Album Review: The Gothenburg Address

It seems every time I sat down to do this review something or other has cropped up to stop me finishing it. As a result it's been written in stages, so apologies in advance if that makes it a terrible read. Point out any huge flaws and I'll fix them.

The Gothenburg Address are a four piece from Edinburgh, comprising of Chris Bathgate (guitar), Rob Doig (bass) Luke Joyce (guitar) and David Jeans (drums). If any of those names are name to you, give yourself a point, in the past some of the members have played in other bands, including The Complete Stone Roses, Arab Strap and The Zephyrs. The band themselves first came to my attention back in May around the time of their release of A Lesser Coming Home as a single, mostly thanks to Ed over at 17 Seconds.

If you were paying attention a moment ago you'll have noticed that I didn't mention a vocalist. That's because there isn't one. That in itself maked The Gothenburg Address a bit of a hard sell for me right away. I enjoy an instrumental band, but sometimes it feels like you can't move for them. If a band has a charasmatic singer as a front man, if the songs aren't up to scratch and the band isn't on form, they can hide behind that front man. With an instrumental band there's no hiding place, and believe me, during some of those "can't move for them" bands that I've seen and heard, I've really wanted to hide. However, happily, any fears I initially had were blown out the water upon hearing that first single and from then on I've been keeping an eye and ear on The Gothenburg Address.

Which brings us along to this, their debut album. I'll almost never go out my way to ask a band to send me something - it's a confidence thing, I'm always convinced they'll say no - but when their Facebook page said they were inviting promo requests I couldn't hold myself back, and the album dropped through my door last week and has been getting played regularly since.

The album kick off with the grand sounding Leaving The Last Behind, which is lent further gravitas, as if it needed any, by Alan Barr, who pops up to lend cello. From there on, frankly, the album doesn't put a foot wrong. There's no need for a hiding place when your band sounds this tight and your songs are this well crafted.
There's no sense of the songs being samey, another trap some instrumental bands can fall into, everything sounds different but distinctive.

You can invite comparisons to the likes of Mogwai, even Aereogramme in places, but although those bands are handy reference points, The Gothenburg Address don't really sound anything like them, they sound like The Gothenburg Address, which is just another reason why I'm so in love with this album.

Quite honestly, there's not a single bad thing I can say about this album. It's already pushed its way through the queue of other albums I've loved this year to announce itself as a likely candidate for one of the year's finest. With that in mind it is hard to pick highlights, but just shading it are the tracks that bookend the album, opener Leaving The Last Behind and finale I Am Made Of Hearts + Fire, along with Its Not A Fjord But A Lake just ever so slightly shade it as my favourite tracks.

The album doesn't just live up to the early promise of May's single release, it exceeds it. On the arbitrary, meaningless star scoring system, it gets a solid Five Stars out of five*.

You can find The Gothenburg Address at the following places - Website - MySpace - Twitter

The band have put together a trailer for the album, you can watch that below.


Also, for a bit more of a taster of the band, you can jump over to their website and download their Shimmer In The City EP, made up of a live recording of the band performing at Nice n Sleazys in Glasgow, for the bargain price of nothing.

*I was asked about the scoring system the other day, so I'll go ahead an explain. I don't put an awful lot of faith in stars/numbers to sum up an album and think it can lead to laziness in just looking to see how an album rated. I'm all about catering to everyone though, so I'll include an out of five stars system on a review to keep those that like them happy, I'll just point out that in the grand scheme of things they don't really matter.

Malcolm Middleton's Long Dark Night(s)

Malcolm Middleton is doing a tour in December, look at the poster for dates.

Personally I'd have ranked him as my number one arch-miserablist.

17 Seconds Special

If you wanted to be mean to me (and why would you want to do that? I'm quite nice really) you could point out that Aye Tunes always has a bit of a Glasgowcentric, West Coast bias. It's true, but it's not really my fault. I live hear, so I know more about what is going on at this side of Scotland than I do in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh or wherever. Anyway, just for you hypothetical mean people, let's swing the spotlight outside of Glasgow.

17 Seconds Records is, as the name might suggest, a record company. Run by Ed, who is also the brains behind the long running 17 Seconds blog, they are based over in Edinburgh. Already there's a fine roster of artists signed up to the 17 Seconds Records roster, a couple of whom I'll be talking about a bit today.

Aberfeldy were one of the first acts signed to 17 Seconds, and now one fifth of them, Chris Bradley, is signed up solo too. Chris already has one solo album to his name, Voices, which 17 Seconds will be re releasing next year. Before that though comes a single 'Bored Little Rosie'/'The Man I Love' out on October 5th and a second album, tentatively titled Go On, My Son to follow in November.

Here's a little taster from the new album.
Chris Bradley - Golden Girl
Chris Bradley MySpace

Another early signing to the label is Tony T, better known as X Lion Tamer. Described by himself as "Sounds like the ending credits of low budget 80s teen movies – played on your mate’s Amiga", X Lion Tamer is a world away from the other music on 17 Seconds Records, and from most artists generally featured by Aye Tunes for that matter. There's two download singles available by X Lion Tamer, both of which have now been combined and made available on CD as Neon Hearts EP.
The following song Life Support Machine is available on the Neon Hearts CD and as the second track on the download single.

X Lion Tamer - Life Support Machine
X Lion Tamer MySpace

You can keep up with 17 Seconds, the blog and the label at these places - Blog - MySpace - Website

17 Second Records are available to download at the usual places, including iTunes and eMusic

Upcoming live dates include:
2 Oct 2009 X-Lion Tamer at Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh
8 Oct 2009 Chris Bradley supporting Dr. Robert at Water Rats, King’s Cross, London
9 Oct 2009 X-Lion Tamer at Devil Disco at The Bongo Club, Edinburgh
17 Oct 2009 Escape Act at Eamonn Dorans, Dublin
23 Oct 2009 Aberfeldy at Cupar Corn Exchange, Cupar
30 Oct 2009 17 Seconds night at the 13th Note,with the Dirty Cuts, Chris Bradley and X-Lion Tamer, Glasgow
27 Nov 2009 The Dirty Cuts @ Pin Up Club at The Flying Duck, Glasgow

The Morgue Party Candidate

Still working on all the catching up and reviewing I'm meant to be doing, but I've been meaning to do something on The Morgue Party Candidate, so let's get to that today shall we?

The Morgue Party Candidate are a three piece, two thirds from Cumbernauld, one third from Glasgow, who take their name from a Grand Theft Auto mission.
They've just stuck out their first EP, which contains three cracking songs. My favourite of the three, and the one that brought the band to my attention in the first place by it's inclusion on Glasgow Podcart a wee bit back - yeah Glasgow Podcart again - is the gorgeous Animal Dance Party. You can download it below. The very title puts all sorts of weird and freaky images in my head, which is always a good thing. Following the band on Twitter also puts some freaky pictures in your mind, which is maybe not such a good thing...

I can't say an awful lot about the band, I've not caught them live yet, something I aim to do soon and only have 4 songs to go on, but I've played the shit out of those songs now and find they've worked their way into my head, which seems as good a reason as any to swing the low powered, dim, barely noticable Aye Tunes spotlight on them. Plus now I can boast that I was in there early when everyone else starts loving The Morgue Party Candidate.

Download Animal Dance Party

If you swing over to the band's MySpace you can listen to all of their new EP, Good Morning, Good Night. If you make friends with them they might even send you a link to download the whole thing for free too, if you ask nice.

Find the band online at: MySpace - Twitter - ReverbNation - Facebook

The Morgue Party Candidate play at Stereo in Glasgow on October 8th, tickets are a lowly four quid, get down there if you can.

