Aye Tunes Vs Peenko II - The Final Plug

The second Aye Tunes Vs Peenko gig takes place tonight, so this is the last time I'll be trying to encourage you to come along (hey, you at the back, stop cheering. Yes, you) as it will be a bit pointless to continue promoting an event after it is finished.

A final reminder of the details then:

When - 8.30pm, Saturday July 17th.

Where - The 13th Note, King Street, Glasgow

Who - We're Only Afraid of NYC, Little Yellow Ukuleles, Randolph's Leap

How Much - Five quid.
Also might as well mention that me and Peenko don't get rich from this, we cover costs and all other money goes straight to the bands, so you aren't paying your £5 just for the pair of us to get drunk.

Hope to see some of you there!

We're Only Afraid of NYC - 0.3

We're Only Afraid of NYC's third EP, cunningly titled 0.3, is available right now, for free, from the band's Bandcamp page.

Now, given that We're Only Afraid of NYC are playing a gig for me on Saturday I've got a bit too much bias right now to write an objective review of the release, so I won't try at the moment.
What I will say is that just like 0.2 was a step up from the already good 0.1, 0.3 is another leap forward. Go get it then come along on Saturday, please?

Download 0.3 here.

Buy Aye Tunes Vs Peenko II tickets here.

Spaghetti Anywhere - Love Again

I don't make a habit out of posting every little thing that lands in my inbox, but I'm making an exception for this.

Remember Spaghetti Anywhere? I wrote about their EP a while ago, and really liked it. You can find that here. Their friend Marco Castrovinci has made a video for Love Again from the EP, and it has been the perfect thing to save me thinking about how I'm sitting at home on a miserable, dreary, wet afternoon in Paisley.

Spaghetti Anywhere: MySpace - Buy Vinyl - Download from iTunes

The Douglas Firs - Haunting Through EP Review

The Douglas Firs hail from Aberdeen - giving me a nice chance to escape from the usual haunts, at least in my ears - and are Neil Insh, along with whatever friends he could round up to help out.

This EP opens in an unusual style, with the crunch of footsteps, drumming in the background gradually getting louder, along with chatter building up too, before bursting into folky accordian and violin. The effect makes you feel like you've wandered into a warm, welcoming pub somewhere, and for the next 20 minutes or so of the EP you are unlikely to want to leave. The song - The Quickening - goes through sporadic shifts, the folky part at the beginning dying out only to reappear later, vocal sing-alongs, bursts of applause, before wandering into soundscape territory with more footsteps, creaking gates, hooting owls and all sorts. It is a bold song that can make me think of both the best forgotten sequel to Highlander and the opening of Wham's Club Tropicana yet still be compelling listening, but The Quickening does so in fine style.

Future State follows on, a short burst of ambiance and atmosphere, before Grow Old And Go Home introduces layers of sounds including a more electronic feel, and some luscious horns. Grow Old And Go Home at times feels like it could be two or three songs fighting each other from prominence in the mix, but avoids sounding cluttered or messy in the process. Again, another soundscape ending to this song leads straight into the final track, Soporific.
Soporific much in common with the preceding songs, starting with a lengthy understated intro, building atmosphere before exploding into life with a squeal of feedback around halfway through for a big chorus full of melody and instrumentation, then slowly fading off back into nothingness.

Haunting Through is frequently very sparse and at other times bursting at the seams with things going on, but the entire EP feels very organic, each part growing naturally from the others. There's a great sense of atmosphere, and a wonderful feel of a little surprise lurking just round the corner throughout, all of which makes Haunting Through a delight to listen to.

The Douglas Firs: MySpace - Blog
The Douglas Firs - Haunting Through EP is available as a free download, visit the blog for details.

Round Up Reviews #3

You might know the deal with these by now, but if not the point of the Round Up Reviews is to quickly cover short things - singles, lone tracks and the like - that I wouldn't otherwise get to.

