Issue 595

There Will Be Blood - Daniel Day-Lewis interview

31 Jan 2008

Daniel Day-Lewis doesn’t make many films but when he does there’s almost always a seat reserved for him near the podium at awards ceremonies. The London-born, Ireland-based actor has already won an Oscar for My Left Foot and has amassed a further 40…

Valentine's Day tango classes

31 Jan 2008

It’s bucketing down on Buchanan Street with all the maudlin misery of your traditional Glasgow winter. However, if you divert up a side alley, local dancers are generating the sort of heat and wild, sensual rhythm better suited to the backroom of an…

Pick-up techniques - interview with Neil Strauss

31 Jan 2008

IceDragon, Scotland’s number one PUA (pickup artist), is trying to lock me into conversation. However, he’s quickly surrounded. Deep Vertigo has perched at his shoulder and five other members of the Glasgow lair are hovering on the fringes. Chance, 20…

Mark Everett interview

Family plot

31 Jan 2008

When Mark Oliver Everett was nine years old and home alone, a plane crashed in his neighbourhood. Stumbling outside, he wandered through the carnage of burning wreckage and body parts before returning to his house. ‘Just another day in my weird life,…

Golden Virginia

31 Jan 2008

Beguiling singer and storyteller Devon Sproule’s songs are so evocative they could be used as adverts for her home town. Rachel Devine gets in a state If the Virginia tourist board ever needs an advertising jingle to sell their leafy state, they…

State of Play - David Edgar and Testing the Echo

31 Jan 2008

It might tell us something about the current preoccupations of the theatre in Scotland that, following a long period in which his plays were seldom performed here, revivals of David Edgar’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Nicholas Nickleby have both toured…

Chris Clark at Ctrl. with Ballers Social

31 Jan 2008

Since the release of his debut album Clarence Park on Warp Records in 2001 Chris Clark has occupied a position at the darker end of the electronica spectrum and subsequent releases Ceramics is the Bomb and Empty the Bones of You consolidated his…

2008 Rock Ness line-up unveiled

31 Jan 2008

The picturesque surrounds of Loch Ness are set to host some of the biggest names on the UK rock scene. The Rock Ness music festival, named after its location on the banks of the famous Scottish loch, will showcase top bands, including Editors…

Tim Minchin

31 Jan 2008

Considering the few acts who are able to pull it off without being greeted by a sea of groaning, musical comedy must surely be one of the most difficult cross-pollinations in the arts. There’s Bill Bailey, Flight of the Conchords and, erm, well that’s…

A-Z guide to love in the 00s

31 Jan 2008

Al fresco sex Scots are happier than ever to admit doing it outdoors. Whether it’s about getting back to nature, Lady Chatterley’s Lover–style, or something a little more sordid (think Stan Collymore), 69% of us claimed to have had sex in the open air…

Love nests - where to stay on Valentine's Day

31 Jan 2008

Full hearts, empty pockets If you want to show how deep your love is without breaking the bank, this cute Cornish Shepherd’s Hut might be the solution. Originally used as a shelter during the long nights of the lambing season it has been restyled as a…

Eating out on Valentine's Day

31 Jan 2008

St Valentine’s Day is anticipated with equal amounts of optimism and dread in the restaurant trade. No different from the rest of us, then, though for different reasons. As buoyed as owners are by a full restaurant and healthy champagne sales, staff…

Split Personality - Alan Michael

31 Jan 2008

Rosie Lesso creates an imaginative map of associations as she considers the work of painter Alan Michael Like many artists before him, Alan Michael’s first point of reference is the sea of visual information we encounter as by-products of…

The best chocolate for Valentine's Day

31 Jan 2008

Cocoa Mountain Balnakeil Craft Village, Durness, Sutherland, www.cocoamountain. co.uk, 01971 511233 ‘Summit Collection’ with 20 chocolates £19.50 Plain but neat cardboard box and dividers with a wholesome recycled feel. Classic dusky textured…

