Month: May 2011

News & Bits - 30th May

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Hello, you are looking well. Thanks for stopping by.
Here’s your usual slightly shambolic run down of new releases, and other stuff.
I may have gone a wee bit overboard with the buy links this week, let me know if they annoy you and I’ll trim them back a bit next week. Until then I’m pretty broke, so could use the couple of pennies I earn if anyone buys stuff through them.
New Releases:

Laki Mera - The Proximity Effect (album). Buy from Amazon (CD/Download), HMV (CD/Download), iTunes.
The Lava Experiments - Love, Lust & Loss (EP). Buy from iTunes, CD from The Lava Experiments.

Mummy Short Arms - Cigarette Smuggling (single). Buy from iTunes.
Poor Things - Innocence/18 (single). Buy from Bandcamp. (Aye Tunes Review)
Spare Snare - I Am God (single). Buy from iTunes.
Sparrow and the Workshop - Spitting Daggers (album). Buy from Amazon (CD/Download), HMV (CD), iTunes.
United Fruit - Fault Lines (album). Buy from Amazon (CD/Download), HMV (CD), iTunes. The album isn’t available just yet on Bandcamp/Bigcartel , but should be soon. (Aye Tunes Review)
Like Me:
You may or may not have noticed, but there’s a wee clicky thing at the bottom of posts which allow you to like them on Facebook. Feel free to express your enjoyment of Aye Tunes in the laziest way possible and be the envy of all your friends with your cool hip reading choices all at once. You can also find at Aye Tunes Facebook page here, where I occasionally talk rubbish.
Buy Things From Me:
Tickets are available for all the upcoming Aye Tunes gigs right here. Or just send me an email saying you want a ticket and I’ll sort you out.
What gigs are those, you say? I really hope you don’t say that again in a few weeks, or it’ll mean I haven’t done a very good job of promoting them, but the gigs would be these:
Friday 17th June - Aye Tunes Birthday Bash.
Black International, The Big Nowhere and Verse Metrics at The Flying Duck.
Friday July 1st - Aye Tunes Presents…
The Last Battle, The Second Hand Marching Band and Loch Awe at Stereo.
Saturday August 20th - Aye Tunes Vs Peenko 4: The Revenge
Adam Stafford, PAWS, Miaoux Miaoux and Mondegreen at Stereo.
Facebook Event
Stuff!
Lots of stuff on Bandcamp from Asthmatic Astronaut, including the first Church of When the Shit Hits the Fan EP.
Ben TD, probably better known these days as the man behind Open Swimmer, has his old album Tiny Movements available quite cheap on Bandcamp.
Dalyrimple Goes Wrong recorded his first EP, For Shut Eyes, in five days in a flat in Edinburgh.You can get it for free on Bandcamp.
Dave Hughes hasn’t been in our news round-up for a couple of weeks, but he’s back aggain now with the latest in his Something Old Something New series. Grab #3 from Bandcamp.
Also elbowing his way back in to the news is Guanoman, with more free stuff from his archives going up on Bandcamp.
El Dog released debut album The Lamps of Terrahead way back in 2009. If you missed it before then you can get a free download or right cheap CD from Bandcamp. I suggest you do.
Ginger, quite possibly my favourite songwriter in recent memory, is giving away a free download of his Potatoes And You live album. Go get it from Bandcamp.
If, like me, you hadn’t really heard of Discopolis until they were announced for the TBreak stage this year then head over to their Soundcloud page to have a listen to them. I was pleasantly surprised, and kicking myself I didn’t know about them already.
After what feels like a long time away old friends We’re Only Away From NYC have popped up with a new song and video, which you can watch and hear here.
Cities and Skylines are giving away their new single for free in exchange for your email address here.
LightGuides have a free single too. Download Old Bucket Seats from their website, but be quick, it won’t be available for long.
Win Win Win:
Just a reminder about the Ladytron competition I’m currently running to win a pair of tickets to see them in Glasgow. Find the competition here.

