Friday Freebies - 07/09/2012

I'll spare you much preamble this week. I know no one reads it anyway. I could say anything in this bit and never get caught. But onward, to music!

Behold, the Old Bear
Handily timed to allow me to mention once again that I have a gig on next week, not that I need an excuse, Behold, the Old Bear have popped up a wee song for you to download for free. Grab their cover of Harry Nislson's Swee'Pea's Lullaby, from the soundtrack to the Popeye film, here. Then come to the gig on Tuesday.

Carter USM
Opportunities to talk about Carter USM don't come up too often on the blog, so when one presents itself I'll take it. That opportunity this time round is a live recording from 1991, made available by Carter for the price of your choosing over here. There's releases of 30 Something and 1992: The Love Album coming out in November, so if anyone is planning a Christmas present for me at the moment, they'd be good. If you can get me into their November gig at King Tuts that would be excellent too.

Edinburgh School for the Deaf
It's been a while since I've heard anything from this lot. Their debut album from last year went in one of my lists, before line-up changes seemed to derail them slightly. They've been playing plenty gigs over the past wee while, but it was still a wee surprise to see something new from them appear quite suddenly. The new thing is In Dreams Lie Guilt, which at 5 tracks falls into the hazy ground between EP and mini album. Whatever you want to class it as, it is good, and you can pay what you want for it here.

The Barents Sea
Someone else I've not heard from in ages! Also, confusing typing time, since The Barents Sea is sort of a band, but only has one proper member, so now I need to work out whether to say he or they. We'll go with the later, since a full band was involved on these songs. I'll now end the rambling, and direct you towards a pay what you want EP by The Barents Sea here.

Overlook Records
Spiffing Glasgow label Overlook Records gave away a free sampler CD at their first birthday party a wee while back. I couldn't go, so missed out on one, as well as missing out on fun. This annoyed me, since I like fun, and free things. They've now made the label sampler available as a free download though, so that's very nice of them. Redrum has tracks from The Darien Venture, Trapped in Kansas, Salò, Bellow Bellow, So Many Animal Calls, Vasa and Crusades on it, and you can download it here for free.

Jo Mango
When did yer man from Neighbours become a Scottish woman? Oh, sorry, I thought you said Joe Mangel. My mistake. Anyway, Cordelia is a taster of Jo's imminent second album, and is available to download here.

Turn Off Your Television
Mainly Scottish freebies this week so far, except from Carter. I have a cosmopolitan image to keep up though, so quickly, overseas! Lovely Swedes Turn off your television have released a new single, Blanket of shame, taken from their upcoming album Humble Waves. You can grab that here for the price of your choosing. If you like what you hear then you can get hold of their last album on Bandcamp on a pay what you want deal too.

Crab For Darkfast
Not nearly enough bands give you recipes. Thankfully Crab For Darkfast have spotted this gap in the market , and a download of their EP will also yield four free recipes, so you can cook while you listen. Food not suitable for vegitarians though, so set your excitement levels accordingly. Get The Whole Hog here.

Golden Fable
Welsh due Golden Fable release their debut album Star Map this coming Monday. Ahead of that they are giving away an acoustic version of Always Golden, which also appears on an acoustic EP available with the deluxe edition of the album. Download the freebie here, the album can be ordered here.

tom
I know next to nothing about tom. Do research then you say? Well, that's no fun. I do know that I was pointed towards Ohneiros, his new album, during the week, and said album is really good. Find out for yourself by getting it here.

One Week To Go: Behold, the Old Bear / Plastic Animals / Left of Venus

Just one week to go till Aye Tunes gig night again, so it is time to plug the darn thing once again.

Continuing our nomadic existence we're off to another venue again, this time we'll be setting up shop at The 13th Note on Tuesday, September 11th.

Here's what's in store.

Behold, the Old Bear
Once a side project, now a real grown up band, Behold, the Old Bear are the new ship captained by Raindeer of Mitchell Museum fame. A five-piece making "Melodramatic Polar Blitz Alt Pop", with a debut album coming soon on Gargleblast Records. There's heartbreak in there too, Peenko sometimes needs a wee cuddle after hearing 7 Maybe 8. Probably my favourite "new" band of the year too. Come and find out why I like them so much for yourself.


Plastic Animals
I've been trying to do something with Plastic Animals for ages, even more so after bonding over a shared love of Urusei Yatsura, and finally the stars aligned this time round.  Formed in Edinburgh way back in 2006, they finally got their shit together in 2011 and expanded both their sound and line-up to which has helped develop the sound much more. They make atmospheric, guitar-driven, harmonious noise. They released an EP under the name of "Automaton". After the first hand-made batch sold out, Scottish DIY label Strange Fish Records are re-releasing it in September. Plastic Animals have shared stages with some terrible bands over the years, but also some great ones like PS I Love You, Milk Maid, Broken Records, The Scottish Enlightenment and PAWS.


Left of Venus
Left of Venus is the solo guise of Thomas Campbell,  instrumental guitarist from Glasgow, blending ambience, minimalism, classical, and noise by way of the electric guitar.


So there you go.

That's Behold, the Old bear, Plastic Animals and Left of Venus at The 13th Note, on the 11th of September.
Doors open at 8pm, and it'll cost you five quid on the door to get in.
Should you be so inclined, you can claim you are coming on Facebook here, but I'll be happier to see your faces on the night.
Come along or the terrorists win.

Friday Freebies - 31/8/2012

It's been another week of misbehaving computers round here. If anyone would like to buy me a new hard drive, or indeed a whole new computer, that would be smashing. Maybe I should start a Kickstarter or something. Donate £20 and you can punch me in the face.
Enough of my complaining though, it's freebie time. Fans of reading stuff at lunchtime will be happy to see I'm back on an earlier schedule this week too.