The Lady Vanishes

(U) 95min

31 Jan 2008

Originally released in September 1938, a few days before Neville Chamberlain stepped off a plane at Heston airport waving the stationary which was to end his political career, Alfred Hitchcock’s splendidly entertaining pan-European railway caper looks…

OurSpace

31 Jan 2008

What better way of rescuing the neglected history of the nation’s LGBT community than through the great Scottish tradition of storytelling? OurSpace: Making Inner and Outer Space for LGBT Lives presents a wide array of LGBT lives through oral histories…

Films for lovers

31 Jan 2008

First flush Wim Wenders’ 1987 urban romancier, Wings of Desire, about an angel willing to give up his winged status for the love of a homo sapien, is a great film for those wishing to take their relationship to a more ethereal level. If this isn’t…

Ansel Adams: Celebration of Genius

31 Jan 2008

LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY The name Ansel Adams is virtual shorthand for landscape photography at its finest. A shy child prodigy, home-schooled and self-taught to read and play music at the age of 12, the teenaged Californian first experienced…

She Stoops to Conquer

31 Jan 2008

CLASSIC Could an 18th century play ever provide a better insight into contemporary relationships than last night’s episode of Eastenders? Director Jonathan Munby thinks so. Apparently, it’s all in the framing: in this new production for the King’s…

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

(12A) 112min

31 Jan 2008

On 8 December 1995 Jean Dominique Bauby – the 43-year-old editor of French Elle magazine suffered a huge stroke. Twenty days later he awoke, unable to move anything apart from his mouth; he could also grunt and blink his left eyelid. He was diagnosed…

Juno - interview with Ellen Page

31 Jan 2008

The elfin Canadian Ellen Page has been nominated for a Best Leading Actress Oscar for her titular role in the independent comedy drama, Juno. If she wins that prestigious prize at the Academy Awards on Monday 25 February, four days after her 21st…

Aesop Rock

31 Jan 2008

INDIE HIP HOP Five albums deep, and with a cable access TV slot and Nike Original Run project under his belt (because even slacker heads need to exercise), Aesop Rock’s murky stew of hip hop, rock and post-apocalyptic commentary still proves a…

Penelope

(U) 89min

31 Jan 2008

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away from self-conscious satire, there lived a girl named Penelope (Christina Ricci). With her moneyed background, good sense of humour and French language skills, Penelope should be a bit of a catch. Sadly, Penelope…

Equus

31 Jan 2008

REVIVAL Anyone who has ever felt that the drudgery of everyday life is denying them some greater experience (that is, pretty well all of us) might feel able to relate to Peter Schaffer’s legendary international hit. Its recent London revival cast…

Blonde Bombshells of 1943

31 Jan 2008

REVIVAL Because it’s based on recreated and imagined history, the peculiar emotion of nostalgia is something anyone, even people who weren’t there, can indulge in. Alan Plater’s World War Two-set Blonde Bombshells of 1943, originally devised by…

Remote Control

31 Jan 2008

Old spooky drawers is back. Whether you think that Derren Brown’s psychological illusionism is at best a cod sub-genre of the black arts and at worst a wholly pointless exercise which merely proves just how much of a show-off he is, I’d find it…

La La La Human Steps: Amjad

31 Jan 2008

MODERN BALLET They say a picture tells a thousand words, and the poster for La La La Human Steps’ latest show pretty much tells you all you need to know. Standing 20ft tall, male dancer Dominic Santia is wearing a sharp black suit and pointe shoes.

Kendall Koppe and Douglas Morland: The Great Release

31 Jan 2008

PAINTING, SCULPTURE AND PRINT The Intermedia space is a slippery fish, but it is usually worth trying to land the thing. The exhibition by Kendall Koppe and Douglas Morland is a case in point. The work on show deals with aspects of subjectivity that…

The art of writing love songs

31 Jan 2008

How do you approach writing about love? Kenny Anderson AKA King Creosote, Fife’s own regal tunesmith of the heart With my heart on the accelerator and my head on the brakes. Emotional turmoil is exactly what you need to get the pen moving, but…

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - interview with Marie-Josée Croze

