Month: July 2010

The Pin Ups Festival

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So, scheduling posts for my “week off” didn’t work out quite as well as planned, so this is a slightly later than planned plug. At least I managed to remember before it has happened though.

Tomorrow night, Friday the 30th, sees the return of the Pin Ups Festival, and evening of fun, frolics, live bands and good music.
Playing live on the night are a host of ace bands.
There’s Campfires In Winter, fresh of a tour of flats this week for the launch of their new EP, who are of course no strangers to the festival experience, having the Campfires In Winter Festival from earlier this year under their belts already. Oh, wait, that was Aye Tunes Vs Peenko I. Thanks Huw Stephens…
Futuristic Retro Champions play too, before launching a new single of their own next week. You can find out more about that and get tickets for the launch gig on Bandcamp.
Sonny Marvello can also be found on the P-Break stage. Hey, why not snag a free track from them while you can?
Mitchell Museum round out the bill of live music. They too played Aye Tunes Vs Peenko back in April, but since then have clocked up plenty of miles playing some real festivals, such as T in the Park and Latitude. You may have noticed, but I rather like Mitchell Museum.
You can read a Q&A with all four bands here.
On the DJ front joining the regular PinUps DJs are guests Scott Paterson, Remember Remember, The Fabulous Craig Brothers and Craig McGee.
In addition to all that, don’t forget that Pin Ups is all about the FUN too. be sure to check out the Wham! tent, for all your Wham needs, the mysterious Peeling Field and more. Just don’t expect any Un Cadaver sightings.
Advance tickets are £4 from Tickets Scotland or the Pin Ups Website, or you can pay £5 on the door, with the action kicking off around 9pm.

Sing-A-Long With SHMB

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The first day of my “holiday” and I’m already having to come back for a post, oh well…
Anyway, for those of you heading down to The 13th Note on Thursday to see The Second Hand Marching Band, RM Hubbert and Sarah Banjo, here is something of interest. Or, if you were thinking of going, here’s something that might swing it.
All three of the performers will be coming together to record a special song on the night, and they want your help.
What you have to do is a) write a verse for a song, bring it along and sing it OR b) learn the chorus and sing that OR c) bring an instrument and play in the chorus.
In return for your efforts you’ll get a special limited edition CD in the post a few days later with a recording of the song, and your name in the inlay.
All the details, including chords for the songs, can be found here.

Downtime

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It’ll barely make a difference, considering that some weeks aren’t exactly overflowing with posts, but I’m making my excuses in advance for once.

I’m getting close to the point where things are starting to pile up and threaten to drive me a bit nuts again, so I’m having a blog holiday. If all goes to plan I’ll have gotten enough done before now that there might be a couple of scheduled posts appearing, but don’t count on it. If anything time sensitive pops up then I’ll deal with that too. Taking a week without having to think about blogging should let me get caught up on a few things, but even if not it’ll preserve my sanity a bit.
I’m not going anywhere (unfortunately, I’d love to go somewhere, but I’m skint), so you’ll still find me on Twitter, plus I’ll be in King Tut’s on both Monday and Thursday, plus there’s a good chance I’ll be around Waterstones on Tuesday for the launch of The Year Of Open Doors, so I’m pretty easy to track down.
Now you see why I want a holiday!

This Week’s Gigs 26th July - 1st August

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Another week, another bajillion good gigs. Also a couple of events which aren’t really gigs, but will still be good.

Monday:
Admiral Fallow, Three Blind Wolves, Olympic Swimmers, The Social Services. King Tut’s.
Summer Nights ends on Friday, but until then Tuts are still determined to have a fair chuck of my money. Admiral Fallow’s debut album is already a strong contender for best of the year, and The Social Services tick many of my boxes. Olympic Swimmers are none too shabby either. Good deal all round then. If you hurry cheap tickets are available from The Social Services.
Tuesday:
Dum Dum Girls, Jesus H. Foxx and My Tiny Robots. Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh.
I tend to leave Edinburgh off the gig guide a bit, mainly because I don’t know as much about what is on over there, but this is one of a couple this week worth a look.
The Year of Open Doors book launch. Waterstones, Sauchiehall Street. 6.30pm.
Much more was meant to have been written round here about The Year of Open Doors by now, but since I’ve failed miserably at getting that done the least I can do is plug the launch of the book. On the evening there will be performances by Aidan Moffat, Jason Donald and Kirsten Innes. There’s an audiobook coming out on Chemikal Underground too! More on this, er, eventually.
Tango In The Attic, Bwani Junction, Be Like Pablo, Night Noise Team. King Tut’s.
Another tasty looking Summer Nights gig. My liver and bank balance say I’m not allowed to go.