Mondegreen
A mere year and a half since releasing their first EP, and a year since Peenko and I roped them into gigging for us, Mondegreen have gotten round to making a second one. I was just thinking on the bus today about how long I've enjoyed this band - I think about weird things on the bus - and the answer involves things like exchanging messages on MySpace, so ages. Mondegreen play The Glad Cafe on the southside of Glasgow tonight, then at Bloc on September 13th (two days after you are all coming to my next gig yeah?), all of which seems like an awful lot of activity from them. Anyway, go get Aberdoom! here, because it is ace.

Falls
Speaking of people I've put on at gigs (have I mentioned that I've got another one coming up soon?), loud and handsome Welshmen have gone and slung out a free new single. Two thumbs up for this, one for being right good, another for being well named. Get Heisenberg for free here.

Music Language Festival
The Music Language festival takes place across various spots in Glasgow on this Saturday and Sunday, for full details pop over to the website. To get you into the spirit of things there's a 19 track download compilation available for whatever price you want here. Some of my favourites from the compilation are Aggi Doom, Hector Bizerk, Big Ned (who I thought had vanished entirely), Palms, Rob St John and Mother Ganga, but there's plenty more good stuff in there too.

Idle Fret
Lots of good stuff on this compilation from London club night/record label, Idle Fret. Favourites of mine in there include a new song from Monster Island, an oldie but a goodie from The Lovely Eggs and Giant Burger sneaking in to make back to back Friday Freebies appearances. Snag the compilation here.

Congregations
This submission came with an offer to kill to have it included in the freebies. I'm saving the email, just in case I need to call in a favour in future. Circular Ruins is a bit of ambient/electronic music, the kind of stuff that I need to be in a certain mood to properly enjoy, but handily caught me in that mood at about 3am on the first listen, so enjoy it I did. You can name your price for the download from Bandcamp.

Secret Motorbikes
I'm possibly just tired, but the info section of the Secret Motorbikes Facebook page has highly amused me. Here's a new song from them. It's free here. Good too. "Good too" - an internet blog.


The Darien Venture
The Darien Venture have a new EP somewhere up their sleeves, due out later in the year. To help you work up an appetite for it you can get hold of a free three song sampler here.


Gastric Band
I won't lie, I've barely listened to this, and it is being included almost entirely on the basis of the pervy album art. I'll listen to it later, if it turns out to be terrible I'll quietly edit this part out and hope no one notices. Download Party feel here.

The State Broadcasters
This has been a bit of a week for "blimey, I've not heard anything from them in ages!" entries. The State Broadcasters have been fairly active of late, with gigs and singles and such, but it has been a long time since that first album. Not to worry though, their second album is just a few weeks from release - of of the perks of being a barely known internet blog is that I've heard it already, and liked it plenty - and they've got a new, free single available now to put you in the mood for Ghosts We Must Carry. Download Kittiwake for free here.

I'm out of clever ways to plug the next Aye Tunes gig - some might say that I never had clever ways in the first place - so here's a clumsy and inelegant reminder that I'M PUTTING ON A GIG ON THE 11TH AND YOU SHOULD COME. Thanks.

Presenting Again

Goodness, it hardly feels like any time at all since I was a nervous wreck about the last Aye Tunes gig, but here I am with the next one less than two weeks away already.

Continuing our nomadic existence we're off to another venue again, this time we'll be setting up shop at The 13th Note on Tuesday, September 11th. I'll try my best to say nothing inappropriate about the date.

Here's what's in store.

Behold, the Old Bear
Once a side project, now a real grown up band, Behold, the Old Bear are the new ship captained by Raindeer of Mitchell Museum fame. A five-piece making "Melodramatic Polar Blitz Alt Pop", with a debut album coming soon on Gargleblast Records. There's heartbreak in there too, Peenko sometimes needs a wee cuddle after hearing 7 Maybe 8. Probably my favourite "new" band of the year too. Come and find out why I like them so much for yourself.


Plastic Animals
I've been trying to do something with Plastic Animals for ages, even more so after bonding over a shared love of Urusei Yatsura, and finally the stars aligned this time round.  Formed in Edinburgh way back in 2006, they finally got their shit together in 2011 and expanded both their sound and line-up to which has helped develop the sound much more. They make atmospheric, guitar-driven, harmonious noise. They released an EP under the name of "Automaton". After the first hand-made batch sold out, Scottish DIY label Strange Fish Records are re-releasing it in September. Plastic Animals have shared stages with some terrible bands over the years, but also some great ones like PS I Love You, Milk Maid, Broken Records, The Scottish Enlightenment and PAWS.


Left of Venus
Left of Venus is the solo guise of Thomas Campbell,  instrumental guitarist from Glasgow, blending ambience, minimalism, classical, and noise by way of the electric guitar.


So there you go.

That's Behold, the Old bear, Plastic Animals and Left of Venus at The 13th Note, on the 11th of September.
Doors open at 8pm, and it'll cost you five quid on the door to get in.
Should you be so inclined, you can claim you are coming on Facebook here, but I'll be happier to see your faces on the night.

Friday Freebies - 24/08/2012

Got the year right first try this time.Still didn't get the post finished for lunchtime though.
Sorry, I was laughing at a ferret.

Louie
Hot off the presses, this one. Recorded just yesterday, here's a brand spanking new slab of hip hop from one half of Hector Bizerk. Download Stoichkov for free here.


Giant Burger
Related to Baaneex, who I liked and had on before, Giant Burger do proggy, folky rock that I struggle to describe. There's nothing hackneyed about these guys! They come from Hackney. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. Anyway, find there stuff here, there's some name your price downloads, and a 7" you can buy.