31 Jan 2008

‘When I first met the director Julian Schnabel to discuss being in his version of Jean-Dominique Bauby’s memoir The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, I remember that Julian was wearing these beautiful silk pyjamas. They were the same pyjamas that Bauby…

Cloverfield

(15) 84min

31 Jan 2008

Nobody knows how to spin out a yarn like Lost creator JJ Abrams, but even at a short running time, his shaky-cam disaster horror flick Cloverfield turns out to be all spin and no substance. Essentially a marketing concept in search of a movie…

Various - 52 (Books 1-4)

DC

31 Jan 2008

The most complex and ambitious project in comics gets the graphic novel treatment printed across four books. Taking its cue from the real-time adventures of television thriller 24, each issue of 52, which was printed weekly for a full year, covered one…

Azur and Asmar: The Prince’s Quest - interview with Michel Ocelot

31 Jan 2008

Name Michel Ocelot Born Villefranche-sur-Mer, France in 1943 Background While Ocelot spent much of his childhood in Guinea, West Africa and his teenager years in Anjou, he now lives in Paris. He made his name by writing and directing the Kirikou…

Spencer Sweeny

31 Jan 2008

PAINTING There’s less shtick and more confidence in this exhibition of paintings by New York-based artist Spencer Sweeney. The freewheeling, almost accidental approach to image-making that the artist employed in his previous exhibition in the space…

Translations

31 Jan 2008

MODERN CLASSIC The astonishing achievement of Brian Friel’s 1980 reflection upon colonialism and its consequences, here produced with some style by Andy Arnold’s Arches company, is the subtlety with which it springs its trap. From a quiet beginning…

Koshka World Gypsy & Jazz Band

31 Jan 2008

CELTIC CONNECTIONS This will be – literally as well as metaphorically – a big night for the Glasgow-based trio Koshka, and one that should make up for the disappointment of the late cancellation of the project last year, one of a number of events in…

Trilok Gurtu

31 Jan 2008

CELTIC CONNECTIONS Trilok Gurtu may have begun his musical life in a family thoroughly steeped in the strict disciplines and formal cohesion of Indian classical music, but his own career has taken him into some of the most diverse world-jazz fusions…

Introducing . . .Satisfied

31 Jan 2008

The best new nights in town. This month: Satisfied Residents Brett King and Brian Dempster (pictured), whose combined CV includes most of Edinburgh’s most respected gay and house nights. Guests None at the moment, although the pair won’t rule out…

Ashes to Ashes

31 Jan 2008

DRAMA SPIN-OFF BBC2, Thu 7 Feb, 9pm The best things about Life on Mars were the entrances and the exits: Gene Hunt’s breathy welcome to Sam Tyler about looking forward to his spaghetti hoops meal; Tyler’s rude awakening in 1973 and his final…

Chromophobia

(15) 135min

31 Jan 2008

Writer-director Martha Fiennes’ follow-up to her impressive debut, Onegin, is a disappointment. The cool manner with which Fiennes told the story of the emotionally distant St Petersburg aristocrat in that film is here frozen solid, so that what’s…

Spiritual South

31 Jan 2008

For some, the term ‘world music’ still conjures up images of tie dyed tunics and florescent face paint. But this stigma is fading as revellers bring to the dancefloor an ever-greater familiarity with a myriad of musical genres. Flying the flag for world…

Mark Millar & Steve McNiven - Civil War

31 Jan 2008

Having dealt with DC’s ambitious crossover we have to mention Marvel’s equivalent, Civil War, a far more user-friendly prospect for the casual comics fan. The outbreak of unrest within a people is rarely less than tumultuous, and bloodshed is a tragic…

Wee Fairy Tales

31 Jan 2008

Do you know your bahookie from your elba? If not, it’s time to stop being so glaikit and brush up on your Scots. With this most colourful of languages set to join the school curriculum sometime soon, you could do worse than give the bairns a keek at TAG…

Huntleys & Palmers Audio Club

31 Jan 2008

‘Come and join us at our humble West End abode, the ol’ dears are away and we’ve got the decks set up in the front room,’ jokes Andy Thompson, a driving forces behind one of Glasgow’s hottest new nights in one of its coolest and cosiest venues. The…

