Split singles can be funny beasts. The Gerry Loves Records team have put out a trio of great ones, yet over in a box in the corner there's some shockers that I've clearly bought for just one of the bands. The Mogwai/Dweeb split seven particularly stands out.
This one though, this falls firmly into the "ace" category. The single features Rob St. John's Your Phantom Limb on one side, Ian Humberstone's House on the Hill on the other, neither artists that I'm as familiar with as I probably should be. Both songs have a haunted air about them that seems to make them particularly fitting to listen to as the rain batters off my bedroom window, but also a feeling of warmth that makes me glad I'm inside with them.
At a bit over two minutes each this is a quick listen, but a gorgeous one. Best sit near the record player to move the needle back to that start to listen again, and again, and again.
The split single is out now on Song, by Toad Records. The 7" is available from the Song, by Toad shop, and a download can be bought from iTunes and Amazon.
The last few weeks have been packed with good new records, and this one is no different.
A particularly fine album is Honestly, This World, the debut album from The Moth and the Mirror.
The band feature some familiar names, like Admiral Fallow's Louis Abbott, Make Model's Frightened Rabbit's Gordon Skene and Stacey Sievwright, who has played with the likes of Arab Strap and The Reindeer Section in the past. Along with a few other musicians they've taken a while to get around to an album, but it is one that has proven to be worth waiting for.
Since I'm particularly rubbish at reviews, as I'm sure you have noticed by now, I won't go into an awful lot of detail. Instead I'll just say it's really good, go and buy it.
Honestly, This World is released by Olive Grove Records, and available from Bandcamp, Amazon
and iTunes.
There are a pair of launch gigs coming up for the album. The first is at Stereo in Glasgow on Wednesday October 12th, with support from Open Swimmer and Rick Redbeard. There's an instore at Fopp on Union Street in Glasgow at 1pm on Sunday October 16th, followed by another launch gig that night at Edinburgh's Cabaret Voltaire, with support again from Open Swimmer and an acoustic set from Endor..
Every now and then someone from outside Scotland gets in touch with me about bands. Half the time the info is useless, what am I meant to do with a list of tour dates around southern California? Other times I end up being introduced to a record I like, and more rarely I get an intro to a band that I quickly like and some useful information about them to share.
Numbers and Letters frontlady Katie Hasty ticked the last two boxes a few days ago when she emailed me to let me know that her band would be making their first trip to Scotland this week. A quick visit to Bandcamp to listen to them later I was hastily drawing up plans to see which of their gigs I could get to.
Numbers and Letters do the dark, folky Americana thing that I always tend to like, and Katie has a gorgeous voice too. Sold.
Numbers and Letters will be playing with Seattle musician James Apollo, and Kitty The Lion/Admiral Fallow's Joe Rattay at the following places around Scotland in the coming week:
Oct. 11: House show, Stirling
Oct. 12: Cafe Continental, Gourock
Oct. 13: *Surprise Show*, Glasgow (Once they tell me where, I'll tell you)
Oct. 14: Hootenanny, Inverness
Oct. 15: The Newmarket Bar, Thurso
Oct. 16: Brel, Glasgow
Go along, have a drink, clap and cheers and make Katie feel welcome. She might even give you a free CD in a hand made cover if you ask nicely. Facebook users can find gig details here.
Let's get it out of the way right now, as the founding member of De Rosa Martin John Henry is at least partly responsible for two of my favourite albums, Scottish or otherwise, of the last ten years. You can make it three albums if you count the De Rosa Appendices. With that in mind it would be quite a surprise if I didn't like The Other Half of Everything, Martin's debut solo album.
There's no surprises ahead then, I do like the album. Rather a lot in fact. Yeah, ok, let's throw measured critical analysis out of the window (Ha! as if that has ever existed at Aye Tunes!) and get to it, I bloody love this album.
Breathing Space starts the album off in a fairly mellow, gentle style, before Span comes along and quickly lets you know you are in for something a bit different. Span embraces the electro elements of the album, and ends up being something not far off a big disco floor filler. The album continues to switch between mellow and upbeat throughout, blending the acoustic and the electronic beautifully. If you can listen to current single Ribbon on a Bough without your head bobbing check your pulse, you might be dead.
