Introducing: The Vitamin Sees

The Vitamin Sees are from Leicester, but they pass the Scottish test enough for me. Singer Stuart Gray is also in Fence Collective band Viva Stereo, while drummer Mick Harrison was a member of Prolapse alongside "Scottish" Mick Derrick. Besides, quoting influences like Suicide, 13th Floor Elevators and Spacemen 3 makes them ok in my book. Plus, I used to really like Prolapse.

A while back I asked them some questions, they answered, and it has taken me ages to get round to posting. Here's the results.

Who are The Vitamin Sees?

The Vitamin Sees are Mick Harrison, Rob Norbury, Sam Walker and Stuart Gray. We are a 4 piece Leicester band who play psychedelic, shoegaze, kraut rock, noise.

You've all been in bands before, or are still in others, what led to forming a new band?

Stuart:
After moving to Leicester in 2006 I was still pretty active with my 'other' band Viva Stereo, we released our third album in 2009. So up until then I was writing and recording, so I wasn’t really looking for a new band in my new hometown…but at the same time I was making mental notes and really just getting to know people who might be able to help in future. On top of that I had a firm idea of what I wanted the band to sound like and the sort of ethos I wanted, that I wasn’t sure a lot of people would go for. I wouldn’t say I’ve ‘been there and done that’ in the music business but I’ve had my own ups and downs after being in Viva Stereo for ten years. To be honest, the thought of starting from scratch and going through all the crap you have to go through as a new band filled me with fear. I just really wanted people who would be up for getting together, playing some music we enjoyed and maybe playing the odd gig here and there. I didn’t want to have to worry about the usual stuff like making sure we practice every week or playing loads of gigs so our name gets known, or making sure we were playing the type of music was ‘cool’ so would get us noticed. I got talking to Rob at a party in July 2009. I’d known him for a few years through a local band he’d been in, The Dirty Backbeats. The Backbeats had disbanded about 6 months previous and I wasn’t sure if Rob had been doing any musical stuff. It’s safe to say we were both quite wasted and we started talking about doing some music together and I had this idea of trying to start a two piece band in a similar vein to Suicide, just with a drum machine, some heavy guitars and a synth. Really primal and basic. We thought about forming a band, doing a couple of gigs and then splitting up. I’d just been made redundant and Rob was also on the dole so we got together a few weeks later at my house one afternoon and tried out some ideas. It was pretty simple stuff. I had a drum loop programme on the pc which I played through my speakers. Rob played along on guitar and I played some synth. It all sounded pretty good…and it was fun, but maybe not something that would transfer to a live environment and I guess it was pretty self-indulgent.

A couple of weeks later I went see a friend’s band called Ambrose Tompkins in Leicester. They announced that night it was their last gig. I knew their bass player Sam to speak to and fuelled by alcohol I cornered him after the gig and asked if he wanted to join the band. At the same time I was texting Rob to tell him my plans so it was pretty much an on the spot decision! Sam was up for it and we were now a three piece.

The next day I sent Sam an email outlining what we planned to do as a band. He replied, mentioning he knew someone who might be up for drumming with us. I had decided that the drum loop approach might not be as easy as first thought and as Viva Stereo use loops and drum machines I wanted to distance myself from them. So I figured it might be a better idea to get a live drummer. Sam mentioned a guy called Mick Harrison whom Sam had spent a bit of time with at a recent local music festival. Mick had played bass with Prolapse who I had been a fan of so I was instantly interested in finding out if he’d be up for it. However despite his past, I think my main thing was to find out if Mick was a decent bloke. I arranged to meet him one afternoon for a pint. I met him in a local boozer and we got on straight away so the band was born.

Do you find it helpful that, without wanting to sound unkind, some of you have already been around the block a bit with bands?

Stuart: In helps in so much that theres certain aspects we don't really want to go through again. Mainly getting to the point where its boring or precious or even other people getting involved to try and take us somewhere we don't want to go. Mick especially had some amazing times in Prolapse but by the sound of things they nearly ended up killing each other in the end. Viva Stereo are still going but we really just exist as a recording band. I think The Vitamin Sees is a bit of a release for us all...our current favourite song is a 10 minute kraut rock jam that we are building up the courage to play live..I watch old footage of Can and it looks ace..but I'm just not sure how well that sort of thing would go down at the local venue! So we take things at our own pace and do what we want really.Theres that old shite expression about 'doing what we do and if anyone else likes it its a bonus' but it really does resonate with us!

How would you describe the music you make, and how are The Vitamin Sees different from the previous bands you have all been part of?

We all listen to different stuff but all have common bands we like and probably influence us. We’re all fans of pretty dark guitar music, bit of kraut-rock, psychedelia, drones, shoegaze, that sort of thing. I guess that’s where we are coming from musically.
Its inevitable to be compared to our respective pasts, but well, for a start, Mick is on drums in The Vitamin Sees and not bass like he was in Prolapse so it’s a new environment for him. Obviously with me being Scottish I guess some people might be really lazy and compare us to Prolapse in that respect even though we sound nothing like them. I guess we both have abit of a Kraut rock influence but they were alot more punkier than us with it.
 I sing with Viva Stereo as well so it’s going to sound similar in places, but I think the music is different enough to tell each band apart. Although in saying that Viva Stereo are starting to sound more like a live band again these days after a few years where it was quite electroinic sounding! I can't speak for Mick with Prolapse but obviously they were a band he did full time and they were pretty much touring a lot with a record deal and the pressures that brings etc We differ from Viva Stereo mainly because we all live in the same city!

You only played your first gig in April, how did it go, and and there more planned?

Our first gig went really well..typical first gig really, all your mates turn up, you are pumped with nervous energy and it seems to go ok because you have no reference point. There were a few mistakes but it was a good night. We played our second gig in June and it wasn't really the best. One of the hottest days of the year added with a free local festival on nearby that we'd all been drinking at before we'd even soundchecked. I think it was a good thing because our debut gig had been pretty good but some of the songs probably were rushed through for it. We had decided when we started that we'd only gig when we were ready. But after a couple of months we needed direction and booked a gig for something to aim for. We didn't have a full set so I guess we just rushed some songs through to fill up time. Maybe the excitment of actually playing a gig took over us. Anyway by the second gig, which was, like I said a bit rough, we realised some of the songs weren't that great so they were axed. We decided not to book any gigs for a while until we sorted our set out..which we've been doing at the moment. We are booked to play in August at a festival in Leicester than I'm putting on with some friends called Lose Your Cool  so looking forward to that. (That festival takes place in Leicester from August 27th till the 29th, visit Lose Your Cool for details)

What can we expect to see/hear from you in 2010? Any chance we'll see the band up in Scotland any time?

We're hoping to get back into the studio later in the year and record some more stuff. The tunes on our myspace are really just rough demo's too so we'd like to get them properly mixed and make them sound a bit fuller. Plus a couple of other tunes we really want to record. I definitely want to get upto to Scotland for some gigs as I've still got a lot of mates up there ad its always a good laugh, so any promoters out there give us a shout!

Download: The Vitamin Sees - Shot Down (Demo)

The Vitamin Sees: MySpace - Facebook

Born To Be Wide at The Edinburgh Festival

Forgot to mention this one in the gig guide at the weekend, so here's a little reminder of it now.
I've still not managed to get to one of Born To Be Wide's things, but I've heard nothing but good things about them.

