Issue 594

Out of the west

2008 Glasgow Film Festival programme launched

24 Jan 2008

On the day the 2008 Oscar nominations were announced, the stars and main players of Scottish film and media gathered at Glasgow Film Theatre’s Cinema One to hear some much more significant film news. On Tuesday 22 January the programme for the fourth…

Tight Budget

17 Jan 2008

Going for a song January is a great time to check out up-and-coming bands for free. Remember, even the most unpromising nights can be historic. On the west coast, Mono, Stereo, 78, the Liquid Ship and Tchai Ovna all have exciting free line-ups. In…

Manga

17 Jan 2008

It’s not always easy being a pioneer, something Neil Armstrong, Christopher Columbus or Marie Curie would have no doubt attested to. The same can be said for George Macdonald, lesser known perhaps, but equally forward thinking in his field: the world of…

Eat - No 1 Sushi Bar

17 Jan 2008

THE MEAL Stories of fine Scottish wild salmon being caught, frozen and flown to high end restaurants in Japan are closer to the truth than you might think. Why then does sushi remain such niche cuisine in this country? In Scotland, Japanese…

Celtic Connections

17 Jan 2008

KIDS’ WORKSHOPS Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Sat 19 Jan (percussion) & Sat 26 Jan (singing) Given that most children derive pleasure from a) making lots of noise and b) hitting things, a drumming workshop for kids seems like a match made in…

Josh Brolin

17 Jan 2008

Josh Brolin has arguably been the most industrious American actor of the past year. In Robert Rodriguez’ Grindhouse homage Planet Terror, he was full of ticks and outlandish gimmicks as Dr William Block. In American Gangster Brolin acted Russell Crowe…

Holocaust Memorial Day

17 Jan 2008

For most of Scotland, the end of January means Burns Night. Whisky, tradition and rousing renditions of ‘A Man’s A Man For A’ That’; a time for national nostalgia and a noisy assertion, however fleeting, of equality. Perhaps it’s fitting then that a…

Headspin's 10th Birthday

17 Jan 2008

It was the winter of 98, and, inspired by fellow leftfield institution Messenger Sound System, Allan Dunbar and Steve Austen landed themselves a brand new club night at the old Bongo, determined they were going to put on something a little different…

Duty Free

17 Jan 2008

2008 heralds the arrival of a brand spanking new bunch of bands for us to sink our teeth into. But which ones will re-invent new rave, who will outdo The Horrors in the hair department, out-kook Kate Nash or beat the Arctic Monkeys in a pithy lyric…

No Country For Old Men

17 Jan 2008

THRILLER (15) 122min After the public ambivalence and critical lambasting of their last two films – Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers – the Coen Brothers return to form with this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel, which features many…

The Savages

17 Jan 2008

DRAMA (15) 114min Nine years after her 1998 feature debut Slums of Beverley Hills, writer-director Tamara Jenkins returns with this richly observed and terrifically acted character study. The Savages of the title are a pair of intellectual…

Ever So Sweet launch party

17 Jan 2008

Now that we’ve got your attention, how exactly to describe this event? There are cakes, there are bands, there’s an auction. The cakes are very, very, very good, one of the bands is called Dick Dangerous & the Love Bastards (we’re, like, so there), and…

Derrick May

17 Jan 2008

TECHNO Pressure at the Arches, Glasgow, Fri 25 Jan ‘Trying to save the world from bad music.’ That’s the motto Derrick May lives by these days. Arguably he’s already done that though, given that, alongside his old Belleville, Detroit high school…

Alex Metric

17 Jan 2008

ELECTRO-HOUSE Sugarbeat at Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Fri 25 Jan. His star has been rising through a selection of remixes and self-productions for the last couple of years now, and it seems entirely possible that Alex Metric’s first date of 2008…

Introducing . . . Weak at the Knees

17 Jan 2008

The best new nights in town. This month: Weak at the Knees Residents Perry Louis (Jazz Café, Point 101, the JazzCotech Dancers) Guests Ronnie Coldsweat, London funk aficionado and devotee of all things Prince, Cameo and Leroy Burgess.

