Issue 563

Gaydar - bar news

Gaydar

27 Nov 2006

The garish but loveable Cuban-themed decor of Habana has been replaced, with a bright style bar interior of cream walls and chunky dark wood furniture. Gone is the elaborate metalwork staircase and balcony, to be replaced by new steps with a toughened…

Full kids listings

16 Nov 2006

Click here for full kids listings

Mitchell and Webb

Face off

14 Nov 2006

They may well be the gentle men of comedy but interviewing David Mitchell and Robert Webb is still an unsettling experience. The whole exchange is not unlike an episode of their glorious Channel 4 success, Peep Show. After all, they do look almost…

Jarvis Cocker - album review

Jarvis Cocker

14 Nov 2006

INDIE From the punchy pop of The Long Blondes to Arctic Monkeys’ seedy subject matter and dapper showmanship of Franz Ferdinand, the influence of Jarvis Cocker is everywhere in modern music. Yet after the demise of his old band the Sheffield indie…

Green Man, The - DVD review

The Green Man

14 Nov 2006

COMEDY Aside from being quite possibly the great comic actor Alistair Sim’s finest hour, The Green Man is also one of the very best post-war British comedies. Directed by camera operator Robert Day, with the uncredited assistance of old pro Basil…

Doctor Who: The Invasion - DVD review

Doctor Who: The Invasion

14 Nov 2006

TV SCI-FIC Thanks to the unerring wisdom of BBC archivists, countless pieces of classic TV were junked in the early 70s to make room for a new coffee machine. Early instalments of Dr Who suffered badly in the cull, particularly those featuring the…

The Directors

13 Nov 2006

It may not be very apparent yet, but Scotland’s summer festivals are feeling seismic tremors. On the one hand there are new chiefs heading up two of Edinburgh’s prestigious festivals. On the other, there’s a new, upmarket music festival outside Glasgow…

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

The devil plays guitar

13 Nov 2006

Tearing modesty a new asshole, Tenacious D describe themselves as ‘the world’s greatest rock band’. The D’s two members, Jack Black (vocals and rhythm guitar) and Kyle Gass (lead guitar and backing vocals), name check among their inspirations Kiss, Dio…

Mitchell and Webb

Face off

13 Nov 2006

They may well be the gentle men of comedy but interviewing David Mitchell and Robert Webb is still an unsettling experience. The whole exchange is not unlike an episode of their glorious Channel 4 success, Peep Show. After all, they do look almost…

Get serious about going green

Choose life

13 Nov 2006

We need to come out of the slumber of inertia that delays action to reduce carbon emission and climate change gases. We are all now seemingly conversant in the language of ‘carbon footprints,’ ‘tipping points’ and ‘sustainable development’.

Tom Fool

Marcuse their words

13 Nov 2006

The idea that a compelling night of theatre can come from Herbert Marcuse’s ideas about the way in which capitalism impinges upon, and ultimately destroys the organic self, replacing it with an emotionally, socially and sexually dysfunctional reified…

Bollywood round-up

The romance of remakes

13 Nov 2006

If, like me, you love Hindi or Bollywood cinema, you need to start embracing the idea of remakes. Two current releases, Don and Umrao Jaan, are cases in point. The trouble for me is that, having been reared during what I consider the heyday of the…

Leech - sucking the blood of popular entertainment

Leech

13 Nov 2006

Christmas madness started early this year, as retailers across the globe braced themselves for a long, lean winter without a Harry Potter book to flog. The impact of this has already hit the Leech household, with the annual begging letter to Santa to…

Requiem

(12A) 92min

13 Nov 2006

DRAMA/HORROR One year on from the release of The Exorcism of Emily Rose - the risible US exploitation horror which expropriated the real life story of German girl Anneliese Michel, comes German film Requiem, an infinitely more interesting look at the…

Pervert’s Guide To Cinema, The - interview

Popcorn and Brecht

13 Nov 2006

‘You enjoy a film immediately, naively, but theorising about films spoils enjoyment. I violently disagree with that,’ says outspoken and influential Slovenian philosopher and film lover Slavoj Zizek (pictured). ‘If anything I think it’s the opposite.’

