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Exposure: Copy Haho

Exposure: Copy Haho

3 Dec 2008

Lord Reith, founder of the BBC, was born in Stonehaven, and so was Robert William Thomson, inventor of the pneumatic tyre and the fountain pen. And Lewis Grassic Gibbon went to school in the town. These are some pretty impressive names, but we can’t see…

Exposure - Vivian Girls

Exposure - Vivian Girls

2 Dec 2008

Propelled into our lives on a wave of blog hysteria following a scuzzy masterpiece of a debut, Vivian Girls are possibly the most perfect outfit to come out of New York since The Strokes squeezed into those skinny jeans and stole our hearts all those…

Exposure: Unwed Sailor

Exposure: Unwed Sailor

1 Dec 2008

Avoiding easy categorisation since 1998, chameleonic American instrumental rock project Unwed Sailor – originally founded in Seattle, but since based everywhere from Chicago to Washington DC, Little Rock and Lawrence – have shared stages with Low…

Biffy Clyro to headline Rockness 2009, with festival stretching to three days

Biffy Clyro to headline Rockness 2009, with festival stretching to three days

28 Nov 2008

Scottish band Biffy Clyro have announced that they will be headlining the final day of RockNess 2009. The festival, which takes place in Dores on the eastern banks of Loch Ness, is set for June 12th, 13th and 14th in 2009, growing from two days to three…

Exposure - Ten Kens

Exposure - Ten Kens

28 Nov 2008

Proving that there’s so much more to Toronto’s new music scene than two hip-ly-hooded synth terrorists, here comes the brilliant Ten Kens; and with this lot, you really couldn’t get further from Crystal Castles if you tried. The beardy and speccy…

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - Corn Exchange, Edinburgh, Wed 26 Nov

(4 stars)27 Nov 2008

Now this is how to work a crowd. ‘You’ve got the wrong band, mate’, says Nick Cave, as someone up the front makes a call for something not actually performed by he and his Bad Seeds (it must have been a Grinderman or Birthday Party track, we’re…

Musicians' guide: How to make it in the music industry

Musicians' guide: How to make it in the music industry

27 Nov 2008

Want to make it in music? Fancy yourself as The Next Big Thing? Claire Sawers and Malcolm Jack track down nine very different people currently working in the industry and quiz them on just what they do and how they do it In addition, for detailed…

Trade secrets

Trade secrets

27 Nov 2008

Five months before Margaret Thatcher’s landslide 1979 victory, and with Britain’s city streets still retaining the air of a depressed bombsite, highbrow arts programme The South Bank Show appeared to have been hi-jacked by a cell of musical terrorists.

James Yorkston

James Yorkston

27 Nov 2008

It’s no longer news to say a James Yorkston album has been ‘critically acclaimed’ – because they always are. Since coming to John Peel’s attention in 2001, releasing early material through the Fence Collective and moving on to recent albums with Domino…

5 Reasons To Go See - Dean Owens

5 Reasons To Go See - Dean Owens

27 Nov 2008

1 He’s got both kinds of music – country and western An old gag, but not entirely appropriate for Owens, an Edinburgh-based purveyor of finely crafted Americana, who also manages to channel folk, traditional, pop, soul and punk into the mix. 2 The…

Andersen, Smith, Vinaccia

Andersen, Smith, Vinaccia

27 Nov 2008

JAZZ Norwegian bass maestro Arild Andersen teams up with our own Tommy Smith and Italian drummer Paulo Vinaccia in a superbly creative trio that has its immediate origins in the rather unlikely location of Islay. Andersen was invited to write some…

Art Brut

Art Brut

(4 stars)27 Nov 2008

INDIE POP Jack Daniel’s keep rolling on the JD Set tour with Hugh Cornwell (The Stranglers punk turned rock elder statesman) presiding over tonight’s picks. Anachronistic styles seem to be the theme of the evening, with supporters Rosie and the…

Brian Kellock - The Nine Mile Burn Sessions

Brian Kellock - The Nine Mile Burn Sessions

(4 stars)27 Nov 2008

JAZZ It has been too a long a wait for a follow up to pianist Brian Kellock’s award-winning Live At Henry’s set. This album is an excellent launch for a potentially significant new recording project from Cathie Rae’s Thick Skinned Productions, and…

