Five Things For Thursday

One of my aims for this year is to stop hearing something I like, thinking "yeah, I like this, must put it on the blog sometime" then completely forgetting to put it on the blog ever. With that in mind then, here's a handful of music for you with minimal chatter from me, all either free or "pay what you like" to download.

Fat Janitor - Lurk
You always knew the school janitor was up to no good, didn't you? Well, here's some proof. Lurk is available to download free from Bandcamp. Play loud.


Aloha Tigers - The Kind of Girl U Like
Ian that used to write Have Fun at Dinner has been talking about this band for as long as I can remember, and is now going one step further by making them the first release on his new tape label, Kirkcudbright Tape Club.
The Kind of Girl U Like is the first single released, free to download.
Aloha Tigers - The Kind of Girl U Like by kirkcudbrighttapeclub

Hipster Death Squad - Good Times Again
A band that I found through Peenko's Friday Freebies, Hipster Death Squad have been firing out a fair amount of new songs since I first started stalking following them. They've just released a new single as a free download from Bandcamp, and I really like this one, so here you go.


As In Bear - Mr Glued
Last night my readers voted them one of the best new bands in the poll, today a free download arrives in my inbox. That's what I call good timing.
Mr. Glued by As In Bear

mi mye - the time and the lonleyness
I had mi mye on the Advent Calendar last month, along with a mental note to myself to keep an eye out for more from them. Turns out I didn't have to wait very long. They say that the time and the lonleyness, their new album, isn't officially out until February, but you can download it right now from Bandcamp, so why don't you?

Readers' Poll Results

Is it too late to say happy new year? Happy thingamijig anyway.

Before I can move on to exciting (note: may not actually be exciting) 2012 things I'd better get the poll results out of the way, so here they are.

Best Album:
1. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine
2. Conquering Animal Sound - Kammerspiel
3. Adam Stafford - Build a Harbour Immediately
=3. Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat - Everything's Getting Older
5. United Fruit - Fault Lines
=5. Pensioner - Yearlings

I'm sure that'll make up for King Creosote and Jon Hopkins missing out on the Mercury Prize.

Best Single/EP:
1. Rob St. John/Ian Humberstone - Split 7"
2. Japanese War Effort - Surrender To Summer EP
=2. PET - What You Building?
4. Song of Return - Trajectory EP
5. Mogwai - Earth Division EP
=5. The Spook School - History/Hallam

Yep, nothing for me to complain about there really.. Impressive showings from young upstarts PET and The Spook School.

Best Band:
1. Kid Canaveral
2. The Phantom Band
3. The Twilight Sad
4. PAWS
5. United Fruit

A reversal of last year's best band award, with Kid Canaveral narrowly overtaking The Phantom Band. PAWS and United Fruit come crashing in to the top five, probably with a wail of feedback.

Best Solo Artist:
1. Adam Stafford
2. Miaoux Miaoux
3. Withered Hand
4. Rob St. John
5. King Creosote
=5. PJ Harvey
=5. Jonnie Common

I swear I didn't rig this category. Only King Creosote makes the list again from last year, while somehow PJ Harvey manages to sneak in, somehow.

Best New Band/Artist:
1. The Spook School
2. Monoganon
3. PET
4. Friends In America
=4. As In Bear

Yaaaaaaaaas, g'wan yersel' Spook School! Once again, nothing thee to make me grumpy.

Best Live Band/Artist:
1. PAWS
2. Kid Canaveral
3. The Twilight Sad
4. United Fruit
5. Frightened Rabbit
=5. Remember Remember
=5. Mogwai

You will not get even the slightest hint of an argument out of me about PAWS topping this one. I also firmly believe it is near impossible to leave a Kid Canaveral gig without having had fun.

Best Music Website/Blog:
1. Song, by Toad
2. Peenko
3. The Tidal Wave of Indifference
4. Glasgow Podcart
5. Last Year's Girl
=5. The Pop Cop

Horrible human beings, every one of them.

Best Music Radio Show/Podcast:
1. Song, by Toad - The Toadcast
2. BBC Introducing in Scotland
3. Edinburgh Man
4. Glasgow Podcart
5. Vic Galloway on BBC Scotland

You lot really like that Toad guy, don't you? Curiously few votes for Uncle Vic after he won this category last year. Vic's replacement on BBC Introducing, Ally McCrae, narrowly misses out, with Song, by Toad taking the prize by a slender margin.
Several votes for Glasgow Podcart came with the qualifier "but they should do the podcast more often", so, yeah, get your finger out Podcart.