Catching Up

Alright then, got a bit of time back on my own computer for a week or so (oh hard drive full of music how I missed you, let's never be parted again!), so I'll attempt to get caught up on the backlog of stuff I've got to get through over the next few days.

Won't get much done tomorrow (Thursday) though, I'm away to see The Darian Venture & Atlas Skye at The Mill. Give me a wave if you are going along.

Speaking of gigs, it was interesting to discover that copying Frightened Rabbit tour dates out of the Sunday Mail magazine pushed me to around 4 times my normal visitor numbers. I almost think no one cares about what I write :P

If you've sent me a press release or anything in the last few days, sorry I've not gotten to it yet, I'll see what I can do, ideally before it's too late.

This pile of records I want to listen to and attempt to review take priority though.

Frightened Rabbit Scottish Tour Dates Announced

Tickets go onsale Monday 21st September at 10am.

27th Nov. BA Club, Fort William
With The Phantom Band and The Moth And The Mirror

28th Nov. Tolbooth, Stirling
With The Phantom Band and Errors

29th Nov. Ironworks, Inverness
With The Phantom Band

1st Dec. Moshulu, Aberdeen

2nd Dec. Fat Sams, Dundee
With The Phantom Band

22nd Dec. ABC, Glasgow
With The Moth And The Mirror

Pin Up Nights Circus

Press release first, quick comments from me at the end.

THE PIN UP NIGHTS CIRCUS FRIDAY 25TH SEPTEMBER, 9PM - 3AM A SAWDUSTED AND SPOTLIT FLYING DUCK, 142 RENFIELD STREET, GLASGOW
GUEST DJ: MIKE FIELDING, AKA NABOO OF THE MIGHTY BOOSH RINGMASTER: PAUL PUPPET (OF LEGENDARY GLASGOW BAND SCUNNER, AND THE MAN BEHIND THE RIO CAFE'S "SPANGLED CABARET")
A SMORGASBORD OF CIRCUS PERFORMERS INCLUDING MAGICIANS, FIRE EATERS, JUGGLERS, STRONG-MEN AND MUCH MUCH MORE - BUT NO CLOWNS - BECAUSE THEY'RE TERRIFYING!!
THE PIN UPS DJS PLAYING THEIR INIMITABLE MIX OF NEW AND CLASSIC INDIE, PUNK, SOUL
ELECTROPOP
PERFORMING LIVE: POOCH, SONNY MARVELLO, MITCHELL MUSEUM AND "QUICK,
RUN"
STALLS RUN BY MEMBERS OF THE GLASGOW CRAFT MAFIA
AND FUNFAIR GAMES (DUCKS! COCONUTS!) A REAL LIVE GORILLA…
A SPLENDID TIME IS GUARANTEED FOR ALL!
TICKETS ARE £6 ON THE DOOR OR £5 IN ADVANCE FROM THE STORE AT WWW.PINUP-NIGHTS.CO.UK

Ladieeeeees and Gentlemen. Roll Up! Roll Up! The Circus is in town!
Yes you lucky scallywags, its time to roll yourself up indeed and make haste to The Big Top!
For one night only, Pin Up Nights is transforming into a good old fashioned circus!
Marvel! - At the line up of terrific live bands – Pooch, Sonny Marvello, Mitchell Museum and “Quick, Run”!
Delight! - In seeing The Flying Duck transformed into an actual circus Big Top!
Wonder! - At the antics of Ringmaster Paul Puppet, and the feats performed before your very eyes by the Pin Ups Circus performers!
Dance! - Till 3am to the usual fantastic mix of tunes you'd expect from Glasgow’s best and longest running indie night!
Gape! - At celebrity guest DJ Naboo from The Mighty Boosh!
Goggle! – At the stalls run by members of the Glasgow Craft Mafia (including Pistol Whip Vintage, We Are The Robots and more) and our Funfair games!
And Gaze! – Longingly! - At dishy Pin Ups DJ James “Butcher” Cassidy!
Mindboggling stuff I'm sure you'll agree!
That’s not all too as we are planning a few more surprises if we can pull it
off, including even a dramatic GORILLA!! If you fancy dressing up and entering
the circus spirit then knock yourself out (not literally I mean, just feel free
to dress up!)
Those of you who are regulars will know we try our best to create terrific events at Pin Up Nights and always give value for money. This year amongst others we've had Florence and The Machine and Friendly Fires DJing in January, a star-studded Ladies Night 2 (Camera Obscura! Victoria Bergsman! Queens of Noize!) and even turned The Flying Duck into a Festival Site in June (complete with Wham Tent!) all at the cost of £5 entry. Despite the jam-packed bill above and obvious costs involved we've kept the price stupidly low. How stupidly low we'll probably only realise on Saturday afternoon when it becomes clear we’ve dropped a zero somewhere in our cost calculations (none of us were brilliant at maths...).
Still, that’s for us to worry about and despite the barrel-load of action we've arranged, we're only charging £5 for advance tickets and £6 on the door.
If you've been to any club night other than Pin Ups recently and paid for entry, hopefully you'll agree this is incredible value!
You can get your advance tickets from the store section of http://www.pinup-nights.co.uk or in-store/online from Tickets Scotland. (Advance sales would be appreciated as we have 101 things to pay for..)
All the pics from August are on the website as well so have a peek and spot yourself
having a boogie. We had originally planned for the Circus to be in August but
the bill was going to be better if we did September so we changed it close to
last minute. This meant that August’s Pin Ups was a tad under-advertised but you
lovely people still turned up in droves so thanks a million.
That’s all for now folks, don't forget to Roll Up Roll Up on 25th!
The Pin Ups chaps.xx
ps we were originally going to write this invite in the style of a mocking run-down of the other events that are happening on Friday 25th September (there’s quite a lot of tacky Freshers Week things), but we decided that there was so much Circus chat
to get though that we didn’t have room and it would get too confusing. A shame
as I already had ideas noted down such as“Experiment with your sexuality at Karbon as you party hard with Duncan from Blue”, "Fear for 87 year old DJ Phil's life as he attempts his Mick Jagger dance at Strathclyde Union's TFI Friday", etc etc

Leaving aside my "I'm 30, I'm too old for clubs" thinking, the bands on offer alone make this worth a look for me. You'll know by know how I feel about Mitchell Museum of course (but in case you don't, I love them). I'm not very familiar with the others, but have heard nothing but good things about Pooch for one.
All in all, if you are at a loose end in Glasgow next Friday, you could do much worse.

Updates Askew

Just a wee heads up, there might not be an awful lot of updates around ere for the next week or so. My computer access is limited at the moment (and I can't get near my hard drive full of music *sob*) so I won't have a chance to do a lot.

No great shock that there's ages between posts I know, but this time I have a good excuse.

Go check out all my friends in the link section in the meantime and get yourself to the next available Bronto Skylift gig. Saw Bronto again the other night in the 13th Note (thanks Podcart!) and the were headfuckingly awesome.

As always, if there's anything I should be covering here when I get a chance send over an email, I can still get into that via my mobile.

Back soon!

EP Review: Bronto Skylift - The Bearded Fish and the Jackalope

I've been hearing about Bronto Skylift for a wee while now, but prior to Friday's instore gig at Avalnce in Glasgow had never managed to catch them play live. I was more than a little surprised to learn there's only two of them. Had I actually paid attention I'd have known this already of course, but I didn't. The make a hell of a lot of noise for a band comprising a singing guitar player and a drummer. A hell of a lot of noise. An instore gig isn't an ideal place to judge a band, but on Friday's evidence I'm totally sold on Bronto Skylift.

It isn't that gig that I'm reviewing here though, I'm talking about the reason for it, the release of The Bearded Fish and the Jackalope EP. Short version of the review - 4 tracks, five quid, worth every penny. Also has really pretty art.

Still here for the longer version of the review? Fantastic! Thanks for sticking around.