This Week’s Gigs: 30th May - 5th June

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Well, that was a busy weekend. Over Friday and Saturday I saw eight bands, did a bit of DJing, got a bit (for bit read far) too drunk, spent too much money, was slapped by a random drunk lassie (it wasn’t my fault, she thought I was someone else) and had two trips back to Paisley on the N9 that were both awful. So, what do we have to look forward to this week? Lots. Saturday in particular seems to have been designed to force tough choices.

Monday:
Christine Collister, Supermarionation. Sneaky Pete’s.
Tuesday:
Aspen Tide, MakeThisRelate, Remember Paris, Art of Privilege. Sneaky Pete’s.
KAN, The Sanna, Kristan Harvey. Stereo. (Tickets - enter discount code glow_arts2011 to save a few quid)
Laki Mera, GRNR. The Admiral. Free.
Beerjacket, Reverieme. Bloc. Free.
Tangles. Mono. Free.
Good news for the Glaswegian freeloaders.
Wednesday:
Trapped In Kansas, JKLMNO. Bloc. Free.
Thursday:
Trapped In Kansas, Letters, Plastic Animals. Sneaky Pete’s.
Trapped In Kansas are also playing Inverness, Falkirk and Aberdeen over the rest of the week. Swing by their website for all the details.
Randolph’s Leap, I Build Collapsible Mountains, Daniel G. Harmann. Hidden Lane Cafe.
This is one of Peenko’s Tea Party gigs/sessions. Spaces are strictly limited, so if you want to go you’ll probably want to buy a ticket.
Take A Worm For A Walk Week, The Gummy Stumps, No Comet. Captain’s Rest.
Friday:
This is very close to selling out, so act fast if you want a ticket.
Over The Wall, John Knox Sex Club. Nice N Sleazy.
Tonight and tomorrow Over The Wall bring their exhausting sounding 80 day gig adventure to a close. They have nice posters.
Carnivores, Black International, Kraul. Sneaky Pete’s. (Tickets)
Julian Lynch, Ducktails, Big Trouble. Captain’s Rest.

Saturday:

Electric Honey Showcase: White Heath, French Wives, Miniature Dinosaurs, Woodenbox With a Fistful of Fivers. Oran Mor. (Tickets)
Over The Wall, Washington Irving, Cancel The Astronauts. Cabaret Voltaire.
See, I told you the posters are nice.
Detour: FOUND + guests. Electric Circus. (Tickets)
Detour are taking their Wee Jaunt through to Edinburgh for the day. Spaces on the jaunt are all gone, but you can still go to the gig afterwards.
The Lava Experiments, Organs of Love, Ursula Minor. Captain’s Rest.
Launch gig for the new Lava Experiments EP, Love Lust and Loss.
Song of Return, Quickbeam. The Arches. (Tickets)
Song of Return album launch.
Strawberry Ocean Sea, Death By Misadventure, Tijuana Bibles. The Arches. (Tickets)
Sunday:
Julian Lynch, Ducktails, Big Trouble. Sneaky Pete’s. (Tickets)
Fence Collective: Dan Lyth, Withered Hand (solo), Rob St John, Rozi Plain, The Pictish Trail + King Creosote, Kid Canaveral, OnTheFly (DJ). Oran Mor. (Tickets)

Album Review: United Fruit - Fault Lines

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Almost two years to the day since the release of United Fruit’s debut EP Mistress, Reptile Mistress! comes the time to unleash their debut album, Fault Lines. Unleash is the right word for it, as Fault Lines is a rampaging monster of a record.

