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Issue 621

Sorted by date / most viewed. Showing 25, 50, 100 per page.

Barrowland

Scotland The Great - We are good

22 Jan 2009

Bin the shortbread tin! Trash those Runrig albums! Here are, in The List’s humble opinion, some real reasons why Scotland is worth shouting about

Homecoming TV Advert

Scotland The Great - Homecoming

22 Jan 2009

Four skinny boys stare up at a mountain. The mountain stares back at them. The hairiest one throws his arms out and roars: ‘Does it not make you proud to be Scottish?’; the prettiest one looks up from his vodka bottle, and hurls back bile. It’s been…

Franz Ferdinand

Scotland The Great - Franz Ferdinand

22 Jan 2009

You’ve basically built an entire studio complex in the bowels of this beautiful old building in Govan? Bob Hardy, bass Yeah, its a great place. Nick [McCarthy, guitars and keyboards] found it. David MacKenzie the filmmaker has his office down here.

Are you dunroamin’?

22 Jan 2009

The last time I heard Dougie McLean’s whisky-tinged ‘Caledonia’ was on the banks of the River Thames, an impromptu, late-night rendition by McLean himself, leading a ragged band of Scots exiles like the Pied Piper. My eyes were as moist as everyone…

Guilty Lily

Guilty Lily

22 Jan 2009

Guilty Lily is not, nor does it aspire to be, a gastropub. That label, for many good reasons (not least the ugliness of the name), hasn’t really made much headway north of the border. Guilty Lily is a local pub serving real ale, bowls of olives, decent…

Taste Test - Water

Taste Test - Water

22 Jan 2009

Highland Spring - Still Spring Water ••• Various stockists, 330ml glass bottle around £1.30. Filtered through land certified as organic by the Soil Association, this is pleasant without being remarkable. While being a refreshing drink, it didn’t…

Festival express

22 Jan 2009

February used to be particularly problematic for the Scottish-based film obsessive. With the Rotterdam, Berlin and Sundance festivals running back to back from the end of January through February, it used to seem like the whole world was getting to…

Danny Byrd

Edinburgh Drum & Bass

22 Jan 2009

Manga may no longer be with us but drum & bass heads still have plenty to celebrate in Edinburgh. This fortnight sees two exemplary events taking place across the city. First up is Xplicit, which makes its mark with a huge night of hard and dark jungle…

Chris Killen

Chris Killen - The Bird Room

22 Jan 2009

As with many readers of a certain young age, Chris Killen made formative connections with the cult fictions of Charles Bukowski, John Fante and Richard Brautigan. When he started writing seriously at the age of 18, though, he imitated his heroes with…

Bob Dylan’s Art

Bob Dylan’s Art

22 Jan 2009

‘My father, who was plain speaking and straight talking had said, “Isn’t an artist a fellow who paints?” when told by one of my teachers that his son had the nature of an artist. It seemed I’d always been chasing after something, anything that moved – a…

The National Theatre of Scotland - Dolls

The National Theatre of Scotland - Dolls

22 Jan 2009

Cinema and theatre have a long history of sharing stories. Plays are adapted into films, and every second blockbuster seems to flip easily into a Broadway musical. However, what tends to happen is a straight transfer of plotline and character. In…

Branford Marsalis

Celtic Connections - Branford Marsalis

22 Jan 2009

Celtic Connections has never been overly troubled by any lack of an actual Celtic connection in the artists who visit the festival, but Branford Marsalis must surely qualify as one of the furthest stretches so far from any perceived Celtic-ness.

Valkyrie

Valkyrie - Assassins

22 Jan 2009

There’s nothing like an assassination to stave off boredom. From Ancient Rome to modern day America the fundamentalist agenda of the man with the deadly plan has found support in the disparate philosophical writings of Voltaire, Molière, and David…

Revolutionary Road

Revolutionary Road

(4 stars)22 Jan 2009

DRAMA Age of Anxiety writer Richard Yates’ first and arguably finest novel gets a Titanic big screen makeover courtesy of reunited stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet and director hubby Sam Mendes. It’s 1955 in suburban Connecticut; the…

Brokeback Mountain

Out at the Movies

(3 stars)22 Jan 2009

With Gus Van Sant’s Milk generating significant Oscar buzz and the latest big budget gay-themed movie I Love You Phillip Morris about to hit the silver screen, Steven Paul Davies history of gay cinema is timely. Working chronologically from the 1920s…