Thursday:
Toro Y Moi, Point To C, theapplesofenergy. Captain’s Rest.
Second Hand Marching Band, RM Hubbert, Sarah Banjo. The 13th Note.
Pals of the blog Hubby and SHMB are both always well worth seeing, and if nothing else it’ll be fun watching all of the Second Hand Marching Band squished on to the wee stage at The Note.
French Wives, Washington Irving, The Seventeenth Century, Rachel Sermanni. King Tut’s.
Tuts make one more assault on my organs with a line up that is hard to turn down.
Friday:
Trapped In Kansas, Yahweh. Nice N Sleazy.
Launch gig for the latest Gerry Loves Records split single, featuring two bands we really like round here.
Pinups Nights Festival. The Flying Duck.
It is the last Friday of the month, so it is PinUps time. As usual there’s an excellent selection of bands playing, followed by indie disco fun till the wee hours. Playing live are Sonny Marvello, Futuristic Retro Champions, and Aye Tunes Vs Peenko alumni Campfires In Winter and Mitchell Museum.
Pacific Theatre, Carnivores, Dilectrics, White Leaf. SOHO, Paisley.
No one ever does gigs in Paisley, mainly because there’s pretty much nowhere to do one, so when someone makes the effort, they get a plug here. Pacific Theatre and Carnivores are decent bands too.
Saturday:
We Sink Ships Present: Elements. Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh.
Our favourite art/photography/podcast people We Sink Ships have a special event in Edinburgh on Friday. Featuring a screening of the short film Elements, along with live sets from eagleowland Conquering Animal Sound, tickets are available here and include a free download.
Miss The Occupier, Performance, Paws. King Tuts.
Summer Nights might finish on Friday, but there’s still plenty happening at King Tuts.

Endor, Randolph’s Leap, Cherri Phosphate. Nice n Sleazy.
I keep missing Endor, so I’ll see if I can still walk by Saturday and try and get along to this one. If you don’t know how much I like Randolph’s Leap by now you clearly haven’t been paying attention.

Rock The Boat. Loch Lomond.
Taking place from 12pm till 2am on the Maid of the Loch on the shores of Loch Lomond, this all day event (and again on Sunday) features live bands, DJs and a host of other entertainment. For full details visit the Facebook page.
Sunday:
WPM 4. Creation Studios, 3.30pm.
Much like the last Friday of the month means PinUps, the first Sunday means Words Per Minute. Words Per Minute this month has a Year Of Open Doors theme, with all the performers, including regular hosts Kirsten and Anneliese, contributing to the book. Expect the usual high quality, and get down early to grab a seat.

Album Review: Mammoeth - Nascent

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Mammoeth, once known as Team Turnip, is mostly multi-instrumentalist Russell Kostulin. Given that I can barely get a “ting” out of a triangle I’m always filled with a mixture of awe and disgust at people like Russell who can seemingly turn their hand to anything, but I’ll try to keep my bitterness in check.

I’d mentioned Nascent a wee while ago when I talked about opening track Lapdog in a Round Up Review and promised a full review nearer time of release. Since the album comes out on Monday and there’s a couple of launch gigs at the weekend it is time I got round to keeping that promise.
On the surface Nascent is an album of mostly upbeat summery pop music, with a few more gentle songs mixed in, and if listened to just on that basis it would do its job very well indeed. There’s a bright and breezy feel to much of the album, at times echoing Super Furry Animals at their poppiest and upbeat. There’s even handclaps and whistling!
Pay a bit more attention to the lyrics on the album and it becomes clear that the sweet melodies and jaunty tunes are masking a darker side. Tales of war, car crashes and stalkers unfold, frequently over songs that should be far too happy sounding for the less than cheery subject matter. There’s a certain playfulness and wit to the lyrics that means that even thought the music and subject matter at had should be at odds both mesh together very nicely.
Disengage your brain and Nascent is a lovely little summer pop album, pay a bit more attention and you’ll find that, as fun as summer pop is, there’s a lot more going on. Either way it is a debut album well worth a listen.

