Six Things For Saturday

I'm a rubbish blogger, clearly. Rather than spend another weekend not writing proper blog posts and leaving things silent, here's a random selection of free music to briefly entertain you at the weekend.

Randolph's Leap:
Randolph's Leap launch their new album, Randolph's Leap and the Curse of the Haunted Headphones with a gig at the Captains Rest tonight. Contrary to the poster above I'm told that doors are at half seven, with the first band on at eight, so get along early. The album will be available on cassette at the gig, though there are very limited quantities available, before being put up on Bandcamp later. As a wee taster you can download Dying In My Sleep from the album here.


Julian The Apostate:
The man behind Julian The Apostate used to be in a band I liked, but now he's going solo instead. There's a couple of EPs and some demo recordings available for free from Bandcamp, and I'm promised there'll be more going up regularly, so keep an eye out.


Human Don't Be Angry:
The man behind Human Don't Be Angry used to be in a band I liked, but now he's going solo instead. Oh, wait... Anyway, yes, Human Don't Be Angry is the latest project from Malcolm Middleton. The album will be released on April 23rd - I've had a sneaky advance listen, it is, not very surprisingly, a bit good - but ahead of that there's a free download available of H.D.B.A. Theme. The first Human Don't Be Angry gig with a new full band takes place at The Arches a week today, as part of the Margins festival. There's not many tickets left, so you'll have to hurry if you want to go but don't have one yet.

Night Noise Team:
I rather enjoyed the album, Slow Release, that Night Noise Team put out last year. It was a mixture of dark, broody, poppy and electro, sometimes all at once. There's a free track, The Gift, available here, and more freebies from other Permwhale bands here. Slow Release is available to listen to and buy here.


Fay Wrays:
Ditching Scotland, off we go to Fresno, California, for something new from the Fay Wrays. Their album Strange Confessor popped up at random in my inbox last year, and ended up one of my favourite albums of the year (you can get that album for free here), so I was rather happy when they sent me through a new song at the start of the week. Cars is really rather good, and you can have it for free here.


Magnetic Island:
Continuing the rather random hopping around the globe today, let's stop off in Brooklyn, New York, for a little something from Magnetic Island. Their new self titled album is really, really good, and I urge you to have a listen to that here, and buy it if you like it. There's a host of free stuff from Magnetic Island on Bandcamp too, so go ahead and fill yer boots, but the freebie I'm featuring here popped up just the other day. It's a cover of a song by the Au Pairs, who I must confess to being completely unaware of, so I can't compare the cover with the original. The Magnetic Island version of Headache For Michelle is ace though, so go download it.


Finally a reminder that I recorded a podcast with Insularis Records, you can find more about that, and have a listen, here.

Me, Talking Rubbish

Oops, gone a bit longer between pots than I'd meant to. There's also an ominous looking submission pile that needs attention. While I attempt to do something about that, how would you like to hear some songs interspersed with me talking nonsense?

Last week I got together with my pal Allan to record a wee podcast for Insularis Records, the results of which you can hear below.

Insularis Podcast : January 2012 with Jim from AyeTunes! by Insularis Records on Mixcloud

We played ten songs, and I mainly ignored both Scottish music and new music for it, because I'm awkward like that. If you've always wanted to hear what I sound like when talking about things quite randomly, now you can.

Since recording I've done fact checking, and can add two pieces of into to things, 1 - Spiritualized have a new album imminent, which will presumably make up some of their set on their upcoming tour. 2. Kate Radley married Richard Ashcroft of The Verve.

Go buy some records from Insularis.

Shambles Sells Out, or Free Shambles Miller!

Given that I had him along to play at my last Aye Tunes gig in 2011 you shouldn't really need to be told that I rather like Shambles Miller. If you haven't heard the man himself yet to find out why I like him you won't get many better chances than this.

You see, Shambles has now sold out of physical copies of both his EPs, Shambles Vs The Dragonwizard and Shambles Sails The Clockwork Sea. To celebrate the sell out status the kind Mr Miller is making both EPs available, for a limited time, to download for whatever you want to pay for them.

Both are available from Bandcamp, where you can have a listen and get yourself a digital copy for however much you fancy paying.





Shambles Miller: Website - Bandcamp - Facebook

This Week's Gigs: 23rd - 29th January

There's a few handsome looking gigs going on this week, including a selection of my so-called "ones to watch" in action, so time to dust off the weekly guide for a rare outing, albeit in brief form.

