Month: August 2010

COMPETITION - Win tickets to Kochka, Blue Sky Archives, Campfires in Winter and Jonathan Sebastian Knight

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There’s a rather good looking gig on next week featuring a handful of bands that we at Aye Tunes are rather fond of.

The gig takes place at The 13th Note on the 9th of September, that’s a week on Thursday as I write this.
Gracing the stage are Kochka (whose Dacha/Summer House EP was reviewed and enjoyed lots here way back last November) Blue Sky Archives (who were also reviewed and enjoyed more recently) Campfires in Winter (who we liked enough to get to play the debut Aye Tunes Vs Peenko gig) and Jonathan Sebastian Knight.

It’s all put on by onewordPResents, a joint venture by the chaps behind Define Pop promotions/radio and Scottish music blog/jeggings enthusiast The Daily Dose, and they have rather kindly given me a pair of tickets to give away.
To enter simply send an email to [email protected] with Kochka in the subject or message. That’s all, dead easy eh?
Competition closes at 6pm on September 8th, then I’ll draw a winner for the tickets at random.
Thanks everyone that entered, the competition is now closed and the winner will be informed by email shortly.
Good Luck!

This Week’s Gigs: 30th August - 5th Spetember

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Sunday. Gig Guide. Blah. You know the deal by now. As usual there’s a fair old amount on this week, so on we go.

Monday:
The Year of Open Doors - Burnt Island, Adrian Crowley, King Creosote. Highland Park Spiegletent (tickets)
Launch night for The Year of Open Doors audiobook, available now from Chemikal Underground. For more details on The Year of Open Doors go read the post I wrote a few days ago. The previously secret performer has been announced, as King Creosote joins the line up.
Shambles Miller & others. Pivo Pivo. Free.

Tuesday:
Miaoux Miaoux, Fox Gut Daata & “Special Guest”. Captain’s Rest, £5.
Launch gig for the gorgeous new Miaoux Miaoux single, Knitted, which will be available to buy on CD in lovely limited hand knitted sleeves. I’m quoted on the gig poster, so you know it’ll be good (go ahead and imagine a winking emoticon there if you want) I have my suspicions who the special guest is, but I’m probably not allowed to say. If it is who I think it is he was rather good at the gig I was at on Saturday though. (Update: I was right with my guess, Adam Stafford is your mystery guest,and I’m allowed to say so now.)

Scragfight, The Cemetery Girls, The Plimptons. 13th Note.

Wednesday:
Enchantment Under The Sea - The Belle Hops, The Power Cut Choir and YOU. Bloc, free.
YOU? What? Over to the blurb about the gig - “In between bands: Teen Heart Throb Open Mic: YOU sing songs from the repertoire of history’s teen heart throbs. From Buddy Holly to Boyzone, from the Shangri-Las to the Spice Girls, it’s up to you! And we’ll give you sweeties as a reward!”

Thursday:
The Winter Tradition, Little Yellow Ukuleles, Galleries. Captain’s Rest.
The band formerly known as The Void launch their new single, with support from a couple of Aye Tunes favourites. For a chance to win tickets visit our blog buddy Favourite Son.

Amy Duncan. Roxy Art House, Edinburgh.
Launch gig for Amy’s new album, Potential-Space.

Friday:
The Hardy Boys, The Recovery Club. Pivo Pivo.

Another launch gig, this time for a new EP from The Hardy Boys.
Beerjacket, Panda Su. Oran Mor. £6.
Rescheduled from June, a Beerjacket gig gets an automatic recommendation round here. As an added bonus Panda Su is brilliant too.
Gorman, Revelry Thieves. The Vale, £8.

Saturday:
Zola Jesus, Conquering Animal Sound, Midnight Lion. Captain’s Rest. £7.

Zola Jesus were one of the artists that said they’d be playing at Indian Summer, but since that isn’t happening you can find her in The Captain’s Rest instead, along with locals supports, one of whom Aye Tunes loves, and the other one we really don’t. No prizes for matching names to descriptions.
Second Hand Marching Band, eagleowl, Benni Hemm Hemm. The Tunnels, Aberdeen. £6 advance.
Three smashing bands, and to entice the people of Aberdeen along there’s a free download of them all available here. I’ve mangled that sentence completely, the download is of the bands, not of all the people of Aberdeen.