There's not a bad song on this album, although since I've had various version of I Love Map since it popped up on an Off The Beaten Track compilation in 2007 it does by now suffer from over familiarity, and too many highlights to name. Closing track There's a Phantom Hiding In My Loft does deserve a special wee mention though, just because it wraps up an excellent album beautifully.
If like me you find yourself missing De Rosa on regular occasions you owe it to yourself to pick up The Other Half of Everything. It is not just one of my favourite things I've heard this year, it is one of my favourite things I've heard since, well, the second De Rosa album.
If this review was a photograph it would be one of me sitting stroking the album lovingly. I make no apologies. We don't do star rating at Aye Tunes, but Martin John Henry can have five of them anyway.
The Other Half of Everything is released through Gargleblast Records on October 10th. The album is available to pre-order on Bandcamp.
Before that there is a launch gig at Stereo in Glasgow on October 8th (oops, I'm cutting this review a bit fine) with support from Adam Stafford and The Seventeenth Century.
New Fence Records signing The Shivers are heading to the UK shortly for a couple of weeks of gigging. The Shivers are a two piece New York based rock-pop group, and since I liked their new album - available now from Fence Records! - and since one of the gigs is put on by my occasional gig putting on partner Peenko, this is pretty much just a blatant plug for the tour.
First though, here's their new video for album title track More.
You can catch The Shivers around the UK at the following places and dates:
31st Oct - Fence Hallowe'en Party, Wilmington Arms, London, supported by Player Piano & Jinnie Common.
1st Nov - The Cluny, Newcastle, supporting King Creosote & Kid Canaveral.
3rd Nov - Alington House, Durham.
4th Nov - The Tudor House, Wigan.
5th Nov - Fence’s Flamin’ Hott Loggz, Anstruther, Fife. All day event.
7th Nov - Mono, Glasgow, with support from Randolph's Leap & Where We Lay Our Heads.
8th Nov - XOYO, London, supporting Givers.
10th Nov - The Louisianna, Bristol, with support from Player Piano.
11th Nov - South Street Arts, Reading, with support from Player Piano & Barbarossa.
12th Nov - The Hobgoblin, Brighton, with support from Barbarossa
More details and ticket info for all gigs can be found on the Fence website.
For more on The Shivers visit their Facebook, blog, or - again - the Fence website.
Lost in the midst of my gig self promotion last week was this new single from This Silent Forest. It is too good to let pass by without mention, so I'm invoking the good old "better late than never" ruling to mention it this week instead.
Having recently completed the terrifying sounding task of writing and recording a song every day for 30 days - I can't even knock out a blog post a day and this requires no creativity, unlike songwriting - This Silent Forest have a new single out now through Never Make Friends Records.
The Fight is a grand sounding number. A slow build and storytelling lyrics teamed with rich layers of instrumentation build to a huge climax, resulting in a song that is sweeping and epic, without falling into the trap of sounding contrived that can often follow such things. Straddling the pop and modern folk camps, The Fight is pretty excellent really. The single is backed with a couple of alternative versions.
The Fight is available to download from iTunes and Amazon. A remix by Oh You Dancer is also available at iTunes and Amazon. The 30 songs in 30 days can be found on the band's Youtube page.
I don't know, you hear nothing from We're Only Afraid of NYC for about a year then all of a suden you get a flurry of activity.
Back in August the band released Walls as a free download and played King Tuts as part of Rock 'n' Roll Damnation, and this week they have another new single our.
We Lived Here is, as always with We're Only Afraid of NYC, a free download, available now from Bandcamp. Consistently a band that I enjoy, We Lived Here is no change there. Quite downbeat and mellow for the most part, with explosions of furious noise breaking out just when you are sitting comfortably, We Lived Here is another welcome reminder that while We're Only Afraid of NYC might not have been terribly visible for a large chunk of the last year, they haven't been wasting their time.