Pan's Labyrinth

(15) 119min

13 Nov 2006

This wildly imaginative fabulist fable from Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro works as a companion piece to his earlier excellent Spanish language ghost story, The Devil’s Backbone. Like that film, Pan’s Labyrinth locates supernatural events within…

Distracted

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 25 Nov

13 Nov 2006

NEW WRITING Morna Pearson’s piece forms part of the trilogy of new work presented in this new departure for the Traverse, each show performed in repertory by the same small company of actors, all directed by Lorne Campbell and designed by Lisa…

Shadow of a Gunman, The

The Shadow of a Gunman

13 Nov 2006

CLASSIC The temptation with Sean O’Casey’s celebrated Dublin trilogy, which began with The Shadow of a Gunman (1923) and continued with Juno and the Paycock (1924) and The Plough and the Stars (1926), is to present them as knock-about Oirish comedies…

Italian Film Festival

The Italian Film Festival

13 Nov 2006

5 REASONS TO VISIT 1. The return of Nanni Moretti Five years after the Palme d’Or-winning The Son’s Room, Italian actor-writer-director Nanni Moretti returns with the multilayered The Caiman (pictured). Set in contemporary Rome, it’s the study…

Stage Whispers

Theatre news

13 Nov 2006

The recent production of Mary Stewart left Whispers quietly pondering the subject of religious intolerance, particularly after a subsequent conversation about old queen Bess with a young English person. True enough, the Virgin queen extended a certain…

Casino Royale - comment

Spybound

13 Nov 2006

‘How many actors have played James Bond on screen?’ goes the old chestnut of a pub quiz question. Barry Nelson was first to play him, on US TV in 1954, and Bob Holness played him in a radio adaptation two years later. Then Connery, Moore, Lazenby…

Scottish Ballet a step closer to new HQ

Tramway project further boosted by additional fund

13 Nov 2006

The proposals for Scottish Ballet’s state-of-the-art new home at Tramway have been given the green light by Glasgow City Council’s Planning Committee. Meanwhile, the Scottish Arts Council’s announcement of a £3.75m National Lottery Grant, together with…

The Asphalt Jungle

13 Nov 2006

What can one say about John Huston’s marvellous 1950 film noir/heist classic that has not already been said? A very direct influence on much that was to follow it, most obviously Kubrick’s The Killing and Dassin’s Riffifi but also a vibrant model of…

Antibodies

(18) 122min

13 Nov 2006

THRILLER Devoutly religious family man and village policeman Michael Martens (Wotan Wilke Möhring) is having a bad year. A young girl, his son’s best friend, has been murdered on his patch, plus most of the village hates him because he insists that…

White Point

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 25 Nov

13 Nov 2006

NEW WRITING There’s definitely a neglected audience in the theatre, which belongs to a particular generation. Perhaps the oft-declared regret that we see few punters in the latter half of their 20s in the theatre is a self fulfilling prophecy, for as…

Rampage

(15) 108min

13 Nov 2006

DOCUMENTARY Rampage is the middle film in a trilogy by Australian filmmaker George Gittoes. The first Soundtrack of War looked at how music plays a part in US army life in Iraq. Rampage follows Elliot Lovett, a very gifted young rapper who Gittoes…

Grapevine

Plucking fruits from the cultural bush

13 Nov 2006

Odd couples certainly make for entertaining viewing (whether in the arts or in life) but does a pairing get any stranger than Robert De Niro and 50 Cent ? Very unlikely. Talks are ongoing for them to appear as cops in New Orleans, in which Bobby thinks…

Johanna

(15) 86min

13 Nov 2006

DRAMA/MUSICAL ‘She cures me and I don’t need my pacemaker any longer,’ sings an elderly patient in this expressionistic film opera, directed by the Hungarian filmmaker Kornel Mundruczo (Pleasant Days) and composed by frequent collaborator Zsófia…

Casino Royale

(12A) 144min

13 Nov 2006

This second adaptation (following the 1967 spoof) of Ian Fleming’s first 007 novel is pitched as a prequel to the 20 films that came before it. It begins with James Bond becoming a ‘double 0’ licensed to kill agent and thereafter fills in how the…

Broke

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 25 Nov

13 Nov 2006

NEW WRITING Poverty and debt is perhaps the overwhelming fear that stalks contemporary consumer society. That’s the starting point for Iain Finlay Macleod’s adaptation of this tale by contemporary French dramatist David Lescot. As poverty walks in…

