Kochka - Dacha/Summer House EP Review

Kochka are a band I've been meaning to write about for ages, but for on reason or another I've never quite gotten round to it. Since they are one of the bands playing Define Pop 2, and since they really cheered me up on a bad day by sending me badges, it's about time I finally gave them the coverage I've been intending to.

Kochka (Czech for "cat" I believe) are a four piece, formed in Glasgow. Made up of two girls and two boys - Sheryll, Mhairi , Stewart and Markk - they make music, funnily enough. Since forming in 2008 they've kept themselves busy gigging extensively, both on their own and supporting the likes of The Phantom Band, and slipping out a couple of EPs and a single. Second EP, Dacha/Summer House was released way back in August. I picked it up from eMusic on release, loved it, and promptly forgot to review it.

The Dacha/Summer House EP holds the distinction for the release I've taken the longest to get round to reviewing then. I'll point out now that that is no reflection on the quality of it - as the review will show - but is all down to my good old fashioned forgetfulness and circumstances too boring to detail.
The first thing that struck me about the EP was that even though it hadn't been that long since I'd gotten their previous release, The Dead Room Party single, they'd improved quite a bit, and I say that as someone who loved that earlier single (Sadly I don't have debut EP Numbers. Wonder if the band have any left they could sell me?). Maybe improved is the wrong word. If so, take your pick from evolved or matured instead. Stop looking at me like that, I've always said I'm rubbish at writing reviews... The other thing that struck me was that I was struck with a sudden urge to dance around the room. Good work by the songs, but not pretty for anyone who may have the misfortune to see my shimmy.

Right from the off lead track Cowards and Kings grabs you with a jangling, Television-esque guitar line, before Markk's distinctive vocals kick in. Next thing you know you've been dragged along for the ride through a song while changes direction several times and remains infectious throughout.
So far so good then, but things get even better with the next track, Dacha (In The Summer). Outstanding bass and percussion threaten to steal the show for a while before falling back around half way through to allow Stewie to take centre stage with his guitar. It brings about 50 different songs to the back of my head, just enough for me to think "that sounds a bit like..." before shoving them away before I can think of what. The lesson I'm taking from this is that it might remind me a bit of something, but it just sounds like Kochka.
Memory Box / Personal Effects has a darker tone to it, and a lot going on in the background. I swear there's a typewriter in there somewhere. It's a bit sleazy, very funky, and an awful lot excellent.
Finally Black Cat closes proceedings and goodness, they've quite possibly saved the best for last. Quite a trick considering the previous three songs, as you can hopefully tell, left quite an impression. Distorted guitars, Markk's vioce threatening to venture into Pixies territory, percussion all over the place tapping out a beat straight into your urge, defying you not to move.

All the songs from Dacha/Summer House - and a few not from it - can be heard on the band's MySpace. I urge you to have a listen.
Kochka don't do indie by the numbers. There music might initially sound simple enough, but that's all part of their diabolical plan to make your body move before you've noticed you aren't listening to another plain, run of the mill band. There's some fantastic musicianship going on in there, and careful or repeated listen will make you notice that things are a lot more complex than you initially thought. These aren't disposable, sing-along 3 minute pop songs, they are smart, sexy, funky and oh-so-groovy.
If listening at home close the curtains, make sure the dog isn't watching, and dance your arse off to this fantastic little EP.

For the next few days you can snag a free download of Man Of Letters here.
Find Kochka on MySpace - Last.fm

Kochka's records are available at shows, in the usual independent shops, and to download from the like of eMusic and iTunes.
They play The Living Room stage of Define Pop 2 on Saturday Nov. 14, Sleazies in Glasgow on the 20th and in Stirling on Dec. 20th. Go see them.

Gig Review: Debutant, Esperi, Panda Su and Yahweh

Amidst the freezing cold winds, pouring rain and general miserableness on Sunday's weather there was one huge bright spot, the gig in The Classic Grand.
If you've been here at all in the last week you'll know all about it, but just in case you haven't, Glasgow PodcART put on a gig with four pretty swell acts. I went, rubbish weather and no money is a poor excuse for missing out on a line up like this -especially since I'd seen none of the acts before, and this is what I thought of it.

Taking the stage first was Debutant, AKA Phillip Quirie. Debutant's first song was marred by technicals issues. Fortunately that was sorted out quickly and the rest of the set, just one man, his guitar and his pedals, provided a fine start to the evening. Gentle and mellow but never becoming samey, up until King of Double Speak provides a surprisingly intense climax to the set. I think this might also have been the quietest gig audience I've ever come across too, as everyone stood (or sat) hushed, listening to Phillip go to work. One of the lyrics from one of the songs (sorry, the title escapes me, help very welcome!) was "You know I hang on every word you say", which pretty much summed up what I thought of Debutant.