James Meek - We Are Now Beginning Our Descent

Canongate

31 Jan 2008

WAR DRAMA JAMES MEEK We Are Now Beginning Our Descent (Canongate) After the epic scope of his post-Russian Revolution prize-winner, The People’s Act of Love, James Meek turns his eye to recent history, drawing on his experience as The Guardian’s…

Waiting for Godot

31 Jan 2008

MODERN CLASSIC Taking on arguably the greatest play of the 20th century is no mean feat, particularly given that, in Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece, the surface simplicity is a mere cheeky masquerade for the complexities that lie within. So, is…

Aidan John Moffat - I Can Hear Your Heart

31 Jan 2008

(Chemikal Underground) SPOKEN WORD Sometimes a relationship has run its course and all you can do is split up, something former Arab Strappers Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton know all too well. Since going their separate ways, Middleton has…

Clarinda

31 Jan 2008

MUSICAL If all the plays about Robert Burns produced over the last two decades were laid end to end, they’d surely build a bridge to Belgium, yet there’s still an appetite for such pieces at this time of year. And why not - there’s no shortage of…

The NME Tour Featuring The Ting Tings

31 Jan 2008

INDIE Mix indie music, punk attitude, clubby vibes, pop melodies and art-rock sensibilities, then say hello to The Ting Tings, the Mancunian duo of Katie White and Jules De Martino who are one of the buzz bands of 2008, and rightly so. Having…

Colin MacIntyre

31 Jan 2008

POP Gone is the Mull Historical Society pseudonym and in its place is Colin MacIntyre, a couple of choirs and a veteran politician. After three critically acclaimed albums, MacIntyre is back with his latest, The Water, and a set at Celtic…

Things We Lost in the Fire

(15) 117min

31 Jan 2008

Danish director Susanne Bier’s films Open Hearts, Brothers and After The Wedding all revolve around the fallout from a tragic and unexpected accident. Now the director is trying to repeat the feat in an American setting and with Hollywood stars. The…

Azur and Amar: The Princes' Quest

31 Jan 2008

In Azur & Asmar: The Princes’ Quest writer and director Michel Ocelot (Kirikou and the Sorceress, Princes and Princesses) opts to use digital technology over the hand drawn animation technique that livened up his ‘Kirikou’ trilogy. The technology might…

Hotel Harabati

(15) 94min

31 Jan 2008

In a recent article in Sight and Sound, the critic Michael Atkinson described a cinematic micro-genre that had emerged from France in recent years. His term was the ‘absurdist-anxiety thriller’, and he gave the examples of Dominik Moll’s Lemming…

Static

31 Jan 2008

NEW WORK As Sophocles once remarked: ‘Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver.’ So it is in Suspect Culture’s new co-production with leading disability company Graeae, in which a woman ponders over a compilation tape left by her deceased husband…

Walden

31 Jan 2008

ADAPTATION In 1845, the American writer and philosopher Henry Thoreau, horrified by what he perceived as materialist consumerists’ destruction of and distance from nature, was driven to relocate to a hut in the woods with a mere 27 possessions, the…

Juno

(12A) 96min

31 Jan 2008

This year’s Little Miss Sunshine style sleeper hit – Jason Reitman’s feelgood comedy about teenage pregnancy – owes its appeal to the performance of Ellen Page in the leading role. With the circumstances of the conception quickly glossed over with a…

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

(PG) 124min

31 Jan 2008

Replace the religious sub-plot from The Da Vinci Code with some spurious blather about the history of the US Constitution and you have the successful formula for the National Treasure franchise. The second instalment finds adventurer Ben Gates (Nicolas…

Asterix at the Olympic Games

(U) 116min

31 Jan 2008

The third of the live action Asterix movies retains Gérard Depardieu as rotund sidekick Obelix, but sees Clovis Cornillac taking over from Christian Clavier as the diminutive warrior. Much like the first two entries in the series, Asterix at the Olympic…

