Stag & Dagger: Who, Where, When?

Going to Stag & Dagger in Glasgow on Saturday? You'll probably want to know who is playing, at what venue, and when then, won't you?

Here's a handy dandy guide, with my favourites highlighted in red and everything.

SATURDAY 19 MAY

O2 ABC1 
19:15-20:00 White Denim
20:15-21:00 The Phantom Band
21:15-22:15 Django Django 

O2 ABC2 
18:00-18:30 Passenger
18:45-19:15 A Plastic Rose
19:30-20:00 To Kill A King
20:30-21:00 The New Piccadillys
21:30-22:15 Vigo Thieves

CCA 5 
19:00-19:30 Chasing Owls
20:00-20:30 Will Hanson
21:00-21:45 Eleanor Friedberger
22:15-22:45 Washington Irving
23:00-23:45 Willy Mason

THE ART SCHOOL 
18:30-19:00 White Arrows
19:30-20:00 Post War Years
20:30-21:15 Still Corners
21:45-22:15 Jonquil
22:55-23:45 Niki & The Dove Conquering Animal Sound

STEREO
19:30-20:00 Miaoux Miaoux
20:30-21:00 Random Impulse
21:30-22:15 Bear in Heaven
22:45-23:30 EMA
00:00-00:45 Forest Swords

NICE 'N' SLEAZY 
19:00-19:30 Adam Stafford
20:00-20:30 Bwani Junction
21:00-21:45 Milk Music
22:15-23:00 Holy Mountain

THE CAPTAINS 
14:00-14:30 Michael Anguish
15:00-15:30 Hot Panda
16:00-16:30 Honeyblood
17:00-17:30 The Heartbreaks
18:00-18:30 Die Hard
19:00-19:30 Ryan Keen
20:00-20:30 Holy Esque
21:00-21:45 Still Flyin'
22:15-22:45 Hidden Masters
23:15-00:00 Discopolis

Another Aye Tunes Gig: Exit_International, Wrongnote & Supermarionation

Been a while since I put on a gig, having all but decided to hang up my occasionally used promoter hat at the end of last year. When the chance came up to put together this one though, I couldn't resist.

And so Aye Tunes Presents is back, a wee bit different this time. We've spread our wings a bit and are bringing a band all the way from Wales for this one, along with one from Glasgow, and one from the scariest place of all, Edinburgh.

Exit_International first came on to my radar when they supported Ginger of The Wildhearts in Glasgow at the tail end of last year. That gig took place on the same night as the now infamous "Hurricane Bawbag", and it is fair to say the wind wasn't the only thing blowing people away. The Cardiff three piece shun six strings, instead coming armed with a pair of bass guitars, to thrilling results. Loud, frantic, sleazy and sexy, with more hooks than a tackle box, Exit_International call to mind hints of Girls Against Boys, Pulled Apart By Horses, Pixies and Motorhead, while always being their own distinct kind of rock beast.
Tours with Ginger Wildheart, Hawk Eyes, Monster Magnet, Blitz Kids, and dates with Kids In Glasshouses, Pulled Apart By Horses, Gay For Johnny Depp and The Bronx, and debut album Black Junk saw Exit_International pick up plaudits in the British rock press, with Rock Sound, Tis is Fake DIY and Kerrang! all praising the band.
A 7” single of Chainsaw Song/Glory Horn – both re-recorded with the latter track featuring vocals and guitar by Ginger - is set for release in May, with the band off on tour to promote the single. I'm delighted to be bringing them to Glasgow for the sole Scottish date of their tour, and hope you'll join me in giving them a warm welcome. Possibly a sweat drenched welcome too, but certainly a warm one.



Wrongnote have been tickling my ears for a while now. Debut album Rech Out, Disconnect took a couple of listens for me to really get into it, but once it took hold, it wouldn't let go without a fight. Jagged and off kilter, Wrongnote are probably lazily best described as falling somewhere into post-punk, but there's a lot more to them than that with elements of progressive, punk, post punk, power-pop, jazz, metal and everything in between mixed in. There's something slightly, and endearingly, demented about the Glasgow four piece. Recent single Heart of a Rat is available to download for a price of your choosing from Bandcamp, and sounds ace to me. Also, at the risk of me getting a beating for mention it, Wrongnote must be one of very few Scottish bands to have a member receive the compliment of "I don't mean to be crass, but I'd bang him like a drum" on the IMDB message boards. There's many more threads about the looks of said band member, I'll say no more about that.



Supermarionation are a band I've tried to lure to Glasgow for one of my gigs a few times, but have always been dashed by schedules. Happily this time around the stars aligned, and Supermarionation will be bringing their own brand of punky, poppy rock to the night. No lusty fans on IMDB, but the band do claim to be made up of mad scientists and warlords, so maybe the creepy female fanbase is in a different location.



The gig takes place on Thursday May 3rd at Stairway in Glasgow. If you've not been there before it's on Union Street, right next to Central Station.
Advance tickets are available from Brown Paper Tickets here.
If you are into that kind of thing you can claim you'll come on Facebook here, but I'd much rather you actually came along than just clicked that button.

