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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New This Week

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

The Cinematics Return

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

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

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

It's a pretty decent song.

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

Download Love and Terror

The Cinematics Myspace

The SPL but with bands

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hibernian: Easy, The Proclaimers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trapped in Kansas Gig Update

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

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

Yet ANOTHER Free Song

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

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

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

Here's the video:

The Gothenburg Address update

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

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

More Second Hand Songs

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

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

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

Saturday Newsround

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

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

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

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

More Free Music - The Second Hand Marching Band

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

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

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

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

Little Rock Records give away a ton of music

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mitchell Museum - Gig Non-Review

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

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

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

Mitchell Museum - New Single & Launch Gig

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here's the video for the Tiger Heartbeat:



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

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

Night Noise Team - Free Song

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

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

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

Single Review - Peter Parker: Swallow The Rockets

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peter Parker MySpace

And a video of the A-side:

There Will Be Fireworks

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

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

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

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

And this year has been good for Scots...

Someone Died.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

De Rosa Split

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's my birthday...

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

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