Panda Su was up next and after the rotten job I did on her profile piece the other day (sorry again Su) her set was always going to be bombproof review-wise. Luckily for me I don't need to say nice things about it just to make up for being rubbish, since Panda Su were actually brilliant. Joining Su and her regular cohort Red was esperi's Chris on drums and later Jonnie Common, hopping up on stage at Su's invitation. Su promised to keep between song chatter was kept to a minimum, even though there was still more of than you'll get with many bands, due to Su being a bit under the weather, but any illness doesn't appear to have affected the performance. Panda Su's songs have an air of melancholy and fragility to them, but are delivered in a strong, confidence voice that can alternately put a smile on your face and a crack in your heart.
Also, you can't really complain about any band that has a front woman with panda face paint and a song about Prince Eric from the Littlest Mermaid, can you?
There's a little sample of Panda Su's set - Facts and Figures - recorded on the night by Glasgow Podcart here.

Tonight esperi was just Chris Lee-Marr and his selection of instruments, of which there were many. Beginning by inviting the audience in closer to the stage and assuring us he's "not that scary" Chris then abandoned the stage for his first song opting instead to quietly sing Home from atop a table, after which he admitted that maybe he is a bit scary after all. Having never seen esperi I didn't know what to expect from the set, but I think any expectations would have been blown anyway. It was incredibly engaging throughout, enchanting almost. On Cats And Dogs Chris went through God knows how many instruments, looping little bits as the song gradually builds. By my count Cats and Dogs clocked in at around 20 minutes long and throughout the full length never threatened to get stale or boring. It would be easy for this kind of thing to be performed too seriously, but thankfully Chris Lee-Marr isn't just a fantastic musician, he also has a sense of humour, so things never get too earnest. Tremendous stuff.

The final act was Yahweh, playing as a full band tonight, and elevating the noise levels in all the best ways. Main man Lewis Cook is probably sick and tired of people mentioning his youth, but I'm going to do it again anyway. For one so young not only do Cook's songs have incredible maturity, but he's comfortable on stage too. Add into that a tight live band and Yahweh are quite special live. I mentioned in my feature last week that I'm a big fan of the album, Tug of Love, I'm possibly an even bigger fan of the way the songs sound live now. Great songs, great band, great night!

Both Yahweh and esperi are performing at Define Pop 2, I can't wait to see them both at that.
Panda Su is back in Glasgow in December for the PodcART crew's Christmas Party, in a night that I won't be missing. Hopefully it won't be too long before Debutant pays Glasgow another visit too.

Lest I forget, Waves Below did a great job keeping the ambiance going between acts from the DJ booth.

Links: Glasgow PodcART - Oxjam - Debutant - Esperi - Panda Su - Waves Below - Yahweh

EP Review: Kid Canaveral - Left And Right

We've established that I'm not the best at keeping up on what I'm meant to be doing by now, so it should come as no surprise that I once again preface a review with an apology. Sorry to Kid Canaveral, who sent me over their new EP just before it's launch night weeks ago and it has taken me this long to get round to reviewing it.

There's something I knew already about Kid Canaveral from picking up their previous singles, and that is that they know their way around a catchy tune. The Left and Right EP reinforces this from the off, with the opening track after which the EP is named grabbing you instantly with it's killer hook, sweet harmonies, summery cheeriness and all round bouncy joy. Indie pop splendidness that reminds a bit of The Delgados (and being compared favourably to The Delgados is one of the highest compliments I can pay someone).

From there the songs change direction somewhat - no pigeonholing for this lot. Stretching the Line is still catchy as heck, but throws an electronic drum beat and some strings into the mix. Still cheery, still headboppy, but entirely different from Left and Right.

Finally Long in the Tooth closes the EP and is another shift in direction, leaving behind the bounciness for a more gentle, melancholic tone.

With just three tracks, the longest clocking in at three minutes long, the EP doesn't run any risk of outstaying it's welcome, but shifting the songs from out of your head will take considerably longer. Left and Right is a great little piece of work from a band who started off pretty damn good but continue to evolve and improve.

You can buy the EP, on cassette no less, direct from the band here. They'll give you a free download with the tape, so there's no need to panic that you won't be able to listen to it. If you just want the download the EP is also available from eMusic, iTunes etc.
MySpace

Kid Canaveral play the upcoming Define Pop Festival II at The Flying Duck, so can we pretend I'm not horribly late with this review and I was just saving it to act as a Define pop preview? No? Oh ok then.

