Music and Pop

Exposure: Dag för Dag

23 Feb 2010

They’re based in Stockholm, Sweden, but American brother and sister duo Sarah and Jacob Snavely (and their magnificently-named live drummer Chuck Bukowski) have no Swedish heritage. It shows: Dag för Dag’s (it means ‘day by day’) shouty, sky-scraping…

Zombie Zombie perform the music of John Carpenter

23 Feb 2010

Forming part of the Glasgow Film Festival’s Music and Film strand, the influence of one of American cinema’s most widely-respected cult auteurs hung over this event, so we shouldn’t be too picky that the band scrapped the idea of performing in front of…

Backbeat

18 Feb 2010

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

18 Feb 2010

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

18 Feb 2010

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…

Efterklang - Magic Chairs

17 Feb 2010

(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

17 Feb 2010

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

17 Feb 2010

(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

17 Feb 2010

(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.

Cabaret Voltaire celebrates fifth birthday

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

17 Feb 2010

‘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

17 Feb 2010

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…

Errors set for date at Grand Ole Opry, Glasgow

17 Feb 2010

‘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

17 Feb 2010

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…

Girls set for Glasgow live date

17 Feb 2010

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

17 Feb 2010

(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…

Hidden Door

17 Feb 2010

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…

These New Puritans - Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Thu 4 Feb 2010

17 Feb 2010

Puritanical? Maybe. This Southend-On-Sea quartet certainly give the impression they aren’t here to compromise, play the game or do what they’re told in order to eke out a little more media coverage, and we can only appreciate them for it. Jack Barnett…

RM Hubbert - First & Last

17 Feb 2010

(Ubisano) Once a member of the now defunct Glasgow instrumentalists El Hombre Trajeado, guitarist RM Hubbert delivers his debut solo release and proves that there’s much to be said for working hard on your craft. Here, he flexes his post-rock…

The Courteeners - Falcon

17 Feb 2010

(A&M Records) The second album from The Courteeners proves that this Manchester band aren’t afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves. Openly describing themselves as a mix of Morrissey, Elbow and The Verve, these musical patrons clearly hold…

LoneLady - Nerve Up

17 Feb 2010

(Warp) LoneLady might be coming on all Manchester warehouse post-punk or whatever, but she’s best when spitting soul asides and rewiring Gwen Guthrie’s ‘Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ on But the Rent’ – as she somehow does, and boy, it works, on her debut…

Marina and the Diamonds - The Family Jewels

17 Feb 2010

679 The latest in a long line of new Kate Bushes, Greek/Welsh loony tune Marina Diamandis arrives in a fair blitz of hype, but this debut album is a charmless affair which mistakes self-aggrandising for personality and synth-pop rip-offs for musical…

Toro Y Moi - Causers of This

17 Feb 2010

(Car Park) Toro Y Moi is Martian-talk for ‘pissed-up, blissed-out pop’. Or so South Carolinian electro-bard Chaz Bundick would have us believe on Causers of This – his computer-engendered, patchouli-infused and entirely affable debut album. Tipping…

Cobra Starship - Hot Mess

17 Feb 2010

(Atlantic) This latest offering from New York electro boppers Cobra Starship features some pretty disposable tracks, like the lacklustre ‘Fold Your Hands Child’ (a nod to the album of the same name by Scots twee-heroes, Belle & Sebastian) but when…

Field Music set for Glasgow date

17 Feb 2010

Sunderland indie types Field Music have included members of The Futureheads and Maxïmo Park amongst their ranks at various times and while they share a certain quirkiness with said bands they are a more thoughtful proposition as showcased on their new…

Xiu Xiu set for Edinburgh and Glasgow dates

17 Feb 2010

Jamie Stewart (the only constant member of Xiu Xiu) makes pop music. But it’s the weirdest pop music you’ll ever hear, but still encompasses the chirpy tunefulness, lyrical hooks and bouncy playfulness of the form, but imbues it with enough electronic…

Graeme Stephen Sextet with Ben Davis

17 Feb 2010

The sextet expands to a septet as cellist Ben Davis of Mercury Music Prize nominees Basquiat Strings joins inventive guitarist Stephen for a night of free improvisation, Celtic and world music influences. Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Fri 26 Feb…

Sharleen Spiteri - The Movie Songbook

17 Feb 2010

(Mercury) The Texas frontwoman has gone all camp and a bit ‘Liza Streisand’ on this platform-heeled tribute to her favourite soundtracks. Her retakes on ‘Xanadu’, ‘Take My Breath Away’ and ‘If I Can’t Have You’ just left us craving the originals…

Iain Shaw - May You Live All The Days of Your Life

17 Feb 2010

(Vow of Noise) Recorded and mixed over four hours, in Glasgow, Iain Shaw’s covers album includes gentle, intriguing, but over-tweedy and earnest folk versions of Motorhead (‘Motorhead’) and The Ramones (‘Blitzkreig Bop’).