So Many Animal Calls - Your House Is A Hospice
Described as a teaser for an upcoming EP, and knocked out in a week there's more than enough here to get me a bit excited about hearing that EP. There's some really good stuff here, much of which isn't what I'd usually listen to. Strong vocals and a couple of killer riffs get the blood pumping on the first two tracks, which also change the pace up throughout to keep things interesting. Final song Secrets is more sedate for the most part, hinting that there's more to So Many Animal Calls than you might originally think. As a statement of intent Your House Is A Hospice is a fine one, and one that is hard not to pay attention to.
I'm probably not going to make it along to their debut gig on Wednesday night at The Captain's Rest, so some of you should go in my place.
Your House Is A Hospice is available free from Bandcamp.

The Ray Summers - Heshka Rashka
Unashamedly retro indie fun. Maybe not credible or trendy, but The Ray Summers are a band I've long had a soft spot for. Heshka Rashka makes for a nice slice of summery, bouncy indie pop that'll no doubt be hated by the cool kids, but gets my head bobbing, that's more than good enough for me. It's ok to unclench and have some fun sometimes you know.
Heshka Rashka is released on August 2nd.

Beldina O - Chariots

A drastic change of pace and styles from everything else in this piece, Chariots is a gorgeous stripped back song. It's a bit of an unfair comparison to make, but this reminds me a little bit of Martha Wainwright. No particular reason, it just does. This is a very good thing. I know next to nothing about Beldina O to be honest, but you can bet I'll be doing my best to keep a look out for more from here. Lovely.
Chariots is available as a free download from Soundcloud.

q without u - Paper Cuts

I thought q without u had vanished, but happily not. This is the first I've heard of them in a while, and it is a welcome reminder that I'd really enjoyed Shut Up! I Invented You, the album they released. Paper Cuts is a teaser for an album coming later in the year, and is - again - plain fun. Heavily accented Scottish indie pop is always welcome round here, and Paper Cuts is a fine example of it. Bonus points for sounding like it is about to fall apart and come to a dead stop halfway through too.

Paper Cuts is available from Bandcamp, where you can also pick up their debut album for free.

This Week's Records

Lets see, what is out this week for you to spend all your pennies on? Actually, don't spend all your pennies, remember to save a fiver for Saturday night.

Mitchell Museum - The Peters Port Memorial Service
The Mitchell Museum is out! Yay! Vinyl available direct from the band, in Avalanche, Mono, Fopp, HMV in Glasgow and Rough Trade in London. Also available to download from iTunes, Amazon, and most likely other places too.

So Many Animal Calls - Your House Is A Hospice
So this came out at the tail end of last week, but I've not had a chance to mention it yet. Grab the free download from Bandcamp.

Dems - Lioness
Another freebie download that popped up last week, also available from Bandcamp. Think I need to do another Round Up Review to cover all this stuff...

Burnt Island - Hiding Out/Gamblers Dream
I talked a bit about this the other day, and now you can have it - for free at that - from Wiseblood Industries.

Tired Pony - The Place We Ran From
Debut album from Gary Lightbody and friends. No idea if it is any good or not, I've not heard it.

Tango In The Attic - Bank Place Locomotive Society
Another debut album, this time from Glenrothes five piece Tango In The Attic. Haven't heard this either yet, but I've liked some of their previous stuff. It is a penny under four quid at Amazon, which isn't half bad.

The Boy Who Trapped The Sun - Fireplace
Rounding off the debuts for the week is this, The Boy Who Trapped The Sun's first album. You can get a free download of the title track in return for your email address here.

We're Only Afraid of NYC - 0.3 EP
Not released until Friday, so consider this an advance tip. Get the (really, really good) EP from Bandcamp for free on Friday, then come see them at Aye Tunes Vs Peenko II on Saturday.

The BAMS World Cup - Final Standings

Since the last post on the BAMS World Cup was the most read post on Aye Tunes in the past month, here's another now that the competition is all done and dusted.

Team Aye Tunes held steady to claim a credible third place, while there was late drama as Dear Scotland overtook A Tidal Wave of Indifference following Saturday's Third/Forth place play off, and just about hung on to top spot to win the whole shebang.
Dear Scotland also collect the Golden Boot, with their higher number of assists being used to break the tie on goals scored.