Of Montreal

Of Montreal

22 Jan 2009

INDIE POP Although Athens-based concept-poppers Of Montreal have been active for over a decade now, their ninth and latest album Skeletal Lamping has seen the group reach their highest watermark yet. The record was a top forty entry in America, and…

Martyn

Martyn

22 Jan 2009

DUBSTEP While Dutch producer Martyn Deykers does not strictly consider himself a dubstep artist, his innovative combination of the throbbing, soulful chord progressions of early Detroit techno and the percussive intricacy of 90s drum & bass have…

Michael Nyman

Celtic Connections - Michael Nyman

22 Jan 2009

CELTIC CONNECTIONS Despite his ongoing frustration at being shunned by the BBC Proms, Michael Nyman remains the most widely heard of contemporary ‘serious’ composers in the UK. An early experimentalist in the 60s avant-garde, Nyman is one of the very…

Follow That!

Celtic Connections - Follow That!

22 Jan 2009

CELTIC CONNECTIONS The title of this latest round of commissions inspired by the music of the late Martyn Bennett underlines the far-reaching influence of his eclectic, open-minded approach to traditional music (while simultaneously suggesting that…

Croatia

The death of budget travel?

22 Jan 2009

We must have known that it wasn’t going to last, and that future generations would look back on the early years of the 21st century as a lost golden age of rock-bottom-cheap travel, when you could zip to Paris for a weekend in almost less time, and for…

Robert Burns

Scotland The Great - Robert Crawford: The Bard

22 Jan 2009

‘One of my friends said to me that a new biography of Burns is the least necessary book in the world, but actually quite a lot of the previous biographies aren’t up to scratch, either because they aren’t all that well written or they didn’t have much…

Last word: Amanda Hamilton

22 Jan 2009

Best known for detoxing the nation, nutritionist and television presenter Amanda Hamilton stops by to talk Morten Harket, Buddhist retreats and extra-terrestrials

Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing

22 Jan 2009

What if I said you could travel anywhere in the world and not pay for accommodation; that you could leave your Lonely Planet at home and be given a personalised itinerary of everything to see and do? Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, no…

Ae fond kiss

Scotland The Great - Nine Inch Will Please a Lady

22 Jan 2009

The Burnsian band I am in, with Malcolm Ross and my brother Russel, The Bum-Clocks, has a version of ‘Nine Inch’, a witty ditty in celebration of quantity. We usually locate it in our mash-up of the poetry of Burns and Iggy Pop which kicks off with ‘A…

Haggis

Burns Night

22 Jan 2009

The man of the moment is not, as you might mistakenly be thinking, Barack Obama (guh! We’re so over that inauguration shizzle!), but a 250 year old womanising ploughman from Ayrshire. Here’s our guide to the best ways to mark Burns Night. Why not…

Fat Bastard

Scotland The Great - Scotland smiles better

22 Jan 2009

Cheapskates Penny-pinching, tight-arsed misers. They say when a Scot drops a coin, they bend down to pick it up so quick, it hits them on the back of the napper. But what about the US of A’s Hetty Green, the world’s biggest miser according to the…

Operation Valkyrie

DVD Round-Up

22 Jan 2009

Two great documentaries, available for the first time on DVD, get co-opted into the advertising campaigns for big cinema releases Valkyrie and Milk (reviewed on pages 42 and 43 respectively) this fortnight. Rob Epstein’s excellent Oscar winning 1984…

The Sound of Arrows

Singles & Downloads

22 Jan 2009

When is an EP not an EP? When it’s basically a single plus three forgettable remixes, ala Future Loop Foundation ’s ‘The Sea & the Sky EP’ (Just) •• – a decent floaty chill out tune all told, but surrounded by such unnecessary filler tracks as to do a…

Milk

Milk

(4 stars)22 Jan 2009

BIOPIC Gus Van Sant’s fairly conventional biopic of the first openly gay elected politician in the United States succeeds in overcoming genre limitations to create a powerful, compassionate film that’s up there with the director’s best work. We…

Frost/Nixon

Frost/Nixon

(4 stars)22 Jan 2009

DRAMA If you didn’t get a chance to see Michael Grandage’s celebrated and award-winning production of Peter Morgan’s two-hander, which dramatised one of the most famous interviews in the history of television broadcasting, then Ron Howard’s film…