Errors - Come Down With Me

3 Feb 2010

(Rock Action) It’s been a while since a bunch of arty boys from Glasgow made one of the records of the year. But with their second offering Come Down With Me (a title in homage to the Channel 4 dining bitchfest), Errors have done exactly that.

Exposure: The LaFontaines

3 Feb 2010

In an over-saturated music market it is becoming increasingly difficult to sift through the haystack of pretenders for a genuinely intriguing, passionate band injecting some much-needed attitude in a scene lacking in personality. Lanarkshire band The…

Labels of Love: SL Records

3 Feb 2010

A treasured Edinburgh DIY imprint, SL Records has propagated local and global anti-folk, alt-rock and indie-pop since 1997. With ballboy, Misty’s Big Adventure and Saint Jude’s Infirmary among its dexterous alumni, SL’s current roster spans Withered…

Bombay Bicycle Club, The Maccabees, The Big Pink and The Drums set for Shockwaves NME Awards Tour Glasgow date

3 Feb 2010

The latest NME tour brings another collection of bands – Bombay Bicycle Club, The Maccabees, The Big Pink and The Drums – looking to put a modern twist on familiar sounds. With sharp, noisy guitars and quivering vocals all round, the tour harks back to…

Shearwater - The Golden Archipelago

3 Feb 2010

(Matador) Texan indie outfit Shearwater don’t lack ambition, or for that matter, pretension. This album is the final instalment of a triptych of records about ‘environmental and personal decay and humans’ impact on nature’, apparently. How much it…

Inspiration, stylings and getting bored - Hot Chip interview

1 Feb 2010

Back with an album packed with real instruments, hymns to male friendship and informed by increasingly grown-up personal lives, Hot Chip are maturing into a proper band. Rumour has it that the mighty Hot Chip have gone a bit soft. They’ve never been…

Manic Street Preachers, Paolo Nutini, Enter Shikari and Brett Anderson mark King Tut's 20th birthday

King of clubs

1 Feb 2010

If there’s one thing that every music fan around the nation knows about Glasgow’s King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, it’s that Creation Records’ boss Alan McGee (a Glaswegian himself) first saw Oasis play live there in 1993 and decided to sign them before their…

Tinchy Stryder shows in Edinburgh and Glasgow

1 Feb 2010

One of the vanguard of the new British urban scene, Tinchy Stryder (aka Kwasi Danquah) was one of the highest selling artists of 2009. His second album Catch 22 crossed over into the mainstream with hits like ‘You’re Not Alone’, ‘Never Leave You…

Scottish Ensemble: Toby Spence sings Jacques Brel

1 Feb 2010

Way back in the 60s, when the Scottish Ensemble was born, it was christened the Scottish Baroque Ensemble. Although a group always admired for pushing boundaries, a programme featuring music by Belgian singer/songwriter Jacques Brel forty years down the…

Midlake set for Glasgow date

1 Feb 2010

When skateboarder turned TV man named Earl, Jason Lee fell for Midlake’s sound, it was love at first album. After hearing their 2004 debut, Bamnan and Slivercork, Lee got onboard with both feet, and bells on. In the past, Lee has promoted the lo-fi…

Way To Blue: The Songs of Nick Drake

1 Feb 2010

Nick Drake’s popularity has only increased in the years following his death in 1976, and this concert, curated by Drake’s producer Joe Boyd for Celtic Connections, was one of the most anticipated of the festival programme. The main appeal was…

Real Estate

Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Thu 28 Jan 2010

1 Feb 2010

‘What you want is just outside your reach,’ runs the opening line of Real Estate’s best song, ‘Beach Comber’. The crowd may skip along to its cantering beat, but the pensive guitar part and Martin Courtney’s lyrics pull the song towards melancholy. In…