Born To Be Wide’s special Edinburgh Festival party, Thurs 5th August, 8pm at Electric Circus

The latest Born To Be Wide event takes place this Thursday at The Electric Circus, with a Festival theme. Bands who will be appearing at the various musical events throughout the Edinburgh Festival - namely Fueldiva, Steve Heron, Carrie Mac, Haftor Medboe, Hidden Orchestra, Holden, Meursault, Emily Scott, Stanley Odd and Enfant Bastard - will be playing short ten minute taster sets, joined by DJs selecting their four favourite songs by Edinburgh bands.

For more details visit MySpace, or Facebook. Tell the team your favourite four songs by Edinburgh artists on Facebook and you'll even get free entry on Thursday!

Purchase advance tickets.

This Week's Gigs 2nd - 8th August

Hello everyone, did you miss me while I was on holiday? Did you even notice I was gone?
Well I'm back now, so it should be business as usual again this week. If anyone pops up with a comment that it is hard to tell business as usual from a holiday I'll be most upset with you.

Now, time for our regular gig guide. For some reason there's a weird split this week, the first half of the week is all Glasgow, but by the end of the week the interesting stuff is all in Edinburgh.

Monday:

Spangled Cabaret, featuring Bert Finkle & Markee De Saw, Hal Duncan, Jane Faye, Aidan McEoin, Scunner, Glasgow Glam Bangers, Creative Martyrs and more. The Rio Cafe, Partick. Free.

Tuesday:

Calvin Johnson, Muscles of Joy. Hyndland Community Hall. £6 (Tickets)
The Ghosties. MacSorley's. Free.

Wednesday:

RM Hubbert, Finn Le Marinel. MacSorley's.

Grand Archives, The Barents Sea. King Tut's

Thursday:

Futuristic Retro Champions, Hidden Masters, Martin Creed, Kings of Macumba, Eugene Kelly. Mono. (Tickets)
Launch gig for the new FRC single May The Forth/Settle Down. They've assembled quite the line up for the launch, haven't they?

Sugar Crisis, Park Circus, DeLarge. Classic Grand.

Dananananaykroyd, RM Hubbert. Nice N Sleazy.
You might want to get down early for this, I imagine it'll be a busy one.

Elba Sessions Presents... Lovers Turn To Monsters, Stephen Cotter, Jennifer Andrew. The Liquid Ship. Free.

Friday:

Haftor Medbøe Group. Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh.
If I could afford it I'd be very tempted to do the wee road trip for this. Joining the group will be Anneke Kampman and Eva Malling.

Saturday:

Trapped Mice, The Dark Jokes, Little Egypt. Henry's Cellar Bar, Edinburgh.

Sunday:

Machar Granite. Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh.

Indian Summer Returns?

Back in September of 2006 and July of 2007 Victoria Park in Glasgow was the host of the Indian Summer music festival.
Attracting names like The Fall, Hot Chip and Yeah Yeah Yeahs the first year was, and still is, highly regarded by those in attendance, and was succesful enough to return for a second year. 2007 saw the festival repositioned to July in the calender, Scottish Septembers aren't ideal for an outdoor event after all, and had The Flaming Lips, Wilco and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah on the bill. Anecdotal tales say that the second year didn't do so well in terms of ticket sales, possibly due to the first Connect Festival taking place that year, on the first weekend of September that Indian Summer had previously been on.

And that was that. The festival didn't return in 2008, or 2009.

Will it be back in 2010?
Short answer - no idea.
Slightly longer answer based on guesswork, and what passes for investigative journalism from me - it might be.

Two bands currently have Indian Summer Festival - Glasgow, September 4th listed on their upcoming gigs section of MySpace. Swedish band Dag for Dag have it down as their only upcoming UK date, while Zola Jesus are listed as playing Indian Summer before a trip to Edinburgh the next day, then returning to Glasgow on the 6th. Neither band have a link to buy tickets.

The Forte Music Distribution Facebook page lists upcoming tour dates for The Fresh & Onlys, including Indian Summer on September 4th.

Two hours of searching every phrase I can think of hasn't thrown up any more bands with it listed as an upcoming gig.

Update: The Pop Cop pointed me here, which lists The Ruby Suns as playing too. No mention of it on their MySpace though.

The Indian Summer MySpace hasn't been updated since 2007. In fact, it advises signing up to the mailing list on http://www.indiansummerglasgow.com to be the first to learn about Indian Summer 2008. The domain name is still valid and registered, it just doesn't go anywhere.

Tickets Scotland and TicketWeb both draw a blank on tickets, and Gigs in Scotland is no help either.

Since it is now August and there's no sign of any promotion for an event a month away, and there seems to only be three bands that think they are playing, I'll put it down to a wire being crossed somewhere rather than the return of the festival. Of course I could wake up to a full page advert in the Sunday Mail in the morning...
If however anyone knows anything different, give me a shout eh?

The Pin Ups Festival

So, scheduling posts for my "week off" didn't work out quite as well as planned, so this is a slightly later than planned plug. At least I managed to remember before it has happened though.

Tomorrow night, Friday the 30th, sees the return of the Pin Ups Festival, and evening of fun, frolics, live bands and good music.

Playing live on the night are a host of ace bands.
There's Campfires In Winter, fresh of a tour of flats this week for the launch of their new EP, who are of course no strangers to the festival experience, having the Campfires In Winter Festival from earlier this year under their belts already. Oh, wait, that was Aye Tunes Vs Peenko I. Thanks Huw Stephens...

Futuristic Retro Champions play too, before launching a new single of their own next week. You can find out more about that and get tickets for the launch gig on Bandcamp.

Sonny Marvello can also be found on the P-Break stage. Hey, why not snag a free track from them while you can?

Mitchell Museum round out the bill of live music. They too played Aye Tunes Vs Peenko back in April, but since then have clocked up plenty of miles playing some real festivals, such as T in the Park and Latitude. You may have noticed, but I rather like Mitchell Museum.

You can read a Q&A with all four bands here.

On the DJ front joining the regular PinUps DJs are guests Scott Paterson, Remember Remember, The Fabulous Craig Brothers and Craig McGee.

In addition to all that, don't forget that Pin Ups is all about the FUN too. be sure to check out the Wham! tent, for all your Wham needs, the mysterious Peeling Field and more. Just don't expect any Un Cadaver sightings.

Advance tickets are £4 from Tickets Scotland or the Pin Ups Website, or you can pay £5 on the door, with the action kicking off around 9pm.

Sing-A-Long With SHMB

The first day of my "holiday" and I'm already having to come back for a post, oh well...

Anyway, for those of you heading down to The 13th Note on Thursday to see The Second Hand Marching Band, RM Hubbert and Sarah Banjo, here is something of interest. Or, if you were thinking of going, here's something that might swing it.

All three of the performers will be coming together to record a special song on the night, and they want your help.
What you have to do is a) write a verse for a song, bring it along and sing it OR b) learn the chorus and sing that OR c) bring an instrument and play in the chorus.