Sean Armstrong
Practically worth a Friday Freebies column of its own, Sean Armstrong has released his third album, and didn't hold back in the process. 71 (seventy one!) tracks, a couple of hours long, and available for whatever you feel like paying, you can get Effluvial Juggernaut here.

Aidan Moffat
Recorded as part of Scottish Book Trust's My Favourite Places project, here's Aidan Moffat singing about  about the wall where he used to meet up and hang about with his mates as a Falkirk youngster. Free download here.

Euros Childs
Him again. It's not my fault Euros has been busy. This week he released his latest album, which is, unsurprisingly, rather good. Summer Special can be downloaded here, and you can make a donation for it, or buy a physical copy.

Male Pattern Band
I'd thought Male Pattern Band had pretty much chucked it, since they all but vanished for a while there. They haven't though, they've come back with a new line up and a new song. Download Sunday Driver for free here.

Tribal Fighters
Rounding off the freebies this week are a band we've not had on here since Christmas. Manchester gents Tribal Fighters have been beavering away at their debut EP, and now it's been set free into the big wide World for you to have a listen. You can listen to it, and download it for whatever price you fancy, at Bandcamp.

That's your lot, see you next week at another random time on Friday.

Friday Freebies - 17/08/2012

Who had three weeks on the "how long until Jim is late with the freebies" sweepstake? I'm only a couple of hours behind schedule, so I'm not that late. Blame a combination of my computer being a temperamental wee bitch and me having spent most of the week scrabbling around trying to book the next Aye Tunes gig. That's on September 11th by the way, but I'll tell you more about it later.

Kowalskiy
First freebie of the week is a multi band one, as Kowalskiy has his latest free EP out now. Featuring tracks from Esperi, Slow Building Seas, Shooting Stansfield, Run/Lucky/Free and The Sunset Clause, you can grab the EP for free here.

Father Sculptor
I told you they'd be in the freebies a fair bit. Father Sculptor continue releasing a new song every fortnight, with the latest, Aristide, available here.

Neil Milton
Long term friend of the blog Neil Milton has not one, but two new EPs out. They are name your price rather than free, so if you want to pay a few quid for them, that would be good. Skies is available here, while Seas is available here.

The Cherry Wave
This lot are pretty new, I think. If you like fuzzy, lo-fi, droney shoegazey alt-rock, and goodness knows I do, then pick up their EP for free here. They also play their first gig at Pivo Pivo on Sunday.

Burning Buildings
Here's a twinkly new song from Manchester's Burning Buildings, available for free here. I rather like it.

Euros Childs
The former Gorky's man is back again, with another new single ahead of the imminent release of his latest album. That's Better can be downloaded here for free, or you can make a donation if the mood strikes you.

Peenko's Pick
Cancel the Astronauts
Peenko's choice of freebie this week is a preview of the debut album from Cancel the Astronauts. Making Dynamite is available for free here, and you can listen to the whole Animal Love Match album here. It's a cracking album, and I'll have more about it on the blog soon.

Politics and music blogs are two things that shouldn't really go together if you ask me, but it's probably worth noting than one thing I reckon should be free on this particular Friday, isn't. If you've not seen the news yet, Pussy Riot have been sentenced to two years in jail each. It's hardly a surprise that Russia isn't a wonderful oasis of human rights and free speech, but it's still lousy.

Friday Freebies - 10/08/2012

It's Friday, here's a bunch of music that you can get without paying any money.
Enjoy, and do let us know if there's anything that tickles your fancy.

Discopolis
Starting off with something bleepy from Discopolis, Summer Mixtape is available for free here. Two new tracks, two new versions of old ones, all for nowt.

Rollor
From bleeps to distortion, Rollor have a new album! I forgot about this last week, apologies. Beats In Men Shapes is available from Bandcamp as a free download, or you can buy it on tape.

Evil Hand
Evil Hand just finished the first track from their as yet untitled new album Rather kindly, it's available as a free download. Get Ten years here. S'good.


Chemikal Underground
Released a wee while ago on Amazon, Chemikal have now made their label compilation Secret Hits available to download for free on their website. Containing tracks from Chemikal releases old and new, it's pretty much brilliant. Get it here.

Be Like Pablo
Be Like Pablo were a couple of hours to late for inclusion last week, so here they are this time round. They've made their debut album, The New Adventures, available to download for absolutely free, all you have to do is register at their website. It's a nice wee pop album, goes well with sunshine, and worth signing up for.

Fresh Fringe
Another year, another Fringe, and another compilation from the people at Fresh Air Radio. The Inside Track Volume 3 has ace bands like PAWS, Sparrow and the Workshop, Kill the Waves, Dolfinz and more on it. It also has Bwani Junction and The LaFontaines, but there's a down side to everything. You can name your price for the download, but do note proceeds go to the Waverly Care charity when choosing your sum. The album is available from  Bandcamp.

Pulco
Described by Pulco himself as "a bit eclectic and weird", the Eh - Vont - Gade EP mixed odd noises with spoken word packages. It is a bit eclectic, and a bit weird, and I like it. Grab it for free at Bandcamp.

Falls
If you missed out on Falls playing in Glasgow a few weeks ago for Aye Tunes (and statistically you probably did, I was counting) then you missed out on having to peel your eyelids from your face after they finished. You can however get hold of a few of their songs, as four demos are available for free on Bandcamp.

Zombie Girlfriend
Zombie Girlfriend are my favourite Hungarian lo-fi garage rock band. Admittedly, they are the only one I know, but that doesn't stop them being fab. They've just followed up last year's Music For Porn album (one of my favourite albums of 2011) with not one but two new EPs. Gray and Pink & Blue will cost you a minimum of $1 each on Bandcamp, but if you hop over there and look closely you'll see how you can get them for free if you are cheap.