Paul Vickers & The Leg - Itchy Grumble

1 Feb 2010

(SL Records) A sophomore album project for ex-Dawn of the Replicants frontman Paul Vickers and former Khaya/Desc buddies Dan Mutch, Pete Harvey and Alun Thomas; the latter part of the Leg alumni also a former ballboy and St Jude’s Infirmary…

Niki King pays tribute to Billie Holliday

1 Feb 2010

Cool Edinburgh jazz vocalist Niki King continues her tribute to one of the true greats of jazz Billie Holliday. ‘The time of prejudice that she worked through, the hardship and awful situations endured growing up; all of this pain and vulnerability…

Isa & The Filthy Tongues launch new album Dark Passenger

1 Feb 2010

Launching their new double album Dark Passenger with this special gig (and an aftershow party in the Cab’s Speakeasy) of dark pop and yearning scuzz rock. Last seen soundtracking Richard Jobson’s film New Town Killers with their track of the same name…

Jesca Hoop lines up Edinburgh and Glasgow dates

1 Feb 2010

Quirky folk with an indie twist from Manchester-based Californian Hoop. A startling singer of complicated folk melodies that beguile with their lightness of touch as showcased on her self-released debut Hunting My Dress from November of last year.

The Unwinding Hours - The Unwinding Hours

27 Jan 2010

(Chemikal Underground) One of Glasgow label Chemikal Underground’s best-loved bands is resurrected, after a fashion, in The Unwinding Hours, the new project from Craig B and Iain Cook of Aereogramme. Where the pair’s old group were unafraid of being…

Massive Attack - Heligoland

27 Jan 2010

(Virgin) Massive Attack have been in the studio for an age with this album, leaving fans restless and critics wondering if they had given up. The result is Heligoland, only ten tracks long but still hard-hitting with an enviable guest list. Damon…

Hot Chip - One Life Stand

27 Jan 2010

(Parlophone) Electro-poppers Hot Chip have gone soft. Their fourth album, aptly released just in time for Valentine’s Day, is all about love and meeting that special someone (hence the punning title). It looks like the boys have grown up and are keen…

Exposure: White Rabbits

27 Jan 2010

With their thumping new single, 'Percussion Gun', doing exactly what it says on the tin, New York-based White Rabbits are rapidly adding to their fanbase and whipping them into feverish expectation over sophomore release, It’s Frightening. The band are…

Erland and the Carnival

27 Jan 2010

Erland Cooper and his Carnival are unlikely to be fazed by Glasgow’s notoriously ‘lively’ gig-goers. Although based in London, these are no southern pansies: Cooper was raised on Orkney’s stormswept outcrops, and cut his teeth as a performer in the…

Exposure: Cobra Starship

27 Jan 2010

Essentially ‘punk kids’ in a very, very successful stateside power-pop band, bassist Alex Suarez of Cobra Starship (signed to Pete ‘Fall Out Boy’ Wentz’s Decaydance label) takes us back to the beginning. Gabe Saporta (singer) insists he got the band…

Gary War - New Rayontheport

27 Jan 2010

(Shdwply Records) Finally given a proper UK release, Gary War’s debut album is a lovely, if disorienting, trip through a fog of gauzy synths, sputtering drum machines and half submerged vocals. While Gary War can’t quite match former collaborator…

Puerto Muerto - Drumming for Pistols

27 Jan 2010

(Fire) Since their ecstatically-titled debut album, Your Bloated Corpse Has Washed Ashore in 2001, the Chicago matrimonial duo of Tim Kelley and Christa Meyer have engendered a cult following thanks to a miscreant blend of alt-country, gothic-folk…

Exposure: Still Flyin'

25 Jan 2010

"Hammjamm is a physiological state of euphoria and optimism that occurs when a good time becomes better. There are no defined rules or ways to have a hammjamm but is usually obtained while amongst friends". These are the words of OJ Hammond, San…

Exposure: Suspire

22 Jan 2010

Suspire are a trio from Glasgow with unrelenting enthusiasm and a good few tunes to boot. The band have been together sporadically in various guises since the early 00's but this somewhat revised line-up finally released their debut EP, Legislate For…

Exposure - This issue: X-Lion Tamer

19 Jan 2010

Wimbledon boy Tony Taylor has lived in Edinburgh for fifteen years, having travelled up north for college and hung around to work in various record shops in the capital. He’s also been making music during that time, with his unashamedly pop ‘one man…

