Music and Rock

King Creosote and Jon Hopkins - Grand Ole Opry, Glasgow, Wed 7 Sep

The recent Mercury award nominees hit all the right notes

19 Sep 2011

Gig of the year if they win, they said. Not a dry eye in the house if they win, they said. Well, guess what. They didn’t win. You think that made their Glasgow performance any less enthralling? Two chords in – two of Hopkins’ hymnal, heart-stopping…

Electric Frog September Weekender – SWG3, Glasgow, Sat 10–Sun 11 Sep

19 Sep 2011

‘It’s good that this is in Glasgow, ‘cause not a lot of great things happen in Glasgow,’ praised Errors’ Steev Livingston of Electric Frog. His tongue was possibly ever so slightly in cheek, but these micro festivals – of which this September Weekender…

Three Blind Wolves – O2 ABC2, Glasgow, Wed 14 Sep 2011

Solid line-up of Americana-tinged Scottish bands for No Mean City festival

19 Sep 2011

Even in the context of the No Mean City festival, this gig is more Americana than most. The line-up spans the bluegrass, folk and country genres, with some indie rock and a smidgen of prog thrown in as well. While it’s not a flawless evening, each band…

The Bronx/Mariachi El Bronx – The Garage, Glasgow, 26/08/11

19 Sep 2011

Call them what you will, but The Bronx are entertainers. You could laugh off the LA punks’ idea of a Mariachi band side-project as mere novelty but the fact that they not only play their newly adopted instruments with vigour and immense proficiency, the…

5 Things: what to expect from Primal Scream at this year's Hogmanay celebrations

The Screamadelica crew announced as Edinburgh party headliners

19 Sep 2011

As the mighty Primal Scream prepare to whip up a storm in the capital for Hogmanay, The List wonders what’s in store for the festive season’s hottest ticket A heroes’ welcome As if holding the world’s (okay, Scotland’s) biggest New Year shindig…

5 Things: the changing faces of Bob Dylan

Our five favourite versions of the man born Robert Zimmerman

19 Sep 2011

Folk Dylan Became the poster boy for protest music with album and song The Times They Are a-Changin’ in 1964. Electric Dylan Enraged the folky masses by plugging in for ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ in 1965. Allen Ginsberg pushed a broom in the…

Real Estate - Days

Chiming, melancholic, reverb-bathed songs from some glorious, stoned daze

16 Sep 2011

(Domino) From The Byrds to Avi Buffalo, baked dudes kicking out jangly, gently psych-frazzled pastoral jams is a tradition as old as the hills in American pop and Real Estate are keeping it alive and well. If the trio of New Jersey childhood…

We Were Promised Jetpacks set for new album and UK tour

Edinburgh quartet recorded new album in Sigur Rós' Reykjavik studio

16 Sep 2011

‘It sounded like a bad demo,’ grumbles We Were Promised Jetpacks singer and guitarist Adam Thompson of his band’s 2009 debut album, These Four Walls. The 40,000 people worldwide that bought a copy would presumably disagree, but they’ll be cheered to…

PJ Harvey - Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Sun 4 Sep 2011

Assured and powerful set from artist in command of her own medium

16 Sep 2011

Forty-eight hours after this concert finished, PJ Harvey would have her second Mercury Prize safely in hand. While the award was an open field this year in terms of the albums submitted, the assurance and power in Harvey’s set here spoke of an artist…

Eastern Promise brings live music and record fair to Platform, Glasgow

To Rococo Rot, Tarwater and Conquering Animal Sound

14 Sep 2011

The second Eastern Promise builds on the good work of last year’s festival by bringing an admirably eclectic bill of Scottish and international acts to Easterhouse. Underground pop legends The Pastels play their first show in over a year on the Sunday…

Bob Dylan set for 2011 UK tour

Dates in Dublin, Glasgow, Manchester, Nottingham, Cardiff and Bournemouth

14 Sep 2011

Rock stars, like canines, maintain strange relationships with the tally of the passing years. The job is viable till the moment the performer hits 60, at which point the shade of pensioner-hood lowers like showers on a Bank Holiday weekend. We’re…

Remember Remember - The Quickening

A shimmering and optimistic tour de force from Scottish composer and pop genius

14 Sep 2011

(Rock Action) Once upon a time there was a super electro-prog combo called Multiplies. They came from Glasgow, made like rock miscreants and then they were gone, leaving memories of marvellous live shows and the sense they were always too good to be…

Twin Sister - In Heaven

Insanely infectious pop melodies and playful, off-kilter lyrics from Long Island quintet’s debut

