Music and Issue 568

The Horrors interview

Smoke & mirrors

30 Jan 2007

The Horrors are in need of a fag. Having had their ch ance for a nicotine fix disrupted by fans who are loitering outside The Caves in Edinburgh hoping for a glimpse of the band, they now find themselves upstairs experiencing first hand the realities of…

Klaxons interview

Big noise

30 Jan 2007

For the first time the NME tour is splitting into two camps. The Indie Rock strand is headed by The Automatic who share the bill with Dundee’s indie saviours The View, rockabilly goth punks The Horrors and Mumm-Ra. But perhaps it’s the second leg, the…

Hold Steady, The

How swoon is now

29 Jan 2007

As timely dates go, The Hold Steady stomping their way through their set on Valentine’s Day is about as apposite as you can get.

National Review of Live Art

Inner visions

29 Jan 2007

Now in its 27th year, the NRLA is taking over Glasgow’s Tramway for four days of live art, performance and installation from an international cast of established and emerging artists.

Singles & Downloads

29 Jan 2007

Singles? Downloads! Seeing as 2007 is the year when MySpace makes it really big, so much so that your mum and dad will be using it to check out that fun new pop act they heard on Jools Holland, let’s celebrate new music. Without wishing to bark in your…

Noisettes, The

King Tut’s, Glasgow, Thu 8 Feb

29 Jan 2007

ROCK The Noisettes Mishaps in rock music are hardly a rarity. However, if we are to believe the far-fetched tales of The Noisettes’ Shingai Shoniwa, good can often come of them. ‘One stormy night in 2003, Dan (Smith, guitar) went up the ale soaked…

Dreamgirls

29 Jan 2007

Dreamgirls has made Oscar history and the ceremony hasn’t even taken place yet. It is, allegedly, the first picture to have the most Academy Award nominations in a given year and still not be nominated for Best Picture. And, for once, the Academy seems…

Jazz from Sweden

Various venues, Scotland-wide, Thu 8 Feb-Mon 19 Ma

29 Jan 2007

JAZZ The Swedes are finally coming, and if this five-week extravaganza of Swedish jazz is a little later than originally envisaged, it promises to be a memorable one. Assembly Direct and the Stockholm-based Rikskonserter first started to plot an…

Rock Action Singles Club

This Issue: Rock Action Singles Club

29 Jan 2007

EXPOSURE Guardians of all things loud, strange and just plain unique in modern music, Glasgow independent record label Rock Action - set up and maintained by post-rock demigods Mogwai - have launched their own Singles Club. Label manager Craig…

* Hitlist

Hitlist

29 Jan 2007

NME Indie Rock The View, The Automatic (pictured), Mumm-Ra and The Horrors are this year’s would-be contenders for global rock stardom. Or a toddle back to indie obscurity. The choice is yours. Carling Academy, Glasgow, Thu 1 & Fri 2 Feb. (Rock & Pop…

Aereogramme

The Classic Grand, Glasgow, Mon 12 Feb

29 Jan 2007

EPIC ROCK If you’ve ever sniffed around the Scottish post-rock underground, you might be familiar with the work of Aereogramme, but, trust me, you won’t be familiar with this Aereogramme. Because, after two years out of the limelight, the band are…

Various - Songs for the Young at Heart - album review

Various

29 Jan 2007

KIDS COMPILATION Nostalgia might not be what it once was, but in the Staples and Boulter households, the past is far from imperfect. Stuart and Dave, the guys from the Tindersticks, have lovingly recreated the songs they remembered from their radios…

Malcolm Ross

Ego, Edinburgh, Wed 13 Dec

29 Jan 2007

INDIE The sad but true fact of Edinburgh’s current music scene is that, unless you have local knowledge of the great bands bubbling under the radar, there is no major scene which might burst forth and capture the imagination of the nation. It wasn’t…

Birchville Cat Motel

Tremors@Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, Wed 10 Jan

29 Jan 2007

EXPERIMENTAL Last time Stills Gallery white-not-quite-cubed space played host to live music was in 1998, when Quebeçois baroque apocalypsists Godspeed You! Black Emperor marked their low-key live UK debut before a phone box capacity audience (ignore…

Ads, The

The Ads

29 Jan 2007

INDIE If Glasgow’s Ads want to make it they’ll have to strike while the iron is both hot, and unsplattered by the remains of every unwelcome Fratellis and View clone that will inevitably crawl from the woodwork during the next year. They’re both good…

Spare Snare

King Tut’s, Glasgow, Thu 28 Dec

29 Jan 2007

INDIE Once proudly crowned the 46th best Scottish band in history by this very organ (one lower than Dogs Die In Hot Cars, but one above the Average White Band), Dundee’s Spare Snare are finally getting round to cashing in on the accolade with this…

Mika - album review

Mika

29 Jan 2007

POP Let’s play Spot the Influence. Queen! The Communards! Frankie Goes To Hollywood! Just when you’ve got Mika pinned as a retro-glam Hi NRG soundalike, he whaps the horns out for a Blur-ry knockabout caper on ‘Billy Brown’. Which sounds a bit like…

Cold War Kids

Robbers & Cowards (V2)