After starting off gently for all of around 22 seconds everything kicks off on Lioness, the first track. As soon as the guitar rips in at the 0.22 mark it's best just to hold on and go with it, because that guitar part has no intentions of letting go. There's some fantastic drumming going on there too.
If Lioness was rough, second track Tiger is like being dragged up an alley and beaten, but secretly loving every second of it. Loud, raucous and brilliant.
Hekla, the third track on offer, keeps up the noise levels at first, but changes things up a bit. As the longest song on the EP it takes the chance to offer some breathing space from unrelenting Bront Force Trauma by pulling out the old loud bit, quieter bit, LOUD BIT trick. When done well, I always love that. It's done well here.
Cobblepot is the only song on the EP I had any familiarity with previously, and it is my favourite of the four tracks. Everything just clicks. That boot up the arse riff, the almost Jazz drumming and the pure bloody energy. It very nearly made me dance in my chair when listening to it again for this review.

The first 3 tracks are good, Cobblepot is really good.

What does it is score on the arbitrary and meaningless star system, I hear you fail to ask? Well, it's would only be a four out of five stars release, the reason being that it doesn't quite live up to the full fury of the band firing on all cylinders in a live setting. It comes really bloody close though. However, Cobblepot is good enough to nudge the EP over that extra hypothetical and meaningless star. Five Stars it is then.

No songs from the EP, go buy it. You can have Cobblepot, which appears on the EP, recorded live at The Mill though.
Bronto Skylift - Cobblepot (live)

You can get hold of the EP here, at gigs and in the likes of Avalanche. It comes with a free sticker and everything. Try to pick up Bronto's first single too, it's also fantastic.
Do yourself a favour though, see this band live.

Head over to MySpace to sample songs, get gig dates and all the usual MySpacey type stuff.

Oh, and yet again, massive thanks go to Glasgow Podcart for introducing me to the band in the first place. If you aren't checking out the Podcart yet you are really missing out. One day I'll get round to a full post kissing Ally Sean and Halina's collective arses, but for now I'll stick with thanking them, again, and encouraging everyone with ears to listen to them.

New This Week

Looks like I was wise to keep most of this month's eMusic credits held back till this week, as there's a ton of new stuff out to use them on.

Here's what I'm picking up, reviews might follow later in the week.

The Whisky Works EP Deficit Attention Program
Strike The Colours Single Breathing Exercise
Cuddly Shark Single The Sheriff of Aspen Bay
Randan Discotheque single Daily Record May 18th 1993 see the review for details on where to get this.
God Help The Girl EP Stills
Cybraphon EP Automaton Number One available here.

The Wildhearts aren't Scottish at all, but no have a new album Chutzpah! out today. Ginger is one of my favourite songwriters in the World, so they get love from me despite the lack of country based qualifications.

Bronto Skylift don't technically release their new EP until next Monday, but you can order it online here now. Get yourself along to Avalance in Glasgow on Friday afternoon for an instore performance and buy the EP there too.

Did I miss anything good, or your band? Tell me!

Single Review: Randan Discotheque - Daily Record May 18th 1993

Time for a random single review! A Randan single review at that. See what I did there? This is an unusual one for me, as I'm actually reviewing something from listening to it on MySpace, rather than having a copy of my own. You don't care, I know, but it seemed worth pointing out.

Yet another song that came to my attention through Glasgow Podcart, part of their plan to use all my eMusic credits and make me spend all my money on music I think. That's alright though, I'm always happy to buy stuff that's good.

Daily Record May 18th 1993 is the new single from Randan Discotheque, and it's a fun little thing. Probably the easiest thing I've ever had to describe too, as it essentially headlines and mentions of stuff that appeared in - you guessed it - the May 18th 1993 Daily Record newspaper, half spoken, half sung over a drum machine, keyboard and guitar backdrop.
There's nothing really complicated going on here and I dare say it'll fall into a love it/hate it category, but me, I love it. As further encouragement I'll put forward the tale of my friend. he doesn't know much about music, anything beyond The Doors and The Kinks and he's a bit lost, but he suffers through me playing new stuff at him when we are round his house for beers - I enjoy good music, he drinks himself silly, it's a plan that keeps us both happy. On Saturday I put on the Randan track and for the first time in ages he paid attention, enquired what it was and declared, slightly drunk, "I love this!". Maybe saying that my pal who doesn't like music likes this song isn't really such a good recommendation, but in my head it is a good thing. By the way, on May 18th 1993 I was closing in on the end of my second year at secondary school. I feel old again now.

B-side Time To Waste sounds entirely different, kicking off with an alarm clock, pounding bass then jagged guitars. It's a completely different beast to the A-Side, Magazine to Daily Record's Black Grape, but every bit as good. It also shows that dismissing Randan Discotheque as a novelty act on the basis of the A-Side would be a silly move indeed, they've got range.

Random fairly meaningless star system score - it's a full five out of five!

The single is out on Monday, August 31. You should be able to find it in Avalance and Mono, and buy it online too. (Update, you can get your hands on a copy of the 7" here.)

There's also a launch gig for the single tomorrow night (August 28th) in the Wee Red Bar in Edinburgh. Get yourself along to that if you are over that side of the country.

Not posting the song, for obvious reasons. You can head over to MySpace and listen to it there.
Here's a wee video of the song played live though. Warning: shirtless man.


Randan Discotheque MySpace - Facebook - Twitter
Also, if you skip over to Last.fm they've got two albums you can download for the bargain price of free.

The Cinematics Return

Sometimes I complain that no one ever sends me stuff, other times people do send me stuff and it lurks in my inbox for a week before I get round to doing anything with it. This one falls into the latter category, so time to get to it now.

The Cinematics, a Glasgow based, Dingwall spawned four piece, put out their debut album A Strange Education a couple of years ago before heading off on a stream of tours as support acts. Now they are getting set to release their second album Love and Terror at the end of September.

The new album is preceeded by a single, available now through the usual download sites, the title track Love and Terror, which I've been asked to share with you.

It's a pretty decent song.

If you want to read the whole PR blurb you can do so here.

Download Love and Terror

The Cinematics Myspace

The SPL but with bands

So, the new season of the Scottish Premier League kicks off tomorrow. That seems like something I can make into a post.

Plan A was to find a band that supported each team. That plan went right out the window as soon as I realised that I have no idea what bands support anyone but three or four clubs, so instead you are getting a band from the relevant town or city, or as close as I can get at least.

I still ended up struggling a bit, if you support any of the teams in the SPL and have a better suggestion let me know.

Aberdeen: Sorry Dons, right now the best I can offer you is Lily Allen, and I doubt her credentials.

Celtic: Loads to choose from for this one and one of the few Scottish clubs that seem to have musicians happy to admit to supporting. I won't risk pissing off a chunk of my visitors by suggesting that this is because Celtic are brilliant. Oops...
Anyway, our band of choice for Celtic are Mogwai, since they seem to especially enjoy annoying Rangers supporters on their website. In the interest of fairness - see the Rangers entry - we've got some rubbish fans too, Martine McCutcheon for example.

Dundee United: About half of Deacon Blue are Dundee United fans, so that's who you are stuck with.

Falkirk: You've got Arab Strap in the "I don't know who supports you, here's a band from the town" draw.

Hamilton Academical: Right about now I'm thinking this was a terrible idea. You have been randomly selected Teenage Fanclub since Bellshill is near Hamilton, even though at least some of them are Celts.

Hearts: You've got Cicero, you lucky people.

Hibernian: Easy, The Proclaimers.

Kilmarnock: Oooh not a clue. The closest I can get you is Biffy Clyro, since they are Ayrshire

Motherwell: The Delgados. Yay, an easy one. The Delgados even had Dougie Arnott on the cover of their The Weaker Argument Defeats The Stronger single.

