Month: January 2010

This Week’s Thing

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After a few dead weeks there’s actually some records out this week worth checking out.

Lava Experiments release Piecing Memories Together (Remixes). As the name suggests, it’s a remix EP, with Dan le Sac, Betamax Warriors and Pumajaw remixing Piecing Memories Together. A Lava Experiments radio edit is also included, and the CD will have the full length original version - previously found on the Blackbody II EP - rounding out the package. You can order a CD direct from the band here and find it on all the usual download shops.
There’s also a launch gig on Friday the 29th in The 13th Note in Glasgow. Support comes from Glider and Laki Mera. Looks like a good one, I might need to kick the backside out of my budget to get along.

Super Adventure Club have a new single scheduled for next week, and a launch gig to go with it, but have snuck the single out a week early over here. It’s rather good.

Galleries release their self-titled debut EP. The band were kind enough to send me a copy way back at the start of December, which got all caught up in Christmas and New Year lazyness, so still hasn’t been reviewed. It’s a grower, and as a bonus it’s also free. You can download it over here.

Also releasing their debut single are The Dirty Cuts. Titled 2 Page Spread it is released by our pals at 17 Seconds Records, you should be able to find it at the usual download places. You can also download the b-side - Lips - for free over at the 17 Seconds site.

Errors have a new single - A Rumour In Africa - out today on Rock Action. Their second album is pretty highly anticipated round here. The single is available as a download and a pretty coloured 7″. (EDIT: No they don’t, the single is out on February 22nd, I got the wrong date.)

The Seventeenth Century might release the Notes EP today. The Skinny says it is out today, but there’s no mention of a release date or purchase details on the band’s website, so I’ll need to check this one out and edit here as applicable.

Panda Su‘s Sticks and Bricks EP isn’t really new, but it just went up on eMusic today, giving you the perfect chance to check it out of you haven’t picked up a CD yet.

Finally, at the risk of derailing Peenko‘s Friday Freebies this week, I’d like to draw your attention to the newly relaunched Too Many Fireworks record label, which is giving away a free sampler in return for signing up to their mailing list.

There’s an absolute ton of gigs on this week too. The one I’m most looking forward to takes place on Sunday under the Celtic Connections banner, the Chemikal Underground 15th birthday bash.
As well as making me feel really old - a young Jim was at their 5th birthday gig - there’s a briliant selection of bands playing. On the bill are Zoey Van Goey, Adrian Crowley, Lord Cut Glass, Emma Pollock, the first ever live show by ex-Aereogrammers Craig B and Iain Cook as The Unwinding Hours, a performance by Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells and The Phantom Band headlining. It should be a bit special. Moe info and tickets here.

Oh, and just a reminder there’s a couple of days left to get your votes in for the Scotblogs Awards, voting for me would be brilliant.

Spaghetti Anywhere EP Review

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One of the brilliant things about writing Aye Tunes is that every now and then I get sent something from nowhere, from a band I’m completely unaware of, that I completely fall in love with. This is one of those times.

Spaghetti Anywhere are Francis Cullen and Valerio Cerini, London based housemates. I think Valerio hails from Rome, while one listen to vocalist Francis betrays him away as a Scot. A longer listen shows that the Scottish influence is one that runs through the band. Rather than be seduced by whatever trendy haircuts and musical scene is currently the hip thing in London, Spaghetti Anywhere wouldn’t be out of place on an old C86 compilation tape.

Calling to mind bands like The Pastels, Camera Obscura and Belle and Sebastian can be more of a blessing than a curse - you probably trip over half a dozen Belle and Sebastian copyists any time you walk down a street in Glasgow - but if you can pull it off it can sound delightful. Spaghetti Anywhere do more than just pull it off, they do it magnificently.

Reinforcing those Scottish 80s influences opening track Gregory’s Girl not only lifts the title of John Gordon Sinclair’s finest moment, but also a brief sample from the film. It’s no exercise in nostalgia for the sake of it though, it - like the rest of the EP - is infectious, incredibly catching and as sweet and charming as a very sweet & charming thing. George Clooney perhaps. I’ve embedded Gregory’s Girl below for the moment so you can have a wee listen for yourself.

Living in London plays into the band’s songs too, most particularly on Love Again, where the casual references fit naturally into the lyrics, rather than feeling shoehorned in.