Further down, Elba Sessions clearly paid the price for having greedy players, as they racked up 20 goals, but a mere 6 assists. Phil Elba takes the bragging rights from the two Elba Sessions teams, placing a few points above Chris.

Down in 12th spot The Vinyl Villain is claiming a moral victory for not making any changes to his squad since the competition started.

Jockrock ended up stranded at the bottom of the table, but we'll be nice to them, they were unable to access their team throughout the entire World Cup, so ended up with a bit of a duff line up. They still managed to pick up some goals though.

Most shot shy was Jim Gellatly, who will have delighted most of us mean bloggers with his poor showing. With a mere 7 goals and 7 assists Gellatly's Goal Getters failed to live up to their name.

This Week's Gigs 12th - 18th July

Last week was quiet, this week is insane. Typical. Do try not to wear yourself out early in the week please, we need as many of you as possible alive and in The 13th Note on Saturday.

Monday:

Comma. Pivo Pivo.
These gents impressed a few weeks ago with their new EP, which we covered in the Round Up Reviews, so I'm looking forward to checking them out live.

Tuesday:

Scott Hutchison, Ross Clark, My Cousin I Bid You Farewell. Stereo.
Acoustic shenanigans from people in bands you might have heard of, with proceeds going to the A-T Society.

Wednesday:

So Many Animal Calls, Queen Jane, 100 Paper Boats. Captain's Rest
Go get our mitts on a free download from So Many Animal Calls here, it is really rather good.

Mitchell Museum. Album launch, Secret Location.
See the Mitchell Museum blog for more details on this one. There's also an instore gig at Fopp on Union Street on Wednesday too.

Thursday:

Silver Columns, Midnight Lion, Nevada Base, MOPP. King Tut's.
Tut's is attempting to dominate the Glasgow gigs for the next few weeks, starting with this, the first of their Summer Nights series. Some are good, some are a bit ropey, and their website has a good handful of spelling errors. Tonight's gig features two bands I like and two I don't much care for, you can work out who is who yourself if you want to.

Cuddly Shark, The Lava Experiments, The Red Show. Captain's Rest.

A line up where I don't have to go out for fag breaks to avoid the dross means this is a much better choice of gig for the evening. Cuddly Shark had one of my favourite albums last year, The Red Show have been entertaining when I've seen them previously, and I've blethered at length before about my enjoyment of The Lava Experiments, so this looks to be a winner all round.

Saturday:

Saturday is, of course, all about Aye Tunes vs Peenko II. Advance tickets available here, where you can also listen to a song from each of the bands. Buy a ticket and get a free three song download. Go on go on go on go on.

In case you have forgotten, or can't read the poster above, playing live are:
We're Only Afraid of NYC who Lauren Laverne said "I've heard some amazing Scottish bands and one that stands out is an unsigned Glasgow band called We're Only Afraid Of NYC" about.
Randolph's Leap who The Scotsman called "nonsense of the best kind"
Little Yellow Ukuleles, about whom Tom Robinson said "even in a city reknowned for fresh and original guitar pop, you'd have to say that is a remarkably assured debut record"
See, it isn't just us that loves these bands! Do come along to The 13th Note on Saturday, you'll make me and Peenko ever so happy. We might even give you sweets, and a hug.

Single Review: Burnt Island - Hiding Out

Last time I checked in on Burnt Island properly they'd just released debut mini album Music and Maths, which I really quite liked. A new single means it is time to check in again.

Hiding Out comes from Music and Maths and is every bit as gorgeous as it was back in March. What starts out as a very gentle, quiet and stripped back song gains pace around half way through, before exploding in to a fuller sound towards the end. It is one of those moments that catches you off guard and makes for a wonderful, spine tingling little surprise.

B-Side Gambler's Dream doesn't appear on the album, but wouldn't have been out of place. Based entirely around vocals and acoustic guitar it is a soft, laid back, storytelling song, which works to beautiful effect.