Britney Spears - Circus

Britney Spears - Circus

(4 stars)27 Nov 2008

POP Tabloid hysteria aside, Britney Spears is shaping up to be one of pop’s most interesting stars, and if we’re lucky, she’ll endure more iconic chameleon-esque reinventions, Madge-style, for many years to come. Some will fail spectacularly and…

Clinic

Clinic

(3 stars)27 Nov 2008

INDIE Always different, always the same. The Peel maxim used to describe The Fall is equally applicable to Clinic, the quiet men of the Domino Records roster, who have deviated little from the driving, atmospheric and echo drenched blueprint as…

Exposure - Those Dancing Days

Exposure - Those Dancing Days

27 Nov 2008

Many bad things have come from Led Zeppelin; a whole plethora of ill-advised haircuts, for example, ridiculously wanky guitar solos – oh, and far too tight trousers… But if it wasn’t for their track ‘Dancing Days’, we might not have this compelling…

Glasgow music group seek old instruments and equipment

Glasgow music group seek old instruments and equipment

27 Nov 2008

The East End Music Group’s Equipment Drive is now live online in a bid to encourage people to search attics, sheds, backrooms and basements for instruments and equipment. See myspace ( myspace.com/eastendmusicclub ).

Glasvegas - The Christmas Album

Glasvegas - The Christmas Album

(3 stars)27 Nov 2008

SEASONAL ROCK Available via download or as part of repackaged re-release of their debut long player this isn’t quite the full on Christmas ‘album’ Glasvegas promised, but they have delivered six outstanding songs for the holiday season. And it…

Guns N’ Roses - Chinese Democracy

Guns N’ Roses - Chinese Democracy

(3 stars)27 Nov 2008

ROCK There were a few moments in the last 17 years that it felt like this album was likely to arrive after the dawning of actual Chinese democracy, there in rendering Axl Rose’s political musings, at best prophetic, and at worst ill-timed, such was…

Human League, ABC and Heaven 17

Human League, ABC and Heaven 17

27 Nov 2008

SYNTH-POP ELECTRONICA When David Bowie watched Human League play an early gig in 1979, he said he’d just seen ‘the future of pop music’ and their sci-fi, deadpan brand of electronica was ‘like listening to 1980’. Almost 30 years later, with synth-pop…

Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak

Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak

(4 stars)27 Nov 2008

POP Of the great break up albums in music lore – Marvin Gaye’s Here, My Dear, Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks or even Beck’s Sea Change – few have coincided with a musical watershed such as the Matt Damon of hip hop’s fourth album. More than just a…

King Creosote & HMS Ginafore - Love + Hate = Hate

King Creosote & HMS Ginafore - Love + Hate = Hate

(4 stars)27 Nov 2008

FOLK Providing the finest cross-gender pop union since Bonnie Tyler inveigled Todd Rundgren, this bilateral treat from the Fence Collective king and queen might invoke the mathematical tongue, but this is an album of human equations: limbs are…

Kings of Leon

Kings of Leon

27 Nov 2008

Apparently, the Followill brothers were listening to a lot of Crystal Castles, My Morning Jacket and Radiohead when they recorded their latest album, Only By the Night, but despite these far-reaching musical tastes, their sound is still unmistakeably…

Musicians' guide: Great music websites

27 Nov 2008

The List’s Daily Exposure. Nothing like kicking off with a bit of shameful self-promotion but The List recently launched an online initiative to showcase a different new band every day on our site. Read about the band, hear the band, watch a video, even…

Musicians' guide: Live music nights

Musicians' guide: Live music nights

27 Nov 2008

The Mill Launched at the end of the summer, this platform for emerging new talent hosts gigs at The Caves, Edinburgh, and Oran Mor, Glasgow. For more info, visit www.themill-live.com Born To Be Wide A night set up to make connections between…

Musicians' guide: Open mic nights

Musicians' guide: Open mic nights

27 Nov 2008

Mondays Glasgow Nice 'n' Sleazy 421 Sauchiehall St, 333 0900. 8pm. The Monday Acoustic Jam, 8pm–midnight. Free to all performers. Bring your instrument and join in the fun. Open Mic NIght - Pivo Pivo 15 Waterloo Street, 564 8100. 6pm.

