Month: June 2011

News & Bits - June 27th

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Yay news and stuff! Onwards.

New Releases:

Departures - When Losing Everything Is Everything You Wanted. Available from Bandcamp.
Doctors & Dealers - Every Sinner Has a Future. Buy from Amazon, iTunes.
Something Beginning With L - Beautiful Ground. Buy from Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon (CD/download).
This is the least Scottish the new releases section has ever been.
Check Your Head:
Deserving of a bit more of a mention than just being shoved into the new releases section, The Fruit Tree Foundation‘s First Edition was initially released in a limited edition last October this album has now been reissued by Chemikal Underground. First Edition is the result of a songwriting workshop involving James Graham (Twilight Sad), Scott Hutchison (Frightened Rabbit), Rod Jones (Idlewild), Jill O’Sullivan (Sparrow and the Workshop), Emma Pollock, Karine Polwart, Jenny Reeve, Alasdair Roberts and James Yorkston, wil the album also featuring a host of other musicians pitching in. The flippant title I’ve given this bit relates to the album’s origins as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival. 50% of profits made from the album go to the Mental Health Foundation. CDs and downloads (with bonus videos!) can be bought from the Chemikal shop, with the album also available on Amazon and iTunes.
Obligatory Self Promotion:
Aye Tunes Presents: The Last Battle, The Second Hand Marching Band and Loch Awe. This Friday at Stereo. £4 advance, £5 on the door. Come along, it won’t be rubbish.
Bits:
PET have made their debut single What You Building available as a name your price download on Bandcamp. They play a launch gig on Friday at Superclub in Edinburgh.
The latest release on the Phuturelabs label comes from Rivers of Slime. Also known as Kev Sim from FOUND, this is the first Rivers of Slime release. Volume One is available for free from Bandcamp, with remixes from S-Type, Paranoise and Scatabrainz.
FOUND’s record for “most unusual release format” - their chocolate 7″ - is under threat. Mitchell Museum release new single What They Built on July 4th in the normal digital style, but also via limited edition 16 note keyboard. Yes, keyboard. In their words “This is a small playable keyboard that comes with a hidden code in side that grants you access to an exclusive download of the song and an extra b-side bonus. To get the code you simply take the keyboard out of the packaging and smash it to pieces. Our love of destruction and crappy keyboards has finally been meshed into our music life and we couldn’t be happier.” There’s a launch gig for What The Built on Saturday at Stereo.
Negotiations. has a new album imminent, a collaboration with LA MORENA. In the meantime there’s a host of songs recorded between 2008 and 2010 available for free download here.
Guns of Parlophone have a load of free stuff on Bandcamp, including new mini album Gold Cobra.
The line up has been announced for the BBC Introducing stage at T in the Park. Amongst those included are Kid Canaveral, Bronto Skylift, Wrongnote and GoGoBot. The full list can be found here.
On a T in the Park note, The Pop Cop wants that chant to stop. I heartily agree.

This Week’s Gigs: 27th June - 3rd July

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The gig guide this week it a bit haphazard, so chances are I’ve missed a few things.
As always, the best way to let me know about gigs is to sling a wee email with the details to [email protected]
Monday:
Woodpigeon, eagleowl, Rob St John. Pilrig St Paul’s.
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Darren Hayman, Gordon McIntyre (ballboy), Withered Hand (solo). Pilrig St Paul’s. (Tickets)
Edinburgh School For The Deaf, Hookers For Jesus, The Shithawks, Man Without Machines. Dexter’s, Dundee. (Tickets)
Friday:
Put on by me, so somewhat obviously I recommend going.

Verse Metrics, RM Hubbert, I Build Collapsible Mountains. Sneaky Pete’s.
PET, Rhododendron. SUPERCLUB, Edinburgh.

Saturday:
The Second Hand Marching Band, RM Hubbert, The Last Battle. Cafe Drummond, Aberdeen.
Edinburgh School For The Deaf, The Spook School. Henry’s Cellar Bar.
Mitchell Museum, Fur Hood, Andrea Marini. Stereo.
Sunday:
Lou Hickey, Jonathan Carr, Scott Beaton. O2 ABC2. (Tickets)

The Big BBQ Show - Running Order

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I only managed to fit in a quick mention of this in the gig guide this week, but now that the running order has been announced I should give it a bit of a better plug.