Poor Things have a wee freebie to offer you. I mentioned this last week while pimping out their gig that was taking place last night, but now the free stuff is available this is a gentle reminder to start downloading and get your virtual paws on some swag.
R U Sitting Comfortably is a three track free download. You can grab it from Bandcamp or from the handily embedded players below.
You can't beat titling your first post of the week like a spam email subject, promising scantily clad European ladies, can you? I'm not talking about that kind of French Wives though, and there's no premium rate phone lines involved.
French Wives are, for those that haven't been paying attention, a band from round these parts. Not French, not wives, but one of my favourites anyway.
Recently the band have been working away on their debut album in the studio with producer Tony Doogan, and now they are ready to share the first fruits of those sessions.
They'll be releasing a single, Numbers, on October 24th, with that debut album to follow early next year.
You can have a wee listen to Numbers below. It is hardly a secret that I'm very fond of the band, so it will come as no surprise that I really like the song. Maybe they'll finally manage to get people to stop calling them folky soon too, since they quite blatantly aren't.
To celebrate the release of Numbers French Wives are going off on a wee tour later this month. You can find them at these places on these dates:
Aberdeen, Drummond’s Cafe - 19/10/11
Glasgow, Mono (Single Launch) - 20/10/11
Edinburgh, The Third Door - 22/10/11
Newcastle, The Tyne Bar - 23/10/11
London, Bull and Gate - 24/10/11
Suport for the Glasgow gig comes from Blochestra and Endor, and tickets are available now here.
They've also gone and got themselves a shiny new website, which you can find at http://frenchwives.co.uk/. Pop over there for more music, videos, and other fun things.
It has been a bit of a hectic week, so I've forgotten to mention half the things I'd meant to. Sneaking this one in just under the wire then, as it takes place tomorrow.
Edinburgh noise mongers Supermarionation have a new EP to launch, and they are doing so with a gig on Saturday. I say noisemongers, but the new EP is actually an acoustic one, so it isn't that noisy. It is good though, so I'll forgive them being quiet.
Hastily assembled to replace what they had planned to release, Amongst the Northern Lochs doesn't sound like it was thrown together. Had I not known that it was put together at short notice I wouldn't have even noticed. The EP will be available to download for free from here.
A limited number of CDs will be available at the launch gig on October 1st. The gig takes place at The Wee Red Bar.Supermarionation will be playing two sets, one acoustic, one with electricity and stuff. Support comes from Lee Patterson and Andrew Mill. Kicking off at 7pm the gig, like the download, is free, so if you are around you can go along at no cost, woo!
Sunday, the traditional day of rest. Staying in bed till lunchtime, filling up on fried food, reading papers, and watching around 10 hours of football. Sunday also tends to be the day I ignore gigs, until they are particularly tempting. Have you ever tried using public transport on a Sunday? It's rubbish. This week has decided to mess my my plans though, by throwing three very tempting gigs at me.
I also have to get up early to help a friend move house, but that part presumably doesn't apply to the rest of you.