If you like your indie-pop get your ears round this, one of the best debuts I’ve heard in ages, there’s not a bad song in the four. Being London based has kept Spaghetti Anywhere off my radar before now, but now they are on it I just might be in love with them. None of the EP tracks are on the band’s MySpace so far, but don’t let that stop you dropping by and listening to what they do have up.

All in the Spaghetti Anywhere EP is an unexpected delight, and well worth the 13 minutes of your time it’ll take to listen to. Just don’t blame me for all the additional time you lose on listening again, and again, and again…

The EP is released on February 22nd on Toy Soldiers Records. It’ll be available as a digital download and 10″ vinyl. You should be able to order it from either the band or label websites below.

Blah Blah Blah

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Between one thing and another I’ve not been posting as much as I’d like.
While I work on writing up something proper, here’s a wee bit of filler.

Got myself down to The 13th Note last night for the Glasgow PodcART gig. The Seventeenth Century and French Wives were both on the bill, and both very good, as expected. I’ve gone from not having seen The Seventeenth Century in months to having seen them twice in a couple of weeks now. As if that’s not enough, I’m off to see them again on Thursday when they play The Mill with the always excellent There Will Be Fireworks.

I didn’t make it very far into the year before I broke my gig a week resolution, as last week was a failure. There were plenty gigs on too, I just never got to any of them. I’m pulling double duty this week and next though, so that evens up the missed week.

You wouldn’t believe how much of a fight my computer puts up when I try to do, well, anything. I swear the thing has a vendetta against me. This has made listening to any music I’ve got recently quite a task, which goes some way to explaining the lack of reviews of late. Instead an inordinate amount of time has been spent getting shot to death by children on Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox Live. My life is so exciting! I might end up taking a crowbar to to the thing, but I’ll find a way to write up some reviews over the next week or so, because I’ve been sent some excellent things recently.

So, what about you, been to any good gigs recently, got anything fun lined up? Any bands out there that I might not have heard worth checking out?

While I’m here, Mitchell Museum have put out an odd wee promo video, which you can watch below.

Louise McVey & Cracks in the Concrete - EP Review

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It’s really about time to try catching up on reviews while there’s not much new coming out, so here’s one I’ve been trying to get round to for the best part of a month.

Considering that by now I put Louise McVey & Cracks in the Concrete in my Tips for 2010 it should come as very little surprise that I really enjoyed this EP, but before I’d heard it I’d been really looking forward to it, hoping and praying it wouldn’t disappoint, that the one time I’d seen the band live hadn’t just been a flash in the pan. In fact, so eager was I to get my hands on it that I signed up with Juno Download just because they had it earlier than anyone else.
Needless to say, my anticipation wasn’t wasted, and my hopes not for nothing.

The four songs on the EP have a similar undercurrent of menace and impending doom, yet enough variety to keep things interesting and show there’s more than one trick up the bands sleeve.

From the opening assault of Ode, all spikey guitars and piano, and a refrain that oddly puts me in mind of something from a DJ Shadow or UNKLE album more than anything, to the more gentle sounding Love Lost Tales, on to the unsettling ghost stories of Night, ending with the downbeat and most Twin Peaks of the selection Maud all four songs are driping with atmosphere, musical menace and storytelling lyrics.

Cracks in the Concrete perform a perfectly formed backdrop, while Louise McVey’s ice cold vocals guide the listener through like a siren leading you on to the rocks. Excellent stuff, now to impatiently wait for a follow up album…

Fans of the likes of The Birthday Party and The Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey, Angelo Badalamenti, and just anyone with a taste for something a little different could do a whole lot worse than seek this release out.

Louise McVey & Cracks in the Concrete’s selft titled EP is out now on Optimo Music, available as a download from all the usual places. A 10″ vinyl release will follow in late January.

MySpace

Louise McVey & Cracks in the Concrete - Louise McVey & Cracks In the Concrete

Ten Tips for 2010

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I’m later doing this than I really intended. Shaking off the post festive season “can’t be bothered” feeling is still taking it’s toll, so I’d better just get on with it.

I’m splitting this into two halfs, The Ones You Know are bands that have been around for a bit, and ones I’ve covered a bit previously. The Ones You Might Not are, as the name suggests, ones that aren’t quite so familiar, and I’ve generally not covered them much so far.
Ideally I’ll expand on this a bit later, but for now here’s the list and a wee bit of rambling.