Best Venue:
1. Barrowlands, Glasgow
2. Stereo, Glasgow
3. Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh
=3. Captains Rest, Glasgow
5. King Tuts, Glasgow
=5. Pilrig St Pauls, Edinburgh

The Barrowlands wins again. I can't remember the last time I was in it. Since Stereo was home to most of the Aye Tunes gigs last year I'm happy to see it take second spot. Sneaky's inclusion last year was a controversial one, we'll see if anyone has anything to say about it this time round. Personally I'd go for Pilrig St Pauls over King Tuts any day of the week.

Well there you go, that's the lot. For those interested, 42 people voted in the poll, but 3 of them got binned for breaking the blatant ballot stuffing rule.

Happy Christmas!

Because at Aye Tunes we don't do merry.

First things first, see all that money you got as a Christmas present? Put aside £5 of it, and with that fiver go and buy the debut album from Happy Particles, Under Sleeping Waves. It is released today on Bandcamp, and it is really blooming good.


Now for some free stuff. I'd like to say they are my Christmas gift to you, but since I am not any of the people giving away the free music that would be a quite blatant lie, and telling fibs is bad.

Gargleblast Records gave away a free download on the twelve days running up to Christmas. If you missed out on them, including a brand new song from Martin John Henry, you can download the lot here.

Pensioner have made their self titled debut album available as a free download until new year. It's pretty good, nice and loud. Grab a copy of that here

The Bird and the Monkey are another band giving away their debut album. Until new year you can download BalloonBaboonBallroom for free over here

As mentioned when I had him in the Advent Calendar (ooh-err) Kevin P. Gilday has picked Christmas day to release his first album too. Graphite is available for free from Bandcamp.

That should be enough to keep you busy for now, and better than Now That's What I Call Music 735 that someone bought you in a panic.

Have yourself a stupidly happy Christmas, thanks for visiting, come back soon! Also, don't be a dick, eh? Good on you.

Advent Calendar - Day Twenty Four: Tribal Fighters

This final Advent Calendar post is brought to you by a terribly happy Jim. I'll let you work out why for yourself.

I should probably end things with a Scottish band, but we've had plenty of them throughout December, and I've been gradually trying to take in more from beyond our borders this year anyway, so here's some folk from Manchester instead. Tribal Fighters, like most of the English bands I've liked this year, were first nudged my way from Stewart from Black International, so cheers for finding good new music for me Stew.

Listen to Christmas Stalkings below, and download it (and some other songs) free from Bandcamp.



Tribal Fighters: Bandcamp - Facebook

That's it for the Advent Calendar for this year. If you missed and of the 24 days of mostly festive nonsense you can find everything using the Christmas tag on the posts.
Have a lovely Christmas, try not to fight any relatives or break your new toys, and remember to vote in the Readers' Poll by the end of Boxing Day.

Advent Calendar - Day Twenty Four: Mi Mye

Nearly done. So very nearly done. One or two more advent posts and I'm finished for the year.

Let's start to wrap things up with a couple of crackers then, shall we? Let's apologise for the tortured puns in the previous sentence too.

A few people recommended this to me at almost exactly the same time, and it is indeed very good. I've not had a chance to investigate mi mye's other stuff yet, but don't let that stop you doing it for yourself and telling me what you think.

merry christmass and sorry for all the trubble i cosed is available to download for free on Bandcamp.


mi mye: Bandcamp - Facebook

Advent Calendar - Day Twenty Three: The Big Nowhere

It seems only right that after celebrating with them at the Aye Tunes Birthday Bash back in June we have The Big Nowhere back for Christmas too.

Just, barely, making it in time for inclusion in the Advent Calendar after much badgering of the band to hurry the heck up and get it finished comes The Big Nowhere's Christmas EP, Christmas In The Gutter.

You can listen to Christmas In the Gutter at Bandcamp, and buy it for a quid (or more) if you like it.
As a wee Christmas treat, you can download one track from the EP, a cover of Big Star's I'm In Love With a Girl, for free from me below too.

The Big Nowhere - I'm In Love With a Girl

The Big Nowhere will be re-releasing their debut album Pull Down the Moon on a limited special edition CD in January. Don't worry, I'll tell you when you can get your paws on that.

The Big Nowhere: Website - Bandcamp - Facebook

Advent Calendar - Day Twenty Three: Birdlips

Curses, I had the name of whoever pointed my towards Birdlips written down on a bit of paper, to remind me to give them a nod when I got round to posting this. I've lost the bit of paper. Thanks, mystery person.