Rangers: Sorry Rangers supporters, most of the folk I can think of that support the Gers are rubbish. Wet Wet Wet, Leon Jackson, some of Travis, David Sneddon, Lulu, Amy McDonald... You can have AC/DC.

St. Johnstone: Stuart Cosgrove used to write for the NME, that's as good as I can think of, sorry!

St. Mirren: Struggling again. Well, there's Paulo Nutini, who supports Celtic. Dougie Vipond? I'll just put a band from Paisley for this one I reckon, so St Mirren fans, you get Marvel Heights.

Well, that was a lot less successful than I'd hoped, yet I'm still posting it. Now lets see how many people yell at me (I suspect none, since that would involve people reading me...)

Trapped in Kansas Gig Update

As I mentioned the other day, the Twisted Wheel in Glasgow has shut down, meaning any upcoming gigs in there are having to be rescheduled. As promised, here's another update.

Trapped in Kansas who were meant to be playing on August 22nd with The Whisky Works and Shapes have moved their gig to Blackfriars.

Yet ANOTHER Free Song

I'll stop just posting stuff people have stuck on the internet for free and get back to something more intresting at some point I'm sure, but in the meantime if people keeping letting me know about free downloads, I'll keep spreading the word.

This time round it's Aidan Moffat & the Best-Ofs who treat us to a freebie. This is a live version of Lover's Song from the How To Get To Heaven From Scotland album, recorded earlier this year at Stereo in Glasgow. You can download it here.

In other Aidan news Lullaby For Unborn Child from the album has been overhauled and renamed Knock On The Wall Of Your Womb for an upcoming single release, the B-side of which will feature The Lavender Blue Dress, a children's story written by and narrated by Aidan.

Here's the video:

The Gothenburg Address update

If you are planning on going to see The Gothenburg Address, Airship and I See Shapes at the Twisted Wheel in Glasgow on Friday then update your plans a wee bit. The show has been moved to Capitol, as the Twisted Wheel has seemingly closed down.

There's a few other Twisted Wheel gigs coming up that need to find a new home, I'll try and keep you posted on those.

More Second Hand Songs

The Second Hand Marching Band are spoiling us these days. After putting their debut EP up on their website for free download last week, today they've put up the BBC session they did for Vic Galloway. You can grab it at their website over here. They covered One Armed Scissor by At The Drive-In, go get it!

Saturday marked my first time seeing the band incidentally. They were very good. Berrjacket was brilliant. That's as close as you'll get to a live review from me though, I'm even worse at reviewing gigs than I am at records.

The Second Hand Marching Band play the 13th Note in Glasgow on Saturday.

Saturday Newsround

Beerjacket plays King Tut's tonight, with support from The Second Hand Marching Band and The Seventeenth Century. Due to a fecking useless friend I've got some spare tickets, holler if you need one, otherwise say hello if you go to the gig.

The new Glasgow PodcART podcast is available, this week entitled "Pumped In Venice". Stream it here, get it through iTunes or Right Click & Save As.

Kochka have had to cancel their single launch at the Classic Grand tonight due to ill health. Get well soon!

Speaking of King Tut's, There Will Be Fireworks are playing there on the 20th of August. That reminds me, I never did finish that album review.

More Free Music - The Second Hand Marching Band

The Second Hand Marching Band are a band from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling, Ayr, Kincardine, Cumbernauld, Neilston, Canada, Airdrie and elsewhere. They have about a million members.

Their first EP - A Dance To Half Death - was released as a limited edition of 150. It has now sold out, so they've made it available through their website, the terribly kind people.

Go here to download the EP and visit them at MySpace for more information.

The Second Hand Marching Band are one of the support acts for the Aye Tunes attending Berrjacket gig on Saturday at King Tut's. As usual if you are going along you'll win the cheapest beverage of your choice if you can find me and say hello. Or in other words, say hi and I'll buy you a pint.

Little Rock Records give away a ton of music

Everyone likes free music, right?
If you are everyone you might be interested in this then.
Glasgow based label Little Rock Records are celebrating their second birthday birthday by giving away a ton of music.

In a giveaway aptly titled TOO MUCH MUSIC they've put up 14 free singles for download. Each single comes with two tracks and artwork from some of the best up and coming artists in the Scottish alternative elecronica scene. It's pretty eclectic, covering disco, ambient, breakcore, jazz, techno, wonky hip-hop and more.

Frankly, that's a scene that is way out of my area of expertise, so I won't even attempt to advise what to download from what's available. At the lost cost price of FREE I'll be diving in and checking out what's on offer though!

You can get more details and the download links over at the label's MySpace and they should be going up on Last.fm as well.

Here's the PR blurb about Little Rock Records, just for good measure

Inspired by Leipzig's Jahtari netlabel, Little Rock Records was officially launched on 07/07/07 with 7 digital 7 inch releases, with an aim to represent the best in Glasgow (and Scotland's) alternative electronica scene. Since then the label has released music by Tayside Mental Health, Eyes, The Niallist, Copyleft and The Evil Eye - not to mention putting out the "quasi-notorious" (Plan B), "dance-music-you-can't-dance-to" compilation/confrontation that is NORAVE.

The label now hosts a weekly radio show on Radio Magnetic with guest slots form the likes of local heroes Jackmaster, Killer Kitsch, Voltergeist,. Frogpocket, Animal Farm and more. There's also occasional Little Rock parties in the Glasgow area, including the annual Halloween Rock'n'Shock bash, this year celebrating its sixth birthday with very special guests The Phantom Band.

Mitchell Museum - Gig Non-Review

In no way, shape or form is this a review of Mitchell Museum's King Tut's gig. Instead, it's a one iner summing up how much fun I had at it.

How good were Mitchell Museum? So good I missed my last train home and had to get the night bus to Paisley, that's how good.

Expect me to continue to cheerlead for the band in future.

Mitchell Museum - New Single & Launch Gig

Mitchell Museum are preparing to release another single, in a somewhat unusual format.
Here's the press release:

Following on from the success of Mitchell Museums debut single “Warning Bells” released on Vinyl and CD earlier this year, the second single features “Tiger Heartbeat” (a track from the forthcoming debut album), with a B-Side specially recorded for tape “In the Bloodwind.”

Released on the musical arm of essential boutique clothing label Electra French, the cassette is available in four colours. For those left confused and looking for the USB port, no need to worry, as each case contains a code to download the tracks as mp3 direct from the Mitchell Museum website.

The initial limited edition run of 100 cassettes will be individually numbered by hand.

Mitchell Museum will launch the single on Sat 1^st Aug at King Tuts Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow.

It's been about a million years since I bought a cassette single, I think.
I should, so long as I have money, be popping along to the launch gig, so if you are going too give me a shour and say hello.

Here's the video for the Tiger Heartbeat:



You can get more info on Mitchell Museum by visiting their website, or MySpace.

Come back later in the week for a typically half-arsed Aye Tunes review of the single too, why don't you?

Night Noise Team - Free Song

Leith's Night Noise Team, fresh from their appearance on the Limbo Live compilation, are giving away a free song for download.

It's called An Innocent Abroad and you can get it here.

For more info on the band head on over to their MySpace.

Single Review - Peter Parker: Swallow The Rockets

Writing a review for the There Will Be Fireworks album is kicking my arse, so here's something else good in the meantime.

Imagine if you will that Elastica came from Glasgow and maybe weren't so obsessed with their Wire and Stranglers records. Now imagine that they've kicked out that annoying singer and hired Clare Grogan instead. The results would be a bit like Peter Parker.

To me, this thought is a wonderful thing. Suitably enough Swallow The Rockets, the debut single by Glasgow quartet Peter Parker - led by Miss the Occupier frontwoman Roz Davies - is also a wonderful thing.

