I can tell you it is worth getting a wee bit excited about in advance.

Rock 'n' Roll Damnation returns to Glasgow in August, and somewhat surprisingly there are two gigs taking place that I'm really keen to get to. Flogging Molly play The Garage on August 25th and the following night has a special gig from The Bronx, who will also be playing as Mariachi El Bronx. Tickets go on sale on Friday.

Quite soon I should be able to announce the next Aye Tunes Presents gig. Until I can I'll carry on being annoying and vague about it.

New Releases:

Aerials Up release their debut EP Superglue this week. You can buy it from iTunes. Also Debbie and Cat from the band are running a 10k on Sunday, you can sponsor them here.

Guanoman keeps finding ways to sneak into the news post every week. This time round he has a new single track EP, Our Fungal Future, out. Buy it from Bandcamp.

Pensioner's debut album Yearlings is out now, released by our pals at Olive Grove Records. Get it from Bandcamp or iTunes.
Sebastian Dangerfield's EP, The Sound of Old Machines, is officially out now, and available from Bandcamp.

State Broadcasters release a new album soon, in the meantime you can download a new single, Kittiwake, from it here.

Randolph's Leap: Moray Firth Radio Session (01/05/2011)

As you no doubt know, usually we leave all the radio session posting to Peenko. However since he asked me to record this one for him, I'll be cheeky and post it myself too.

1. Going Home

2. Counting Sheep

Randolph's Leap: Bandcamp - MySpace

Photo by Claire Thomson