Stay tuned for a catch up interview with Burnt Island's Rodge Glass sometime soon too, just as soon as I get my act together.

Burnt Island - MySpace

Hiding Out is available as a free download from Wiseblood Industries on July 12th. Music and Maths is available online and in shops, released by Chaffinch Records. Also, do check out Burnt Island's cover of Elliott Smith's Between the Bars here. It is a great version of a wonderful song, with proceeds going to Depression Alliance UK.

Burnt Island play the Spiegletent at the Edinburgh Book Festival with Adrian Crowley, Alan Bissett, Doug Johnstone, Ryan Van Winkle and a top secret special guest on August 30th.

We Have a Winner

If you missed it, last week I had a wee competion to win the new Cancel The Astronauts EP.
Closing date was last night, and I've now picked a winner.

The original plan was to make a video of me drawing names out of a hat to avoid any accusations of contest rigging, but this plan was scuppered somewhat by my Poundland microphone not working, and my webcam being a bit rubbish. Also, my bedroom is a pure state, so it is probably as well I didn't do that.

Instead, a random number generator was used - twice actually, since he first time I quite brilliantly failed to assign numbers to the names, I'm not very good at this - and the winner was number 6.

After checking the numbers our winner of the CD was Rachel Sermanni.
Thanks to the handful of folk that entered, sorry I couldn't give all of you a CD but I only had one spare.

Funny For A Girl is available to buy from Bandcamp.

Aye Tunes Vs Peenko II Update

A week and a half to go until AVPII, so it is probably time for a wee update on things.

Advance tickets for the gig are now available. As with last time we won't try and charge you any add ons, no booking fees and free postage too (unless you order too late for me to safely post them, then we'll keep one for you to collect). This time we are even throwing in a little download pack, with a song from each of the bands playing on the night.

Tickets are available here. At least they are if I haven't messed up Bandcamp along the line.

So that's We're Only Afraid of NYC, Randolph's Leap and Little Yellow Ukuleles, at The 13th Note, on Saturday July 17th. Doors at 8:30.
See you there? There's a Facebook event page too, for those that like to click things.

Single Review: Skies Fell - Statues

Glasgow four piece Skies Fell came to my attention a little while ago when they made their first single available for free download, which was good enough to make sure I kept an eye out for them.
Now their follow up single is ready for release, and it too is pretty good.

Skies Fell do the same kind of melodic alternative rock that many bands in Glasgow do, which often isn't really up my street. Some bands do it well enough that they stand out from the pack and make music that I enjoy, even when I don't expect to.
Obviously since I'm writing about Skies Fell, they manage to fall into the small bunch that I enjoy. Statues is punchy and short, with a big anthemic chorus and staccato guitar riffs, and does it's job well. I prefer b-side Sharky and George though. It doesn't seem to be related to the crime busters of the sea, but does have a bit of a water theme to the lyrics. It is a wee bit overblown, but entertaining rather than annoyingly so.

Good stuff from a band that have raised the bar for themselves rather high already, fingers crossed they keep living up to the standards they've set themselves.

Skies Fell: Website - MySpace - Bandcamp

Statues is available August 9th from Bandcamp.

The BAMS World Cup

You might have noticed there's been some football on recently, but what you might not have noticed is some of the Scottish Blogs and Music Sites (the BAMS for short) showing a higher than normal desire for a North Korean full back to pick up a clean sheet, a Uruguay striker to net a brace, along with howls of outrage at an unjust booking or an injury time goal.

The reason for all this is simple, we've got a World Cup Fantasy League. With the semi finals a day away now seems a good time to check in, see who has been doing well, and mock those that have underachieved.

The Aye Tunes team has suffered from mixed fortunes. Stays at the top of the table have been sighted, but only briefly. Accidentaly using half of the allotted transfers while drunk one night did us no favours, neither did rash decisions made after a poor afternoon game, inspiring points chasing changes for the evening game which almost never worked well. That being said, team Aye Tunes has for the most part lurked around the higher parts of the table, and with four games to go sits n third place. The final games of the tournament will decide whether I can hold on to that spot, or plummet down the table. With all my transfers used up half my team will only have one meaningful game left, but I will be more interested in Saturday's Third/Forth Place Playoff match than I normally would.