Nathan Fake

Nathan Fake

27 Nov 2008

Anyone who missed Nathan ‘techno wonderboy’ Fake’s set at The Caves earlier this year can catch him again as he provides support for Squarepusher. The Border Community-signed producer melts computer-rock, a love of Mogwai and gently ambient electronica…

Pitch perfect

Pitch perfect

27 Nov 2008

Pitching itself as the ‘Scottish Brits,’ the Tartan Clef Music Awards rocked into town last week in suitable glam style, setting out its stall with some of Scotland’s most celebrated acts and championing the great and good of the country’s music scene.

Razorlight

Razorlight

(3 stars)27 Nov 2008

STADIUM INDIE For a man so widely reported as having lost his rock’n’roll mojo, Jonny Borrell has either fired into the Prozac or rediscovered ‘the light’. A packed and extremely enthusiastic Corn Exchange didn’t take long to put their hosts’ minds…

Rosie and the Goldbug

(3 stars)27 Nov 2008

INDIE POP Jack Daniel’s keep rolling on the JD Set tour with Hugh Cornwell (The Stranglers punk turned rock elder statesman) presiding over tonight’s picks. Anachronistic styles seem to be the theme of the evening, with supporters Rosie and the…

Royal Scottish National Orchestra: Damnation of Faust

Royal Scottish National Orchestra: Damnation of Faust

27 Nov 2008

CLASSICAL There aren’t many musical happenings that are too big for Edinburgh Festival Theatre, but the RSNO’s Damnation of Faust is one of them. By far the biggest event of their season, it is huge. With the Usher Hall still closed, and nowhere else…

Singles & Downloads

Singles & Downloads

27 Nov 2008

What’s that Lassie? Name+Relucto are trapped down the well? ‘Spawnofspoon EP’ (Hum+Haw) ••• is a plinky-plonky kind of techno that is thankfully less like being punched hard in the face over and over, and more like the voices in your head have taken to…

Ten Bears

Ten Bears

27 Nov 2008

Named after a Comanche chief, Ten Bears hail from Manchester rather than the wild west and specialise in highly hummable indie rock. Think the Kaiser Chiefs but less annoying or Razorlight without the arrogance, add a bit of spiky Eels quirkyness and…

The importance of being idle

The importance of being idle

27 Nov 2008

Idlewild have announced plans for fans to get involved in their forthcoming album. Although there will be an album release in the summer, for a limited time, fans can pre-order a special edition album, along with extras. Check out…

The Killers - Day & Age

The Killers - Day & Age

(3 stars)27 Nov 2008

POP IN INDIE CLOTHING As much as they try to conceal it with dodgy facial fuzz and crunchy guitar riffs, The Killers are just a big brash pop band at heart. The clues are in Brandon Flowers’ penchant for outlandish outfits and, of course, his way…

The Prodigy

The Prodigy

27 Nov 2008

ELECTRO ROCK Fierce – a horrific word for ‘cool’, that’s for sure, but totally accurate if you’re describing a new Prodigy album. When The List catches up with Liam Howlett in a New York hotel room, days before the completion of the long-awaited new…

The Stills

The Stills

27 Nov 2008

They’ve just finished touring the States with Kings of Leon and the Montreal rockers are bringing their poppy, 80s flavoured stadium anthems to our shores. Logic Will Break Your Heart was the album that brought them to prominence in 2004, but October’s…

Tropics

Tropics

(4 stars)27 Nov 2008

INDIE ROCK In a tiny venue on a cold Tuesday night, sometime after midnight, with a young band who are somewhat unheralded nationally - the odds were stacked against this show from the start. Yet Sneaky’s is cosy rather than characterless, the crowd…

Exposure: Winning Sperm Party

Exposure: Winning Sperm Party

26 Nov 2008

A bit of vaguely queasy speculation on Winning Sperm Party’s MySpace blog about the amount of semen a man produces in his life and the number of sperm contained therein deduces that ‘there was only a 1 in 544,000,000,000 chance of you being born’. So…

Exposure: Micachu

Exposure: Micachu

25 Nov 2008

It’s iPop, but not as we know it. 21-year-old Mica Levi (lives in East London, grew up ‘in a large mansion in Surrey’ – her words) makes glitching, Nu Ravesque electronica, is mates with Jack Penate and Toddla T, and wears the highlighter-pen ensemble…

