Month: November 2010

Spotlight: Mondegreen

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Time for another interview.
Having stalked Mondegreen online ever since they were The Covergirls and seen them more than a few times I figured it was finally time to sneak out from the bushes outside their homes and ask them a few questions. Sadly none of them answered “Can I come out, it is freezing in that bush” in the affirmative. Singer & guitarist Matthew was good enough to answer other questions too though, with Allan lending a hand.

Who are Mondegreen?

A three-headed beast with Allan on bass

Fraser on drums

and me (Matthew) on guitar.

What do you sound like?
The short answer is: three guys trying to make the most of a cowbell, a root note and a fuzz pedal.
The longer answer is: Stephen Malkmus trying to cover Pet Sounds with John Densmore on drums and Kim Deal on bass.

How did you all get together, and what made you stay together?
We’re a test-tube band, cobbled together from wanted ad respondees. Fraser and I were in a band called The Covergirls and we had an opportunity to record at Chem19 with the Scottish Arts Council. We were short of a bass player and Allan fitted in real fast. By this point I was the only original member of The Covergirls left, and some folk suggested we change the name. I suggested Mondegreen and I think it’s finally grown on us a bit.

A mondegreen is, usually at least, a misheard song lyric, do you have a favourite one?
“Even the greatest arse/Live their lives in the looking glass”. That’s Kraftwerk of course. One of my friends pointed out a mondegreen in one of our songs: “You draw paintings on smelly faeces”. It’s actually “You draw paintings and smiley faces”.
Allan: Myself and Matt went to see Blue Sky Archives in Bloc the other night and I thought their last song had the lyrics “we’re right wing to the core” repeated as the outro. I’m guessing that was a mondegreen at least!

The Headless EP was recorded at Chem19, how did that come about, and how was it recording there?
I emailed Chemikal Underground to ask if they’d record and release our concept album about a guy with no head, not expecting a reply. I think they admired my boldness, and they fitted us in on their Arts Council demo fund.
We had two days there with Jamie Savage and the result was an abbreviated version of the initial Headless album idea, so we had a friend draw up some artwork, and we punt it around as an EP. (Jim: which you can download here, and listen to down the bottom)

Chemikal Underground’s Stewart Henderson recently said he has “a real soft spot” for the band, so presumably you behaved yourself while in Chem19 at least.
I know, we saw that, and it was very nice of him. We have a lot of fun in this band but we also work very hard, so it’s cool to hear people saying nice things about what we’re doing. I’ll always remember our visit there because it was right at the beginning of that freezing snowy winter, and I thought we were going to get snowed in at Chem19.

Since we are getting alarmingly close to the end of the year let’s go all “year in review” style and ask what, if anything, have been highlights for the band this year?

I think the highlight for us was the road trip to Aberdeen in the summer. It was our first and only gig outside Glasgow, and we played at Cellar 35 with Min Diesel and Pensioner. Fraser’s car clapped out somewhere near Brechin, and we got a flat tyre not long after. We had a great night and a great show, and some of us had to sleep in the car outside the venue, but it was definitely the highlight of the year.
Allan: Not forgetting that Fraser actually used his cowbell to bash the tire iron when changing the wheel!

Any moments you’d rather forget about?
Really racking my brains here but I can’t think of anything that’s gone monstrously wrong. The year is not out yet though…

What other bands around at the moment would you recommend?
ULTIMATE THRUSH!
Allan: Quite partial to Fat Goth from Dundee and Min Diesel from Aberdeen. And Ultimate Thrush obviously.

What bands would you avoid like the plague?
We saw this one guy playing 13th Note one night. He had a guitar and a couple of loop pedals and he just made noise for half an hour. I don’t have a problem with that but I have tinnitus and I didnae have my ear plugs so I had to be rude and leave.
Allan: I saw a band do an entire 20 minute set where all the did was constantly attempt to tune their guitars. There were no songs, no banter, just tuning for 20 solid minutes. I’m not sure if they did it on purpose or not.

What do you have planned for the next few months?

We’re recording our album with Ross McGowan at Chime Studio, so maybe with another couple of visits we could have it all done, and there’s a gig at Tut’s to look forward to on December 15th. We’re planning to host our own nights starting January 13th in Stereo, if that goes well we’ll attempt it more often. Apart from that, I think we’ll be buttoning up our coats and keeping warm.

