This Week's Thing

There wasn't one of these last week because I couldn't find any releases out. No albums, no singles, nothing. If I somehow managed to miss something, do let me know. There was a ton of gigs, but other places do gig guides better than me, so I skipped it.

This week however there's some stuff out, including two I highly recommend.

Records:

The Unwinding Hours release their self titled debut album today. It is probably the best album I've heard so far this year, although admittedly we are only half way through February. If you liked Aereogramme you'll want a copy of this. If you didn't you should still have a listen. Available all the usual places, including the Chemikal Underground shop - link over on the right - on Chemikal Underground, funnily enough. Should have a full review of this up later too. While I'm at it - and I earn no commission from saying nice things or linking to it - it's well worth using the Chemikal Underground shop. User friendly, loads to buy, physical products and digital downloads and incredibly fast at getting your order to you, at least in my experience.

Sticking with debut releases, The Kays Lavelle release their first single, The Hours. Released by Wiseblood Industries, it's available as a free download from the Wiseblood website. We do like The Kays Lavelle a lot around here, and the single goes a long to way showing why.

More debuts, of a sort, come from The Wildhouse. Two releases from them today, the albums Hyenas and Poet:Saint. Both albums are re-issues, but also mark the first album releases by 17 Seconds Records.

Paul Vickers and the Leg have a new album - Itchy Grumble - out today. Released by SL Records you can get a CD from the SL website, and a download is available on Bandcamp.

As usual tell me if there's anything I've missed.

Err, like this one that I forgot to mention. Thanks Tim for the reminder!
The description for this one makes my head hurt a bit, and I can't quite remember where I am after reading it, so I'll just reproduce the whole thing - "Glasgow/Barcelona based French/Argentinian electropunk male female duo's ravey anthem to love remixed by Essex born ex-Londoner aging punk producer in Scotland in a warped dubstep/skipstep style"
In short it's a singe by A-Lix, remixed by Tim London. Listen to it on the MySpace and if you like it buy it off iTunes.

Gigs:
Good gravy there's a lot of gigs on this week. I might not see the inside of my house much. Usual deal: other, better gig guides are available, but here's my standouts.

Panda Su is off on a tour at the moment with Sophie's Pigeons. Pop along to either MySpace page for the full list of dates. For the purposes of the round up note that they'll be in Dundee on Tuesday and Glasgow on Wednesday. I know nothing about Sophie's Pigeons, but Panda Su is a big favourite around here.
Julia and the Doogans happen to be on the bill at that gig on Wednesday too. It's in Brel, you should go. If you are away to Edinburgh to see Frightened Rabbit that night we'll forgive you though. On Thursday Julia and the Doogans are playing in Ayr too. On Sunday they played Pivo Pivo in Glasgow - well two of them did, it was a stripped back line up of just Julia and Alan - and were, as they have been every time I've seen them so far, fab. Great cakes too. If you go along on Wednesday for no other reason, do it to stop me eating all their cakes.

Alternatively on Wednesday, you could pop along to Box to see The Red Show. I caught them last week at the Classic Grand. There were some technical hitches that affected them, but there was still plenty to enjoy, and they are on the list to see again soon.

Thursday sees a gig celebrating Glasgow Podcart's first birthday. To the delight of those who complained that their birthday gig was to feature English and Northern Irish bands, the line up has changed from that original announcement. Playing at The 13th Note on Thursday for the party are Little Yellow Ukuleles, Campfires In Winter and St Deluxe. It's free. If you can find something to complain about there, you might never be happy.

Friday has the fourth Elba Sessions Presents gig. The line up has King James, Craig Davidson, Maple Leaves, and a special acoustic set from Cuddly Shark. I know nothing of the first two, and love the second two. I've not seen any of them live so far, which is why you'll find me in Glasgow's Liquid Ship on Friday for this.

That's three days of gigs with at least one band on that I've loved round these parts. If anyone dares to put on something excellent on Saturday I'll have to assume that they hate me and are trying to kill me.

There's not much time for rest though, as Sunday has Meursault playing Nice 'n Sleazy, with Xiu Xiu and North Atlantic Oscillation. That's likely to be a gig too far for me, but we'll see.

There's bound to be other stuff on this week too, but those four are the ones that will be entertaining - and probably knackering - me this week.

A Mitchell Museum Freebie

Once again I'm treading on the toes of Peenko's Friday Freebie post, but hey, screw it.

In preperation for the release of their debut album Mitchell Museum - one of my tips for bands to watch this year, as you might remember - have gathered up a collection of some of their older songs, demos and b-sides and are giving them all away for free.

You can download the free We Lost 1st Prize EP over at the Mitchell Museum Bandcamp page.

Oliver Stays

At the risk of repeating myself, I'm running way late with this one.
Oliver Stays are a four piece from Glasgow - or close enough at least. Their faces might be familiar to some, with band members having previously been in Drive-By Argument, Atlas Skye and Jocasta Sleeps.

Formed in November of last year, there's not a lot to listen to yet but what there is sounds promising. Interestingly the three songs featured on the band's MySpace were put together over the Internet, with band members mailing each other tracks and adding their own bits until they were fully formed. One of their demos - Temperament - is available for listening to down at the bottom.

No one in the band is actually called Oliver Stays either.

The band are heading out to play their first live dates at the end of month. Firstly supporting Doll And The Kicks at:

21 Feb Aberdeen Tunnels
24 Feb Dundee Doghouse
25 Feb Edinburgh Cabaret Voltaire
26 Feb Fife Greenside Hotel
27 Feb Glasgow Classic Grand
And a headline show :
28 Feb Bathgate Harley’s



Oliver Stays MySpace

Maxwell Panther: Do You feel Different Yet? - Album Review

I'm sure I got this off eMusic months ago, but it's been flagged up to my attention again just recently, so since I'm doing anything I can think of to avoid boring myself rigid by watching the Superbowl it's getting written about tonight.

Maxwell Panther comes from Sunderland, but this album is released by Song, By Toad which makes it Scottish enough for Aye Tunes, just in case you were planning on having a go at me for daring to venture outside our borders. There's plenty of other things you can have a go at me for though, if you are already angered up.

Everyone else that's written about this album has already mentioned the same thing that I'm about to, but it's a factor that pretty much has to be brought up, so let's get the elephant in the room out of the way straight off (there, now you can yell at me for saying "elephant in the room", don't say I don't work hard). This album is rough as Hell. At times it sounds like it was recorded on a mobile phone, while Mr Panther sang and played in a different room. If you don't like lo-fi recording you probably won't like this.