In return for your efforts you'll get a special limited edition CD in the post a few days later with a recording of the song, and your name in the inlay.

All the details, including chords for the songs, can be found here.

Downtime

It'll barely make a difference, considering that some weeks aren't exactly overflowing with posts, but I'm making my excuses in advance for once.

I'm getting close to the point where things are starting to pile up and threaten to drive me a bit nuts again, so I'm having a blog holiday. If all goes to plan I'll have gotten enough done before now that there might be a couple of scheduled posts appearing, but don't count on it. If anything time sensitive pops up then I'll deal with that too. Taking a week without having to think about blogging should let me get caught up on a few things, but even if not it'll preserve my sanity a bit.

I'm not going anywhere (unfortunately, I'd love to go somewhere, but I'm skint), so you'll still find me on Twitter, plus I'll be in King Tut's on both Monday and Thursday, plus there's a good chance I'll be around Waterstones on Tuesday for the launch of The Year Of Open Doors, so I'm pretty easy to track down.

Now you see why I want a holiday!

This Week's Gigs 26th July - 1st August

Another week, another bajillion good gigs. Also a couple of events which aren't really gigs, but will still be good.

Monday:

Admiral Fallow, Three Blind Wolves, Olympic Swimmers, The Social Services. King Tut's.
Summer Nights ends on Friday, but until then Tuts are still determined to have a fair chuck of my money. Admiral Fallow's debut album is already a strong contender for best of the year, and The Social Services tick many of my boxes. Olympic Swimmers are none too shabby either. Good deal all round then. If you hurry cheap tickets are available from The Social Services.

Tuesday:

Dum Dum Girls, Jesus H. Foxx and My Tiny Robots. Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh.
I tend to leave Edinburgh off the gig guide a bit, mainly because I don't know as much about what is on over there, but this is one of a couple this week worth a look.

The Year of Open Doors book launch. Waterstones, Sauchiehall Street. 6.30pm.
Much more was meant to have been written round here about The Year of Open Doors by now, but since I've failed miserably at getting that done the least I can do is plug the launch of the book. On the evening there will be performances by Aidan Moffat, Jason Donald and Kirsten Innes. There's an audiobook coming out on Chemikal Underground too! More on this, er, eventually.

Tango In The Attic, Bwani Junction, Be Like Pablo, Night Noise Team. King Tut's.
Another tasty looking Summer Nights gig. My liver and bank balance say I'm not allowed to go.

Thursday:
Toro Y Moi, Point To C, theapplesofenergy. Captain's Rest.

Second Hand Marching Band, RM Hubbert, Sarah Banjo. The 13th Note.
Pals of the blog Hubby and SHMB are both always well worth seeing, and if nothing else it'll be fun watching all of the Second Hand Marching Band squished on to the wee stage at The Note.

French Wives, Washington Irving, The Seventeenth Century, Rachel Sermanni. King Tut's.

Tuts make one more assault on my organs with a line up that is hard to turn down.

Friday:

Trapped In Kansas, Yahweh. Nice N Sleazy.
Launch gig for the latest Gerry Loves Records split single, featuring two bands we really like round here.

Pinups Nights Festival. The Flying Duck.
It is the last Friday of the month, so it is PinUps time. As usual there's an excellent selection of bands playing, followed by indie disco fun till the wee hours. Playing live are Sonny Marvello, Futuristic Retro Champions, and Aye Tunes Vs Peenko alumni Campfires In Winter and Mitchell Museum.

Pacific Theatre, Carnivores, Dilectrics, White Leaf. SOHO, Paisley.

No one ever does gigs in Paisley, mainly because there's pretty much nowhere to do one, so when someone makes the effort, they get a plug here. Pacific Theatre and Carnivores are decent bands too.

Saturday:

We Sink Ships Present: Elements. Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh.

Our favourite art/photography/podcast people We Sink Ships have a special event in Edinburgh on Friday. Featuring a screening of the short film Elements, along with live sets from eagleowland Conquering Animal Sound, tickets are available here and include a free download.

Miss The Occupier, Performance, Paws. King Tuts.
Summer Nights might finish on Friday, but there's still plenty happening at King Tuts.

Endor, Randolph's Leap, Cherri Phosphate. Nice n Sleazy.
I keep missing Endor, so I'll see if I can still walk by Saturday and try and get along to this one. If you don't know how much I like Randolph's Leap by now you clearly haven't been paying attention.

Rock The Boat. Loch Lomond.

Taking place from 12pm till 2am on the Maid of the Loch on the shores of Loch Lomond, this all day event (and again on Sunday) features live bands, DJs and a host of other entertainment. For full details visit the Facebook page.

Sunday:

People in Planes, The Undivided, The Darien Venture. Classic Grand.

WPM 4. Creation Studios, 3.30pm.
Much like the last Friday of the month means PinUps, the first Sunday means Words Per Minute. Words Per Minute this month has a Year Of Open Doors theme, with all the performers, including regular hosts Kirsten and Anneliese, contributing to the book. Expect the usual high quality, and get down early to grab a seat.

Album Review: Mammoeth - Nascent

Mammoeth, once known as Team Turnip, is mostly multi-instrumentalist Russell Kostulin. Given that I can barely get a "ting" out of a triangle I'm always filled with a mixture of awe and disgust at people like Russell who can seemingly turn their hand to anything, but I'll try to keep my bitterness in check.

I'd mentioned Nascent a wee while ago when I talked about opening track Lapdog in a Round Up Review and promised a full review nearer time of release. Since the album comes out on Monday and there's a couple of launch gigs at the weekend it is time I got round to keeping that promise.

On the surface Nascent is an album of mostly upbeat summery pop music, with a few more gentle songs mixed in, and if listened to just on that basis it would do its job very well indeed. There's a bright and breezy feel to much of the album, at times echoing Super Furry Animals at their poppiest and upbeat. There's even handclaps and whistling!

Pay a bit more attention to the lyrics on the album and it becomes clear that the sweet melodies and jaunty tunes are masking a darker side. Tales of war, car crashes and stalkers unfold, frequently over songs that should be far too happy sounding for the less than cheery subject matter. There's a certain playfulness and wit to the lyrics that means that even thought the music and subject matter at had should be at odds both mesh together very nicely.

Disengage your brain and Nascent is a lovely little summer pop album, pay a bit more attention and you'll find that, as fun as summer pop is, there's a lot more going on. Either way it is a debut album well worth a listen.

Mammoeth: Website

Nascent is released on July 26th and can be ordered on Bandcamp.
There's two album launch gigs this weekend, First on Saturday at The Wee Red Bar in Edinburgh, then on Sunday at The Classic Grand in Glasgow. Support on both nights comes from Randolph's Leap, with Georgina Seddon and Sunset Song also on the bill for Sunday.

Housekeeping

As you might have noticed I've been messing around with the layout of the blog again.

What do you think? So far reaction has been a mixture of positive, confused and being told it looks like a St Johnstone forum, anything else to add to the list?

Everything seems to display fine on my screen, using Chrome, but since many of you will be using a different browser and presumably none of you are using my screen let me know if anything looks weird or doesn't display right.

The old layout accidentally resulted it me breaking the site search, and screwing up comments. I think both of those are fixed now, if not then leave me a comment telling me so. Wait, that won't work...