Edward Bond

17 Jan 2008

Steve Cramer A lot of your work involves the use of violence, both physical and psychological. Why do you think this is so prevalent in society? Edward Bond Human beings have a capacity, but not a need to be violent. In our society we have a basic…

Alan Grant

17 Jan 2008

We’ve passed several science fiction milestones in the last 25 years with George Orwell’s 1984, Arthur C Clarke’s 2001 and the speculative 1997 proposed in Predator 2. And, while the exact facts within these fictions may not have come to pass, there are…

Celtic Connections

17 Jan 2008

Music isn’t what it used to be. This is something we have to be thankful for as the constant evolution, recycling and re-fashioning of music means there’s always someone out there trying to do things a bit differently. While there’s been much carping…

Stars

17 Jan 2008

POP Oran Mor, Glasgow, Sun 27 Jan Stars describe their music as ‘melodramatic popular song’, an accurate if tongue-in-cheek description of the grandly-monikered In Our Bedroom After the War, released last year. But Stars’ emotional rawness and…

Pharoah Sanders

17 Jan 2008

JAZZ The Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Tue 29 Jan The chance to hear jazz patriarch Pharoah Sanders in a small venue doesn’t come around often, and should be a memorable experience. He first came to wide notice when his acerbic, free-blowing saxophone…

Andrew O’Hagan (Ed) - A Night Out with Robert Burns: The Greatest Poems

17 Jan 2008

POETRY COLLECTION (Canongate) Robert Burns has been ‘sainted, painted, tormented and toasted’, as the book blurb playfully informs us. He is also a source of boredom for schoolchildren, linguistic perplexity for non-Scots and undiluted pleasure for…

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

17 Jan 2008

CLASSICAL City Halls, Glasgow Fri 18 Jan; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 19 Jan From the familiar tunes of Vivaldi’s pre-Christmas Four Seasons to four saxophones performing a brand new piece of music is quite a leap. Four is also the number of…

Plain White T's

17 Jan 2008

ALT.ROCK Barrowland, Glasgow, Fri 25 Jan Dave Tirio is asleep. Fifteen minutes after the interview is scheduled to start he’s probably dreaming about number ones and sell-out tours. But these things are fast becoming more than dreams for the…

Pete Firman

17 Jan 2008

MAGIC The Pleasance Cabaret Bar, Edinburgh, Tue 29 Jan Can you actually imagine anything less appealing in the theatrical sphere than a magic act? All that showing off with handkerchiefs and bunny rabbits and saws and tasselled ladies is simply…

Play Ball

17 Jan 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 26 Jan Nina Rajarani is not afraid to mix things up. In her latest show, the London-based choreographer has merged a typically female Indian dance style with two largely male domains: the…

Singles & Downloads

17 Jan 2008

Destiny’s Child alumnus Kelly Rowland ’s ‘Work’ (SonyBMG) ••• might be one for the ladies, but by endlessly declaring, ‘Put it in, do it do it’, she’ll no doubt be fuelling chauvinistic male debate on whether one would oblige, fearing it lessen the…

The Futureheads

17 Jan 2008

INDIE Strathclyde University Students’ Union, Glasgow, Thu 24 Jan The Futureheads could quite easily have ended up on the rock’n’roll scrap heap when the angular impulse in British guitar music faded circa 2006. In the two years prior, the…

Explosions in the Sky

17 Jan 2008

POST ROCK Barrowland, Glasgow, Sun 27 Jan What’s in a band name? In the case of Explosions in the Sky, a pretty accurate description of the mental images conjured up when they play. The intense and intelligent four-piece band from Austin, Texas…

Translations

17 Jan 2008

MODERN CLASSIC Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 23 Jan–Sat 2 Feb The nearest thing we have to Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha county on our side of the Atlantic is another fictional place with an anchor in reality, Brian Friel’s Ballybeg, a made-up small…

