This Week's Gigs: 17th - 23rd January

No prizes for guessing the main focus of this week's gig guide... It is a reasonably quiet week for a change, which is good for me.

Monday:

Graeme Ronald (Remember Remember). Mono. Free.

Tuesday:

Glasgow Slow Club: Miaoux Miaoux, Matthew Scott. Bloc. Free.

Friday:

Aye Tunes Presents #1: Boygirlanimalcolour, Kochka, Trapped Mice. Stereo. £3/£5

I'm putting on a gig, have I mentioned it already? Tickets are £3 in advance, available from me here, or from the bands. There's a free sampler of the three bands available to download here too. Doors are at the early time of 7pm, so swing by early if you can. To encourage early attendance there will be free biscuits on the go for the first 20 or so people that turn up, and maybe other wee surprises too.

Barmellodie: Le Reno Amps, The Douglas Firs, Battery Face. Bloc. Free before Midnight.

Kicking off around 11pm, so you can come to Aye Tunes Presents first, you can find out more here. I'll be there, probably horrendously drunk.

Saturday:

Chem19 Studios Showcase: So Many Animal Calls, Dear Mountaineer, Little Fire, The Young Spooks, Pinky Suavo. Captain's Rest. £2 Advance

I don't think I'm spilling any great secrets if I say that I'd asked So Many Animal Calls to play on Friday, but we had to scrap that plan due to this gig. Go see them here instead then. Dear Mountaineer are also very promising, and the small bit of Little Fire I've heard sounds good too though I don't know a lot about the others.

The Ides of Toad: The Scottish Enlightenment, Johnny Reb, Morris Major. The Wee Red Bar. (Tickets)

Since me and Armellodie going and putting on our own gigs isn't quite enough multi tasking for one week Song, by Toad are getting in on the act too, with the first of the Ides of Toad series of gigs. As you'd expect the line-up is a good one.

The Lowly Knights, We See Lights, Micah Vincent. The Lot, Edinburgh.

Sunday:

The Lowly Knights, We See Lights, Micah Vincent. Nice N Sleazy.

Cargo Crate Launch. The Arches, 3pm.

Not a gig really, but our pals at Cargo Publishing get a mention any time they have something on. This is the Glasgow launch of Cargo Crate, Scotland's first ebook/print on demand imprint. Visit the Facebook page for all the info.

BARmellodie

Normally when there's another gig on the same night I'm promoting one the blog turns a bit of a blind eye to it. No sense in gibing the competition free promotion after all, is there?

Sometimes we make an exception though, like for next Friday's first BARmellodie gig.

Not content with putting out some of our favourite singles and albums of recent years from the likes of Cuddly Shark, Super Adventure Club, Thirty Pounds of Bone and The Scottish Enlightenment, Armellodie Records are taking over Bar Bloc on the third Friday of every month for a six month resident.

The gigs will showcase bands from the Armellodie roster along with other special guests. They've also roped in some local blogger types to play some records alongside the ArmelloDJs till the small hours.

The first BARmellodie gig takes place on Friday 21st of January. Entry is free before Midnight, £2 after. The bands don't start until around 11pm, while my Aye Tunes Presents gig at Stereo will be kicking out at around 10:30pm, so why not go to both and make both myself and the Armellodie crew very happy people?

Playing at the first gig are:

Le Reno Amps

The Douglas Firs

Battery Face

Guest DJ: Phil Elba (Elba Sessions)

BARmellodie #2 follows on February 18th, with The Scottish Enlightenment, Thirty Pounds of Bone and Randolph's Leap playing live, and Halina of Glasgow Podcart on DJ duties.

For more info on Armellodie and to buy the records they release visit the website.

Look, It Moves!

Looking through my inbox I've been sent quite a few videos recently.

Rather than leave them all in there, all sad and lonely and ignored, here's the first of a probably irregular round up of some of them.

The Son(s) - Radar

Serious favourites round these parts, and of quite a few of the other blogs too, The Son(s) release the fan-flipping-tastic single Radar on January 17th through Eli and Oz. An album follows in March, but more on that nearer the time.