If you can get beyond that - and fortunately I can or this would be a very short and not very nice review - the next notable thing is that the roughness of recording doesn't really matter.
The lousy production and rough as fuck recording do bring with them a certain charm, but beyond that there's just some really good songs in here. It's essentially Maxwell and his guitar, plus whatever reverb and distortion tactics people use for these things - I've never claimed to know anything about technology - and it's really very enjoyable. The songs tend to be slice-of-life type stuff, with a healthy dose of anger and aggression, yet also, somehow, tons of charms.

When listening to the album I kept thinking of Half Man Half Biscuit and Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine. No idea why, Maxwell Panther sounds nothing like either of them, but making me think of those two bands is - at least to me - a really good thing.

I doubt Maxwell Panther will be troubling the mainstream any time soon, but if I'm picking something recorded in a bedroom I'll take him over the likes of Unicorn Kid any day. Hell, I'd rather have this than some over polished stadium rock nonsense for that matter.
Oh yeah, and it is much better than the Superbowl.

The lovely people at Song, by Toad have given me permission to post a couple of tracks off the album so you can have a wee listen and decide for yourself if it's your thing or not.
My Ex-Identity
Lost Soul on a Roll (That's Me)

Do You Feel Different Yet? is out now, available at all the usual download shops, and you can buy a CD direct from Song, By Toad Records.

Maxwell Panther MySpace

Maxwell Panther BandCamp

Born To Be Wide presents German Night

Tomorrow night in Edinburgh club night Born To Be Wide celebrates it's sixth birthday. To do so, they've gone for a German themed evening.

Held in partnership with Edinburgh's German Consulate General, things kick off at 7.30pm with a seminar which promises all you need to know about the German music scene.

Following that there's a live set from Jeans Team, a German music quiz and German DJ sets.

For more info and tickets, go here

Super Adventure Club: Pick Up Sticks/SAC Attack - Single Review

I'm the World's worst Super Adventure Club fan. They released their debut album Chalk Horror last year, I don't own a copy. The gig pretty regularly, I've never been to see them. Determined to break this circle of shame I let out a little whoop of joy last week when it came to my attention that they'd snuck out this, their new single, a week early. Off I rushed to buy my copy, with the intention of listening, hopefully enjoying and getting a wee review done for here. Until now I only managed the listening and enjoying. I'm more than a bit rubbish.

Slightly ramshackle sounding, and endearingly so, the first thing to strike me about the single is that, much like Armellodie label-mates Cuddly Shark, Super Adventure Club don't seem to take themselves too seriously. You suspect that being in Super Adventure Club would be loads of fun.
Having fun and a healthy attitude doesn't mean you'll make good music obviously, so thankfully the songs here are good too.

Opener Pick Up Sticks is gently bouncy, filled with lovely boy-girl harmonies, and an unexpected instrumental breakdown near the end. It's so infectious that you do worry you might need a dose of antibiotics afterwards.
SAC Attack is a bit more in your face, at times it sounds like - and believe it or not this is a compliment - everyone involved is playing an entirely different song. Fortunately all those different songs that I've just invented manage to come together into one quite nicely. Plus the lyrics advise that you avoid zombies, and that's something I find hard to argue with.
B-side Maths Rock (UK Curriculum) rounds out the package nicely, complete with diversions into jazz drumming and what I think is a slide whistle solo.

Three songs full of fun, wit, bags of charm and good tunes? Nothing really to complain about? That'll be a big tick in the win column for the single then.

Pick Up Sticks/SAC Attack is out now on Armellodie Records. Look below to have a listen and buy from Bandcamp. The single is also available on the likes of iTunes and eMusic. There's a launch gig for the single on Thursday February 4th in Nice n Sleazy's. I should be there, do come say hi.

Frightened Rabbit: Nothing Like You - Single Review

Frightened Rabbit continue to build anticipation for their upcoming third album - The Winter of Mixed Drinks - with the second single from it.
Nothing Like You was one of a batch of songs shown off at last years Queen's Hall gig, where it was given the name Steve. If you caught Frightened Rabbit since then, or tuned in to some of their recent radio sessions, you'll probably have heard it.
Nothing Like You is a much more immediate affair than last single Swim Until You Can't See Land was. I must confess that one took a while to really grow on me, but Nothing Like You is one of those songs that grabs you from the off and doesn't let go until it's three minutes are up. The PR blurb compares it to The Cure's Inbetween Days and to be fair if you imagine that song kicked up a notch or two, that's not far off the mark.
Nothing Like You rattles along at a fair old pace, but is far from being a dumb three minute pop song. It's energetic, optimistic and packed with the lyrical dexterity we've come to expect from Frightened Rabbit.

B-side Learned Your Name is a more sedate affair. Slowed down and gentle, much more reflective and sober than the A-side it doesn't elicit the same excitement, but neither is it anything close to a let down.

After hearing Nothing Like You I'm officially very excited about hearing the rest of the Winter of Mixed Drinks. We just have to get this pesky short month of February out of the way first.

Embedded below is the video for the single, and if you visit the band's MUZU channel you can find out all about a competition to win gig tickets.

Nothing Like You is released by Fat Cat Records on February 22nd (23rd in the US and Canada), available on 7" or to download.



Frightened Rabbit on MUZU

And The Winner Is...

Remember I asked you all to go vote for me in the Scottish Roundup blog awards? Well, the votes have been counted and the results are in.
The top 5 music blogs, as voted for by readers and chosen by the panelists are...
5. Phuturelabs
4. Last Year’s Girl
3. Aye Tunes
2. The Pop Cop
1. Peenko

I'm pretty happy with third, and delighted for Peenko for winning it. The swine.
Last year's Girl also came top of the list for Photography blogs too. She's quite an overachiever.

Big thanks to everyone that voted for me, I owe you all a drink.

This Week's Thing

This week I'm fairly clueless about what is out and what's going on, to be honest. I had so many things to go to last week that looking beyond them mostly made my head explode. With that in mind I'll likely have to update this post a few times throughout today as I notice another record or gig I should have mentioned.
As always if I miss anything use the comments or email me to let me know.