I've not had much in the way of traditional, or God bothering, depending on your viewpoint, Christmas songs, but there's some on this, so enjoy or avoid as you wish. Listen to Slow Burners for the Holidays below, and download it at the price of your choosing at Bandcamp.



Birdlips: Website - Bandcamp

Advent Calendar - Day Twenty Two: Numbers and Letters

We like Numbers and Letters round here, enough that I braved the three buses to get there and long walk home on a Sunday night when they played in Glasgow a few months ago. It was worth the annoying trip.
Every year they record and release a Christmas song too, so I've been patiently waiting all month for their new one so I can slip it in here.

This year's Christmas song from Numbers and Letters is a version of In the Bleak Midwinter and is, as all their previous Christmas songs have been, lovely. I think Sarah and Joe from Admiral Fallow pop up on this, but I could have gotten that completely wrong, and I'm clearly not professional enough to fact check.
Listen to the lot below, and grab them from Bandcamp for whatever you feel like paying. While there download a copy of the Numbers and Letters EP if you haven't already, it's good and free too.



Numbers and Letters: Website - Bandcamp - Facebook

Advent Calendar - Day Twenty Two: Kevin P. Gilday

Although I've not actually looked back to check, I think most of the Christmas songs this year have been of a fairly cheery variety. Let's end that run then.

Two tracks today from Kevin P. Gilday, who did a wee opening spot at the last Aye Tunes gig a few months ago. Kev has an album out on Christmas Day, featuring contributions from Kevin Frew, Tim Courtney), David Flood, Emily MacLaren, James Campbell, Jennifer Campbell and Rebecca Kilgour, but I'll get back to the album properly later.

First off, a poem, My Crappy Christmas.
My Crappy Christmas by Kevin P. Gilday

Secondly, a wee preview from the album, Graphite, in the form of Crooked Christmas.
Crooked Xmas Reprise by Kevin P. Gilday

Kevin P. Gilday: Tumblr - Facebook - Soundcloud

Readers' Poll Reminder

You've had my lists of my albums of the year, and lists from pretty much every other blog around by now, so it's time to remind you about the Aye Tunes Readers' Poll, where you can have your say on the best bits of the year.
Voting closes on Boxing Day, so you only have a couple of days left to get your entries in. Full details below.

Quickie rules & regulations type things:

• Answer or skip whatever questions you want, but if a bunch of people answer one question with the same answer it'll be pretty obvious ballot stuffing.
• No ballot stuffing! If it isn't obvious I probably won't notice it though.
• You can choose up to three answers for each question, try and put them in order, 1 being best, 2 second best, blah blah blah.
• You can vote for bands, albums etc from anywhere, they don't have to be Scottish.
• Polls close on December 26th, after that I'll count up the results and post them around new year.
• This is meant to be a wee bit of fun, so don't moan about the results when posted!
• I won't keep your name/email address or any other info once the poll is done, unless you tell me to.

My attempt at putting together a fancy voting form failed miserably, so I'm afraid you'll have to do a wee bit of work. Copy/paste the stuff below and stick it in an email to poll@ayetunes.org.uk and I'll do the rest.

Aye Tunes Readers' Poll 2011

Best Album:

1.

2.

3.

Best Single/EP: (Basically anything that isn't an album)

1.

2.

3.

Best Band:

1.

2.

3.

Best Solo Artist:

1.

2.

3.

Best New Band/Solo Artist: (New is very subjective, if you first heard of them this year, that'll do)

1.

2.

3.

Best Live Band:

1.

2.

3.

Best Music Blog/Website: (Aye Tunes isn't eligible for this. Partly to avoid accusations, partly to stop me seeing how few would have said it anyway)

1.

2.

3.

Best Music Radio Show/Podcast:

1.

2.

3.

Best Venue:

1.

2.

3.

Your Name:

That'll do I think. Feel free to tell your pals about the poll!

Advent Calendar - Day Twenty One: The Second Hand Marching Band

Gig plug related Christmas song, yay!

The Second Hand Marching play play at The 13th Note tomorrow (Thursday) in a gig that I've already mentioned a couple of times, but I'd be wasting an opportunity not to mention it again, since they've got a Christmassy song to go with it.
Also playing at the gig are Withered Hand (Christmas song HERE) and The Last Battle (Christmas song HERE). It'll be dead good. You should go. Tickets can be bought here.