The Ugly Ducking and Me

(U) 88min

31 Jan 2008

Developed from a popular Danish TV series, The Ugly Duckling and Me is the familiar Hans Christian Andersen story with a suburban twist. Ratso is an average Disney-style, self-centred rat who dreams of going into showbiz. I know you’ll be saying…

Water Horse: Legend of the Deep

(PG) 111min

31 Jan 2008

Blending monster thrills with a thoughtful pacifist message, director Jay Russell and screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs’ adaptation of Dick King-Smith’s well-loved children’s book is a family-friendly film about Nessie and a huge improvement on 1996’s…

The Phantom Carriage - DVD review

Silent movie

31 Jan 2008

There’s no doubt a historical interest, particularly in terms of early special effects, in Victor The Wind Sjöström’s 1921 Swedish screen adaptation of Selma Lagerlöf’s novel, but quite whether the tone of religious moralism that hangs over it will sit…

Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong

31 Jan 2008

INDIE All skinny jeans and wiry frame Joe Lean is a complex multi-media construct. Born Joseph Beamont, ex-drummer with The Pippettes (under the stage name Robin of Loxley) also known by his acting name Joe Van Moyland as seen in Peep Show, Nathan…

Endor, Q Without U and Jesus H Foxx

31 Jan 2008

INDIE is this music?, the magazine/website which sponsors tonight’s show, prides itself on spotting upcoming talent. However, they also show loyalty to neglected bands from the past. Jesus H Foxx (formerly Sweetheart) tick both boxes. Describing…

Underdog

(U) 81min

31 Jan 2008

‘This is so much more fun than sticking your head out the car window!’ whoops the gifted canine protagonist of Underdog, a live-action feature from Disney about a crime fighting dog with super-powers. Attractive as this proposition might sound to fans…

Rags and Feathers and Eugene McGuinness

31 Jan 2008

ROCK FOLK ‘Heckle us if you like!’ was a brave challenge from Rags and Feathers frontman Tom Davis, especially as the band was apparently brought to life in this very venue only a few months previously. But there was nothing to find fault in during a…

Road Games - DVD review

Thriller

31 Jan 2008

Made in 1981 as a star vehicle for then rising star Stacy Keach, this likeable Aussie road movie from Richard Psycho II Franklin is hampered by American influences. Not just with Keach, who chews up the scenery with all the curious self-loving diction…

Day Watch: Director's Cut - DVD review

Fantasy/horror

31 Jan 2008

The second instalment in director Timur Bekmambetov’s Russian fantasy horror trilogy (based on the books of Segei Lukyanenko) focuses on a murky world where vampires, wizards and demons are locked in the eternal battle of good vs evil. The truce is once…

Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (Extreme Edition) - DVD review

Horror

31 Jan 2008

‘Direct to DVD’ is the kiss of death in most genres, but as any self-respecting horror-phile knows, it can offer bizarre and twisted gems that would never find a cinema audience. Wrong Turn 2 fits nicely into this natural habitat. A group of wannabe…

Henry Rollins

31 Jan 2008

1 An introspective skinny lad at school who feared he would be humiliated on the sports field, Henry Lawrence Garfield tore into literature with relish. Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck and Dylan Thomas were among his early influences. Maybe…

The Frightened City

Crime/drama

31 Jan 2008

Chiefly notable for an early screen appearance from Edinburgh’s most famous former milkman, this somewhat pedestrian 1961 British film noir features Sean Connery in one of his last supporting roles, here playing a cat burglar the year before he was cast…

Sadie Jones - The Outcast

31 Jan 2008

The Outcast (Chatto & Windus) Sadie Jones’ postwar tale of one boy’s cruel alienation from family and community might be able to beat a handful of Valium as a downer, yet there’s still something achingly compelling about it that keeps the pages…

Martin Amis - The Second Plane

Jonathan Cape

31 Jan 2008

For maximum enjoyment of The Second Plane, readers should ideally possess two things: an ambivalent approach to religion and a rather hefty dictionary. The first because Martin Amis is not, as some people suggest, anti-Muslim, just disparaging of any…