Great Expectations

17 Jan 2008

ADAPTATION The Byre Theatre, St Andrews, Thu 31 Jan–Sat 9 Feb, then touring ‘What is it that makes a person? How possible is it to escape your past? Are you trapped by it or does it give you a platform from which to move forward?’ These are the…

Act One

17 Jan 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 31 Jan When you talk about battles on the dancefloor, it usually involves a hip hop crew and some fairly heavy beats. But when Charlotte Vincent, artistic director of Vincent Dance Theatre, created…

Manipulate

17 Jan 2008

PUPPET ANIMATION FESTIVAL Dundee Rep, Tue 22–Thu 31 Jan Even for hardened theatre goers, a performance that plunges the dark depths of the human psyche using puppets is pretty exceptional. Manipulate, a new festival promoting puppetry, shadow…

Barry

17 Jan 2008

REVIVAL Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 22–Sat 26 Jan Feminism in its various guises has been around for many years, but Rowan Tree Theatre Company’s new production of Frederic Mohr’s one woman show Barry hints that women haven’t advanced quite as…

Laura Linney

17 Jan 2008

Breezing into a Soho hotel room on a sunny autumn morning during the London Film Festival, a smiling Laura Linney exudes a patrician charm and confidence. One of her fingers is encased in a splint, the result of a bathroom accident that very morning…

Travel - Stavanger

17 Jan 2008

If Disney had designed the streets outside Duncan Robertson’s studio, you’d say it was too Mickey Mouse to be true. Like the view of the sunlit mountains that skirt the edge of the city, the wooden houses of Stavanger’s old town are chocolate box cute.

Remote Control

17 Jan 2008

So, having kicked off the year in fine style with the inventive and cheeky Moving Wallpaper, it looked like things were on the up for all those on the good ship ITV. Well, hold your horses because normal service has been thoroughly resumed with the…

Shop - Interior designers

17 Jan 2008

The retro beat of 50s Hollywood is playing in your head. You sit back on your patchwork leather sofa, sip Rennaisance Laudenam elixir and relax in the silhouette created by metallic light clusters and stained glass lanterns... Interiors inspiration…

News Extra

17 Jan 2008

Scots star David Tennant has taken time out from his Doctor Who schedule to film a promotional video for leading St Andrews-based cancer charity, AICR (Association for International Cancer Research). A patron for the charity, Tennant has said he hoped…

Donald Urquhart

17 Jan 2008

While this exhibition of drawings by Edinburgh-based Donald Urquhart, who is more commonly associated with sculptural public art projects such as ‘The Sanctuary’ at Edinburgh’s New Royal Infirmary, is billed as covering the period 1977–2007, that’s…

Play - 2000AD

17 Jan 2008

While movies based on superhero comics are still doing big business (Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight are coming in 2008), comic books remain as ghettoised as ever. The genre’s mass appeal has been on the wane for 20 years, with comics…

NEWS - Edinburgh’s King’s Theatre

17 Jan 2008

Last week’s announcement that there was ‘no imminent threat’ of closure to Edinburgh’s King’s Theatre arrived amid increased fears that the space would have to close its doors to comply with safety regulations. With any major much-needed facelift…

DVD Round-Up

17 Jan 2008

Lovely late January. It’s dark, cold and you’re broke. Illness and recovery have become your best friends. Not to worry, there’s always the N oel Coward Collection (Second Entertainment •••) to get through. This is a star-studded collection of BBC…

Interview - Matthew Buckingham

17 Jan 2008

Alexander Kennedy talks to Matthew Buckingham about his new film installations at DCA AK Tell us about the work you are showing at DCA. MB The three larger projects on view at the DCA are each organized around some of the questions that arise…

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox story

17 Jan 2008

MOCKUMENTARY (15) 96min ‘What do we think about, when we think about Cox?’ says an admirably straight-faced Eddie Vedder addressing an awards ceremony at the climax of writer/director Jake Kasdan’s accomplished musical mockumentry. Spoofing The…

