Gig Review: Wide Days - Letters, PAWS, Rachel Sermanni, Withered Hand, Capitals, GoGoBot

I never made it along to Wide Days the other week. However, Fraser Doig did, and kindly sent over his report on the showcase gigs that took place in the evening to share. You can find more of Fraser's writing here.

In the wake of an informative, yet exhausting day at the seminar-laden Wide Days festival in Edinburgh, I donned my notebook and pen and set off into the throng, the smell of anticipation filling the air to the start of what promises to be a thoroughly canorous evening in the heart of Scotland’s capital city.

The first port of call is the amorously secluded Sneaky Pete’s. Snuggled in between the glowering, dark appendages of the Cowgate, the venue, despite it’s tiny 100 (barely) capacity, manages to mop up a swab of endless Scottish talent on a regular basis, and has bags of character. Tonight, it plays host to festival openers LETTERS, and the behemoth-driven scuzz trio, PAWS.

After a bit of a futz around LETTERS shuffle on to the stage (if you can call it that), eyes filled with the sight of a packed crowd, off-duty and ready to let loose. The quintet certainly didn’t digress from the task, providing punchy pop tunes and feisty summer jangles, soaked with clamorings that were resonant with inclinations of veteran Scottish indie maestros We Were Promised Jetpacks.

Next on the bill were Scotland’s answer to Dinosaur Jr. PAWS, who have been making (very loud) noises in the underground grunge movement of late, with impressive slots supporting heroes of the genus Yuck, Ty Segall and Wavves. From the moment Phillip Taylor’s fingers touched the strings of his cherry red “pussy-strat”, full on carnage was released, resulting in a barrage of sonic buzz that literally shook the walls and had my heart pumping. They hit the crowd for sixes by producing a scrummy torrent of fuzzy distortion out of their living,

breathing instruments. Powering through an electric body of some melodic tasters such as “Salem” off their ‘Mermaid’ EP, augmented by some visceral, face-numbing angst-y riffs, their feedback nourished set was a resounding success, leaving everyone exiting the club looking as though they’d just had the best sex of their lives.

The dying April sun finally making its bed behind the captivating architecture of Edinburgh city as I made my way along to our second venue in the twilight, eager to arrive at the penultimate Wide Days haunt, Cabaret Voltaire.

First to grace the stage in this 450 capacity stronghold was Highland-based songstress RACHEL SERMANNI. The 19 year old has already racked up a scorching resume; travelling the States at SXSW, supporting slots with KT Tunstall and Newton Faulkner, and peaking the interest of contemporaries Mumford and Sons to name a few of her accolades. It’s almost impossible not to

fall completely in love with Rachel, her sharp collection of lyrical, folk-infused ballads lay bare the soul of a genuine performer, who’s intricate finger-plucking radiates around the room creating a warm glow in everyone present.

Buzzed from his return from America and finally at liberty to put all that “visa crap” behind him, the tumultuous congregation greet Dan Willson, better known under the moniker Withered Hand on to the stage for his first post-SXSW appearance. Rather than opting for the more familiar lone performer guise, he is accompanied by several of his friends and colleagues, providing a grumbling bass line, adventurous bluegrass influences and subtle classical flavours to his euphonious endeavours. Those accustomed to his more weathered appearance may have been confused as to his newly groomed, clean shaven look, but these questions were soon buried as he unearths a story explaining that his former-self was “the spitting-image” of his US manager’s ex-wife. Withered Hand proved to be a strong favourite with the baying audience,

his quivering, spritely vocals turning heads from the back of the room, his whispered, clandestine lyrics delivered with all the intensity of a raging bonfire, cementing claims that this man’s songwriting abilities can be regarded in the same esteem as some of the other great enigmatic lyricists such as Daniel Johnston, who’s shadowy stylings have had more than a marginal influence on Mr. Willson.

Third stop off of the night was Electric Circus, a grimy looking bizarre-o club that was perfect for closing acts CAPITALS and GOGOBOT and a suitable finishing line to the evening’s palpable good-natured festivities.

A surprisingly minimal set-up commandeered by electro-pop group CAPITALS comprised of synths, guitar and vocals, that defied the dynamic and enriched sound they produced. Taut drum loops churned in with clobbering bass lines paved the way for Angus Carbarn’s ethereal vocals to gleam through, with a little touch of the Brandon Flowers inflection to it.