Taking place at the Oran Mor on Sunday as part of the West End Festival, the Big BBQ Show has been put together by the good folks at KMR Promotions. Along with a day full of music, there will be a (oddly enough) barbecue, a pig on a spit and lots more.
Everything kicks off around 1pm, with the line-up from then looking like this (subject to change):
1.15pm – 1.45pm - Gorman
2.00pm – 2.30pm – Kill Surrrf
2.45pm – 3.15pm – Male Pattern Band
3.30pm – 4.00pm – Ryan Bisland
4.15pm – 4.45pm - Galleries
5.15pm – 5.45pm – Washington Irving
6.15pm – 6.45pm - PAWS
7.15pm – 8.00pm – Wet Paint
8.30pm – 9.15pm - Galadrop
Curfew: 10.00pm
Tickets are £10 and available here.

News & Bits - June 20th

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Not a massive amount to report this week, but I’ve started quite enjoying the news posts, so you are getting one anyway.

New Releases:
Conquering Animal Sound - Tracer. New single, backed with remixes from dems, Alex Tobin, FOUND and Voltage Black. Available from iTunes. Better off buying it from Bandcamp though, where you can name your price (minimum of £1).
Edinburgh School For The Deaf - New Youth Bible. Technically this came out last week, but it wasn’t available anywhere yet when I did the release list then. Album available from Bubblegum Records.
Coming Up:


Less than two weeks to go till The Last Battle‘s EP launch gigs. The first one takes place at The Wee Red Bar in Edinburgh, with support from King Creosote who has a very special top secret backing band for the evening - they quite like Toto - and Loch Awe. There aren’t many tickets left, try Avalanche Records on the Grassmarket if you want one.
The following night is the Glasgow gig, which you might well have noticed me mention before. It takes place in Stereo on July 1st. This is also the next Aye Tunes Presents gig, so get used to me mentioning it, I’ll be doing it a lot.
Loch Awe will once again be joining The Last Battle for their first full band Glasgow gig. The Second Hand Marching Band will also be playing in Glasgow, all of which makes me happy. Tickets are available here. There should be some on the door too, though they’ll cost you an extra quid.
The mini tour finishes up on July 2nd where The Last Battle and The Second Hand Marching Band will be joined by the wonderful RM Hubbert at Cafe Drummond in Aberdeen. Tickets are available here.
The Springwell EP is available to pre-order from Bandcamp now. It is rather good, which is fortunate. If it had been rubbish I’d have a couple of awkward weeks ahead of me.
Bad News/Good News:
It is with a wee sad face that we pass on the news that Macabre Scene have split up. Drummer Ewan Denny has quickly been scooped up to join Campfires In Winter full time, having previously been on loan. Campfires in Winter also have some new demos available for free from their Bandcamp page.
Stuff:
Colonics, who we were talking about just the other week, have a new release. You can get 1.5 here for however much you want to pay for it.
The Japanese War Effort, also known as the taller half of Conquering Animal Sound, has stuck a couple of new tracks up on Bandcamp for free download. You can find them here. You can also here the upcoming Surrender To Summer EP here, and order a copy of the 10″ from Song, by Toad Records.
New Town Triptych have a new single. Climb/Don’t Want To Hear It is available here.
Lou Hickey has a new EP imminent, and is celebrating with a launch gig. The EP - Minutes, hours, days… - gets a digital release on July 4th, with the launch gig taking place on the 3rd at the O2 ABC2. Tickets for the gig are available here. You can watch the video for the EP’s title track here.
The Next Train Arriving At Platform 5:
In the gig guide yesterday I mentioned that Platform in Easterhouse is celebrating its 5th birthday. In addition to the events on Tuesday they’ve got a few rather fine looking gigs lined up next week. Mulatu Astatke plays on 30th June, with the performance at Platform being his only Scottish show.
Roman three piece Zu have recorded and collaborated with Mike Patton, Steve Albini, Mats Gustafsson, The Melvins and lots of others. they play at Platform on 1st July.
Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells made one of the best albums of the year so far in Everything’s Getting Older, and this is their first Scottish show since the album was released. The gig is on July 2nd, with support from The Bill Wells Trio featuring Gail Brand.
Find out more about Platform at the website.
The Big Man:
Absolutely nothing to do with Scottish music, unsigned music, or anything the blog really focuses on, but as a fan, we’re pretty gutted about the death of Clarence Clemons.