You might also notice that I still can't design a half decent site logo, there's no need to make fun of me, I know already.

Ok, that's all, you can go back to what you were doing now. Well, except you, for Heavens sake don't you know that'll make you blind?

This Week's Gigs 19th - 25th July

Before I get on to the gig guide, a huge thank you to everyone that came along to The 13th Note last night, everyone that helped us get the word out through a blog post, a tweet, or by carving messages in the oldest cliff face in the World, and of course to our three fantastic bands. Our first act was a hard act to follow, but I think we just about got away with it.

Now, what's on this week? The King Tut's Summer Nights gigs dominate evenings in Glasgow this week, but there's a few other things going on too.

Monday:

The Boy Who Trapped The Sun, Lou Hickey, Crow Road, Bear Bones. King Tut's.
The first of this week's Summer Nights gig is quite a tempting one. Were I not skint till Tuesday I'd be heading along to this, but alas I am poor.

Tuesday:

Second Hand Marching Band, Julia and the Doogans, Martin James & Associates, Kitty The Lion. King Tut's.
Tut's again provides a cracking gig for Tuesday. I'm not familiar with Martin James, but he is from Paisley, so he is OK by me. Everyone else is well worth catching, and I'm long overdue seeing Kitty the Lion. For discount tickets hit up Julia and the Doogans or SHMB.

Wednesday:

Here Is Where 2: Wounded Knee & 7VWWVW. CCA.
Wounded Knee and 7VWWVW (pronounced Mammal, turn it upside down) combine to perform a specially composed score to the best bits of Weir's Way. Now there's a sentence I don't get to type often. More details on Facebook.
Dave Hughes, Gecko. 13th Note.
Trembling Bells, Hidden Masters. Stereo 

Thursday:

LightGuides, Make Sparks, Penguins Kill Polar Bears, Oliver Stays. King Tut's.

Friday:

The Ideal Crash, St Deluxe (acoustic), Lewis Wilson. Captain's Rest.
Little Yellow Ukuleles, The Void. Bloc. Free.
AvP co-stars the Yooks play a freebie, along with The Void. Chances of someone drowning in a sea of Balkan = high.

Saturday:

Astral Planes, Galleries, Cancel The Astronauts, Casino Brag. King Tut's.
Looks like I'm spending a significant amount of time in Tut's this week then? Astral Planes and Cancel The Astronauts are two bands that we like a lot round here, yet I've never managed to catch live before. About time I sorted that out. Contact Cancel the Astronauts for super cheap tickets and they'll throw in a free download of their new EP!

Sunday:

Mammoeth, Randolph's Leap. Classic Grand.
Launch gig for the Mammoeth debut album, Nascent, with support from AvPII co-stars Randolph's Leap you say? Sold, I say. My wallet and liver might hate me by the end of the week.

Aye Tunes Vs Peenko II - The Final Plug

The second Aye Tunes Vs Peenko gig takes place tonight, so this is the last time I'll be trying to encourage you to come along (hey, you at the back, stop cheering. Yes, you) as it will be a bit pointless to continue promoting an event after it is finished.

A final reminder of the details then:

When - 8.30pm, Saturday July 17th.

Where - The 13th Note, King Street, Glasgow

Who - We're Only Afraid of NYC, Little Yellow Ukuleles, Randolph's Leap

How Much - Five quid.
Also might as well mention that me and Peenko don't get rich from this, we cover costs and all other money goes straight to the bands, so you aren't paying your £5 just for the pair of us to get drunk.

Hope to see some of you there!

We're Only Afraid of NYC - 0.3

We're Only Afraid of NYC's third EP, cunningly titled 0.3, is available right now, for free, from the band's Bandcamp page.

Now, given that We're Only Afraid of NYC are playing a gig for me on Saturday I've got a bit too much bias right now to write an objective review of the release, so I won't try at the moment.
What I will say is that just like 0.2 was a step up from the already good 0.1, 0.3 is another leap forward. Go get it then come along on Saturday, please?

Download 0.3 here.

Buy Aye Tunes Vs Peenko II tickets here.

Spaghetti Anywhere - Love Again

I don't make a habit out of posting every little thing that lands in my inbox, but I'm making an exception for this.

Remember Spaghetti Anywhere? I wrote about their EP a while ago, and really liked it. You can find that here. Their friend Marco Castrovinci has made a video for Love Again from the EP, and it has been the perfect thing to save me thinking about how I'm sitting at home on a miserable, dreary, wet afternoon in Paisley.

Spaghetti Anywhere: MySpace - Buy Vinyl - Download from iTunes

The Douglas Firs - Haunting Through EP Review

The Douglas Firs hail from Aberdeen - giving me a nice chance to escape from the usual haunts, at least in my ears - and are Neil Insh, along with whatever friends he could round up to help out.

This EP opens in an unusual style, with the crunch of footsteps, drumming in the background gradually getting louder, along with chatter building up too, before bursting into folky accordian and violin. The effect makes you feel like you've wandered into a warm, welcoming pub somewhere, and for the next 20 minutes or so of the EP you are unlikely to want to leave. The song - The Quickening - goes through sporadic shifts, the folky part at the beginning dying out only to reappear later, vocal sing-alongs, bursts of applause, before wandering into soundscape territory with more footsteps, creaking gates, hooting owls and all sorts. It is a bold song that can make me think of both the best forgotten sequel to Highlander and the opening of Wham's Club Tropicana yet still be compelling listening, but The Quickening does so in fine style.

Future State follows on, a short burst of ambiance and atmosphere, before Grow Old And Go Home introduces layers of sounds including a more electronic feel, and some luscious horns. Grow Old And Go Home at times feels like it could be two or three songs fighting each other from prominence in the mix, but avoids sounding cluttered or messy in the process. Again, another soundscape ending to this song leads straight into the final track, Soporific.
Soporific much in common with the preceding songs, starting with a lengthy understated intro, building atmosphere before exploding into life with a squeal of feedback around halfway through for a big chorus full of melody and instrumentation, then slowly fading off back into nothingness.

Haunting Through is frequently very sparse and at other times bursting at the seams with things going on, but the entire EP feels very organic, each part growing naturally from the others. There's a great sense of atmosphere, and a wonderful feel of a little surprise lurking just round the corner throughout, all of which makes Haunting Through a delight to listen to.

The Douglas Firs: MySpace - Blog
The Douglas Firs - Haunting Through EP is available as a free download, visit the blog for details.

Round Up Reviews #3

You might know the deal with these by now, but if not the point of the Round Up Reviews is to quickly cover short things - singles, lone tracks and the like - that I wouldn't otherwise get to.

So Many Animal Calls - Your House Is A Hospice
Described as a teaser for an upcoming EP, and knocked out in a week there's more than enough here to get me a bit excited about hearing that EP. There's some really good stuff here, much of which isn't what I'd usually listen to. Strong vocals and a couple of killer riffs get the blood pumping on the first two tracks, which also change the pace up throughout to keep things interesting. Final song Secrets is more sedate for the most part, hinting that there's more to So Many Animal Calls than you might originally think. As a statement of intent Your House Is A Hospice is a fine one, and one that is hard not to pay attention to.
I'm probably not going to make it along to their debut gig on Wednesday night at The Captain's Rest, so some of you should go in my place.
Your House Is A Hospice is available free from Bandcamp.