Now, if Glasgow-based GOGOBOTS know much about anything, the one thing they can do beyond a shadow of a doubt, is party. Taking their cues from the likes of LCD Soundsystem and Pendulum, they deliver a bombastic, emotionally driven wave of pure energy that floods the dark confines of the club inviting even the cynical naysayers to allow themselves a cheeky nod of the head.

The Wide Days festival is a great way for musicians and friends to share their knowledge and create a community of talent, a noble cause if ever there was one. Definitely pencilled in for next year.

Review by Fraser Doig.

PAWS photo by Tiffany Barber

More Info:

Wide Days

Letters

PAWS

Withered Hand

Rachel Sermanni

Capitals

GoGoBot

Gig Review: Admiral Fallow, Olympic Swimmers

Admiral Fallow, Olympic Swimmers.

The Arches, Glasgow.

2nd March 2011.

The anticipation for the Admiral Fallow gig has been building for a number of months now with regular twitter updates and pub chats, have you got your tickets yet was the talk. The gig was so popular it was moved to the Big Arch and eventually sold out on the night with a lucky few managing to get the last tickets on the door.

The night opened with Glasgow based band Olympic Swimmers, a new band to me but I had been reassured that they were right up my street. Named in Radar as band to watch in 2010 the band didn’t disappoint. This five piece is headed up by Susie Smillie on vocals provided a great set to warm up the night, the arch busy with an appreciative audience. The other members of the band providing a great backdrop for her vocals, playing a mix of mellow arrangements to more indie rock. The only criticisms I have is one not being able to see the band due to the amount of smoke and dark lighting on stage, and not being able to hear the vocals clear over the top of the rest of the band, but I will be looking out for their next gig and hunting down their two EPs recordings.

After a quick dash to the bar at approximately 9.30pm on Wednesday the 2nd of March I fell in love with a whole band, well to be honest I was a fan before but this confirmed it. The cheers went up as Admiral Fallow took the stage and opened with ‘Dead Leg’ from their first album ‘Boots Met My Face’. The band fronted by Louis Abbott on vocals and guitar were instantly on top form for their hometown gig. The band had the amazing The Admiral Fallow Brass section; any band with live brass gets me every time providing beautiful harmony to back the songs. As well as playing through the tracks from their debut album the guys took the opportunity to introduce some new material for their Glasgow audience, starting off with new song Paper Trench and then the fantastic The Way You were raised later on in the set. Fans of the album will not be disappointed with the new material. The lovely Sarah Hayes took the lead vocals to sing the stunning ‘Bomb Through The Town’, when the audience hushed to listen closely was just another highlight of this performance.

The band built up the audiences anticipation finishing their set with ‘Squealing Pigs’ that confirmed itself as the bands anthem with the whole room singing the chorus back to them and dancing along. But of course that was not the end as after much enthusiastic applause Louis returned to the stage with his guitar to do a solo cover of the Elbow classic ‘Switching Off’ executed beautifully just before the rest of the guys rejoined him on stage for one final set ‘Old Ballons’ before sending the audience off buzzing with excitement, or maybe that was just me...

Review by Jennifer McGlone of Glow Arts for Aye Tunes.

Photo by Claire Thomson for Catthouse.

Admiral Fallow

Olympic Swimmers

The Arches

Glow Arts

Catthouse

Guest Blog: Visiting the Isle of Lewis with Allan Kennedy

Hello, I'm Allan, I play bass for Mondegreen and Rustic City Fathers and I'm from the Isle Of Lewis.

Coming from an island off the northwest coast of Scotland presents a pretty immediate barrier to success that mainland artists don't really have to worry about. The largest expanse of water most Glasgow musicians have to worry about is the Clyde. But regardless of this The Boy Who Trapped The Sun and dotjr have both done well for themselves and fairly recently been signed to Geffen and Polydor respectively. I'm looking forward to hearing more teuchtar accents on the tv outside the realms of religious outrage and patronising documentaries!

Anyway, I thought I may be better dedicating the majority of this to three bands and three solo artists from Lewis you're less likely to have heard of (though do check them both out if you haven't done so already.)