Opener Kamikaze sets the tone for a thirty something minute thrill ride, all distorted guitar, snarled vocal and pounding rhythm section. Once it has been set at frenetic the pace doesn’t dip until Three, half way through. Three offers a bit of a breather, slowing things down a tad, although it is still far from gentle. From there on in the album rockets off again with Confuse Her Now, which manages to be even more ferocious than what preceded it.
The album ends with the fittingly titled Wrecking Ball, which pretty accurately sums up the destructive, take no prisoners approach of Fault Lines. Sometimes you hear a song and immediately picture yourself sweat drenched, leaping around in a packed room as the band play it live. Fault Lines has a couple of those, but none more so than Wrecking Ball.
I’m pretty sure every time United Fruit are mentioned anywhere the names And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead and At the Drive-In crop up too, but they are decent reference points. Considering how much I love some of the music made by those bands being compared to them is no bad thing either. Make no mistake either, United Fruit are no second rate copyists either. The influences aren’t hidden away, but serve to add a bit of extra flavour to their sound, which is all their own.
The half hour and nine tracks of Fault Lines fly by, the album short enough to keep your attention throughout, but long enough to leave you wanting more, with an increased heart rate and sweat on your brow.
Noise and distortion is all well and good, but without bringing something else to the table it gets old fast. Thankfully then United Fruit don’t just know how effects pedals work, they know how songs work too. Amongst the carnage is a fine ear for melody, with riffs and hooks that stick in the mind
We’re always advised to include more fruit in our diets, on the strength of Fault Lines you’d be foolish not to make sure there’s a healthy chunk of United Fruit in your diet too.
Fault Lines is released on May 30th. The album is available now from HMV.
United Fruit: Facebook - Bandcamp - Twitter

COMPETITION: Win tickets to Ladytron

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Ladytron are coming to Glasgow in a couple of weeks, for a gig at The Arches on the 9th of June, and I have a pair of tickets to give away. But first, a bit of blurb.

Using vintage analogue equipment to create a whip-smart, digitally edited electronic pop sound, Ladytron are one of the most important acts of the last decade’s synth-pop revival.

Fronted by the iconic duelling vocals of Glaswegian Helen Marnie and Bulgarian Mira Aroyo, the quartet formed in the summer of 1999 when Reuben Wu and Daniel Hunt bonded over a shared love of French electronica and Krautrock. Rebelling against the seemingly two-proonged choice of either indie-rock or house music at the time, their use of synths to create pop tracks set them apart immediately.
Having perfected the air of nonchalent art-house detachment way before it became the norm, and with a sound referencing everything from glam to disco to new wave, their underground hits Seventeen, Blue Jeans and Evil, from second album Light & Magic in 2002, saw them tacked with the trashy day-glo aesthetic of electroclash by an excited music press – a label they vehemently ignored.Third album Witching Hour in 2005 was perhaps proof of this. Adding a drummer and bassist to their (now sell-out) live shows, they focused their attention even more on sleek, sophisticated composition and a wider gamut of influences. The critics loved it; it received almost unanimous critical acclaim, and single Destroy Everything You Touch became their new trademark song.
Best of 00-10, released in March this year, is both a documentation of the evolution of both a truly pioneering quartet and a musical decade, with a companion compilation, Best Of Remixes, released digitally beforehand. Their fifth album, Gravity The Seducer, will be released at the end of the summer.
Support comes from Glasgow-based Let’s Talk About Trees. Tickets are available here.


Win Tickets: to be in with a chance of winning a pair of tickets for The Arches gig email the answer to this simple question to [email protected]
Question: What is the name of the sequel to the film Tron?
Competition closes at 6pm on June 6th, when the winner will be picked at random from the correct entries and informed by email.
I won’t keep your email address or spam you with anything, promise.

News & Bits - May 23rd

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I almost got hit by a flying bin earlier today, and the wee plastic greenhouse in the garden has lost its cover. Now, on to the rest of the news.