More on Define Pop Festival 2

I've mentioned the second Define Pop Festival a couple of times already, but now there's a wee poster to show you to go with it.
Some of the artists playing - Kid Canaveral, Esperi, The Morgue Party Candidate, Yahweh, Second Hand Marching Band - have featured on Aye Tunes before, others are scheduled to appear on here between now and the gig. I doubt I'll get round to everyone, but I'll try to do as many as I can.
Barring any hiccups I'll be attending both days, desperately trying not to drink too much so I can review it afterwards.

If you want any more details head on over to the Define Pop MySpace. If you ask nicely over there you might even be able to get tickets at a lower price than Tickets Scotland are asking.

Yahweh

It's the final day of the previews for Sunday night's big New Artists gig, presented by Glasgow Podcart. Surprisingly I've kept to my schedule with the posts, although the Panda Su one was written while exhausted after a pair of awful days and was incredibly half arsed. Sorry Su...

On record Yahweh is Lewis Cook, an 18 year old multi-instrumentalist from Moffat, now based on Glasgow. For one so young Lewis is disgustingly talented. His debut album, the bedroom recorded Tug of Love, was released earlier this year and is a fantastic piece of work. It's a proper record of two sides, the first half, Dear Green Place, dedicated to Cook's new base of Glasgow, the second, The Long Plain, to his home town of Moffat.

It's a little difficult to pin down the sound, Cook writes minimalist, alt-folky songs, then adds textures and layers of instruments, occasionally augmented with samples and electronica beats.
All together, it's like a bit of a clash between Arab Strap, especially their first album, slices of Mogwai, and Boards of Canada, without being derivative of any of them.

On stage Lewis is joined by a full band, with Stuart Anderson, Hugh Guthrie and Sadie Ryan helping out. Out of all the artists performing on Sunday Yahweh is the one I have most familiarity with, since I've got the album. However, like all the others I've not yet caught them live. Again just like the others I'm really looking forward to doing so on Sunday.

I didn't have time to ask permission to use this before I wrote the post, so hopefully Yahweh won't mind.
Download Yahweh - Glasgow Smiles Better

If you need any more convincing to get along on Sunday all four artists playing feature on this week's Glasgow PodcART podcast, so you can have a listen.

Yahweh MySpace
Buy Tug Of Love

Huge thanks to everyone that has visited Aye Tunes this week, or helped send people over here. My traffic this week has been higher than any week previously. You will all come back and visit me sometimes, won't you?

Now that I'm done writing about gigs for the week, I'm off out to go to some. I'll probably be taking the weekend off from the blog, but you can email me if you want to get in contact and catch me on Twitter if you have the urge to know what I'm drinking. I'll be back at the start of next week, there's a few EP reviews coming up, and there should be some gig reviews too.

Hallowe'en Special

Can't resist the temptation to knock out a quick post for Halloween.

First of all, what's more terrifying than Michael Jackson? Not much really, so here's Aereogramme covering Thriller, taken from their Livers & Lungs EP.

There's a whole bunch of Halloween themed gigs & club nights happening over the weekend. I won't be attending any of them though, since my weekend is already packed with gigs. Instead I'll stay in on Saturday, avoid answering the front door and watch a selection of scary films.

As far as films go, what is more perfect for Halloween than, well, Halloween? Just John Carpenter's original of course, stay away from sequels and remakes.

Aidan Moffat quite likes Halloween too, so much so that one of his many side products, Ben Tramer - named after a boy Laurie Strode mentions having a crush on - released an EP years ago reworking parts of the Halloween soundtrack. You can get a taste of that here: Ben Tramer - Laurie's Theme (Halloween 1978)

Finally, Glasgow's The Plimptons have a special single out, called 'I Hate Hallowe'en'. It sounds a bit like The Misfits version of Monster Mash, with a Scottish accent. Fantastic then. It's available as a free download here.

The Twilight Sad Announce Intimate Scottish Gigs

Headline says it all for this one really.
The Twilight Sad have lined up two Scottish gigs in December.

On December 15th they will play The Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh, on the 16th they cross country to play Nice N Sleazy in Glasgow.

Tickets are available now from Synergy Concerts

Panda Su

Day three of the New Artists Showcase gig previews. Are you as surprised as I am that these are appearing on a timely basis?

Panda Su is, mostly, Su Shaw, a young lass from St. Andrews who writes her own songs, sings, and plays guitar, as well as a host of other instruments. being able to play every instrument going is an advantage in the studio, where she can record songs of great beauty, but makes recreating the songs live a bit tricky. To help out she is frequently joined on stage by some helpers, like unofficial second member Adam Phillips - who allegedly can't play anything - and esperi's Chris Lee-Marr.