Currently, the league looks a bit like this:

If by the end of the week you find that myself, Dear Scotland, The Tidal Wave of Indifference, Jocknroll, Elba Sessions and Favourite Son aren't talking to each other, or one of us is laughing at all the others, you'll know why.
Additionally Jockrock has an excuse for being bottom, Stuart hasn't been able to access his team since before the World Cup started. Jim Gellatly has no excuse though..

This Week's Records

A few good records out this week.

The Last Battle release their debut single Ruins on 17 Seconds Records.
Endor self release their debut album. To celebrate they are doing a couple of instore gigs, which I forgot to mention on the gig guide. On Monday they'll be in Avalanche in Edinburgh, before heading to LOVEmusic in Glasgow on Thursday. Predictably enough you can get the album on Bandcamp, as well as the usual record & download shops.

Kid Canaveral have their debut out today too. Keen eyed readers will be aware of that already, but there's no harm in reminding you. You can pick up a download here, or buy a CD here. Also, you can read my review of it here.

The Boy Who Trapped The Sun has a new single, called Katy.

The Recovery Club have their debut single out too. Rest And Be Thankful is released today by Antimatter Music. It is quite lovely, as I mentioned during the last Round Up Reviews. You can get hold of it direct from the label, on Bandcamp, or from all the usual download shops.

American Men get in on the debut act too, with the Cool World EP.

droy is a later entry, just coming to my attention on Tuesday afternoon. Probably better know as David Roy from Dananananaykroyd, droy has made an instrumental summery indie pop record called Bird Drums. It is available on Bandcamp, and well worth the £4 asking price.

This Week's Gigs 5th - 11th July

I made it Edinburgh and back alive, you'll be pleased to know. My lighter didn't though, as soon as I arrived in Edinburgh the cheap lighter died on me, thankfully that wasn't some kind of omen.
Not much in the way of gigs this week, presumably most promoters reckon that punters will be saving up their money to stand in mud at the weekend. What's on is good though, so think of it more as a quality over quantity week.

Monday:

Scunner, Glasgow Glam Bangers and Creative Martyrs. Spangled Cabaret, Rio Cafe, Partick. Free.
A wee freebie to kick off the week.
The Corleones, A Day Overdue. Classic Grand. £6.

Tuesday:

French Wives and Rachel Sermanni. Brel.
Even though the West End Festival is finished it still manages to get in to the gig guide, with this gig rescheduled from a couple of weeks ago.

Saturday:

Kid Canaveral, Standard Fare and Water Wolves. The Flying Duck. £5.
I'd rather stab myself in the face than go to T In The Park, but happily Half My Heartbeats are providing an alternative for Saturday night. The Kid Canaveral album launch gig was a ton of fun, and this likely will be too.
Also on Saturday, in the Kitchen bit of The Flying Duck is the second Blog Rocking Beats night, where The Vinyl Villain and A North Country Bhoy will be playing some records, so long as they can remember how to work the DJ gear.

COMPETITION - Win the new Cancel The Astronauts EP!

As mentioned, and reviewed, earlier in the week, Cancel The Astronauts have a new EP out now, titled Funny For A Girl. You can buy it here.

To celebrate I'm going to give away a CD of it to one of you lucky people.

To be in with a chance of winning simply email your name and something funny* to competition@ayetunes.org.uk.
Competition closes at 6PM on Wednesday July 7th, at which point I'll pick a winner out of a hat, or other form of answer selecting container.

* Funny ha-ha, funny peculiar, whatever!

Submissions

It occurs to me that I haven't actually mentioned for a while how you can send me music for review or whatever, so this is just a wee quickie to say the best ways to do it, and what to avoid.
it is hardly a complicated process, so don't be put off by the things below, it is just intended to give you an idea of the best way to stand out in a crowded inbox, or at least avoid going straight in the bin.