New Releases:
Aviation For Kids - This Airplane… (EP). Available from Bandcamp.
Dead Boy Robotics/The Machine Room - Tape Singles Club #1 (Split Single). Buy from iTunes.
Mogwai - San Pedro (Single). Buy from iTunes.
Miaoux Miaoux - Hey Sound! (single). Buy from iTunes/Bandcamp. CDs available at tomorrow’s launch gig, with extra tracks too.
Penguins Kill Polar Bears - Sapling (single). Buy from iTunes.
She’s Hit/Jacob Yates and the Pearly Gate Lock Pickers - Shimmer Shimmer/Lemonade (split single). Buy from Bandcamp.
Zoey Van Goey - Mountain On Fire (Single). Buy from iTunes.
Aye Tunes (Wants) Presents:
Not content with an Aye Tunes Presents gig in July and the return of Aye Tunes Vs Peenko in August, I’m cramming in a gig in June too. We’ll be having a special birthday bash on the 17th of June at The Flying Duck to mark the blog turning three (even though I did next to nothing in the first year) and me turning quite a bit older than that. I can’t tell you who is playing just yet though, mainly due to not having finalised the line-up. So, if you want to volunteer…
Tickets for the upcoming gigs are available here.
Bits:
Blank Canvas have made a recording of their gig back in March at Edinburgh’s Wee Red Bar available to download free here. They’ll also be playing a free gig at The Wee Red Bar with Discopolis on June 18th, my actual birthday.
DanDanDan release an EP, Happy Happy Joy Joy, on June 10th, but you can pre-order it right now and get a couple of tracks straight away here. There’s a few free downloads on their Bandcamp page too.
More pre-order goodness comes from Steven Flavahan with his Memories + Tragedies EP here, and Mike Nisbet with his album, Vagrant, here.
How Garbo Died will be launching their first proper EP in July with a couple of gigs around the place: 9th July - Stereo, Glasgow, with Tangles, Guanoman and Peter Cat, 10th July - Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh and 18th July - The Tunnels, Aberdeen. Have a listen to their home recorded batches on Bandcamp.
Golden Grrrls have a couple of things available on Bandcamp, choose your price.
Carnivores have made their Nights To Infinity EP available to buy from Bandcamp. CDs are still available from their BigCartel store.
The Spook School have CDs to sell you, which you can buy here for a measly £1. There’s also free downloads there, which I think I mentioned before. If I didn’t then I meant to.

This Week’s Gigs: 23rd - 29th May

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Trying to wrestle the gig guide back into its usual scheduled Sunday slot, let’s see if I can succeed?
It is a busy old week, with something I want to go to every night, and a wee something on Friday that I’ll be urging you to come along to.
Monday:
Exhibition Launch: Drawing Time and Attention - An Audience Member. The Arches. 6pm, free.
Just saying that Jenny Soep draws at gigs is selling her well short, so go have a look at her blog to see what I mean. This is the launch of an exhibit of her work at The Arches. If you can’t make the launch make sure you drop in at some point later anyway, the exhibition runs until June 20th.
Album launch for Sparrow and the Workshop’s second album. A fine album it is too. We love Le Reno Amps a wee bit more than appropriate also, so get along in time to catch them.
Tuesday:
Limbo: The Lovely Eggs, Kid Canaveral, Cancel the Astronauts, Zed Penguin. Voodoo Rooms.
Blooming heck, that’s a good line up. Edinburgers, go! £8 on the door, but if you hurry you can pick up a cheaper ticket on the Limbo website.
Miaoux Miaoux, The Japanese War Effort, Nevada Base. Mono.
Launch gig for the new Miaoux Miaoux single. It is very good, as is the bill for the gig. Well, except for guest DJ Peenko, which lets it down a bit of course.
Sound of Guns, The King Hats, Run From Red. King Tut’s. (Tickets)
Black Lips, PAWS. Stereo. (Tickets)
Wednesday:
LightGuides, Friends In America, The Darien Venture. Captain’s Rest.
The Red Room Presents: Redwings, Wounded Knee, Blue Sabbath Black Fiji. Nice N Sleazy.
Thursday:
We See Lights, Tall Tales. Sneaky Pete’s.
Our friends at Pop Goes The Revolution carry on their series of fabby gigs with this one, with Young Aviators launching their new EP, False Education.
Poor Things, Cancel the Astronauts, Happy Vandals. Bloc.
Launch gig for Poor Things new single. The single took me by surprise a bit, you can read what I thought of it here.
Friday:
Pin Up Nights: Blogger’s Delight. The Flying Duck.
The vested interest gig of the week. Along with the regular Pin Ups DJ’s, I’ll be playing some records, joined by Peenko, The Pop Cop, and members of Radar, Rokbun and Glasgow Podcart.
We’ve picked the bands for the night too. The Aye Tunes selection is Mondegreen, while Radar have chosen Tokamak and The Pop Cop has picked Endor. Sadly Peenko’s choice, Michael Cassidy, is no longer playing.