The Winter Tradition, LightGuides, Your Neighbour The Liar. Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh. £5.

Edinburgh leg of the Firelight single launch, and again you have a chance of winning tickets from Favourite Son.

Sunday:
Zola Jesus, Conquering Animal Sound, Dead Boy Robotics. Roxy Art House, Edinburgh.
Lucky Edinburgh get two good support bands.
Words Per Minute - WPM4. Creation Studios, 3.30pm, £3.

This month’s line up for Words Per Minutes is an almost all female affair. Joining hosts Kirsten and Anneliese are Zorras, Sian Bevan, Kirsty Logan, Kirsty Neary and and Arches Live showcase with Skye Loneragan and Georgina Porteous. The regular DJ set from Miaoux Miaoux is all that keeps the line up from being all female. As usual get along early.

Gig Submissions:

Just a reminder, there’s now a dedicated email to send gig details to. The gig guide takes a surprisingly long time to put together every week and involves me trawling through venue websites, band websites, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc. To try and make my life a wee bit easier, if you have something you want included send an email to [email protected] including at least the date, the venue and the bands playing (along with a link to their website, MySpace or whatever). If you can tell me how much it’ll cost to get in that’s good too.

Review: Carnivores/Pacific Theatre - Split Single

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I don’t know, you spend half your time complaining there’s nothing decent in Paisley then two bands come at you at once. Carnivores and Pacific Theatre have both been around for a while now, steadily making names for themselves from regular gigging, now they have teamed up to release a split single together. Both bands hail from Paisley, and both have three members, but there the similarities end.

Carnivores contribute Five Go Mad On Mescaline, a vicious warning about abusing ketamine. It is a ferocious little number, all snarls and shouts, distorted guitars and pounding guitars, that rattles along at a fair old pace, like a three and a half minute adrenaline rush. Lurking amongst the noise is an excellent song too, with hooks and melodies forcing themselves to the forefront, demanding attention and worming their way into your head. If the title’s nod to The Comic Strip didn’t give it away already then the lyrics confirm that Carnivores have no shortage of wit about them either. Five Go Mad on Mescaline isn’t terribly subtle, but it is fun and thrilling, and a far better use of your money than dodgy horse tranquilizers.
Pacific Theatre‘s half of the split single, Was There Distance? is much more restrained in comparison, providing a nice bit of variety. Pacific Theatre aim more for the anthemic, and Was There Distance? certainly comes close, while happily avoiding clichés or sounding too much like the band’s influnces. Certain other bands ploughing the same furrows would kill for a song as catchy as Was There Distance? and certainly for its harmony laden sing along chorus. Lovely stuff.
Carnivores: MySpace
Pacific Theatre: MySpace
Five Go Mad On Mescaline/Was There Distance is released on September 20th on CD and download. There is a launch gig on Speterber 23rd at Bloc, with special guests Penguins Kill Polar Bears. Entry is free, so get down early!

Carnivores

The Year of Open Doors

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The Year of Open Doors is a collection of short stories, edited by Rodge Glass and published by Cargo Publishing. If the name of the book sounds familiar that might be down to regular mentions of launch events in the weekly gig guide, usually followed by a promise of me doing a full post on it later.

I have a strange definition of later.
I’ve finally finished reading the book, but rather than carry on promising that post and failing to get it done, this will be a bit of a bare bones run down of The Year of Open Doors.
If it seems a bit odd that I’m posting about a book on what is generally a music blog, then firstly shut up, I can post what I like and a bit of culture won’t hurt you. Secondly, there’s a fair bit of crossover involved between the book and the music World.
Editor Rodge Glass is also the frontman in Burnt Island - who we really like around here - and other contributors include Doug Johnstone, a member of Fence Collective band Northern Alliance, Kevin MacNeil, who has recorded music with Willie Campbell of Astrid and The Reindeer Section as well as delivering the opening monologue on the open track of the debut album by There Will Be Fireworks. Then there’s Aidan Moffat, who is, well, Aidan Moffat.