The A-side, Swallow The Rockets, grabs you immediatly with a pounding baseline and scummy guitar riff. It then holds you by the head and doesn't let go for the next 3 minutes. Spikey, snarly and just plain fab.
B-side Temper Temper doesn't do anything the A-side doesn't, it just does in different ways, but we liked the A-side, so that's just fine. Less snarly than Swallow The Rockets, but every bit as catchy and fun.

All in all, great pop music, and a fantastic debut single, it gets Five Stars on the random imaginary star rating system.

The single is out now, you can download it from eMusic
and iTunes. If you want a physical copy the 7" is limited to 500, so you should probably move quite quick. Avalance seems like your best bet at getting a copy.

Peter Parker MySpace

And a video of the A-side:

There Will Be Fireworks

Full album review coming around the weekend, when I get to it.

In the meantime, I'm not long home from the launch gig. It was excellent. Really, really excellent.

If you wnt to buy the album you should be able to find details on the MySpace.
If you want a sample, visit Under The Radar, which had a track by track run through with singer Nicholas earlier today.

I've yet to listen to the album, but on the evidence of that gig, there's a good chance it kicks the arse of most things released so far this year.

And this year has been good for Scots...

Someone Died.

No, not the one that's all over the news (although yeah, he died too). There'll be quite enough written about MJ, I don't feel any need to add anything.

No, the death that hit me this week was that of one Steven Wells.

For those that aren't particularly familiar with me, I, like probably most British folk with an interest in any music that's even slightly "alternative", spent years reading the NME. Generally, I hated the fucking rag. Sometimes though a piece would force your attention and more often than not it was written by Swells.

Whether it was giving racists and homophobes in music and in the World a well deserved kicking, on ripping apart bands you liked - NIN and Belle & Sebastian spring to mind right away - his articles were pretty much always worth reading. Frequently you'd disagree with what he wrote, sometimes I'd be furious after reading a Wells piece, but it was always interesting, regularly laugh out loud funny and of course filled with swear words.

Two things to read. Steven Wells's last column for Philadelphia Weekly and The Guardian's tribute.

And one song. Something I certainly never expected to post anywhere, never mind on a blog generally dedicated to Scottish music...
Daphne & Celeste - Ooh Stick You

Upon learning of the cancer that would kill him Steven Wells wrote, as only he could "Anyhoo. I put the phone down and let out a huge, self-pitying “Why me?” The answer, of course, is the same as the answer to Travis’ shit-awful 1999 international breakthrough hit, “Why Does It Always Rain on Me?” Because you’re a fucking dick. Now shut the fuck up and grow a pair."
That says it all really, don't you think?

De Rosa Split

There were murmurs all weekend, but now it's official.

De Rosa announced on their Twitter page that they have indeed split up, giving the following statement : "To all who listened. De Rosa has come to an end. If you liked our music or came to see us play we'd like to thank you all. Goodbye, De Rosa."

Chemikal Underground added the following through their mailing list: "We hate these announcements but they have to be made nevertheless: De Rosa have decided to call it a day after several years, a legion of amazing live shows and two truly exceptional albums.

We count 'Mend' and 'Prevention' among some of the very best albums Chemikal Underground has ever released and it's genuinely sad to know there won't be a third. De Rosa were a uniquely gifted bunch of songwriters and musicians with songs that provided an object lesson in how to meld complex structures around irresistible melodies. Bands of De Rosa's quality are few and far between and they will be sorely missed.

We're very proud that their albums form part of our catalogue and wish them every conceivable success in all their future ventures (musical and otherwise)."

Best of luck to all involved for whatever they do in the future.

Here's a parting sample of their music - Swell and Under the Stairs from this year's fantastic second album, Prevention.

It's my birthday...

If you are reading this I've been in the pub instead of writng a proper post.
If that happens, I'll try and change it later when I sober up/stop drinking.

Go say happy birthday to JC over at The Vinyl Villain too.

EP Review: Cancel The Astronauts - I Am the President of Your Fanclub

Further proof, if any was needed, that I'm a lazy forgetful git. This has been sitting waiting for me to review it for ages and the post has been half written, saved in drafts since mid May, with me only now getting round to finishing and posting it. Apologies to the band who were nice enough to send me a copy and ask for the review in the first place for being crap and slow.

Anyway, leaving my unreliability aside, who are Cancel The Astronauts and what am I reviewing? Well, they are a band and I'm reviewing their (no longer very) recently released debut EP - I Am the President of Your Fanclub (And Last Night I Followed You Home).

The band are a five piece indie-pop outfit, hailing from Edinburgh. If you picked up the recent Limbo Live compilation CD you'll have heard them, their song Slow Dance At The Disco was included on it. It isn't on the EP though. Aside from the title track, astonishingly long title and all, there's four other songs.

The title track is the strongest here, though there's nothing bad about the other tracks. That being said, there's nothing exceptional about them either. That sounds harsher than it's meant to, but it's the best way I can think of to descrive the EP. It's got a solid, tight band, some good songwriting and lyrics and generally well crafted indie-pop tunes, but there's nothing that really smacks you around the head and demands your attention.

A decent first effort though and if the band keep at it they could yet find that killer hook or fantastic set of lyrics that forces you to notice them. Catchy though.

The EP is out now, you can buy a CD from the band at one of the links below, or download it from eMusic
.

Website
MySpace

Try the title track - I Am the President of Your Fanclub (And Last Night I Followed You Home)

Green Man Festival - Green Poll

I'm aware that The Green Man Festival is in Wales, not Scotland, but hey, I was asked to give Green Vote a plug, and there's Scots playing at the festival, so...

Calling all bands and artists – the Green Man needs YOU!

Fancy being the first band to play at Green Man 2009, standing on the main stage on Friday August 21st as the sun beats down over the Black Mountains and opening the festival with one of YOUR songs in front of thousands of people?

How about sharing the bill Animal Collective, Jarvis Cocker, Wilco, Bon Iver and Grizzly Bear, getting airplay on Green Man YouTube for a year, having an opportunity of being included in the festival promotion and press such as giving interviews to Radio 1 and the BBC, or being featured in the esteemed publications and websites such as Mojo, Guardian, NME and Drowned in Sound as well as the many others that follow Green Man?

What if we threw in 6 pairs of free Green Man tickets for your family and friends to witness your big moment live on stage, just for good measure?

Sounds good, right?

Well forget X Factor and all those rubbish TV talent shows - Green Poll 2009 is here and the search is on to find the best new band or act to get the Green Man party started!

How can I enter?

It’s easy! We are asking signed or unsigned acts to register on our special Green Poll microsite and upload a YouTube or MySpace video of your band performing a song. Anyone can enter as long as they do so before June 29 – better get your skates on!

What happens next?

The music-loving Green Man public will choose their favourite bands in two nail-biting rounds of voting. The top 6 acts then go through to a live Battle of the Bands final at The Camden Monarch, in London, on July 23rd where a panel of top music industry boffins will pick one lucky winner to open Green Man 2009!

What’s the catch?

There’s no catch my friends, it’s as easy as one, two, three. To recap:

Round 1 - Voting closes at midnight on June 28 and the top 20 bands with the most votes go through to…

Round 2 - Voting closes at midnight on July 12 and the top 6 bands with the most votes go through to…

Grand Final - A live Battle Of The Bands contest in London on July 23rd to find one lucky winner to open Green Man 2009 judged by a panel of music industry boffins

How can I vote?

The winning band / artist will open the Festival on the main stage on Friday 21st August.

What if I want to cheat?

Cheats never beat so don’t you even bother! Every single vote really counts and the Green poll site will be constantly monitored for irregular or suspicious voting patterns - any underhand activities will lead to automatic disqualification. What do you think this is, the Eurovision Song Contest?