Peenko's Pick
Holy Esque
"I guess it's true that the Scottish blogosphere can quite often be accused of over hyping up and coming bands, only to see them fall flat on their face when they venture south of the border. In Holy Esque I reckon we have a band that seem to be living up to their early buzz. Following on from their cracking self-titled EP, the band are currently giving away a free download of an track called 'Tear', every time I hear this band I can't help but think of Two Gallants, which is no bad thing in my eyes/ears. If that sounds like it might be your cup of tea then get downloading here."

Friday Freebies - 03/08/2012

It's been an interesting wee week in the Scottish music blog World, with both The Pop Cop and Peenko making a few changes top how they run. Never one to miss an opportunity, and in an attempt to make myself do at least one post a week, with Peenko's blessing I'm taking over his long running Friday Freebies feature.
He now owns a 51% controlling stake in my soul. More fool him.

So, stop by here on a Friday afternoon and I'll try to keep your ears busy with a selection of free (or sometimes "pay what you want") music. Maybe you'll even like some of it?

Father Sculptor
With the promise of a new, free song ever fortnight over the summer I'd imagine Father Sculptor might make a few appearances here. Their latest release, Frances, came out this week and can be downloaded for free here. Have a little click round their Bandcamp page while you are there and you'll find some other treats too.

Magnetic Island
This Brooklyn bunch's self titled debut album came out at the start of the year, as has been a firm favourite with me since. Nice timing then that this free download popped up in my inbox just as I inherited a feature dedicated to free downloads, so I can feature it! Magnetic Island's bare bones take on the Sleater-Kinney song Turn It On is available free from their Soundcloud page, and you can listen/download from the wee embedded player below too.



Battery Face
Battery Face released their debut album, Addams Family Values, earlier this week. Nine tracks of noisy alt rock, each taking a name from an Addams Family character. A bit experimental, a bit messy, and quite a large amount of fun. Addams Family Values is available as a name your price download, or you can buy a pretty looking CD, at Bandcamp.

The Spook School
I love The Spook School, they are fab and contain my favourite regularly shirtless drummer. They've also got a 7" coming out soon on US label Cloudberry Records. That 7" is available for pre-order now from the Cloudberry website, where you can also snag a free download of A-side Here We Go. Hop over here and scroll down a bit.

Thirty Pounds of Bone
Confession time, I mostly missed out on The Ships Log until this week. This week happened to see the final instalment of it though, so I didn't snooze too long. I've come to expect really good things from Thirty Pounds of Bone, and Mr. Lamb has yet to let me down. Download free from Bandcamp, and find out the full story behind the project there too.

Tiny Birds
How about something rather jaunty sounding? Well, here's Tiny Birds with their new single Bread and Pickle, coming along to remind me that not all a bit twee jaunty indie-folk-pop sets me teeth on edge. That's supposed to be a recommendation, by the way. Download Bread and Pickle for free here.

Relatives
More people from Brooklyn? Well, ok then. This is the kind of thing that all too often pops up in my inbox, gets listened to lots and enjoyed, but never actually makes it on the blog, so hopefully now there'll be less of that kind of thing happening now I've got the freebies to mention stuff in. Relatives have a couple of gigs in Scotland coming up in September, so I'll get back to them properly before they come to visit, but in the meantime their latest EP Tardy Mark has been floating my boat. It's a bit folky,  a bit odd, and can be had for the price of your choosing on Bandcamp.

Doppelganger
When both the lovely Welsh bands that have travelled up to Glasgow for an Aye Tunes gig recommend someone at the same time, I pay attention. So it happened that Falls and Exit_International nudged me in the direction of Doppleganger. Their three track EP is a nice wee slab of rock, and free to download here. Play loud.

Scottish Fiction
Before I go it would be poor form of me not to direct you towards our blog buddies Scottish Fiction. Not only is the latest instalment of their monthly free EPs available now, but to celebrate one year of putting them together, there's a treasure hunt going on with 12 new tracks scattered across the previously released EPs. Head over to the Scottish Fiction blog to find out more, and Bandcamp to download.

Peenko's Pick
That's right, we've not gotten rid of him entirely. Peenko will be lending a hand when he feels like it with his choice of freebie of the week. To start with he's nominated Euros Childs. This double A-side was released way back at the end of May, and is a pretty ace little slice of pop, with Childs backed on the single by the gentlemen from The Wellgreen.
Spin That Girl Around/Just a Dream is available to download here. You can donate to Euros if you want there too.
Here's what Peenko has to say about it:
"So this all a bit odd, me writing about a free track on Aye Tunes?! I think it's pretty safe to say that this has been one crazy old week on the Scottish blogging scene. Personally I think it's great to see so many changes happening at once, it's always good to freshen things up a bit.
Thanks to Jim for taking over the Friday Freebies mantle, good luck that dude! Being the nice fella that he is, Jim has offered me the chance to contribute one free track every week. To start it all off I have decided to go with former Gorky's Zygotic Mynci frontman, Euros Childs and his track 'Spin That Girl Around' which is available to download from his homepage.
Although this came out a few months back, I only just started listening to it last week after he impressed the fuck (I am allowed to swear on here right?) out of me at Fence Record's Away Game Festival on Eigg. Most of the weekend is a still a bit hazy, but I can remember loving this song. It's a catchy wee bugger alright."
I don't know, you let him in and already he's swearing all over the place. Tch.

One Last Plug - Gig Tonight!

Just a couple of hours to go till kick off, so here's one final attempt at wooing the undecided into coming along to The Captains tonight.