Records:
Super Adventure Club properly release the single I mentioned last week. Pick Up Sticks/SAC Attack is out on Armellodie Records today. You should be able to find it at all the usual places, and both the CD release and download are available on Bandcamp. There's a launch gig for the single on the 4th, Thursday, in Nice n Sleazy's, with support from Young Avaitors, Mondegreen and Symbolics. I'd planned on doing a single review by now, but last week got away from me.

Factory Kids release their first EP today, cunningly titled EP1. It's out on 17 Seconds Records and just like with last week's Dirty Cuts single there's a free download available, this time of the EP's lead track They Used To Call Me Baby.

The new Isa & the Filthy Tongues album, Dark Passenger, is available on eMusic. There's a launch gig for that this week too, details below.

Punch & the Apostles have their self titled debut album out today. I had no idea this was due out till I saw it on eMusic, apparently I wasn't paying attention.

Gigs:
I've paid very little attention to gigs this week, to be honest. Again, after three last week planning ahead just caused headaches.
In addition to the Super Adventure Club single launch mentioned above, Thursday also sees a Socks Off night at The Admiral. The line up boasts Haight-Ashbury, Alan McKim, The Seventeenth Century and Aye Tunes favourites Julia & the Doogans. Since I've seen The Seventeenth Century three times in the last four weeks I'll be opting for the Super Adventure Club gig, but The Admiral is certainly a very good alternative.
On Friday over in Edinburgh Isa & the Filthy Tongues are having an album launch gig at Cabaret Voltaire. You might remember that I rather liked their new album.

There might be updates later, once I've had a look around to see what else is out.

This Week's Thing

After a few dead weeks there's actually some records out this week worth checking out.

Lava Experiments release Piecing Memories Together (Remixes). As the name suggests, it's a remix EP, with Dan le Sac, Betamax Warriors and Pumajaw remixing Piecing Memories Together. A Lava Experiments radio edit is also included, and the CD will have the full length original version - previously found on the Blackbody II EP - rounding out the package. You can order a CD direct from the band here and find it on all the usual download shops.
There's also a launch gig on Friday the 29th in The 13th Note in Glasgow. Support comes from Glider and Laki Mera. Looks like a good one, I might need to kick the backside out of my budget to get along.

Super Adventure Club have a new single scheduled for next week, and a launch gig to go with it, but have snuck the single out a week early over here. It's rather good.

Galleries release their self-titled debut EP. The band were kind enough to send me a copy way back at the start of December, which got all caught up in Christmas and New Year lazyness, so still hasn't been reviewed. It's a grower, and as a bonus it's also free. You can download it over here.

Also releasing their debut single are The Dirty Cuts. Titled 2 Page Spread it is released by our pals at 17 Seconds Records, you should be able to find it at the usual download places. You can also download the b-side - Lips - for free over at the 17 Seconds site.

Errors have a new single - A Rumour In Africa - out today on Rock Action. Their second album is pretty highly anticipated round here. The single is available as a download and a pretty coloured 7". (EDIT: No they don't, the single is out on February 22nd, I got the wrong date.)

The Seventeenth Century might release the Notes EP today. The Skinny says it is out today, but there's no mention of a release date or purchase details on the band's website, so I'll need to check this one out and edit here as applicable.

Panda Su's Sticks and Bricks EP isn't really new, but it just went up on eMusic today, giving you the perfect chance to check it out of you haven't picked up a CD yet.

Finally, at the risk of derailing Peenko's Friday Freebies this week, I'd like to draw your attention to the newly relaunched Too Many Fireworks record label, which is giving away a free sampler in return for signing up to their mailing list.

There's an absolute ton of gigs on this week too. The one I'm most looking forward to takes place on Sunday under the Celtic Connections banner, the Chemikal Underground 15th birthday bash.
As well as making me feel really old - a young Jim was at their 5th birthday gig - there's a briliant selection of bands playing. On the bill are Zoey Van Goey, Adrian Crowley, Lord Cut Glass, Emma Pollock, the first ever live show by ex-Aereogrammers Craig B and Iain Cook as The Unwinding Hours, a performance by Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells and The Phantom Band headlining. It should be a bit special. Moe info and tickets here.

Oh, and just a reminder there's a couple of days left to get your votes in for the Scotblogs Awards, voting for me would be brilliant.

Spaghetti Anywhere EP Review

One of the brilliant things about writing Aye Tunes is that every now and then I get sent something from nowhere, from a band I'm completely unaware of, that I completely fall in love with. This is one of those times.

Spaghetti Anywhere are Francis Cullen and Valerio Cerini, London based housemates. I think Valerio hails from Rome, while one listen to vocalist Francis betrays him away as a Scot. A longer listen shows that the Scottish influence is one that runs through the band. Rather than be seduced by whatever trendy haircuts and musical scene is currently the hip thing in London, Spaghetti Anywhere wouldn't be out of place on an old C86 compilation tape.

Calling to mind bands like The Pastels, Camera Obscura and Belle and Sebastian can be more of a blessing than a curse - you probably trip over half a dozen Belle and Sebastian copyists any time you walk down a street in Glasgow - but if you can pull it off it can sound delightful. Spaghetti Anywhere do more than just pull it off, they do it magnificently.

Reinforcing those Scottish 80s influences opening track Gregory's Girl not only lifts the title of John Gordon Sinclair's finest moment, but also a brief sample from the film. It's no exercise in nostalgia for the sake of it though, it - like the rest of the EP - is infectious, incredibly catching and as sweet and charming as a very sweet & charming thing. George Clooney perhaps. I've embedded Gregory's Girl below for the moment so you can have a wee listen for yourself.

Living in London plays into the band's songs too, most particularly on Love Again, where the casual references fit naturally into the lyrics, rather than feeling shoehorned in.

If you like your indie-pop get your ears round this, one of the best debuts I've heard in ages, there's not a bad song in the four. Being London based has kept Spaghetti Anywhere off my radar before now, but now they are on it I just might be in love with them. None of the EP tracks are on the band's MySpace so far, but don't let that stop you dropping by and listening to what they do have up.

All in the Spaghetti Anywhere EP is an unexpected delight, and well worth the 13 minutes of your time it'll take to listen to. Just don't blame me for all the additional time you lose on listening again, and again, and again...

The EP is released on February 22nd on Toy Soldiers Records. It'll be available as a digital download and 10" vinyl. You should be able to order it from either the band or label websites below.

Spaghetti Anywhere MySpace
Toy Soldiers Records MySpace

Blah Blah Blah

Between one thing and another I've not been posting as much as I'd like.
While I work on writing up something proper, here's a wee bit of filler.