Is there a limit on how often I can vote?

Each user is limited to one vote per day.

Good luck – may the spirit of the Green Man be with you!

Vote Here

There's a choice of many fine bands to vote for. Me? I voted for Mitchell Museum.

Album Review: Beerjacket - Animosity

Beerjacket, aka mild-mannered teacher Peter Kelly, released his sixth album, Animosity on Monday. It's really quite good too, so much so I'm managing to remember to write about it in something approaching timely fashion. Review is pushing it a bit, but let's try anyway shall we?

When you are a singer-songwriter with a guitar there's a whole bunch of people who you'll inevitably be compared to. Most of the time these comparisoms will be lazy and have little to do with your actual music, but sometimes one or two come along that are actually pretty accurate.

To my uneducated ears, there's a lot of Elliott Smith about this album. This is no bad thing, I love Elliot Smith.

Plus points of the album: It's really good. Fab songs. Sounds quite a bit like Eliott Smith. There's maybe some Nick Drake in there too. I mentioned it was good didn't I?

Minus points: It's short, only about half an hour, the songs are in and out in under 3 minutes generally. I'm struggling to say anything about it that doesn't just compare it to Elliott Smith again.

Animosity is out now to download from iTunes, eMusic
, LaLa and Amazon MP3. A physical CD version will be available for the first time at the launch show on 17th June in Oran Mor. A previous album, Great Unhappiness, can be downloaded for free here.

(Do I get to call this a proper review if I stick an arbitrary rating at the end? If so, 4 out of 5 stars.)

Busy week for new records

Apparently the music industry all got together and decided that this week would be a splendid time to take all my money.

New albums out this week include Malcolm Middleton's Waxing Gibbous (not Waxing Gibbons like hmv.com will have you believe), Until The Earth Begins To Part, the debut album by Broken Records and there's a mini-album thingy by Sparrow and the Workshop too.
The latter two are available from emusic now, which will save me some cash. Hopefully Malcolm will show up there shortly too.

Outwith Scottish bands, there's Hombre Lobo, the first new album by Eels in years. It is, predictably, really good.

Oh, and Paulo Nutini releases his second album too. Hometown boy or not, I just can't advise anyone to buy that. He's a decent songwriter, but the voice annoys me intensely. You could probably pay a drunk guy in the street to sing for you and it wouldn't be all that different really.

I'll listen to these in the next couple of days, then as usual forget to review any of them.

30 Days Till I'm 30

Eep. Where'd my youth go?

Anyways, for the next 30 days - almost certainly not on a daily basis, at least not till I've gotten round to finishing the A-Z - I'll randomly be dabbling in self indulgent nonsense, with songs that I like attached. No theme, no convoluted rules or regulations, just some things I've liked in the last 30 years. There's going to be a bunch of non Scots in there too.

First off is Come Out 2nite by the ever wonderful Kenickie.
Pretty much two minutes of sheer pop perfection, which also happens to boast some of the best handclaps ever committed to vinyl.

Come Out 2nite

Also works well slowed down and stripped down.

Peel Session version.

Mitchell Museum

Mitchell Museum are a four piece from Glasgow, and are quite excellent.
Following an earlier sold out run on vinyl, they are re-releasing their debut single Warning Bells on the 14th of May, available on CD & Download, with a new B-side Novels and Dairies. You should buy it, I will be.

There's a launch gig on Thursday at The Captain's Rest, where the band will be playing along with Sparrow and the Workshop, who also have a single out this week.

In the interests of full disclosure I'll go ahead and mention I'm coming at the band with a bit of bias. They are after all managed by my cousin. That doesn't mean they aren't good though, quite the opposite, they are very good. Consider how rare it is for me to every actually put thought in to one of my infrequent posts, then look at this one, I'm obviously not knocking this one out out of family ties!

There's all sorts of fun stuff going on in the single. I'm never too fond of comparing bands to other ones, but sometimes it provides a handy reference point, so here goes. There's a good bit of Super Furry Animals, Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev and Grandaddy in there, so if any of them are up your street, give Mitchell Museum a go, won't you?

If I've got the embedding right there should be a video of the band performing Warning Bells below.
Also, as a bonus and because I'm not posting any MP3s of the single so you'll all go buy it instead, here's one of their other songs, Extra Lives, which appeared on the Doing It For The Kids compilation last year.

Extra Lives



To hear more and get full tour dates and so on, visit the band's website or MySpace.

Beepfest Cancelled

Due to various reasons beyond our control, Beepfest has unfortunately been cancelled.

We hope to organise another event in a similar vein further down the line, and will keep you posted on the progress.

In the meantime, refunds can be obtained from point of purchase.

TV21 Album Launch

Scotland-based post-punk new wave band TV21 will shortly be releasing their second album, a mere 28 years after their first one. To celebrate, there's a launch party in the Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh on the 24th of May. As well as a set from TV21 Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit and Adam Thompson of We Were Promised Jetpacks will be playing acoustic sets.

Tickets cost a fiver plus booking fee and you can get them from Tickets Scotland.

Sadly there's next to no chance of me getting to it, it's on the wrong side of the country for me for one thing, but it looks like a good night.

For more info on TV21, the album and the gig you can visit their website or MySpace.

Swift Hinterland Thoughts

I only managed one night, Friday. Even though my pass was free I'm still short enough on cash that two nights in Glasgow was stretching it. Damn my continuing joblessness.
Anyway, never saw a lot, but here's what I caught.

Fangs @ Stereo. Whoa, been a Long time since I was in a single figure crowd to see a band. I've always been told that if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all, so I'll just go ahead and move on quickly.

Eugene McGuinness @ Stereo. Staying where I was seemed a simple option, besides, I like Eugene. He can be a bit hit and miss, but he was good on Friday.

Sons & Daughters @ The Arches. Caught a tiny bit of the band before - Slow Club - but not enough to comment on really. Seemed quite good, and The Pop Cop liked them though. Sons & Daughters are always entertaining, though I'm thinking that I should probably take a break from seeing them for a while, ideally till they've got some new material. I find myself standing next to a huge speaker, this may not be such a god idea. Still good, but starting to suffer from me seeing them too much. Not their fault, to be fair. That was followed by a quick dash round the corner for...

Broken Records @ The Classic Grand. Missed the start. Jamie Sutherland has lost his voice. I'm entirely deaf in one ear due to the previous next-to-speaker incident. This combination means that Broken Records are merely alright. I don't have the same degree of love for the band that most other bloggers seem to I'm affraid. I like them just fine, but not as much as everyone else does, and this gig hasn't really changed anything for me on that score. I'll try seeing them again sometime soon and keep an open mind for now.

Next comes an option of hanging around for an hour, deaf and almost skint, to see We Were Promised Jetpacks, or get myself home now. Ever tried to get from Glasgow to the arse end of Paisley in the middle of the night? I have, it's not easy. With that in mind, it's the train home for me.

Weekend Off

I've got very limited PC access this weekend, so I doubt I'll get a chance to post anything.

Normal service will be resumed on Monday. Maybe by then I'll be able to hear again too. Standing next to a speaker last night seemed such a good idea at the time.

Hinterland

I've found myself with two passes, and just me going. Anyone want the spare?

*Tap Tap* Is This Thing On?

Right then, You'll possibly have noticed a bunch of posts randomly appeared dating over the last few days. You've not gone mad (though you may understandably not have been looking, and wonder what I'm talking about).
Turns out I'm an idiot, and when scheduling some posts, managed to schedule them for 2010. Genius. Anyway, sorted now, I think.

EDIT: Still missing C & D, I'll fix them later tonight. This is going well already...