Buy Expensive Plastic, You Capitalist Pigs! (Or: Record Store Day 2012)

Hey, look, I'm alive! Surprised? I am.

Record Store Day is coming up this Saturday, so I figured I should make some attempt at doing something here, even though I am Scotland's laziest music blogger. Me and RSD don't really get on that much, in part because I don't buy much vinyl, and in part because I call shops shops, not stores. For a more enthusiastic bit about record shops hop over to our pals at Echoes and Dust.
One good thing about Record Store Day is that you can always catch some bands playing for free though. Yes, I'm missing the point, no, I don't really care.

In Edinburgh there's in store activity at Avalanche Records, and VoxBox Music.

Avalanche have:
Withered Hand (2pm)
Gordon McIntyre (Ballboy) (3pm)
Ryan Hannigan (Star Wheel Press) masterclass on how to make album covers
Afterwards the shop is teaming up with The Tidal Wave of Indifference for a gig at The Electric Circus from 7pm, with Star Wheel Press, The Last Battle and Emily Scott.

Over at VoxBox, the line-up is:
PAWS (3pm)
Neil Pennycook (Meursault) (4pm)

Through in Glasgow everyone is getting in on the act.

Insularis Records are bringing their pop up shop to Nice & Sleazy from 12pm, with the following live acts promised:
Call To Mind (2pm)
Any Color Black (3pm)
Withered Hand (5pm)
They'll also be having a raffle for some rarities, including one of the last remaining FOUND chocolate 7" singles, and hint that there'll be some surprises too.
Following their takeover upstairs, Insularis are also hosting a gig downstairs at Sleazy's, with Holy Mountain, What the Blood Revealed, and Adam Stafford, which frankly sounds brilliant.
Here's some Holy Mountain.

Love Music have:

Dolalay (1.30pm)
Cathode Ray (2pm)
White Heath (2.30pm)
French Wives (3pm)
Woodenbox (4pm)
The Murderburgers (4.30pm)
Admiral Fallow (5pm)

Down at Monorail you can catch this lot:

Organs Of Love (4pm)
Gerard Love DJ set (4.30pm)
Human Don’t Be Angry (5.30pm)
Stuart Braithwaite DJ set (6pm)
Snowgoose (7pm)
The Brogues DJ set (7.30pm),
Linden, Edwyn Collins & Dead Flamingos (8.30pm)

As always there's a whole pile of Record Store Day exclusive product available on the day too. Get along to the shops early for those limited edition over priced records from the major labels kids! Or buy them from scalpers on eBay later.
I've dug through the full list to find some RSD exclusive from Scots (and Garbage), so I can carry on pretending to be a Scottish music blog for a little longer.

• Admiral Fallow: Boots Met My Face LP
• Belle & Sebastian: Crash 7"
• Django Django: Storm 7"
• Edwyn Collins: Tape Box 6x7" box set
• Emeli Sande: Heaven 12"
• Garbage: Blood For Poppies/Battle In Me 7"
• Human Don't Be Angry: Human Don't Be Angry LP
• Mull Historical Society: Must You Get Low 7"
• The Wicker Man OST: Willow's Song/Gently Johnny 7"
• Snowgoose: Harmony Springs LP
• Twin Atlantic: Make a Beast of Myself 7" picture disc
• Various Artists (inc. Simple Minds): The Breakfast Club OST LP
• Finally, and not on the list, Cath Records have a pair of releases, a tape from Bronto Skylift and Sean Armstrong cassette/DVD. No idea where they'll be on sale right enough, but if you keep an eye on their Facebook I'm sure they'll tell us.

Rumour Cubes Announce Debut Album

The Narrow State art by Lauren Mortimer 

Good news, everyone! The news falls outside the increasingly shaky grounds of the "Scottish bands" remit of Aye Tunes, but since I like the band you can just go sit in the corner quietly if you have a problem with that.

Rumour Cubes have released some details about their forthcoming debut album. Titled The Narrow State, the album will be released on 27th February 2012. I'm already looking forward to it.




Below you can get a little preview of what is in store, with the track The Gove Curve.

The Gove Curve by Rumour Cubes

The Rumour Cubes EP We Have Sound Houses - which I wrote a wee bit about previously here - is still available as a free download from Bandcamp, so if you don't have it already, go get it.

Rumour Cubes: Website - Bandcamp - Facebook

Bloggers Doing Gigs - Last Year's Girl

Not pictured - a crazed axe murderer.

I seem to have fought off the gremlins that killed my computer, fingers crossed on that score. Now I can get back to just having myself to blame for a lack of posts.

At the weekend I mentioned that one of my blogging pals is moving into gig putting on too, well, The Vinyl Villain isn't the only one.

My mate Lis - famous on the internet as Last Year's Girl - is also at it. I pretty much have to plug this gig as (a) she quoted my “Bloggers putting on gigs? It’ll never catch on…” line on her press release, (b) it looks pretty ace and (c) I'm pretty sure she could, and would, batter me if I don't.