Finally, quirky interview questions, fun and harmless, or generally a bit of a waste of time?
Fun and harmless. “It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information” - Oscar Wilde.

Mondegreen: MySpace - Facebook

Aye Tunes Readers’ Poll 2010

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We’ve come to that time of the year where a bunch of people obsess over lists of our favourite things of the year, while other people mock us for our obsessing over said lists.

In addition to putting together my own “Best of” lists I thought it might be fun (it may well not be fun, but let’s see) to ask the people that read my blethering what they think too. That would be you, dear reader.
Quickie rules & regulations type things:
  • Answer or skip whatever questions you want, but if a bunch of people answer one question with the same answer it’ll be pretty obvious ballot stuffing.
  • No ballot stuffing! If it isn’t obvious I probably won’t notice it though.
  • You can choose up to three answers for each question, try and put them in order, 1 being best, 2 second best, blah blah blah.
  • You can vote for bands, albums etc from anywhere, they don’t have to be Scottish.
  • Polls close on December 19th, after that I’ll count up the results.
  • This is meant to be a wee bit of fun, so don’t moan about the results when posted!
  • I won’t keep your name/email address or any other info once the poll is done, unless you tell me to.
My attempt at putting together a fancy voting form failed miserably, so I’m afraid you’ll have to do a wee bit of work. Copy/paste the stuff below and stick it in an email to [email protected] and I’ll do the rest.
Aye Tunes Readers’ Poll 2010

Best Band:
1.
2.
3.
Best Solo Artist:
1.
2.
3.
Best New Band/Solo Artist: (New is very subjective, if you first heard of them this year, that’ll do)
1.
2.
3.
Best Live Band:
1.
2.
3.
Best Album:
1.
2.
3.
Best Single/EP: (Basically anything that isn’t an album)
1.
2.
3.
Best Music Blog/Website: (Aye Tunes isn’t eligible for this. Partly to avoid accusations, partly to stop me seeing how few would have said it anyway)
1.
2.
3.
Best Music Radio Show/Podcast:
1.
2.
3.
Best Venue:
1.
2.
3.
Best Gig: (as in, best one you’ve been at this year, just in case you were confused)
1.
2.
3.
Your Name:
Where You Are From:
That’ll do I think. Feel free to tell your pals about the poll!

This Week’s Gigs: 29th November - 5th December (Take Two)