There’s a couple of other familiar names to Aye Tunes readers on the list of contributors too, in the shape of Kirsten Innes and Anneliese Mackintosh, the minds behind Words Per Minute.
Anyway, back to the book itself. The Year of Open Doors collects new short stories from some of the best writer in Scotland, though not necessarily Scottish. Some of those writers are familiar, some are brand new, but refreshingly everyone gets the same treatment, there’s no star billing or any of that nonsense going on. The mixture of races, nationality and gender of the contributors is nice to see too. More importantly than all of that, The Year of Open Doors is a cracking read too. Cargo are a fairly new publisher who have aimed high with this collection, to me at least they’ve hit the target too. Reward their enthusiasm and ambition by picking up the book!
There’s one more musical crossover too, as Cargo Publishing have teamed up with Chemikal Underground to release an audiobook version, you can buy that here.
The audiobook is available now and there’s a launch night for it on Monday, also the closing night of Unbound at the Edinburgh Book Festival. Performing on the night are Burnt Island, Adrian Crowley and a currently Top Secret musical mystery guess (it isn’t Cher, or Rod Stewart, but beyond that I have no idea) as well as readings from a few of the authors of The Year of Open Doors. That all takes place Highland Park Spiegletent on August 30th, from 7 - 11pm, pick up tickets here.
Links: Cargo Publishing - Rodge Glass - Chemikal Underground
The Year of Open Doors is available from bookshops, funnily enough. It is also available online direct from Cargo, or from Amazon in hardback, or for the Kindle.

Retreat!

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This weekend in Edinburgh there’s a very swanky wee two day event on, which I highly advise checking out if you can.

Tickets for Saturday are sold out already, day tickets for Sunday are almost gone and there aren’t an awful lot of weekend tickets left either, so pick yours up in advance. You can get them here: Weekend - Saturday SOLD OUT - Sunday
Below is pretty much all the info you’ll need, but if you want any more you can find Retreat! on MySpace and Facebook too.
As a bonus there’s a sampler album featuring pretty much all of the bands playing available to download for FREE here.

Pilrig St Paul’s Church, Edinburgh
August 28-29 2010, 2.30pm-11pm.
GBP 7 (day); GBP 12 (weekend pass).
Venerable DIY gig-putteronners Tracer Trails and The Gentle Invasion are thrilled to announce the third edition of Retreat!, a micro-festival celebrating Edinburgh’s contribution to the international pop underground.
Following on from previous years which have seen the festival occupy spaces in St John’s Church and the Bristo Hall, this year’s Retreat! will be a two-day event taking place in Pilrig St Paul’s Church Hall, on the boundary between Edinburgh and the City of Leith.
Retreat! was founded in 2008 to create space for Edinburgh acts amid the bustle of the festivals, and has evolved into a riotous A.G.M. for the capital’s independent pop scene.
In its inaugural year Retreat! encompassed nine events over three weeks; in 2009 it took the form of a giant celebratory all-dayer as part of the Forest Fringe. Retreat! 2010 is different again, a lost weekend when Edinburgh’s first XVI will perform in a deranged gala-day environment in which anything might happen and some things probably will.
Hosted by the incomparable Owen Curtis Williams (The Pineapple Chunks / drummer-about-town), and with stage design by Tessa Lynch, the only common thread in this vibrant melange is the organisers’ overwhelming respect for each act’s inimitable contribution to the international pop underground.
Retreat! stands for: -
• cheap cheap tickets
• all-ages admission
• the most extravagant staging and costumery no money can buy
• film screenings, record stalls, book stalls, and food!
This year Retreat! is supported by the Scottish Arts Council Young Scot Action Fund.