Come along from 8pm, pay me six pounds, and see:

Eddy & the T-Bolts: Bandcamp - Facebook





FALLS: Bandcamp - Facebook




A Fight You Can't Win: Bandcamp - Facebook



Please?

Another Aye Tunes Gig - One Week To Go

I'm not good at quitting things. That's why I'm sitting here with a cigarette in my hand, writing about yet another gig I'm putting on.
As the post title says, there's one week to go till the next Aye Tunes gig. As usual I've picked a trio of bands from far and wide, booked them for a gig, and given myself something to panic about.

Eddy & the T-Bolts fill the "Glasgow band" slot. They are an energetic bunch, doing punk tinged rock and/or roll, with big riffs and even bigger choruses. All that, and a song about everyone's favourite wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Eddy & the T-Bolts: Bandcamp - Facebook





FALLS make up the "far" contingent, coming as they do from North Wales. See, we don't just like Scottish bands here at Aye Tunes, we also apparently like bringing Welsh ones to Glasgow. This is their first trip up here, so do come along and marvel at the strange Welsh men making noise. Bring friends! As for their music, imagine pop and metal had a torrid affair, this would be their offspring. Loud, brash, heavy but harmonious and fucking wonderful.
FALLS: Bandcamp - Facebook



A Fight You Can't Win come from Edinburgh, by way of Northern Ireland and Holland, so that makes them the "wide" selection for the evening. This is starting to resemble a weird UN day trip. AFYCW are a gentle, acoustic band, with a fine line in tender ballads. Of course they aren't, they even got a SAMA nomination for Best Metal Band for goodness sake. AFYCW are a sexy slap in the face, allied with a scream in your ear. Grungey, punky, shouty, sweary, y'know, all the good things.
A Fight You Can't Win: Bandcamp - Facebook



So there you go then, an evening of multi flavoured rock. What better are you going to do on a Tuesday night?

Everything takes place at The Captains on Tuesday, 24th July. Doors open at 8, and it'll only cost you £6 to get in. Ask me nicely and you can get two folk in for a tenner, so bring a pal and save money.

#EuroBAMS - The Final Round

Slightly late, but here's the final run down on the EuroBAMS fantasy league.
There was late drama once again.

Despite it looking like Stephen from Birdhead had the tournament in his pocket from pretty much day one, his gamble on Italian defenders instead of Spanish ones, along with a bad choice of changing his captain, saw him slip up at the last minute.
Claire from Catthouse, whose name I always manage to spell wrong even when it is written down in front of me, picked her team well and eliminated the eleven point gap going into the last match to take the trophy.
Just like we did at the World Cup two years ago, Aye Tunes battled hard to claim a respectable third place in the league.
There was heartbreak for AFYCW, as Campfires In Winter notched up a remarkable score in the final game to rocket into third position, knocking Sander's side out of the top five.
Further down kudos once again goes to Last year's Girlymen for their climb up the league, but Lisa-Marie's final standing was to prove no consolation for the actual football result.

Throughout the whole Knockout stages the real victors were the womenfolk. Claire and Lisa-Marie were the top scorers once we passed the group stages, with me in third. I've been called a big girl plenty of times too.

#EuroBams - Round Three

Semi finals over, time for another status report on the EuroBAMS fantasy league.

There's really not much to report though. Here's the updated table.

Click to make bigger, kiss to make boogie.

Birdhead's Stephen Donkin still sits at the top of the table, and is now almost certain to win the competition, barring a ridiculous turnaround in fortunes in the final game.
Clair from Catthouse has overtaken Christian from In Session to take second place, while team Aye Tunes has dropped to fifth. A strong round from the A Fight You Can't Win team sees Sander overtake me, apparently on alphabetical order. Stupid Germany and their stupid late goal.
It's all very tight in the rest of the top ten, it looks like there will be quite a battle to claim a top five finish this time round.

The best performance of the round award (note: not an actual reward) goes to Last Year's Girlymen, with Lisa-Marie striking another blow against the patriarchy through the medium of pretend football. Or something. I'm not sure where I'm going with this paragraph really.

Elsewhere, after a poor second round, Cope's Crusaders cling on to second place, with rumours abound that next time round they'll be pushing for inclusion in the top league as a newcope. I just wanted to use that pun really.

There's just the final game left, so chances to overtake rivals will be limited. It may well coem down to who can put together a strong team for the final match, who won't have enough transfers left to make the drastic changes they might need, and who saved their wildcard for this round, allowing them to dump all their disappointing players.

Come back on Monday to find out who has been crowned the winner. Then after Monday I'm going to have to go back to writing about music, since there's no more distractions I can use.

#EuroBAMS - Round Two

Here we go then, time for another look at the EuroBAMS Euro 2012 fantasy league. You can see the results of round one here.

As of the end of the quarter final stages, the league looks like this.

Click the image to make it big. Or squint your eyes to read tiny writing.

Once again, Birdhead's Stephen Donkin is sitting pretty at the top of the league. There was one brief wobble for him though, with him losing top spot briefly during round two to Fresh Air's Christian Illingworth. Christian is still breathing down Stephen's neck, with Catthouse's Claire Thomson catching up quickly too.
Team Aye Tunes has managed to clamber up the table a bit, but is now more points behind first place than I was at the end of the previous round when languishing at sixth in the table.

An impressive second round performance from Robbi Pinkerton rocketed him from 16th to 8th, while a relatively poor turn from Chris Cope's Crusaders saw him go in the opposite direction, falling from a comfortable top five place place to 12th.

There's still a lot of points to play for, but with a reduced number of players to choose from things can get tricky at this point. The small player pool means that many of us will have very similar squads in the closing stages, making gaining an advantage over our rivals rather difficult. It can be done though, as evidenced from the World Cup league two years ago, which went right to the wire, with Dear Scotland overtaking The Tidal Wave of Indifference at just about the last possible moment to take the title.