The Ray Summers - Heshka Rashka
Unashamedly retro indie fun. Maybe not credible or trendy, but The Ray Summers are a band I've long had a soft spot for. Heshka Rashka makes for a nice slice of summery, bouncy indie pop that'll no doubt be hated by the cool kids, but gets my head bobbing, that's more than good enough for me. It's ok to unclench and have some fun sometimes you know.
Heshka Rashka is released on August 2nd.

Beldina O - Chariots

A drastic change of pace and styles from everything else in this piece, Chariots is a gorgeous stripped back song. It's a bit of an unfair comparison to make, but this reminds me a little bit of Martha Wainwright. No particular reason, it just does. This is a very good thing. I know next to nothing about Beldina O to be honest, but you can bet I'll be doing my best to keep a look out for more from here. Lovely.
Chariots is available as a free download from Soundcloud.

q without u - Paper Cuts

I thought q without u had vanished, but happily not. This is the first I've heard of them in a while, and it is a welcome reminder that I'd really enjoyed Shut Up! I Invented You, the album they released. Paper Cuts is a teaser for an album coming later in the year, and is - again - plain fun. Heavily accented Scottish indie pop is always welcome round here, and Paper Cuts is a fine example of it. Bonus points for sounding like it is about to fall apart and come to a dead stop halfway through too.

Paper Cuts is available from Bandcamp, where you can also pick up their debut album for free.

This Week's Records

Lets see, what is out this week for you to spend all your pennies on? Actually, don't spend all your pennies, remember to save a fiver for Saturday night.

Mitchell Museum - The Peters Port Memorial Service
The Mitchell Museum is out! Yay! Vinyl available direct from the band, in Avalanche, Mono, Fopp, HMV in Glasgow and Rough Trade in London. Also available to download from iTunes, Amazon, and most likely other places too.

So Many Animal Calls - Your House Is A Hospice
So this came out at the tail end of last week, but I've not had a chance to mention it yet. Grab the free download from Bandcamp.

Dems - Lioness
Another freebie download that popped up last week, also available from Bandcamp. Think I need to do another Round Up Review to cover all this stuff...

Burnt Island - Hiding Out/Gamblers Dream
I talked a bit about this the other day, and now you can have it - for free at that - from Wiseblood Industries.

Tired Pony - The Place We Ran From
Debut album from Gary Lightbody and friends. No idea if it is any good or not, I've not heard it.

Tango In The Attic - Bank Place Locomotive Society
Another debut album, this time from Glenrothes five piece Tango In The Attic. Haven't heard this either yet, but I've liked some of their previous stuff. It is a penny under four quid at Amazon, which isn't half bad.

The Boy Who Trapped The Sun - Fireplace
Rounding off the debuts for the week is this, The Boy Who Trapped The Sun's first album. You can get a free download of the title track in return for your email address here.

We're Only Afraid of NYC - 0.3 EP
Not released until Friday, so consider this an advance tip. Get the (really, really good) EP from Bandcamp for free on Friday, then come see them at Aye Tunes Vs Peenko II on Saturday.

The BAMS World Cup - Final Standings

Since the last post on the BAMS World Cup was the most read post on Aye Tunes in the past month, here's another now that the competition is all done and dusted.

Team Aye Tunes held steady to claim a credible third place, while there was late drama as Dear Scotland overtook A Tidal Wave of Indifference following Saturday's Third/Forth place play off, and just about hung on to top spot to win the whole shebang.
Dear Scotland also collect the Golden Boot, with their higher number of assists being used to break the tie on goals scored.

Further down, Elba Sessions clearly paid the price for having greedy players, as they racked up 20 goals, but a mere 6 assists. Phil Elba takes the bragging rights from the two Elba Sessions teams, placing a few points above Chris.

Down in 12th spot The Vinyl Villain is claiming a moral victory for not making any changes to his squad since the competition started.

Jockrock ended up stranded at the bottom of the table, but we'll be nice to them, they were unable to access their team throughout the entire World Cup, so ended up with a bit of a duff line up. They still managed to pick up some goals though.

Most shot shy was Jim Gellatly, who will have delighted most of us mean bloggers with his poor showing. With a mere 7 goals and 7 assists Gellatly's Goal Getters failed to live up to their name.

This Week's Gigs 12th - 18th July

Last week was quiet, this week is insane. Typical. Do try not to wear yourself out early in the week please, we need as many of you as possible alive and in The 13th Note on Saturday.

Monday:

Comma. Pivo Pivo.
These gents impressed a few weeks ago with their new EP, which we covered in the Round Up Reviews, so I'm looking forward to checking them out live.

Tuesday:

Scott Hutchison, Ross Clark, My Cousin I Bid You Farewell. Stereo.
Acoustic shenanigans from people in bands you might have heard of, with proceeds going to the A-T Society.

Wednesday:

So Many Animal Calls, Queen Jane, 100 Paper Boats. Captain's Rest
Go get our mitts on a free download from So Many Animal Calls here, it is really rather good.

Mitchell Museum. Album launch, Secret Location.
See the Mitchell Museum blog for more details on this one. There's also an instore gig at Fopp on Union Street on Wednesday too.

Thursday:

Silver Columns, Midnight Lion, Nevada Base, MOPP. King Tut's.
Tut's is attempting to dominate the Glasgow gigs for the next few weeks, starting with this, the first of their Summer Nights series. Some are good, some are a bit ropey, and their website has a good handful of spelling errors. Tonight's gig features two bands I like and two I don't much care for, you can work out who is who yourself if you want to.

Cuddly Shark, The Lava Experiments, The Red Show. Captain's Rest.

A line up where I don't have to go out for fag breaks to avoid the dross means this is a much better choice of gig for the evening. Cuddly Shark had one of my favourite albums last year, The Red Show have been entertaining when I've seen them previously, and I've blethered at length before about my enjoyment of The Lava Experiments, so this looks to be a winner all round.

Saturday:

Saturday is, of course, all about Aye Tunes vs Peenko II. Advance tickets available here, where you can also listen to a song from each of the bands. Buy a ticket and get a free three song download. Go on go on go on go on.

In case you have forgotten, or can't read the poster above, playing live are:
We're Only Afraid of NYC who Lauren Laverne said "I've heard some amazing Scottish bands and one that stands out is an unsigned Glasgow band called We're Only Afraid Of NYC" about.
Randolph's Leap who The Scotsman called "nonsense of the best kind"
Little Yellow Ukuleles, about whom Tom Robinson said "even in a city reknowned for fresh and original guitar pop, you'd have to say that is a remarkably assured debut record"
See, it isn't just us that loves these bands! Do come along to The 13th Note on Saturday, you'll make me and Peenko ever so happy. We might even give you sweets, and a hug.

Single Review: Burnt Island - Hiding Out

Last time I checked in on Burnt Island properly they'd just released debut mini album Music and Maths, which I really quite liked. A new single means it is time to check in again.

Hiding Out comes from Music and Maths and is every bit as gorgeous as it was back in March. What starts out as a very gentle, quiet and stripped back song gains pace around half way through, before exploding in to a fuller sound towards the end. It is one of those moments that catches you off guard and makes for a wonderful, spine tingling little surprise.