This Week’s Gigs: 20th - 26th June

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Did you miss the gig guide? Well it is back this week anyway.

A quick thanks to everyone who came along to the birthday bash on Friday night, and extra special thanks to the three brilliant bands who did me a huge favour. Stress, fun and beer were all had in large doses. Less than two weeks until the next Aye Tunes gig now, so I’ll still be annoying you with self promotion.
Monday:
Eras, Bear Arms, Aspen Tide, Obvious Outcome. Captain’s Rest.
Tuesday:
Platform’s 5 Year Celebration. Platform, Easterhouse.
Platform are having a wee party to celebrate their 5th year. It all kicks off at 4:30pm and features 5 minute theater performances, Gerry Love DJing, a set from Sparrow and the Workshop and more. Entry is by guest list only, to find out more about the event and how to get on the list visit here.
Aerials Up. The Liquid Ship.
Wednesday:
MILK: Cheesecake, John Knox Sex Club. Flat 0/1.
Need more calcium in your diet? This is for you then. Might want to be careful if you are lactose intolerant though. I can’t find anything to link to for Cheesecake, but I can tell you that they are made up of members of Frightened Rabbit, Union of Knives and Galchen.

Laki Mera, Miaoux Miaoux, Kill the Waves. Captain’s Rest. (Tickets)
Ballboy, My Tiny Robots. The Wee Red Bar. (Tickets)
Thursday:
Dave Arcari, Shambles Miller, Jim Byrne. Captain’s Rest.
Kraul, Clock, Run From Red, Turbyne. Oran Mor. (Tickets)
Friday:
Mix_Up_Mayhem #2: So Many Animal Calls, Kill the Waves, The Dirty Beggars, All the Queen’s Bovine (DJ). Bloc.

Wake the President, Casual Sex, Post. Captain’s Rest. (Tickets)
Where’s the links? Well, you try googling Casual Sex or Post and see how far you get (Edit: thanks ecstaticstatic for finding Post). Wonder how many disappointed people will find this gig guide in future?
Tellison, Sketches, Debutant, Esperi. Sneaky Pete’s.
Male Pattern Band, Sick Kids, Moscow Olympics, Aeroplanes Under the Sea. 13th Note.
Slow Motion Replay, Black International, Bandit The Panther. The Store.
Slow Motion Replay launch their new single, Red Morning. £5 entry fee gets you a free CD.
Saturday:
Strike the Colours, Sparrow and the Workshop, Craig B (The Unwinding Hours). Nice N Sleazy.
A little fundraiser gig to help Strike the Colours record a new album.
Tellison, Sketches, Pareto, JJ Bull. Captain’s Rest. (Tickets)
Mark Morriss, The Girobabies, The Calibre, Colour Cells, The Speeches. Pivo Pivo.
Bad McNulty, Sugar Crisis. Bloc. Free before Midnight, £2 after.
Sunday:
The Big BBQ Show. Oran Mor. (Tickets)
Runniong from 1pm, this has a whole lot to offer. Playing are: Banjo or Freakout, Vessels, Wet Paint, Gala Drop, PAWS, Washington Irving, Top Dollar, Male Pattern Band, Ryan Bisland + more, plaus there will be a BBQ, pig on a spit, a mariachi band and margaritas galore.
Joan of Arc, Hot Club de Paris, The Whisky Works. Nice N Sleazy.
The Little Kicks, Alan McKim, Juan Pablo. Brel.

One Last Plug

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You are almost certainly sick to death of me talking about the birthday gig, but after this you can rest easy, as the gig is tonight.