Dear Scotland will have their work cut out to retain their title this time round, but who knows what drama lurks ahead? Come back at the end of the week for one more update after the semi finals have been concluded, and we'll see who has the bit between their teeth ahead of Sunday's final.

Rick Redbeard / Adam Stafford Split 7"

The men behind Gerry Loves Records have a knack for getting money out of me. Despite having a barely function record or cassette player, they've managed to get me to buy everything they've released so far, all on those formats. With their latest split single they've got my hand in my pocket looking for a fiver again.

Rick Redbeard, who you may know better from The Phantom Band, takes on his side of the vinyl with Now We're Dancing. It's quite gentle, fragile and really rather pretty. Rick's deep, warm voice is a bit like the aural equivalent of a very welcome hug.

Adam Stafford takes the other side of the single, with Vanishing Tanks. Filled with his now trademark loops of guitar and vocals, with beatboxing thrown in. Add in a storming vocal on top, and a killer hook, and you've got one of the best pop songs I've heard all year. It's hardly a secret round these parts that I'm in love with Adam's stuff, this is just another reminder why, and I'll keep mentioning it until everyone listens to me.

To celebrate the launch of the single there's a few gigs on this week:
Thursday 21st June - Henry's, Edinburgh - Adam Stafford / Rick Redbeard, support from Wounded Knee Tickets
Friday 22nd June - Captain's Rest, Glasgow - Rick Redbeard / Adam Stafford, support from Yusuf Azak. Tickets
Saturday 23rd June - Cellar 35, Aberdeen - Rick Redbeard / Adam Stafford, support from Debutant. Tickets

The single is available to buy here now. The 7" comes with a free download, which includes an extra song from each artist.



More Information: Rick Redbeard - Adam Stafford - Gerry Loves Records

#EuroBAMS - Round One

Two years ago we ran a wee fantasy league for the World Cup. It was quite fun, so we're having one again for the European Championships.

With the end of the group stages yesterday and the next round starting tomorrow, now is as good a time as any to check in on how the league looks.

Click to make bigger, or move closer to your screen.

Some people have signed up, picked a team, and left it alone. Others, like myself, have been unable to resist tinkering, making full use of substitutions and transfers. With half the countries taking part now knocked out, this is the point where team changes are vital, or else you'll end up scoring no more points because all your Danish guys aren't playing again.

Competition has been feisty thus far, with the top reaches of the table changing drastically from game to game. Well, with one exception. Unless it happened on a rare occasion that I didn't check the standings that day, Birdhead's Stephen Donkin has led from day one.

With most teams just a good, or bad, performance from a key player away from each other, there's still all to play for. I'll check back in after the quarter finals have been completed, and we'll see how things stand then.

33.33 - Done

There we go, I'm 33 now.
That means I can end the posting spree, and have a wee break. Next task will be to catch up on all the stuff I ignored over the past month...

Anyway, to bring this fun and exhausting experiment to a close, three songs with a vague relation to today.

Eels - Sixteen Tons
Dark Star - I Am The Sun
Smashing Pumpkins - Thirty-Three

33.32 - Everything But...

This sink measures 33 by 27 by 7 inches.

The kitchen sink.

I could do this for another month and still barely scratch the surface of stuff I want to post. I won't though. Instead I'm going to throw a big ole pile of songs at you. All of this is stuff I love, and most of it is stuff I'd never get a chance to blog about normally.

Just press play.

AC Acoustics - I Messiah, Am Jailer
Arab Strap - I Saw You
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine - Let's Get Tattoos
The Delgados - Pull the Wires From the Wall
David Holmes - Don't Die Just Yet
DJ Shadow - High Noon
Eels - Dog Faced Boy
Elliott Smith - Bottle Up and Explode!
Ghostface Killah - All That I Got Is You
Guided By Voices - Game of Pricks
Jason & The Scorchers - Lost Highway
Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around
Jurassic 5 - Concrete Schoolyard
KRS One - Rappaz R. N. Dainja
Lambchop - The Man Who Loved Beer
Leonard Cohen - Don't Go Home With Your Hard-On
Longpigs - She Said
Martha Wainwright - Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole
Money Mark - Hand In Your Head
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Into My Arms
Pavement - Stereo
Pulp - This Is Hardcore
Rocket From The Crypt - Used
Sebadoh - Flame
Sixto Rodriguez - Sugar Man
Glenn Danzig and the Power and Fury Orchestra - You and Me (Less Than Zero)
The Auteurs - Unsolved Child Murder
The Pogues - Rainy Night In Soho
The Wedding Present - Brassneck
Therapy? - Church of Noise
Tindersticks - El Diablo En El Ojo
Warren Zevon - Carmelita
Y'All Is Fantasy Island - With Handclaps

Believe it or not, this is an edited down version of the post...

33.31 - Wild At Heart(s)

Ginger Rogers in Professional Sweetheart, released 1933.
The effort I still put in to these things...

I've never much cared for calling a band or artist under rated. It quite often comes attached to a rather snobby tone, along the lines of "oh, this band are wonderful, people just don't get it, but I do" with an implied bit of  "look how underground and brilliant I am". Some bands just aren't widely known, for whatever reason, the fact they aren't famous doesn't reflect on how well they are rated. None of which has any real bearing on today's post, I'm mainly waffling. I do however think that today's featured artist is and are (it'll get complicated in a minute) arguably under appreciated.

Ginger is pretty much one of my favourite songwriters ever. He's also one of the most prolific I can think of, whether with The Wildhearts, one of his many side projects, or as a solo artist, the number of songs in his back catalogue is frankly ridiculous. Even more so when there's nothing amongst hundreds of songs he's written that I can think of as a bad one.