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny - review

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

13 Nov 2006

COMEDY/MUSICAL Jack Black and Kyle Gass formed rock band Tenacious D a dozen years ago. Noteworthy, mostly, for their wild and profane lyrics, their existence has witnessed a best selling album, a short-lived HBO series, and the movie stardom of lead…

* Hitlist

Hitlist

13 Nov 2006

Tom Fool This new translation of Franz Xaver Kroetz’s 70s examination of family, psycho-sexual tensions and the political world amounts to a compelling night of theatre. Alternately funny and deeply moving, it features outstanding performances from Meg…

Hollywoodland

13 Nov 2006

Pitched somewhere between the great Los Angeles noir Chinatown and the Tinseltown legend and lore of Gods and Monsters, Hollywoodland is at once a cracking thriller, lavish period drama and engrossing true life mystery. It centres around the death in…

Winter Room, The

The Winter Room

13 Nov 2006

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Wood, ash, coal dust - the loveliness of an open fire comes at a price, as Claire Pençak well knows. The dancer/choreographer has had more than her fair share of dealings with a dirty grate since relocating from Edinburgh to the…

Fifteen Minutes

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, run ended

13 Nov 2006

NEW WORK In contemporary times, the idea of what constitutes beauty is no longer left to individual perspective. Our ideas about physical allure are sanctioned by a mass market, which narrows down the number of physicalities permitted as attractive…

Kz

13 Nov 2006

Filmed over five weeks at the Austrian concentration camp, Mauthausen, documentarian Rex Bloomstein follows tour guides and tourists around the site as visitors discover the drip drip accumulation of the dehumanisation process. As the guides move…

Special

(15) 82min

13 Nov 2006

DRAMA There’s a pantheon of cinema that is fixated on the comic store as a metaphorical character - The Lost Boys, True Romance and the movies of Kevin Smith spring to mind. The comic book store is the centre of their protagonist’s world, the…

World in Pictures, The

The World in Pictures

13 Nov 2006

NEW WORK What does pop cultural history take out of the stories of our past, and what’s left in? It’s an intriguing matter to contemplate, given the movies tell most folk more about history than historians these days. And the Braveheart version of…

Aye Write! writers' festival

Glasgow writers’ festival joins in Britain’s bigge

13 Nov 2006

Aye Write!, the Glasgow book festival inaugurated in 2005, is to participate in Britain’s biggest ever reading project. Small Island Read 2007, which is set to attract tens of thousands of readers, from the West Coast of Scotland to Cornwall, is based…

The Pervert's Guide to Cinema

13 Nov 2006

If you want to know why Northern California’s avian population went nuts in The Birds, or how The Wizard of Oz was able to send Dorothy home to Kansas despite being a fraudulent huckster, then this is the film for you. A collaboration between Slovenian…

Rough Cuts - film news

Rough Cuts

13 Nov 2006

Future Shorts, Europe’s leading programmer and exhibitor of short films, comes back to Scotland this fortnight with screenings in Edinburgh at the Bongo Club on Saturday 18 November from 6pm and then in Glasgow at The Arches on Sunday 26 November from…

Nun and the Devil, The - DVD review

The Nun and the Devil

13 Nov 2006

HORROR/SOFT CORE PORN The nun movie pretty much became a genre of its own in the 70s, with The Devils, Flavia, Killer Nun and Behind Convent Walls among the ‘nun-sploitation’ movies that got into the habit. The genre’s reputation as a titillating way…

Little Britain Live - DVD review

Little Britain Live

13 Nov 2006

LIVE COMEDY Live versions of TV comedies are nearly always disastrous, and this is no exception. Lucas and Walliams have based their inexplicably successful careers on a handful of half-decent ideas ruined by lazy writing. In fact they blatantly rip…

East meets west for Hogmanay bash

13 Nov 2006

Chart troubling Scottish band The Fratellis are to play both the Glasgow and Edinburgh street parties at this year’s Hogmanay celebrations. The audacious collaboration between the two rival events will see the Glasgow band entertaining their home crowd…

Remote Control

11 Nov 2006

It’s a sign of how life moves on for all of us that Jennifer Saunders’ new sitcom should be about a women’s guild in a sleepy Devon village. Perhaps because it’s so far from the madding it-crowd of Ab Fab, Jen has surrounded herself with reliable old…