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This week’s gig guide was a bloody disaster area, so I’ve junked it and done it again. I think I’ve just about fixed everything that was on the wrong day now, or had an incorrect line-up. If anything is still knackered only tell me if you want to make me weep.
Incidentally, why do some gig venues make it flipping impossible for you to find out what gigs are happening there?
You might have noticed, but there’s been some snow. Best check gigs are going ahead before you head off to them.
Monday:
Tuesday:
Pacific Theatre, Energy!. King Tut’s (Tickets)
Songs For Autism. St Andrew’s In The Square.
Special event with Duglas Stewart, The BMX Bandits, AJ Roach and The Porch Song Anthology.
(UPDATE: A victim of the weather, this has been cancelled and will be rescheduled)
Birdhead, The Red Show, Shooting Stansfield. Pivo Pivo.
Wednesday:
Windlestray, We See Lights, Craig Joe Davidson, The Last Battle. The Lot, Edinburgh.
Fun fact, I spent a good five minutes there stuck on Disney websites till I figured out what the Last Battle’s website address is.
Lorraine McCauley And The Borderlands. Coda Music, Edinburgh. 6pm
This is a wee launch night for Lorraine McCauley And The Borderlands debut EP, Haunt Me. If I wasn’t months behind on my reviews I’d have told you already that the EP is very good indeed, but since I am that’s as best as I can do right now. Note the early start, get along for some songs, mince pies and mulled wine.
Aspen Tide, Mechanical Smile, Reykjavik. The 13th Note.
Aspen Tide show off an impressive work ethic by cramming in two gigs in one night, as they are also playing Frankenstein’s in Glasgow. Not sure where they’ll be on first, so keep an eye on the band’s Facebook for details and cheap tickets for the two gigs.
Aspen Tide, The Darien Venture, Ghost Ride The Whip, Kid Fire. Frankenstein Glasgow.
That’ll be the other gig I mentioned above. The Darien Venture are ace too.
(UPDATE: Another one hit by the weather, as The Darien Venture have been forced to pull out)
Supermarionation, Otaku, Lee Patterson. Electric Circus, Edinburgh
Thursday:
Super Adventure Club, PAWS, Hagana, Rollor. 13th Note.
Probably the gig I’m most eager to get to this week. Super Adventure Club and PAWS are both consistently entertaining, but I’ve yet to see Hagana or Rollor.
Porch Song Anthology and Special Guests. Brel.
The Porch Song Anthology play a launch gig for their new single, Christmas Is Cold. You might be able to guess what Thursday’s Christmas song here is then.
Aspen Tide, Carnivores, Kid Fire, Your First Mistake. Frankenstein’s Edinburgh.
Aspen Tide get around again, this time joined by Carnivores, who we like lots.
Cancel The Astronauts, The OK Social Club, The Nature Boys, Underclass and Maydays. the Caves, Edinburgh.
Yahweh, Emily Scott, Union Canal. Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh.
Friday:
Fightened Rabbit, Sky Larkin, Admiral Fallow. Barrowlands.
The first of two sold out Barras shows for Frightened Rabbit. Guess who waiting too long to buy tickets for either? Bah, humbug. Get down early for Admiral Fallow, I insist.
Three Long Words, smallPRINT, The Industry, The Koves. Studio 24, Edinburgh.
Launch gig for Edinburgh youngsters Three Long Words new single.
Gerry Loves Xmas. The Banshee Labrynth, Edinburgh. (Tickets)
Gerry Loves Records are having a Christmas party, with the rather bloody good line-up of The Japanese War Effort, Fox Gut Daata, Miaoux Miaoux, Wounded Knee, Conquering Animal Sound and Yahweh.
Glasgow Popfest: Day One. SWG3.
Click the poster to make it bigger, more details and ticket info here.
Saturday:
Limbo Christmas Party. The Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh.
There’s a very tasty line-up for this once. The night promises shorter, unique sets and collaborations from FOUND, Night Noise Team, Inspector Tapehead, Yusuf Azak, Les Enfant Bastard and Andy Brown’s Victorian Karaoke.
You Say Party, Skibunny. Captain’s Rest (Tickets)
Ghosts of Progress, Annie Stevenson, The Celestians, Masters of the Seas, The Fold, Two Rivers. Pivo Pivo.
More details on ye olde Facebook.
Glasgow Popfest: Day Two. SWG3.
See Friday, just a couple of lines above.
Sunday:
Glasgow Popfest: Day Three. Stereo.
Again, see above. The most tempting day for me since it is the day with the most bands I know, and like. All three look pretty decent though.

Jer Reid’s Winter Cycle

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Jer Reid has been doing music things for quite a while. Recently he’s been playing quite a bit with dance – both written and improvised, and been improvising with various music people. He also plays guitar with Issho Taiko Drummers.
Starting on December 5th Jer Reid is setting out to do a 31 day series of improvised duos.
The full list of dates and contributors (so far) is below:
Sunday 5th December – Cloudberry MacLean
Monday 6th – Jack Figgis
Tuesday 7th – Dougal Marwick
Wednesday 8th – RM Hubbert
Thursday 9th – Christine DeVaney
Friday 10th – Michael Marshall
Saturday 11th – Howie Reeve
Sunday 12th – Cheer
Monday 13th – Laurie Pitt
Tuesday 14th – Michael Sherin
Wednesday 15th – Fritz Welch
Thursday 16th – Jenny Soep
Friday 17th – Stevie Jones
Saturday 18th – P6
Sunday 19th – Wounded Knee
Monday 20th – Shane Connolly
Tuesday 21st – Luke Sutherland
Wednesday 22nd – Nerea Bello
Thursday 23rd – Robin Mason
Friday 24th – Rosalind Masson
Saturday 25th – Lisa Fannen
Sunday 26th – Jodi Cave
Monday 27th – Jamie Grier
Tuesday 28th – Iain Campbell
Wednesday 29th – Chris Storey
Thursday 30th – Joseph L. Quimby Jr
Friday 31st – Rafe Fitzpatrick
Saturday 1st January – tbc!
Sunday 2nd – Dave Powell
Monday 3rd – Xana Marwick
Tuesday 4th – Monica de Ioanni
All shows take place in Stereo at mid day, with the exception of December 25th, January 1st and January 2nd which take place at the same time at The Flying Duck.
Entry to each show is only £1, or £4 for a week ticket and £15 for the whole cycle. Tickets are available from Stereo.
You can find more details here, and there’s a nice wee flyer you can download here.