Breathe easy, I'm not going to do a full album by album run down this time. I'd have to have started writing that last June to have any hope of getting it finished in time. Consider this instead an edited highlights package instead.

We'll start with The Wildhearts. Seven studio albums of all new material, one more of cover version. Two b-sides compilations containing almost all new songs too, with a couple of cover versions on there. You can see why I'm staying the Hell away from trying to cover every album here, and we've not even gotten to the solo and side projects yet.

The odd thing is that I didn't even care for The Wildhearts much for quite some time. I picked up a couple of singles and enjoyed them fine, bought P.H.U.Q. when it came out and enjoyed it, but still wasn't really a big fan. A couple of friends were much bigger fans than I was, and got me to go to see them a couple of times, gigs I mainly went to because I liked the support band. Eventually, something clicked in my head, along the lines of "you like the songs, you enjoy going to see them, why on Earth do you still consider them a band you don't like?". For once my brain presented me with a not unreasonable question, and I changed my ways. Since then I've eagerly awaited new releases, went back and caught old ones I'd passed over and if there was a Glasgow gig to go to, I've been at it. I do find the later albums a bit more interesting than the earlier ones though...

Let's have a couple of Wildhearts songs then, shall we?
The Wildhearts - 29x The Pain (Suckerpunch B-Side)
The Wildhearts - Sky Chaser High (Sick of Drugs B-Side)
The Wildhearts - Slaughtered Authors (from The Wildhearts)
The Wildhearts - You Took the Sunshine from New York (from ¡Chutzpah!)

Over the years The Wildhearts have gone on hiatus a fair few times, and are on another indefinite one again at the moment. This gives Ginger plenty of time to play around with other things, and his solo stuff, or stuff with other band members, is usually very interesting, and varies a lot in style.
Including Silver Ginger 5, because leaving them out would just be daft, over the years Ginger has clocked up four solo albums, one of those a double one. Add in a couple of live albums, a singles compilation, and the country and western alter-ego album, plus contributions to Clam Abuse and Super$hit 666, and we're into a very large number of songs penned by Ginger.
Most recently, with The Wildhearts being on hiatus Ginger has taken on the Ginger Wildheart name, playing gigs with friends that mix Wildhearts songs with ones from other projects.
Also, he used Pledge Music to fund a new Ginger Wildheart album, with pledgers getting a 30 song triple album, which has been trimmed down to a single for general release. The triple album is named 555%, the number that his pledge campaign was halted at, raising a quarter of a million dollars. Of the 30 songs on 555% not one sounds like filler.
100% is out soon, and I'm going to steer clear of posting any songs from that or 555%.

Silver Ginger 5 - Walk Like a Mother Fucker (from Black Leather Mojo)
Ginger - Not Bitter, Just a Little Disappointed (from A Break In The Weather)
Ginger - The Drunken Lord of Everything (from Valor Del Corazon)
Ginger - Jake (from Yoni)
Ginger - You and Me (That's What I Want) (from Market Harbour)
Howling Willie Cunt - Caffeine Bomb (from World of Filth)

Keep up on all things Wildhearts at the website, and Ginger at his website.

33.30 - She Wears Denim Wherever She Goes

I told/warned you I'd get back round to Teenage Fanclub before this was all done.

Formed at the tail end of the 80s and hailing from Bellshill, Teenage Fanclub are one of my favourite bands. The core of Norman Blake, Raymond McGinley and Gerard Love have been backed on drums over the years by Francis MacDonald, Brendan O’Hare, Paul Quinn and currently Francis MacDonald again on drums. I'm mostly going to be talking about one particular album here, but with a little bit about the rest.

The finest moment on Teenage Fanclub's debut album, A Catholic Education, is magnificent Everything Flows, but there's a version of that song that appeared a few years later that I prefer, so we'll get back to that. A Catholic Education is a more abrasive affair than you'd expect if you're only familiar with later Teenage Fanclub songs. The harmonies and melodies that I instantly associate with The Fannies are in there, but generally surrounded by a harsher, grungier sound than we'd get on later releases.
Teenage Fanclub - Critical Mass

Follow up album The King was recorded after their first album, but released before it. Shambolic, messy and rough sounding, the band put this down to the influence of producer Don Fleming, who would encourage improvisation. The King is pretty much miles away from every other Teenage Fanclub album, but a lot of fun, especially the pair of cover versions it contains.
Teenage Fanclub - Mudhoney

Bandwagonesque tends to be the most critically aclaimed of the Teenage Fanclub albums, and is where the trademark melodies and harmonies really come to the front. Dialing back, but not losing entirely - Satan is far from a chirpy pop song, the grunge sound for something more akin to The Byrds and, particularly, Big Star, Bandwagonesque is pretty excellent, but it's not my favourite.
Teenage Fanclub - The Concept

Thirteen shares it's name with a Big Star song, and the Alex Chilton influence shows throughout. A fine album, but still not my favourite.
Teenage Fanclub - 120 Minutes

Remember that time Teenage Fanclub collaborated with De La Soul for a song on a film soundtrack? This question is usually answered in one of two ways, either with "of course, it's brilliant" or with a wary look and "are you quite sure you didn't just dream that up?". I did not dream it up, and it is brilliant. Fallin' comes from the soundtrack to Judgment Night.
Teenage Fanclub & De La Soul - Fallin'