At MacSorelys on Sunday we have Dave Hughes and Rob Moir playing. Regular readers should be familiar with Dave's name at the very least, since there was a while he'd pop up in my news round up every week without fail, to the point I started giving him his own section. Dave Hughes is, like Shambles Miller (playing at tomorrow's Aye Tunes gig - you didn't think I'd miss a chance for a plug did you), one of the exemptions from my recent "I'm sick of acoustic guitar playing singers!" rants, since he is so very good at being one of them. Despite The Blackout by Dave Hughes
Rob Moir is likely to be a much less familiar name. Hailing from Canada Rob is currently on a European tour, with a gig at The Wee Red Bar in Edinburgh on Wednesday ahead of this Glasgow one on Sunday. Rob actually got in touch with me in an attempt to put together a gig. That didn't come off, and I ended up putting together tomorrow's Aye Tunes gig (I'll stop with the plugs soon, honest) instead. The little bit of Rob I've heard is very good indeed. This double bill, combining the fact that I keep missing Dave Hughes gigs and am unlikely to get a chance to catch Rob Moir very often, plus free entry, means I'm off to MacSoreleys on Sunday night, albeit probably with sore arms from carrying furniture. This Is The Lie by rob moir
UPDATE: This gig has been cancelled. A wee bit further up the road at Stairway there's a launch gig for the new Trapped In Kansas EP.Trapped In Kansas took less than 24 hours to shift all copies of How To Go in a presale on Saturday, which is always good to hear. The EP gets its full release on Monday October 3rd, having heard a copy I can tell you it is the best work the band have done yet, and I doubt I'll be alone in saying so. Support at the launch gig comes from The Darian Venture, Aspen Tide and Hello Mexico, and tickets cost £5. How To Go EP Sampler by Trapped in Kansas
Meanwhile, a little further to the west of the city, there's a blooming awesome gig on at The Captain's Rest. Poor Things are about to give away a wee free download bundle called R U Sitting Comfortably, and are celebrating it with an eardrum bothering gig. Poor Things have taken my initial doubts about them and rammed them back down throat recently. After winning me round a good bit with their Innocence/18 single a while back I recently saw them twice in the space of a week, and am now fully converted. They are a far better band than I first though, and I'm happy to have been proven wrong. The sneak preview of Festival from R U Sitting Comfortably has me eager to hear the other tracks too.
Joining Poor Things for the gig are the raw but very promising As In Bear, my favourite junkyard popsters Male Pattern Band and Robin Dunne. Festival by POOR THINGS
As well as being a busy week for new records, there's a blooming ton of stuff on too. Almost makes me wish I had some kind of guide to what's on in any given week...
Friday and Saturday of this week sees the second Eastern Promise event take place at Platform in Easterhouse, with a rather excellent line up.
On Friday you can catch:
Tarwater
The Thing
7VWWVW
Withered Hand (Solo)
Nancy Elizabeth
The bill for Saturday looks like this:
To Rococo Rot
The Pastels
Silje Nes
Conquering Animal Sound
Animal Magic Tricks
Told you it was rather excellent. In addition Saturday will host the Scottish Independent Record Fair, making it's second appearance after what was by all accounts a successful first run in Edinburgh in August.
Tickets cost £10 per night or £15 for the weekend, with under 16's going for £3 per night or £5 for the weekend. Doors are at 7pm, and return buses leave Mono at 6:30pm and cost £4 return.
Tickets are available from Monorail, Tickets Scotland and See Tickets.
You can find out more about Platform, including how to get there if you are clueless like me, at the website.
This week sees the release of the first new material from We Were Promised Jetpacks in a good seventeen months, with the single Medicine.
Medicine is taken from the band's second album, In The Pit Of The Stomach, which is released next Monday, backed with a new b-side, Building Buildings.
Medicine is available on 7" and download from Fat Cat, and download from iTunes.
It is a busy wee week for new records, one of those ones that my wallet usually hates. Lucky for me I've been saving up my eMusic credits in anticipation of a few of these releases, so could go on a shopping spree without also going bankrupt. Less helpfully it means I'm writing some of the new release posts before I've actually listened to the record properly, so I can't comment on them very much.
The Quickening is the second album from Remember Remember, and the first with a full band rather than Graeme Ronald handling everything on his own. I've been looking forward to new Remember Remember music since catching the band support Mogwai back in January, and everything I've heard from or about The Quickening since then has just built anticipation. The album is playing in the background as I write this, and so far I'm not disappointed, it sounds gorgeous.
The Quickening is out now on Rock Action Records. Available on CD and LP from HMV, Amazon on CD
or Download, and download from iTunes.
Zoey Van Goey are no strangers to a remix. The flip side of first single Foxtrot Vandals gave me my first taste of Miaoux Miaoux, while the Sweethearts In Disguise single boasted a remix from Chris "Beans" Geddes on the B-side.
Now they are at it again, with a new special remix EP, Sexy Rave Eye Zooming. Anagram fans, get to work.
Getting their paws on some Zoey Van Gooey songs for the release are: We Were Promised Jetpacks, FOUND, Jonnie Common, GRNR, K-Projekt, Gareth Griffiths, OnTheFly, and Miaoux Miaoux.