Aaron Wright - Trampoline

Aaron Wright has announced a load of tour dates for the rest of January which you can find by visiting the link above the video, and will be releasing Trampolines as a single on February 21st.

Cities and Skylines - Holes in the Snow

Cities and Skylines launch this single with a gig in Bloc on Thursday (13th January). The single is available from iTunes now.

Blinding Sunlight - Let's Just Sit Around

Blinding Sunlight's Particles albums was one of my favourite impulse purchases of last year. Me being me despite loving the album and playing it to death I've completely forgotten to mention them on the blog so far. So here's a look at a video they made with Glasgow based film maker Mark Davitt.

Fiction Faction - Apparitions

Fiction Faction release Apparitions as a single through 17 Seconds Records on January 31st.

Polly and the Billet Doux - Follow My Feet

Finally, stepping out of Scotland for a minute because I like the band, here's a live version of Polly and the Billet Doux's upcoming single Follow My Feet, set for release on February 21st.

Lou Hickey - Minutes, Hours, Days

It is all too easy to sneer at pop music, especially if you ever inflict listening to the top 40 on yourself and drown in a sea of identikit, characterless autotune nonsense.

Thank goodness for people like Lou Hickey then, who in a few short minutes can remind you of the glory of a catchy little pop song.

Minutes, Hours, Days is exactly that, just under four minutes of catchy pop music that neither tries to reinvent the wheel, or compromise itself to fit into any current trend. Poppy, a bit jazzy, unashamedly retro and featuring something that will always make me like a song a bit more - handclaps! - Minutes, Hours, Days is a sweet, cheery song with more warmth and personality than half the charts put together. If you liked the first Pipettes album - y'know, the one that was actually good - then do check this out, there's a similar kind of vibe to it.

Have a wee listen below, and keep an eye out for much much more from Lou Hickey this year.

Lou Hickey: Website - MySpace - Facebook

This Week's Gigs: 10th - 16th January

So much for January traditionally being quiet for gigs.

Monday:

Young Aviators, Pareto, LightGuides, The Gap Year Riot, The Winter Tradition (in the bar). King Tut's. (Tickets)

New Year's Revolution continues at Tut's.

Tuesday:

The Seventeenth Century, Martin John Henry. The Captain's Rest.

Launch gig for The Seventeenth Century's EP, which I gushed about a little on Saturday.

Park Circus, Fiction Faction, Michael MacLennan, Dante, Yusuf Azak (in the bar). King Tut's. (Tickets)

Wednesday:

Penguins Kill Polar Bears, Carnivores, Flood of Red, .Scores. King Tut's (Tickets)

For a chance to win tickets enter my competition.

Thursday:

Trapped Mice, The Ketterleys. Bannermans, Edinburgh.

Cities and Skylines, Vukovi, Fatherson (acoustic). Bloc, free entry.

Simon Doherty, Duck Hunt, Borthwicks. The 13th Note.

Washington Irving, Open Swimmer, Blue Sky Archives, White Heath, This Silent Forest (in the bar). King Tut's. (Tickets)

Oooh, very nice line-up there.

MakeThisRelate, Aspen Tide, Broken Indigo, Another Option. Classic Grand.

Jamie Cameron, John Condron. The Liquid Ship.

How To Swim, The Paraffins, The Sundancer, Mike Nesbit. Captain's Rest.

Very nice line-up there too. Damn you Thursday!

The Whisky Works, The Darien Venture, El Dog. Stereo.

With this gig Thursday establishes itself as the first "taking the piss" night of the year.

Friday:

PAWS, Johnny Reb, The Dirty Beggars, Donald McDonald and the Islands. Captain's Rest.

Saturday:

Supermarionation, Steel Rose, Fireproof Match, Deco Arcade, Augustalia. Maggie's Chambers, Edinburgh.

Moon Unit, Frams Torners, Small Scale Collisions. Nice N Sleazy.

edRock.net Acoustic: The Fourth Wall, Jonny Downie, Angie Clark (Scrap Brain), Garry Hall. The Forest Cafe, Edinburgh.