Line Up:

Saturday 28th August
2.30pm-11pm

eagleowl
7VWWVW
Wounded Knee
Skeleton Bob
FOUND
Jesus h. Foxx
Withered Hand
Enfant Bastard

Sunday 29th August
2.30pm-11pm

Benni Hemm Hemm
Conquering Animal Sound
The Wee Rogue
The Douglas Firs
Milk
Meursault
The Leg

This Week’s Gigs: 23rd - 29th August

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Sunday afternoon, time for me to lose several hours of my day to scouring social networks to find out what gigs are on this week as usual.
It’s a bit of a lopsided week this week, every bugger in Glasgow seems to have decided to put a gig on on Friday.
To make life a bit simpler for me there’s a new email address you can send gig details to if you want them included in the weekly guide, I’ll stick the details in at the end.
Tuesday:
Foxgang Presents: Festival Special. Bristo Hall, above The Forest Cafe, Edinburgh. Free.
Foxgang take matters in to their own hands by putting on a special little gig. As well as Foxgang themselves playing live are French Wives, Washington Irving, White Heath, Fiction Faction and Sebastian Dangerfield. All for free. Even better, there’s a compilation album featuring a track from each band available, courtesy of the Kowalskiy blog, here.
Wednesday:
A Band Called Quinn, May68, Epic26. King Tut’s.
I’m sure there’s more numbers in that line up than is really needed. A Band Called Quinn are really, really good though.
Thursday:
Sonny Marvello, Ace City Racers. Captain’s Rest.
The Lava Experiments, Shutter. The 13th Note
The Red Show. Pivo Pivo.
Friday:
Ah Friday, you swine. This is an insane amount of gigs to have on in the one night.
No Dancing: Adam Stafford, RM Hubbert, Deathpodal, PAWS. Stereo.
This one looks excellent, so much so I gave it a preview of its very own previously. You can find that here, it has songs to listen to and stuff.
Pin Up Nights - Helicon, How Garbo Died & More TBA. The Flying Duck.
In addition to the two bands announced there’ll be others, and all the usual Pin Ups DJs and hijinx. There’s a free download of Helicon’s 2009 EP Take The Ride available here at the moment too.
We Are Jawbone, The Underdog Theory. Classic Grand
Mix Up Mayhem 3: Pooch, Nevada Base, Any Color Black. Creation Studios. £5 (BYOB)
If I can somehow split myself in half I’ll be along to this as well as No Dancing, as it too should be excellent. Three cracking bands, who will play their own songs, a cover of each other’s songs and another cover too. If the last one is anything to go buy Creation Studios also gets to around the same heat as the Sun. You need to bring your own booze, but you might get free sweets.
Sons & Daughters, She’S HiT. Captain’s Rest.
It has been quite a while since I’ve seen Sons & Daughters, but I’m already committed to being elsewhere, so it’ll need to be even longer before I see them. S&D’s Scott Patterson will be pulling double duty on the night, as he is also in She’S HiT, who have a new single out at the start of October. More on that single a bit later.
Call Me Ishmael, Sondura, Hercules Mandarin, The Scruffs. King Tut’s.
Saturday:
Retreat! Pilrig St Paul’s Church Hall, Leith Walk.Pilrig Street, Edinburgh.
Taking place over Saturday & Sunday, I’ll be going in to a wee bit more detail on this during the week. You can find out pretty much everything you need to know on the website, and pick up a free sampler of some of the bands playing here.
Kitty The Lion, Tango in the Attic, more TBA. Stereo. £5
Sunday:
Mogwai, Moon Unit. Stereo. £10.
Pretty much announced just as I’m writing the gig guide, tickets are available here and from Monorail from Monday. Don’t expect any to be available on the door. Proceeds from the gig go to Lanarkshire Cancer Trust, and to aid flood victims in Pakistan.
Fiona Soe Pang, Hidden Orchestra. Roxy Art House, Edinburgh.
Live music, film and probably some other stuff too. More details on this flyer.
Her Name Is Calla, Analogue of the Sun, Laura Carswell. Captain’s Rest.
Gig Submissions:
As mentioned at the start, there’s now a dedicated email to send gig details to. The gig guide takes a surprisingly long time to put together every week and involves me trawling through venue websites, band websites, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc. To try and make my life a wee bit easier, if you have something you want included send an email to [email protected] including at least the date, the venue and the bands playing (along with a link to their website, MySpace or whatever). If you can tell me how much it’ll cost to get in that’s good too.