A Quick Plug

There's an email in my inbox which goes a bit like this:
"perhaps you may help to promote our wee festival, malcolm ross is playing which is cool"

I agree, Malcolm Ross is quite cool. Therefor yes, I can give the wee festival a mention.

It's called the Echo Festival of Sound and Light and takes place in Dundee (so I won't be going, bit far away) on the 9th of May.

You can get details here.

That's my public service announcement done, now to go see why I'm missing a weeks worth of posts.

Paul Haig Day

Damn computers. Mine has packed in on me at the moment, and blogging on my mobile is remarkably annoying. Might snap and kill someone, so I'll have to make this quick.

For the full details about Paul Haig day go over to The Vinyl Villain. JC has done a better post than I would have anyway.

I'll try and get back to this and do something more worthwhile once the computer stops being an arse. You know me, I never manage to get things done on time anyway!

How To Get To Heaven From Scotland

While I'm posting random odds & ends, here's a reminder that Aidan Moffat & The Best Of's album is out on Saturday. Annoyingly the whole having no job thing means I'm too short on cash to order the swanky special edition from the Chemikal shop at the moment, bugger.
To celebrate the release of the album, there's a How To Get To Heaven From Scotland board game available to play. It'll give you previews of the album and if you finish it you "win" a free MP3 of Big Blonde from the album, with the sweary bits taken out.
Go play the game here.

Made In Scotland

Neil Cooper from The Herald wrote a bit about Bricolage,. Wake The President, Postcard Records, Creeping Bent, Electric Honey and how the Scottish music scene goes round in circles (in a good way) as well as some other stuff.
I was asked if I could link to it, and as it is pretty interesting I most certainly can.
I like being asked things, it gives me a warm glow and a misguided feeling that people read the blog. Maybe one day someone will ask me to review something, I've always wanted free stuff.

Read the piece here

Free* Unkle Bob Album

Unkle Bob have teamed up with pioneering music beatniks NOISETRADE to bring you our debut album "Sugar and Spite" anywhere in the world via email. All you have to do is spread the word - TELL FIVE FRIENDS or spend some money (whatever you think we're worth) - PAY WHAT YOU WANT (a la Radiohead)

The widget below is really simple to use and fairly self-explanatory; the album will be zipped to your inbox in a matter of minutes!

If you only have 4 friends feel free to use my email address as your fifth.
I picked up the album way back when it came out. It's pretty swell really, more than worth spamming your mates for.

MySpace

Good News Everyone!

Just a quick note to to say we're very pleased to announce that Broken Records have signed to the independent record label 4AD.
The album recording is continuing to go very well and we're looking forward to its release in the summer!

Lovely.

Broken Records - Slow Parade
Broken Records MySpace

In other news The Phantom Band's debut album, Checkmate Savage, is out today. It's fantastic, go get it if you haven't already.
Also, Alun & Stuart from Chemikal Underground have done a wee podcast thing which I'm listening to just now, which is quite a lot of fun. You can grab that on the Chemikal site here.

Happy Birthday Rab!

Today marks the 250th birthday of Robert Burns. To celebrate Scotland is trying to lure all you foreigners with proud Scotch roots over to spend on your money on horrendous tartan shite, and to encourage this we renamed the Scottish FA Cup and commisioned a horrible advert where people sing Caledonia, including Lulu and Sean Connery.

Don't get me ****ing started on that bloody advert.

For me a better advert for the Bard is this, Parcel Of Rogues, performed by the magnificent Delgados for John Peel.
Download

If you don't own any Delgados albums shame on you, go buy some.

While we're at at, another couple of Rabbie's songs...
Camera Obscura - A Red, Red Rose
Me First & The Gimme Gimmes - Auld Lang Syne

I'm aware that in some people's eyes it's treasonous to say it, but my prefered Burns isn't Rabbie, it's Jake, so here, just for fun, is some SLF too:
Nobody's Hero - Live at Glasgow Barrowlands

The Aye Tunes Awards - Everything Else

Lets see if we can get this out the way before January finishes, eh?
To be honest it's taken me so long to shift my arse and actually finish these off that I've ended up dumping half the stuff I'd planned on mentioning, since I'll be here all year getting round to doing it all.
Remember that shouting at me in the comments or in email to get my lazy arse in gear and do something should shame me into posting more.

Also, it seems I'm an idiot and saved this post instead of publishing it. Oh well, it's here now.

"Where'd My Indie Cred Go?" Album of the Year:
Metallica - Death Magnetic. Point and laugh at me all you want, but as far as balls out, OTT riffing, headbanging, posturing thrash goes, this is the best aexample since, well, Ride The lightning or ...And Justice For All. I could live without The Unforgiven III, but hey, I can't have everything. Where would I put it? Also, severeal great Three! Word! Phrases! that just beg to be yelled along with. Also, the demo versions are great fun, with their nonsensical, unfinished lyrics. When I eventually get this for Guitar Hero I may have to give up blogging, as my hand might become crippled. Does everything you want from a Metallica album, and I make not the slightest apology for loving every bit of it.

Best Cover Version:
I briefly touched on covers when I was talking about debut albums, particulary the few lovely ones that Mark Morriss did last year, so here's a whole category of them. Althought Frightened Rabbit made a valiant attempt at nicking this award by doing N-Trance's Set You Free on the b-side of Heads Roll Off and The Saw Doctors took on The Sugababes About You Now to fine effect, the winner is The Wildhearts.
Their Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before cover version album was quite the treat, the only downside being that it was occasionally just too faithful to the original songs. There's a cover of the largely forgotten Glasgow/Ayrshire band Baby Chaos on there and everything, which means I get to talk about it here without wandering too far off the Scottish Topic. The best of the songs and winner of this award is their take on Warren Zevon's Carmelita, if for no other reason than every time I hear it, it puts a massive grin on my face - no easy task for a song about a heroin addicted writer it must be said. Sung by bassist Scott Sorry, it's a rip-roaring version of Zevon's already brilliant original.
The Wildhearts - Carmelita

Best Album - Scottish
Again Frightened Rabbit were the main rivals to our eventual winner, The Midnight Organ Fight is a really, really good album. Chances are were they not up against one of my personal favourite bands they'd have nicked top spot, but they'll just have to settle for second.
For our winner we are going way back to the start of 2008 for Sons & Daughters - This Gift.
It had been a long wait between This Gift and previous album The Repulsion Box, but thanks to regular gigs in between Sons & Daughters managed to firmly nail themselves into my brain as a great band, particularly in that live setting. This Gift is a slightly more polished album than what came before, no doubt due to producer Bernard Butler. Don't worry, he didn't turn Adele into, well ADELE or anything, just maybe sandpapered down some of those rougher edges, leaving a fine slice of pop-rock-country-blues-country-folk fabulousness. My only complaint about the album at time of release was that Scott Paterson's vocals seemed to be a bit downplayed, losing a bit of the boy/girl dynamic of previous songs, but that's not a huge problem, and one much less apparent live too. If you can, try and get hold of the intitial CD release, which came with a bonus CD of half a dozen songs - five from This Gift and the cracking Iggy Pop version of Johnny Cash that the band had been playing live - recorded in Chemikal Underground's CHEM13 studios.
Sons & Daughters Website

Best thing I Bought But Can't Listen To:
If you don't have a turntable, like me, buying vinyl is really rather pointless, so I'm usually sensible enough to not do it. I did have to make one exception though for Aloha Hawaii's Towns On The Moon EP. Aidan Moffat, Stuart Braithwaite, 10" vinyl, no CD or digital release. One day I'll own a turntable and actually be able to tell you what it sounds like. Until then, I have a rather nice T-shirt to wear, since I bought the bundle pack.
Chemikal Underground Shop

Best Album - Other:
I won't run through the list of contenders, there were lots.
Half Man Half Biscuit - CSI: Ambleside takes the prize. Some people will tell you that HMHB aren't as good as they used to be, these people are wrong and aren't to be trusted. CSI is as good as an album as any of their others, packed as usual with tunes, wit and more refrences than an episode of Spaced and thus fantastic.
HMHB - Took Problem Chimp To Ideal Home Show

"Ah, There's My Indie Cred!" Special Award:
Zoey Van Goey haven't done much so far. Loads of gigs, but just the two singles to date. Those two singles though? Lovely indie-folky pop. Hope to hear much more from them this year.
Zoey Van Goey - Sweethearts In Disguise
MySpace

Eh, I reckon that'll do us then.
Comments, emails, abuse about not posting etc to the usual places please, cheers.