Got myself down to The 13th Note last night for the Glasgow PodcART gig. The Seventeenth Century and French Wives were both on the bill, and both very good, as expected. I've gone from not having seen The Seventeenth Century in months to having seen them twice in a couple of weeks now. As if that's not enough, I'm off to see them again on Thursday when they play The Mill with the always excellent There Will Be Fireworks.

I didn't make it very far into the year before I broke my gig a week resolution, as last week was a failure. There were plenty gigs on too, I just never got to any of them. I'm pulling double duty this week and next though, so that evens up the missed week.

You wouldn't believe how much of a fight my computer puts up when I try to do, well, anything. I swear the thing has a vendetta against me. This has made listening to any music I've got recently quite a task, which goes some way to explaining the lack of reviews of late. Instead an inordinate amount of time has been spent getting shot to death by children on Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox Live. My life is so exciting! I might end up taking a crowbar to to the thing, but I'll find a way to write up some reviews over the next week or so, because I've been sent some excellent things recently.

So, what about you, been to any good gigs recently, got anything fun lined up? Any bands out there that I might not have heard worth checking out?

While I'm here, Mitchell Museum have put out an odd wee promo video, which you can watch below.

Louise McVey & Cracks in the Concrete - EP Review

It's really about time to try catching up on reviews while there's not much new coming out, so here's one I've been trying to get round to for the best part of a month.

Considering that by now I put Louise McVey & Cracks in the Concrete in my Tips for 2010 it should come as very little surprise that I really enjoyed this EP, but before I'd heard it I'd been really looking forward to it, hoping and praying it wouldn't disappoint, that the one time I'd seen the band live hadn't just been a flash in the pan. In fact, so eager was I to get my hands on it that I signed up with Juno Download just because they had it earlier than anyone else.
Needless to say, my anticipation wasn't wasted, and my hopes not for nothing.

The four songs on the EP have a similar undercurrent of menace and impending doom, yet enough variety to keep things interesting and show there's more than one trick up the bands sleeve.

From the opening assault of Ode, all spikey guitars and piano, and a refrain that oddly puts me in mind of something from a DJ Shadow or UNKLE album more than anything, to the more gentle sounding Love Lost Tales, on to the unsettling ghost stories of Night, ending with the downbeat and most Twin Peaks of the selection Maud all four songs are driping with atmosphere, musical menace and storytelling lyrics.

Cracks in the Concrete perform a perfectly formed backdrop, while Louise McVey's ice cold vocals guide the listener through like a siren leading you on to the rocks. Excellent stuff, now to impatiently wait for a follow up album...

Fans of the likes of The Birthday Party and The Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey, Angelo Badalamenti, and just anyone with a taste for something a little different could do a whole lot worse than seek this release out.

Louise McVey & Cracks in the Concrete's selft titled EP is out now on Optimo Music, available as a download from all the usual places. A 10" vinyl release will follow in late January.

MySpace

Vote for Me!

The folks over at Scottish Roundup are running an award thing for blogs, the 2010 Scotblog Awards.

Anyway, I'm nominated, so if you feel like it, please do go and vote for me over here.
You can vote for more than one blog, so as well as voting for Aye Tunes go ahead and vote for our pals too, like Peenko, Last Year’s Girl and Have Fun at Dinner.

Cheers!

Ten Tips for 2010

I'm later doing this than I really intended. Shaking off the post festive season "can't be bothered" feeling is still taking it's toll, so I'd better just get on with it.

I'm splitting this into two halfs, The Ones You Know are bands that have been around for a bit, and ones I've covered a bit previously. The Ones You Might Not are, as the name suggests, ones that aren't quite so familiar, and I've generally not covered them much so far.
Ideally I'll expand on this a bit later, but for now here's the list and a wee bit of rambling.

The Ones You Know
Kid Canaveral - If you don't know Kid Canaveral by now then you are really missing out. Already with a string of great single under their belt, an album is nearing completion. Unless something goes horribly wrong their track record suggests that's an album I'm going to enjoy.
Mitchell Museum - I do carry a bit of bias towards Mitchell Museum, since they are managed by my cousin. That aside though, they are a cracking band. A couple of impressive singles last year will be followed by an album soon. Again, that's one I'm looking forward to quite a lot.
Trapped In Kansas - I've taken stick for liking Trapped In Kansas before, but will that stop me enjoying them and writing about them? Of course not. Whether you like them or not, I do. I there's plans for an EP and hopefully an album this year.
Julia and The Doogans - Great songs, gorgeous voice, cracking band. That's more than enough for me.
The Kays Lavelle - Another band with an album almost ready for release, another album I'm eagerly awaiting.

The Ones You Might Not
We're Only Afraid of NYC - Sometimes you get one of those happy accidents when you go to see one band and the support act you'd never heard of before really catches your attention too. I managed to see them a few times last year and am eagerly awaiting their upcoming EP.
Louise McVey and Cracks in the Concrete - Another happy accident, as I knew next to nothing about them before catching them play at a Glasgow Podcart Live Session, but I was very impressed that night. Their recently released debut EP bodes well for the future.
Make Sparks - There's already a significant buzz around Make Sparks on the strength of their recent Rewind EP (which I still need to review, and will soon) and regular live shows. More recording and heaps of live shows are scheduled for the start of this year, try and get along to a gig, I will be.
Macabre Scene - First time I saw this band live I liked them, and could see a load of potential in them. Next time I saw them was only a few weeks later, but they'd already improved a ton. If they can keep that up it shouldn't be long before that potential is lived up to.
Esperi - I've written a fair bit about esperi here over the last couple of months, live shows are consistently impressive, and so are the recordings. I believe work has started on an album, I really can't wait to hear it.

Honourable Mentions
There's far more than ten bands worth watching this year. In no particular order, and no doubt missing loads out, mentions have to go to Lava Experiments, Kochka, Yahweh, Campfires In Winter, Zoobizaretta, French Wives, The Seventeenth Century, Mickey 9s, The Whisky Works, The Darien Venture, Bronto Skylift, Little Yellow Ukuleles, and so many many more.

Frightened Rabbit Announce New Single

Frightened Rabbit precede their 3rd full length studio album, ‘The Winter Of Mixed Drinks’ with a brand new single ‘Nothing Like You’ on February 22nd, backed with another new song, ‘Learned Your Name’.
Furiously upbeat, ‘Nothing Like You’ s acoustic bustle is reminescent of The Cure classic, ‘Inbetween Days’ and mines the most uptempo aspects of Scott Hutchison's songwriting. The new album follows on 1st March.