29 Jan 2007

INDIE Cold War Kids Since we all live in a deathly dull, post-post modern society where we’ve heard it all before and nothing is new, it is nice to hear something that can fill your belly with a warm glow anyway. Lead single ‘We Used To Vacation…

Shooglenifty - album review

Shooglenifty

29 Jan 2007

FOLK Shooglenifty have been around long enough to defuse the element of surprise in their musical fusions, a process hastened by the pervasive genre-expanding influence they have exerted over the years. If it no longer packs the sheer novelty it once…

Future Pilot AKA - album review

Future Pilot AKA

29 Jan 2007

INDIE It’s a mystery why Sushil K Dade doesn’t enjoy more than the modicum of Glasgow-centred respect he currently holds. This is possibly because the amount of A-list names he attracts to contribute to his records might overshadow his own…

National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland - album review

National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland

29 Jan 2007

JAZZ The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland’s associated Jazz Orchestra has been around now for a decade, and issued a CD featuring the music of pianist Nikki Yeoh seven years ago. This second disc features two suites by Scottish composers at…

Joe Zawinul - album review

Joe Zawinul

29 Jan 2007

JAZZ A feast for Weather Report devotees, and a treat for anyone who just likes top quality big band playing. Joe Zawinul celebrated the 25th anniversary of the break-up of Weather Report in glorious style in this concert with the excellent WDR Big…

Some Young Pedro - album review

Some Young Pedro

29 Jan 2007

ROCK Glasgow, it seems, will never tire of bands like Some Young Pedro. Kind of like a testosterone-fuelled Mogwai, they subvert ideas of what are commonly referred to as listenable music with a collection of mostly instrumental power-riffs…

Various - Get While the Getting’s Good - album review

Various

29 Jan 2007

CHEERY SCOTTISH ECLECTICA If this is the future of Scottish music, then it has a big broad smile on its face. Often it may be a broken one (such as in Jock Scot’s barroom brogue of ‘Barcelona’), sometimes it’s the scary kind with the thousand yard…

Lady Sovereign - album review

Lady Sovereign

29 Jan 2007

GRIME POP When people first began getting their pantaloons in a twist about London’s Grime scene, much of the media rumpus was concentrated around mini MC Lady Sovereign. After a year of set backs and a chance meeting with Jay Z (he signed her to his…

Bloc Party - album review

Bloc Party

29 Jan 2007

INDIE It would seem that all is not well in the Bloc Party camp. On this rather disappointing second effort their lyrics are infinitely bleaker, melodies more melancholy and the riffs leaner and meaner than ever before. ‘Song For Clay (Disappear…

Hedrons, The - album review

The Hedrons

29 Jan 2007

ROCK Impressive influences do not a great band make... Towers of London alone are proof of that. This lot could teach them a thing or two, however, as, although they clearly worship at the alters of Hole, Blondie, Joan Jett and Ramones, the all-girl…

Jamie T - album review

Jamie T

29 Jan 2007

INDIE Instantly labelled as a ‘troubadour’, seemingly this year’s music journalism cliché de rigeur, Jamie T and his bass guitar pop has enjoyed a year of steadily conscripting devotees to his cause. Striking a lyrical balance between mockney…

Little Barrie - album review

Little Barrie

29 Jan 2007

GARAGE BLUES Little Barrie’s Edwyn Collins-produced debut We Are Little Barrie proved a low-key, cult album, better received outside the scene fetish of the British Isles. Here, the three-piece returns with a change in line-up, a noticeably higher…

Zombina and the Skeletons - album review

Zombina and the Skeletons

29 Jan 2007

ROCK They may have released their first offering five years ago but Zombina and the Skeletones are still waiting to make their big splash. Without a doubt, Death Valley High should be it as not only does it contain their most infectious material to…

Desert Hearts - album review

Desert Hearts

29 Jan 2007

INDIE ROCK Once upon a time indie-bands had ideas and balls. But the current trend for nadger-crushingly tight jeans seems to have put a stop to that. Giving a slap to stage school rockers and banning the keyboards from the rehearsal rooms are…

Eddi Reader - album review

Eddi Reader

29 Jan 2007

FOLK After her triumphant homecoming with the best-selling Sings the Songs of Robert Burns, this new collection finds one of Scotland’s best voices continuing to mine the traditional vein in the company of folk heroes like John McCusker, Phil…

Various - Tronic: New Wave of Electronic Sounds - album review

Various

29 Jan 2007

ECLECTIC TECH A compilation featuring artists tied to Glasgow’s show-and-tell tech club of the same name, Tronic Volume 1 is an earnest endeavour championing a host of local electronic projects, but also proving more than just a little bit dull.

Marissa Nadler - album review

Marissa Nadler

29 Jan 2007

AMERICAN GOTHIC To the uninitiated Nadler’s faraway, gothic sensibilities and haunted, sirenic voice can be off-putting to say the least. As in previous outings morose balladry, velvety vocals and intricate guitar work are the order of the day here…

Make Your Own Kind of Music

29 Jan 2007

Last year, the Your Sound networking event (aimed at local unsigned bands who want to get in touch with the media and music industry) produced we are the PHYSICS (pictured) and The Dykeenies. It’s quickly become an essential date in the industry…