Exposure: Lykke Li

Exposure: Lykke Li

24 Nov 2008

It’s hard to get past the fact that Lykke Li has been responsible for one of the most incessantly catchy songs of the year in ‘Little Bit’, a teasing slice of strangely romantic Scandi-pop weirdness which features the frankly intriguing couplet ‘And for…

Exposure: White Denim

Exposure: White Denim

21 Nov 2008

Austin, Texas’s bluesy, psychedelic garage trio White Denim released one of the true noisy gems of 2008 in their riotous, twisted, brilliant and totally beguiling debut album Workout Holiday. Singer and guitarist James Petralli talks turkey ahead of the…

Exposure: Alestorm

Exposure: Alestorm

20 Nov 2008

Excuse us while we sit down for a bit, because we’ve just had the shock of our lives. You might feel the same when you open up the MySpace page of four-piece Perth (Scotland, not Australia) rock outfit Alestorm, because nothing can quite prepare you for…

Guillemots: Picture House, Edinburgh, 13 November

Guillemots: Picture House, Edinburgh, 13 November

(2 stars)19 Nov 2008

You’d probably have a better chance of looking cool wearing a pair of bowling shoes in a supermarket than dancing at a Guillemots gig. Tight, skilled musicians they may be, party starters they are not. Their following evidently accept this, why then…

Exposure: Tokyoblu

Exposure: Tokyoblu

19 Nov 2008

Hail the Scottish Groove Armada! At least that’s how Edinburgh’s Tokyoblu style themselves, and it’s a comparison which most commentators seem happy to run with. Formed from their identically-named monthly club night – which has been held at the late…

New Venue sees downtown New York come to Edinburgh

New venue brings downtown New York to Edinburgh

19 Nov 2008

Edinburgh’s art scene has another new addition. The Bowery on Roxburgh Place in the Southside, opened last Saturday and takes its name from one of the famous city's hippest streets. The venue aims to replicate the quirky and semi mod attitude of the…

Dialogues 2008

Dialogues 2008

18 Nov 2008

University of Edinburgh Informatics Forum, Sat 15-Sun 16 November. The interior of Edinburgh University’s just-built Informatics Forum on the site of the old Bristo Square car park is a retro-futurist delight resembling the set of some minimally…

Exposure: Youthmovies

Exposure: Youthmovies

18 Nov 2008

An Oxford-based quintet consisting of former Foals bandmember Andrew Mears and Al English (both of whom assume responsibility for guitar and vocals duties), as well as Stephen Hammond (bass), Graeme Murray (drums, vocals) and Sam Scott (trumpet…

Exposure: North Atlantic Oscillation

Exposure: North Atlantic Oscillation

17 Nov 2008

Further confirming that the laptop is the discerning musician’s instrument of choice, Glasgow/Edinburgh duo North Atlantic Oscillation deploy portable personal computers – alongside a phalanx of boring old things like guitars and basses and drums and…

New York Dolls reunite with Todd Rundgren for new album

New York Dolls reunite with Todd Rundgren for new album

14 Nov 2008

The New York Dolls and legendary record producer Todd Rundgren have been reunited for the first time in 36 years. Rundgren will produce the Dolls' new album at his studio on the island of Kauai. Production is scheduled to start in January 2009. This…

Rosie & The Goldbug: Art Brut, ABC2, Glasgow

Art Brut, Rosie & The Goldbug: ABC2, Glasgow

14 Nov 2008

On a dreary Tuesday in Glasgow, Jack Daniel's keep the booze'n'bandwagon rolling on the JD Set tour. A subdued Hugh Cornwell, decked out in a black polo neck, and as far from The Stranglers’ image as you can imagine, presides over the penultimate night…

Exposure: Kid British

Exposure: Kid British

14 Nov 2008

I’m in the mood for some Specials-meets-Streets-meets-Madness-style pop hijinks. Let me just go and check if we have anything suitable in the back. Now then, how about Kid British, ‘a collection of four dudes with a broad musical mindset which all…

TV on the Radio

TV on the Radio

13 Nov 2008

Three years ago the alternative music industry seemed determined to talk itself into a coma. You couldn’t open a magazine or turn on the radio without suffering some whinging executive complaining about the internet killing music. Fans who downloaded…

