Issue 574

Arctic Monkeys

ROCK

26 Apr 2007

The weight of expectation hasn’t affected the Arctic Monkeys one iota. They’ve hardly broken their stride and have tossed off a second album of casual brilliance. It almost feels unfair how off the cuff Favourite Worst Nightmare feels; the lyrics are as…

American Literature

Born fighting

24 Apr 2007

At the exact moment Chuck Palahniuk greets me with a hushed ‘Hello?’ his home in south-western Washington State is being invaded by a group of unfamiliar men who are chanting in unison at the author: ‘His name is Robert Paulson!’

Mark O'Keeffe

Records

26 Apr 2007

CONTEMPORARY JAZZ The Edinburgh-based label is doing its fair share to support contemporary Scottish composition. The Edinburgh Quartet’s fine recent disc of new Scottish string quartets, The Cold Dancer, is followed by this solo outing from the BBC…

Scottish Opera

Access all arias

24 Apr 2007

It’s the climax of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Having sung themselves into a state of romantic bliss, the delicate geisha and her American lieutenant lover fall into each other’s arms. Their lips are trembling on the verge of a succulent kiss when a man…

Carthage Must Be Destroyed

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 27 Apr - Sat 19 May

23 Apr 2007

NEW WORK The history play is, and has always been, a way to speak of contemporary times. Just as Shakespeare’s versions of Henry V, Richard III and even King Lear were more a commentary on contemporary events than the past, so every history play…

Comics - Spider-Man Family 1 & 2

Various

23 Apr 2007

SUPERHERO Some may call it cynical marketing that Spider-Man is ‘back in black’ just as the new film hits the screens, but hey he looks cool as hell so we’ll forgive Marvel. Spider-Man Family is the latest monthly to hit the shelves, an anthology…

Ross Noble

ROSS NOBLE ON

23 Apr 2007

CD Ross Noble is a comic who, like the best of them, splits the crowd straight down the middle. To some he is a rambling muppet with an array of silly voices whose seeming lack of script results in him endlessly stumbling up comedic cul de sacs. The…

Dirty Wee Middens

Dirty Wee Middens, Lycanthrope and Billy Liar

23 Apr 2007

HORROR PUNK Dundee is spewing forth all kinds of interesting bands lately and Dirty Wee Middens are no exception. Despite slatherings of ghoulish make-up (as far away from The View as you can imagine), the Middens definitely have a pulse and it is…

Fiona Jardine

Interview

23 Apr 2007

Alexander Kennedy What will you be showing? Fiona Jardine I’m showing a series of photographs which have developed from my interest in, on the one hand, the image of the suited figure - an unconscious appreciation of it as well as particular…

Loz Speyer’s Time Zone

The Tolbooth, Stirling, Sat 5 May

23 Apr 2007

JAZZ London-based trumpeter Loz Speyer has been spending a lot of time in Cuba since he last toured Scotland, and that will be reflected in the music he will perform with Time Zone. This short Scottish tour (they also play Montrose and some Highland…

Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators

Liquid Room, Edinburgh, Sat 28 Apr; Renfrew Ferry,

23 Apr 2007

RETRO FUNK SOUL With the release of Keep Reachin’ Up last year, Nicole Willis found herself the subject of funk-soul lovers’ adoration and press applause. But as much as she is pleased with the album’s outcome, the 20 year careerist who has recorded…

Peter Jaques: Babble

The Corn Exchange Gallery, Edinburgh, Fri 27 Apr - Thu 14 Jun

23 Apr 2007

PHOTOGRAPHY Locking yourself in a pitch black basement with a dog and writing excerpts from ancient Greek texts such as Orpheus and Eurydice and The Twelve Labours of Hercules onto photographic paper with an old style quill pen dipped in chemicals…

* Hitlist (Classical)

Hitlist

26 Apr 2007

The Sixteen: Music from the Sistine Chapel The seventh choral pilgrimage of this outstanding group of 16 singers takes the Renaissance music of the Papal chapels as its inspiration. The sumptuous sounds of Allegri’s famous Miserere forms the centrepiece…

Arts and minds

News

24 Apr 2007

Mark Cousins: Film writer I’d like to see art schools for 15-year-olds. I’d like the excitement of philosophy and aesthetics to be taught at primary school. I’d like our media to be more passionate about art and culture. I’d like modern…

* Hitlist

Hitlist

23 Apr 2007

Maria McKee (pictured) Her new album Late December has finally arrived, featuring skilfully drawn, unassuming alt.country nuggets. Oran Mor, Glasgow, Sat 28 Apr; Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Mon 30 Apr. (Rock & Pop)

65daysofstatic

Exposure

23 Apr 2007

65daysofstatic are a Sheffield rock band who are distinctly different to their indie-bretheren. Combining drum & bass beats, glitches and synths over an instrumental rock template has seen them win over the rock press, Zane Lowe and the late John Peel.

Alex Pollard

White lines, black marks

23 Apr 2007

If the 70s were the era that fashion forgot, the 80s were the decade that fashion had a gushing aneurism. There was something for everyone, with David Bowie managing to embrace almost every genre and fashion. Thankfully he lost it in the 90s and we got…

Hitlist - The best events, talk and sport

23 Apr 2007

Beltane Fire Festival The 20th anniversary of the wild, blazing ritual festival welcoming in the spring. Join the May Queen (pictured), her consort the Green Man, armies of White Women and naked Red Men and around 10,000 revellers up Calton Hill. Ticket…

Man of La Mancha

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 19 May

23 Apr 2007

MUSICAL There’s an impressive gusto to Dale Wasserman’s version, with words by Joe Darion and music by Mitch Leigh, of Cervantes’ Don Quixote. There is also a certain underlying complexity in its insistent questioning of reality, idealism and…

Neil Clements: Paranoid

SouthSide Studios, Fridge Gallery, Glasgow (viewing by appointment Sat 14-Sun 29 Apr)

23 Apr 2007

PAINTING AND INSTALLATION The small, dimly lit Fridge gallery acts like a mausoleum for Glasgow-based Neil Clements to create a painting, light and sound installation that takes an image of Op Art heroine Bridget Riley and the emergence of the…

Profile - Kenny Dixon Jr

Profile

23 Apr 2007

Name Kenny Dixon Jr Occupation Modern-day torch-bearer for the Detroit techno sound, and indefatigable producer, label boss, alias collector and live DJ. Where might I have heard of him? If his given name doesn’t ring any bells, his arguably…

Spektrum

Dfrnt Trouble at The Caves, Edinburgh, Fri 27 Apr;

23 Apr 2007

PUNK FUNK Where London quartet Spektrum initially capitalised to good effect on the nascent punk-funk movement that American contemporaries like The Rapture, Radio 4 and the nascent LCD Soundsystem were developing, their new album Fun At The Gymkhana…

Pinhole Photography Day

Life through an absent lens

26 Apr 2007

Contemporary life is cluttered with days commemorating anything and everything. April 30 is, of all things, Hairstyle Appreciation Day. Personally I’m not especially interested in celebrating perfectly coiffed locks, but occasionally one of these events…

Travis

Records

26 Apr 2007

POP The scholarly quest for songcraft for songcraft’s sake is now the only real endeavour for Travis these days, which is preferable of course to trying to regain former glories that, as their contemporaries Oasis will never tell you, are…

Eating & Drinking Awards

News

24 Apr 2007

Words: Allan Radcliffe (Left to right: The Kitchin and Bistro at One Devonshire) As the 14th annual Eating and Drinking Guide is published, The List can exclusively reveal the winners of this year’s awards for Best Restaurant, Best New…