Keeping It Peel - El Hombre Trajeado

el hombre trajeado woke up in october 1995, snoozed a little through 2003 / 2004, then went back to sleep for good in 2006

So it says on their website, and who am I to disagree with the people responsible? El Hombre Trajeado were a familiar name when I was out and about at gigs around the late 90s. They'd pop up from time to time on a bill and had a name that stuck in the head. I hadn't thought about them in some time though, until early this year when the band's RM Hubbert released his album First & Last. Hubby's excellent album sent me back to listen to El Hombre, which gave me a nice little reminder of just how good they were.

All three of their albums and a single are available on a "name your price" basis here. RM Hubbert's album is available on the same terms here.

El Hombre Trajeado recorded three Peel Sessions, you can hear a couple of tracks below.

Many thanks to RM Hubbert for hooking me up with these tracks.

El Hombre Trajeado - John Peel Session 01.03.1998

Diary Extract

El Hombre Trajeado - John Peel Session 24.01.2001

Redial

For more information on Keeping It Peel visit the website set up here.

El Hombre Trajeado: Website

RM Hubbert: Website

Christmas Songs - Day 7

Today's offering comes from El Dog, offering up their take on Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, available as a free download below.

El Dog - Let It Snow by Lo-Five Records

Here's the video too:



El Dog

Single Review - eagleowl: Sleep The Winter

Somewhat luckily for me I came to the eagleowl party quite late. While all the people that have loved them since their last release, For The Thoughts You Never Had, have had to wait ages for a follow up I only got that EP recently, when the band offered it as a free download (which you can find here) so my wait for new material hasn't been long at all.

Even without the long wait, I was still terribly excited when the new single popped up in my inbox a bit ahead of release.

First reaction? Pretty much just "wow". Followed a few listens later by "this is bloody gorgeous".
I've listened to the single quite a few times since last night, and those two reactions haven't changed. These songs are bloody gorgeous.
On A-Side Sleep The Winter Bart's cracked voice is complimented perfectly by Clarissa's sweet, gentle tones. Likewise guitar and strings work perfectly together. What starts off dark and broody soon becomes warm and uplifting around halfway through, all courtesy of just a few simple changes.
B-Side Laughter is no less gorgeous. Again it keeps things simple, there's no histrionics, no showing off, just a great song.

Your one word review? Back to that first impression then. Wow. You'll struggle to find a more perfect seasonal release.
Now, like all the cool kids who picked up the first EP way back last year, I'm eagerly awaiting more new material from eagleowl. With a second EP due next year, hopefully the wait won't be too long...

The Sleep The Winter 7” single will be launched with a show at The Bowery (2 Roxburgh Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9SU) on Friday, December 11th. Doors open at 7.30, entry is £5, and early arrival is strongly advised, so’s not to miss the amazing special guests.
From December 14th the single will be available from select independent record stores, and to order via www.eagleowlattack.co.uk and www.kilterschmilter.co.uk. You also can listen to and buy it below.

eagleowl MySpace

Gig Review: Debutant, Esperi, Panda Su and Yahweh

Amidst the freezing cold winds, pouring rain and general miserableness on Sunday's weather there was one huge bright spot, the gig in The Classic Grand.
If you've been here at all in the last week you'll know all about it, but just in case you haven't, Glasgow PodcART put on a gig with four pretty swell acts. I went, rubbish weather and no money is a poor excuse for missing out on a line up like this -especially since I'd seen none of the acts before, and this is what I thought of it.

Taking the stage first was Debutant, AKA Phillip Quirie. Debutant's first song was marred by technicals issues. Fortunately that was sorted out quickly and the rest of the set, just one man, his guitar and his pedals, provided a fine start to the evening. Gentle and mellow but never becoming samey, up until King of Double Speak provides a surprisingly intense climax to the set. I think this might also have been the quietest gig audience I've ever come across too, as everyone stood (or sat) hushed, listening to Phillip go to work. One of the lyrics from one of the songs (sorry, the title escapes me, help very welcome!) was "You know I hang on every word you say", which pretty much summed up what I thought of Debutant.

Panda Su was up next and after the rotten job I did on her profile piece the other day (sorry again Su) her set was always going to be bombproof review-wise. Luckily for me I don't need to say nice things about it just to make up for being rubbish, since Panda Su were actually brilliant. Joining Su and her regular cohort Red was esperi's Chris on drums and later Jonnie Common, hopping up on stage at Su's invitation. Su promised to keep between song chatter was kept to a minimum, even though there was still more of than you'll get with many bands, due to Su being a bit under the weather, but any illness doesn't appear to have affected the performance. Panda Su's songs have an air of melancholy and fragility to them, but are delivered in a strong, confidence voice that can alternately put a smile on your face and a crack in your heart.
Also, you can't really complain about any band that has a front woman with panda face paint and a song about Prince Eric from the Littlest Mermaid, can you?
There's a little sample of Panda Su's set - Facts and Figures - recorded on the night by Glasgow Podcart here.