Can't Swim

From that sort of Reuben/Pulled Apart By Horses/and such style that we all love so dearly. They're a fantastic live band who I've enjoyed every time I've seen them. Orphans is a great tune and they've been playing on Introducing... a few times now.

Our Small Capital

Some lush indie folk that sounds a bit like early REM without all the mumbling. Wonderful tunes about dour things, as it should be.

Murderers Of Love

I've previously been (to be fair quite rightly) slated for saying they sound like Suede (which they don't,) so I'll stick with saying they come from a fine tradition of miserablist Scottish rock with songs about having a terrible time at indie discos and worrying that someone you like has terrible political opinions. Universal stuff!

iglue

A chap from Cromore (indeed he proposed the 2nd best covers band name ever. Faith Cromore, 2nd only to Kroftwork) that plays Low-esque folky tunes about the ocean, the island and other such things.

Ali Murray

He probably won't thank me for this, but I was in a metal band with him as a teenager (back when I looked like the Dulux dog.) Sounding much different these days, I think the bio on the myspace does a better job of describing his music than I could.

Iain Shaw

In the last year or so he's released two full albums of acoustic covers of a big variety of songs. You can hear a fair few of these on the myspace (particular favourites being Drunk Girls and Little Boxes) but he also has a whole swatch of great originals. He's playing a free gig on the 28th in Mono this month as well.

On top of this there's also the Sounds in the Grounds festival run by the WIN trust which has previously had the likes of The Phantom Band and Malcolm Middleton headling it and hosting various other great bands from across Scotland. A great wee festival in a pretty unusual place (and the weather has ususally, though not always, turned a bit better by the time it starts.)

There's also Honcho Recordings/Promotions run by Innes Morrison and Jori Kim which released a series of compilations, EPs and albums that really helped to kickstart the music scene on Lewis. If you can track the compilations down they're well worth a listen for the diversity of stuff that's appeared on the island (as well as to hear some old tracks from The Boy Who Trapped The Sun and dotjr's previous band if you're a fan of themselves.)

There's a whole load of other folk I haven't covered here, but hopefully that's given you interest enough to start clicking through links to other Lewis artists to see what else is going on up there.

Thanks Allan for the guest blog. If anyone else from outside of Glasgow or Edinburgh wants to let us know a bit about what is happening musically in their neck of the woods drop me a line at jim@ayetunes.org.uk, I'd love to know.
Mondegreen play Bloc in Glasgow on Thursday night, I highly recommend going, they are a brilliant band.

Guest Blog: Have You Ever Heard Of The Sycamores?

Have You Ever Heard Of The Sycamores?

I have. They were awesome. They’ve split up now. You’ll never see them. Sorry. Your loss. The truth is that of course you haven’t heard of The Sycamores - despite being a band of immense talent and skill they touched only a thin wedge of humanity. I think they played maybe one or two gigs outside of their native Cornwall, and that was it.

There was some great music in Cornwall, still is. Much of it you will never get a chance to hear. There are some other great musical hubs as well, look at Liverpool, Bristol, Brighton, Nottingham - all of which have a wealth of brilliant unsigned bands, just as many as Glasgow. However just like Glasgow, most of these bands will never make it big and will split up before anyone outside their local scene knows their name.

Overall the message of this is pretty pessimistic. Outside of this city there is another world of musical talent, most of which you will never hear of or see.

However the truth of the matter is you have only yourself to blame - at least in part. Most bands worth their salt (what does that phrase even mean?) will at some point pass by our way, and most of them are ignored. Largely it’s down to how the Glasgow music scene works - a system of bands promoting their own gigs - but that’s another rant. More often than not touring acts are placed early on and find themselves playing to nearly empty rooms. I have seen the likes of I Say Marvin, Pause.Break.Riot! and even the soon to be epic Max Raptor play in Glasgow to quiet rooms. (Two of these bands have subsequently split up so you’ve missed out there as well).

Being a band - especially a touring one is shit. I travelled with one a few years back. It’s crap. You spend a fortune, sleep in a freezing van in December in Arbroath (actually happened), risk your van being broken into and your stuff going missing (actually happened), and you find yourself travelling 200 miles to a city you don’t know to find an empty room. It makes you wonder what the point is.