Jacob Yates and the Pearly Gate Lock Pickers, Black Jash, Top Dollar. Nice N Sleazy.

Mitchell Museum, Fiction Faction, Friends Are Friends. Bloc. 10pm start, free before 11pm, £2 after.
Saturday:

Hurray For the Riff Raff, Night Noise Team, The Last Battle and David J Roch. King Tut’s.

For £4 tickets get in touch with Night Noise Team’s Sean at [email protected] and tell him I sent you.
United Fruit, Battery Face. Bloc. 10pm start, free before 11pm, £2 after.
United Fruit celebrate both the end of their tour and the launch of their debut album. I’ll be dashing along to this after the gig at Tut’s. If you like good loud music I suggest you pop along too.
Supermarionation, Velvet Audio, The Future Capital and The Puppet State. Box.
Sunday:
Benni Hemm Hemm, Withered Hand (solo), the second hand marching band, Emily Scott, The Pineapple Chunks, and special secret guests. Pilrig St Pauls. (Tickets)
Penguins Kill Polar Bears, Carnivores, So Many Animal Calls. Captain’s Rest. (Tickets)

News & Bits - May 16th

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Your regular selection of stuff, including a wee announcement of what we’re up to in August.

New Releases:

The Dirty Cuts - Cut Struck (album). Buy from iTunes.
For Abel - Greater Inventions (album). Buy from iTunes.
King Post Kitsch - Don’t You Touch My Fucking Honeytone (EP). Buy vinyl, with download code, from Song, by Toad Records.
Randolph’s Leap - Counting Sheep/Deep Blue Sea (single). Buy from Bandcamp/iTunes.
I only had to go through 40 pages on eMusic this week. Much quieter than last week, which is handy since I’m skint.
Upcoming Gigs:
Night Noise Team, The Last Battle and David J Roch support Hurray For the Riff Raff at King Tut’s next Saturday, the 28th. For £4 tickets get in touch with Night Noise Team’s Sean at [email protected] and tell him I sent you.
Give Me Money - Part 1:
Tickets are now on sale for July’s Aye Tunes Presents gig. The gig is on July 1st at Stereo in Glasgow. The Last Battle will be launching their new EP, with support from the second hand marching band and Loch Awe. Advance tickets are £4 and available here.
Give Me Money - Part 2:
Aye Tunes Vs Peenko 4: The Revenge. 20th August, at Stereo. Tickets available from Tickets Scotland, or give me a shout.
Adam Stafford will be launching his new album, Build a Harbour Immediately, with help from PAWS, Miaoux Miaoux and Mondegreen. Well, there was no point in bringing AVP back if we were going to half arse it…

This Week’s Gigs: 16th - 22nd May

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Oops, it is Monday and I’ve forgotten to write the gig guide.