Sunday:

Noma, Guanoman, Messiah Complex, Imperium, Public Spaces. The Liquid Ship. Free Entry.

Not one for the faint hearted this. If you like your music off kilter, challenging and basically noisy this is worth checking out. I'm only familiar with Noma and Guanoman, but both of them do good stuff.

The Seventeenth Century (Part One)

Haven't done a review in ages. Let's make the first one of the year a band which I can be accused of bias towards on several levels then, shall we?

On second thoughts... I can't write an impartial review of The Seventeenth Century, really. I've long been a fan of the band, and that fact along with the similar feelings of good old Peenko meant that we somehow managed to talk them into bringing down the curtain on the first run of Aye Tunes Vs Peenko gigs back in November, a task they achieved in some style, leaving us with massive grins on our faces.

The Seventeenth Century finally release something this Monday, January 10th, after ages of me having to dig around for random mp3s , radio sessions and live recordings on the internet.

The Seventeenth Century (Part One) EP is released by Electra French Records (strike two for my impartiality) on limited edition - and pretty, I've already got one - 10" vinyl, with a free download included.

The EP really is excellent though, drawing together live favourites Young Francis, Roses In The Park and Countryside along with the short instrumental Amongst Other Things. If you haven't had a chance to hear the band before the EP serves as a perfect introduction, the only problem might be that you'll be like me, and want more. If so, then make a note that The Seventeenth Century (Part Two) is promised to follow in April, and I can barely wait already.

To celebrate the release The Seventeenth Century play The Captain's Rest on Tuesday night, with support from former De Rosa man Martin John Henry.

You can order the EP online here.

The Seventeenth Century: Website - MySpace - Facebook

COMPETITION: Win tickets to Penguins Kill Polar Bears - Carnivores - .Scores - Flood of Red

As part of the New Year's Revolution series of gigs King Tut's plays host to Aye Tunes favourites Penguins Kill Polar Bears and Carnivores, along with .Scores and Flood of Red on Wednesday.

We have a pair of tickets to give away, courtesy of Penguins Kill Polar Bears, so you get a question roughly related to them.

To have a chance of winning, email the answer to this simple question (if you find it difficult, Google is your friend) to competition@ayetunes.org.uk

Question: Penguins don't really kill polar bears, why?

Competition closed, winner picked! The correct answer is that penguins and polar bears live in different hemispheres, so they don't bump in to each other often. I know, children's books lied to me about them hanging out together too.

Aye Tunes Presents - Free Download - Ticket Info

Just under two weeks to go until this, the first gig I've put on myself since I was about 18, so time to start gentle nudging you, my dear readers, into coming along. Give it another week or so and nudging will turn into begging, no doubt.

The gig takes place on Friday, January 21st in Stereo Cafe Bar, with doors opening at 7pm.

Playing on the night, and giving us an animal theme, are Boygirlanimalcolour, Kochka and Trapped Mice. Three bands I love and three bands that deserve to be heard.

Boygirlanimalcolour are an energetic bunch of youngsters hailing from Whitburn - so pretty much the polar opposites of my old, lazy self - with a fine line in infectious punky power pop. Perfect to get the head and feet moving on a Friday night.

Kochka are a band who I've long admired who after being quiet for a while started to kick it up a gear towards the end of 2011. They've been working on their debut album recently, so get yourself along to see them for a taster of what you can expect from that. Kochka describe themselves as "fucking art rock weirdness" and who am I to argue? Also, their cat related name, and song Black Cat, endeared them to The Tidal Wave of Indifference, who said "[Kochka] may well be the feline-loving Tidal Wave of Indifference’s favourite band of all time, just edging out Pussy Galore" which is good enough for me.

Trapped Mice hail from Edinburgh, and I think this is their first Glasgow gig. The fools, trusting me with their début. Unusually I've asked Trapped Mice to play without having ever seen them live for myself, so I'm every bit as curious about what they have up their sleeves as everyone else is. Trapped Mice have a quite folky influence, but don't be fooled, they are more than comfortable with bringing the noise too.