Mark Kurlansky

Fight snub

11 Nov 2006

It’s the afternoon of the US midterm elections with writer and journalist Mark Kurlansky having already performed his democratic duty. As the repercussions have shown, the Republican defeat was seen as a massive vote of no-confidence in the…

Gambling

Riverboat of dreams

11 Nov 2006

We’re not so different, Daniel Craig and I. Perhaps I don’t have his chiselled features and, frankly, I look terrible in tight-fitting trunks. But, just like the new Bond in the movie Casino Royale, I’ve been issued with instructions to infiltrate a…

Tool

The prog's bollock

11 Nov 2006

There was a time, a long time ago in what feels like a galaxy far, far away that capes, revolving stages, endless drum solos and high-falutin’ concept albums were not just the norm but were positively encouraged. Then a bunch of snot nosed, gobby kids…

Death Disco

Death becomes her

11 Nov 2006

Celebrating its fourth anniversary with a four room extravaganza and a 4am licence, Death Disco is one of Glasgow’s most exciting clubs, as much for its gaudy promotional material as its consistently challenging and leftfield line-up. Presented as a…

Chicks on Speed/Douglas Gordon

Chicks on Speed

11 Nov 2006

According to Chicks on Speed, the art star recipe is a simple one: ‘stir in a concept, technology as well, whip in some finance and a pinch of cocaine, add in a harmless scandal and you’ve got a media plan’. In spite of all this fashionable…

Graham Fagen

Doggerfisher Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 9 Dec 2

11 Nov 2006

PRINTMAKING, PHOTOGRAPHY, INSTALLATION Graham Fagen has painted the walls in the main gallery black, immediately setting an ethereal, theatrical tone to this dimly lit exhibition, entitled ‘Closer’. Three silkscreen prints, simplistic white linear…

Kelly Joe Phelps

ABC2, Glasgow, Thu 30 Nov

11 Nov 2006

COUNTRY BLUES Whether they like it or not, any musician will admit that reinvention is the mother of longevity. Tempting as it can be to plough on head down when an idea sticks, as the best will testify - not least Dylan and Springsteen - it pays to…

Winston Roeth

Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, until Fri 22 Dec

11 Nov 2006

PAINTING The most powerful work in this show is a piece entitled ‘Edinburgh Slate Assembly’, which consists of seven 50cm x 30cm slates, each painted in a different shade of dense tempera - there are two blues, two purples, a yellow, a pink and a…

St Andrew's Day

Various events, Glasgow & Edinburgh

11 Nov 2006

PATRON SAINT CELEBRATION Andrew was not Scottish, and what we know of his life comes from religious texts. Born a Jew in Bethsaida, Galilee, he and his brother Simon Peter were fishermen, and when Jesus came calling, he became one of his first (and…

Elliot Smith Tribute Night

Mono, Glasgow, Sun 29 Oct

11 Nov 2006

INDIE Almost three years to the day since Elliot Smith took his own life, it’s little surprise that tribute nights have sprung up in his honour. His glowing musical contribution and tragic passing mean that he now sits alongside Jeff Buckley and Kurt…

Funky String Band

Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, Fri 17 Nov

11 Nov 2006

FIDDLE 2006 Their first album sneaked out around 18 months ago, on Shooglenifty’s record label, and now ‘Nifty front man and fiddler Angus Grant, with mandolin maestro Luke Plumb and non-Shooglenifty member Peter Daffy are back in the studio making a…

Word Up - club news

Word Up

11 Nov 2006

More New Year’s Eve info for any forward planning you might be attempting (remember these events sell out well in advance). Starting with Glasgow: perhaps one of the most exciting signings for Hogmanay has to be Hot Chip (pictured) who will be putting…

LFO

Seismic at Glasgow School of Art, Fri 17 Nov

11 Nov 2006

TECHNO This night is a bit of a coup for Glasgow techno barons Seismic, in that they’ve managed to procure one of Britain’s leading techno originators for the occasion. Having seen the style emerge in Detroit at the end of the 80s, LFO - and in…