Spotlight: Black International

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Photos by Claire Thomson

Getting a wee bit better at this interviewing lark. This time around Edinburgh three piece Black International join us for the latest Aye Tunes Inquisition.

Who are Black International?
We’re three white males named Gavin Hargin, Stewart Allan and Craig Peebles who’ve all enjoyed reasonably comfortable upbringings and have, relatively speaking, nothing to complain about.
What do you sound like?
Aggressive, primitive, noisy, melodic, nervy… Like dirty broken glass. All the instruments get equal space, it’s democracy in action!
How did you all get together, and what made you stay together?
Craig and I have known each other for years. We were both at art college at the same time, he’d played in loads of bands while I’d generally sat at home pissing about with synths. In 2006 I decided to start a new group, and coincidentally his previous one had just come to an end. He seemed to like the songs I’d demoed, so we took it from there. We booked a gig at the Wee Red Bar, and off we went.
Gavin joined a year ago, he’d been living in New Zealand and we recruited him pretty much as soon as he stepped off the plane. He’s brought stability to the group, something that wasn’t always there before, and we’ve developed a lot since he came on board.
I think ultimately it’s a simple case of belief in the music that’s kept the band together. Not
hating each other helps too.
Your influences are listed as “Glasgow and Edinburgh 1979-81, Manchester 1979-
82, the Pacific Northwest 1988-91″, would you like to narrow it down to anyone in
particular, or leave it at that?
To be honest, we always feel a bit awkward when someone asks what our influences are.
We’ve never discussed it with each other, I just don’t think it’s important. I couldn’t even
tell you what the other guys listen to beyond a few things, never mind what influences their
playing.
The stuff you’ve mentioned was just a little tongue in cheek reference to bands that
other people have suggested we have something in common with; Josef K, the Fall, Nirvana,
things like that. We don’t copy other bands, even if we wanted to sound like someone else it
wouldn’t happen. I know it’s handy to have some names out there for potential listeners to get
a taste of where you’re coming from, but I think too much is made of it most of the time.
One thing I noticed when seeing the band live was the high quality of “drummer faces” being pulled by Craig, do you feel this is an important art?
He’s just trying to garner some attention for himself, as he’s a raging egomaniac. Nah, he’s
just pretty excitable. A couple of cartons of Capri Sun before we go onstage and he’s as high
as a kite, bless him.
Craig Peebles demonstrates “drummer face”

Since we are getting alarmingly close to the end of the year let’s go all “year in review” style and ask what, if anything, have been highlights for the band this year?
We’ve played a good few gigs beyond the Edinburgh/Glasgow axis for the first time, each one of which was amazing. We drove up to Inverness for GoNorth, zipped down to Dumfriesshire to play the Solus Tent at Wickerman, made a foray over the border to Newcastle, and last month we played our first show in London, which was wonderful. We’ve made lots of new friends and had some laughs. We love playing new places!
And any moments you’d rather forget about?
None that I can think of beyond the occasional “I wish I wasn’t doing this gig with a brain melting hangover”, but I suspect that’s a common occurrence in any band. Rock ‘n’ roll, eh? Once we can afford a coke habit that’ll be a thing of the past.
STREAM: Black International - Idle Worship


Any other bands around at the moment you’d recommend?
Ooh, lots, but I’ll attempt to be frugal with my praise… If you haven’t seen United Fruit yet I suggest you remedy that at the earliest opportunity. They’re one of our favourite bands at the
moment, and they played a jaw dropping set at Wickerman. We also love a Glasgow band called Rollor, they’re absolutely brilliant and are well worth checking out. Verse Metrics are a new group that are doing some good stuff, I expect them to do very well next year. Looking further afield Casa Bonita down in London are staggeringly brutal live, and jolly nice guys to boot. We’re hoping to do another show with them in the springtime.
Any you’d avoid like the plague?