Dev Patel

Profile - Dev Patel

22 Jan 2009

Name Dev Patel Born London. April 1990 Background Raised in Harrow, Dev turned to drama when his exuberance got him into trouble at school. He was a natural, performing in a school production of Twelth Night. Indeed, drama was the only subject…

Vivian Girls

Various - Rough Trade Shop: Counter Culture 08

(4 stars)22 Jan 2009

MOST THINGS In today’s, blog-a-minute, ‘download my free songs!’, digital overload age, there is such a thing as too much information. Therefore, it takes people like those at Rough Trade Shop (and of course the discerning critic types at The List…

Naked Neighbour (Twitching Blind)

Naked Neighbour (Twitching Blind)

22 Jan 2009

THRILLER Anyone who remembers Aruba, the engaging and whimsical Fringe hit of a couple of years back, which received five stars from this publication, will be interested in this coming piece at Tramway. Rob Evans, writer of this playful and gently…

The Proclaimers

Scotland The Great - Alternative Anthems

22 Jan 2009

For a country with such a fine musical heritage and tons of songwriting talent, Scotland has piss-poor candidates for a national anthem. ‘Flower of Scotland’, ‘Scotland the Brave’ and ‘Highland Cathedral’? Really? Even worse, a poll to find an…

Marcel Woods

Profile - Marcel Woods

22 Jan 2009

Name Marcel Woods Occupation Hard house, trance and techno DJ, who has cut a searing path across the larger clubs in Europe throughout the 00s. The future looks bright. Where is he from? The Netherlands, where Woods recently played both the…

X Factor Dance Company

X Factor Dance Company

22 Jan 2009

CONTEMPORARY DANCE When you’re used to getting your own way it’s not easy to let someone else have a say. Only once in X Factor’s 19-year history has artistic director, Alan Greig collaborated with another choreographer. But the company’s latest…

Oor Rabbie

Oor Rabbie

22 Jan 2009

BURNS CELEBRATION Scotland’s national poet penned some ripping yarns in his time. But getting your head, and your tongue, around the language of Robert Burns isn’t always easy – especially when you’re wee. Actor, writer and director, Andy Cannon is…

Also Released - Film

22 Jan 2009

Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans (15) 102min •• Movie mogul Len Wiseman’s madly popular horror-action hybrid series gets serious with this prequel to the first Underworld film. Michael Sheen and Bill Nighy reprise their roles as werewolf Lucian and…

Haydn Trio Eisenstadt

Haydn Trio Eisenstadt

22 Jan 2009

NEW COLLABORATION Born exactly 200 years apart, but living in Ayrshire communities just a stone’s throw away from each other, it is especially apt that celebrations for Scotland’s most famous poet should include a new setting of his work from…

Urban Reflections

Urban Reflections

(2 stars)22 Jan 2009

FILM/PHOTOGRAPHY Five artists attempt to answer novelist Jonathan Raban’s call (from his wonderful 1974 book of ‘interdisciplinary’ urban reflections, Soft City) to create a ‘vocabulary of art, of style, to describe the continual creative play of…

Raymond Mearns

Raymond Mearns

22 Jan 2009

STAND-UP If you’ve only witnessed Raymond Mearns on roistering compering duty, then you’ve barely experienced the burly Glaswegian’s skill with a well-spun anecdote. ‘I feel I can get a lot better if I get the opportunity to do longer sets,’ he says…

Tony Singh

Side Dishes

22 Jan 2009

Having passed over the running of Roti last year to Ryan Singh of Mr Singh’s Restaurant in Glasgow, Oloroso chef-proprietor Tony Singh has unveiled his new venture, Tony’s Table. A bistro-style restaurant, together with an on-site bakery and sandwich…

Baby Baby

Baby Baby

22 Jan 2009

TEENAGE DRAMA Everyone has heard the urban myth about the teenage girl who has children in order to get on a council house list. The persistence of the story speaks volumes about our prejudices against teenage mums, so it’s timely that Vivian…

Scottish open

Scotland The Great - Homecoming Highlights

22 Jan 2009

Scotland is calling everyone back for a homecoming and, without any sort of Scottish version of the Bat signal in sight, the country is hosting events throughout the year to get everyone celebrating their roots to coincide with Robert Burns’ 250th…