Panda Su makes songs that are mature, gorgeous, and at times melancholy. I can't wait to catch her on Sunday.

Oh, and she also paints her face to look like a panda.

Panda Su recently released a new EP, Sticks and Brick, produced by Steve Mason, formerly of The Beta Band. You can get copies through her MySpace, or at gigs.

Panda Su MySpace

Waves Below

Messing up my one feature a day plan since I wanted it finished the day before the gig, Waves Below will be joining the line up of Sunday's New Artists Showcase gig, so today there's a double dose of spotlights.


Neil Milton is a man with his fingers in a lot of pies. Along with Heidi Kuisma he is one half of We Sink Ships. We Sink Ships is a photographic and musical project between Heidi and Neil. I couldn't possibly describe their work and do it justice, instead I urge you to check it out for yourselves. Their latest project, Masquerade, can be found here.

Additionally Neil takes his musical side further as beneath us, the waves, making ambient soundscapes. Originally formed to provide music for We Sink Ships, the music started to gain as much attention as the photography did and was spun off into beneath us, the waves.

Waves Below is a spin off from beneath us, the waves set up to differentiate Neil's DJing and remixing work, with a more electro basis, from his own musical projects.

In addition to all that Neil was formerly a member of the band Troika, ran the too many fireworks record label, releasing singles by Troika, Findo Gask, Errors and more, and for two years ran the club night fire: works at Barfly.

You can get a taster of Waves Below's DJing at SoundCloud.

Esperi

Day two of my spotlight on artists play this Sunday's big Glasgow PodcART gig, the line up for which has grown with the addition of Waves Below DJing at the show. The gig is also now tieing into Oxjam, making it even more worthwhile!

esperi is mainly the work of Chris Lee-Marr, assisted at times by any combination of his wife Cat, Jon Adam, Kev Black , Craig Arnott and Eilidh Glynn.

Again, I've not yet caught esperi live and aside from hammering the songs on MySpace to prepare for this, haven't heard an awful lot of their stuff. What I've heard is great though. Similar to Debutant there's a lot of layering of vocals and different instrumentation - some very exotic and unconventional instruments at that - going on, combines to form gorgeous gentle, melodic storytelling songs

esperi are launching their new EP 21:21 at the show too. If I've got my copy/paste right there ought to be a wee widget down the bottom that will let you buy a copy. In addition to Sunday's gig there's a lot more esperi live dates coming up, including Define Pop II.

I don't have any mp3s I can post, but you can hear esperi songs at MySpace and Last.fm. You have to listen to Proverb Part 2. That isn't a suggestion, that's a demand.

Don't Forget!

Just because I'm focusing a lot on the gig I'm going to on Sunday this week doesn't mean you should forget about the one I'll be at on Friday!

All the details here.

Debutant

In the run up to Sunday's gig I'll be taking a quick look at each of the four acts performing, one each day.
Since I'm not all that familiar with any of them - Sunday will be the first time I've seen any of the four - this could be terrible, but I'll try my best!

Debutant is just one man, an Aberdonian gent by the name of Phillip Quirie, who has embraced the DIY music ethos for his work.
Starting off in his bedroom in 2007 and plugging away since he has more recently been juggling Debutant duties with being a member of Edinburgh's Meursault.
Debutant plays a mostly instrumental set with occasional vocals, just one man, his guitar and an assortment of pedals, but makes a very big sound.
I've only been able to listen to a couple of Debutant songs, but those few I've heard provoke instant reactions, the main one being massive anticipation to see and hear the set on Sunday.

What I've heard has been gorgeous, dreamy soundscapes, packed with atmosphere. For quick, lazy comparison look to My Bloody Valentine. Minus the ear bleeding volume and feedback that is.

Phillip is currently working on a debut album which will hopefully be out early next year. I for one can't wait to hear more.



Debutant MySpace

What's Happening This Week?

My list of things to listen to keeps getting longer despite my attempts to stay on top of it, so why not fall a little further behind by taking a break to run through a few things happening this week? If nothing else it'll save me from messing about with templates any more, I've already broke the blog 3 times today.

Cassidy and Roddy Hart both have singles out. As do French Wives, which I reviewed last week. Those French Wives songs are still wedged in my head incidentally, I've found myself humming Halloween on countless occasions over the last few days. The band were also in good form when I caught them in Bloc last week. It was a shame about the pain in the arse drunk bloke that caused quite a few people to leave early though. I'm a non violent kind of guy, but that twat deserved a sound thrashing.