14 Sep 2011

(Domino) Twin Sister’s biog tells us they want to make music you could feel comfortable cheating on someone to. And while The List can’t speak from experience on this one, honest, we can certainly imagine In Heaven blissing listeners out so much they…

Feist - Metals

Striking songwriting enters more mature and mellow-textured style

14 Sep 2011

(Polydor) This evidence seems to suggest Canadian siren Leslie Feist has foregone trying to recreate the breathy anthemics of 2007’s The Reminder – and the Apple-advertising ‘1234’ in particular – in favour of a more mature and mellow-textured…

Jeffrey Lewis - A Turn in the Dream-Songs

Lots to adore on sixth Rough Trade album of wry, nerdy, verbose tunes

14 Sep 2011

(Rough Trade) ‘A cult boyfriend is like a record in a bargain bin,’ rambles Jeffrey Lewis, paralleling his calibre as a date with his music; both acquired tastes, ‘no one knows its worth ’til a collector comes in.’ While we can’t advocate going…

Veronica Falls - Veronica Falls

Gorgeously gritty indie pop referencing C86, Pastels and Vaselines

14 Sep 2011

(Bella Union) You may recognise this boy/girl foursome from their various past musical projects The Royal We, Sexy Kids, Your Twenties and Correcto. But The List hopes they stick with this one, because with Veronica Falls they’re really on to…

Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost

New-found soulfulness with assured second album

14 Sep 2011

(Fantasy Trashcan/Turnstile) At times Christopher Owens’ religious cult upbringing and drug dabbling has threatened to overshadow the music he makes as the driving force behind San Francisco’s Girls. No such problems with this assured follow-up to…

We Were Promised Jetpacks - In the Pit of the Stomach

Not groundbreaking, but an impressive second album

14 Sep 2011

(Fat Cat) The main challenge for Scottish noiseniks these days is to not sound like Biffy Clyro, something We Were Promised Jetpacks achieve with aplomb on this accomplished second album. There are echoes of Interpol and even The Skids on the likes…

Cults - Nice’n’Sleazy, Glasgow, Wed 31 Aug 2011

New Yorkers' difficult attempt to recreate reverb-soaked debut album

14 Sep 2011

When their chiming, summery debut single ‘Go Outside’ ricocheted around the blogosphere last year, then on TV ads for Brothers Cider this summer, New Yorkers Cults made a very immediate impression. Live, their undoubted charms proved much slower to…

Other Lives - Tamer Animals

Debut evoking Ennio Morricone, The Decemberists and The National

14 Sep 2011

(Play it Again Sam) The influential fingerprints of Ennio Morricone are clearly visible on Other Lives’ debut record. The galloping pace and stark electric guitar of debut single ‘For 12’ recalls the theme from A Few Dollars More, while the sound of…

Dum Dum Girls - Only in Dreams

Fizzily catchy, if too clean-cut to entirely convince

14 Sep 2011

(Sub Pop) It’s little surprise to discover that The Raveonettes’ Sune Rose Wagner co-produced this Californian all-female quartet’s second album. By progressing from trashy, distorted beginnings towards something more polished and unashamedly pop…

Laura Marling - A Creature I Don’t Know

Nice, but not ground-breakingly so

14 Sep 2011

(Virgin) While some will lap up anything by the Brit winning and twice Mercury-nominated Marling, those with a little remove on the scene might want to consider whether this is the sound of the emperor’s new clothes rustling. Marling’s voice is…

Muscles of Joy - Muscles of Joy

Remarkable debut fuses styles with melodic instinct, sensitivity, and coherence

14 Sep 2011

(Watts of Goodwill) For the past three years, Glasgow’s Muscles of Joy have honed a singular body of work that spans myriad divergent forms – from post-punk to Bulgarian a cappella; from Gaelic psalm singing to New Pop. The vocal-led, all-female…

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Tape Club

Enjoyable collection of B-sides and demos a predictably patchy affair

14 Sep 2011

(Polyvinyl) The 26 tracks on Tape Club, the majority of which are pleasingly under two and a half minutes long, represent unreleased tunes, B-sides, demos and rare recordings across a decade in the life of this Missouri outfit with one of the…

The Shivers - More

Sixth album of diverse styles linked by soulful sensibility from New York outfit

14 Sep 2011

(Fence Records) Having tootled along in NYC for years, this is The Shivers’ sixth album but first to be released over here, and it’s a perfect introduction to their idiosyncratic and gentle form of genius. Diversity is the name of the game; anti-folk…