Two Voices III

Two Voices III – Horticulture Behind the Scenes

(2 stars)22 Jan 2009

PHOTOGRAPHY You can’t quibble with the aim of this small exhibition, the third in a series of collaborations between photographer Rosita McKenzie and illustrator Camilla Adams. It’s laudable to want to widen ‘accessibility for all visitors’ to the…

Norah Vincent

Norah Vincent - Voluntary Madness

(3 stars)22 Jan 2009

IMMERSION JOURNALISM ‘Immersion journalist’ Norah Vincent’s experience living undercover as a bloke for 18 months yielded a best-seller, Self-Made Man, but also triggered her depressive collapse and a frightening spell in a mental ward. She vowed to…

Stereotype

Stereotype

22 Jan 2009

HOUSE The Edinburgh clubbing institution that is Stereotype knocks up another successful year, making it six in glorious total. To celebrate this rather stunning feat they’re throwing a birthday bash to knock you sideways. Along with their regular…

The All American Rejects

The All American Rejects

22 Jan 2009

POP PUNK It sounds like effortless pop punk, but The All American Rejects almost went ‘crazy’ writing their new album, When The World Comes Down. Guitarist Mike Kennerty explains: ‘When we were writing the second album Move Along (which later went…

Cinderella on Ice

Cinderella on Ice

22 Jan 2009

ICE SHOW Giving your all for an audience is part and parcel of being a performer. Prior to joining the Imperial Ice Stars, however, Russian skater Olga Sharutenko had to ignore her adoring fans and channel everything in one direction – the…

The Brøken

The Brøken

(3 stars)22 Jan 2009

HORROR/THRILLER Edgar Allen Poe’s short story William Wilson meets Hitchcock’s Marnie in Cashback writer and director Sean Ellis’ second feature. When beautiful and seemingly stable radiologist Gina McVey (Lena Headey) wakes in a London hospital…

Fame

Fame

(2 stars)22 Jan 2009

MUSICAL Running through the list of musical numbers in the programme your heart slowly starts to sink. Clearly the creators of this stage version of Fame couldn’t afford the copyright to songs from either the film or TV versions. What, no…

Also Released - Music

22 Jan 2009

Diplo - Decent Work for Decent Pay: Vol 1 (Big Dada) An overview of the last four years. The remixes are stronger than his solo work and the Daft Punk remix is worth the price alone. The Bucky Rage - Ditchdigger (Northern Cowboy) Dirty American rock…

Valkyrie

Valkyrie

(4 stars)22 Jan 2009

THRILLER Secret Germany and the 20 July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler get the 24 treatment in Bryan X-Men Singer’s engaging new thriller. Months before the end of World War II, aristocratic Colonel Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise…

Youssou N’Dour

Celtic Connections - 5 Eclectic Celtic Connections

22 Jan 2009

1 Youssou N’Dour and Old Blind Dogs Fancy an African music superstar? Check. Fancy some of Scotland’s finest contemporary folk? Check. Fancy both? Here you go, then, enjoy. 2 Jamaican Burns Night What better way to celebrate Scotland’s national poet…

The Man Who Had All the Luck

The Man Who Had All the Luck

(3 stars)22 Jan 2009

REVIVAL Arthur Miller’s first play to be mounted on Broadway closed after only four performances, and was barely revived until a successful production in 2002 led to renewed interest in the work. While undeniably flawed it provides a fascinating…

Food For Thought

Food For Thought

22 Jan 2009

I’m delighted Burns Night is falling on a Sunday. During the week, my eating consists of breakfast on First Scotrail, lunch in the STV canteen and then dinner with whatever is left by the rest of the family when I eventually get home. However, Sunday…

Faintheart

Faintheart

(1 star)22 Jan 2009

COMEDY/ROMANCE If ever there was an argument that the business of popular filmmaking should be left to the professionals Faintheart is it. The result of an initiative by MySpace, Vertigo Films and Film4 to ‘harness the collective creativity of the…

Echo and Transcend

Echo and Transcend

(3 stars)22 Jan 2009

GROUP SHOW ‘My paintings are a song to colour,’ writes John McLean, whose ‘Hunter’ forms part of this group show designed to show off some of the best abstract art culled from Glasgow’s own collection alongside significant loans. The fluidity of…

The Ballet

The Ballet

(3 stars)22 Jan 2009

INDIE POP Travelling thousands of miles from New York City to Europe for a tour is not something you’d expect a band to do half heartedly, so it was a shame to see Big Apple electronic indie pop softies The Ballet performing here in Glasgow with a…

