Music, Pop and Ryan Drever

Feist, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Tue 27 Mar 2012

Stunning concert from the Canadian alt.folkie

11 Apr 2012

‘Wan, two, freee, fourr’, some gentleman gargles towards the end of Feist’s second encore. Without thinking, she laughs it off before ending on a heartbreakingly beautiful solo run of ‘Intuition’ from 2007’s The Reminder. It’s pin-drop silence…

Django Django - Django Django

Dense and often surprising debut spitting up bursts of bold, spaced-out texture

27 Jan 2012

(Because) Django Django’s debut has a lot of strings to its bow. It benefits from being the result of prolonged and measured tinkering by three Edinburgh art school grads over the space of a couple of years in a London bedroom. These efforts have…

Howler - America Give Up

The kind of easily-digestible festival fodder that could hit the spot live, but is dull on record

27 Jan 2012

(Rough Trade) You think we would all have learned by now that it is frankly unproductive to call anything the ‘new this’, the ‘next that’, or, god forbid, ‘the hottest thing you’ll hear all year’. Sadly, whether they’re aware of it or not, young US…

RM Hubbert launches album Thirteen Lost & Found with friends

Aidan Moffat, Alex Kapranos and more to join in at Stereo show

6 Jan 2012

RM Hubbert’s debut album First & Last was more than just an instrumental record by a talented Glaswegian guitarist. Far from a commercial stepping-stone, the record was rather the result of Hubbert’s attempts to document a tumultuous three-year period…

Kid Canaveral’s Christmas Baubles II - Summerhall, Edinburgh, Sat 17 Dec 2011

Josie Long, eagleowl and more join in Kid Canaveral's annual shindig

6 Jan 2012

The combination of cheap tins and 12 hours of live entertainment could be an endurance test in the wrong hands, but the second annual Fence Records/Kid Canaveral Chirstmas Baubles all-dayer doesn’t exactly feel like a chore. A joyous turn by Fence…

Chris Devotion and The Expectations – Amalgamation and Capital

Worthwhile debut stumbles when it steps away from solid pop template

6 Jan 2012

(Armellodie) Amalgamation and Capital is the debut from Glasgow’s Chris Devotion and the Expectations. Kicking off with ‘A Modest Refusal’, a punchy salute to 50s/60s pop, complete with textbook dum, dum-dum, tshh’s and whoah-ohs, this is an album…

Mazes - Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Thu 6 Oct 2011

The garage pop foursome take a while to warm up, but worth the wait

19 Oct 2011

Reduced from four to a trio tonight for undisclosed reasons, Mazes are welcomed with open arms, even if it takes them a little while to warm up. On first inspection, the band are a damn fine example of how to pen a charming pop song on the age-old…

PJ Harvey set for 2011 UK tour

Dates include Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

24 Aug 2011

Since releasing her caustic debut, Dry, in 1992, PJ Harvey has been hailed as a powerfully emotive and dazzlingly uncompromising artist, equally capable of shaking your bones and getting stuck in your head. As ambitious as she is forward-thinking…

Meursault / Over The Wall / Capitals / Miaoux Miaoux

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow, Mon 25 Jul 2011

8 Aug 2011

It's always exciting to find a new band that gets you going, you know, one that really does it for you. To have four of them on one bill is another kettle of fish entirely, one we at The List welcome with open arms on this leg of the second annual…

King Tut’s Summer Nights series of gigs

Local heroes including Song of Return and Meursault line-up for Tut's fortnight-long season of gigs

21 Jul 2011

‘Britain’s Best Small Venue’ – as voted last month by the NME but perhaps better known to Glasgow music-loving punters as plain old ‘King Tut’s’ – continues its successful run of seasonal live programmes with this month’s second annual ‘Summer Nights…

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Originality and excitement lost in quest for antiquated sounds

13 Jul 2011

(True Panther Sounds) A hazy, low-rent or ‘vintage’ sound is often more of a deliberate stylistic approach these days than the result of necessity. It’s with this in mind that Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s self-titled debut sounds like it’s trying far…

Tom Vek - Classic Grand, Glasgow, Tue 14 Jun 2011

Return of multi-instrumentalist a muted success

21 Jun 2011

After the critical acclaim and moderate commercial success of Tom Vek’s 2005 debut album, We Have Sound, it looked, on paper at least, like he was on to a winner. Instead, despite pursuing the potentially long and fruitful career ahead of him, he more…

Wu Lyf - Go Tell Fire To The Mountain

epic, cascading musical backdrops from the joyous and triumphant to rough and urgent