That means it will probably be quite half arsed again, but here we go anyway.
Tuesday:
Randolph’s Leap, Burnt Island, The Moth and the Mirror. Mono, £3, which gets you a free download too..
Launch gig for the new Randolph’s Leap single, which is out now.
Khaira Arby, RM Hubbert. Stereo. (Tickets)
Until I was emailed about this I had no clue who Khaira Arby was, now I’ve had a listen I’m a bit gutted I can’t make it to this gig. Really good stuff.
Prince Rama, Galoshins, How Garbo Died. Nice n Sleazy. (Tickets)
Low, Sleepingdog. The Classic Grand.
Handsome Furs, Boycotts. Captain’s Rest.
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Communion Glasgow: Bear Bones, In Flight Safety, The Little Kicks, The Echoes. 13th Note.
UWS End of Year Festival. Paisley Student Union.
Mentioned this in the news last week, but if you’ve forgotten or missed it, this has Admiral Fallow, Aerials Up, Michael Cassidy, Kitty The Lion, Alan McKim, Johnny Barr, Carnivores and Marvel Heights and more. 6pm start, £3 entry, and you don’t have to be a student to go.
Launch gig for the split single from the two bands, the first in the Tape Singles Club series.
Friday:
Barmellodie: Kill the Captains, Vendor Defender, Pensioner, Popcorn Fiend. Bloc.
Starts around 10, free entry before 11, carries on till 3am. This month’s special guest DJ is *drum roll* me. Don’t expect anything resembling DJ skills then, but do expect more 90s hip hop the drunker I get.
Max Raptor, Skinny Villains, The Holidays, The Scruffs. King Tut’s. (Tickets)
Chain and the Gang, The Gummy Stumps, Palms. Stereo. (Tickets)
Saturday:
Stag & Dagger. Various Venues. (Tickets)
All the details on Stag & Dagger can be found right here.
Sunday
Black International, The Fnords, Siamese Ghosts. 13th Note.
£3 entry, worth it.

TBreak 2011 Announced

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As I mentioned, Blogger has been buggered all day, so chances are you know this already.

On the off chance you don’t, here are the 16 bands picked to play this year’s TBreak stage at T in the Park. I’ll come back and add my thoughts later, maybe.
Aerials Up
Fatherson
PAWS
Go ahead and moan in the comments section if you must.

Who is Where at Stag and Dagger, and When!

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Blogger has been misbehaving since last night, so a wee bit later than planned, here’s updated Stag & Dagger details.

Buy Tickets
Ticket collection is at the ABC.
Stag & Dagger takes place next Saturday - the 21st - in Glasgow.
Here is what bands are playing where, and when.

02 ABC1
Clinic 19:15
Admiral Fallow 20:15
Warpaint 21:15

02 ABC2 – Presented by Communion Glasgow

Michael Kiwanuka 18:15
Ed Sheeran 19:00
Rachel Sermanni 19:45
Withered Hand 20:30
James Yorkston 21:30

The Art School

Ghostpoet 19:30
Toro Y Moi 20:15
Broken Records 21:30
Sons and Daughters 22:30
DELS 23:45
Numbers (DJ’s) 00:30

The Vic Bar

Conquering Animal Sound 19:00
Veronica Falls 20:00
Happy Particles 21:00
Three Trapped Tigers 22:00
Entrepreneurs 22:45
Chad Valley 23:30
Star Slinger 00:00
Walls 01:15

Stereo

Wake the President 17:15
Colourmusic 18:00
Laki Mera 18:45
Kid Canaveral 19:30
Rural Alberta Advantage 20:15
Allo Darlin’ 21:30

Nice N’ Sleazy

She’s Hit 18:00
Tall Ships 18:45
Thank You 19:30
Desalvo 20:20
Bo Ningen 21:15
Yuck 22:15

The Captains Rest

Zeus 14:45
Blue Sky Archives 15:45
Victorian English Gentlemans Club 16:45
French Wives 17:45
Our Mountain 18:45
Scottish Enlightenment 19:45
Mazes 20:45
Kurt Vile 21:45
Jack Townes 22:45