Music, Issue 650

Why Fife is celebrating illustrious son Richard Jobson

Here in Scotland, we love a tale of the local boy doing good, and musician-turned-writer and film-maker Richard Jobson has done just that. A former member of punk band, The Skids, Jobson often sets his scene – whether it be his music, photography, film…

Backbeat

Iain Softley’s 1994 film Backbeat charted the pre-stardom career of The Beatles, focusing on the relationship between John Lennon, his best friend and fellow art student Stuart Sutcliffe, who succumbed to a brain tumour aged 22, and Sutcliffe’s lover…

Hot Chip

You get the feeling that everyone who’s anyone in Edinburgh was out for this show. It wasn’t just a big gig, it was one by a band whose new album One Life Stand has set the benchmark for crossover electronic pop style in ‘10. Did it live up to its own…

Jeans Team

Berlin duo Jeans Team have been doing the thing they do better than most and for longer too, both predating and outliving the electroclash scene during which they came to prominence, after originally emerging from Berlin’s art and music scene a decade…

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Young violinist Nicola Benedetti performs an emotionally-loaded concerto from the Finnish composer, Sibelius, followed by Shostakovich’s epic Tenth Symphony. Shostakovich’s Tenth was the first the Russian composer had composed since he was denounced by…

Efterklang - Magic Chairs

(4AD) If Alphabeat’s brand new sped-up hyper-pop effort The Spell makes you wonder what you ever saw in Denmark in the first place, fellow Danes, Efterklang deliver subtle, tinkling orchestral pop by way of national apology.

Pere Ubu, Mogwai, Thomas Truax and Zombie Zombie set for The Glasgow Music and Film Festival

The Music and Film Festival is a strange beast, full of contradictions and tangents that threaten to pull apart its coherence, but ultimately make it the most exciting strand of this year’s Glasgow Film Festival. Co-curated by the Arches, and featuring…

The Knife (with Mt Sims and Planningtorock) - Tomorrow, in a Year

(Brille) Darwin’s discoveries get the ‘electro meets classical’ treatment in this experimental tribute opera. Fever Ray, or Silent Shout fans will find it requires lots more ‘uphill’ from the listener, but if you’re in a mood to indulge the…

Holly Miranda - The Magician’s Private Library

(XL Recordings) Produced by Dave ‘TV On the Radio’ Sitek (hands up who’s still not been produced by Dave, please), this impressive, otherworldly debut is floaty, Cat-Power-esque and sprinkled with Au Revoir Simone Casiotone beats.

Kill Your Timid Notion 2010 seeks to rewrite the rules of engagement

This experimental sound and image festival has been disrupting the peace in Dundee for seven riotous, challenging and boundary-pushing years. For 2010, however, the artists are seeking something straightforward from their audiences – participation.

Cabaret Voltaire celebrates fifth birthday

Guests include DC Breaks, Slam, Fenech-Soler, Zane Lowe and Tom Middleton

‘Cabaret Voltaire is one of the most atmospheric spaces you could ever find an underground club. It’s a very rare music-orientated team that work here. We’re a little family that are incredibly passionate about what we do, and I feel that really comes…

Why Lady Gaga is the future of pop

We tried to resist, honestly we did, but Lady Gaga got to The List in the end. It wasn’t the relentless, vom-inducing marketing campaign that did it either. No, no, we survived all that initial fluff; we battled triumphantly against the moneyed barrage…

Crazy Heart, Tender Mercies and country music on film

Crazy Heart is a tale of alcoholism, love, redemption and country music. It has a healthy lineage writes Paul Dale

Singles and downloads - February 2010

Let’s start this time with the newie from Sugababes version (counts on fingers) 4.0, because a new Sugababes single, ace or execrable, will always be worthy of discussion. And ‘Wear My Kiss’ (Island) ●●● is certainly blessed with a memorable chorus…

Edinburgh Quartet - 50th anniversary gala concert

As the highlight of their golden anniversary season, the Edinburgh Quartet celebrate in style with a special gala concert and new commission from composer Howard Blake, he of Snowman and ‘Walking in the Air’ fame. Blake also appeared as pianist in the…

Bonobo set for Edinburgh show at Departure Lounge

Name Bonobo Occupation Soul, jazz, hip hop and electronica producer of note What kind of monkey business is this? OK, very clever. Bonobos are indeed a species of small Chimpanzees (which are apes not monkeys for the record) but the Bonobo…

Padded Cell set for date at Glasgow's Kitty Kat Klub

Richard Sen is being a bit modest when he describes the music he makes alongside partner Neil Higgins in Padded Cell as ‘just dance music, really.’ Asked to elaborate a little further, he’ll concede that the duo are often lumped in with the nu-disco…

Errors set for date at Grand Ole Opry, Glasgow

‘God, I hope it doesn’t get to the point where we all try to outdo each other and turn into Rush,’ shudders Errors’ drum leviathan James Hamilton, talking about the Glasgow quartet’s rousing group dynamic. ‘But the thing about playing in an instrumental…

Exposure: So So Modern

They’re hard men to pin down, are So So Modern. In the midst of a 28-date European tour over 31 days when The List tries and fails to collar them for a chat (somewhere over France, in fact), the quartet from Wellington, New Zealand are clearly adherents…

French Horn Rebellion, Maple Leaves and Conquering Animal Sound play Pinup Ladies' Night

‘The main thing I noticed about our last Ladies’ Night is that it was packed out,’ says John D, one of the team of promoters who run Glasgow indie club Pinup Nights. ‘The sexes were pretty balanced, though, because I think lots of guys made a point of…

Girls set for Glasgow live date

Bleary-eyed San Fran duo, Girls, follow up last October’s Scottish dates with another gig, as part of a frankly stomach-churning US/European tour. The pair, comprising of Chet ‘JR’ White and Christopher Owens, released their debut – simply titled, Album…

Frightened Rabbit - The Winter Of Mixed Drinks

(Fat Cat) Along with The Twilight Sad and The Phantom Band, Frightened Rabbit are at the vanguard of Scottish indie, building a fine reputation for powerful, plaintive rock shapes and brutally honest lyricism. Their two albums to date have shown…

Sir Richard Bishop

For the past three decades, avant-garde guitar wizard, Sir Richard Bishop has dazzled, confounded and disturbed, both as a member of Arizona freaks Sun City Girls, and as a wildly inventive solo artist. While less deranged than Sun City Girls’ sprawling…

Crazy Heart

(15) 111min It’s another day in another shit hick town for country and western singer-songwriter Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges). The music business isn’t what it used to be; his schedule now consists of bowling hall and the back rooms of bars. Between the…

Hidden Door

An all-you-can-eat weekend-long festival of multi-disciplinary art designed to get Edinburgh’s cells of creative activity talking to each other. It was an admirable ethos, and certainly experiencing the unmistakeable I-am-at-a-festival sensation in…