In the Valley of Elah

17 Jan 2008

WAR THRILLER (15) 121min Having had his projects garlanded with Oscars for writing (Million Dollar Baby) and direction (Crash), the wheels finally come off the Paul Haggis bandwagon with In The Valley of Elah, a well-acted but deathly dull…

Collage City

17 Jan 2008

PAINTING, SCULPTURE, PRINTMAKING, PHOTOGRAPHY Dean Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 24 Feb This latest offering from the Dean Gallery has drawn a number of key works out from the Gallery of Modern Art’s permanent collection to create an unassuming and…

The Glass Menagerie

17 Jan 2008

MODERN CLASSIC Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 9 Feb For all its insight into character and human emotion, Tennessee Williams’ earliest hit is perhaps the least of his major plays, with the excesses of sentiment in the text too often…

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

17 Jan 2008

MUSICAL/HORROR (18) 116min Stephen Sondheim’s landmark 1979 Broadway musical has now been given the Tim Burton treatment. The director’s favourite actor, Johnny Depp, ditches the cutesy mannerisms he brought to Edward Scissorhands and Pirates of…

Wonderland

17 Jan 2008

DOCUMENTARY SEASON BBC2, Wed, 9.50pm Being on the margins can be horribly uncomfortable, a conscious choice or a place to inhabit in blissful ignorance. All three scenarios crop up in this intriguing new BBC2 season. The Secret Life of Norman…

Alan Michael: Touch Void

17 Jan 2008

PAINTING Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 19 Jan–Sat 1 Mar Graduating from Glasgow School of Art’s MFA course in 1998, 40-year-old painter Alan Michael, who remains based in the city, has built a steady reputation, with last year’s solo shows…

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

17 Jan 2008

MUSICAL Playhouse, Edinburgh, until Sat 19 Jan Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s enduring piece of theatrical bubblegum may have started life as a modest school production, but the atmosphere in the packed Playhouse auditorium is as feverish as a…

The Good Night

17 Jan 2008

COMEDY/DRAMA/ROMANCE (15) 93min Not above cashing-in on family connections, writer/director Jake Paltrow’s romantic comedy casts his older sister Gwyneth as the dowdy, disaffected partner of commercial jingle writer Gary (Martin Freeman). A kind…

Aliens Vs Predator – Requiem

17 Jan 2008

SCI-FI/HORROR (15) 86min In the ongoing saga of a faceless corporation which creates a monster it doesn’t know how to handle, there are obvious parallels between the universe featured in the Alien films and Fox’s treatment of the franchise itself.

The Blue Room

17 Jan 2008

REVIVAL Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 22 Jan–Sat 26 Jan Mention David Hare’s adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde to even the most occasional of theatregoers, and there’ll be instant recollections of its notorious nude scenes, originally…

Travel - Excess Baggage

17 Jan 2008

Hurrah! The government has relaxed the restrictions on excess carry-on baggage, something this column obviously feels very strongly about. Following their lead, 22 airports, including Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Heathrow, have relaxed the one-bag…

Spencer Sweeney

17 Jan 2008

PAINTING The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Sat 23 Feb New York-based painter Spencer Sweeney’s art seems to be suffering from a personality crisis, with stylistic approaches, materials and assumed personas thrown into a big American Magimix…

Lady Godiva

17 Jan 2008

ROMANCE (12A) 95min According to legend, Lady Godiva was the wife of an 11th century nobleman, who rode naked through the streets of Coventry in a successful act of protest against her husband’s taxation of his subjects. Here, in her debut…

Queer Mutiny

17 Jan 2008

ALTERNATIVE GAY NIGHT Forest Café, Edinburgh, Fri 18 Jan The dark nooks and free’n’easy hedonism of gay venues such as the Polo Lounge and CC Blooms aren’t for everyone. Queer Mutiny and Queeruption groups are springing up across the world. Their…