Yes, a couple of bands we’ve played with who’re doing fairly well at the moment but desperately need a collective kick in the nuts. I’ll whisper their names to you…
What do you have planned for the next few months?
Top of the list is finishing our album, we recorded it earlier in the year and have spent a few months mixing it. Our friend Andrew Bush who’s doing it for us has started getting extremely “in demand” as an engineer and has been jet-setting around all over the place, so we just do a bit whenever we can pin him down. We’ll send him emails saying “Make it sound like a wet Tuesday in Doncaster!” or “The reverb isn’t red enough!” which probably gives him headaches but he’s a great engineer and knows how to handle us. It should all be done and dusted by February or March, so we’ll be gearing up for loads of gigs in the springtime, probably an English and Scottish tour, that kind of thing. It’s all terribly exciting! There’s also a single release ready to go, we’re just sorting out the artwork for it at the moment.
Finally, quirky interview questions, fun and harmless, or generally a bit of a waste of time?
Quirky are the best kind. Perhaps your readers will be disappointed we haven’t discussed our
biscuit of choice? Mine’s a garibaldi.
STREAM: Black International - Dread (Excerpt)


Black International: MySpace - Facebook - Twitter - Bandcamp

This Week’s Gigs: 22nd - 28th November

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Before I get on to the gigs for the week, a couple of reminders.

Firstly as I mentioned yesterday I’m looking for Christmas songs to run throughout December, look here for more details.
Secondly, because hardly anyone does it, a wee reminder that if you have a gig coming up that you want included here the best way to let me know about it is to send the details to [email protected], which will hopefully save me getting messages saying “oh, you missed my gig” in the hours after posting the gig guide. I didn’t miss it, you never told me it was on.
Now, on to this week, which I was planning on spending indoors to save some money. We’ll see how well that works out. The gig guide is surprisingly Edinburgh biased this week, so this might be my last chance to save up some Christmas money.
Monday:
Spokes, The John Knox Sex Club, Blood of the Bull. The 13th Note.
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Steve Heron, Trapped Mice, Happy Vandals. Sneaky Pete’s.
Launch gig for Steve Heron’s album “Honest One”, with some pretty darn fine supports. If like me you can’t get along the album is also available on Bandcamp.
Hannah Peel, Blue Roses, Esperi. The Captain’s Rest. (Tickets)
Blue Sky Archives. Bloc, free entry.
There’s possibly other bands playing too, but I’ll be buggered if I can find any details.
Thursday:
Ethan Ash, Yusuf Azak, Amber Wilson. Cellar 35, Aberdeen.
Ethan & Yusuf set off on a rather rearranged co-headline tour to promote their new releases, Ethan Ash’s No Early Nights EP and Yusuf Azak’s debut album Turn On the Long Wire.
Friday:
Ethan Ash, Yusuf Azak, Johnnie Common. The Winchester Club, Glasgow
United Fruit, Pensioner, Verse Metrics. Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh.
Pin Up Nights 7th Birthday: For Abel, Skinny Villains, Strawberry Ocean Sea. The Flying Duck.

Our pals at PinUp’s celebrate 7 years of good music and fun with a birthday party. They’ve even roped in The National to DJ after their sold out gig at The O2 Academy. Could be an awkward moment there, as For Abel were formerly known as Nacional, until they were asked to change by none other than the management of The National…
Saturday:
Ethan Ash, Yusuf Azak, The Japanese War Effort. St. Stephen’s Centre, Edinburgh
Sneaky Fest: Cabaret Voltaire, Sneaky Pete’s, Electric Circus, Edinburgh.
We’ve been quite spoiled with these multi venue type things in Glasgow recently, now Edinburgh gets a shot. Over 30 bands playing across three venues all day long, all for £10. Not much to complain about there. The full line up and stage times can be found here and you can buy tickets here.
Sunday:
Lori McTear Single Launch. The Winchester Club.

Christmas Songs

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I am fully aware that is still November, but if I wait until December to ask about this I’ll be too late. Besides, once the Coke advert has been on telly it is fair game.

