33.28 - Going Solo

Near the start of this self indulgent ramblefest that has been 33 I wrote about the Aye Tunes Vs Pennko gigs. Returning to that self indulgent theme, today I'm going to write a wee bit about the gigs I've put on by myself, which have imaginatively been titled Aye Tunes Presents. I'd have shortened that to ATP, but I'm pretty sure there'd be objections to that.

#1 - 21st January 2011, Stereo
Goodness, that feels so long again. I suppose it is quite a while ago, nearly a year and a half in fact. I'm good at sums, me. For my first solo attempt I decided to pick some of my favourite animal named bands to play. Packets of Animal biscuits were given away on the door to anyone who wanted them, along with some home made compilation CDs I put together. Take up on the biscuits was surprisingly low, and I ended up eating many bags of them over the following weeks. We even raised a few quid for charity with an impromptu door collection.
Boygirlanimalcolour - Batman Forever
Trapped Mice - Waving and Pointing
Kochka - Boooones
Trapped Mice have some gigs coming up, and a really good debut album in the can, awaiting release. Kochka made one of my favourite albums of last year, and continue to scare me a bit with their new video.

#2 - The Aye Tunes Birthday Bash, 17th June 2011, The Flying Duck
A great idea in my head, a terrible idea in practice, particularly as the gig ended up being put together at quite short notice. Don't put on a gig for your birthday kids, it's stressful and expensive, at least it is if you are me. The bands were loads of fun though, and some people bought me beer, so it wasn't all bad.
The Big Nowhere - I'm In Love With a Girl
Verse Metrics - Modern Sleep
Black International - Destruct_o_
The hangover I had from this was hilarious, but I learned not to do any more birthday gigs. I didn't learn not to do short notice gigs though, as we'll see soon.

#3 - The Springwell EP Launch, 1st July 2011, Stereo
I'd sounded out The Last Battle a bit before this about doing a gig, but couldn't quite get anything worked out. When it came time to launch their latest EP I jumped at the chance to have them on, and managed to lure Loch Awe with them, giving them their first gig in Glasgow and me my first chance to see them. The always entertaining Second Hand Marching Band rounded out the line up, making sure that at least there were plenty of people there by virtue of their vast number of band members alone.
Loch Awe - I Will Drift Into 10,000 Streams (Demo)
Second Hand Marching Band - Love Is a Fragile Thing (Sleazy Version)
The Last Battle - Viv Nicholson (Acoustic)
Loch Awe have a few gigs coming up. They play Stereo in Glasgow this Saturday as part of the Chem19 showcase night, then next Saturday they play with The Bad Books, The Spook School and The New Fabian Society at Edinburgh's Wee Red Bar for some blogger's gig. Can't recall who, I'm a bit Indifferent.
The Second Hand Marching Band claim they'll be releasing three new albums towards the end of the year, a sad one, a pop one, and an Icelandic one.
The Last Battle released a new single just this week. Hope Is Gold is available from Bandcamp, and there's a launch gig on June 22nd at Pilrig St Pauls Church in Leith.

#4 - 28th September 2011, The Captains Rest
Arrange and promote a gig in roughly two weeks? Only a fool would agree to such a thing. This fool. So it was that the following line-up was rather hastily assembled, with no real concession for genre and styles. Given how quickly I put it together and with the bare minimum of promotion I was able to give it in that time, I'm happier with the way this turned out now than I was when I looked in my wallet at the end of the night. First Glasgow gig for The Spook School too. I've got a habit of putting on Edinburgh bands I want to see in Glasgow rather than, probably more sensibly, just going to Edinburgh to see them.
Kevin P. Gilday - Dear Green Place
Shambles Miller - Rapture
The Spook School - History
The Sea Kings - The Nitrate In My Blood
Shambles Miller has a new single, Confessions, out soon. I'll try and get back to that in time, but in case I forget to mention it later, there's a launch gig for the single at Vespbar in Glasgow on July 6th.
The Spook School play this Sunday at The Captains as part of the first Scottish Fiction gig, and in Edinburgh next at the Tidal Wave of Indifference gig mentioned above.
The Sea Kings play King Tuts in July as part of Summer Nights.

#5 - 3rd May 2011, Stairway
I had no real intention of putting on another gig any time soon until Exit_International got in touch with me. The chance to put on a band I really like, and to do something a bit different by putting on a band from outside the central Scotland bubble was too tempting to resist. What followed were many headaches, a catalogue of errors, from venue problems to a collosal screw up with posters, which all added up to making this a bit of a stressful affair, and the end product wasn't as good as it should have been. I'm still a bit disappointed about the way this one came out and wish it could have been better, but it's a bit late to dwell on that now. The bands were ace though.
Supermarionation - Choosing My Religion
Wrongnote - Heart of a Rat
Exit_International - Glory Horn
The Supermarionation song above is hot off the press, having just been released for free download at lunchtime today. Refreshingly Supermarionation released it without seven announcements of announcements of announcements in the run up, just slapped it on Bandcamp and told us it was there. Download the single & b-side for free here.
Exit_International will be spending my birthday in Japan, on a mini tour with Ginger Wildheart. No, no, of course I'm not jealous.

I had rather hoped to close this post with details of the next Aye Tunes gig, because I never learn my lesson and manage to stop putting them on, but the details aren't quite sorted yet, so I'll need to tell you later. It's a wee bit of a fight getting it organised at the moment, but it's a fight I'll win soon.