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

(3 stars)22 Jan 2009

COMEDY/ROMANCE After key roles in Superbad and Juno, Michael Cera has emerged as the leading geek for hire of US teen cinema. He furthers his reputation in this slight but likable comedy. The only straight member of a struggling queercore band…

Rachel Getting Married

Rachel Getting Married

(3 stars)22 Jan 2009

ROMANCE/DRAMA Don’t be fooled by the soft-core title. Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme has come over all Danish for his new feature. Lifting the shaky-cam aesthetic of Thomas Vinterberg’s Dogme classic Festen, Rachel Getting Married is…

De Rosa

Rock The Boat

(4 stars)22 Jan 2009

CHARITY GIG Shelter Scotland were the beneficiaries of this charidee shindig on the Clyde, organised by Glasgow label Mister Tramp Records, which encouraged its bands to let their hair down for the night and play a slightly out of the ordinary set…

Ava Vidal

Profile - Ava Vidal

22 Jan 2009

Name Ava Vidal Who’s she then? Possibly the tallest female comic on the circuit, 6ft plus Ava Vidal is a cool and composed performer with an intriguing past. A teenage mum, she earned a living as a prison officer before turning to stand-up, a move…

The Fan

The Fan

(4 stars)22 Jan 2009

COMEDY Disliked by its director and indifferently received both critically and commercially when first released in 1949, Otto Preminger’s 1949 adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s celebrated play Lady Windermere’s Fan is long overdue for reappraisal. It’s…

Peter Murphy - John the Revelator

Peter Murphy - John the Revelator

(4 stars)22 Jan 2009

FAMILY DRAMA That old chestnut, the dysfunctional family saga told from the point of view of a watchful youngster, is energetically revived here by debutant Peter Murphy. The titular character is John Devine, a shy adolescent who dreams of escape…

Chris Lavers - The Natural History of Unicorns

Chris Lavers - The Natural History of Unicorns

(3 stars)22 Jan 2009

MYTHICAL HISTORY Guess what? Unicorns never existed. And if you can bounce back from this early blow, Chris Lavers’ exploration of the unicorn myth actually makes for a strangely charming read. In arguing that although the soft white creature of our…

The Charge of the Light Brigade

The Charge of the Light Brigade

(4 stars)22 Jan 2009

HISTORY/DRAMA First released in 1968, this superb critique of the pointlessness of warfare was totally in tune with the ongoing horror of the conflict in Southeast Asia and the explosion of civil protest during that tumultuous year. Directed by…

Dave Milligan Trio - Shops

Dave Milligan Trio - Shops

(4 stars)22 Jan 2009

JAZZ Hard on the heels of the recent release of Aidan O’Rourke’s An Tobar on Navigator Records comes another excellent project instigated by the go-ahead Tobermory art centre An Tobar, this time on their own label. It is a welcome addition to pianist…

Oasis of Fear

Oasis of Fear

(3 stars)22 Jan 2009

THRILLER Umberto Lenzi’s 1971 cult thriller presents a hippy couple (Ray Lovelock and Ornella Muti) who are apparently amoral and beyond any of the usual social constraints, but being outmanoeuvred on the anti-social behaviour front by an ostensibly…

Kitty Sewell - Bloodprint

Kitty Sewell - Bloodprint

(2 stars)22 Jan 2009

PSYCHODRAMA Kitty Sewell’s second novel is decked out in the same suspense-fuelled livery as Ice Trap, her internationally successful debut. The often melodramatic storyline crams in tropical hurricanes, Eastern European gangsters, brutal sexual…

Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand - Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

(4 stars)22 Jan 2009

INDIE POP Franz Ferdinand, by their own admission, fluffed their second album, rushing it out to sustain the monstrous momentum of their million selling debut. You Could Have It So Much Better lived up to its name, a fuzzy photostat of the first…

The Amazing Spider-Man 583

Mark Waid, Zeb Wells & Various - The Amazing Spider-Man 583

(3 stars)22 Jan 2009

COMICS/SUPERHERO It’s been in all the papers, President Barack Obama makes a guest appearance in Spider-Man. It’s yet more proof of how succinctly Obama has tapped into the zeitgeist and is as much of a cultural icon as he is a political…