Wednesday:
Miaoux Mioux, White Heath, Miss The Occupier, The Miss's. Stairway.
Fresh -assuming he gets a chance to catch up on his sleep - from his Radio One session in the early hours of this morning, Miaoux Miaoux will be adding a bit of pep to the middle of the week with this gig at Stairway. Miss The Occupier and The Miss's are both ace too. Tickets are available straight from Miaoux Miaoux here.
Young Philadelphia, Birdhead, Rollor, Burning Mountain. Pivo Pivo.
I don't know a lot about two of the bands on show here, but can vouch for Birdhead and Rollor both being a bit good.
LAID Burns Night: Trapped In Kansas, Poor Things, Loki. Bloc.
Rounding out a busy Wednesday in Glasgow is the latest offering from LAID.

Thursday:
French Wives: Album Preview. Duke's Bar. (Tickets)
Hey look, it's another of those bands who you should watch and stuff. French Wives are busy both raising money to run away to America, and getting ready to release their debut album. This show covers both bases, as it'll have the first playback of the finished album, as well as an acoustic set from the band - which they've promised to practice for - and some DJing.
Vladimir, Sick Kids, All We Are, Featherman. Bloc.
United Fruit, PAWS, Vasquez. Electric Circus.
Don't worry Edinburgh, I haven't entirely forgotten about you. There's a pretty easy one word desription for this gig - ooft.

Friday:
RM Hubbert, Tattie Toes. Stereo. (Tickets)
More watchable people! RM Hubbert is launching his new album, Thirteen Lost and Found, at Stereo on Saturday. All the guest contributors to the record will be chipping in, and it ought to be quite special.
Pin Up Nights - Intergalactic! The Flying Duck.
Sadly there aren't many Pin Up Nights left, as my favourite club night in Glasgow prepares to go away *sniff*. Enjoy it while you still can then. This month's Pin Ups has Den Haan, Nevada Base and Fiction Faction playing live, the usual Pin Ups DJs, guest DJs Paul Downie and Ally McCrae - plus a mystery spaceman - and Edinburgh club night It's Funtime taking over the kitchen.

Dolfinz - Teenage Doom/Nosebleed

This has been out for ages, but it's good, so it's getting flagged up, even if I am dead late.


You might not have noticed, unless you paid attention to the amount of it that turned up in my end of year/start of year posts, but I've been wandering off into lo-fi scuzzy poppy rock. That's what Dolfinz make, and they do it rather well.

Both songs on this double A-side single are very rough around the edges, but a Hell of a lot of fun, and at around three and a half minutes each don't mess about. They make a lovely amount of noise for a two piece, and throw all sorts into their songs, there's a bit of surf, lots of pop, shedloads of distortion, and a good old handful of rock. Really raw, a bit messy, and really flipping exciting. The single is available from Tuff Wax Records on Bandcamp, you can have a listen below.



There's a load more songs available for free on Soundcloud too, so go have a listen. Much more interesting than whoever the latest cardigan wearing acoustic troubadour of the week happens to be.

Up next from Dolfinz is a cassette release, paying tribute to Mean Girls, on Cath Records, and they've also recently recorded a track for a split 12" for Song, by Toad Records. All of that sounds great to me, even though I regularly moan about buying tapes and vinyl. They are sickeningly young, but I won't hold that against them.

Dolfinz: Soundcloud - Facebook

Obligatory Ones To Watch In 2012 Blog Post

I really don't like these lists very much. It is pretty much impossible to say who will have a good year, who will plod along as usual, who will split up or vanish without a trace, or anything else. It's also hard to say what counts as having a good year. Playing to a wee tent at at festival? A "triumphant" sell out gig to about 150 people in Glasgow or Edinburgh? The whole exercise always seems a tad pointless to me, you'd be better off sticking some band names on the wall and throwing darts to select them. That may or may not be the same way that bands land those wee tent at festival gigs anyway.

So, with all my grumbling out of the way, here I go being a hypocrite and making a list of bands to keep an eye on anyway. To remove some of the guess work - and the temptation to randomly pick folk that I just happen to like - I'm msotly concentrating on bands who are confirmed, or at least likely, to have new material out this year. Less "Ones To Watch In 2012" then, more "Ones To Watch In the next couple of months when their LP comes out". Of course, since some of these bands aren't even Scottish that moany first paragraph makes even less sense, but I'm not going back to change it now.