Obligatory Ones To Watch In 2012 Blog Post

I really don't like these lists very much. It is pretty much impossible to say who will have a good year, who will plod along as usual, who will split up or vanish without a trace, or anything else. It's also hard to say what counts as having a good year. Playing to a wee tent at at festival? A "triumphant" sell out gig to about 150 people in Glasgow or Edinburgh? The whole exercise always seems a tad pointless to me, you'd be better off sticking some band names on the wall and throwing darts to select them. That may or may not be the same way that bands land those wee tent at festival gigs anyway.

So, with all my grumbling out of the way, here I go being a hypocrite and making a list of bands to keep an eye on anyway. To remove some of the guess work - and the temptation to randomly pick folk that I just happen to like - I'm msotly concentrating on bands who are confirmed, or at least likely, to have new material out this year. Less "Ones To Watch In 2012" then, more "Ones To Watch In the next couple of months when their LP comes out". Of course, since some of these bands aren't even Scottish that moany first paragraph makes even less sense, but I'm not going back to change it now.

First Timers:


PAWS
I could pretty much have just written a list with PAWS on it and no one else and been satisfied with my choices, really. One of the most entertaining live bands in Scotland, PAWS are heading into the studio at the end of January to do some work on their debut album. I already can barely wait to hear some results.
PAWS - Winners Don't Bleed (Toad Session)

Black Books
It took me forever to get round to featuring Black Books here, so now I'm determined to make up for lost time. My favourite Texans release their debut album on February 14th this year, and if it carries on quality wise from their first EP it should be a darn fine record.
Black Books - Out The Door

Sneakpeek
Staying in America, shifting over to California, Sneakpeak are a band that I heard some time around the middle of 2011, listened to loads, and promptly completely forgot to ever mention on here. Falling into the dreamy lo-fi grungey pop genre that I seem to have become a wee bit obsessed with, Sneakpeek have been teasing tracks off their first album over on Youtube of late, and it all sounds quite fab.
Sneakpeek - Walk All Over Me

Rumour Cubes
Post rock, more or less, done beautifully. Debut album The Narrow State is out at the end of February, and currently sitting high on my "most anticipated" list.
Rumour Cubes - Rain On Titan

French Wives
It feels a bit odd including French Wives here, I've been listening to them for so long they are practically part of the furniture. This year however ought to be a good one for them, with the release of their debut album, and a trip to Austin for SXSW already on the cards. Still no sign of them turning into Simple Minds either, which is a nice added bonus.
French Wives - Covered In Grace


Difficult Second Album:

RM Hubbert
Hubby hardly needs mentioned by me, but he's getting included anyway. There's often an album that comes along early in the year that lays a marker for everything else to follow, and with his second album Thirteen Lost & Found Hubby has staked that claim for this year. For Thirteen Lost & Found Hubby has roped in some friends - Aidan Moffat, Emma Pollock, Luke Sutherland and more - to lend a hand, and the album both picks up where First & Last left off, and wanders into interesting new areas. Thirteen Lost & Found is released by Chemikal Underground on January 30th.
RM Hubbert - Tipsy Tapsy

Miaoux Miaoux
It took a minute to remember that Miaoux Miaoux belonged down here, and not with the first timers, but his debut album Rainbow Bubbles came out aaaaages ago. Miaoux Miaoux is another one of the artists I've been following for ages - at one point almost literally, as I bumped into Julian on a near weekly basis, which I swear was an accident - and from what I heard at his preview gig at the tail end of last year his second album should be something quite special. Chemikal Underground have just snapped up Miaoux Miaoux, and  if we don't see that second album this year I will, I don't know, complain on the internet or something.
Miaoux Miaoux - Hrvatski

The Last Battle
Since debut album Heart of the Land, Soul of the Sea The Last Battle have rejigged their line-up and sound quite a fair bit. Last year's Springwell EP was a much noisier affair, and I'm keen to see what approach they'll take on their second album, which is currently being recorded.
The Last Battle - 365 Days

Oh go on then, let's have some folk that I just like.

Randoms:

Hector Bizerk
I've said before that I often struggle to get my head around Scottish hip-hop, but I don't have any trouble with Hector Bizerk. And MC and a drummer, they keep things pretty simple (my brain won't allow me to complete this sentence without saying "no rabbit in a hat tricks", so there, it's done, let me move on now brain), and do it very, very well. They've got two EPs under their belt already, both worth a listen.
Hector Bizerk - Man Up (Ally McCrae Session)

Pris
Shouty, bitchy, London girls that sound something like what would happen if Kenickie and Shampoo had children together.. By goodness I love them. Unashamedly pop, I keep using Pris to cheer myself up when my inbox gets too full over self indulgent over serious navel gazing nonsense. Long may they continue.
Pris - The Better You Look The More You See

Loch Awe
As I write this Loch Awe are locked up in Hamilton, recording at Chem19 studios. Their first EP (or is it a mini album? I can never tell) back in 2010 was pretty ace. Since the release of that the band have changed the way they sound a fair bit, meaning we can't get away with describing them as dead folky any more.
Loch Awe - I Will Drift into 10,000 Streams (demo)

The Spook School
As with Loch Awe, The Spook School were a band I wanted to see live so much that I practically begged them to come and do a gig for me so I could watch them. Despite having very little recorded yet they've made a pretty decent impression with more than just me, shown by them ramraiding the readers' poll at the end of last year. As a band they are still rough around the edges, which - at least for now - just adds to their charm for me. Fingers crossed we hear much more of them this year, and other people than me make them come and play in Glasgow.
The Spook School - Are You Who You Think You Are?

This is a picture of Mýa, apparently she's going to kill us all this year, or something.