Music, Issue 632

T in the Park: Goes pop

Nick Cave battered Kylie to death with a rock and in doing so resurrected pop. For when the implausible twain married larynxes – on 1995’s hit murder ballad, ‘Where the Wild Roses Grow’ – it caused a schism in the pop continuum. By 1996, the prince of…

T in the Park: Soundtrack to the weekend

Friday The whole festival starts in considerable style with The Maccabees and ‘No Kind Words’ before shifting in gloriously mental fashion with ‘Roulette Dares’ by The Mars Volta so sing along now … ‘Exoskeleton, junction at the railroad delayed!…

T in the Park: Future music

Chris Cope picks eight faces new to T in the Park eager to show some love in Balado

First Word - Geoff Ellis

First record you ever bought ‘My Generation’ by The Who for 10p from a jumble sale (original 1965 release on Brunswick label and very warped). Also got ‘Band of Gold’ by Freda Payne a few minutes later at same jumble sale. First new record purchased…

Michael Franti

Political songwriters can fall into the trap of being preachy, but not Michael Franti. In a career spanning over 20 years, the former frontman of The Beatnigs, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and latterly Spearhead, has always struck the right balance…

T in the Park: Nine Inch Nails

Trent Reznor has always had issues. With God, with the devil, with drugs, with the record industry, with the critics, with former paramours – and now he has issues with social networking. Last fortnight, Reznor posted a missive on the nin.com forums…

T in the Park: Peter Doherty - Who's the man

‘I first saw The Libertines at Camden Monarch in 2002,’ says Anthony Thornton, NME writer and author of the group’s autobiography Bound Together. ‘I was there to see The Vines, who were supposed to be the next big thing, but The Libertines were…

Chick Corea

Chick Corea has been a fairly regular visitor to Scotland over the years, but I can’t recall him playing a solo concert here before now. It is a format that he has returned to periodically over the years, both live and in recordings, including an early…

T in the Park: Simian Mobile Disco

‘We like our live shows to be a more austere, leaner version of our studio stuff,’says James (Jas) Shaw, one half of techno-pop duo, Simian Mobile Disco. For their recent crowd-rocking show at Primavera, Barcelona, laser lights and smoke provided an…

Mendelssohn on Mull Festival 2009

At a time of year when classical music in the central belt takes a bit of a breather in anticipation of the abundance of the Edinburgh International Festival, the annual Mendelssohn on Mull Festival offers a refreshing change of scene. Celebrating its…

Balgay Hill

Simon Macallum’s Balgay Hill sets out to celebrate the life and work of the late Dundonian pop star Billy Mackenzie, but the Associates frontman actually remains pretty elusive throughout, and what emerges in the end is a well-intentioned, if somewhat…

Edinburgh International Book Festival and Edge Festival add to line-up

From a Poet Laureate to cult TV show writers, this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival launched in style, with a programme boasting writers, poets, politicians, photographers and artists from 45 countries. Highlights of the August line-up…

White Denim

Relentless touring can have strange effects on a band, but in White Denim’s case it left them so stroppy that they came up with their best record to date. Fits takes its title from the ups and downs and tantrums of the recording process as the Texan…

Lionel Loueke

Guitarist Lionel Loueke came to jazz via an early immersion in African music in his homeland of Benin, a grounding that has contributed to the distinctive style that caught the ears of Herbie Hancock and Terence Blanchard, both of whom have called on…

Homegrown

The Homegrown showcase at the Glasgow Jazz Festival is now in its fifth year and offers an opportunity to both the public and a number of invited promoters and agents to catch up with the latest work of a range of Scotland’s best musicians. More…

5 Reasons to go see: The Felt Tips

1 They’re high flyers The Felt Tips met while enjoying a classic rock’n’roll past time – not freebasing cocaine at 10,000 feet, but flying a kite on Largs beach in 2006. 2 Big specs and cardigans are a must The jangly Glasgow quartet continue a long…

The Britbus Tour

After parading their talents through the streets of Edinburgh on an open top bus during the day, it was back to familiar territory for the five up-and-coming Scottish bands selected to play as part of the Britbus showcase. First up, The Beatnic…

The Bum-Clocks

Leith’s Bum-Clocks are the only Robert Burns tribute band who play in the style of Iggy and the Stooges. If that sounds too high-concept for you, a glance over those involved mean they demand a listen. The Bum-Clocks – ye olde Scottish name for a…

Jarvis Cocker

One lanky, raised arm appears through a cloud of smoke, and the packed-out ABC goes nuts. I’m struggling to think of another UK performer who commands such instant, indulgent devotion – and naked lust, actually, as the room is thick with sex, and Our…

Johnny Cash - Johnny Cash Remixed

(EAR Music) ‘My father made his stead by defying the expected and accepted way of things,’ says John Carter Cash on the liner notes to this ambitous project exec produced by Cash, Beyoncé’s old man Matthew Knowles and Snoop Dogg. And while the idea…

Woodenbox with a Fistful of Fivers

With a combined musical history that takes in solo singer-songwriting, conventional indie-rock bands (The Common Redstarts, Parka) and alternative multi-instrumental squadron Orkestra Del Sol, the six-piece, Edinburgh and Glasgow-based Woodenbox with a…

Fly - Sky & Country

(ECM Records) Fly are three very well known contemporary jazz musicians, saxophonist Mark Turner, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard. That pedigree suggests something special and they pretty much serve up just that - an intelligent…

Julian Arguelles and The Frankfurt Radio Big Band - Momenta

(Basho Records) Earlier this year the saxophonist issued the excellent Inner Voices, a multi-layered but entirely solo disc. This disc takes him to the opposite end of the jazz spectrum in a live recording with the Frankfurt Radio Bigband and guest…

TV21 - Forever 22

(Powbeat) Back in 1981, Edinburgh’s TV21 were poised to stand alongside Scots post-punk giants (i.e. Simple Minds and The Skids) after their debut LP, A Thin Red Line garnered rave reviews. However, things took a downturn for the power-pop outfit and…