How can you get your hands on a copy? Well, the CD will ONLY be available at their gig at Stereo in Glasgow this Saturday, so you'll have to go along to get one. As if the lure of seeing Zoey Van Goey and getting a free CD wasn't enough to get you out of the house on Saturday night, support on the night comes from Kid Canaveral, and Zoey Van Goey's set will feature live remixing from GRNR.
If all of that sounds as good to you as it does to me then head down to Stereo on Saturday night. Doors are at half seven, with the first band on at 8pm. Tickets are available from Tickets Scotland here.
More encouragement? Grab a free download of the We Were Promised Jetpacks remix of City Is Exploding.
Shameless self promotion time again!
There's less than a week to go until the next Aye Tunes Presents gig, so here's another attempt to lure you along to The Captains Rest on Wednesday.
Opening up proceedings, and a late addition to an already hastily assembled evening, will be Kevin P. Gilday. Better known to some of you lovely readers as one half of How Garbo Died, Kev will be attempting to channel the spirits of the likes of John Cooper Clarke and Ivor Cutler for a quick spoken word set shortly after doors open, so come along early.
I occasionally have a wee rant at the overabundance of acoustic guitar playing singer/songwriters around at the moment, so it is only fair that I try and balance out my grumbles by highlighting the ones that I like, which Shambles Miller certainly is. Proclaimed as the writer of the best acoustic song about robots (for Robots, funnily enough) Shambles does the punky, folky, politically minded songs that many do, but with a wit and charm that so many of the others lack. Also a keen sandwich enthusiast and film watcher, Shambles recently Photoshopped me into a scene from The Social Network, which I must admit skipped him up a few slots on the "people I want to do a gig for me" list, but it was his songs that got him on the list ion the first place.
I didn't mess up Facebook, don't shout at me.
The Spook School will be carrying on the fine tradition of me seemingly always having an Edinburgh band on my bill, just so I can get to listen to them. With just two songs out there to listen to that might seem unwise, but the regular scouting reports I've been getting from their Edinburgh gigs, particularly from Edinburgh Man, made me really eager to see The Spook School through in Glasgow. Unwilling to wait for their appearance at Glasgow Popfest in December, I opted make them come through myself, which brings us to this, their first Glasgow gig. Taking their name from one of the groups part of The Glasgow School artistic movement, The Spook School have a hefty C86 element to their music, with sweet harmonies, quirky lyrics and jangly guitars all over History, while Hallam has seagulls and ukulele - always a winning combination - planting them firmly up my street. How I'll watch them downstairs while tending the door upstairs in The Captains Rest is another matter, but I'll find a way.
The Sea Kings take elements of rockabilly, disco, americana and folk and fling them all in a blender, coming out with something in the psychobilly ballpark, with their own twist on it. In their own words they "accommodate disco dancers and chin strokers alike", and they even have a song about Bible John for the more morbid. Seems like the Sea Kings should have all bases covered on Wednesday then, eh?
So, that's Aye Tunes Presents: The Sea Kings, The Spook School, Shambles Miller and Kevin P. Gilday then.
The gig takes place at The Captains Rest in Glasgow on Wednesday September 28th, kicking off around 8pm, and costing £5 to get in. You can tell us you are coming on Facebook if you are into that kind of thing.
As with all Aye Tunes gigs I wouldn't be putting this on if I didn't like the bands, and all your money will be going to them, not me.
With the gig guide not really running any more it means I get to ignore some stuff I'm not that interested in, but it also means occasionally I don't properly mention stuff that will be ace. Like this, so it can have a post all of its own instead.
One of my blog buddies The Tidal Wave of Indifference is branching out into putting on gigs, with the first one coming up this weekend. Blogs putting on gigs eh? What a ridiculous idea, that will clearly never catch on.
The first The Tidal Wave of Indifference Presents (a catchy name, might steal that format...) gig takes place on Saturday at The Wee Red Bar in Edinburgh, and looks pretty darn fine. So fine in fact that I've been looking up Google Maps to try and work out if I can make a rare trip through to Edinburgh and get to the gig without getting lost somewhere on The Cowgate.