Horace Andy and Lee 'Scratch' Perry

The Arches, Glasgow, Thu 23 Nov

11 Nov 2006

REGGAE As an evergreen and optimistic worldwide phenomenon, reggae music is the undisputed good time king, and this fortnight offers the opportunity to witness two of the sound’s pre-eminent emissaries sharing the same stage. Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry…

Freeform Five

Profile

11 Nov 2006

Name Freeform Five Location London, UK Occupation Producers, remixers, dance music moguls. Sounds good, hit me with your info stick and beat me with the details Brought together through friendships formed at various educational institutions…

Scottish Opera: Tamerlano

Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Thu 16 & Sat 18 Nov; Festi

11 Nov 2006

OPERA Although Handel’s Tamerlano is one of the gems of Baroque opera, it is, oddly, very rarely performed. Or perhaps it’s not so odd, given that it is only relatively recently that such operas are gaining in renewed popularity. Conducting Scottish…

Colin Towns

Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 18 Nov

11 Nov 2006

JAZZ Colin Towns has an impressive track record as a film composer, but to jazz fans he is the man behind the excellent contemporary jazz big band, the Mask Orchestra, and Provocateur Records, an independent label that fostered an impressive roster…

A Right Royal Rumpus

Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Thu 23 Nov

11 Nov 2006

CHARITY CLUB NIGHT Even those who can’t stand her music might have felt a twinge of concern when it was announced that Kylie Minogue had breast cancer, and it’s heartening to hear she’s in remission, out and about, and getting back to normal. Yet…

Dispatch - Roddy Woomble

Keeping fit has never seemed so Orwellian but Rodd

11 Nov 2006

The Dispatch It feels like we’ve going through some sort of food revolution at the moment, or maybe it’s just because I’ve started to notice it a bit more now that I’ve started taking an interest in growing vegetables and reading books about soil…

Courtney Love

Dirty Blonde (Picador)

11 Nov 2006

CELEBRITY DIARIES When documentary-maker Jacques Peretti began a project about the final days of Kurt Cobain, his approach to Courtney Love was met with a firm rejection: ‘I don’t want to do the rock widow thang anymore.’ But, like or not, and as…

Robin Ince

11 Nov 2006

MY COMEDY HERO I’m an enormous fan of Alistair Sim and no one has been a better Scrooge than him. There’s something very real and humane but also very otherworldy too, which few comic actors have. It would be ridiculous not to include Laurel and…

Geoff Johns & Phil Jimenez

Infinite Crisis (DC)

11 Nov 2006

SUPERHERO Finally we get to the meat in the seemingly endless build up to DC’s earth shattering Infinite Crisis mega crossover. Comic fans will know that every now and then (usually once a summer) some huge calamity will threaten the universe our…

Callum Innes - From Memory

Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 19 Nov

11 Nov 2006

PAINTING Let’s just get it out the way quickly - there are some bad paintings in this mini-retrospective of Edinburgh-based Callum Innes at the Fruitmarket Gallery. Well, two at a push. This exhibition continues to receive such high praise (he’s both…

* Hitlist

Hitlist

11 Nov 2006

Don Paterson Alongside Jo Shapcott, the Dundee-born poet extraordinaire will be musing over the enduring love people have for German verse genius Rainer Maria Rilke. Recently, Paterson published his own take on Orpheus, Rilke’s masterful ode to love and…

* Hitlist

Hitlist

11 Nov 2006

Access vs Inner Rhythm The best in electro and techno as these two top nights prepare for a bout of decknical fisticuffs as Rolando and Savas Pascadilis square up. Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Fri 17 Nov. Read preview

* Hitlist

The best comedy

11 Nov 2006

Hitlist Phil Nichol (pictured) Not likely to be the most subtle comedy experience of your fortnight, but one which will surely live long and hard in the memory as the inaugural Eddies winner unleashes his all. See caption. The Stand, Glasgow, Thu…

Andrew Reid

11 Nov 2006

INSTALLATION The Changing Room, Stirling, until Sun 7 Jan 2007 The window of The Changing Room is transformed into the vitrine of a manufactured socio-cultural artefact. Andrew Reid’s installation - an almost entirely grey model - is a mixture…

Espers

11 Nov 2006

5 REASONS TO SEE 1 It’s folk rock, but not as you know it Actually, it’s folk rock exactly as you know it, if you remember the 70s, that is. Echoes of Fairport Convention, Pentangle and the Incredible String Band can be heard in the noodling…