So yes. The Flying Duck. Tonight. Doors for the gig are at 8, but the pub is open before that, and I’ll be running about like a headless chicken.
£3 to get in. That’s cheaper than most gigs.
Running order should be roughly something like this:
The Big Nowhere: 8:30-9:05
Verse Metrics: 9:20- 9:55
Black International: 10:10-10:45
After that you can do what you wish. Like go to Bloc for the final Barmellodie gig?

News & Bits - June 13th

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Monday! Monday! Gotta get down on Mon… Oh, never mind.

News, stuff, etc. Slow week this week, so don’t brace yourself for too much excitement.
New Releases:
Dananananaykroyd - There Is a Way. Available in a baffling assortment of editions. Extra fancy version from the band’s shop, regular CD from Amazon, and downloadtoo, 2 disc version from HMV, and download from iTunes.
King Post Kitsch - The Party’s Over. Excellent debut album from King Post Kitsch. If anyone would like to get me one for my birthday that would be quite nice. Buy a CD from Song, by Toad, or download from iTunes.
Sons & Daughters - Mirror Mirror. Download from iTunes.
Are You Bored Of This Yet?
Rejoice, this is the last Monday newsround that I’ll be plugging the Birthday Bash during.
Briefly - Friday, The Flying Duck, 8pm, £3. More here. Come along, say hello, tell me how much you hate the blog.

Also This Week:
Once again I didn’t write a gig guide. Facebook was messing about with the events yesterday, so I gave up. Some quick live highlights then?
Lovers Turn To Monsters launch new album Beyond Glasgow Howls with a gig at Slouch on Thursday, with support from Where We Lay Our Heads and an acoustic turn from So Many Animal Calls. You can pre-order the album here.
Olympic Swimmers take a break from album recording to play at The Captain’s Rest on Friday, with support from Rick Redbeard and Tesla Birds. I like Olympic Swimmers, so they can have a plug, even though they are my competition.
Friday also sees the final Barmellodie gig at Bloc, with Cuddly Shark, Galoshins, Something Beginning With L and Lady North. First band is on around 11, so you can come to my gig at The Flying Duck first…
Edinburgh School For the Deaf launch debut album New Youth Bible at Sneaky Pete’s in Edinburgh on Friday, with Young Spooks and Hot Rods providing support. More on that album once I get a copy, I suspect.
Stuff:
The Plimptons are selling their ’00s Nostalgia With The Plimptons album really cheap this week. A mere £2.50 will get you a digital copy or CD here. It is so good you’ll forget how to count.
How To Swim have a pair of new free tracks on offer - She Gets Around and Corpsing.
Member of the Wedding have a free download here.
DanDanDan have a new EP available, pay what you want for it here.
Wounded Knee is giving away a download of his cover of The Pogues song A Pair of Brown Eyes here.
Rounding off the free stuff are Napoleon In Rags, who have a couple on Bandcamp.

Birthday Guests: The Big Nowhere

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If you have somehow managed to not hear about it yet, the Aye Tunes Birthday Bash takes place on Friday at The Flying Duck. All the details can be found here.

I’ve already done little introductions to two of the bands playing, you can read up on some facts about Black International here, and learn more about Verse Metrics - and get a sneak preview of their new single - here. That means it is time to round things off by telling you a bit about the third band playing the gig, The Big Nowhere.
The Big Nowhere have given me permission to make up some facts about them. I’ll try to resist. I still enjoy bullet points, so here goes:
  • The Big Nowhere are at various times Simon, Billy, Joe, Arvid, DP, Helen, John, Sandie and Malcolm.
  • Fitting them on The Flying Duck’s stage could be a challenge.
  • One of them is a dragon.
  • Simon wins the prize for “person I’ve known longest off the internet” I think. We used to talk to each other on Usenet, and I went to see his old band Brown Eye Superfly at the Barfly in Glasgow.
  • Brown Eye Superfly and Barfly don’t exist anymore, and no one still uses newsgroups except to download stuff. I now feel old.
  • Debut album Pull Down The Moon was almost entirely recorded in Simon’s living room. The album was released in 2009, and is available from all good download shops, like iTunes and Amazon.
  • You can also have a listen to Pull Down The Moon on Spotify, or here.
  • I’ve been promising to review that album for ages, but still haven’t done it. It is good though. Bluesbunny gave it four carrots.
  • On a bunny related note, they were promised a spot on a gig I was putting on after this picture. Well, that and me liking their music.
  • A second album is set for release later this year. I’ll review that one. Eventually.
  • Musically there is a bit of rock, folk, country (regular and the alt. type) and Americana going on.
  • This is by far the least helpful intro piece I’ve ever written.
You’d probably be better off not paying attention to me and just having a listen to them instead.
The Big Nowhere: Website - Facebook