13 Jun 2011

(LYF recordings) WU LYF, aka World Unite Lucifer Youth Foundation, further refine their self-sufficient musical approach with their self-released debut, Go Tell Fire To The Mountain. Recorded in a church in Manchester, each song plays out with an…

Interview - Dananananaykroyd set for UK tour

Hyperactive Glaswegian sextet hit road after release of There is a Way

24 May 2011

As hyperactive Glaswegian sextet Dananananaykroyd ready their second full-length effort – the Ross Robinson-produced There is a Way – for mass consumption this summer, the band seem keen to put a fairly quiet and frustrating 2010 behind them. ‘Last…

Exposure: Glasgow indie trio PAWS

14 Apr 2011

Over the past 12 months, Glasgow trio PAWS have gone from ambitious bedroom jams to supporting damn near every cult US indie export to grace our fair shores (Dum Dum Girls, Wavves, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti etc). Combining Dinosaur Jr-esque melodic…

The Son(s) - The Son(s)

Debut drenched in psychedelic influences and haunting, layered vocals

1 Mar 2011

(Olive Grove) It’s always nice to find something interesting, or better yet, a little odd amongst the deluge of new releases. Preferring to be vague in terms of their/his background and personnel and uncompromisingly elaborate when it comes to…

Why Conor Oberst's return to Bright Eyes is to be celebrated

Ryan Drever welcomes back a different and more left-field Bright Eyes

28 Jan 2011

Even if you’ve never warmed to the shaky timbre of Conor Oberst’s emotionally-wrought vocals, related to his often intensely personal lyrics or felt a kinship with the causes he so vehemently confronts and supports with his music, there is one thing you…

Fujiya & Miyagi - Ventriloquizzing

3 Jan 2011

(Full Time Hobby) Brighton’s Fujiya & Miyagi return here with their fourth album, Ventriloquizzing and, as one might guess from the title, this particular collection of songs is inspired by the idea of ventriloquism or more broadly, the idea of…

Thin Lizzy 2011 UK tour

2011 incanation counts The Almighty's Ricky Warwick and Def Leppard's Vivian Campbell among line-up

23 Dec 2010

1. The Boys Are Back In Town... Well, sort of. Since the tragic passing of frontman Phil Lynott in 1986, many different incarnations of the band have existed, purely as a live tribute of sorts. Now, armed with Dio/Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell…

The Walkmen set for Celtic Connections 2011

New York quintet's impassioned tales of dejection and desperation

23 Dec 2010

New York quintet The Walkmen conjure a sound that spans the pastoral to the outright raucous. Though they are not perhaps one of the most obvious additions to any Celtic Connections bill, their material has been known to incorporate more ‘traditional…

South Africa's rap/rave Die Antwoord on UK tour promoting $o$ re-release

Blaring synths, pounding beats and South African accents

2 Nov 2010

When a video featuring South African rave/hip-hop crew, Die Antwoord surfaced late last year, a lot of head-scratching ensued. Is this for real? What’s up with their hair? And why is that guy shaking his penis? Whatever you thought of that video and…

Music Like a Vitamin - O2 ABC, Glasgow, Sat 2 Oct 2010

Rod Jones, Emma Pollock, Jenny Reeve and Karine Polwart

9 Oct 2010

For their Music Like A Vitamin event, Idlewild’s Rod Jones and The Delgados’ Emma Pollock have enlisted a Scottish musical dream team to create a fundraising album. Coinciding with the annual Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival, The Fruit…

Joanna Newsom embarks on UK tour

Artist tours sprawling achievement of Have One On Me

7 Sep 2010

When she was first brought to the attention of UK audiences by that most reliable eccentric, Jools Holland, Joanna Newsom seemed like just another obligatory obscure artist plucked from the ceiling-high stacks of specialist music magazines no doubt…

Wu-Tang Clan set for 2010 UK tour

Five reasons to go see: Wu-Tang Clan

21 Jul 2010

1. They’re back and ‘formin’ like Voltron’ This is the first Scottish performance to feature ALL associated Wu members since 2007’s T In The Park. So expect RZA, GZA, Method Man, Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, U-god, Masta Killa and…

Eminem - Recovery

7 Jul 2010

(Polydor) Originally intended as a sequel to last year’s Relapse, Recovery looks to re-establish Eminem as the strong, inescapably bratty voice of modern rap he once was. Fully embracing his struggles – drug addiction, loss and the mixed response to…