All the bands offer something a bit different from each other. Not so much that your head will spin in confusion, but certainly enough that you won't get bored by hearing the same style of song from every band playing.

To help with the "being heard" aspect in the run up to the gig I've put together a free three song sampler, which you can listen to down at the bottom of this post and download from Bandcamp.

Tickets are now on sale too. £3 in advance will get you a little something made by my own fair hand. Paying on the door will cost you a wee bit more, £5, so if you are a fan of saving some of that money for a beer go buy yourself tickets here.

Facebook users can find an event page here, while last.fm users have one here, let us know if you are coming!

Beyond Scotland - On Volcano

I get as many emails about bands from outside Scotland as I do ones hailing from our wee country, which more often than not tend to get ignored as far as the blog goes. Some fairly, some a bit harshly.
Without losing focus on what I'm here for - Aye Tunes does sort of have a point, and that is dealing with bands in or from Scotland - one of the things I'd like to do this year is pay a bit more attention to some of the bands that get in touch with me, even if just quickly.

First up is On Volcano. The email they sent me was pretty much the exact opposite of the best way to get my attention, since it simply told me that On Volcano are from Tampere, Finland and gave a one line summing up of their sound. Short and to the point, I'll give them that.

They describe themselves as "embracing modern indie-pop with shoegaze and post-rock", which regardless of country of origin appeals to my tastes enough that they were worth a quick listen. What do you know, their new EP is actually pretty swell. That short, one line description does a pretty good job of summing up how it sounds too.

I say new, but New Blood came out way back in November of last year, but I'm only just hearing it now (which may get me kicked, since it was featured by our pals at Ride The Tempo, but I missed it...) and is available as a free download from the On Volcano website. Hop on over there to get it, or listen & download below.

01 On-Volcano-The Explorer by larsbogel

02 On-Volcano-Mission by larsbogel

03 On-Volcano-Acceleration of Heartbeat by larsbogel

04 On-Volcano-Ume Blossoms by larsbogel

On Volcano: Website - Facebook - MySpace

This Week's Gigs: 3rd - 9th January

Ooh look, it is the return of the gig guide. However did you survive last week without it?

What's that? You managed just fine? Suit yourself then...

The first few weeks of January are likely to be dominated by King Tut's New Year's Revolution gigs. Kicking off tonight and running every night until mid January, this is a follow up to the Summer Nights thing they had back in, funnily enough, the summer. I'll be picking and choosing what ones to stick in the gig guide, but on most nights there's at least one band on that I quite like.

If you plan on going to a lot of them then a Golden Ticket which provides entry to every gig might be worth buying, you can get those here.

Monday:

Endor, Little Eskimos, Verse Metrics, Iona Bain. King Tut's (Tickets)

If you get down to Tut's for 7pm you can also catch Blochestra playing in the bar for free.

Tuesday:

She's Hit, Marco Polo, Sing-Kill-Worth, Suplex The Kid. King Tut's. (Tickets)

Wednesday:

Monsters on Movie Posters. BOX. Free entry.

Ooh look, a gig that isn't at King Tut's! There will probably be other bands playing, but I don't know who.

Thursday:

French Wives, Cancel the Astronauts, Galleries, Poor Things. King Tut's (Tickets)

Probably the pick of the New Year's Revolution bunch for me.

Saturday:

F. U. January - Colour Cells, Phlox, Sleepy Eyes Nelson, Homesick Aldo. Pivo Pivo.

A little something put together by Traffic Cone Records.

Sunday:

Skies Fell, Toy Fires, Jack the Wolf, Fires Attract. King Tut's (Tickets)

When Skies Fell played their debut Glasgow show towards the end of last year it was a pretty impressive affair, so they have a lot to live up to for this gig. Somehow I don't think they'll disappoint.

Spotlight: Loch Awe

Time to get back to the business of blogging, I suppose. Christmas holidays from the blog lasted a wee bit longer than expected, but I'm sure you didn't miss me that much.

Anyway, since it is New Year, we better have a first foot. Enter then Loch Awe's Matthew Healy to tell us a bit about the band.

Who are Loch Awe?