Clarinda

17 Jan 2008

MUSIC THEATRE Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh, Fri 25 Jan–Sat 2 Feb, then touring Of the many sensations that surround the life of Robert Burns, one of the most notable was his close friendship with Agnes McLehose in Edinburgh. Although…

5 Reasons To Go See - British Sea Power

17 Jan 2008

1 Do You Like Rock Music? British Sea Power do, so much so that the Brighton foursome have called their rambunctious third album Do You Like Rock Music? In the case of the album, the answer is undoubtedly ‘yes’. 2 You can wave a flag The band’s new…

Sydney White

17 Jan 2008

Ever since Amy Heckerling’s Clueless loosely adapted Jane Austen’s Emma to a modern High School setting it’s been the done thing to drop classic texts into a contemporary teenage setting. Joe Nussbaum’s Sydney White, which was released in the US shortly…

Potential Strangers

17 Jan 2008

FOLK Concrete Campfire@the Observatory, Glasgow, Sat 5 Jan Less a band than an ‘entity’, as they put it, Potential Strangers is essentially a fluid, five musicians-strong vehicle for the tunes of Harris-born singer-songwriter Dòl Eoin, an affable…

Beerjacket and Kate Sutherland

17 Jan 2008

ACOUSTIC Brel, Glasgow, Thu 20 Dec Katie Sutherland’s motivation for picking up a guitar was, she explains: ‘I wanted to do more than listen. I wanted to play. So I bought a Jim Deacon and taught myself guitar.’ It proves to have been a very wise…

Findo Gask, Someyoungpedro and How to Swim

17 Jan 2008

ELECTRO-POP/PUNK/ROCK Stereo, Glasgow, Fri 21 Dec ‘Twas a few nights before Christmas, and all sorts were stirring. How to Swim firstly – an eight-piece who have been bigged up by this publication plenty of times for their wailing…

One Book – One Edinburgh

17 Jan 2008

The Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust launches its second One Book – One Edinburgh citywide reading campaign next month, which this year is based around Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The initiative aims to…

The Duel Project (Aragami and 2LDK)

17 Jan 2008

DOUBLE FEATURE (18) 145min (Tartan Asia Extreme DVD rental/retail) The result of a challenge given to two promising young Japanese directors by Shinya Kawai, the producer of Ring, this taut double feature is an exercise in disciplined filmmaking.

Play - Crysis

17 Jan 2008

PC (EA) Did Santa bring you a nice new shiny computer? Is it so powerful you need your own wind farm to run it? Let’s hope so because Crysis demands it. Actually, that’s not fair. The new shooter from the Far Cry team is perfectly playable on a…

Damian Thompson - Counterknowledge

17 Jan 2008

HISTORY (Atlantic) Conspiracy theories, alternative medicine, creationism and the like are all notions consigned largely to the outer reaches of societal thinking, right? Wrong, according to Damian Thompson. Having spread – largely care of the…

Play - Guitar Hero III

17 Jan 2008

XBOX 360/PS3/PS2 (Activision) Guitar Hero is always a joy. As a party game it is unsurpassed, producing some of the silliest sights you’ll ever see. The game’s perfectly pitched balance of piss-take and rock reverence always delights while the…

Slacker

17 Jan 2008

COMEDY/DRAMA (15) 93min (Metrodome rental/retail) Originally released in 1991, Richard Linklater’s fine low-budget second feature may bring to mind one of contemporary cinema’s most over-used storytelling devices: the multiple character tale. But…

Mike Dash - Satan’s Circus

17 Jan 2008

TRUE CRIME (Granta) ‘Nearly five million men and women have served the United States as police officers. Only one has been executed for murder.’ There is little doubt that Charles Becker was more than just a bad apple, in an early 20th century New…