Back in June Lis drew up a list of 30 things to do before she hits 30 - cheers Lis for making me feel old every time you mention that too - one of which was "put on a gig". Rather than take the easy option of hiring The 13th Note and getting some local pals to pitch in to play (stop looking at me like that, I've only hired The Note once), she's been a good bit more adventurous.

Since our Lisa-Marie is much better at writing things than I am, I'll just apologise for the cut & paste nature of the next bit and go over to her to tell you who is playing Last Year's Girl's Friday Night Speakeasy.

Franz Nicolay has the face of a villain, but the heart of a vaudevillian. He specialises in moustaches, raconteuring and the sort of antiquated instruments such as banjo, accordion and musical saw it’s pretty awkward to get through customs. He has played with a few bands you may have heard of (The Hold Steady, Against Me!, Guignol, The World/Inferno Friendship Society), and released two albums of solo material that are even better. If you want to see him make a third one, you could contribute to his Kickstarter pledge drive. He feels as weird about it as you do.

Brighton-based Chris T-T tried to be a political songwriter, but Billy Bragg said he didn’t exist so he went back to writing about bunny rabbits instead. Sorry, what? That was a song about communism, you say? You might have seen him set the works of AA Milne to music at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, or joined in one of his acts of civil disobedience through the use of social media (#IAmSpartacus). He is currently working on his eighth album of original material.

Dave Hughes plays folk music without the scarves, handclaps or tambourines. Before buying a car he pretty much invented the Megabus tour, which is the only explanation for that time he ended up playing to a hen party in Birmingham. He does not sound like Ed Sheeran, and does not get offended if you describe his performance as “ramshackle” with or without his Renegade Folk Punk Band. His latest release is the six-track Despite the Blackout EP, on Corporate Records.

Last Year's Girl's Friday Night Speakeasy takes place at The Old Hairdressers, right across from Stereo on Renfield Lane in Glasgow, on Friday (funny that) December 2nd.
You can buy tickets, and we all know you want to buy a ticket, here.

Now Lis, when do we get that podcast that's on your list too?

Bloggers Doing Gigs - The Vinyl Villain

This time one year ago exactly I was in full of panic mode. Why? Well, one year ago tonight was Aye Tunes Vs Peenko 3, and I'm always a nervous wreck before a gig I'm putting on. That one, planned as the last AVP gig until we came back for one in August of this year, was particularly nerve wracking as we were leaving the lovely but pokey confines of the venues for 1 & 2, The Captain's Rest and The 13th Note, for the much larger Classic Grand, the fear that no one would turn up was magnified by having a venue twice the size of the previous ones. People did come along though, and I Build Collapsible Mountains, Come On Gang! and The Seventeenth Century all did us proud.
(Incidentally, The Seventeenth Century are playing at The 13th Note tonight, so if you are looking for something to do...)

None of that has anything to do with this post really, but today does seem like a fitting time to get in a plug for something I would be doing a bit of blethering about anyway.

You see, another of my blogging buddies is turning his hand to gig promotion. Along with Song, by Toad and 17 Seconds, both of which have long since gone beyond being just blogs, The Vinyl Villain is one of the blogs that I've been reading for what seems like forever. Fun trivia, JC from The Vinyl Villain and I not only share initials, but our birthdays fall on the same day too. Turns out it has been around 5 years, as the blog celebrated its birthday at the end of September. To celebrate JC is throwing a pretty special birthday party in a couple of weeks, which looks well worth attending.

The gig takes place on Saturday November 19th, at Langside Hall on the southside of Glasgow.
Playing on the night are Butcher Boy, a band I was first introduced to through reading The Vinyl Villain, with support from Adam Stafford, who of course we got the AVP gang back together for back in August.
Tickets are £8, and available now here.

Butcher Boy - Imperial

Adam Stafford - Fire & Theft

New Release: The Moth and the Mirror - Honestly, This World

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..

The Moth and the Mirror: Website - Facebook

Numbers and Letters - Scottish Tour

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.



Numbers and Letters: Website - Facebook - Bandcamp

The Shivers - UK Tour & New Video

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.

This Silent Forest - The Fight

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.

The Fight by This Silent Forest

This Silent Forest: Facebook - Youtube

New Release: We're Only Afraid of NYC - We Lived Here [Free Download]

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.





We're Only Afraid of NYC: Bandcamp - Facebook

French Wives Have Numbers

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.

Numbers by French Wives

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.

French Wives: Website - Bandcamp - Facebook

Another Plug - Supermarionation

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 Is Mocking Me

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

Eastern Promise, This Weekend at Platform

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.

New Release: We Were Promised Jetpacks - Medicine

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.

We Were Promised Jetpacks: Website - Facebook

New Release: Remember Remember - The Quickening

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 - Sexy Rave Eye Zooming

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.



Zoey Van Goey: Website - Facebook
.

Another Gratuitous Plug for People I Like (and for myself, who I don't like)

Still shouldn't be allowed to use Photoshop

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.

An Unremarkable Shade of Beige by Kevin P. Gilday

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?

Tooth And Nail by The Sea Kings

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.

A Gratuitous Plug for People I Like

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.