Music, Issue 597

Foals

From blogosphere sweethearts to daytime radio fodder, Foals’ recent rise to fame has been meteoric. With Antidotes, they have easily made one of the albums of 2008, and the famously energetic outfit are about to embark on a run of totally sold out UK…

Leonard Cohen

There’s no particular reason why Glasgow poetry promoters Vital Synz are holding a Leonard Cohen Supper this fortnight. It’s not the great songwriter’s birthday, and he’s still, as far as we know, in rude health. He is being inducted into the Rock…

Aye: An Affirmation of Martyn Bennett

Martyn Bennett changed the face of Scottish music, marrying the high octane waves of the 90s dance scene with jazz beats, classical strings and his native Gaelic traditions. Now, the life and work of the performer and composer are set to be celebrated…

Scottish musicians at SXSW

The South by South West (SXSW) music festival has long been considered a showcase for some of Scotland’s most eclectic bands. Now, six homegrown acts are set to continue that tradition when they travel to the festival in Austin, Texas next…

Scottish Opera - Five:15

Think opera, and it’s usually think big. At 15 hours in total, for instance, the four operas that make up Wagner’s Ring are very definitely tipping the overblown end of the scale. Proving that the genre doesn’t always have to be of such towering…

Yeasayer

After riding a wave of hype stateside and playing to sold-out audience on their first full US tour, Yeasayer are bringing their unique brand of world music-tinged rock to Glasgow. The four-piece combine sprawling, experimental soundscapes with African…

Tegan and Sara

FOLK QMU, Glasgow, Fri 29 Feb Poor Tegan and Sara. If it’s not their supposedly unfashionable asymmetrical haircuts (it’s the latest in Canadian coiffure), it’s the insipid curiosity with their private lives (they are twins and both lesbians) that…

Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree

POP (Mute) For a woman who has done so much unashamed musical thievery in her time that she would put a gang of Pollock shoplifters to shame, Alison Goldfrapp has always been a bewitching character. In her efforts to distinguish herself from the…

The Mars Volta

ROCK Carling Academy, Glasgow, Tue 11 Mar Amalgamating widdly solos, psychedelic soundscape wig-outs, inscrutable lyrics, heroin abuse and big hair is bound to conjure up some Frankenstein’s monster of the worst excesses of (whisper it) prog. Yet…

Singles & Downloads

With Spring’s arrival comes a whole bunch of new tracks from bands who are readying an assault on 2008, and boys with guitars look set to feature just as heavily this year as in any other. Or resilient old fellas with guitars, as The Charlatans ’ ‘Oh…

David Patrick's Bohemians

JAZZ The Lot, Edinburgh, Wed 5 Mar; Tolbooth, Stirling, Fri 7 Mar Edinburgh-based pianist David Patrick has been putting together some fascinating combinations in recent times. In the wake of collaborations with two of the best saxophonists on the UK…

Exposure - Parka

Tomorrow’s music today. This issue: Parka While the name might scream Ocean Colour Scene, Glasgow’s Parka’s two singles so far (‘If You Wanna?’ and ‘Disco Dancer’, both on Jeepster) actually combine the earthy rock of Stereophonics with a bit of The…

5 Reasons To Go See - The Cult

The Cult might have a rather dubious legacy after more than a quarter of a century in the business, but they can lay claim to one of the finest rock’n’roll albums of the last 30 years, namely Electric, every inch of which is riff-drenched, wailing…

Foals - Vinyl virgins

Scarlett Johansson What does your average Hollywood doll do on her days off? Record an album of Tom Waits covers of course with Dave Sitek (see main piece) called Anywhere I Lay My Head. So wrong it could actually be right. (22 May) Wild Beasts…

Club Welto

ECLECTIC The Village Bar, Leith, Fri 8 Feb This new night is the very definition of a mixed bag, throwing differing musical styles and other entertainment in with pleasing, if variable, results. Wounded Knee (Drew Wright) opens the proceedings…

Frog Pocket

ELECTRONICA 13th Note, Glasgow, Fri 8 Feb Frog Pocket’s get up tonight couldn’t be less timely. With the indie-embracing Celtic Connections just finished, John Charles Wilson is going back to his roots. Any artist tagged as ‘experimental’ must…

Yellow Bentines

ACOUSTIC Linen 1906, Glasgow, Thu 31 Jan I like to imagine that bands are created in a Weird Science-style lab, and that when they’re complete, they emerge in a puff of dry ice to the delight of their creator. Then again, maybe I should lay off the…

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Dig Lazarus Dig!

ROCK (Mute) Rather than retreating back to relative serene solitude after the Stooges-ish stramash of his tremendous side project Grinderman, Cave has rallied the troops and made his first distinctly ‘group’ record since 2004’s Nocturama. Dig…

The Wynntown Marshals

AMERICANA Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Sat 9 Feb ‘If Carlsberg made Americana...’, runs the jokey tagline on this Edinburgh quintet’s MySpace, although the rest of the slogan would still be somewhere near true if it appeared next to footage of this…

Malcolm Middleton - Sleight of Heart

INDIE (Full Time Hobby) On the public face of it, ex-Arab Strapper Malcolm Middleton may not be getting any happier, but it’s difficult to come away from one of his collections without wiping a grin off your face while the inevitable tear dampens your…

Bugge Wesseltoft - IM

JAZZ (Jazzland) The slow, minimal single notes shrouded in a delicate shimmering echo on ‘deIMAGER’ is an extreme example, but the general mood of the music on the Norwegian pianist’s latest outing is notably understated and reflective, with the…

Christian Scott - Anthem

JAZZ (Concord Jazz) Under the direction of its founder, the late Carl Jefferson, the Concord Jazz label was a haven for straight-ahead mainstream swing. Its new corporate identity within the Universal group has seen the label branching out in more…

Moving Hearts - Live in Dublin

FOLK (RubyWorks) Reunions can often be disappointing affairs, but the occasional return to action of this mighty Irish band have been notable exceptions. This album was recorded on home ground last year, and if their pioneering fusion of folk with…

Surrounded - The Nautilus Years

POP (One Little Indian) Surrounded, we are told, are ‘Sweden’s answer to The Flaming Lips.’ It’s a distinct possible that never a truer statement has been typed onto a music press release and while this is fine up to a point, that point arrives rather…