Tonight esperi was just Chris Lee-Marr and his selection of instruments, of which there were many. Beginning by inviting the audience in closer to the stage and assuring us he's "not that scary" Chris then abandoned the stage for his first song opting instead to quietly sing Home from atop a table, after which he admitted that maybe he is a bit scary after all. Having never seen esperi I didn't know what to expect from the set, but I think any expectations would have been blown anyway. It was incredibly engaging throughout, enchanting almost. On Cats And Dogs Chris went through God knows how many instruments, looping little bits as the song gradually builds. By my count Cats and Dogs clocked in at around 20 minutes long and throughout the full length never threatened to get stale or boring. It would be easy for this kind of thing to be performed too seriously, but thankfully Chris Lee-Marr isn't just a fantastic musician, he also has a sense of humour, so things never get too earnest. Tremendous stuff.

The final act was Yahweh, playing as a full band tonight, and elevating the noise levels in all the best ways. Main man Lewis Cook is probably sick and tired of people mentioning his youth, but I'm going to do it again anyway. For one so young not only do Cook's songs have incredible maturity, but he's comfortable on stage too. Add into that a tight live band and Yahweh are quite special live. I mentioned in my feature last week that I'm a big fan of the album, Tug of Love, I'm possibly an even bigger fan of the way the songs sound live now. Great songs, great band, great night!

Both Yahweh and esperi are performing at Define Pop 2, I can't wait to see them both at that.
Panda Su is back in Glasgow in December for the PodcART crew's Christmas Party, in a night that I won't be missing. Hopefully it won't be too long before Debutant pays Glasgow another visit too.

Lest I forget, Waves Below did a great job keeping the ambiance going between acts from the DJ booth.

Links: Glasgow PodcART - Oxjam - Debutant - Esperi - Panda Su - Waves Below - Yahweh

Esperi

Day two of my spotlight on artists play this Sunday's big Glasgow PodcART gig, the line up for which has grown with the addition of Waves Below DJing at the show. The gig is also now tieing into Oxjam, making it even more worthwhile!

esperi is mainly the work of Chris Lee-Marr, assisted at times by any combination of his wife Cat, Jon Adam, Kev Black , Craig Arnott and Eilidh Glynn.

Again, I've not yet caught esperi live and aside from hammering the songs on MySpace to prepare for this, haven't heard an awful lot of their stuff. What I've heard is great though. Similar to Debutant there's a lot of layering of vocals and different instrumentation - some very exotic and unconventional instruments at that - going on, combines to form gorgeous gentle, melodic storytelling songs

esperi are launching their new EP 21:21 at the show too. If I've got my copy/paste right there ought to be a wee widget down the bottom that will let you buy a copy. In addition to Sunday's gig there's a lot more esperi live dates coming up, including Define Pop II.

I don't have any mp3s I can post, but you can hear esperi songs at MySpace and Last.fm. You have to listen to Proverb Part 2. That isn't a suggestion, that's a demand.

Errors

Right then, time to get started here I think. For the next week or so I might be messing around with the format a bit, but bear with me and we'll settle into something resembling normality soon enough.

Today Glasgow's Errors finally released their debut album It's Not Something But It Is Like Whatever on Rock Action Records. It's been a while since we got a release from them, not counting the single Toes a few weeks ago, so it is fair to say that this album is pretty highly anticipated round Aye Tunes Towers, especially since 2006's How Clean Is Your Acid House? EP still gets played to death.
Unfortunatly for me HMV haven't sent me my copy yet, so I can't tell you if it is good or bad. My money, based on previous releases, is on good.

If you are in Glasgow you might like to note that on the 13th of June there's a launch night for the album in Stereo. I'm planning on being there, so if you are heading along, say hi. Details and tickets can be found here.

Errors Myspace

If You Buy One Record:
At this point I'm planning on reccommending an album that you should buy, but since there's only one out, by default I'm going to be saying It's Not Something But It Is Like Whatever. This bit will make more sense when I post about a band with more than one album out, I swear. In the meantime, It's Not Something... is available from some of the shops listed in the right hand sidebar and the usual download type places.

Sample Tracks:
Mr. Milk (from How Clean Is Your Acid House?)
Maeve Binchy (from the Salut! France single)