Loch Awe are Jack, Joy, Oliver, Daniel and Matthew; four Edinburgh University students, and one college student, who started a band as a form of procrastination.

What do you sound like?

Imagine the worst band you've ever heard, ever. Good, now that your expectations are suitably lowered, go have a listen to us, and we should definitely sound better than you thought we would.

How did you all get together, and what made you stay together?

Jack and I (Matthew) recorded a few songs together back when I still played solo under the (now-dead) moniker We, the Plural. We asked Joy to sing on a few of the tracks, and Oli to drum and liked the sounds so much we decided to 'make it official'. More recently we added Dan on bass to fatten the sound out nicely.

Debut EP was written and recorded in just two weeks, was the short timescale intentional, or did it just work out that way?

It started out more as a joke than anything. After finishing up 'Lullaby for a Digital Sea' (the first song we recorded) in one afternoon I said to Jack "if we keep going at this rate we'll have an album in two weeks". And lo and behold, we did.

Loch Awe are more popular on Facebook than Keith Chegwin, and the album is amongst the most popular for things tagged Scotland and Edinburgh on Bandcamp. Happy with how things are going then?

Very happy! And, to be honest, surprised. We did the record on my laptop and, as you mentioned, to a very tight deadline, so for so many people to have downloaded it is absoltely fantastic. The Keith Chegwin thing is probably the best part, though.

What or who do you have in your sights to become more popular than next?

Konnie Huq, everybody's favourite ex Blue Peter presenter, only has 434 fans so I think we've got a pretty good shot at being more popular than her within the next few months.

Since we've stumbled into a new year let's go all "year in review" style and ask, although the band was only been around for about half of 2010 what have been Loch Awe's highlights?

Certainly our first (and, until March, only) gig is up there. Reading the reactions to the album so far has been a bit special, too. I think I'll be a bit soppy though, and say the real highlight is the amount of fun we've had hanging out, writing and playing music together

And any moments you'd rather forget about?

Not really, but I guess they've got to come eventually. Maybe we can have a wee update this time next year and I'm certain there'll be something embarassing to go here.

Any other bands around at the moment you'd recommend?

A list of our band-friends: Andrew Lindsay, Reverie, Shambles Miller, So Many Animal Calls. Ooh, alphabetical! (Also, apologies if I missed anyone...)

Any you'd avoid like the plague?

Kings of Leon. I don't know what it is, as there's nothing particularly offensive about their music, but I just get very angry when I hear it...

What do you have planned for the next few months?

We're recording a few demos for our second album within the first week of the new year, and we're doing them IN A STUDIO! We're awfully excited about that. That aside, however, we've got a show with Trapped Mice at Wee Red Bar in Edinburgh on March 5th that I think should be rather good, and we're supporting Andrew Lindsay at his EP launch, although we don't have a date for that yet.

Finally, quirky interview questions, fun and harmless, or generally a bit of a waste of time?

It depends if the interviewee gives interesting answers. Ultimately it's for the reader to decide, though, isn't it?

Thanks Matthew for being the first person through the Aye Tunes door this year. If we have an awful 2011 we know who to blame.

Loch Awe's Artificial Life from a Digital Sea was one of our favourite releases last year. If you haven't heard it yet go and get your ears round it. You can listen below and download it for free here.

Loch Awe: Facebook - Bandcamp - Twitter

Readers' Poll Results

The polls have closed, the votes have been counted, and the winners according to the Aye Tunes readers have been worked out.

Not much chatter from me on the results, my head is still bursting from counting everything.

An elaborate points system was used to judge things, with 5 points for #1, 3 for #2 and 1 for #3, no ballot stuffing took place, hardly anyone voted for themselves and I didn't give myself a vote.

A surprising number of people took part, so I'd just like to quickly thank all of you that took a bit of time to join in.

Drum roll please, your winners are...

