Music and Issue 565

Hogmanay

Another year over

12 Dec 2006

Glasgow, 31 December The Fratellis Homegrown indie anthemics You know you’ve finally arrived when your songs become chants for the intoxicated. Just as the ‘ner-ner ne-ne ner-ner-ner!’ of ‘Take Me Out’ became ubiquitous two years ago now the…

Review of the year

Mark Robertson and The List music writers pick the

11 Dec 2006

Jarvis ‘Running the World’ His first post-Pulp declaration was a sublime synth pop call to arms.

Dispatch - Roddy Woomble

The Dispatch

11 Dec 2006

It’s a wonder this Dispatch made it at all; I thought I’d missed it. Not a very rock star confession I know, worrying about missing your column deadline, but there you go. I’ve been away on tour with Idlewild. Not a long tour - our days of those are…

Red Well and Player Piano, The

The Red Well and Player Piano

11 Dec 2006

ROCK The last time The List caught Player Piano, American main man Jeremy Radway was tinkling the ivories in a threesome. This time round he’s playing crunchy guitar with just a drummer for company. However he dresses his tunes, Radway’s innate pop…

Jerkbeast - DVD review

Jerkbeast

11 Dec 2006

MUSIC COMEDY The people at Videosyncratic are so painfully desperate to prove their really cool independent credentials that they remind us of them in this DVD’s accompanying brochure and at the beginning of this ‘film’. But the definition of…

Kyle Eastwood - album review

Kyle Eastwood

11 Dec 2006

JAZZ It is hard to avoid the feeling that the bassist has tried to push as many commercially attractive buttons as possible in the course of this disc. The prevailing ambiance is a cool chill-out vibe with a distinct jazz-lite feel, underlined by…

Jim Mullen Organ Trio - album review

Jim Mullen Organ Trio

11 Dec 2006

JAZZ The organ trio is one of jazz’s canonic formats, but can easily slip into clichéd recycling of standard soul-jazz licks. No such danger in this band. The Glaswegian guitarist and his collaborators, Hammond organist Mike Gorman and drummer Matt…

Various - Pulp Fusion - album review

Various

11 Dec 2006

FUNK The first in a veritable trove of stellar, themed retro-comps, Harmless celebrate Pulp Fusion’s 10th anniversary with a two-disc selection from NY crate digger, DJ and journalist Monk-One; and presumably his brief was ‘It ain’t broke...’ Cue 20…

Various - Blue Skies Up - album review

Various

11 Dec 2006

INDIE With a manifesto aiming to ‘save pop’, Dogbox Records have certainly set themselves a tall task. Most of the ‘pop’ on this compilation is as likely to hit the charts as a duet from Robert Kilroy-Silk and Michael Barrymore, but this reflects far…

Various - Soma Compilation 2006 - album review

Various

11 Dec 2006

ELECTRONICA If weird soundscapes, which fall somewhere in between the territory of ambient, glitch and trance, are your thing, you’ll be very pleased with this latest Soma compilation. Unless you’re baked on a weird cocktail of theoretical drugs in a…

Various - New Orleans Christmas - album review

Various

11 Dec 2006

FESTIVE JAZZ Some festive traditions are truly immovable: gluttony, credit card bills, tension between in-laws, you know the script, but others are there to be monkeyed around with. Hence forth, Mum’s Aled Jones carol CD can be tossed onto the fire…

Skygreen Leopards - album review

Skygreen Leopards

11 Dec 2006

FOLK COUNTRY Ever heard a record which somehow seemed less than the sum of its parts? Cos that’s the inescapable feeling when listening to Skygreen Leopards. Across this record are spread gently strummy country melancholy, whispering psychedelic folk…

* Hitlist

Hitlist

7 Dec 2006

Snow Patrol and Elbow Who would have thought that they’d end up packing out this joint? Not them, that’s for sure. Couldn’t have happened to nicer fellas. SECC, Glasgow, Fri 15 Dec. (Rock & Pop)

Frightened Rabbit

King Tut’s, Glasgow, Thu 21 Dec, Barfly, Glasgow,

7 Dec 2006

FOLK POP With all the hype-hungry types currently clogging up the industry, modern pop can seem pretty contrived at times. A refreshing alternative, however, is this Glasgow-based trio who cater in catchy melodies, scratchy riffs and compellingly…

We Are the Physics

Exposure - Tomorrow’s music today

7 Dec 2006

Comprising three Michaels, one Chris, more angles than a box of Rubik’s Cubes and a fascination for horror B-movies, meet self styled ‘mutant science punk rock’ Glasgow four piece We Are The Physics. Fusing Devo’s geekish proficiency to the all out…

Roots, The

Game theory

6 Dec 2006

I remember as an impressionable young slip of a lad witnessing the abhorrent spectacle of two female rappers destroying their current hit to an unmoved huddle of Top of the Pops teenyboppers. Certainly I was appalled at the sight, and more so the sound.

Sensational Alex Harvey Band, The

Sensational Alex Harvey Band

6 Dec 2006

ROCK What’s the best comparison to make? A headless chicken running around the farmyard, blood splurting from its neck? Far too harsh. A hesitant army unsure what to do after losing its beloved general? Still too harsh. The Argentinian football team…

Iron Maiden

6 Dec 2006

5 REASONS TO GO SEE 1. Over 70 million sales Humungous sales are often wrong - just look at Celine Dion - but not in this case. The legendary heavy metal outfit have shifted gargantuan numbers of albums, and are rightly considered the biggest metal…

Minus the Bear

ABC2, Glasgow, Wed 29 Nov

6 Dec 2006

INDIE When was the last time you saw a pop band mosh? And I mean, a full-on shred fest, not a choreographed McFly star-jump. That’s precisely what you get with Minus the Bear. A band that spent their formative years slugging it out in pioneering…

Manatees

Henry’s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh, Tue 7 Oct

6 Dec 2006

METAL Let’s call it the Isis effect. But nowadays with the Boston group gaining mainstream exposure thanks to a recent support with Tool, the number of bands playing epic, shoegazer, soundscape rock is a lot more than it used to be. Thankfully…

Adrian Crowley, Doogie Paul and Rob St John

Tracer Trails @ Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh, Thu 9 N

6 Dec 2006

FOLK A rare Edinburgh appearance from Irish singer songwriter Adrian Crowley always promised to be special, particularly in combination with an even rarer (if slightly chilly) choice of venue and a pair of fine local supports. Rob St John was…