Frightened Rabbit’s steady ascent is set to rise incrementally with the release of the new album, appetite for which has been whetted by the anthemic ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’ teaser single which gave the band their first Zane Lowe plays and made a unaminous critcal impression at NME, Q (Track Of The Day), News Of The World (SotW), Record Of The Day (Track Of The Week), CMU Daily (Track Of The Day).

More tellingly they registered strongly in the albums of the decade polls everywhere from the blogs to NME and The Skinny

‘Nothing Like You’ typifies a more fully realised Frightened Rabbit sound, and like ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’ boasts a stunning string arrangment from labelmate, Hauschka. Speaking to nme.com about the new album, lead singer Scott Hutchison explained ‘We've broadened our horizons sonically and it feels like a natural move forward. Most importantly, it’s better than the last one. That's all I wanted, really."
Frightened Rabbit ended 2009 playing to huge crowds at Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebration and 2010 will be a pivotal year for the band, as Scott acknowledges: “I’ve never been in a position of being aware of an audience of any size that was waiting for our music until now. You have to be aware of it or else it’s totally selfish. Pressure sounds like a negative thing but it’s quite positive actually. It feels earned. Everything we have achieved has been earned. It would be disappointing if we didn’t become more popular because that’s got to be the goal for every new record. If it comes I think we are actually ready for it now.’

The March headline dates run as follows, tickets available via www.crowdsurge.com/frightenedrabbit

04/03/10 York Duchess
05/03/10 Manchester Club Academy
06/03/10 Aldershot West End Centre
08/03/10 Bristol Thekla
09/03/10 Oxford Academy 2
10/03/10 London Koko
12/03/10 Birmingham Academy 2
13/03/10 Sheffield Leadmill 2
14/03/10 Norwich Arts Centre

I don't think I'm going out on too much of a limb to presume that there's Scottish dates to follow those.
You can have a wee listen to Nothing Like You (formerly known to some of you as Steve) now over at the Frightened Rabbit MySpace.
The single will be available as a 7" and download from Fat Cat.

What's Happening on Aye Tunes in 2010?

It's that time of the year when we move on from lists of stuff that was good last year to lists of stuff we won't do this year. I'm crap at giving things up (I'm typing this with a ciggie in my hand and a half drunk bottle of beer on my desk, so those two clearly aren't happening), so instead my only real resolution for 2010 is to find myself a job, since being out of work really puts a dent in your ability to buy things.

Anyway, here's what you can expect from the blog over the coming year.

Asides from Christmas week I managed to get myself along to at least one gig a week for the last five months of 2009 - and since the first couple of weeks of December had me at two gigs a week I think I'm allowed that one week off - despite being regularly skint. I'm planning on keeping that rate up as far as possible, so you regular gig goers can probably expect to see a lot of the wee ginger guy lurking around various venues in Glasgow over the course of the year. On thing I'd like to do is get over to Edinburgh more often, it's been ages since I got to a gig over there. That needs money though, so it'll have to be something quite spectacular to get me through at the moment I think.

Aye Tunes is a year and a half old this week. Only I'm not counting that whole first year, since it wasn't until a full year after launching I actually did anything of note round here. So in June we'll be celebrating the first birthday of Aye Tunes properly. There might even be a party or something.

At some point soon I'll try and do some kind of 10 tips for 2010 list, along with the rest of the music bloggers on the planet. It'll likely be quite familiar, as I think most of the ones I think are worth watching are bands that came to my attention in the last half of 2009 and have already had a wee bit of coverage here.

Record and gig reviews are likely to continue, and I do have a desire to add interviews into the mix too. Any volunteers?
I've fallen away from doing band profiles a bit, so I'll try and get more of those done this year too.

For better or worse I'm still going to try and focus on positives not negatives, so still no reviews slating things, unless I can be constructive about it. I will try and stop calling albums I like brilliant though, and attempt to balanced.

Thanks a lot to everyone that has visited over the past year. My stats show that most of you started coming round in September and October, I'm glad you got here and hope you keep coming back.

Oh, I did think of one resolution - keep up with my email. If you sent me something in December especially it pretty much hit my inbox and go stuck there. Feel free to give me a reminder if I've missed something.

Rambling over, for now.

We Sink Ships Radio Launch Gig

Still trying to drag myself out of the Christmas and New Year slump with regards to getting back to regular postings at the moment, bear with me.

Until I force myself to write something more, here's a plug for the gig I'm heading to on Friday.
The line up is The Second Hand Marching Band, Benni Hemm Hemm and Euan McMeeken (of The Kays Lavelle, but promising to play non-Kays material). Also beneath us, the waves DJing. If you click the poster above it should be more readable, but if you can't be bothered then the gig is at The 13th Note on Friday, kicks off at 9pm, and costs £4 to get in.

The gig is to celebrate the launch of the new We Sink Ships podcast on Radio Magnetic. The first podcast should be available some time today update, it's available now here, but in the meantime you can hear a teaser for it here. Head over to Radio Magnetic for full details on what you can expect from WSS Radio.

While on the subject of We Sink Ships I should really point out that their new (and quite gorgeous looking) website is now online at http://www.wesinkships.co.uk/, with two new exhibitions available for viewing.

I'm risking turning into a Second Hand Marching Band stalker, I've seen them quite a lot recently, but since they have been threatening to take a break from gigging for a while I may as well pack in as many as I can before they take a time out from playing live. Benni Hemm Hemm impressed me quite a bit last time round, and I'm interested to see what Euan gets up to on his own. See you at the bar then?

EP Review - second hand marching band: grit and determination

As I mentioned last week, there's a new Second Hand Marching Band EP out. Since there's very little new around, and since you don't have much longer to get your mitts on a copy and since I've done nothing since Christmas and don't want to fall back into my lazy ways, here's a wee review of it.