First Timers:


PAWS
I could pretty much have just written a list with PAWS on it and no one else and been satisfied with my choices, really. One of the most entertaining live bands in Scotland, PAWS are heading into the studio at the end of January to do some work on their debut album. I already can barely wait to hear some results.
PAWS - Winners Don't Bleed (Toad Session)

Black Books
It took me forever to get round to featuring Black Books here, so now I'm determined to make up for lost time. My favourite Texans release their debut album on February 14th this year, and if it carries on quality wise from their first EP it should be a darn fine record.
Black Books - Out The Door

Sneakpeek
Staying in America, shifting over to California, Sneakpeak are a band that I heard some time around the middle of 2011, listened to loads, and promptly completely forgot to ever mention on here. Falling into the dreamy lo-fi grungey pop genre that I seem to have become a wee bit obsessed with, Sneakpeek have been teasing tracks off their first album over on Youtube of late, and it all sounds quite fab.
Sneakpeek - Walk All Over Me

Rumour Cubes
Post rock, more or less, done beautifully. Debut album The Narrow State is out at the end of February, and currently sitting high on my "most anticipated" list.
Rumour Cubes - Rain On Titan

French Wives
It feels a bit odd including French Wives here, I've been listening to them for so long they are practically part of the furniture. This year however ought to be a good one for them, with the release of their debut album, and a trip to Austin for SXSW already on the cards. Still no sign of them turning into Simple Minds either, which is a nice added bonus.
French Wives - Covered In Grace


Difficult Second Album:

RM Hubbert
Hubby hardly needs mentioned by me, but he's getting included anyway. There's often an album that comes along early in the year that lays a marker for everything else to follow, and with his second album Thirteen Lost & Found Hubby has staked that claim for this year. For Thirteen Lost & Found Hubby has roped in some friends - Aidan Moffat, Emma Pollock, Luke Sutherland and more - to lend a hand, and the album both picks up where First & Last left off, and wanders into interesting new areas. Thirteen Lost & Found is released by Chemikal Underground on January 30th.
RM Hubbert - Tipsy Tapsy

Miaoux Miaoux
It took a minute to remember that Miaoux Miaoux belonged down here, and not with the first timers, but his debut album Rainbow Bubbles came out aaaaages ago. Miaoux Miaoux is another one of the artists I've been following for ages - at one point almost literally, as I bumped into Julian on a near weekly basis, which I swear was an accident - and from what I heard at his preview gig at the tail end of last year his second album should be something quite special. Chemikal Underground have just snapped up Miaoux Miaoux, and  if we don't see that second album this year I will, I don't know, complain on the internet or something.
Miaoux Miaoux - Hrvatski

The Last Battle
Since debut album Heart of the Land, Soul of the Sea The Last Battle have rejigged their line-up and sound quite a fair bit. Last year's Springwell EP was a much noisier affair, and I'm keen to see what approach they'll take on their second album, which is currently being recorded.
The Last Battle - 365 Days

Oh go on then, let's have some folk that I just like.

Randoms:

Hector Bizerk
I've said before that I often struggle to get my head around Scottish hip-hop, but I don't have any trouble with Hector Bizerk. And MC and a drummer, they keep things pretty simple (my brain won't allow me to complete this sentence without saying "no rabbit in a hat tricks", so there, it's done, let me move on now brain), and do it very, very well. They've got two EPs under their belt already, both worth a listen.
Hector Bizerk - Man Up (Ally McCrae Session)

Pris
Shouty, bitchy, London girls that sound something like what would happen if Kenickie and Shampoo had children together.. By goodness I love them. Unashamedly pop, I keep using Pris to cheer myself up when my inbox gets too full over self indulgent over serious navel gazing nonsense. Long may they continue.
Pris - The Better You Look The More You See

Loch Awe
As I write this Loch Awe are locked up in Hamilton, recording at Chem19 studios. Their first EP (or is it a mini album? I can never tell) back in 2010 was pretty ace. Since the release of that the band have changed the way they sound a fair bit, meaning we can't get away with describing them as dead folky any more.
Loch Awe - I Will Drift into 10,000 Streams (demo)

The Spook School
As with Loch Awe, The Spook School were a band I wanted to see live so much that I practically begged them to come and do a gig for me so I could watch them. Despite having very little recorded yet they've made a pretty decent impression with more than just me, shown by them ramraiding the readers' poll at the end of last year. As a band they are still rough around the edges, which - at least for now - just adds to their charm for me. Fingers crossed we hear much more of them this year, and other people than me make them come and play in Glasgow.
The Spook School - Are You Who You Think You Are?

This is a picture of Mýa, apparently she's going to kill us all this year, or something.

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