B-Side Gambler's Dream doesn't appear on the album, but wouldn't have been out of place. Based entirely around vocals and acoustic guitar it is a soft, laid back, storytelling song, which works to beautiful effect.

Stay tuned for a catch up interview with Burnt Island's Rodge Glass sometime soon too, just as soon as I get my act together.

Burnt Island - MySpace

Hiding Out is available as a free download from Wiseblood Industries on July 12th. Music and Maths is available online and in shops, released by Chaffinch Records. Also, do check out Burnt Island's cover of Elliott Smith's Between the Bars here. It is a great version of a wonderful song, with proceeds going to Depression Alliance UK.

Burnt Island play the Spiegletent at the Edinburgh Book Festival with Adrian Crowley, Alan Bissett, Doug Johnstone, Ryan Van Winkle and a top secret special guest on August 30th.

We Have a Winner

If you missed it, last week I had a wee competion to win the new Cancel The Astronauts EP.
Closing date was last night, and I've now picked a winner.

The original plan was to make a video of me drawing names out of a hat to avoid any accusations of contest rigging, but this plan was scuppered somewhat by my Poundland microphone not working, and my webcam being a bit rubbish. Also, my bedroom is a pure state, so it is probably as well I didn't do that.

Instead, a random number generator was used - twice actually, since he first time I quite brilliantly failed to assign numbers to the names, I'm not very good at this - and the winner was number 6.

After checking the numbers our winner of the CD was Rachel Sermanni.
Thanks to the handful of folk that entered, sorry I couldn't give all of you a CD but I only had one spare.

Funny For A Girl is available to buy from Bandcamp.

Aye Tunes Vs Peenko II Update

A week and a half to go until AVPII, so it is probably time for a wee update on things.

Advance tickets for the gig are now available. As with last time we won't try and charge you any add ons, no booking fees and free postage too (unless you order too late for me to safely post them, then we'll keep one for you to collect). This time we are even throwing in a little download pack, with a song from each of the bands playing on the night.

Tickets are available here. At least they are if I haven't messed up Bandcamp along the line.

So that's We're Only Afraid of NYC, Randolph's Leap and Little Yellow Ukuleles, at The 13th Note, on Saturday July 17th. Doors at 8:30.
See you there? There's a Facebook event page too, for those that like to click things.

Single Review: Skies Fell - Statues

Glasgow four piece Skies Fell came to my attention a little while ago when they made their first single available for free download, which was good enough to make sure I kept an eye out for them.
Now their follow up single is ready for release, and it too is pretty good.

Skies Fell do the same kind of melodic alternative rock that many bands in Glasgow do, which often isn't really up my street. Some bands do it well enough that they stand out from the pack and make music that I enjoy, even when I don't expect to.
Obviously since I'm writing about Skies Fell, they manage to fall into the small bunch that I enjoy. Statues is punchy and short, with a big anthemic chorus and staccato guitar riffs, and does it's job well. I prefer b-side Sharky and George though. It doesn't seem to be related to the crime busters of the sea, but does have a bit of a water theme to the lyrics. It is a wee bit overblown, but entertaining rather than annoyingly so.

Good stuff from a band that have raised the bar for themselves rather high already, fingers crossed they keep living up to the standards they've set themselves.

Skies Fell: Website - MySpace - Bandcamp

Statues is available August 9th from Bandcamp.

The BAMS World Cup

You might have noticed there's been some football on recently, but what you might not have noticed is some of the Scottish Blogs and Music Sites (the BAMS for short) showing a higher than normal desire for a North Korean full back to pick up a clean sheet, a Uruguay striker to net a brace, along with howls of outrage at an unjust booking or an injury time goal.

The reason for all this is simple, we've got a World Cup Fantasy League. With the semi finals a day away now seems a good time to check in, see who has been doing well, and mock those that have underachieved.

The Aye Tunes team has suffered from mixed fortunes. Stays at the top of the table have been sighted, but only briefly. Accidentaly using half of the allotted transfers while drunk one night did us no favours, neither did rash decisions made after a poor afternoon game, inspiring points chasing changes for the evening game which almost never worked well. That being said, team Aye Tunes has for the most part lurked around the higher parts of the table, and with four games to go sits n third place. The final games of the tournament will decide whether I can hold on to that spot, or plummet down the table. With all my transfers used up half my team will only have one meaningful game left, but I will be more interested in Saturday's Third/Forth Place Playoff match than I normally would.

Currently, the league looks a bit like this:

If by the end of the week you find that myself, Dear Scotland, The Tidal Wave of Indifference, Jocknroll, Elba Sessions and Favourite Son aren't talking to each other, or one of us is laughing at all the others, you'll know why.
Additionally Jockrock has an excuse for being bottom, Stuart hasn't been able to access his team since before the World Cup started. Jim Gellatly has no excuse though..

This Week's Records

A few good records out this week.

The Last Battle release their debut single Ruins on 17 Seconds Records.
Endor self release their debut album. To celebrate they are doing a couple of instore gigs, which I forgot to mention on the gig guide. On Monday they'll be in Avalanche in Edinburgh, before heading to LOVEmusic in Glasgow on Thursday. Predictably enough you can get the album on Bandcamp, as well as the usual record & download shops.

Kid Canaveral have their debut out today too. Keen eyed readers will be aware of that already, but there's no harm in reminding you. You can pick up a download here, or buy a CD here. Also, you can read my review of it here.

The Boy Who Trapped The Sun has a new single, called Katy.

The Recovery Club have their debut single out too. Rest And Be Thankful is released today by Antimatter Music. It is quite lovely, as I mentioned during the last Round Up Reviews. You can get hold of it direct from the label, on Bandcamp, or from all the usual download shops.

American Men get in on the debut act too, with the Cool World EP.

droy is a later entry, just coming to my attention on Tuesday afternoon. Probably better know as David Roy from Dananananaykroyd, droy has made an instrumental summery indie pop record called Bird Drums. It is available on Bandcamp, and well worth the £4 asking price.

This Week's Gigs 5th - 11th July

I made it Edinburgh and back alive, you'll be pleased to know. My lighter didn't though, as soon as I arrived in Edinburgh the cheap lighter died on me, thankfully that wasn't some kind of omen.
Not much in the way of gigs this week, presumably most promoters reckon that punters will be saving up their money to stand in mud at the weekend. What's on is good though, so think of it more as a quality over quantity week.

Monday:

Scunner, Glasgow Glam Bangers and Creative Martyrs. Spangled Cabaret, Rio Cafe, Partick. Free.
A wee freebie to kick off the week.
The Corleones, A Day Overdue. Classic Grand. £6.

Tuesday:

French Wives and Rachel Sermanni. Brel.
Even though the West End Festival is finished it still manages to get in to the gig guide, with this gig rescheduled from a couple of weeks ago.

Saturday:

Kid Canaveral, Standard Fare and Water Wolves. The Flying Duck. £5.
I'd rather stab myself in the face than go to T In The Park, but happily Half My Heartbeats are providing an alternative for Saturday night. The Kid Canaveral album launch gig was a ton of fun, and this likely will be too.
Also on Saturday, in the Kitchen bit of The Flying Duck is the second Blog Rocking Beats night, where The Vinyl Villain and A North Country Bhoy will be playing some records, so long as they can remember how to work the DJ gear.