The Ones You Know
Kid Canaveral - If you don’t know Kid Canaveral by now then you are really missing out. Already with a string of great single under their belt, an album is nearing completion. Unless something goes horribly wrong their track record suggests that’s an album I’m going to enjoy.
Mitchell Museum - I do carry a bit of bias towards Mitchell Museum, since they are managed by my cousin. That aside though, they are a cracking band. A couple of impressive singles last year will be followed by an album soon. Again, that’s one I’m looking forward to quite a lot.
Trapped In Kansas - I’ve taken stick for liking Trapped In Kansas before, but will that stop me enjoying them and writing about them? Of course not. Whether you like them or not, I do. I there’s plans for an EP and hopefully an album this year.
Julia and The Doogans - Great songs, gorgeous voice, cracking band. That’s more than enough for me.
The Kays Lavelle - Another band with an album almost ready for release, another album I’m eagerly awaiting.

The Ones You Might Not
We’re Only Afraid of NYC - Sometimes you get one of those happy accidents when you go to see one band and the support act you’d never heard of before really catches your attention too. I managed to see them a few times last year and am eagerly awaiting their upcoming EP.
Louise McVey and Cracks in the Concrete - Another happy accident, as I knew next to nothing about them before catching them play at a Glasgow Podcart Live Session, but I was very impressed that night. Their recently released debut EP bodes well for the future.
Make Sparks - There’s already a significant buzz around Make Sparks on the strength of their recent Rewind EP (which I still need to review, and will soon) and regular live shows. More recording and heaps of live shows are scheduled for the start of this year, try and get along to a gig, I will be.
Macabre Scene - First time I saw this band live I liked them, and could see a load of potential in them. Next time I saw them was only a few weeks later, but they’d already improved a ton. If they can keep that up it shouldn’t be long before that potential is lived up to.
Esperi - I’ve written a fair bit about esperi here over the last couple of months, live shows are consistently impressive, and so are the recordings. I believe work has started on an album, I really can’t wait to hear it.

Honourable Mentions
There’s far more than ten bands worth watching this year. In no particular order, and no doubt missing loads out, mentions have to go to Lava Experiments, Kochka, Yahweh, Campfires In Winter, Zoobizaretta, French Wives, The Seventeenth Century, Mickey 9s, The Whisky Works, The Darien Venture, Bronto Skylift, Little Yellow Ukuleles, and so many many more.

Frightened Rabbit Announce New Single

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Frightened Rabbit precede their 3rd full length studio album, ‘The Winter Of Mixed Drinks’ with a brand new single ‘Nothing Like You’ on February 22nd, backed with another new song, ‘Learned Your Name’.
Furiously upbeat, ‘Nothing Like You’ s acoustic bustle is reminescent of The Cure classic, ‘Inbetween Days’ and mines the most uptempo aspects of Scott Hutchison’s songwriting. The new album follows on 1st March.


Frightened Rabbit’s steady ascent is set to rise incrementally with the release of the new album, appetite for which has been whetted by the anthemic ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’ teaser single which gave the band their first Zane Lowe plays and made a unaminous critcal impression at NME, Q (Track Of The Day), News Of The World (SotW), Record Of The Day (Track Of The Week), CMU Daily (Track Of The Day).

More tellingly they registered strongly in the albums of the decade polls everywhere from the blogs to NME and The Skinny

‘Nothing Like You’ typifies a more fully realised Frightened Rabbit sound, and like ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’ boasts a stunning string arrangment from labelmate, Hauschka. Speaking to nme.com about the new album, lead singer Scott Hutchison explained ‘We’ve broadened our horizons sonically and it feels like a natural move forward. Most importantly, it’s better than the last one. That’s all I wanted, really.”
Frightened Rabbit ended 2009 playing to huge crowds at Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebration and 2010 will be a pivotal year for the band, as Scott acknowledges: “I’ve never been in a position of being aware of an audience of any size that was waiting for our music until now. You have to be aware of it or else it’s totally selfish. Pressure sounds like a negative thing but it’s quite positive actually. It feels earned. Everything we have achieved has been earned. It would be disappointing if we didn’t become more popular because that’s got to be the goal for every new record. If it comes I think we are actually ready for it now.’