Patsy Reid - Bridging The Gap

Patsy Reid - Bridging The Gap

(4 stars)22 Jan 2009

FOLK Fiddler Patsy Reid's contribution to last year's New Voices series at Celtic Connections allowed her to exercise both her expertise in traditional music and her classical training in a suite designed to bring those poles together. It is…

Violence at High Noon

Violence at High Noon

(4 stars)22 Jan 2009

THRILLER In his films from the 1960s Japanese filmmaker Nagisa Oshima (In the Realm of the Senses, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence) often seemed to be putting his entire nation on the analyst’s couch. In Violence at High Noon he analyses serial killing…

Take Three: Pubs with some shining dining

22 Jan 2009

MacSorley’s Music Bar 42 Jamaica Street, Glasgow, 0141 248 8581, www.macsorleys.com From the owners of the Sub Club is the ‘Sub Pub’, an old boozer turned boho hang-out. Tatty round the edges, it pumps out an indie dominated soundtrack and packs…

The Ruling Class

The Ruling Class

(2 stars)22 Jan 2009

COMEDY/MUSICAL Olivier Award-winning dramatist Peter Barnes’ adaptation of his own acclaimed play, directed for the screen in 1972 by Hungarian émigré Peter Medak (The Krays, Let Him Have It), was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes and secured…

The View - Witch Bitch?

The View - Witch Bitch?

(4 stars)22 Jan 2009

INDIE ROCK Packing indie festival anthems, bar room garage, cheeky backstage ditties, stadium rock and orchestral grandiosity The View’s follow-up to 2007’s Hats off to the Buskers has it all – all besides a coherent identity that is. As an album…

Also Published - 5 Paperback Novels

22 Jan 2009

Vikas Swarup - Six Suspects A half dozen individuals all have very good reasons for gunning down a corrupt politician’s son. But which of them actually pulled the trigger? Black Swan. Will Ferguson - Hustle Slick comedy about a trio of sharks…

Edinburgh picks up another Michelin star

22 Jan 2009

Edinburgh – and more specifically, Leith – has picked up another Michelin star with Tony Borthwick's Plumed Horse joining the list of culinary luminaries in Scotland. Scotland made a net gain of three stars in the 2009 awards, taking its total to…

The Qemists - Join The Q

The Qemists - Join The Q

(3 stars)22 Jan 2009

DRUM & BASS AND BEYOND This debut album for Brighton-based producers The Qemists smacks of the rock and drum & bass hybrid that pushed the likes of Pendulum too far centre-field, but it’s subtler than the Aussie troupe’s dance-rock racket – and more…

Somabeta 002

Various - Somabeta 002

(3 stars)22 Jan 2009

ELECTRONICA Technophiles hold tight. Here come Soma with yet another mighty compilation of brand spanking new electronica talent. Right down to the artwork for this vanguard album, an innovative design plucked the Soma 2008 Artwork Competition…

Bricolage

Bricolage - Bricolage

(3 stars)22 Jan 2009

INDIE JANGLE POP Glasgwegians Bricolage are up to their necks in thrall to the jingle, jangle and dodgy knitwear of early 80s indie as espoused by Vic Goddard, Aztec Camera and Orange Juice. Indeed, singer Graham Wann affects Edwyn Collins’ pompous…

Lafayette Afro Rock Band

Lafayette Afro Rock Band - Darkest Light: The Best Of . . . Remastered Edition

(3 stars)22 Jan 2009

JAZZ FUNK There’s nothing overtly African or rocky about Lafayette Afro Rock Band, an American funk outfit who relocated to Paris in the 1970s and acted as session band for Pierre ‘Berjot’ Jaubert, a one-time Motown artistic director. Their cult…

Secret Machines

Secret Machines - Secret Machines

(3 stars)22 Jan 2009

ROCK For a few months, four years ago, Secret Machines were pretty much the best band in the known universe, blowing minds and melting fillings with the hypnotic, silvery glam space walks of their debut Now Here is Nowhere. That album remains a…

Protected: Massive Samples

Various - Protected: Massive Samples

(3 stars)22 Jan 2009

COMPILATION In 2007, Rapster gave us Discovered, a CD full of original tunes which Daft Punk had plundered for their sampling requirements and now it’s Massive Attack’s turn. Not that the Bristol trip hoppers are overly keen on the word ‘sample’.