COMPETITION - Win the new Cancel The Astronauts EP!

As mentioned, and reviewed, earlier in the week, Cancel The Astronauts have a new EP out now, titled Funny For A Girl. You can buy it here.

To celebrate I'm going to give away a CD of it to one of you lucky people.

To be in with a chance of winning simply email your name and something funny* to competition@ayetunes.org.uk.
Competition closes at 6PM on Wednesday July 7th, at which point I'll pick a winner out of a hat, or other form of answer selecting container.

* Funny ha-ha, funny peculiar, whatever!

Submissions

It occurs to me that I haven't actually mentioned for a while how you can send me music for review or whatever, so this is just a wee quickie to say the best ways to do it, and what to avoid.
it is hardly a complicated process, so don't be put off by the things below, it is just intended to give you an idea of the best way to stand out in a crowded inbox, or at least avoid going straight in the bin.

Things to do:

The best thing to do is send me an email. If you are only sending a couple of songs go ahead and attach them, if there's more than that then upload them somewhere and email over a download link. There's loads of places you can upload a zip file to without much hassle, personally I like Dropbox, but others are fine too. Please don't attach a zip file to your email though, Gmail eats attached zips. I'll never get it, you'll think I just ignored it.

An alternative is Soundcloud, you can upload tracks to my dropbox there.

If you don't want to give me a download for free (which is of course fair enough) then send me somewhere I can stream the songs easily. Again, Soundcloud is good for this, but even better is Bandcamp, where you can try and sell me something too.

CDs. You can offer to send me a CD, but I usually prefer to hear what is on it first. This reduces the chances of you wasting time and money on sending me a CD I don't like, which just lays in a pile somewhere in my house. If you still want to send me a physical copy go ahead and ask for my address.

If you are sending me something for review it is handy, though not essential, to include a wee bit about yourself or your band. A quick bio, any useful links, that kind of thing. Oh, and do try and include details on the release, most importantly the release date and where it will be available from, what format, etc. Don't leave me guessing, I'll just get it wrong, or not get round to checking! MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, all that kind of thing are handy too.

Things not to do:

Be a dick. That should go without saying, but every now and then someone gets the bright idea that I'll pay more attention if they act like an arsehole to me. I won't.

Show a complete lack of research. Half the stuff that clogs up my inbox comes from American PR firms that have missed the point. Others start off with something along the lines of "Hi Ayetunes". Aye Tunes isn't my name, Jim is. It says so on every post. You might be sending the same form email to every blogger around, but at least do a little checking on things like that first.

Send me straight to MySpace. I really don't like using MySpace, if that is the only option I have for listening to tracks from the EP you want me to review I more than likely won't bother. Apart from anything else, have you ever listened to your music on MySpace? It sounds awful!

Likewise, don't send me to straight to iTunes, I don't buy anything from it. Again, if you want to lure me into paying for your new release right away, Bandcamp is your best bet.

That should cover the main things, any questions go ahead and ask.

I do my best to reply to all my emails, but it takes a while sometimes. If you think I've missed something feel free to remind me after a week or so. I can't review everything I'm sent, there aren't enough hours in the day, but I do listen to it at least.
If I don't like something I likely won't review it, unless I can offer constructive criticism. Don't take it personally. Also bear in mind that a lot of the Scottish bloggers talk to each other, if you bitch about us to the others, there's a good chance we'll hear about it!

Kid Canaveral: Shouting At Wildlife - Album Review

I've talked enough about Kid Canaveral enough round here that they probably don't need any introduction by now, but just in case, Kid Canaveral are David, Kate, Rose and Scott. After half a dozen singles and EPs, their debut album Shouting At Wildlife is ready for release. After four 7" singles and a couple of releases on cassette this on is, happily, available on CD rather than, say, 8 Track.

Scottish indie pop isn't the trendiest thing in the World at the moment, but that doesn't prevent it from always having a large place in my heart. Besides, when executed well, who cares if it is trendy? I lack the hairstyle to be a hipster anyway.

How well is the execution then? Well, pretty close to flawless really. The album is a mix between the familiar and the new, most of the previous singles put in an appearance but in new forms, while the majority of the songs are new. A fresh lick of paint takes nothing away from the charm of the older songs, and does save from getting a feeling of "I own this already" that might put some off.

If the opening four tracks of this album don't make you feel happy you were either already delighted when you started listening, or you have a heart of stone. Upbeat, uplifting, occasionally raucous but always melodic doesn't just sum up the opening salvo, but it true for most of the album.
Five tracks in the first old favourite pops up, in the shape of debut single Smash Hits. I've listened to Smash Hits more times than I'd care to count, but its wit, storytelling lyrics and melody never, ever gets old. Also; handclaps. Oh how I love those handclaps.

What would be the end of side 1 and the beginning of side 2 slows things down a bit with Quiet Things Are Quiet Now and And Another Thing!! The slower, less cheery songs provide a nice breather halfway through, and leave no doubt that while Kid Canaveral do upbeat and happy brilliantly, they don't just do that.

From there on the rest of the album does a fine job mixing the unlifting and the melancholy, with Couldn't Dance - the title of which I live up to whenever it is played live and I'm there - popping up amongst the less familiar songs like an old friend, before the tender and reflective Her Hair Hangs Down and a reprise of Good Morning round things off on a beautiful, gentle note.

My hopes for this album were high, and happily they weren't just met, but exceeded.

Kid Canaveral serve up more aces than that really long tennis match did in a fraction of the time, and with far more smiles. Or if you want a different tortured metaphor, Shouting At Wildlife doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it does remind you why you liked the wheel in the first place.

Need more convincing? Have a little listen to Smash Hits below.

05 Smash Hits by StraightToVideoRecords

Kid Canaveral: Website - Bandcamp - MySpace

Shouting At Wildlife is released on CD and download by Straight To Video Records on July 5th. However, if you pre-order the album you'll get some extra goodies. Get it direct from the band here. Kid Canaveral play an album launch gig at The Roxy Art House on July 3rd, tickets for that can be bought from the same place as the album pre-order. I'm even making a rare Edinburgh trip for it and everything, so I can annoy folk in a whole different city than usual.

Cancel The Astronauts: Funny For A Girl - EP Review

A bit over a year since I babbled incoherently (seriously, you think I'm bad now? Go read posts from a year ago, I made no sense) about their first EP Cancel The Astronauts have finally gone and released another one. What's it like? I'm glad you asked, I'll try and babble a bit more coherently about this one.

Title track Funny For A Girl bubbles along nicely enough, but has its upbeat indie pop rump shaking thunder stolen a bit by the track that follows it, She Said She Loves Somebody Else. Where Funny For A Girl inspires head bobbing She Said... notches things up to full on arm flailing and shape throwing.
So far so good, although the neighbours might confuse the dodgy dancing with some kind of fit, so draw the curtains first. I like a Korg as much as the next man, but there is only so much I can take, so it is no bad thing that it mostly slips into the background for Things I Shouldn't Tell You. The song itself goes through a few changes of pace too, with fast bits, slower bits, and a bit of tenderness all taking turns at the forefront.

