Month: May 2009

30 Days Till I’m 30

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Eep. Where’d my youth go?

Anyways, for the next 30 days - almost certainly not on a daily basis, at least not till I’ve gotten round to finishing the A-Z - I’ll randomly be dabbling in self indulgent nonsense, with songs that I like attached. No theme, no convoluted rules or regulations, just some things I’ve liked in the last 30 years. There’s going to be a bunch of non Scots in there too.

First off is Come Out 2nite by the ever wonderful Kenickie.
Pretty much two minutes of sheer pop perfection, which also happens to boast some of the best handclaps ever committed to vinyl.

Come Out 2nite

Also works well slowed down and stripped down.

Peel Session version.

Mitchell Museum

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Mitchell Museum are a four piece from Glasgow, and are quite excellent.
Following an earlier sold out run on vinyl, they are re-releasing their debut single Warning Bells on the 14th of May, available on CD & Download, with a new B-side Novels and Dairies. You should buy it, I will be.

There’s a launch gig on Thursday at The Captain’s Rest, where the band will be playing along with Sparrow and the Workshop, who also have a single out this week.

In the interests of full disclosure I’ll go ahead and mention I’m coming at the band with a bit of bias. They are after all managed by my cousin. That doesn’t mean they aren’t good though, quite the opposite, they are very good. Consider how rare it is for me to every actually put thought in to one of my infrequent posts, then look at this one, I’m obviously not knocking this one out out of family ties!

There’s all sorts of fun stuff going on in the single. I’m never too fond of comparing bands to other ones, but sometimes it provides a handy reference point, so here goes. There’s a good bit of Super Furry Animals, Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev and Grandaddy in there, so if any of them are up your street, give Mitchell Museum a go, won’t you?

If I’ve got the embedding right there should be a video of the band performing Warning Bells below.
Also, as a bonus and because I’m not posting any MP3s of the single so you’ll all go buy it instead, here’s one of their other songs, Extra Lives, which appeared on the Doing It For The Kids compilation last year.

Extra Lives

To hear more and get full tour dates and so on, visit the band’s website or MySpace.

Beepfest Cancelled

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Due to various reasons beyond our control, Beepfest has unfortunately been cancelled.

We hope to organise another event in a similar vein further down the line, and will keep you posted on the progress.

In the meantime, refunds can be obtained from point of purchase.

TV21 Album Launch

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Scotland-based post-punk new wave band TV21 will shortly be releasing their second album, a mere 28 years after their first one. To celebrate, there’s a launch party in the Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh on the 24th of May. As well as a set from TV21 Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit and Adam Thompson of We Were Promised Jetpacks will be playing acoustic sets.

Tickets cost a fiver plus booking fee and you can get them from Tickets Scotland.

Sadly there’s next to no chance of me getting to it, it’s on the wrong side of the country for me for one thing, but it looks like a good night.

For more info on TV21, the album and the gig you can visit their website or MySpace.

Swift Hinterland Thoughts

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I only managed one night, Friday. Even though my pass was free I’m still short enough on cash that two nights in Glasgow was stretching it. Damn my continuing joblessness.
Anyway, never saw a lot, but here’s what I caught.

Fangs @ Stereo. Whoa, been a Long time since I was in a single figure crowd to see a band. I’ve always been told that if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all, so I’ll just go ahead and move on quickly.

Eugene McGuinness @ Stereo. Staying where I was seemed a simple option, besides, I like Eugene. He can be a bit hit and miss, but he was good on Friday.

Sons & Daughters @ The Arches. Caught a tiny bit of the band before - Slow Club - but not enough to comment on really. Seemed quite good, and The Pop Cop liked them though. Sons & Daughters are always entertaining, though I’m thinking that I should probably take a break from seeing them for a while, ideally till they’ve got some new material. I find myself standing next to a huge speaker, this may not be such a god idea. Still good, but starting to suffer from me seeing them too much. Not their fault, to be fair. That was followed by a quick dash round the corner for…

Broken Records @ The Classic Grand. Missed the start. Jamie Sutherland has lost his voice. I’m entirely deaf in one ear due to the previous next-to-speaker incident. This combination means that Broken Records are merely alright. I don’t have the same degree of love for the band that most other bloggers seem to I’m affraid. I like them just fine, but not as much as everyone else does, and this gig hasn’t really changed anything for me on that score. I’ll try seeing them again sometime soon and keep an open mind for now.

Next comes an option of hanging around for an hour, deaf and almost skint, to see We Were Promised Jetpacks, or get myself home now. Ever tried to get from Glasgow to the arse end of Paisley in the middle of the night? I have, it’s not easy. With that in mind, it’s the train home for me.

Weekend Off

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I’ve got very limited PC access this weekend, so I doubt I’ll get a chance to post anything.

Normal service will be resumed on Monday. Maybe by then I’ll be able to hear again too. Standing next to a speaker last night seemed such a good idea at the time.