Best Band:

1. The Phantom Band

2. Kid Canaveral

3. Frightened Rabbit

=3. The National

5. Meursault

Best Solo Artist:

1. King Creosote

2. Emma Pollock

3. I Build Collapsible Mountains

4. RM Hubbert

5. Edwyn Collins

Best New Band/Solo Artist:

1. Admiral Fallow

2. The Last Battle

3. Kid Canaveral

4. Mitchell Museum

5. The Scottish Enlightenment

=5. The Burns Unit

Best Live Band:

1. The Phantom Band

2. Meursault

3. Frightened Rabbit

4. Kid Canaveral

5. The National

=5. Mogwai

Best Album:

1. The Phantom Band - The Wants

=1. Kid Canaveral - Shouting At Wildlife

3. Meursault - All Creatures Will Make Merry

4. The Scottish Enlightenment - St Thomas

5. The National - High Violet

6. Mitchell Museum - The Peters Port Memorial Service

7. Admiral Fallow - Boots Met My Face

8. Edwyn Collins - Losing Sleep

9. Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks

Best Single/EP:

1. Randolph's Leap - Battleships & Kettle Chips EP

=1. The Scottish Enlightenment - Little Sleep EP

3. Miaoux Miaoux - Blooms EP

4. eagleowl - Into The Fold EP

5. Trapped in Kansas/Yahweh - Split 7"

Best Music Blog/Website:

1. Song, by Toad

2. The Pop Cop

Despite me saying Aye Tunes wasn't eligible enough people ignored me that I'd have been in third place here. Woo.

3. Peenko

4. The Vinyl Villain

5. Glasgow Podcart

Best Music Radio Show/Podcast:

1. Vic Galloway (Radio 1/Radio Scotland votes were all counted together)

2. Glasgow PodcART

3. The Toadcast (Votes for The Toadcast & Song, by Toad on Fresh Air were counted together too)

4. Mark Riley

5. Jim Gellatly

Best Venue:

1. Glasgow Barrowlands

2. The Roxy, Edinburgh (Now dearly departed)

=2. King Tut's Wah Wah Hut

4. The Captain's Rest, Glasgow

=4. Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh

=4. Stereo, Glasgow

Despite fewer and fewer bands choosing to play there, we still love The Barras apparently. Even the Weegies loved The Roxy too.

Best Gig:

1. The National. O2 Academy, Glasgow, November.

2. Frightened Rabbit, Glasgow Barrowlands, 3rd December.

3. French Wives, The Seventeenth Century, Washington Irving, Rachel Sermanni. King Tut's, July.

=3. Aye Tunes Vs Peenko: Kid Canaveral, Mitchell Museum, Campfires in Winter. The Captain's Rest, April.

The hardest one to count, since practically every vote was for something different. Beyond the three above Homegame and Awaygame were the most popular, if they'd been counted together they would have made the top three.

I'm wishing I'd included the Smash Hits style Sexiest Male and Female questions, but I worried that if I had the blogging community would disown me. They still might.

Thanks again to everyone who voted, it was popular enough that we'll be doing it again next year.

Advent Calendar 2010 - Day Twenty Four - The Phantom Band

Since Christmas is so nearly upon us, here's a wee bonus song.

Strictly speaking it isn't a Christmas song, but it is really good, and a couple of folk asked me about it, so that's enough for me.

For Vic Galloway's final Radio 1 show the other night he had a few guests in. One of the guests were The Phantom Band, who performed The Howling from their debut album Checkmate Savage in a very special style.

The Phantom Band - Silent Howling Night

The Phantom Band: Website

Advent Calendar 2010 - Day Twenty Four - Christmas Wrapping

Here we are, 24 days later on Christmas Eve.

You've had a bit more than 24 songs to listen to and hopefully through December you've found something here to tickle your fancy. If not, well bah humbug to you.

Got all your shopping done? For those that haven't here's something fitting. For those that have, here's one of my favourite Christmas songs.

Christmas Wrapping was released first by The Waitresses in 1981. Since then there's been many cover versions, some ok, some good, and one by the Spice Girls.

Version one comes from The Upbeat Beatdown.

Version two comes from the ever wonderful Miss The Occupier, who recorded it for a Vic Galloway session.