Round Up Reviews #4

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The point of Round Up Reviews is to cover stuff I don’t have a chance to give a bigger write up to - or have enough to say about - but still want to give a mention to. Singles, the odd demo track and the like all get lumped into one post rather than slip through the cracks.
It has been a little over a month since the last one of these, and I’ve picked up a ton of stuff to get through in that time. History suggests I’ll call lots of things “gorgeous”, I should really get hold of a thesaurus.

Dems - Lioness
This was meant to be in the last batch of reviews, but I forgot, as I’m an eejit. Dems previously got a nod in Round Up Reviews #2, where I loved his previous release Jarndyce Vs Jarndyce. Since then he’s moved back to London from Edinburgh, but so long as quality works keeps coming out Dems are always welcome on Aye Tunes. Make no mistake, this is quality work. Inspired in part by Big Cat Week on the BBC, this is just gorgeous. Lush production that manages to have all sorts of interesting things going on without being overwhelming or busy and downright beautiful vocals. Lioness is one of those songs that perks me up instantly if I’m a wee bit miserable. I’ve played this song to death over the past month and a bit and I’m nowhere near tired of it yet, nor will I be any time soon.
Lioness is available as a free download from Bandcamp.
Trapped Mice - Secret Letters
Once again something I’ve been meaning to mention for ages. I’m really not the best at staying on top of things, but I digress. Trapped Mice are fairly new Edinburgh band - they just played their first gig a little over a week ago - who make lo-fi folk tinged music. They happen to make it very well too. There’s a few songs available, of which Secret Letters is my pick of the bunch, but the rest are well worth investigating too. Secret Letters starts off fairly gently before building to a glorious crescendo by the end. Pretty much a lovely wee song, check it out.
Secret Letters is available as a free download here.
Beldina O - By Candlelight II
Beldina O is another artist that’s popped up in these before, with her song Chariots featured last time. Since then a few songs have made their way on to Beldina’s Bandcamp page, including this one, which I didn’t have last time round. By Candlelight is another cracking wee song. Sparse and stripped back the song is carried by a fairly simple bit of organ and a luscious vocal. Distinctive and enchanting, this is really lovely.
By Candlelight II - and a few other songs - can be downloaded free from Bandcamp.
Aaron Wright - Go On Yerself
A cheery wee upbeat folky pop song, I’d be lying if I thought this was particularly fresh or innovative, but it is fun, and Aaron’s charisma gives things a bit of kick. Perfectly pleasant throughout, with a whole lot of charm. Also - a bit of a brass breakdown in the middle, and handclaps, two things that’ll almost always get me to enjoy a song. Fun stuff, and it made me smile.
Help yourself to a free download of Go On Yerself here.
Boygirlanimalcolour - Batman Forever
Boygirlanimalcolour released an EP - Let’s Get Forgotten - ages ago and I don’t think I ever got round to mentioning it like I meant to, so I’m picking a song at random to write about before I forget again. Batman Forever is a bit like the film, it is loud, messy at times and pretty chaotic. Unlike the film there’s a balance with (slightly) more restrained moments to save things from being a complete assault on the senses, and the end result ends up being a highly effective little sugar rush of punky powerpop, before everything breaks down into cowbell driven insanity at the end. Brilliant, unlike the film.
Let’s Get Forgotten is available to download free here.
Lovers Turn To Monsters - Batman Forever
Kyle Wood from BGAC also has his own long running - and terrifyingly prolific - solo thing going on under the name of Lovers Turn To Monsters which I don’t mention nearly enough. Recently Kyle wrote and recorded and EP - The Pain and the Ghosts - in the space of three hours. For good measure he threw in a cover of Batman Forever so for a laugh let’s compare his solo acoustic version to BGAC’s. The song works pretty well stripped down to it’s bear bones actually. The sense of fun of the song is replaced my a more delicate and mournful feeling, but is just as enjoyable in its completely different form.
The Pain and the Ghosts is available to download free here. While you are there get loads more Lovers Turn To Monsters stuff, it is very good.
Come on Gang! - Fortune Favours The Brave
Come on Gang! make music that is impossible to stay still through. Upcoming single Fortune Favours The Brave doesn’t disappoint on that score. Fast, frantic and catchy as f*ck, Fortune favours The Brave is everything pop music should be. The song grabs you from the off and doesn’t let go for three minutes forty five seconds, which if you don’t smile and at least bob your head about a bit during then you probably have no soul and don’t find pleasure in anything. Just be careful, last time I saw Come on Gang! live I witness a man dance so hard he ripped his own trousers. If that isn’t a recommendation I don’t know what is.
Fortune Favours The Brave is released on September 10th, with a launch gig at The Caves is Edinburgh on the same night.