First Aid Kit - The Big Black and the Blue

13 Jan 2010

Wichita Some people are just born talented, it would seem, and so it is with the extraordinarily gifted First Aid Kit, the band consisting of teenage Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Soderberg. Aged 16 and 19 respectively, the sisters have only…

Owen Pallett - Heartland

13 Jan 2010

(Domino) Torontonian boy-wonder Owen Pallett – formerly revered as Final Fantasy – is a violin alchemist, electronic illusionist, orchestral commander and indie librettist whose loop-ensorcelled, string-drawn pop has lured us since 2004. He’s…

Born To Be Wide - German Night

12 Jan 2010

Born to be Wide is a bit of strange one. It’s not really a club more of a muso social, it mixes up genres, seminars, producers, musicians, journalists and various other odds and ends. ‘It started out as a way to bring people in the Edinburgh scene…

Picture gallery: Skunk Anansie

11 Jan 2010

As soon as singer Skin entered the stage shrouded in a bizarre silver and gold Christmas decoration that completely covered her head, it was clear at this show Skunk Anansie, now as then, aren't ones for convention. As the fiery front woman leaped…

Porcupine Tree

ABC, Glasgow, Fri 11 Dec 2009

8 Jan 2010

When a band play their new album in full without barely taking a breath, you know they’re either a tad self absorbed and wrongfully rate their album as fantastic, or, the album is actually pretty fantastic. Tonight UK prog-merchants Porcupine Tree…

Ringo Deathstarr

Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Thu Dec 3 2009

8 Jan 2010

As cultural exchanges go, Austin, Texas’ SXSW festival has mopped up a swathe of British indie without giving much back in return. Take a deep breath and prepare to swoon awhile, then, to singer/guitarist Elliot Frazier’s Beaumont-sired quartet, who…

Pet sounds - Frightened Rabbit interview

7 Jan 2010

With an obscene amount of expectation surrounding the March release of their third album, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, Frightened Rabbit look set to be the Scottish sound of 2010. Jonny Ensall visits front man Scott Hutchison in a snowy studio outside…

10 for 2010: Divorce

7 Jan 2010

Noise, beautiful noise is the speciality of Glasgow’s Divorce. Smarter than you’re average metal band, there’s hints of the brilliance of Lightning Bolt or Liars in the fivesome’s 10” EP, released last year on Optimo Music. Plus they deliver an awesome…

10 for 2010: Silver Columns

7 Jan 2010

Silver Columns – a top secret duo poised to reveal their true identities any day now – captured our imaginations with 2009’s brilliant disco gem, ‘Brow Beaten’. Still largely mysterious (did someone say Fence?) a debut LP this spring will be hard to…

10 for 2010: Errors

7 Jan 2010

Rock Action favourites Errors first made their twitchy, electronic mark with 2007 EP ‘How Clean is Your Acid House?’ With another Channel 4-referencing album Come Down With Me in February, expect more melodic electronica and a full tour to follow.

10 for 2010: The Phantom Band

7 Jan 2010

The brilliance of last year’s Checkmate Savage shot these ‘proto-robofolk’-ers straight into our Hot 100. Here’s hoping that, after various name changes, they’re going to stay TBP long enough to promote this year’s new album.

10 for 2010: The Unwinding Hours

7 Jan 2010

Ex-Aereogramme men, Craig B and Iain Cook, make a welcome return with The Unwinding Hours. Their new material shows the same engrossing and heart-wrenching qualities. A self-titled debut album is due to be released on 15 Feb.

10 for 2010: Pearl and the Puppets

7 Jan 2010

It’s the old story. Girl meets guitar. Girl meets Elton John. Flowery alternative pop abounds across mobile phone adverts. There’s enough Regina Spektor in Katie Sutherland’s (aka Pearl)’s ouput to balance out the Sandi Thom, however. Album in the…

10 for 2010: Meursault

7 Jan 2010

Another gem from the Song, by Toad stable, Neil Pennycook and co aim to match the brilliance of 2008’s, Pissing on Bonfires/ Kissing With Tongues with an album in April, plus launch night at Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh. www,myspace.com/meursaulta701

10 for 2010: Lau

7 Jan 2010

Multi-award-winning folk trio Lau (comprising Kris Drever, Martin Green and Aidan O’Rourke), encapsulated the idea of achingly beautiful, traditional yet progressive folk music with their excellent Arc Light album last year. Unmissable live.

Comanechi - Akiko Matsuura interview

6 Jan 2010

Dalston boy/girl duo Comanechi have been slogging away at the national indie circuit for four years, with only obscurity to reward them. That is, until vocalist and drummer Akiko Matsuura’s other group The Big Pink (she’s their drummer) took off in…

Labels of love: Song, By Toad Records

6 Jan 2010

When and why did you launch the label? Basically, we got plastered with Broken Records and promised them that if they didn’t get signed by March 2008 then we’d release their album. They did get signed [to indie institute 4AD], but by then the idea had…

Bobby McFerrin

6 Jan 2010

Celtic Connections has always cast widely for artists, and jazz musicians have figured in the programme over the years, but few with quite as high a profile as American singer Bobby McFerrin. Actually, singer doesn’t quite seem to cover it in McFerrin’s…

The Link

6 Jan 2010

A fascinating project combining exhibition, auction and gig aims to examine the crossover between music and visual art, showcase artworks made by musicians, and throw a live show into the bargain. Appropriately named the Link, it’s the brainchild of…

Eagleowl

6 Jan 2010

As one door opens, another closes, as Eagleowl launch their gift-wrapped ‘Sleep the Winter’ 7” single at the penultimate show at the Bowery before the venue’s sad and frankly unnecessary closure (well done, Edinburgh University Settlement, for thinking…

New Voices: Iain Morrison

6 Jan 2010

This Outer Hebridean singer-songwriter has dabbled in indie pop – as a member of Crash My Model Car, dipped a toe in to alt.folk – as frontman of the Sleepy Cafe Band, and done a bit of traditional piping too. Just before the release of his album Trust…

Laura Veirs

6 Jan 2010

One of indie pop’s more literate songwriters, Laura Veirs’ hotly anticipated album July Flame is out this fortnight, and you can check out what her live show’s like too, at this Celtic Connections gig. Recalling the vivid lyrics and starkly incisive…

Way to Blue - Songs of Nick Drake

6 Jan 2010

A quarter of a century since his untimely death, Nick Drake’s poignant, haunting acoustics leave an enduring legacy, cited by Coldplay, Kate Bush and Paul Weller among others as a major influence. This special tribute concert, brings together Vashti…

OK-Go

6 Jan 2010

Energetic punk rock band OK-Go draw attention as much through their music as their bizarre part glam, part geek-rock fashion statements. They’re compellingly vivacious – watching them live is a bit like watching Franz Ferdinand meeting Queen. ABC…

Singles and Downloads

17 Dec 2009

Homecoming is over, right? So it’s OK to say that Hue and Cry are canine excrement of the highest order? Their version of the Rolf Harris ‘classic’ ‘Two Little Boys’ (Blair Hill) is a painfully smug loungecore abomination, an affront to all human ears…

Fall Be Kind - Animal Collective

17 Dec 2009

(Domino) This year’s Merriweather Post Pavilion left a lot of Animal Collective fans thirsty for more. All those summery, melted hooks, the warped beats and echoey vocals, not forgetting the shimmery awesomeness of ‘My Girls’ – it was no wonder it…

Broadcast

Stereo, Glasgow, Wed 9 Dec 2009

17 Dec 2009

Throughout their career, Birmingham’s Broadcast have created a brand of ghostly electronic pop which might fairly be described as comforting. Yet this latest live incarnation, promoting the new EP ‘Broadcast and the Focus Group Investigate the Witch…

Erect - Sweeney Straddles the Sun

17 Dec 2009

(Boffo Bear Studios) A chubby, cherubic young lad grins from the cover of Sweeney Straddles the Sun’s debut, the titular word ‘erect’ uncomfortably large beside the boy’s shiny head. Listening to this set of 11 tunes is equally fraught an experience…

Frightened Rabbit

17 Dec 2009

It’s a very smug and pleased-with-himself Rabbit that should be performing at this ABC date; the Borders’ indie-folkers’ largest venue to date. After their biggest year so far, where they built on the success of album The Midnight Organ Fight, this gig…

Sons & Daughters

17 Dec 2009

Sons & Daughters What better way to see in the bells this New Year than in the company of Sons & Daughters for a shimmering slice of indie pop. Joined by Sparkling Shadazz and Errors (with a DJ set) for a proper Hogmanay hoolie. Mono, Glasgow, Thu…

Codeine Velvet Club - Codeine Velvet Club

9 Dec 2009

(Island) Different people have a different idea about what makes for glamour. Those who are into a bit of monochromatic 60s chic will go ape for the breathy duo behind Codeine Velvet Club, perhaps realising only too late that this is largely a…

Fit The Paradigm - Jack Butler

9 Dec 2009

(Whimsical) Starting with 20th Century Fox-esque snare drums, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’re about to be hit by something dramatic and cinematic, grandiose even. Instead, you’re nodding your head before you realise it, thinking how unlikely it…

Is There Nothing We Could Do? - Badly Drawn Boy

9 Dec 2009

(Big Life) Pedestrian versifier Badly Drawn Boy – aka Manchester's Damon Gough – has long been a daft-hatted poster boy for fans of ambling pop psalms and prosaic surveillance. This is his second soundtrack endeavour – the first being 2002's…

Sweet Bells - Kate Rusby

9 Dec 2009

(Pure) If you missed its under-promoted first release a year ago, this is a lovely Christmas tonic, drawing on the carol-singing traditions of South Yorkshire to make the familiar charmingly new. The airy innocence of Kate Rusby’s girlish delivery…

First word - Har Mar Superstar interview

4 Dec 2009

Risqué performer Har Mar Superstar (aka Minnesota native Sean Tillman) is one of America’s most flamboyant pop exports. Ahead of his arrival in Scotland he admits his enthusiasm for both Susan Boyle and dental hygiene

Exposure: Codeine Velvet Club

4 Dec 2009

Like a Scots Last Shadow Puppets, chanteuse Lou Hickey has reformed Jon ‘Fratelli’ Lawler to a life of John Barry-esque epics with Codeine Velvet Club. Just don’t call them a side-project, says Lawler. How did Codeine Velvet Club get…

Homecoming Live

4 Dec 2009

The cynic might have viewed this musical finale to the Scottish Government’s grand attempt to reel back a few ex-pat Kiwis and Canucks in terms of all the iconic and available Scots bands who weren’t playing. Where were Franz Ferdinand, Glasvegas…

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

4 Dec 2009

Karen O and her boys are back again. Since the last time they were in Scotland (which, excepting the odd T In The Park slot, was two and a half years ago), they’ve released the ‘Is Is’ EP, and the It’s Blitz! album. Karen’s also just finished working…

Pet Shop Boys

4 Dec 2009

Somewhere in the midst of their epic ‘Pandemonium’ world tour, the Pet Shop Boys managed to put together two EPs – ‘Beautiful People’ (not out here yet) and the brand new, ‘Christmas’. As well as allowing Neil Tennant time off to collaborate with The…

Sparrow And The Workshop - Into The World

4 Dec 2009

(Distiller) If only these guys were around in the 70s, their soulful country vocals and acoustic guitars married to noisy drums and bass could have landed them on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack – they’re that good. Thankfully, they’re here for us to…

Exposure: The Raveonettes

1 Dec 2009

Danish duo The Raveonettes are the perfect example of a great band determined to shoot itself in the foot. Copenhagen’s hippest exports make impeccable rock songs that are so addictive you will be singing them in your sleep, yet after seven years they…

Exposure: Laki Mera

30 Nov 2009

Laki Mera, are a Glasgow five piece with a singular take on cinematic trip hop atmospherics who don’t really fit into any particular corner of the Scottish music scene. Their album. Clutter, was released as a download in 2007. They’ve more recently…

Exposure: A Genuine Freakshow

25 Nov 2009

Reading based 7 piece, A Genuine Freakshow is Timothy Sutcliffe (vocals, guitar), Jack Bryant (drums), Marianne Casey Canning (violin), Melanie Dickson (cello), John Dunstan (trumpet), Simon Evans (guitar) and John Szmidt (bass). Combining the grandeur…

Exposure: Nic Dawson Kelly

24 Nov 2009

In an industry that is currently saturated with bland singer/songwriters that all seem to sound disarmingly similar, Nic Dawson Kelly is refreshingly distinctive. His debut album Old Valentine is a collection of frank observations about life that…

Exposure: Fránçois And The Atlas Mountains

23 Nov 2009

Fife’s Fence Records, a haven for musicians who celebrate the DIY approach to their work, welcomes a new signing in the form of Bristol-based Frenchman Fránçois Marry aka Fránçois And The Atlas Mountains. Fránçois is an multi-talented songwriter…