Stephen King - Duma Key

17 Jan 2008

SUPERNATURAL DRAMA (Hodder & Stoughton) Pseudonyms and non-fiction works all-in, Stephen King raises his bat for the half-century with this long-winded Florida ghost story. He is, of course, infamous for the filmic adaptations of his sinister novels…

Mark Wernham - Martin Martin’s on the Other Side

17 Jan 2008

FUTURISTIC DRAMA (Jonathan Cape) Comparing a book to A Clockwork Orange and 1984 in the press release is a risky tactic, and one which backfires on this underwhelming debut. In the near future, we’re in the company of Jensen Interceptor, a…

Invisible Waves

17 Jan 2008

DRAMA (18) 115min (Tartan DVD retail/rental) Half noir, half melancholic meditation on sins that won’t go away, Last Life in the Universe director Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s film is a mixture of the clumsy and the allusively accomplished. Sometimes it…

Play - Super Mario Galaxy

17 Jan 2008

WII (Nintendo) Richard Dawkins, Oxford University’s Chair for the Public Understanding of Science, believes humanity’s ability to understand the world is limited by its interaction. Because of our size, our lifespan, the pace at which our lives…

Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra - Exploration

17 Jan 2008

JAZZ (Spartacus Records) There is ample evidence here that the flow of talent on the Scottish jazz scene continues unabated. Saxophonist Tommy Smith launched this big band at his own expense in 2002 to help foster the cream of Scotland’s emerging…

Rick Veitch & Gary Erskine - Army@Love: The Hot Zone Club

17 Jan 2008

WAR/SATIRE (DC/Titan) Given the irreverent nature, speedy production and counterculture placement of the medium, it’s unsurprising that comics should come in under the radar with a satirical first strike at the bogus war in the Middle East. American…

Warren Ellis, Cary Nord & Dave Stewart - Ultimate Human No.1

17 Jan 2008

SUPERHERO (Marvel) Marvel’s Ultimate line was intended to reinvent the company’s main characters for the 21st century, to drag them out of the hands of continuity-obsessed fanboys for a while and show off how well superhero stories could function as a…

Also Published - 5 Unit Shifters

17 Jan 2008

Cathy Kelly - Lessons in Heartbreak Izzie has broken her own rules about having affairs with married men while her ageing aunt has just discovered her husband’s infidelity. HarperCollins. Monty Don - Around the World in 80 Gardens The presenter…

Eagle Vs Shark

17 Jan 2008

COMEDY (15) 84min (Optimum DVD rental/retail) With its sweet soul and crumbly heart, you’d think that Eagle vs Shark would only be fit for shooting out of the sky or being drowned at birth. But in the hands of writer/director Taika Waititi and…

Jeff Smith - Shazam!: Monster Society of Evil

17 Jan 2008

SUPER HERO (DC) Jeff Smith will forever be known for his wonderful, self-published, multi-award-winning Bone series, a whimsical fantasy tale that got the balance of childish wonder and compelling storytelling just right. Here he takes on Captain…

Sherrybaby

17 Jan 2008

DRAMA (15) 92min (Metrodome DVD retail/rental) A useful companion piece to the much more lauded Half Nelson, this story about a woman trying to get her life together after a prison sentence and a drug habit, utilises a quirky visual style to…

Robert Venditti & Brett Weldele - The Surrogates

17 Jan 2008

SCI-FI (Top Shelf) In the near-future cybernetic surrogates will live our lives for us, reducing humanity to a race of reclusive couch potatoes. That’s the intriguing premise of this cleverly conceived and smartly executed science fiction/crime…

Jamil Sheriff Octet - Backchat

17 Jan 2008

JAZZ (Jazz Services) This disc marks the launch of the new Recording Support Scheme begun last year by the UK’s jazz umbrella organisation, Jazz Services, and gets the scheme off to an auspicious start. Pianist Jamil Sheriff hails from Bolton, and…

The Magnetic Fields - Distortion

17 Jan 2008

INDIE (Nonesuch) Ostentatious douchebag or modern master of clever pop, Stephin Merritt certainly knows how to divide opinion – and ten offerings down the line, there’s still no stopping him. Following I, which featured entire songs that began with…