Things to do:

The best thing to do is send me an email. If you are only sending a couple of songs go ahead and attach them, if there's more than that then upload them somewhere and email over a download link. There's loads of places you can upload a zip file to without much hassle, personally I like Dropbox, but others are fine too. Please don't attach a zip file to your email though, Gmail eats attached zips. I'll never get it, you'll think I just ignored it.

An alternative is Soundcloud, you can upload tracks to my dropbox there.

If you don't want to give me a download for free (which is of course fair enough) then send me somewhere I can stream the songs easily. Again, Soundcloud is good for this, but even better is Bandcamp, where you can try and sell me something too.

CDs. You can offer to send me a CD, but I usually prefer to hear what is on it first. This reduces the chances of you wasting time and money on sending me a CD I don't like, which just lays in a pile somewhere in my house. If you still want to send me a physical copy go ahead and ask for my address.

If you are sending me something for review it is handy, though not essential, to include a wee bit about yourself or your band. A quick bio, any useful links, that kind of thing. Oh, and do try and include details on the release, most importantly the release date and where it will be available from, what format, etc. Don't leave me guessing, I'll just get it wrong, or not get round to checking! MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, all that kind of thing are handy too.

Things not to do:

Be a dick. That should go without saying, but every now and then someone gets the bright idea that I'll pay more attention if they act like an arsehole to me. I won't.

Show a complete lack of research. Half the stuff that clogs up my inbox comes from American PR firms that have missed the point. Others start off with something along the lines of "Hi Ayetunes". Aye Tunes isn't my name, Jim is. It says so on every post. You might be sending the same form email to every blogger around, but at least do a little checking on things like that first.

Send me straight to MySpace. I really don't like using MySpace, if that is the only option I have for listening to tracks from the EP you want me to review I more than likely won't bother. Apart from anything else, have you ever listened to your music on MySpace? It sounds awful!

Likewise, don't send me to straight to iTunes, I don't buy anything from it. Again, if you want to lure me into paying for your new release right away, Bandcamp is your best bet.

That should cover the main things, any questions go ahead and ask.

I do my best to reply to all my emails, but it takes a while sometimes. If you think I've missed something feel free to remind me after a week or so. I can't review everything I'm sent, there aren't enough hours in the day, but I do listen to it at least.
If I don't like something I likely won't review it, unless I can offer constructive criticism. Don't take it personally. Also bear in mind that a lot of the Scottish bloggers talk to each other, if you bitch about us to the others, there's a good chance we'll hear about it!

Kid Canaveral: Shouting At Wildlife - Album Review

I've talked enough about Kid Canaveral enough round here that they probably don't need any introduction by now, but just in case, Kid Canaveral are David, Kate, Rose and Scott. After half a dozen singles and EPs, their debut album Shouting At Wildlife is ready for release. After four 7" singles and a couple of releases on cassette this on is, happily, available on CD rather than, say, 8 Track.

Scottish indie pop isn't the trendiest thing in the World at the moment, but that doesn't prevent it from always having a large place in my heart. Besides, when executed well, who cares if it is trendy? I lack the hairstyle to be a hipster anyway.

How well is the execution then? Well, pretty close to flawless really. The album is a mix between the familiar and the new, most of the previous singles put in an appearance but in new forms, while the majority of the songs are new. A fresh lick of paint takes nothing away from the charm of the older songs, and does save from getting a feeling of "I own this already" that might put some off.

If the opening four tracks of this album don't make you feel happy you were either already delighted when you started listening, or you have a heart of stone. Upbeat, uplifting, occasionally raucous but always melodic doesn't just sum up the opening salvo, but it true for most of the album.
Five tracks in the first old favourite pops up, in the shape of debut single Smash Hits. I've listened to Smash Hits more times than I'd care to count, but its wit, storytelling lyrics and melody never, ever gets old. Also; handclaps. Oh how I love those handclaps.