Mammoeth: Website




Nascent is released on July 26th and can be ordered on Bandcamp.
There’s two album launch gigs this weekend, First on Saturday at The Wee Red Bar in Edinburgh, then on Sunday at The Classic Grand in Glasgow. Support on both nights comes from Randolph’s Leap, with Georgina Seddon and Sunset Song also on the bill for Sunday.

Housekeeping

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As you might have noticed I’ve been messing around with the layout of the blog again.

What do you think? So far reaction has been a mixture of positive, confused and being told it looks like a St Johnstone forum, anything else to add to the list?
Everything seems to display fine on my screen, using Chrome, but since many of you will be using a different browser and presumably none of you are using my screen let me know if anything looks weird or doesn’t display right.
The old layout accidentally resulted it me breaking the site search, and screwing up comments. I think both of those are fixed now, if not then leave me a comment telling me so. Wait, that won’t work…
You might also notice that I still can’t design a half decent site logo, there’s no need to make fun of me, I know already.
Ok, that’s all, you can go back to what you were doing now. Well, except you, for Heavens sake don’t you know that’ll make you blind?

This Week’s Gigs 19th - 25th July

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Before I get on to the gig guide, a huge thank you to everyone that came along to The 13th Note last night, everyone that helped us get the word out through a blog post, a tweet, or by carving messages in the oldest cliff face in the World, and of course to our three fantastic bands. Our first act was a hard act to follow, but I think we just about got away with it.

Now, what’s on this week? The King Tut’s Summer Nights gigs dominate evenings in Glasgow this week, but there’s a few other things going on too.
Monday:
The Boy Who Trapped The Sun, Lou Hickey, Crow Road, Bear Bones. King Tut’s.
The first of this week’s Summer Nights gig is quite a tempting one. Were I not skint till Tuesday I’d be heading along to this, but alas I am poor.
Tuesday:
Second Hand Marching Band, Julia and the Doogans, Martin James & Associates, Kitty The Lion. King Tut’s.
Tut’s again provides a cracking gig for Tuesday. I’m not familiar with Martin James, but he is from Paisley, so he is OK by me. Everyone else is well worth catching, and I’m long overdue seeing Kitty the Lion. For discount tickets hit up Julia and the Doogans or SHMB.
Wednesday:
Here Is Where 2: Wounded Knee & 7VWWVW. CCA.
Wounded Knee and 7VWWVW (pronounced Mammal, turn it upside down) combine to perform a specially composed score to the best bits of Weir’s Way. Now there’s a sentence I don’t get to type often. More details on Facebook.
Dave Hughes, Gecko. 13th Note.
Trembling Bells, Hidden Masters. Stereo
Thursday:
Friday:
The Ideal Crash, St Deluxe (acoustic), Lewis Wilson. Captain’s Rest.
Little Yellow Ukuleles, The Void. Bloc. Free.
AvP co-stars the Yooks play a freebie, along with The Void. Chances of someone drowning in a sea of Balkan = high.
Saturday:
Astral Planes, Galleries, Cancel The Astronauts, Casino Brag. King Tut’s.
Looks like I’m spending a significant amount of time in Tut’s this week then? Astral Planes and Cancel The Astronauts are two bands that we like a lot round here, yet I’ve never managed to catch live before. About time I sorted that out. Contact Cancel the Astronauts for super cheap tickets and they’ll throw in a free download of their new EP!
Sunday:
Mammoeth, Randolph’s Leap. Classic Grand.
Launch gig for the Mammoeth debut album, Nascent, with support from AvPII co-stars Randolph’s Leap you say? Sold, I say. My wallet and liver might hate me by the end of the week.

Aye Tunes Vs Peenko II - The Final Plug

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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

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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

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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