Bernhard Schlink - Homecoming

Weidenfeld & Nicolson

31 Jan 2008

A scrap of pulp fiction marks the beginning of a life-long journey for Peter Debauer in this personal account of a fatherless boy in postwar Germany. The fiction, which describes a soldier’s return, has mysterious parallels with Debauer’s own life and…

Blazin' Fiddles - Live

31 Jan 2008

(Blazin’ Fiddles) FOLK The Scottish fiddle supergroup are caught in full flight in this gig in Glenuig last summer, and in a way that has never quite been replicated in their studio recordings. Even the band feel they have not done themselves…

Lupe Fiasco - The Cool

31 Jan 2008

(Atlantic) HIP HOP The fondness for branding artists the ‘new’ someone means they have little or no time to establish themselves as themselves. So, with this in mind, young Master Fiasco is neither the new Kanye West or Jay-Z, though the Chicagoan…

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

31 Jan 2008

(XL Recordings) INDIE Indie rock has taken many wilful turns in its ragged adolescence but the predilection for smartening up and tuning up has been one that’s arrived to infrequently for most. Vampire Weekend look like dropouts from an Abercrombie…

I Know Who Killed Me - DVD review

Thrilller/horror

31 Jan 2008

Direct to DVD and topping this year’s Razzie’s with nine nominations, the latest Lindsay Lohan vehicle doesn’t have a great pedigree. While it’s far from a cinematic masterpiece it doesn’t quite deserve all the flack it’s been attracting. Lohan plays…

Angelo Debarre Quartet - Live at Le Quecumbar London

31 Jan 2008

(Lejazztal) JAZZ French guitarist Angelo DeBarre is one of the artists appearing at the inaugural Fife Jazz Festival (see preview, page 79), and is no stranger to Scottish audiences. This set with his current band of UK-based musicians, guitarist…

Arnie Somogyi's Ambulance - Accident and Insurgency

31 Jan 2008

(Linn Records) JAZZ Bassist Arnie Somogyi’s regular line-up is augmented by American trumpet star Eddie Henderson on this new recording for Linn, but he fits right into the carefully cultivated group feel of their music. Somogyi’s declared aim…

Kenny - DVD review

Spoof documentary

31 Jan 2008

When a film comes billed as ‘one of Australia’s best ever comedies’, it’s difficult to know whether to be excited or petrified. From a nation who has given us the rank hospital sitcom Let the Blood Run Free and the gruesomely overrated Kath and Kim…

Les Visiteurs - DVD review

Comedy

31 Jan 2008

As the film which famously out-grossed Jurassic Park in France on its homeland release in 1993, the original Les Visiteurs holds a special place in the hearts of Francophile cinemagoers. It’s really just a reasonably fun slapstick comedy of the sort…

Alain Mabanckou - African Pycho

Serpent’s Tail

31 Jan 2008

With six novels and six collections of poetry under his belt, Congo-born, LA-dwelling Alain Mabanckou is one of the most fêted of contemporary Francophone writers. African Psycho, the first in a series of translations of his novels to be published by…

The Mars Volta - The Bedlam in Goliath

31 Jan 2008

(Universal) ROCK Listening to the barrage emanating from the speakers for 78 minutes it’s hard to believe that Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala (for they are the heart, soul and hair of The Mars Volta) have reeled things in for album…

The Duke Spirit - Neptune

31 Jan 2008

(You Are Here) ROCK ‘I do believe in something, you know,’ intones Duke Spirit Leila Moss over the short, hymnal intro to her band’s new album. Judging by the other eleven songs on here, that belief extends as far as the kind of flurrying…

Los Campesinos! - Hold on Now, Youngster . . .