What would be the end of side 1 and the beginning of side 2 slows things down a bit with Quiet Things Are Quiet Now and And Another Thing!! The slower, less cheery songs provide a nice breather halfway through, and leave no doubt that while Kid Canaveral do upbeat and happy brilliantly, they don't just do that.

From there on the rest of the album does a fine job mixing the unlifting and the melancholy, with Couldn't Dance - the title of which I live up to whenever it is played live and I'm there - popping up amongst the less familiar songs like an old friend, before the tender and reflective Her Hair Hangs Down and a reprise of Good Morning round things off on a beautiful, gentle note.

My hopes for this album were high, and happily they weren't just met, but exceeded.

Kid Canaveral serve up more aces than that really long tennis match did in a fraction of the time, and with far more smiles. Or if you want a different tortured metaphor, Shouting At Wildlife doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it does remind you why you liked the wheel in the first place.

Need more convincing? Have a little listen to Smash Hits below.

05 Smash Hits by StraightToVideoRecords

Kid Canaveral: Website - Bandcamp - MySpace

Shouting At Wildlife is released on CD and download by Straight To Video Records on July 5th. However, if you pre-order the album you'll get some extra goodies. Get it direct from the band here. Kid Canaveral play an album launch gig at The Roxy Art House on July 3rd, tickets for that can be bought from the same place as the album pre-order. I'm even making a rare Edinburgh trip for it and everything, so I can annoy folk in a whole different city than usual.

Cancel The Astronauts: Funny For A Girl - EP Review

A bit over a year since I babbled incoherently (seriously, you think I'm bad now? Go read posts from a year ago, I made no sense) about their first EP Cancel The Astronauts have finally gone and released another one. What's it like? I'm glad you asked, I'll try and babble a bit more coherently about this one.

Title track Funny For A Girl bubbles along nicely enough, but has its upbeat indie pop rump shaking thunder stolen a bit by the track that follows it, She Said She Loves Somebody Else. Where Funny For A Girl inspires head bobbing She Said... notches things up to full on arm flailing and shape throwing.
So far so good, although the neighbours might confuse the dodgy dancing with some kind of fit, so draw the curtains first. I like a Korg as much as the next man, but there is only so much I can take, so it is no bad thing that it mostly slips into the background for Things I Shouldn't Tell You. The song itself goes through a few changes of pace too, with fast bits, slower bits, and a bit of tenderness all taking turns at the forefront.

Standing Still keeps things slow and tender for the most part, right up until everything kicks off briefly towards the end. Probably my favourite thing on here. What it lacks in sing along and catchiness value it more than makes up for in heart, and goes a long way to showing that Cancel The Astronauts don't just do bubbly indie pop.
Listen rounds out the package by bringing back the catchy melodies and inspiring more shoogling of body parts in a vague impression of dancing, and finishes off the EP nicely.

All good stuff, hopefully we don't have another year for more new material either!

Cancel The Astronauts: Website - MySpace - Facebook - Bandcamp

Cancel The Astronauts - Funny For A Girl is available on CD and download now from Bandcamp.

Storm The Charts

From the people behind Rage Against The Machine for Christmas Number 1 comes Storm The Charts, another Facebook campaign to get certain songs in the charts.
Now, if anyone has ever heard me on the subject they'll know that I can rant for hours about my dislike of these stunts, and of Facebook campaigns in general. Why am I bothering to mention this one then? Well, there's bands I like involved this time round, so I've flipped the hypocrite switch.

All the details can be found here, but what it all boils down to is that 40 independent artists have been picked, 20 by a panel, 20 by public voting, and the plan is to get as many as possible into the charts on Sunday, July 4th, what with it being Independence Day and all.

You can find the full 40 artists selected here, I'll just be concentrating on the Scots.

The ones that interest me, along with a link to buy the relevant song, are:

A Band Called Quinn - D.I.Y.

Ardentjohn - Follow Me

The Banana Sessions - Jukebox

Penny Black - Green

Zoey Van Goey - We Don't Have That Kind Of Bread