Bamboo's Fourth Birthday

Bamboo, Glasgow, Sat 25 Nov

11 Nov 2006

HOUSE/SOUL/ELECTRO/INDIE In November 2002 Bamboo opened its doors for the first time. Four years on it celebrates its birthday with a night hosted by the people that made it what it is, residents, the Bamboo All Stars. When Bamboo first opened its…

Giles Bailey - Sound Examples for 'Average Performance' Experiments

Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, until Sat 18 Nov

11 Nov 2006

INSTALLATION AND PERFORMANCE What are we other than a bag of warped memories with some genitals attached? The decentered subject that was heralded almost 40 years ago is a theoretical construction that has just not caught on. The postmodern subject…

Cezary Bodzianowski

Sorcha Dallas Gallery, Glasgow, until Sat 25 Nov

11 Nov 2006

VIDEO INSTALLATION A convex mirror throws back your warped image from the corner of a space. You could be standing on the platform at Cowcadens watching yourself waiting for the tube, or standing in Cezary Bodzianowski’s exhibition at Sorcha Dallas…

Pitcairn Story, The

The Pitcairn Story

11 Nov 2006

CRIME DOCUMENTARY Sometimes, you think that you’ll have heard it all when it comes to child sex abuse stories. And then something like this comes along. In 2004, in the remote British colony of Pitcairn Island (population 47), six local men were…

* Hitlist

Hitlist

11 Nov 2006

DJ Shadow (pictured) His considerable rep may outweigh his recorded output but the hope is that this real live hip hop party will showcase his third, The Outsider, like it deserves. Carling Academy, Glasgow, Wed 29 Nov. (Rock & Pop)

Classical Hitlist

Hitlist

11 Nov 2006

Katherine Jenkins She used to be a school music teacher and now she is the fastest selling female opera singer since Maria Callas. As the ‘Forces Sweetheart’, Jenkins has been entertaining the troops in Iraq and Kosovo and she’s also the official mascot…

* Hitlist

Hitlist

11 Nov 2006

Cezary Bodzianowski - Solo New video works by Poland’s favourite artist, created specifically for this show and taking his experiences of Glasgow as subject matter. Bozianowski creates witty situations that are always tinged with darkness. Sorcha…

Artbeat

Gossip, chat and rumour from the gallery floor

11 Nov 2006

Some of Scotland’s artists have donated paintings, prints, drawings and photographs to be exhibited and sold to raise funds for Terrence Higgins Trust Scotland, which is now part of the UK’s leading HIV and sexual health charity. The exhibition…

Phil Kay

11 Nov 2006

5 THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT... 1 The manically surrealist one was the second ever winner of the prestigious So You Think You’re Funny award. Fellow Scot Bruce Morton won the inaugural prize in 1988 and the likes of Rhona Cameron, Dylan Moran…

Music books

11 Nov 2006

Gorillaz - Rise of the Ogre (Penguin Michael Joseph) The actual autobiography of a fictional band should be pretty hot stuff, but despite the claims, Murdoc and pals end up duetting with Madge, sipping champagne and generally being bling in a cartoony…

* Hitlist

Hitlist

11 Nov 2006

Cathay House Blend Chinese tea, mahjong and calligraphy are set beside Tai-chi dance, which is soundtracked by Chinese instruments and electronica from Edinburgh band, Found. Royal Museum, Edinburgh, Sat 18 Nov.

Charlie Fletcher - Stoneheart

Charlie Fletcher

11 Nov 2006

BOOK PREVIEW Inanimate objects coming to life is a staple of kids and fantasy literature. And advertising too, if you can picture a car breaking down into its components and strolling around like a very tall human. In Charlie Fletcher’s children’s…

Our Lunar Activities and The Gems

Nice’n’Sleazy, Glasgow, Sun 5 Nov

11 Nov 2006

ALT ROCK What better way to pull in punters on a windy Sunday’s eve than with the lure of Sleazy’s womb-like interior, free warm Red Stripe and hard, driving rock? Launching their new single ‘It Comes in Waves’, Our Lunar Activities were the night’s…

Tim Moore

Nul Points (Jonathan Cape)