If you were around here last year (and my visitor stats suggest you probably weren’t, so hi! Thanks for joining us this year) you might remember that I ran a wee advert calendar type deal, with a Christmassy song every day of December until Christmas Day.
Well, I want to do it again this December, but I don’t want to just re-use everything posted last year, this is where I turn to you lot.
Readers, leave any suggestions down in the comments, ideally something I can post without getting sued, by a Scottish band/artist, with some kind of Christmas type theme.
Bands, anyone fancy donating something? I can set things to stream instead of download if it is something you want to sell instead of letting me give away and if you have it on Bandcamp that’ll be even better. If you have something up your sleeve you don’t mind sharing send a wee email to [email protected] and I’ll be delighted to include you. Err, just songs though, no links to YouTube of you doing Slade at karaoke, please.

Spotlight: Let’s Talk About Trees

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After not running any interviews in ages we have two in a week. I’m as surprised as you dear reader.

A while back I received an email from a band called Let’s Talk About Trees, asking me to have a listen to a couple of their songs and possibly do a wee something about them for Aye Tunes. I listened to the songs, loved them, then waited around three months to answer the email. I am not a good blogger.
On the eve of the release of their self titled debut album I finally got around to asking Let’s Talk About Trees some questions, which they kindly took time out of hand making those albums to answer.
Who are Let’s Talk About Trees?

We are Chris McGarry and Kieran Heather - two men from many bands with a particular fondness for the ridiculous.

What do you sound like?

We WANTED to sound like trees, but I suppose Magnetic Fields, Adam Green and the Beta Band is somewhere to start. Bit of Arab Strap as well.

How did the album come about?

Well, we were in the pub (Captain’s Rest, to be precise) and were discussing trees for some reason and we’d been recording music just for fun - thought that trees and music might mix. They did! I suppose it was a bet, but no money has passed hands and in any case if we were betting against each other - we both won.

Are making concept albums after a pub bet the future of the music industry then?

I think the way we do things is made easier by having a concept - we’re big fans of Brian Eno and he’s well into this kind of voodoo. He made that thing Oblique Strategies, didn’t he? Heloves concepts. At least I hope he does, I don’t know the man and I don’t want to make too many assumptions on his part. Anyway, the answer is probably no.

The album launch is coming up soon, what do you have planned for it, or is it a surprise?

I think the surprise is going to be that it actually happened - a lot of our friends are very angry that we’re going ahead with it. It’s a very cheeky thing to do - make a silly bet in the pub, have a laugh: “hur hur, we’re gonna make an album about trees”, then show up one day with CDs filled with songs that are actually about trees - people don’t expect you to actually do it. When they see the show it’ll be the final straw and we will be lynched.

Any plans to talk about more trees in the future, or perhaps other subjects, or is this a one off?

I think the awareness we have raised with this record will suffice. We do genuinely like trees but you’d really have to try to make a career out of it. Instead, we’re hopefully going to move on to make a meta-educational album in the spirit of Look Around You (LOOK IT UP!) (Jim: Look Around You is excellent, if you’ve never seen it you really should try to watch it) - a television series we did not know about until we made the music video for Lumberjack’s Lament and somebody commented on it giving reference to the aforementioned television program which I am clearly not going to repeat the name of. It’s a pretty marvelous show.

All I can tell you about it is that we will try to break down the taboos of racism, highlight the dangers of (certain) drugs and that there might be a ‘bubble moon octopus’ involved. The octopus used to be a knight in Malaysia, apparently.

Let’s Talk About Trees release their self titled album with a launch gig at Stereo in Glasgow tomorrow night (that’s Saturday 20th November). It is a late starter, with doors at 11pm.
You can watch the lovely video for Lumberjack’s Lament down below, and to hear an interview with the band and download a couple of session tracks head over to Pop Goes The Revolution.


French Wives - The Home Fires

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I kinda meant to plug this last week, but as is not uncommon with me, I forgot.

Every Monday for the forseeable future* French Wives will be giving away a wee something over on their MySpace. [Insert squeals of fanboyish glee from your French Wives loving writer here] Each download is to be accompanied by a blog and a little video.
The first download is available now, a recording of Your Friends and Mine, taken from the band’s first “proper” recording session. Go get it from the French Wives MySpace, and keep checking back in there every Monday for more free songs from a fab wee band.
*Unless you are some kind of soothsayer, or know when the World is going to explode, I suppose.