Don’t be surprised to see Round Up Reviews #5 by the end of the week, there’s still a pile of stuff I’ve not touched that I need to come back to, not to mention umpteen things awaiting full reviews. If you have something you’d like included don’t hesitate to get in touch.

This Week’s Gigs: 16th - 23rd August

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It is Sunday afternoon, so it is time once again to have a look around and see what is on this week.
All Week:
Haarfest.
Taking place all week in Anstruther is Fence’s latest festival type thing, Haarfest.
From Monday to Thursday there’s live music from 8pm in the Hew Scott Hall, then on Friday and Saturday the action switches to Cellardyke Town Hall.
Monday:
The Social Services, Open Swimmer, Bear Bones. Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh
Tuesday:
Withered Hand, The Last Battle. Electric Circus, Edinburgh. £6.
Thursday:
The Social Services, Open Swimmer, Bear Bones. Nice ‘n’ Sleazy.
The Scottish Enlightenment, Martin John Henry, Debutant, Dan Lyth. Henry’s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh.
Penguins Kill Polar Bears, Make Sparks. Captain’s Rest. £4
Run/Lucky/Free, Philadelphia Grand Jury, Majestic Dandelion. King Tut’s. £7.
Friday:

The Hugh Reed Explosion, The Girobabies. The Pandora, Victoria Road. Free.

Juan Pablo, Kerrie Lynch, Julia and the Doogans, So Many Animal Calls. 13th Note. £5.
Quite an eclectic line up, with a good selection of bands we like round here. Should be fun.
How To Swim, Sunset Song, Andrea Marini. Captain’s Rest.
Black International & others. Henry’s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh. £5.
Saturday:
Sonic Soak: Govanhill Baths.
Not often you get a gig in a swimming pool. This two day event (it continues on Sunday) rectifies that by having gigs in a swimming pool. Visit Facebook for the full line up and ticket details.
The Ghosties. O2 Academy
Sunday:
Rock ‘n’ Roll Damnation: Pareto, .scores, 3 Times Over. King Tut’s. £5 (Buy from Pareto for £3)
Unbound: The Year of Open Doors. Highland Park SpiegelTent, Edinburgh.
Our pals from the literary World have another wee event to celebrate the release of The Year Of Open Doors. To find out more about the book, and to buy a copy, visit Cargo Publishing.

Lions No Longer Chasing Tigers

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Just a week after announcing a couple of gigs Lions.Chase.Tigers have announced that these gigs will, sadly, be their last.

They write:
It is with great sadness and some relief that we must announce our upcoming shows in Glasgow and Aberdeen as our last.
After much discussion we feel this is as good a time as ever to draw a line under Lions.Chase.Tigers.
We’d like to thank everyone for their continuous support and guidance throughout our 3 years as a band; it has always been greatly appreciated.
Our great friends have already said it better than we ever could, so we’ll leave you with this:
‘This is our last dance, this is goodnight and goodbye’.
Bless.
Dave, Fraser, Iain, Seoridh

Tickets for tomorrow’s Glasgow gig are available here. Next week the final Lions.Chase.Tigers gig will take place in The Tunnels in Aberdeen, on Saturday.
We were always very fond of Lions.Chase.Tigers here at Aye Tunes, they were one of the first bands I caught regularly when I started getting back out to gigs more regularly last year and always gave their all on stage whenever I saw them. I’m sad to see them go, and wish them the best of luck in whatever the members do next.
Lions.Chase.Tigers Website