Bonbon is taken from The Second Hand Marching Band's Grit and Determination EP, which you can buy here. I wrote a wee bit about it when it came out ages ago, which you can read here. Although you're probably better off buying Compendium now I think about it, since it contains all the songs on that EP and is dead cheap.... Yeah, buy Compendium.



the second hand marching band: Website - Bandcamp - Facebook

Advent Calendar- Day Twenty One: The Recovery Club

It's been ages since I've heard anything from The Recovery Club, but here they are, popping up with a new festive offering. Good, I like them, so it's nice to see them still around.
Silent Night is available free from Bandcamp for a limited time, so get it while you can.



The Recovery Club: Bandcamp - Facebook

Advent Calendar - Day Twenty: Olympic Swimmers

Sneaking this in as a wee bonus advent calendar "door", mostly since I want an excuse to post it, but didn't want to just have a post saying "Look, a video!".

So. Look! A video!


OLYMPIC SWIMMERS - Where it Snows

Where It Snows isn't a Christmas song at all, but it has snow in the title, which makes it wintery at least. Yeah, I'm really reaching on this one, aren't I?

Anyway, When It Snows is an ace wee song, and Olympic Swimmers are a pretty ace band, so in it goes, against the face of all logic and arguments. When It Snows will be on Olympic Swimmers' debut album, which is due out some time in 2012. If the rest of the album is this fine it'll be a swell record indeed.

Olympic Swimmers: Website - Facebook - Bandcamp

Catching Up: Black Books

It took me the best part of six months to get round to writing about Black Books. They've been up to some stuff since I babbled about their EP. Rather than wait another six months to get round to mentioning them again, here's a few new things from The Black Books.

I mentioned previously that there was an album on the way "in the near future". Well, now there's a date set for the album! The Black Books' self titled debut album will be released on February 14th, perfectly timed to buy for someone you love. Or for you to nag someone into buying you for Valentine's Day. Or to buy for yourself, really. Don't worry, I'll remind you about the album release nearer the time.
Out The Door is a new song taken from the album, and available to download free from Bandcamp. I rather like it.



In addition to teasing us with their own new stuff, the band found time to contribute a cover version to SYFFAL.com. You can listen to and download their version of The Cardigans' Lovefool below.


Black Books: Blog - Bandcamp - Facebook

Advent Calendar - Day Twenty: The Stormy Seas

Only a few more of these posts to go. I'll need to find something new to occupy me after this week is over.
Maybe counting Readers' Poll entries? So far that's a simple task, since there's only a handful of them to count up. Go here to find out how to vote, you still have some time.

Today's song comes from The Stormy Seas. They released their debut album last month, and it is rather good. Have a wee listen here. Now they've gotten all festive, with a wee Christmas song.

The Christmas Before Last is available to download free from Bandcamp.



The Stormy Seas: Website - Bandcamp

Advent Calendar - Day Nineteen: The Narrows

Look out, Mancunians! This Christmas song from The Narrows is a bit different from their usual stuff, I like it, so into the calendar it goes.



The Narrows: Bandcamp - Facebook

Advent Calendar - Day Nineteen: Woodenbox

Fed up of the Christmas songs yet? Don't worry, we're into the last week of them, soon it'll all be over.
At which point I'll most likely go back to posting hardly anything. At least I'm productive in December.

Today's offering comes from Woodenbox.  Do they still have their Fistful of Fivers? I'm not sure.

The Christmas Song is a free download from Bandcamp.



Woodenbox: Facebook

Advent Calendar - Day Eighteen - Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six

I came across this through Song. by Toad, so adjust your appreciation/blame appropriately.



Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six: Bandcamp

Advent Calendar - Day Eighteen: The Belle Hops

I think I had this last year, but I'm too lazy to check.
Anyway, it is still sweet, fun, and charming, so have A Belle Hops Christmas Song again.



The Belle Hops: Bandcamp - Facebook

Advent Calendar - Day Seventeen: The Phantom Band

Oops, this was meant to be yesterday's song so I could fit in a gig plug, but, err, I forgot.
All is not lost though, as The Phantom Band's Phestive Phantomime continues at Stereo tonight! If you're quick there should still be a few tickets left, try TicketWeb, Monorail, or chance your arm on the door if you are feeling particularly daring.

Recorded for Vic Galloway's final Radio 1 show last year, The Phantom Band, who performed The Howling from their debut album Checkmate Savage in a very special style. Strictly speaking it isn't a Christmas song, but it is really good, so shut up.

The Phantom Band - Silent Howling Night

The Phantom Band: Website