Fleming centenary

17 Jan 2008

Details of 007 creator Ian Fleming’s centenary year celebrations have been announced. As part of the festivities, acclaimed Birdsong writer, Sebastian Faulks, has written new James Bond tome, Devil May Care, due for publication this Spring. Penguin will…

Sons & Daughters - This Gift

17 Jan 2008

ROCK (Domino) Everything about this record is a massive leap forward which, consider S&D were pretty shit hot in the first place, is really saying something. From the poptastic hooks to the pristine production (courtesy of Bernard Butler), from Adele…

The Young Republic - 12 Tales From the Winter City

17 Jan 2008

ECLECTIC (End of the Road) It’s a rare thing to have to turn the term ‘genre defying’ against a band, but in the case of Boston octet The Young Republic there’s little alternative. Although rich in melody, texture and skilled playing (all eight…

Finniston - Organised for Hi-Fi

17 Jan 2008

GUITAR POP (Ruby) This is the debut album from Glasgow-based guitar pop outfit Finniston, and maybe they’ll get better with time, but at the moment they sound as if they’re struggling to find their own distinctive voice. This is all reasonably…

Kim Novak - Luck & Accident

17 Jan 2008

ROCK (Talitres) Does the influence of Coldplay know no bounds? Even the normally independent-minded French are succumbing to the epic rock bug, as this rather derivative debut from Gallic foursome Kim Novak demonstrates. While everything here is…

Celtic Connections - Mindy Smith

17 Jan 2008

Two albums in, Mindy Smith is solidifying her reputation as one of America’s most affecting songwriters. 2006’s Long Island Shores showed her gentle touch and growing prowess as a writer. Her ethereal vocal style at first brings to mind Joni Mitchell…

Win tickets to the JD Set

17 Jan 2008

The JD Set is a series of nationwide live music events featuring hotly tipped talent that’s storming the underground. Calling in on Glasgow will be Leicester’s finest The Displacements (pictured), who will be taking to the stage for one of their…

Neue Liebe

17 Jan 2008

Pulling together a host of well-meaning, spiffily-clad and shamelessly talented Edinburgh bohemian types in the brand new surroundings of the Voodoo Rooms, Neue Liebe, performance-poetess-about-town JL Williams’ (pictured, right) cabaret evening, is…

Rob Acid

17 Jan 2008

Starting his career under the moniker Acid Warrior, making his live debut at Sven Vath’s legendary Omen club in Frankfurt, you kind of know what you’re letting yourself in for at Cotton Cake as Rob Acid (aka Robert Babicz) puts in a two-hour live set.

Kula Shaker

17 Jan 2008

Britpop’s psychedelic contenders Kula Shaker have been back on the live circuit for the last few years with Crispian Mills still firmly at the helm (they even released a new album, Strangefolk, in 2007). But they will forever be remembered for the acid…

Seasick Steve

17 Jan 2008

Grizzled hobo Seasick Steve tore it up on the live circuit through 2007. His one-man country blues is packed with uncooked honesty and impassion vocals: this is the real blues built from experience panhandling across the US. It’s hard to believe he…

Re-make/Re-model

17 Jan 2008

This exhibition brings together cross-generational artists who use performance as an integral part of their practice. The work on show examines the act of making and recording live actions, as well as presenting the two and three-dimensional objects…

Noisia

17 Jan 2008

Expect techno-inflected drum & bass as Dutch production trio Noisia (Vision) descend on Xplicit for their third birthday. Not forgetting Shy-FX and Sub Focus (Ram), an impressive roster of the best drum & bass from past and present. Xplicit…

Roman Signer

17 Jan 2008

A mini-retrospective of work by the Swiss artist. Signer’s sculptural installations and film work that records the straight-faced slapstick actions the artist has undertaken throughout his career. The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 27 Jan.