Social networker

Social networker

13 Nov 2008

How many times have you heard some over the hill rap star attempt to dismiss any attempts at innovation and excuse creative treading water by claiming their doing it ‘old school’? I still hear it a lot. This rosy, Ray Ban-ed view, which in actuality was…

Sneaky Pete’s

Born Sneaky - Sneaky Pete’s

13 Nov 2008

It’s still hard to discuss Edinburgh’s club scene without referencing the Cowgate fire which claimed La Belle Angele and the Gilded Saloon in December 2002. The event, along with the demise of the Venue on Calton Road, was a hammer blow to the city’s…

John McCusker’s Under One Sky

John McCusker’s Under One Sky

13 Nov 2008

Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Tue 25 Nov; Music Hall, Perth, Fri 28 Nov; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Mon 8 Dec John McCusker’s head has been in the clouds a lot lately – flying all over Europe and the Americas in a private jet, courtesy of Mark Knopfler. ‘Yes…

Will Young

Will Young

13 Nov 2008

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Thu 20 & Fri 21 Nov It’s hard to believe that it’s nearly seven years since Will Young shot to fame as the first winner of ratings-grabbing TV talent search Pop Idol. What’s perhaps more surprising is that he still enjoys…

Dialogues

Dialogues

13 Nov 2008

Informatics: it’s the future. This study of ‘the structure, algorithms, behaviour, and interactions of natural and artificial computational systems’ has been around since 1957, when German computer scientist Karl Steinbuch coined the word, ‘Informatik’.

12 Days of Christmas

12 Days of Christmas: Festive hitlist

13 Nov 2008

The Low Christmas Concert Malcolm Middleton doesn’t have the monopoly on miserablist Christmas anthems, you know. This lot have been at it since 1999, and are back on the gloomy festive trail to promote new menace-laden single, ‘Santa is Coming Over’.

Also Released - Records

13 Nov 2008

Little Joy Little Joy (Rough Trade) Strokes’ drummer Fabrizio Moretti joins Los Hermanos’ singer Rodrigo Amarante for this slice of slowed-down 60s pop, with Moretti’s girlfriend Binki dropping in for some adorably dreamy singalongs. Fabric 43 Metro…

Artur Pizarro - The Complete Piano Works of Maurice Ravel, Volume Two

Artur Pizarro - The Complete Piano Works of Maurice Ravel, Volume Two

(4 stars)13 Nov 2008

Keenly awaited second volume of Ravel’s piano works recorded by the Portugese pianist does not disappoint. There is a graceful clarity to Pizarro’s playing that suits Ravel to perfection. The Sonatine may not be as familiar as the ever-popular and…

Celtic Connections add to line-up

Celtic Connections add to line-up

13 Nov 2008

Celtic Connections have announced two more impressive additions to their line-up. Martha Wainwright and Teddy Thompson will perform a double-bill at the Old Fruitmarket on 27 January. A host of special guests have also been added to the bill for the…

Charity begins at home

13 Nov 2008

A treasure trove of stars are doing their bit for charity this month, with special gigs in both Edinburgh and Glasgow. OXJAM, the UK’s biggest music festival, will present its South East Scotland launch event at The Hive in Edinburgh on Thursday 27…

Chatham County Line

Chatham County Line

13 Nov 2008

CCL have been earning themselves some excellent word-of-mouth for their fun-loving live gigs, and we reckon this Scottish appearance could have the makings of a relaxed rock and bluegrass hoedown. The Arches, Glasgow, Thu 20 Nov.

Corrina Hewat - Harp I Do

Corrina Hewat - Harp I Do

(4 stars)13 Nov 2008

Corrina Hewat forsakes the chumminess of the various groups in which she is involved – including co-directing the might Unusual Suspects – for the more isolated terrain of solo harp. As the title says, harp she does, and very well too. She approaches…

Cycles - Mr McFall's Chamber with Thomas Strønen

Cycles - Mr McFall's Chamber with Thomas Strønen

13 Nov 2008

Out Of The Blue Drill Hall, Wed 12 November. Midway through the second set of this collaboration between Scotland’s equivalent of The Penguin Café Orchestra and Norwegian percussionist Thomas Strønen, an ebullient bike instructor comes up onstage to…