This Week’s Gigs: 16th - 21st November

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So very late. That’s likely to be a repeating refrain for the next wee while, but this time I have an excuse, as I’ve had to kiss goodbye to a large slice of my free time to be an underpaid under trained shop monkey for a while. Anyone out there want to employ me? I can count, don’t nick stuff, speak in sentences, know lots of useless stuff and deal with customers ranging from pleasant to utter arsehole. I’m from Paisley after all, so I have a lot of experience with the latter types. Anyway, enough about me, on with the gigs.

Tuesday:
Slow Club: Lovers Turn To Monsters, Turning Plates. Bloc, free entry.
Gold Panda, Yahweh. King Tut’s. (Tickets)
Wednesday:
Wolf Gang, Any Color Black. King Tut’s (Tickets)
Detour 1st Birthday. Bloc, free entry
Shamefully I’ve only ever made it along to the very first Detour and now here they are a year on, having a birthday. As usual these days the line up is secret, but it is unlikely to disappoint.
Thursday:
Oh Thursday, you sneaky bugger…

Randolph’s Leap, Inspector Tapehead, Blochestra. Captain’s Rest, free entry.

Aye Tunes Vs peenko II co-stars launch their new EP, Battleships and Kettle Chips, with a free gig in The Captain’s Rest. The EP is the first release by Olive Grove Records, a new label set up by pals of mine. All of which gives me a good reason to dodge actually writing an EP review under conflict of interests grounds, but the EP is very very good nonetheless and available to buy here.
Now for the sneaky bit…
The Scottish Enlightenment, Le Reno Amps, Deathpodal. The 13th Note.
The Scottish Enlightenment bring their debut album St Thomas to Glasgow. The album is an absolute stunner. A bit of a slow burn maybe, but once it gets its hooks in? Oh boy. The album is available here now, and my gig going on Thursday may have to be settled with a coin toss.
Friday:
Chasing Owls, The Last Battle, Micah Vincent. Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh.
No one has really told me what is happening in Edinburgh this week, so don’t blame me for that side of the country being under represented in the gig guide, I’m not a bloody mind reader. This one looks good though.
Ex Libras. Maggie Mays (Tickets)
Londoners Ex Libras are in Glasgow on Friday. Initially didn’t quite see what the fuss was over this band, but their most recent EP Cut(s) is a wee bit good, so I may be forced to backpedal.
Saturday:
On Saturday I attempt to do my own multi venue festival thing again, kicking off with Endor and Cancel The Astronauts doing something for Pop Goes The Revolution early on. I think that is technically secret though, so if you want to know more you’ll need to ask me, or the bands.
Over The Wall, Kasule. Captain’s Rest. (Tickets)
Continuing a pretty flipping good for launches Over The Wall play The Captain’s Rest to launch their debut album. I talked a bit about that just the other day, so go here to catch up.
Let’s Talk About Trees. Stereo.
Rounding off a busy day and also with their own debut album to launch are Let’s Talk About Trees. This is a late kick off, starting around 11pm with the band on about midnight. Hopefully we’ll be having a few words with Let’s Talk About Trees this week and might be able to tell you a little more about what to expect of the album launch.
I suspect there might be a quite tipsy Jim on the night bus home on Saturday.
Kid Canaveral, The Last Battle. Avalanche, Edinburgh.
Cheeky wee instore gig at the newly reopened Avalanche with a pair of splendid bands.
The Plimptons, The Paraffins, The Kazoo Funk Orchestra, The Murderburgers. Nice N Sleazy.
Oops, forgot this one on the first draft. ANOTHER album launch, this time for The Plimptons. Also a very good album. One day I’ll get through the pile and actually review these things instead of just saying they are good. Anyway, in addition to four bands your £6 entry fee will also get you a copy of the album in question, 00s Nostalgia With the Plimptons. Bargain.
Sunday:
The Phantom Band, FOUND. Oran Mor (Tickets)
Betatone Distraction, Kochka, The Red Show. 13th Note.
It took me well over a year to get round to seeing Kochka play live and since then I seem to have seen them every few weeks. I’m quite happy to make up for lost time, they are a band well worth seeing.
Rachel Sermanni, Luke Cairns. The Captain’s Rest
The Riot Before, Mondegreen. The Universal.