Monday 4 July 2011

News & Bits - July 4th

Happy Birthday America! Before I batter on with the news a big thank you to everyone who came along to Stereo on Friday for the Aye Tunes gig. Extra special thanks to The Last Battle, The Second Hand Marching Band and Loch Awe who were all excellent.
You've got a bit of a break from me harassing you about my own gigs for a little while now as I retreat to plan things for the autumn. Coming up in August though is, of course, the return of Aye Tunes Vs Peenko at Stereo on August 20th. Plenty of time to remind you about that though.

New releases:
Ed Muirhead - Cage for the Clouds. Available from Tattie Records, Bandcamp, iTunes.
The Japanese War Effort - Surrender to Summer EP. Available on very pretty 10" vinyl from Song, by Toad. Also available to download from Amazon and iTunes.
Le Reno Amps - Construction. First available as a bonus with early copies of recent, and excellent, album Appetite, Construction now gets a stand alone digital release. Available from Bandcamp.
Letters - Flash! Lights. New single available free from the website. Good too.
Lou Hickey - Minutes, hours, days EP. Available from iTunes and Amazon.
Mickey 9s - A Thing To Try and Dance To. Available from iTunes.
Mitchell Museum - What They Built. I picked up my copy at the launch gig on Saturday, on the not at all unusual format of miniature keyboard. the single is also available in the more standard digital format from iTunes and Amazon. A few keyboards are left, keep an eye on the Mitchell Museum website if you want to snag one.
Spaghetti Anywhere - Doolally. This slipped my mind last week. With the current sunny weather it seems fitting that Spaghetti Anywhere have something new to offer us. The 3 track Doolally EP is available free from Bandcamp.
Sucioperro - Land/Slide. Available from Bandcamp.

What's On?
I skipped the gig guide this week not because I'm lazy (although as you know by know, I most certainly am) but because there isn't an awful lot on. There's still a couple of gigs worth checking out though. Such as...
Sicknote, The Girobabies, Ghosts of Progress & more at Pivo Pivo on Wednesday. This is a warm up gig for the Free in the Park event taking place at a so far secret location at the weekend.
Lydia Lunch at Stereo on Thursday. Influential, individual and uncompromising, Lydia Lunch sweeps into Glasgow on Thursday for a one off performance,. Tickets are available here.
Plastic Animals, Trapped Mice and Yusuf Azak at The Wee Red Bar on Friday. Launch gig for Plastic Animals' debut EP, A Dark Spring. The EP is out now, available from Bandcamp, and very good. I'll try and elaborate on that a bit later this week.
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How Garbo Died, Tangles, Uzuruzu and Peter Cat at Stereo on Saturday. Launch gig for How Garbo Died's first "proper" EP, Muted Response. We like these guys, so will be heading down on Saturday to catch them and pick up a copy of the EP. I've not yet managed to see Tangles either, and this is the first outing for Uzuruzu - a new project featuring Guanoman, Noma and members of The Cosmic Dead and Ug! - which all adds up to a pretty decent night, and a nice change from jangly guitars.
How Garbo Died will be doing it all again on Sunday through in Edinburgh at Sneaky Pete's, with Simon Herron and The Spook School joining Peter Cat in support. Entry for both gigs is a mere £3, which also gets you a copy of the Muted Response EP.

Spend, Spend, Spend:
Gizeh Records are celebrating the launch of their new online store by offering 20% off everything for one week only. If you haven't yet bought Conquering Animal Sound's Kammerspiel album, or the more recent remix album, now is your chance to save a few quid on doing so. The Gizeh shop is here.

Bits:
The Martial Arts have stuck their back catalogue on Bandcamp, all of it either free or available for you to name your price.
The Phantom Band have been playing with Bandcamp too. Go here to have a listen to both their albums, a couple of singles and some other stuff. Some free downloads are available too.

On The Telly:
Scotland Rocks at SXSW is on BBC Two at 9pm on Tuesday night. Filmed at SXSW, oddly enough, this summer, the show has Vic Galloway join the Scottish bands taking part to document their trip. I look forward to pointing out folk I know to my Mum and acting like being an unpopular Scottish music blogger isn't me wasting my life. I feel a little sorry for the band who dream of visiting Inverness though. Here's a trailer: