Music, Pop

Fleetwood Mac announce 2013 UK tour dates

2013 European tour includes London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow

Fleetwood Mac have announced dates for a 2013 European tour, which includes four UK dates in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. The tour marks the 35th anniversary of their 1977 album Rumours, undergoing a rennaissance thanks to being reissued…

The Who bring Quadrophenia tour to Glasgow's SECC

Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend announce special live album tour for June 2013

The Who have announced a UK tour of their album Quadrophenia, which calls in at Glasgow’s SECC on Wed 12 Jun. The surviving members of the band, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend, have announced they will be playing the entirety of the iconic mod album…

Spring culture preview 2013

Nick Evans: Solar Eyes Evans' forthcoming solo show features a new set of his striking amorphic white plaster sculptures. The most ambitious is a large architectural complex which mimics the geometry of an Aztec temple. Evans' fascination with motifs…

Ex-Cocteau Twin Robin Guthrie on his career so far and what's in store

The shoegazing dream-pop musician is currently touring with the Robin Guthrie Trio

‘To be honest there’s very little interest in me in the UK,’ says composer of haunting instrumental soundtracks, co-founder of the Bella Union label, Grangemouth man, prodigious swearer and yes, former Cocteau Twin Robin Guthrie. ‘You know what the…

TeenCanteen - Noble’s Bar, Edinburgh, Sat 29 Dec

On the last Saturday of 2012, with Leithers gathering to get in training for Hogmanay in one of the area’s better locals, it's not the situation where you might expect to experience one of Edinburgh’s finer prospects. ‘I think that’s the first time…

Randan Discotheque - Sonderweg

Artist Craig Coulthard's art-pop posse release an album that's part-po-mo Proclaimers, part Zappa

Fuck miracles. The art/pop diaspora of the last few years traverses regions, as this first non-CD-r release from Forest Pitch imagineur Craig Coulthard’s revolving musical troupe proves in spades. Sonderweg opens with some very wise spoken words before…

Jay-Z protege Rita Ora discusses Spice Girls and The Notebook

The singer-songwriter gets weepy over Spider-Man and hates peas

First record you ever bought The Spice Girls album, Spice World.  Last extravagant purchase you made A holiday for me and my whole family, skydiving, jet skiing, eating, boats – the whole thing, in Dubai. First film you saw that really moved…

Paul Banks - King Tut’s, Glasgow, Mon 21 Jan

A vaguely phoned-in performance from the Interpol singer formerly known as Julian Plenti

After Interpol announced an indefinite hiatus in 2011 following the departure of bassist Carlos Dengler, the period of uncertainty that followed, and almost welcome respite for the New York post-punk revivalists, allowed the opportunity for its members…

Interview: Dan Deacon on making music, performing and his 2013 UK tour

Musician combining maximalist sounds on record and extreme live performances

‘I’m so sorry, I have this really weird thing in my throat,’ Dan Deacon says, interrupting himself mid-flow to cough. ‘My voice is suddenly all... [does cartoon growly voice],’ he laughs. It’s still early I point out, calculating it’s not quite 11am in…

Five reasons to go and see Dinosaur Jr on their 2013 European tour

Seminal trio's UK tour kicks off at Arches, Glasgow

1 All three of them will actually be there this time. Sadly, Dino drummer Murph took ill the last time the band made it to Scotland and had to sit out of their show at Glasgow’s ABC. This time however, the beloved unholy trinity of noise will be live…

Rick Redbeard - No Selfish Heart

Outstanding debut solo album from erstwhile Phantom Band man Rick Anthony

(Chemikal Underground) And the man called Rick Anthony, hitherto deified for conducting The Phantom Band like a stars-and-brimstone preacher, retreated to rural Aberdeenshire; cultivated an elegiac Redbeard; amalgamated an earthly Scots tongue with…

Pissed Jeans - Honeys

(Sub Pop) Four LPs in and Philadelphia’s Pissed Jeans are still hocking up some severely scuzzed-out bile with Honeys, their most consistent set of songs since their debut album Hope For Men back in 2007. Straight off the bat, single and opener…

Biffy Clyro - Opposites

Double album showing both sides of band contains some great material, but feels diluted

(14th Floor Records) Pick any classic double album in history and you’ll find one excellent, seminal record padded out with just as much filler. Here, the Biffy have decided to go full 1970s and not allow for much editing of the creative process, and…

Esben and the Witch - Wash the Sins Not Only the Face

Harrowing, furrow-browed and worthy follow-up to debut

(Matador) Like The Horrors with the darkness turned up to 11, Brighton trio Esben and the Witch make music which sounds like it was beamed directly in from a provincial student union sometime around the late 80s or early 90s. It sounds bloody great…

Haftor Medboe and Anneke Kampman - Places and Spaces

Refreshing collaboration between dexterous jazz guitarist and electronic chanteuse

(Fabrikant) At first listen, Conquering Animal Sound chanteuse Anneke Kampman's first sojourn into off-piste collaboration sounds like the straightest thing she's done. Here she is, singing proper words and everything alongside seasoned jazz guitarist…

Blue Hawaii - Untogether

Beguiling début of somnambulant synths and layered vocals

(Arbutus Records) Blue Hawaii’s ethereal through-the-looking-glass world evokes a similar sense of place to the early work of Arbutus labelmate and fellow Montreal resident Grimes, but with a more subtle reliance on poppier tropes. If this beguiling…

Veronica Falls - Waiting For Something To Happen

Second album of retro pop charged with breezy harmonies and bright guitar lines

(Bella Union) On their second album, like their first, London-based quartet Veronica Falls don’t feel that fully invoking a retro style -- specifically the 80s shambly indie of The Shop Assistants, The Pastels et al (the Scotland connection goes…

New David Bowie single 'Where Are We Now?' and album The Next Day

Bowie marks 66th birthday with first single in a decade and album released on Mar 16

David Bowie has released a new single 'Where Are We Now?' this morning - his 66th birthday - with absolutely nothing in the way of the fanfare or marketing that accompanies most releases by both new and established artists these days. A combination…

Various artists - Some Songs Side By Side

Showcase of Scottish indie talent, featuring Tut Vu Vu, Sacred Paws, Muscles of Joy and more

So-called ‘regional’ compilations were crucial statements of independence during the post-punk fall-out that briefly shook up the bone-idle London-centric record company hegemony. Snapshots of Manchester, Brighton and other scenes proliferated on…

Yo La Tengo - Fade

Glorious return to form from the cult indie-rock stalwarts

Yo La Tengo hold that enviable position as a veteran cult indie band – well-earned after 29 years and now 13 albums – of being able to do much as they please and keep their fans keen, be it movie soundtracks, side-projects or re-enacting classic…

Steve Adey - The Tower of Silence

Moody pop with shades of The Blue Nile from vocally impressive singer Adey

Edinburgh resident Steve Adey is blessed with a voice which teeters between Feargal Sharkey and Paul Buchanan, the latter’s band being an especially pertinent touchstone for The Tower of Silence – recorded in a 19th century church in Edinburgh. All…

Mumford & Sons - SECC, Glasgow, Wed 5 Dec 2012

The nu-folk kingpins prove they can hold their own on a big stage

Early this December T in the Park announced The Killers, Rihanna, Azealia Banks and these guys for next year’s festival, heaping a great deal of expectation on the 20th anniversary shindig. When indie-folk outfit Mumford & Sons were confirmed as…

Christopher Owens - Lysandre

Focused and disarmingly honest solo effort from former Girls lynchpin

(Turnstile) His first output since quitting Girls, Christopher Owens’ hasty solo album should herald the stick-thin San Francisco indie model dude – whose outrageous backstory features religious cults, rich benefactors and heroin addiction – getting…

Toro Y Moi - Anything in Return

Chaz Bundick's third album is a truly original piece of pop-flecked electronica

Fitting broadly into the ever-expanding genre of electronic singer-producers who are making increasingly sophisticated sounds on their own, Chaz Bundick – who recently made the move from his native South Carolina to Berkeley, California – has earned the…

Hogmanay 2012: Bwani Junction

The indie-Afrobeat quartet are taking the stage at Edinburgh's Hogmanay for the first time

‘None of us have ever done the Street Party before,’ says Bwani Junction guitarist Dan Muir, a surprising admission from possibly the brightest young band in Edinburgh, and one that is going to be playing at that very event this year. ‘Well, our drummer…