The EP has four winter themed songs, and kicks off with Bonbon, a cheery wee upbeat number. Lots going on, as is to be expected, without sounding busy. Good start, it's the ever so slightly chaotic, raucous kind of fun I like. You can have a listen to that below.
From there, things take a shift in tone, with more gentle and melancholic sounding songs rounding out the EP.
Second song, title track Grit and Determination, manages to be incredibly sweet without being sugary. It's more sparse sounding - conjuring up images of leafless trees covered in snow, although that could be just because that's what I saw out my window earlier - gradually adding layers to reach a crescendo. Very charming, sweet and uplifting.
My Gift is Waiting makes good use of boy/girl duelling vocals and harmonies to build mood over a barely there backdrop of piano and horns.
Next Year brings in layers of instrumentals and vocals again for another song of love and new beginnings.

All in it's a great little EP, and at a mere three quid well worth getting your hands on a copy before New Year. It's also a nice reminder that there's more to the band than the novelty of cramming as many bodies as possible on a stage. When I've written about the Second Hand Marching Band before I tend to focus on that myself, and the mildly chaotic air that comes with them playing the more upbeat songs live. That's a bit unfair as there's really solid, well crafted songs in their repertoire, played by excellent musicians. I'll try to be more balanced next time they crop up in my live reviews.

The Second hand Marching Band play King Tut's on December 30th (which because I kept getting distracted writing this is now today, rather than tomorrow as planned) along with The Seventeenth Century and We're Only Afraid of NYC. It'll be really good, you should go.
If you can't, then you can catch them again on January 8th at The 13th Note for the launch of the We Sink Ships radio show on Radio Magnetic. That'll be good too.

Happy Christmas!

Want all the Christmas songs collected together in one post? Well ok then, consider this your present. There's even an extra song.

1st - Miss The Occupier - Christmas Wrapping
2nd - Campfires in Winter - Christmas Song
3rd - Arab Strap - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
4th - Teenage Fanclub - Christmas Eve
5th - There Will Be Fireworks - In Excelsis Deo
6th - Frightened Rabbit - It's Christmas So We'll Stop (2007)
7th - El Dog - Let It Snow
8th - Mitchell Museum - Stop The Cavalry
9th - Cocteau Twins - Winter Wonderland
10th - Paul Vickers and The Leg - I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas
11th - Withered Hand - It's A Wonderful Lie
12th - Recording The Impossible - Silent Night
13th - Synonym - Festiv’ Biznis (Santa’s Goin’ Crazy)
14th - Dawn of the Replicants - Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time
15th - Camera Obscura - Little Donkey
16th - Belle & Sebastian - Are You Coming Over For Christmas?
17th - Dan Lyth - She Spent Thirty
18th - Idlewild - Mistletoe And Wine
19th - Macabre Scene - Last Christmas
20th - Dogs Die In Hot Cars - Christmas
21st - Cancel the Astronauts - Dead By Christmas
22nd - A Band Called Quinn - Snowbus
23rd - The Morgue Party Candidate - I Seen Mummy Kissing Santa Claus
24th - The Cinematics - Japanese Snow Queen
24h Bonus - De Rosa - Under The Stairs (Christmas Reverie) Demo Version
25th - Camera Obscura - The Blizzard

Happy Christmas (or other holiday of your choice) everyone. Please remember, Aye Tunes isn't just for Christmas, so keep coming back. Unless you dislike me, then you are excused.

Christmas Songs - Day 24

Phew, it's the last day of this, so I don't have to keep digging for more songs. Got any suggestions for anything else I can do to force me to make a post every day? There probably won't be anything too exciting posted here over the next day or two, so don't feel bad if you don't visit.

Today's Christmas song is a last minute entry from The Cinematics. They had a new album out a couple of months ago. I wasn't in love with it, but it's not bad.

The Cinematics - Japanese Snow Queen
Cinematics website

Ah heck, it's Christmas, so have another song too:
De Rosa: Under The Stairs (Christmas Reverie) Demo Version

If you are after another freebie song, Kid Canaveral are giving away Good Morning, a taster of the album they'll be releasing next year. It isn't Christmassy, but it is fab, so go get it.

I'll be wandering the streets and pubs of Glasgow later today, so if anyone is at a loose end from about 2pm for a while, give me a shout.

Second Hand Marching Band release new single

Only available between 23rd of December and 1st of January 2010. We'll make you a CD and you'll get your own numbered hand made copy. There will probably only be a few dozen made so it might be pure special.

It's a quiet time for new releases, obviously, so might as well flag up good ones as they happen.
We here at Aye Tunes (well, me, no one else works here) love The Second Hand Marching Band, so new material from them is smashing.
As stated in their description above, this new CD is only available for about a week, so get your skates on if you want a copy.
See below to have a wee listen and to get your hands on a copy. Your £3 gets you a CD and a download too.

Christmas Songs - Day 23

Nearly finished. I'm quite chuffed and surprised that I've got a post up ever day as planned.

Today's song is a home demo that I pestered Ross from The Morgue Party Candidate into sending over. If you haven't heard of the band before, I'll direct you to a wee bit I wrote about them earlier in the year here.

The Morgue Party Candidate - I Seen Mummy Kissing Santa Claus

The Morgue Party Candidate MySpace
You can also grab their Good Morning, Good Night EP for nothing here.

Christmas Songs - Day 22

Getting close to the end of the Christmas songs series now, obviously.
I'm going to need something to replace it by next week, any suggestions?

Today's song was was supposed to be It's Christmas Time by A Band Called Quinn, until I found out that after being available free last year it's been reissued as a single this week, which scuppered that plan. Instead you can have another equally festive track from that free EP.

A Band Called Quinn - Snowbus

A Band Called Quinn - MySpace

Best of 2009: Glasgow PodcART

Taking a wee break from the albums I've loved this year to talk about something else that's been a massive influence on both me and the blog. This time you can actually accuse me of writing nice stuff about my pals, but they deserve it.

In case you haven't heard of them, Glasgow PodcART are a team of Glasgow based music fanatics, who put together a weekly podcast laying music from both signed and unsigned artists and lots, lots more. So far, so simple. What makes the weekly podcasts must listens for me isn't just the music, but the people involved.

I was a bit of a late comer to the PodcART, only starting to listen at around episode 20 after seeing the name in Hinterland brochures. Within my first few weeks of listening I was introduced to the concept of Pooching the band, had Trapped in Kansas become forever known to me as Pumped in Venice, listened in on a conversation about porno boots for transvestites and heard something which - no matter how hard I try - I'll never be able to forget involving a glass Irn Bru bottle. Oh, and I heard an absolute ton of cracking music.