The March headline dates run as follows, tickets available via www.crowdsurge.com/frightenedrabbit



04/03/10 York Duchess
05/03/10 Manchester Club Academy
06/03/10 Aldershot West End Centre
08/03/10 Bristol Thekla
09/03/10 Oxford Academy 2
10/03/10 London Koko
12/03/10 Birmingham Academy 2
13/03/10 Sheffield Leadmill 2
14/03/10 Norwich Arts Centre

I don’t think I’m going out on too much of a limb to presume that there’s Scottish dates to follow those.
You can have a wee listen to Nothing Like You (formerly known to some of you as Steve) now over at the Frightened Rabbit MySpace.
The single will be available as a 7″ and download from Fat Cat.

What’s Happening on Aye Tunes in 2010?

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It’s that time of the year when we move on from lists of stuff that was good last year to lists of stuff we won’t do this year. I’m crap at giving things up (I’m typing this with a ciggie in my hand and a half drunk bottle of beer on my desk, so those two clearly aren’t happening), so instead my only real resolution for 2010 is to find myself a job, since being out of work really puts a dent in your ability to buy things.

Anyway, here’s what you can expect from the blog over the coming year.

Asides from Christmas week I managed to get myself along to at least one gig a week for the last five months of 2009 - and since the first couple of weeks of December had me at two gigs a week I think I’m allowed that one week off - despite being regularly skint. I’m planning on keeping that rate up as far as possible, so you regular gig goers can probably expect to see a lot of the wee ginger guy lurking around various venues in Glasgow over the course of the year. On thing I’d like to do is get over to Edinburgh more often, it’s been ages since I got to a gig over there. That needs money though, so it’ll have to be something quite spectacular to get me through at the moment I think.
Aye Tunes is a year and a half old this week. Only I’m not counting that whole first year, since it wasn’t until a full year after launching I actually did anything of note round here. So in June we’ll be celebrating the first birthday of Aye Tunes properly. There might even be a party or something.
At some point soon I’ll try and do some kind of 10 tips for 2010 list, along with the rest of the music bloggers on the planet. It’ll likely be quite familiar, as I think most of the ones I think are worth watching are bands that came to my attention in the last half of 2009 and have already had a wee bit of coverage here.
Record and gig reviews are likely to continue, and I do have a desire to add interviews into the mix too. Any volunteers?
I’ve fallen away from doing band profiles a bit, so I’ll try and get more of those done this year too.
For better or worse I’m still going to try and focus on positives not negatives, so still no reviews slating things, unless I can be constructive about it. I will try and stop calling albums I like brilliant though, and attempt to balanced.
Thanks a lot to everyone that has visited over the past year. My stats show that most of you started coming round in September and October, I’m glad you got here and hope you keep coming back.
Oh, I did think of one resolution - keep up with my email. If you sent me something in December especially it pretty much hit my inbox and go stuck there. Feel free to give me a reminder if I’ve missed something.
Rambling over, for now.

We Sink Ships Radio Launch Gig

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Still trying to drag myself out of the Christmas and New Year slump with regards to getting back to regular postings at the moment, bear with me.

Until I force myself to write something more, here’s a plug for the gig I’m heading to on Friday.
The line up is The Second Hand Marching Band, Benni Hemm Hemm and Euan McMeeken (of The Kays Lavelle, but promising to play non-Kays material). Also beneath us, the waves DJing. If you click the poster above it should be more readable, but if you can’t be bothered then the gig is at The 13th Note on Friday, kicks off at 9pm, and costs £4 to get in.

The gig is to celebrate the launch of the new We Sink Ships podcast on Radio Magnetic. The first podcast should be available some time today update, it’s available now here, but in the meantime you can hear a teaser for it here. Head over to Radio Magnetic for full details on what you can expect from WSS Radio.
While on the subject of We Sink Ships I should really point out that their new (and quite gorgeous looking) website is now online at http://www.wesinkships.co.uk/, with two new exhibitions available for viewing.
I’m risking turning into a Second Hand Marching Band stalker, I’ve seen them quite a lot recently, but since they have been threatening to take a break from gigging for a while I may as well pack in as many as I can before they take a time out from playing live. Benni Hemm Hemm impressed me quite a bit last time round, and I’m interested to see what Euan gets up to on his own. See you at the bar then?