Headlining affairs are Star Wheel Press, who released their debut album The Life Cycle of a Dying Bird earlier this year to acclaim from the likes of Ian Rankin and Lauren Laverne. If Lauren Laverne likes you then you are generally ok in my book.
French Wives are, of course, on of my favourite bands around. They'll be making a wee escape from the recording studio where they are currently working on their debut album - or possibly playing Grand Theft Auto according to their Twitter feed - for this gig. Hopefully there will be no drunks needing removed from the venue during their set, unlike when I saw them at the 13th Note a few weeks ago.
the douglas firs also released their first album earlier this years, and Happy As a Windless Flag quickly nailed down a position of one of my favourite things I've listened to this year. They are a bit different live than on record, but the best parts of both carry over into each other, and they are well worth catching.
Lost Telegrams are fairly new to my ears. In an odd coincidence I was sitting listening to them on Bandcamp when the announcement came from Stu that they'd be playing at his gig. Their recently released debut EP is pretty swell, and I'm hoping I manage to find my way to the Wee Red to get a good look and listen to them in the flesh.
Tickets are available from Avalanche Records and online for £6, and doors open at 7pm on Saturday, so get down early.
The Twilight Sad's third album, No One Can Ever Know, won't be out until early next year, but you can grab the closing track from the album, Kill it in the Morning, for free right now.
Kill it in the Morning hints at a bit of change in sound for The Twilight Sad, while still retain the atmosphere and hint of menace I tend to associate with them. James Graham's vocals are as spine tingling as always, and work better than I might have expected to over the more industrial sound.
Back in June Lovers Turn To Monsters, or Kyle as he's also known, released his first "proper" album in the shape of Beyond Glasgow Howls. It was really very good, but at the time I forgot to say much about it. It seems only right then that I give a proper mention to the new Lovers Turn To Monsters release then.
Recorded between June and September, Pandas, Hearts, Blankets & Birds is yet more proof that you never have to wait a long time for a new Lovers Turn To Monsters song. Unlike many Kyle seems to produce countless songs a year, and none of them are ever something that feels like it was dashed out in an afternoon to pass some time. The ten songs on Pandas, Hearts, Blankets & Birds are very much in the lo-fi indie pop ilk, and much less polished than a "proper" recording would be, but the home made feel to them holds a certain charm for me. Besides, it isn't as if they sound like they've been recorded in a shed with a cheap tape recorded, the sound is lo-fi, but still sounds fab.
10 tracks of indie pop loveliness then, available to download for free. What more do you want? Crudely recorded samples from The Simpsons you say? Well you're in luck, the album has them too!
Download Pandas, Hearts, Blankets & Birds for free from Bandcamp, or pay next to nothing for a home made CD. While you are there poke around the Bandcamp page a bit more and you'll see what I mean about Lovers Turn To Monsters being prolific, there's a ton of music up there, lots of it for free.
Remember back in June I did that birthday gig, and afterwards said that next time I decided to do a short notice gig someone should punch me in the mouth? Well, start forming an orderly queue, because I'm doing it again.
Two weeks tonight (eek!) sees the next Aye Tunes Presents gig take place, at The Captains Rest in Glasgow.
Joining us for the occasion are: The Sea Kings - Fresh from supporting The Cave Singers at King Tut's, The Sea Kings will be adding some psychobilly stomp to the evening. Tooth And Nail by The Sea Kings
Between now and the gig I'll be back to tell you a bit more about everyone playing, but for now enjoy their songs, and cancel all your plans for September 28th and come to The Captains Rest instead, where you can exchange £5 for an evening of Aye Tunes endorsed live entertainment. I'd rather you didn't punch me in the mouth, but if it means you'll come to the gig I'm willing to get hit.
Want to make things official by clicking an "attending" button? Well, you can do that over on Facebook.
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and 
. A remix by 
. The 30 songs in 30 days can be found on the band's Youtube page.
or 
, and download from 