11 Nov 2006

COMIC TRAVELOGUE Tim Moore usurped Bill Bryson’s humorous travel writing crown by putting himself through dreadful physical hardship ?" cycling the route of the Tour de France, dragging a braying donkey along the pilgrim trail to Santiago de…

Angus Dunn

Writing in the Sand (Luath)

11 Nov 2006

SUPERNATURAL TALE The image of the sleepy insular community rocked by some sinister supernatural force has been a cultural staple, from Daphne Du Maurier’s The Birds through to the surreal chills of Twin Peaks. In his debut novel, erstwhile joiner…

Julian Rothenstein & Mel Gooding

Dr Clock’s Handbook (Redstone)

11 Nov 2006

COMIC MANUAL It’s a novel idea this, a mis-guide book. And if there’s anyone more suitably equipped to publish a tome on the magic and sparkle of the absurd, it’s Redstone, the company that unleashes David Shrigley’s books on us at irregular…

Patrick McCabe

Winterwood (Bloomsbury)

11 Nov 2006

RURAL DRAMA Award-winning novelist Patrick McCabe is known for his darkly violent books which mine the disturbing underbelly of rural Ireland, a setting he knows well from his own upbringing. Winterwood is no exception, telling the story of Redmond…

Aluminium - album review

Aluminium

11 Nov 2006

CHAMBER BLUES It is a credit to the quality of Jack White’s songwriting that the spare blues twangs of The White Stripes can be re-imagined as avant garde orchestral recordings. This is the challenge taken up by a clutch of the country’s finest young…

Veils, The - album review

The Veils

11 Nov 2006

ROCK POP FOLK This New Zealand band fronted by beguilingly vulnerable lead singer and songwriter Finn Andrews return with their first album proper since their court battle with Blanco y Negro records and the disbandment of the original line up in…

Various - Yourcodenameis:Milo Presents - album review

Various

11 Nov 2006

ECLECTIC Cypress Hill producer and general mastermind (he was obviously the one who did the skinning up rather than smoking) DJ Muggs released a series of albums in the early 90s where he enlisted collaborations from his favourite rappers. The result…

Don Byron - album review

Don Byron

11 Nov 2006

JAZZ Don Byron has a reputation for embarking on eclectic and occasionally rather eccentric musical projects. This latest outing is a tribute to the music of the Motown sax star Junior Walker, a choice that also provided the perfect excuse for the…

Ingrid Laubrock & Liam Noble - album review

Ingrid Laubrock & Liam Noble

11 Nov 2006

JAZZ Saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and pianist Liam Noble convene for an duet session that mixes entirely improvised material with freely-treated interpretations of standards and classic jazz tunes like Monk’s ‘We See’ and ‘Let’s Call This’, Mingus…

Bob Pegg - album review

Bob Pegg

11 Nov 2006

FOLK Yorkshire-born Bob Pegg lives in the Scottish Highlands these days, and is still active in music and storytelling, but the material on this two CD set dates from the aftermath of Mr Fox, the band he co-led with his then wife, Carole. The band…

Greg Rucka, Marl Verheiden, Gail Simone & Various

Superman: Sacrifice (DC)

11 Nov 2006

SUPERHERO Yet another chapter in DC’s gargantuan Infinite Crisis, this one at least lends a little character work to the usual monolithic superhero dust-ups that usually infest such crossovers. We start off with Superman undergoing a crisis of…

Henrik Schwarz: DJ-Kicks - album review

Various

11 Nov 2006

SOUL As anyone who owns a DJ-Kicks CD will tell you, the label is a hallmark of a certain rare quality. Maverick producer Henrik Schwarz doesn’t diminish this fierce reputation in the slightest. His 23-track mix reflects the German’s impeccable…

Kling Klang - album review

Kling Klang

11 Nov 2006

ELECTROCK It is more than just a case of simple mathematics to take the weight and depth of Black Sabbath and fuse them with the rhythmic insistency and melodic crispness of Kraftwerk to create the near-perfect analogue bubble bath. Kling Klang have…

Kultur Shock - album review

Kultur Shock

11 Nov 2006

WORLD ESOTERIC Insane Seattle-based collective Kultur Shock have been gathering Bosnian, Bulgarian, Japanese and American members for almost ten years now with the sole intention of mashing up the music of their homelands in hitherto unrealised…