To say that listening to Glasgow PodcART has introduced me to new bands would be a massive understatement. Not every song or band is a winner with me, I'd be a bit worried if they were - but the good to bad ratio is heavily weighted in favour of the good. Without them I'd probably not have caught on to half the bands that have featured on Aye Tunes over the past six months, at least not nearly as quickly. I treat it as a good sign that I've upped my game when more of the bands featured now are ones I'm familiar with, but pretty much every week there's still something new to me, and for that I can't thank them PodcART team enough.

Aside from the music there's another thing I love about the PodcART, and that's the banter between whatever team members are taking part in any given week. I've had to stop listening when I'm on public transport, as there's almost always at least one moment every week where I'll uncontrollably laugh out loud. Often while thinking "that's just wrong" at the same time.
Listening to the team in conversation their enthusiasm for music and what they are doing is obvious, and infectious.

Since I generally attend gigs on my own, none of my pals are really into the same things as me and I don't want to be responsible for them having a lousy night out seeing bands that only I want to see, the Podcart team have been handy there too, since they often provide someone for me to talk to when I'm out and about on my own. They really are a lovely bunch of people.

More recently they've been responsible for some of my favourite gigs of the year, from the New Artists Showcase gig in November to their monthly live session gigs in The 13th Note. I know I'm not the only one who counts last week's Christmas party as a highlight of my year either.

All in all, if you have ears I highly recommend listening to the PodcART. Thanks Ally, Halina, Louise, Nicola and Sean for excellent entertainment, long may it continue.

Glasgow PodcART Website

Christmas Songs - Day 21

Just a few days to go. I really should have planned something special for Christmas Day, but as yet I haven't.

Or have I, and just want it to be a surprise?

Today's song comes from Cancel The Astronauts, just because I like them and haven't found an excuse to feature them for ages.

Cancel the Astronauts - Dead By Christmas

Cancel The Astronauts - Blog - MySpace

Best of 2009: Beerjacket - Animosity

It seems somewhat fitting to me that the first album I reviewed over here ends up being my favourite album of the year. Even if I did and still do hate the review I wrote.

As I mentioned in the Top 10 post, Animosity took the top spot for more than just musical reasons. The release of Animosity was another thing that coincided with my birthday this year, and was an album that helped me get my act together round here and attempt to do more writing.
The Beerjacket gig I went to back at the start of August is pretty significant too, it was the first of my "at least one gig every week" quest, which I've kept up until now. I'm having a break this week, incidentally. Basically, if you don't like my writing, blame Beerjacket!

Even without the personal stuff the musical reasons for Animosity topping my list are pretty compelling on their own.
Over the course of the year Animosity is probably the album I've come back and listened to in it's entirety the most. It's hard just pick one song from it that stands out - Drum maybe peeks it's head above the others as a favourite - as the entire album is consistently solid.

Deceptively simple, with for the most part just one man and his guitar, Beerjacket songs are beautifully crafted and performed, with lyrics that are never trite or forced. From that point of view it's a little disappointing that a lot of the exposure Peter got this year came from his Dancing in the Dark cover. On the other hand, here's hoping that hearing that will have sent people to check out original Beerjacket songs.

Now to address the elephant in the room from that old review of mine: Elliott Smith. I got a bit stuck on that last time round, so this time I'll just say that Beerjacket songs remind me quite a lot of sitting and listening to my old Elliott Smith albums. To me that's great, Smith is one of my favourite songwriters. Beerjacket does have a stronger voice though.

Now, why not head on over to Peenko's Blog where you'll find a Beerjacket interview and as a Christmas bonus, all the demos for Animosity available for download?

Christmas Songs - Day 20

Did you know that the number of posts this month is higher than the number of posts I made here in the whole first year Aye Tunes was around? Now you do.
Did you care? Probably not.

We're in to the home stretch with the Christmas songs, so if there's anything you desperatly want to hear, or if there's a song you want to contribute, get it in quickly.
Today's song comes from the still much missed Dogs Die in Hot Cars.

Dogs Die In Hot Cars - Christmas

Christmas Songs - Day 19

Day 19, seriously? Jeepers, December is flying past.

Once again a song came to my attention after a couple of these posts and promptly kicked it's way in to the front of the queue today. Not only is it cracking, but, well, if you watch the video (it's after the jump if you are reading the blog front page. Actually, you might need to view the whole post to get the embedded music player too, sorry.) you'll see why I got all excited.
I've missed Macabre Scene the last few times they've played, but the twice I saw them before I was dead impressed (I said so on the blog too, do a wee search if you want to read for yourself) so hopefully it won't be too long before I can catch them again.

I must confess to having a bit of a liking for this song anyway, being of a certain ages and apparently a bit of a sentimental girl. Go ahead and mock me, you know it is a Christmas Classic.



Macabre Scene MySpace


And the video:

Christmas Songs - Day 18

Wee bit later than normal with the Christmas song today, since I forget to schedule it.
This means that I can tell you a little bit about the wonderful night I had last night at the Glasgow PodcART Christmas Party. Panda Su, The Darien Venture, Kid Canaveral and Tokyo Knife Attack all played, and were all brilliant. Some lovely Christmas cover versions were played too, which was obviously a winner with me.
Met up with a good bunch of the people that have kept me entertained this year, as well as ssome new ones. And of course, me and Peenko danced like buffoons to Kid Canaveral. As the PodcART folk might say, ooft.

Today's song comes from Idlewild. They give Cliff Richard a metaphorical kicking in this one.

Idlewild - Misletoe And Wine

Idlewild Website

Best of 2009: You Already Know - Stop Whispering

I slacked off a bit from getting back to writing about my picks for albums of the year, but I'm getting back to it a bit now, starting with this one.

I've mentioned previously on Aye Tunes that instrumental bands tend to be tough for me to get on board with, mainly due to having seen and heard so many rubbish ones over the past year or two. Imagine my surprise then when I fell in love with not one, but two of them over the course of this year.

Stop Whispering is the debut album by You Already Know, recorded upstairs in Avalanche Records in Glasgow. Funnily enough, to me at least, there was a launch gig for it on my 30th birthday.
Words like "epic" and "incredible" are terribly over used, but they do fit the way I feel about this album. The songs hit all the right buttons for me, ranging from spine tingling and melodic one minute, to ear scorching riffs the next, and back again.

It can be hard for me to fall in love with songs without lyrics to latch on to, but with this album You Already Know kick that straight out the window. The way the songs build and climax grab me instantly, and take me on a ride I never want to get off.