Most of the time promoters put these bands on first as they know they won’t bring many people, which only adds to the punishment for something which isn’t really their fault. So what is the point on going on tour? To visit Kelvingrove Museum?

Febuary 25th sees Popical Island, the Irish record label play a one off gig in the 13th Note - you should go. On the 1st March the superb Let’s Buy Happiness play at Captain’s Rest - you should go there too. Or at very least check them out, go listen on their Bandcamps and see whether you like what you hear. It is a dear hope that these up coming events don’t pass like so many good touring bands, with Glasgow ignoring it in favour of seeing a local act they’ve seen a million times play once more.

This is nothing against the Glasgow music scene. Glasgow has a superb talent to populous ratio, possibly finer than any other city. But like it or not, most unsigned bands in Glasgow you will have a few chances to see before they split up after a few years and all get real jobs. These touring acts may only ever play here once.

This is one of the things we’ve often sort to address at PGTR. We set out especially to have no geographical bias. It’s not where you’re from, it’s what you play. We try wherever possible to play bands that are completely unheard of from across the UK. You can appreciate good music no matter where it’s from.

We’re about to start doing live events as well. We’ve gone through extra efforts to try and make life for touring bands better. Putting them on later on the bill even if they won’t bring that many people, covering their travel costs, giving them a floor to sleep on. I genuinely believe we can have a better life for touring acts without compromising on the rest of the gig.

As an extra guide to some of the acts I’m talking about, check out our first live event. We came across Natalie Holmes and Tom Clarke whilst sitting on bandcamp. They’re officially two separate acts, but they play a lot together. We stumbled across by sheer accident a song by Natalie Holmes called Shooting Zombies and were blown away - a superb mixture of wit and beauty all rolled into this youthful love affair. Listen to it. You’ll be in love.

So many bands have this idealised vision of the Glasgow music scene. Places like Tut’s and a history of bands from Franz Ferdinand to Belle & Sebastian make this an almost must stop place to play on your first UK tour, so let’s make it worth their while.

I am not encouraging you to totally break the mould and give up on your own scene - that’s important too. But every so often, instead of playing it safe and seeing which band you know is playing this week, go onto the listings for the 13th Note or Captain’s Rest and see what bands you don’t know - then google them and find a MySpace / Bandcamp / Soundcloud and then listen. If you don’t like it, don’t go. If you do, go, enjoy the music and say hi afterwards. It’ll make their day.

I don’t think Glasgow is an exception. I imagine similar things happen when we send our unsigned joys off to other cities around the UK. But let’s set our standards high, go the extra mile, and go see bands because we found this one song by them on MySpace that was totally awesome.

To finish off. Here are a few far away bands that I haven’t booked for a gig yet. (That way I can claim neutrality).

We Are The Grand - from Liverpool - a superb fast paced indie sound. Their music flies at the pace of lightning. Like driving as fast as you can down the motorway and trying to be caught by every speed camera on the way just because flashes are cool. Raucous, in your face, and yet sublime.

Max Raptor - from Birmingham - Sitting on the fence between indie and rock they attract an odd crowd. They make you want to jump, mosh and dance at the same time. It’s an odd combination. But despite the weird movements you’ll be pulling, the slick riffs, and precise lyrics will lead to you having a very good night.

Marble Fairy - from London - Superb little Electro act. Some of the catchiest hooks you’re ever likely to get a chance to hear, combined with powerful vocals, it creates an emotional party music. Their music hasn’t reinvented the wheel, they’ve just taken the classic wheel design - you know round - and made it work really really well.

The Purgatory Players - Sheffield - Whimsical dream like music, each song is like an emotion in a microscope. Analysed and then drawn out so that every painful element of their chosen feeling can be analysed and brought to life. This growth and multiplication of sentiment built up through some wonderfully well written lyrics and great musicianship creates an extreme depth for you to bury yourself into. Wonderful music to bring a smile to your face when there is a grey sky or the world is ending.

Happy googling. Enjoy music.

George Pearson is one of the presenters and curators of Pop Goes The Revolution on Subcity Radio. You can find out more about the show at www.popgoestherevolution.com

Since George took time to write a guest blog for me, it would be very rude not to include a plug for the upcoming Pop Goes The Revolution gig. It takes place on March 3rd at The Captain's Rest, with Natalie Holmes and Tom Clarke, White Heath, We See Lights and Mitchell Museum playing live. Go on, have a wee listen.