Antony and the Johnsons - The Crying Light

Antony and the Johnsons - The Crying Light

(3 stars)22 Jan 2009

BAROQUE POP Mr Hegarty returns, with his mesmerising whine and theatrical warble grabbing the back of the neck like frosty fingers. The follow up to the Mercury prize-winning I am a Bird Now explores the spaces between male and female, shelter and…

Andrew Bird - Noble Beast

Andrew Bird - Noble Beast

(3 stars)22 Jan 2009

ALT.POP Crafted from hand claps, whistles, glockenspiels, violins, guitars and drums, this grower of an album from the intelligently eccentric Andrew Bird sneaks up on you after the third or fourth listen. The warm alt.pop melodies on Noble Beast…

Vegas!

Vegas!

22 Jan 2009

OK so we’re all sick to death of the phrase ‘credit crunch’ but, like it or not, most of us are a bit skint – especially through the post-festive month of January. But if you don’t want to cut back on your glamorous clubbing why not head to Vegas! for…

Monet

Impressionism and Scotland

22 Jan 2009

This major collaboration between the National Galleries of Scotland and the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is a stunning showcase of some of the greatest names in Western art, including impressionists such as Monet, Manet, Renoir, Van Gogh and…

Florence and the Machine

Florence and the Machine

22 Jan 2009

Howling or whispering her way between folk and punk – with quirky, arty pop flourishes in between – Florence Welch is the beautiful, flame-haired nutter who just won the Brits’ Critics Choice Award. Catch her live before she releases her debut album…

Sub Rosa

Sub Rosa

22 Jan 2009

Theatrical innovator David Leddy uses the hidden nooks, crannies and crawl spaces of the Citz to create a gothic Victorian narrative, which explores the nature of power through music hall milieu. Cora Bisset, David Magowan and Alison Peebles star in the…

Howard Donald

Howard Donald

22 Jan 2009

A few years back, a DJ set from an ex-member of Take That would have meant half empty dancefloors, but due to one of the most unlikely resurrections in pop history TT are now at the top of their game, selling out a massive three nights at Hampden this…

Kathleen MacInnes

Celtic Connections - Ceol’s Craic featuring Kathleen MacInnes

22 Jan 2009

With her low and husky tones, the beautifully luminous voice of the actress and singer from the Hebridean island of South Uist will be teaming up with Belle & Sebastian’s Stevie Jackson at one of the Celtic Connections specials of the monthly Glasgow…

In Case of Fire

In Case of Fire

22 Jan 2009

Fast rising Northern Irish trio are the opening act of the Kerrang! Tour in anticipation of their debut album, Align the Planets. As you’d expect the full line-up is a snap shot of modern metal including young tykes Black Tide and their old school metal…

The Lost World Read 2009

The Lost World Read 2009

22 Jan 2009

This year’s One Book - One Edinburgh text is Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World. Look out for free copies of the special 150th anniversary issue, yes, with Wallace and Gromit on the cover, at various events throughout the year. It all kicks off on…

Karla Black

Karla Black

22 Jan 2009

The work of the Glasgow-based artist, who has several international solo shows and a place in last year’s Art Now exhibition at Tate Britain under her belt, is generating justifiable buzz at present. Her solo exhibition at Mary Mary features sculptures…

Carrie Rodriguez

Celtic Connections - Carrie Rodriguez

22 Jan 2009

Before being a fiddle-toting, mandoguitar-slinging Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter, Carrie was a violin student in Texas absorbing the influences of an opera-obsessed mother and folk-singer father. It was only when she went to Berklee College of Music…

Australia Day

Australia Day

22 Jan 2009

Calling all Aussies! Missing the homeland, on this most sacred day of your Antipodean calendar? Get ye down to the Espy bar in Portobello, where they've put on a (shivering) barbie on the beach Especially For You, plus Neighbours–themed karoke and a…

Dead Boy Robotics

Dead Boy Robotics

22 Jan 2009

Two fellas from Edinburgh construct something wonderful out of the dance/ noise/punk/electro sound they’ve been building. Seeing that this gig is part of the Cab’s Duty Free sessions this live set at Sick Note will be free entry and the resident DJ team…

Marlena Shaw

Marlena Shaw

22 Jan 2009

With a forty year career, tours with Sammy Davis Jr and Ray Brown, the legendary Marlena Shaw will be teaching a lesson in jazz and soul music as part of the Bulleit Bourbon Originals series also featuring Digital Jones plus DJ sets form Jazzanova, Greg…

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