Aye Tunes Birthday Bash: Facebook

Birthday Guests: Verse Metrics

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Another day, another bout of gig pimping. A week today at The Flying Duck (that’s June 17th if you aren’t reading this on the day it was posted) I’m having a wee birthday bash. I’ve already introduced Black International, so today it is the turn of Verse Metrics, with The Big Nowhere to follow over the weekend.

I can’t steal facts from Twitter this time round, but I do like bullet points, so here is some thing about Verse Metrics in a list type fashion.
  • There are four of them, Bob, Al, Dave and Martin.
  • If Martin had one less letter in his name there’d be a nice escalation thing going on there. He doesn’t though.
  • Verse Metrics received an honourable mention from Nick Mitchell in last year’s Scotsman Radar Prize.
  • Vic Galloway made them one of his tips for 2011, and they’ve picked up radio play from the likes of Tom Robinson and Jim Gellatly.
  • Although they fit into the stuffed alternative indie shelf, they do it (a) better than many and (b) with their own take on things, so they don’t sound like a cookie cutter band.
  • Last year’s debut EP VM1 was right good, and sounded like a band who had been together for far longer than a year.
  • You can snag a free download of Horoscopes from the EP here.
  • Bassist Dave does accidental sex faces during gigs. [Source: Peenko]
  • Verse Metrics have threatened a stage routine involving cock fencing [also: Peenko] but as people still book them for gigs this probably doesn’t happen.
In a wee Aye Tunes exclusive (I think) I’ve got one half on the band’s new double A-side single, Modern Sleep, to share with you. You can have a listen below, and the single is out on July 19th.
Stream: Verse Metrics - Modern Sleep
Verse Metrics also play King Tut’s on the same day the single is released alongside FOUND, Cancel The Astronauts and Bermuda. You can buy tickets for the gig here, or from the Verse Metrics shop. Debut EP VM1 is also available from the shop, or digitally from Bandcamp and iTunes.

Verse Metrics: Website - Facebook - Bandcamp - Shop
Aye Tunes Birthday Bash: Facebook - Tickets

Birthday Guests: Black International

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Nope, still not shutting up about the Aye Tunes birthday gig next week.

Time to tell you a wee bit about the bands involved, I think. First up, Black International. I could yammer on about how much I enjoyed the times I’ve caught them live, or how good debut album In Debt is, but since I invited them to play the birthday gig it should be pretty obvious I like the band, so I’ll spare you the hard sell, but buy an album here.
I already interviewed the band last November, so you can read that here. Stewart from the band also gave us a track by track rundown on In Debt here. Instead of retreading what is in those two pieces, I’m shamelessly lifting some facts about the band as posted on their Twitter account. Well, they did say they were cut out and keep, which I’m choosing to reinterpret as copy/paste and steal.
Without further ado then, some Black Facts about Stewart, Gavin and Craig:
  • Stewart once woke up on a golf course at 6am wearing a cricket jersey that didn’t belong to him.
  • Craig used to own a replica Lion-O sword (from Thundercats) but it was destroyed in a fire.
  • Gavin once went into a Japanese restaurant to ask if they had any free sushi. Tight bastard.
  • Stewart own a complete set of Postcard records.
  • Bassist Gavin has 4 or 5 tattoos.
  • Drummer Craig can’t grow a handlebar moustache to save himself.
  • As a youngster, Stewart knew a kid who could vomit on command.
  • Bassist Gavin is from the isle of Barra, where they don’t even have a cinema!
  • Drummer Craig once had a letter published in the Nintendo fan club magazine. They misspelt his surname as Beebles.
Black International: Website - Bandcamp - Facebook
Aye Tunes Birthday Bash: Facebook - Tickets