Luke Haines - who isn't at all Scottish, but is a big favourite of mine - has a new album out today.

eagleowl have sold out of physical copies of their debut EP, so they've made it available for download on one of those pay what you want, even nothing type deals. I've not yet had a listen to this, but they are on Song, by Toad so chances are high that it'll be good.

Staying with the freebies, The Mill have added some songs by The Darien Venture gig that I was at a few weeks ago.

In case you haven't heard, there's a pair of good gigs coming up this weekend which I'll be attending. Say hi if you see me (if you want to know what I look like, which admittedly helps when saying hi to strangers, there's a photo on my neglected and rubbish MySpace. No laughing!), drink offers are also welcome.

Also on the gig front, the Stirling and Glasgow dates of Frightened Rabbit's Scottish tour have sold out, leaving me ticketless...

No doubt there's a bunch of other records out this week, there's certainly other gigs on, but I can't cover everything, can I? Better people than me run gig guides, so I'm sure you can find something to keep you occupied. You can always leave a comment if there's something you want to plug.

As always if you want to help make that list of things to listen to and cover longer, do please get in touch. Best way to get something to me is good old email, if you want to send me anything non electronic ask and you can have my address, so long as you promise not to rob me when I'm out.

Finally on a personal note I'd just like to say a massive, massive thank you to Glasgow PodcART who said some really nice things about Aye Tunes at the weekend, Halina made me blush in her piece about blogs.

EP Review: Cast of the Capital - Rotten Kids and Haversacks

Still trying to get caught up on listening to records. This one has been sitting on the to do list for a few weeks, so time to get to it.

Cast of the Capital are a four piece, formed in Aberdeen by brothers Steve and Matthew Morris, joined by Alastair Naylor and Jamie Watt. Since forming in 2006 they've done some intensive gigging, supporting the likes of Xcerts and Trapped In Kansas, playing Rock Ness and Belladrum and catching the ear of Steve Lamacq, Vic Galloway and Jim Gellatly.

The Rotten Kids and Haversacks EP is the band's first full release. It came out on CD in September and will be available through iTunes in November.

The first song, Comiston Springs, is pretty enough, poppy and jangly, with a bit of a Teenage Fanclub feel to it. Catchy, decent stuff so far then. For me the EP really comes to life with the second track, The Witching Hour, slowing things down and stripping it back a bit. This song actually reminds me a good bit of Mitchell Museum, but without making me think I'm listening to a different band than the rest of the songs.
From there we get Passing The Horse, again a jangly sparkly wee thing, which is just fine, once again catchy and danceable before slowing things down again for Crematory Blues. Like The Witching Hour, its the slower more acoustic sounding Crematory Blues that really catches my ear, before we switch back to something more cheery sounding in Tree Sleep to finish off.

A wee bit of a mixed bag then you might think, but it's a good mix. I preferred the quieter, slower songs to the indie-pop ones, but they do their job just fine and the quality never dips below "good". Were it not near the end of October I'd probably enjoyed the poppy songs more, they've got a nice summery feel to them, but since it's dark and freezing my brain isn't quite appreciating them as much as it would when the sun comes out. The EP as a whole is certainly well worth a listen.

Cast of the Capital MySpace
Buy Rotten Kids & Haversacks

Essential New Artists Showcase

There's always a ton of good gigs happening in Glasgow, but over the next few weeks - right up until the end of the year in fact - there's some particularly eye catching events happening. I've already mentioned a couple I'll be going along to, like next week's 17 Seconds Night and the upcoming Define Pop Festival, and here's another one, presented by the lovely folk at Glasgow PodcART.

The gig takes place on November 1st at The Classic Grand in Glasgow. Perfoming on the night are Debutant, esperi, Panda Su and Yahweh.

This promises to be a fantastic gig. I'll be going along and reviewing it, so if you can't make it be sure to swing back here so I can tell you how much you missed out.

Tickets cost £5 and are available from We Got Tickets

Also, aren't those posters pretty?

For a bit more info swing by Glasgow Podcart.

17 Seconds Night

Remember a couple of weeks back I posted about 17 Seconds Records? Well, the whole crew is coming to Glasgow for an evening of music.

Taking place in The 13th Note in Glasgow on the 30th of October there will be sets from Escape Act, The Dirty Cuts, X Lion Tamer and Chris Bradley.
All for a measely £4 entrance fee.
Not a bad way to spend the night before Hallowe'en.
So, we'll see you down there, aye? Don't forget to say hi.