Drums of Death

Drums of Death

(5 stars)13 Nov 2008

Playdate at Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Sat 25 Oct If this is the future of music, then it’s loud and frightening, switching between grime, booty bass and a kind of sophisticated approximation of hardcore techno with a ferocious BPM which doesn’t…

Dumb Instrument - No-One Knows What It’s Like to Be Me

Dumb Instrument - No-One Knows What It’s Like to Be Me

(4 stars)13 Nov 2008

Described in their local Ayrshire Post as like ‘Ivor Cutler on Irn Bru’, the youthful trio of singer-songwriter Tom Murray, pianist Mikey Grant and bassist Kieron Campbell, deliver their societally Scottish debut album. Augmented by fiddler Matt Harvey…

Esther O'Connor

Esther O'Connor

(4 stars)13 Nov 2008

Brel, Glasgow, Wed 29 Oct An ethereal vision in a white lace corset, voluminous cotton skirt and flowing red hair, you could easily be forgiven for thinking that Esther O’Connor had stepped either out of a painting or off the set of a period drama on…

Exposure -The Phantom Band

Exposure -The Phantom Band

13 Nov 2008

The latest in a long line of great discoveries by Chemikal Underground Records, Glasgow sextet The Phantom Band mash a coarse mix of influences – Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Can and the theme to Crocodile Dundee among them – into a fine experimental…

Five reasons to go and see: Death Cab For Cutie

Five reasons to go and see: Death Cab For Cutie

13 Nov 2008

1 They toured with Neil Young Which gives Ben Gibbard and his fellow Washington makers of schmoopy, winsome guitar pop a more legit reason than any of the other army of young copyists to continue in his vein. 2 They’ve become a fixture on US TV…

Fucked Up

Fucked Up

13 Nov 2008

This Toronto hardcore sextet have caused trouble in the past for their Nazi allusions. (Band members have names like Concentration Camp and Mustard Gas, so you could kinda see that one coming.) Recent LP The Chemistry of Common Life has been causing a…

Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna

Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna

(4 stars)13 Nov 2008

Gang Gang Dance hold a very special place in my heart. They reside – still – as the single most terrible live act I have ever seen. The most pretentious, ill-conceived, tragically hip display of musical arsery I have ever had the misfortune to witness.

Gdansk

(4 stars)13 Nov 2008

The Mill Live @ Oran Mor, Glasgow, Wed 5 Nov. Glasgow quartet Gdansk claim to do ‘melodic post-punk explorations of literary pop’ and that’s about as apt a description as you could ask for. Song one, line one yields the words ‘taciturn’ and…

Geraint Watkins- In a Bad Mood

Geraint Watkins- In a Bad Mood

(4 stars)13 Nov 2008

From the depths of South Wales via London, 50-something delivers his fourth set, nearly 30 years after his Vertigo Records debut with The Dominators. Having intermittently worked as session keyboard player with Dave Edmunds, Van Morrison and Nick Lowe…

Joe Zawinul & The Zawinul Syndicate - 75th

Joe Zawinul & The Zawinul Syndicate - 75th

(3 stars)13 Nov 2008

JAZZ JOE ZAWINUL & THE ZAWINUL SYNDICATE 75th (BHM/Birdjam) The concert represented on this live 2-CD set was recorded on the late Joe Zawinul’s 75th birthday on 7 July 2007 in his native Vienna (he died only a couple of months later). Despite the…

Lights Out Asia - Eyes Like Brontide

Lights Out Asia - Eyes Like Brontide

(4 stars)13 Nov 2008

Last year’s Tanks and Recognizers album set the tone for this spaced-out, neo-shoegazing trio from Milwaukee, Wisconsin (comprising ex-Aurore Rien duo Chris Schafer and Mike Ystad, plus guitarist Mike Rush). Haunting, eerie and cinematic (think Sigur…

Max Tundra

Max Tundra

(4 stars)13 Nov 2008

Carling Academy, Glasgow, Sun 2 Nov The Max Tundra live experience is a million miles away from the home listening headphones one, as I discovered. Max was made to perform live, and perform he does, throughout a one-man, all-singing-all-dancing-show.