Seeing the band, after missing out on several opportunities earlier in the year, last week in the cramped confines of Glasgow's 13th Note showed that not only do YAK work for me on record, but they also, pardon my french, fucking nail it live. My round up of the gig afterwards on Twitter was "You Already Know just had rough sex with my ears, and they loved it, the sluts", which is a very, very good thing indeed.

Stop Whispering is nothing short of glorious, and gives me chills every time I listen to it.
Visit their Website and MySpace to have a listen and find out how to buy a copy.
Also, if you swing by the I Need Musik website you can get hold of the song below and a couple of others for free.

Fireworks For New Beginnings (Alternative Mix)

You Already Know - Website - MySpace

The Scottish Bloggers and Music Sites Awards (The Scottish BAMS Awards) 2009

A wee while back Peenko sounded me out about a mass poll by all us Scottish types to put together a top 20 albums of the year. Unlike plans I hatch in pubs, he actually put it all together.
So now the votes have been cast and counted, it's time to announce the winner.


Andy from The Phantom Band had this to say: "This makes us feel very honoured because the opinion of people out there giving opinions is what matters most, rather than the financially influenced press. It always amazes me that people would take it upon themselves to go out and champion a band or an album or a band for no material gain, but it gives me faith in human nature. Blogs and reviews have been the only advertising we've ever had. Apart from all those people who got online and promoted us, we'd like to thank those little almost-stale doughnuts you get in big tubs from Sainsburys for keeping us fat during the recording. We obviously also have our Producer Paul Savage and the wonderful people at Chemikal Underground to thank for letting us do what we want. These guys are the quiet heroes of Scottish music for sure."


The full top 20 is:
1. The Phantom Band - Checkmate Savage
2. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
3. De Rosa - Prevention
4. King Creosote - Flick the V's
5. Withered Hand - Good News
6. The Twilight Sad - Forget The Night Ahead
7. We Were Promised Jetpacks - These Four Walls
8. Beerjacket - Animosity
9. Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
10. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
11. My Latest Novel - Deaths and Entrances
12. Malcolm Middleton - Waxing Gibbous
13. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - s/t
14. You Already Know - s/t
15. Broken Records - Until the Earth Begins to Part
16. The XX - s/t
17. The Antlers - Hospice
18. Sufjan Stevens - The BQE
19. And So I Watch You From Afar
20. Wilco - The Album

Taking place in the voting were 17 Seconds, Me, Dear Scotland, Earz Mag, Elba Sessions, Glasgow Podcart, Hooligans Lament, Jim Gellatly, JocknRoll, Jockrock, Kowalskiy, Last Years Girl, Love Shack Baby, Manic Pop Thrills, My Portiswasp Says, Off the Beaten Tracks, The Pop Cop, Products of a Gaseous Brain, Song By Toad, The Blues Bunny, The Daily Growl, The Spill, The Steinberg Principle, The Vinyl Villain, Under the Radar and of course Peenko. All sites worth visiting.

Christmas Songs - Day 17

Today's song comes from Dan Lyth, taken from his new Christmas album The Fat Man and Baby Boy.
Have a wee listen below, and if you like it you can go get a swanky CD, plus a download of the full album, from the links below.
Thanks to Jocknroll for the tip on this one.

Dan Lyth - She Spent Thirty


Dan Lyth Website

Christmas Songs - Day 16

Before I get into today's song, just a reminder that the eagleowl single Sleep the Winter is out now, and is fantastic. Playing around with link things at the moment, if I've done it right there's a link to buy it from iTunes somewhere below. The band will get more money if you get the download from their Bandcamp page though.

I caught eagleowl on Monday in The 13th Note, it was very good. If I can think of more than "very good" to say about it I'll attempt a wee review.

Onwards to our Christmas song then. Today comes from Belle & Sebastian. Picking a Christmas song for them isn't easy, as there's loads. It ended up being a lucky dip, and this is what came out.

Belle & Sebastian - Are You Coming Over For Christmas?

Belle and Sebastian Website

Doing Some Last Minute Shopping?

Alright, I'm aware this is completely shameless, but hey, worth a try.

If you've got a bit of last minute shopping to try and squeeze in, and are going to be doing it online, how about doing it through one of these links so I get a wee bit of extra beer money for myself?
Below are links for Amazon, and over on the right there's wee adverts for HMV, eMusic and iTunes.

Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com

Shameless, crass advertising over, cheers.

Christmas Songs - Day 15

There's something about Christmas and Camera Obscura that seems to me like they are a perfect fit for each other.
Their recently released Christmas single, a cover of Jim Reeves' The Blizzard does nothing to change my mind about that. Since that only came out last week I won't be posting it, maybe next year.
Instead we are going back a few years for a Christmas classic recorded live round at John Peel's house.

Camera Obscura - Little Donkey

Ahh, it's like being back in Primary School, except much less tuneless.

Camera Obscura Website

Christmas Songs - Day 14

We make our final festive visit to Paul Vickers territory today, as we finally get back round to Dawn of the Replicants.
As I mentioned before, I was really into this band a while back, round about the time of their debut album One Head, Two Arms, Two Legs. Also, fun fact, I used to talk a bit with co-founder Roger Simian in, of all places, a 2000AD newsgroup, many years ago.
The band did four sessions for the late, great John Peel, and you can (and should) listen to all of them here.

As for today's song... Well, this is a song which actually had the ability to make me violent. Years of working in retail, and therefore years of hearing it about a dozen times a day for all of November and December, will do that to you. Oddly enough, all other Christmas songs I'm fine with, even though I've similarly heard them a million times, it's just this one that makes me want to punch people in the throat.
Fortunately, the Dawn of the Replicants version doesn't make me want to punch folk, though it can't quite redeem the song entirely.

Dawn of the Replicants - Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time

Dawn of the Replicants - Website - MySpace

Remember, you can easily find all the previous Christmas songs by clicking on the cunningly named "Christmas" label at the bottom of the posts.
There'll be a big list of all the songs once I'm finished too.

Christmas Songs - Day 13

Just past the halfway point of our countdown to Christmas. I'm starting to run out of songs now, so any suggestions, send them over.

Today's song comes from Synonym, which is a project by You Already Know's Allan Swan.

Synonym - Festiv’ Biznis (Santa’s Goin’ Crazy)

Head over to the I Need Musik website to grab two more tracks from the single, and a whole load of other stuff, for free.

Synonym MySpace