17 Seconds Records MySpace

Define Pop Festival 2 Update

Last week I wrote a wee bit about the mouthwatering line-up for the second Define Pop Festival, taking place on the 14th and 15th of November in The Flying Duck, with a promise of any updates as I got them.

Well, tickets are on sale NOW from Tickets Scotland.

Single Review: French Wives - Halloween/Dogfight

Still got limited computer access, still got the attention span of a goldfish, still job hunting without luck. Due to all that I'm ridiculously behind in reviewing things I've either bought or been sent. One day I'll catch up.

Grabbing something randomly from the "to do" pile throws up the debut double A side single from French Wives. Confusingly they aren't French, and I don't think any of them are wives either. Instead, they are a five piece from Glasgow who have been gigging their wee hearts out for ages now.

Bringing us to this, the debut single, due out next Monday.
Cunning timing then, considering that one of the songs is titled Halloween. It isn't, by the way, a cover version of The Misfits song, even though that would have amused me greatly. Neither is it scary. In fact, it's quite a jolly wee number, with a violin, xylophone and some brass, alongside some jangly guitar and nice harmonies. It's a well crafted wee number that builds, soars, and does other things that make me sound pretentious. After all that soaring and building, there's a strong finish too, which is always handy. As always, my description does the song no justice at all.
The other A side, Dogfight, isn't miles away from Halloween, but is shorter, more direct, and catchy as heck. Nice is a terrible way to describe a song but yeah, this is nice. There's a summery feel to both songs too, which is perfect for times like now, when you are freezing cold and it is pitch black outside.

Sounds a bit like a jaunty My Latest Novel, but just a bit. There's some Aberfeldy, some Camera Obscura, even a bit of Belle & Sebastian in there too. If you likes those bands, you'll almost certainly like French Wives. If you don't, go have a listen to them anyway and stop being so judgmental will you?

For the purposes of reviewing I listened to these songs a few more times tonight and now they've taken up residence in my head and don't seem to want to go away. That makes them highly recommended then.

The single is out next Monday, October 26th, on Instinctive Racoon Records.

French Wives MySpace

French Wives play Bloc in Glasgow on Wednesday 21dt October with the also worth checking out We're Only Afraid Of NYC, before playing The Admiral Bar on the 25th as part of Oxjam Takeover.

Fatcat Want Your Money

Fatcat Records have a good singles coming out over the next wee while from their trifecta of fantastic Scottish bands.

Out today is The Twilight Sad's Seven Years of Letters, taken from the recently released Forget The night Ahead album. The B-side is a cover version of The Wedding Present's Suck, so worth buying for that alone really.

Following that on November 16th is much anticipated new material from Frightened Rabbit, in the shape of their new single Swim Until You Can't See Land. B-side Fun Stuff is a new version of Last Tango In Brooklyn, which has been knocking around for ages. Next year will see a new Frightened Rabbit album, so this'll have to do to tide us over. Sea related pun only half intended.

Finally on November 23rd We Were Promised Jetpacks release another single from debut album These Four Walls, unleashing double A side It's Thunder And It's Lightning / Ships With Holes Will Sink. No new B-sides unfortunately.

Fatcat records are available from record shops, generally show up on eMusic

, or you can get them direct from their website.

Gig Review: Louise McVey and cracks in the concrete and Julia and the Doogans

I hate doing gig reviews, I really do. That's why you hardly ever see one over here. However, for once I'm back rom a gig sober & lucid, so let's give i a go, shall we?

The Place: The 13th Note, Glasgow.
The Time: October 15th, 2009
The Event: Live session for Glasgow PodcART

Two bands playing tonight, both with a female front woman. Y'know, as opposed to a male front woman, like Diva International or Jayne Country. (Don't hit me, I know it was a cheap joke)