Gig Review: Twin Shadow

Twin Shadow

The Captain's Rest, Glasgow

27th January 2011

Review by Stephen Donkin

Sometimes a single song can remind why you spend so much time hunting around the interwebs for new tunes, and drop all your available cash on importing 7” records from Canada, and suffer the dodgy looks from your boss as you slope off early to go to another midweek gig on the other side of the country. The opening song of Twin Shadow’s set at the Captain’s Rest on Thursday was one such song.

On record, Shooting Holes In The Moon is a sleek, wiry little pop song bathed in soft eighties synths a bit of funky bass, and mournful vocals singing a gorgeously nonchalant melody. Live, it was absolutely transformed into something altogether more muscular, loud, fast and…heavy. The tiny sweaty walls of the room were at bursting point, full with people expecting a bit of a bop, a wee singalong and to hear some songs of one of the best albums of the past couple of

months. What they got was an absolute tour-de-force in how to translate your record for live performance.

There was always a bit of suspicion about Twin Shadow, which is essentially one man, George Lewis Jr, that their popularity is as much a product of a massively popular man, who happens to be a great songwriter, than it is a result of a great songwriter becoming popular. However, the humility was written all over his face as he received a rapturous applause after every song from a clearly adoring audience. It became a bit of a love-in to be honest, with George reiterating at

every opportunity what a great gig it was, and the crowd reciprocating with gushing shout-outs.

Of course, there was more to the set than just the first song, as excellent as it was. The rest of the gig played out like a mini greatest hits set, with Castles in the Snow, Forget and Slow superseding their recorded versions in much the same as Shooting Holes in the Moon did. So let it be a lesson to all those bands out there who are obsessed with replicating every detail from their recordings: sometimes the song is just enough. And if it’s not, well….draw your own conclusion.

Twin Shadow: Website

This was a guest post by Stephen Donkin. Stephen is a member of Birdhead, who release an EP, Talons, soon. Thanks Stephen!

Be My Guest (Poster)

So, the phrase "I don't have time" is starting to sneak back into my vocabulary more than I'd like. I'm likely to have a lot more time to mess about and do blog stuff soon, but for the next week or two I might struggle to get a lot of new posts up, especially since the review pile is already starting to grow and is a priority to get on top of, leaving other things to fall behind.

This means I'm looking for a wee bit of help in the form of you, dear reader. There's no money in it, nor any glory. No, wait, come back...

Anyway, short version, I'm looking for a few guest posts to run on the site. Rather than me not have time to finish anything and go a week with little but the gig guide appearing I'd like to be able to plug in a guest post rather than no new content.

I'm not really looking for anything in particular. Pick five of your favourite songs at the moment and tell the World (well, the tiny portion of it that reads Aye Tunes) why these songs are awesome. If you are a band it could be a wee piece about yourself, without waiting for me to get round to asking you questions. It could be something about a band you, band members or the general public, like.

Been to a good gig recently? I'll publish your review if you like.

It could even be something about a band you hate, so long as it in constructive and doesn't get me sued or battered.

The people that pop up occasionally to tell me how much the blog sucks, my music taste is awful, or how I'm just generally a terrible person are welcome to write a piece saying these things again, if they can explain them. Be warned though, it won't be published anonymously.

One thing I'm not really after though is record reviews, I've got quite a few of them to deal with on my own.

Now, you may be wondering why writing a guest blog for me would be any good for you, considering I've already mentioned there's no money or anything in it. The answer is, basically, it probably won't be. If you are are a blogger you'd be as well running the article on your own site. No benefit to anyone but me then, but it doesn't hurt to ask, does it?

Anything I'm sent will be run, of course, with full credit to whoever wrote it (this means no anonymous hatchet jobs please), including links back to you and so on if you have your own site.

Oh, and if you are in Glasgow I promise I'll get you a couple of drinks at some point.

Anyone interested send me a wee email at jim@ayetunes.org.uk telling me who you are (assuming we don't know each other already) and what you want to do, or with something already written, and I'll get back to you super quick, I promise.

Cheers!