Standing Still keeps things slow and tender for the most part, right up until everything kicks off briefly towards the end. Probably my favourite thing on here. What it lacks in sing along and catchiness value it more than makes up for in heart, and goes a long way to showing that Cancel The Astronauts don't just do bubbly indie pop.
Listen rounds out the package by bringing back the catchy melodies and inspiring more shoogling of body parts in a vague impression of dancing, and finishes off the EP nicely.

All good stuff, hopefully we don't have another year for more new material either!

Cancel The Astronauts: Website - MySpace - Facebook - Bandcamp

Cancel The Astronauts - Funny For A Girl is available on CD and download now from Bandcamp.

Storm The Charts

From the people behind Rage Against The Machine for Christmas Number 1 comes Storm The Charts, another Facebook campaign to get certain songs in the charts.
Now, if anyone has ever heard me on the subject they'll know that I can rant for hours about my dislike of these stunts, and of Facebook campaigns in general. Why am I bothering to mention this one then? Well, there's bands I like involved this time round, so I've flipped the hypocrite switch.

All the details can be found here, but what it all boils down to is that 40 independent artists have been picked, 20 by a panel, 20 by public voting, and the plan is to get as many as possible into the charts on Sunday, July 4th, what with it being Independence Day and all.

You can find the full 40 artists selected here, I'll just be concentrating on the Scots.

The ones that interest me, along with a link to buy the relevant song, are:

A Band Called Quinn - D.I.Y.

Ardentjohn - Follow Me

The Banana Sessions - Jukebox

Penny Black - Green

Zoey Van Goey - We Don't Have That Kind Of Bread

This Week's Records (and some from last week)

I half forgot to do one of these last week. I saw half forgot, because by the time I got round to checking I couldn't find much to mention, so I didn't bother.
There's a bit more this week though, so lets have a look.

Any Color Black - Answer EP. Available from all the usual download stores, and Bandcamp.
Ghost Pants - Static Heart. One I should have mentioned last week. Ghost Pants is Paul Carlin, this is his second Ghost Pants EP, and it is available for free, as is the first one, from Bandcamp.
Super Adventure Club - Hip Hop Hot Pot Pot Noodle. Another that never got a mention last week, though I did plug the launch gig for the single. Available at all good records shops, download sites and, you guessed it, Bandcamp.
Paws - Violent Vicky Violet. This came out in the middle of last week, is lovely, and can be had for free from Wiseblood Industries. The Wiseblood site might set off Malware alarms in your browser, it does in mine, but don't worry, it is safe.

Penguins Kill Polar Bears - Dawn EP. CDs available here, downloads from Bandcamp once again. I should get paid to advertise Bandcamp.

Cancel The Astronauts - Funny For A Girl. Long awaited new release from the first band that ever sent me something to review. Obviously, Bandcamp is the place to go to get the new EP.

Julia and the Doogans - Come Home EP. This came out a few weeks ago, I think I gave it a little mention at the time. Anyway, it is now available from iTunes, eMusic et al, in addition to that bloody Bandcamp.
The A Forest - Polar White. And finally, a new single from The A Forest. Available free, from guess where.

Kid Canaveral don't release Shouting At Wildlife, their debut album, until next week, but if you pre-order it from their website you get a bunch of extra swag that you won't get elsewhere. So, y'know, go do that.
Mitchell Museum are a couple of weeks away from releasing their debut album, The Peters Port Memorial Service, but you can get a pre-order in for that too. The album is released on vinyl, the gatefold sleeve looks very pretty, and you'll get a code to download it too.

I think that covers about everything from the last week or two that should have been mentioned. Plenty of stuff around for you to spend your pocket money on then, and I've had to type Bandcamp more times than is strictly healthy.

This Week's Gigs 28th June - 4th July

There seems to be hardly anything on this week, so as well as being a bit later than usual the gig guide will be pretty short this week too. If you've got a gig on this week that you think I should have mentioned but I haven't then you should have told me, I'm not telepathic.

Monday:

Folk The System - Julia Doogan, Shambles Miller, Andrew Lindsay, Martin Docherty and Linky Gray. 13th Note, £5.
The 13th Note plays host to a whole bunch of folkers.

Wednesday:

Pablo Eskimo, probably some others but I'll be buggered if I can find details. Pivo Pivo.

Thursday:
Elba Sessions Presents - Campfires In Winter, Yusuf Azak and RM Hubbert. The Liquid Ship, free.

The Elba Sessions gigs do always tend to have good line ups, but this one is particularly eye catching. Campfires In Winter played Peenko Vs Aye Tunes for us, and are pals of the blog, so obviously I'm biased there, but they wouldn't have been asked to do our gig if we didn't also like their music. I've not had a proper listen to Yusuf Azak really, but hear lots of encouraging things about him. RM Hubbert is just plain excellent. I saw Hubby on Friday night, playing a gig in an incredibly warm flat, it was tons of fun. All that for the bargain price of free makes this one look very good indeed.

The Last Battle, Meursault (solo), Jonnie Common. The Wee Red Bar, £5.
One for the Edinburgh people, this is the launch gig for The Last Battle's new single, Ruins. The single is out next Monday, but if you go to the launch gig you can pick one up early.

Friday:

Endor, Over The Wall and Washington Irving. Stereo.
Launch gig for Endor's new album. A good album it is too, I really have to get round to doing a write up on it. Top notch support too.

Ace City Racers. Summer Pool Party, Gourock Outdoor Pool.
I haven't checked, but I'm pretty sure this is the first time that either Gourock or an outdoor pool have featured on Aye Tunes in any way. Anyway, Ace City Racers are playing live, the action kicks off at 6pm, and it is dead cheap.

Saturday:

Kid Canaveral, The Scottish Enlightenment and Come On Gang! plus DJs. The Roxy Room, £5.
It takes something a wee bit special to lure me out of my Glasgow comfort zone to make the road trip to Edinburgh, and this fits the bill. Kid Canaveral are launching their debut album, Shouting At Wildlife, on Saturday. To help they've called in some excellent support acts, and some special guest DJs in the form of Cancel The Astronauts and some guy called Peenko. All of which means I get to make an arse of myself in Edinburgh instead of Glasgow for a nice wee change.
Tickets can be bought in advance at the Kid Canaveral website. While you are there you can pre-order the album, and get all sorts of special extra stuff.

Night Noise Team, Patricia Panther, Digital Dinosaur, 30 Second Wank Line. Box, free.
I've been wanting to see Night Noise Team for a while, so typically they are playing in Glasgow the one time I'm in Edinburgh. If you are in Glasgow in Saturday you should go along though.

Sunday:

It is the first Sunday of the month, that means it is time for Words Per Minute! I'm likely to miss WPM this month, so if some of you can go along in my place for me that would be very nice of you. Performing this month are Simon Sylvester, Jane Flett and Gabriella Bennett, live beatboxing from Bigg Taj, performance poetry from Drew Taylor and his alter ego Markus Makavelian, and a live music from Swimmer One. As usual it takes place at Creation Studios, and all the details and other stuff can be found at the Words Per Minute website.