31 Jan 2008

(Wichita) INDIE Born from an unabashed love of DIY music scenes and a totally understandable distaste for tired Libertines copycats such as The Kooks, Pigeon Detectives and The View, Los Campesinos! hope to offer music fans something genuinely…

American Music Club - The Golden Age

31 Jan 2008

(Cooking Vinyl) AMERICANA Terminal romantics Mark Eitzel and AMC have been breaking hearts and taking names for over 20 years and still manage to turn out new albums that surprise with songs that are utterly evocative, fragile, dry, witty and truly…

Day of reckoning for Caltongate project

31 Jan 2008

Edinburgh City Council is due to make a decision regarding the controversial £300m Caltongate development at a special meeting on Wednesday 6 February. The project involves demolishing listed buildings in Edinburgh’s Old Town to make room for a hotel…

Eels - Meet the Eels

31 Jan 2008

(Geffen) ROCK Mark Everett has always been the outsider on the inside – the indie kid on the major label, the shy freak adopted by the LA cool crowd, the bearded freak on Top of the Pops. This collection of his band’s finest moments confirms…

Paul Vickers & The Leg - Tropical Favourites

31 Jan 2008

AVANT-ROCK (SL Records) In one fearsome circle of hell or another, Paul Vickers & The Leg would provide the children’s entertainment. The Edinburgh supergroup – Dawn of the Replicants’ Vickers, backed by the band formerly known as Desc, and Khaya…

Correcto - Correcto

31 Jan 2008

(Domino) INDIE This foursome may boast the talent of two of Glasgow’s indie glitterati – Franz Ferdinand’s Paul Thomson and Patrick Doyle of The Royal We – but there’s so much more to Correcto than the hype about their famous members. The band’s…

Envelopes - Here Comes the Wind

31 Jan 2008

(Brille) INDIE Envelopes are more than a little unconventional, and in a world where past-plundering dullards like The Courteeners are tipped for the top, you’ve got to be grateful for every bit of eccentricity you can find. Here Comes the Wind is…

Hot Chip - Made in the Dark

31 Jan 2008

(EMI) POP Hot Chip were in mortal danger of being ‘that band that did the over and over song’. Lucky then, that this, their third long player, is crammed full of bloody marvellous tracks. Providing some kind of parping, clunking, rolling…

Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation’s Dark

31 Jan 2008

(New West) COUNTRY ROCK Any band with songs called ‘Daddy Needs a Drink’ and ‘You and Your Crystal Meth’ can’t be all bad, and so it proves, as Drive-By Truckers here provide a fantastically sprawling trawl through the Southern Gothic hinterland of…

Helen Boulding - New Red Dress

31 Jan 2008

(Maid in Sheffield) INDIE POP GUFF Connections aren’t everything. Sheffield singer-songwriter Boulding has worked with members of The Verve, Pink Floyd and Squeeze, Youth produced this debut album, and Bryan Adams even took the cover shot (!?). Yet…

I Was a Cub Scout - I Want You to Know That There is Always Hope

31 Jan 2008

(XL) EMO From the knowingly wordy title to the swathes of epic keyboards and echoey guitars, this album has ‘emo’ written all over it. Strange, then, that it comes not from the college heartland of America, but rather from a nerdy Nottingham…

Bob Mould - District Line

31 Jan 2008

(Beggar’s Banquet) ROCK Mould is rightly regarded as a legend for his work in seminal hardcore outfit Hüsker Dü, and the bristling grunge-pop of Sugar, but his solo outings have been hit and miss. District Line is no different, showing glimpses of…

The Hard Rain Picture Show

31 Jan 2008

Presentation and lecture by Mark Edwards, one of the most widely-published environmental photographers in the world. Neither a travelogue, nor another exercise in handwringing, The Hard Rain Picture Show takes audiences on a journey through rainforests…

My Kid Could Paint That

31 Jan 2008

Filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev chronicles the rise and fall of New York-based child artist Marla Olmstead. Marla was four years old when her middle class parents sold her first abstract painting. Thanks to press coverage she became an overnight sensation, her…

Ukeleles at Hitherto

31 Jan 2008

Continuing this section’s strange ongoing fascination with George Formby’s lucky charms... one of our favourite independent shop/gallery/happening places is staging an exhibition of ukuleles customised by Glasgow artists as part of Celtic Connections.

Greek cinema

31 Jan 2008

Greek cinema old and new is trumpeted in this short season of films from the home of philosophy. There’s something here for everyone, from Tassos Boulmetis’ blockbusting (in Greece) historical epic A Touch of Spice, real-life hijack drama Hostage and…