First up are Louise McVey and cracks in the concrete. I'm not terribly familiar with this lot, having only really listened to a couple of songs on MySpace and, as I tend to do while listening on MySpace, not paying all that much attention to what I'm listening to.
Withing seconds of the starting I'm transfixed. Is it because Louise is a pretty blonde girl? For once, no. It's because I feel like I've fallen through a wormhole taking me from downstairs in the 13th Note to a David Lynch film. If a midget had brushed past me during the first song I'd have been freaked out, but yet not terribly surprised. I'm fairly convinced Louise has done some kind of shady deal to get her voice, the sound coming out of that girl is quite frankly incredible. Dark, soulful and riveting.
The band have possibly sold some souls too.
But back to the David Lynch bit. It's test way i can think of to describe what I'm hearing, and it's an image that doesn't eave me throughout the whole set. This band would not be even slightly out of place playing in the background in a Lynch film, most likely in somewhere seedy and smokey. this is a Very Good Thing by the way. There's a bit of Badalamenti about the arrangements, obviously, since I'm making the Lynch connection, but there's also an awful lot of Bad Seeds in there too. Again, Good Thing.
Wait, wait. The guitar players has a bow. Oh Shit. Pet hate? Guitars, and bass for that matter, being played with a bow. Hang on... It works. It doesn't annoy me. In fact, it's pretty fucking brilliant. The bow will come into play several times tonight, and it's a testament to the band and the songs that apart from that one brief moment when it was first picked up I loved it.
All in? Very impressed. There might even have been tingles.
Louise McVey & cracks in the concrete were fairly unknown to me before tonight, now they have my full attention. There's an EP scheduled for release in November, and an album due next year. I'll be waiting for both on the strength of that performance.

Next up are the headliners, Julia and the Doogans. I've seen them already, a few weeks ago in Pivo Pivo, and have a copy of their self titled EP tucked away on everything I own that plays music. I loved them that last time I saw them, I love that EP, but were they flukes?
Well, no. Even though the band is short a cellist tonight due to an unfortunate tea accident (no really, and get better soon!) they are still outstanding. Yes, I missed the cello, but only because I've hammered the songs so much that I know it should be there. A few songs in I'm over the missing member and enjoying what I'm getting, which is a wonderful, mellow treat. It's almost like being hugged by music, with a soothing voice whispering in your ear that everything is fine. Even if everything is well and truly screwed you'll believe that everything is fine, for the simple reason that Julia has one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard.

When Julia later promises not to sue me for posting Glasgow without asking and gives me a free fridge magnet that's a bonus. She could have stolen my pint and kicked me in the shins and I'd have still left happy. They play again in King Tut's on November 2nd, you can do far worse than get yourself along.

Final result? Two fantastic performances, one from a known quality, the other I already had expectations of, neither of which let me down.

Since I'm hopefully not getting sued by Julia, here's Glasgow again, which unlike at Pivo Pivo they played tonight, making me a very happy man.

Define Pop Fest 2

What are you doing on November 14th and 15th? Whatever it is, is it better than the second Define Pop Festival?

Taking place over those two days in The Flying Duck in Glasgow, over two stages, the line up so far looks like this:

Living Room Stage, Saturday
Vendor Defender, Kochka, The Costapeens,Mickey 9's Louise against The Elements, Miniature Dinosaurs, Other People.
Kitchen Stage, Saturday
Young Aviators, Gdansk, The Morgue Party Candidate, Pacific Theatre, Blessed Order Of Fallen Stars, Make Sparks and Little Yellow Ukuleles.

Living Room Stage, Sunday.
Yahweh, Second Hand Marching Band, Lava Experiments, Diamond Sea, Esperi, Incrediboy and The Forget Me Nots, Lovers Turn To Monsters.
Kitchen Stage, Sunday.
Pooch, Vendor Defender, Fridge Magnets, Dead Boy Robotics, Lad Lazarus

There's a few more acts still to be announced too.

That's a whole lot of fantastic bands playing in the one place, I'll be going.

Keep an eye on the Define Pop MySpace for information and ticket details.

Lions.Chase.Tigers EP Giveaway, Quick Gig Roundup

Updates are screwy again this week and probably next too, due to not being able to get at a computer much. Sorry folks, I'll catch up when I can.

Lions.Chase.Tigers ate giving away a free download of their just released debut EP To Their Blood until October 31st if you sign up to their mailing list. You can find the details here. You can also buy a copy from their website.

I've not had a chance to listen to it yet, and am still a bit annoyed with myself at not being able to get along to the EP launch gig last weekend, but the couple of times I've seen Lions.Chase.Tigers I've been pretty impressed, so I'm looking forward to having a listen.

Lions.Chase.Tigers Website - MySpace

Quick Gig Round-Up

I've been doing a good job of sticking to my a gig a week regime recently, think I've managed to get along to at least one show a week since turned 30 now. I'd do more, but well, the jobless bum thing makes that tricky. It's no coincidence that my getting out more has led to more frequent blog posts too, last time I was so excited about getting out and about, seeing new bands I've hardly heard of was about 10 years ago, didn't know how much I missed it until I started doing it again.

Anyway, last week at The Flying Duck I finally had the pleasure of seeing Trapped In Kansas after missing out on their last few Glasgow shows. They were very good, and I'll be writing more about them in future, once I've remembered to pester the band to send me some songs.