The Aye Tunes Awards - Debuts (Updated)

Or a load of random mutterings, prompted by guilt at having almost nothing here in the six months we've been up and running. It wasn't the original intention, but I'll be breaking this down into parts, since it's already way overdue and I'd quite like to get something posted before the end of 2009... Over the next few weeks I'll either give up or post more, one of the two.

For the curious, here's a list of stuff I liked in 2007. Apparently I couldn't spell when I wrote that, and I can't be bothered fixing it now. You are too late to mock me for it now too.

I'll note right now that when I say "best" in the categories, I by no means mean best, but favourite just doesn't sound as good. It's my list, so I make the rules, which are vague, unspecified and subject to change at any point. In some, if not all, categories I'll be splitting them up into Scottish (since that's ostensibly the focus of Aye Tunes) and otherwise. Told you my rules were vague.

Without further stalling for time:
Best Debut Album - Scottish
Quite a few contendors for this one actually. Aidan Moffat put out his first solo album, in a way. While there's a bunch of L. Pierre albums "I Can Hear Your Heart" is the first album Aidan has put out under his own name. It's an odd duck, part spoken word, part music, with a short story in the packaging too. Great piece of work and gorgeously packaged, but not the best thing this year. Mr Moffat has a new album out on Valentines Day by the way, called How To Get To Heaven From Scotland. A preview copy found it's way to me just today, so hopefully I'll give that a listen soon.
Another debut that isn't would be Colin MacIntyre's "The Water". It would be stretching things a bit to call this Colin's debut album, since other than ditching the Mull Historical Society name there's no difference from his previous work, so we'll disqualify it on those grounds. Still had to give it a mention though, since Colin is as good - if not better - a songwriter as ever.
Errors finally stuck out an album - It's Not Something, But It Is Like Whatever - after a few singles and EPs over the last few years, and it was also really very good.
Glasvegas of course showed up to release their album and torment blog owners by pulling anything with an MP3 attached too. They didn't lose this category because of that whole thing, the album did that for them, but it certainly didn't help their cause any.
Laki Mera didn't just release a great little album (which if you want to get technical snuck out at the end of 2007, but wasn't available to buy in shops till 2008) but followed it up with a nifty EP later in the year too, both of which are well worth your time if ambient electronica stuff is your bag.
Make Model recorded an album, then misplaced their singer/guitarist and then pretty much vanished. Seems unlikely that the album will ever see the light of day, which is a wee bit of a shame since it wasn't bad, if a bit like bis but less shouty.
Speaking of bis, Manda Rin put out her first album too. I always roundly mocked bis at any opportunity, only to find a few years later that if I bothered to listen to them a bit more I actually quite liked them... Manda's album isn't far off what bis were doing in their later years (which is miles away from Kandy Pop, which I still can't tolerate) and so also pretty good.

Coming it at a close second for the best Scottish debut album award is Correcto. Their self titled album seems to have been missing from pretty much end of year list I've seen, which has taken me by surprise a bit. Easy to dismiss as a side project, given that the band features one of Franz Ferdinand (another band with a new album imminent) and Richard Wright of the now-defunct The Royal We (who have spat out a few other bands now, like Remember Remember and Sexy Kids) but the album is a whole lot better than something knocked out on days off from the "real job". Especially worth a listen if you like Josef K and the like.

Drumroll please for our winner then....



Popup's "A Time And A Place" has been quite a while coming - over two years since I picked up their first couple of singles by my count - but just goes to show that taking your time can be worthwhile.
Packed full of killer melodies, smart and witty lyrics, lovely boy/girl harmonies and just all round great tunes it's a perfectly formed beauty of a debut. My only quibble with it is that of the 13 tracks on it I had six of them from singles already, but that's only a quibble because I was greedy for more songs.
Not only a fab band but really nice guys too as I found out when having a chatter with them after a challenging gig in Paisley a few months back, where not only did miserable weather mean that the crowd was pretty small, but the band were plagued by technical difficulties throughout, but still managed to send me off home happy.

PopUp - Love Triangle

Outwith the Scottish contenders there were quite a bit fewer stunning debuts in 2008, so it's a good bit easier to pick my favourite, but I'll do a quick rundown of stuff I liked anyway.
In no particular order there was good stuff from The Beep Seals (whose album was produced by Norman Blake, which almost qualifies them for the Scottish part of the award, but not quite, and who were also the first band in ages to send me a promo, which I promptly forgot to review. Err, sorry...), Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip showed that there's life in UK hip-hop yet, and that you can still make intelligent hip-hop too - Thou Shall Always Kill is getting a re release soon and is well worth your time. Saturnalia by The Gutter Twins nicked a Wedding Present album title and was excellent, though not exactly happy easy listening stuff. Not that you'd expect that from Greg Dulli, right enough. Ida Maria, Beth Rowley, Lykke Li, Jenny Lewis and Laura Marling all did decent work, to differing levels of quality, for the girls, while Katy Perry made me want to punch people when I was forced to rely on Radio Clyde for music at work for a while and managed to almost single handedly wipe out any goodwill I had towards anyone at all, but luckily I'm too nice for that. Former Bluetones front man Mark Morriss covered Alcoholiday on his debut album which is splendid, then he put Girls Aloud & Pixies covers on the B-side of his "I'm Sick" single, which put my faith back in humanity nicely. Go grab the single from eMusic, his version of Call The Shots is great. MGMT, Bon Iver, Santogold, She & Him and the like have all had plentiful coverage, so you don't need me to tell you any more about them, so I'll skip on ahead and name my winner.

Best Debut Album That Isn't Scottish

Eureka Machines - Do Or Die
An album that I'm going to guess almost none of you have heard, sadly. If I hadn't gone to see Ginger earlier in the year I probably wouldn't have either, but I did. Eureka Machines were the support that night - or more accurately one of them, front man Chris Catalyst, was. Chris did a solo set made up of a bunch of cover versions and his own songs and blew my little tipsy head off with a fantastic performance, which ensured that I'd keep an eye on the band for the rest of the year. I had some demos & acoustic stuff to tide me over till the album came out, which I hammered enough that there was a risk that by the time I got the album I'd be overly familiar with it, but thankfully that wasn't the case. Like PopUp it's packed with killer melodies and smart as a whip lyrics, but it's an entirely different beast to A Time And A Place, and it's certainly the best power-pop/rock album I've heard in, well, ages. Another thing the bands have in common is that they've pretty much stuck the albums out on their own, so if you want to hear either of them please do spend money on them rather than nicking them off the internet. Both are available on eMusic, so even if you just get a trial to that for them that would be better than using more illicit means (and yes, given my blogging history I know I'm the last person that should really be talking about paying for what you like, but indulge me...)

Eureka Machines - Scream Eureka (Demo)

That's the debuts taken care of then. I'll get on to the best albuums as soon as I can bother myself, then we'll see about getting some new stuff written about, shall we?

PopUp Myspace
Eureka Machines MySpace

Note: if either PopUp or Eureka Machines want those songs removed, just give me a shout.