Grand Prix was released in 1995, which was a good time for me. As I've mentioned before, it was around that time that I was really developing my own tastes in music (which admittedly wasn't always great), albeit still holding onto the best of the influences passed on to me by my older siblings.
Being the youngest of six children has definite advantages if they have good taste - my oldest two brothers were at the right age to be into punk back in the late 70's, the next eldest brother was a student for Madchester and so on. Of course along the way you subconsciously learn to ignore one of the brother's liking Genesis, or your oldest sister just having no taste, that kind of thing. Generally it was a good base to work from though. Those same influences meant that when Grand Prix was released I was no stranger to Teenage Fanclub, but was too young up till then to have paid a lot of attention. The first time hearing Mellow Doubt was enough to revive pleasant memories of past albums, then along came Sparky's Dream which sealed the deal, cementing a life long love of the Boys From Bellshill. Grand Prix then was the first Teenage Fanclub album I bought for myself, but far from the last. There is a multitude of fantastic pop songs on Grand Prix. It was also a breath of fresh air at the time, miles away from the rest of Creation's output, where every other band were Oasis, wanted to be Oasis or were, well, The Jesus & Mary Chain...
If you hadn't twigged yet, Grand Prix is my favourite Teenage Fanclub album, to the point where I'm struggling to pick just one song from the album to post. Instead, singles. It was common practice through the late 90s and 2000s to release two CD singles, with different b-sides. Often these would end up padded out with lousy remixes, but not with Teenage Fanclub, where you'd always get unreleased material, new songs or covers. For the singles from Grand Prix there was even a different version of the A-side on the second single, so it's these alternate versions I'm going with.
Teenage Fanclub - Mellow Doubt (Alternative Version)
Teenage Fanclub - Sparky's Dream (Alternative Version)
Teenage Fanclub - Neil Jung (Alternative Version)

Not long after Grand Prix and the singles from the album came a little curiosity, a four track EP called Teenage Fanclub Have Lost It. Containing a new acoustic version of a song from A Catholic Education, Bandwagonesque, Thirteen and Grand Prix, recorded in a living room. It's a crying shame that this EP is long out of print, if I had my way copies of it would be issued in schools. Anyway, that version of Everything Flows that I prefer to the album version I mentioned earlier? It comes from Teenage Fanclub Have Lost It.
Teenage Fanclub - Everything Flows

Since I've mentioned Alex Chilton a couple of times as an influence on the band this seems as good a place as any to drop this in. In 1996 The Fannies played as Chilton's backing band for a couple of gigs in Glasgow. Cue taped-off-the-radio bootleg!
Alex Chilton with Teenage Fanclub - Dark End of the Street

The opening four songs of Songs from Northern Britain are excellent. The rest isn't half bad either. By now you know what to expect, you get it, and you are happy.
Teenage Fanclub - Your Love is the Place Where I Come From

I really don't have a lot to say about 2000's Howdy!, 2005's Man Made or the most recent album, 2010's Shadows other than that they are still consistently really good. Rather than me awkwardly trying to find new ways to say "yup, still good" we'll leave it there then, shall we?

If, after all that, you still can't work out a good place to start with Teenage Fanclub, you can't really go wrong with the collection Four Thousand Seven Hundred And Sixty-Six Seconds - A Short Cut To Teenage Fanclub, but if you skip over to Amazon you can get Grand Prix & Songs from Northern Britain in a nice wee cheap bundle here.

I'll sign off with a trio of b-sides. The first is a Teenage Fanclub original from the B-side of Mellow Doubt, the second a cover from the Ain't That Enough of, who else? Big Star, then finally, a cover of the Pixies from the I Need Direction single.
Teenage Fanclub - Some People Try To Fuck With You
Teenage Fanclub - Jesus Christ
Teenage Fanclub - Here Comes Your Man

Keep up with Teenage Fanclub over on their website.

33.29 - Search With Care

You are getting a very generic header image because earlier today, clearly not having thought things through very well, I typed the name of today's band into Google image search. I need new eyes now. With that in mind, and since it is getting late in the day with no blog post published, I'm going to rattle through this quickly.

Prolapse came from Leicester, but had a member named "Scottish" Mick, along with "Geordie" Mick on bass. Unlike Tiny Tim, or anyone who as ever called themselves "mad", this wasn't an ironic nickname. The second "Scottish" Mick Derrick opens his mouth it is obvious the name isn't a joke.

I'd rather forgotten about Prolapse for a while, mainly due to having lost all the albums of theirs that I had years ago. Round about the end of last year a song on a compilation popped up on shuffle and jogged my memory.

Prolapse - Move To Limit Slabs (Demo Version)

Handily at the time I had some eMusic credits that had to be used up led to me buying debut album Pointless Walks To Dismal Places again to see if I still liked it. I did, a shopping spree followed, and a bit of a period of obsession has continued since.

The contrast between Mick's gruff tones and Prolapse's other vocalist Linda Steelyard's icy delivery is different and infectious. Sometimes it sounds like a mismatched couple arguing up the back of the bus, but much less uncomfortable. On Tina This is Matthew Stone that's pretty much exactly how the song turns out, to a point where it reaches quite an uncomfortable ending.

Prolapse - Tina This is Matthew Stone

I haven't replaced my copy of second album backsaturday. Note to self, buy a copy of backsaturday.

Did you know I dislike bagpipes? There's only a handful of songs I can think of that have bagpipes on that don't mostly make me want to stab the piper. Shoutalong single Deanshanger from third album The Italian Flag if one of the ones that doesn't make me want to hurt a piper.

Prolapse - Deanshanger

Oddly enough Deanshanger's lyrics rip into the 1980s, mentioning a Royal Wedding and a papal visit. Everything comes around again soon enough, eh?

A mixture of shoegaze, punk and Krautrock, there's a fair chance you'll find Prolapse either brilliant or as unpleasant as, well, your anus falling out. I'm in the former camp, obviously.