Support act City of Statues were also very enjoyable, with riffage aplenty.

Trapped In Kansas are back in Glasgow this weekend, playing at The Captain's Rest with the also excellent The Darien Venture on Sunday. I won't make it along, but if you can, you should.

Last night I dragged myself into Glasgow again, this time to Stereo, to catch The Morgue Party Candidate for the first time. Their set was a bit chaotic, somewhat messy and I don't think the band enjoyed it much. I did though. the band are far from the finished article, but show an awful lot of promise and like i say, even if they didn't enjoy their set last night, I did, and so did others. Eagerly anticipate catching them again when hopefully they'll enjoy it too.

Opening the bill last night were Macabre Scene, playing their first gig. I'd checked them out a little beforehand thanks to a tip from Ross of The Morgue Party Candidate and liked what I'd heard. They played a short set, only six songs, but were really good. Very impressed by this band, especially since it was their first live outing. Again, can't wait to see and here more from them in future.

Jesus H. Foxx

Continuing to fight those accusations of West Coast bias, even though no one has actually made any, let's stay over in Edinburgh for another day shall we?
This was meant to be posted Friday, but has slipped to Sunday. Just when I was becoming almost efficient too. It'll be nice if my computer will behave long enough to let me get this posted. Here's hoping.

Jesus H. Foxx are seven piece from Edinburgh, with two drummer, three guitarists and as their bio puts it a partridge in a pear tree (a cornet player who sometimes plays glockenspiel) with a couple of releases to their name, the most recent of which, Matter, was released by Song, By Toad Records at the start of August.

Matthew of the Song, By Toad blog & label was kind enough to send me over a copy to have a listen to. To be honest, I was completely surprised by what I heard. Between the name and the promise of multiple drummers and guitarists I expected something riff laden, mildly chaotic and quite aggressive, instead I got gentle instrumentation, tender vocals and very sweet harmonies. Gentle and mild, rather than chaotic and aggressive. Not at all what I expected then!

Don't get me wrong, I like myself some chaos and love a bit of riffage, but sometimes I like a nice surprise too. The songs on the Matter EP are a very nice surprise indeed. In fact, they are just all round very nice.

I am however at a loss to explain what they sound like, I can't think of any other bands to compare them too and "melodic and pleasant" doesn't really help much. Instead of me trying to describe them, how about you go listen for yourself then? There's songs on MySpace, and a download of one of the EP tracks, I'm Half The Man You Were, below.

Download Jesus H. Foxx - I'm Half The Man You Were

You can buy the new EP, Matter, here.

Jesus H. Foxx MySpace

(If anyone is counting this post took 3 hours, not including the Friday till Sunday delay, thanks to my computer regularly being a dick. AND my trusty 5 year old MP3 player finally gave up and died today. I hate technology)

A Quick Word About Football

Alright, computer deciding to misbehave this weekend, so a few of the posts lined up need to stay as drafts till it decides to work nice again.

The post title is a bit misleading, I don't really intend to say a thing about a certain game that kicks off in a few hours, I just wanted an excuse to post a track. The first line of the song gives me my excuse to do it today.

Julia & The Doogans - Glasgow

I'll get back to Julia and the Doogans more another time, but for now I'll just say that Julia has one of the most gorgeous voices I've heard in ages.
They've got a few gigs lined up in October, get down to one if you can. I caught them live a few weeks ago in Pivo Pivo in Glasgow and they were really ace.

MySpace - Facebook - Twitter

While you are at it, try and grab a copy of their self titled EP, it's available from eMusic and presumably other places too.

Kid Canaveral EP Launch

Sort of forgot to mention this before now, but after a little prod I'm remembering now.
I deliberatly didn't touch on this one until now, saving it as part of my mini "stuff that's happening over in Edinburgh" fest instead. (I don't think I'm going to get away with that...)

Anyway, Kid Canaveral are a two boy, two girl indie pop combo, with a nice little collection of 7" singles to their name so far. This weekend they play a launch gig for their new EP, Left & Right at The Bowery in Edinburgh. If you click on the wee picture up the top there it should open up at a readable size so you can get the info.

Support comes from Cancel The Astronauts and Popup, two other favourites round these parts - do a search and read what I've written about them before if you don't believe me - so it should be a splendid night of sheer indie joy. One I can't go to...

Get yourself along if you can and tell everyone Jim sent you. All but a few people will stare at you blankly, but that's alright, that's how my whole life feels.

I'll be reviewing Left & Right soon, but in the meantime whet your appetite with an interview Kid Canaveral did with Peenko and see what Glasgow PodcART had to say about the EP.

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