Miss The Occupier - Christmas Wrapping

And finally, with somewhat dodgy sound, here's Aye Tunes favourites French Wives performing the song live at the Oran Mor.

Happy Christmas!

Advent Calendar 2010 - Day Twenty Three - Call To Mind

For a horrible moment I didn't think I could find anything new for today, thankfully the day was saved when I remembered I haven't used Call To Mind yet.

So here they are, our favourite Highland Glacial Pop group with a free download. If you haven't already heard the EP Call To Mind released earlier in the year please try to do so, it is one of our favourite things of 2010. You can buy it on iTunes here. (Or, as I've just discovered, download it free from Bandcamp.)

Learning Alone Again (Merry Christmas) - demo by calltomind

Call To Mind: MySpace - Facebook

Advent Calendar 2010 - Day Twenty Two - How To Swim

How To Swim already featured in the Advent Calendar way back on day four, but the festive little blighters have only gone and made more new Christmas songs, so they get in again today.

New Beginnings comes from How To Swim's new free download Christmas EP. You can get that EP, Santa's Got All The Best Tunes, here.

How To Swim - New Beginnings

How To Swim: MySpace - Facebook - Bandcamp

Advent Calendar 2010 - Day Twenty One - Alistair Crosbie

Only a few more days to go of the Christmas songs. A few scheduling hiccups aside I'm quite chuffed that I've gotten a song up every day so far. Hopefully I haven't now jinxed myself for the remaining days.

We've got a handful of songs today from Alistair Crosbie, listen/download below.

Alistair Crosbie: Blog - Bandcamp

Advent Calendar 2010 - Day Twenty - Aspen Tide

I'm a little bit hungover after last night's Seventeenth Century/Mitchell Museum gig, and need to go to work in a few minutes, so today's Christmas post will be a quick one.

Today's song comes from Aspen Tide. Their festive freebie is titled Frost Forms in the Sky and can be downloaded in exchange for your email address here. We like these boys round here, and will talk about them more when we have a little more time. Enjoy until then!

Aspen Tide: MySpace - Facebook

This Week's Gigs: 20th - 26th December

There isn't all that much on this week and to be honest I haven't looked all that hard for things for the gig guide. I'm also writing this in a grumpy mood having missed Kid Canaveral's Christmas Baubles yesterday and the constant falling of snow outside my window right now making my plans to go to Glasgow for Mitchell Museum & The Seventeenth Century tonight decidedly shaky...

Before we get on to the gigs just a quick reminder that Jer Reid's Winter Cycle is still running every day at mid day in Stereo.

Monday:

The Ginger Wildhearts Band, Baby Chaos, Sluts of Trust. The Garage. (Tickets)

Ginger is, along with E of Eels and Nick Cave, high on my list of the best songwriters in the past twenty odd years, and we never miss a Ginger gig in Glasgow. This time round Ginger and friends will be playing a set made up mostly of Wildhearts songs. Support comes from Sluts of Trust and the specially reformed Baby Chaos.

Dirty Keys, The Hate 80s, Danger Danger. The Captain's Rest

Dirty Keys gave us a Christmas song the other day and The Hate 80s are an alterego of El Dog, who provided us with one today. Entry is only £1, so if you have nothing else to do on Monday night this is worth a go.

Wednesday:

Olive Grove Records Christmas Party. The 13th Note, free entry.

Our wee Olive Grove pals are throwing a Christmas bash, with music from Esperi, Randolph's Leap and RM Hubbert.

Thursday:

Lou Hickey, Baby Taylor, Acutones. King Tut's (Tickets)

We like Lou round here.

Probably no gig guide next week, I'll be busy stuffing myself with food, playing with presents, writing up Readers' Poll results and attempting to pick some of my favourite songs of the year instead, but if there's anything good happening I'll get something done about it.

Last Chance To Vote!

One last remind, voting in the Readers' Poll closes tonight, so if you haven't taken part yet and want to, get a move on! You can find all the details here.
Some of the categories are still too close to call, so your vote is important*
I'm aiming to have the results up on Boxing Day, wish me luck.

*Not in the grand scheme of things, obviously, but for the poll it is important.