Portico Quartet

Portico Quartet

13 Nov 2008

The Arches, Glasgow, Mon 24 Nov The Portico Quartet’s debut album Knee Deep in the North Sea was attracting considerable attention even before it was included among this year’s Mercury Prize nominations, including a prestigious award as Time Out’s…

Remember Remember - Remember Remember

Remember Remember - Remember Remember

(4 stars)13 Nov 2008

In an age when laptops ship with gigabytes of studio quality loops for users to shuffle round on a grid to make their own creations with, it’s never been easier to make loop-based music – and quickly end up with some sterile wallpaper music – just spend…

Ross Clark & The Scarfs Go Missing

(3 stars)13 Nov 2008

The Mill Live @ Oran Mor, Glasgow, Wed 5 Nov. Glaswegian Ross Clark has been around as an alt.country/pop/folk soloist for q while now, crying out for an ‘and The Somethings’ to back him. The Scarfs Go Missing are it – an electric band augmented by…

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals

13 Nov 2008

The alt.country singer-songwriter and founder of the now defunct band Whiskeytown has turned his back on the drugs and pronounced last month’s album Cardinology his most focused to date. Picture House, Edinburgh, Fri 14 Nov.

Scottish Chamber Orchestra – East Meets West

Scottish Chamber Orchestra – East Meets West

13 Nov 2008

Samaagam, in case you didn’t know, means coming together. For the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, it is the coming together of musical traditions from east and west. Samaagam, in this instance, is a new concerto by Amjad Ali Khan (pictured), reputed to be…

Singles & Downloads

Singles & Downloads

13 Nov 2008

It would seem that the season-savvy have been busy fashioning tracks to stay indoors to. Sofas, fine lounging and low key indie sounds are the order of the day for this fortnight’s top runners. Producer Kwes’ salutation to the slipper-set, debut solo…

Snow Patrol - A Hundred Million Suns

Snow Patrol - A Hundred Million Suns

(2 stars)13 Nov 2008

Zzzzzzzzzz … Oops sorry – you want to read a review right? OK. Here goes. Nothing very new to report from Glasgow/Belfast’s premier guitar balladeers; just more of the same insipid arena rock we’ve been battered round the ears with for the past few…

The Bad Plus - For All I Care

The Bad Plus - For All I Care

(4 stars)13 Nov 2008

The Bad Plus continue to push at the boundaries of what might constitute a jazz repertoire – and a jazz style of playing it – in the 21st century. This time round the tunes include Nirvana’s ‘Lithium’, an electrifying version of Pink Floyd’s…

The Cure - 4.13 Dream

The Cure - 4.13 Dream

(3 stars)13 Nov 2008

As Robert Smith shuffles – his unlaced hi-tops squeaking across the floor – into pop musical maturity, his willingness to indulge his dark side wavers. The band’s last album, a self-titled behemoth from 2004, was The Cure gone metal. For the greater…

The Notwist

The Notwist

13 Nov 2008

There was a six-year hiatus before these German brothers and sometime Lali Puna collaborators returned with this year’s gloriously gentle electro-acoustic wash, The Devil, You + Me. Absolutely worth the wait we say. King Tut’s, Glasgow, Wed 19 Nov.

Those Dacing Days - In Our Space Hero Suits

Those Dancing Days - In Our Space Hero Suits

(4 stars)13 Nov 2008

Appearances can be deceptive. And in our image-obsessed age it’s great to hear someone like Linnea Johnson, who looks a cherubic Swedish folk-singer, but has a voice like heavily polished mahogany. Coming off somewhere between Liz Frazer and Alison…

Pulp

TV on the Radio - Time for heroes?

13 Nov 2008

Pulp Time to hit big: 12 years Languishing in the back streets of Sheffield and the toilet circuit for almost a decade before Britpop, multiple Mercury nominations and ‘Disco 2000’. Biffy Clyro Time to hit big: nine years In the time they…

Various - Sleepwalk: A Selection By Optimo (Espacio)

Various - Sleepwalk: A Selection By Optimo (Espacio)

(5 stars)13 Nov 2008

Any album which takes a full ten minutes to actually develop any BPM at all – over Chris Watson’s found wavesound and the calming tone of Nurse With Wound’s ‘Funeral Music For Perez Prado’ isn’t your typical dance mix. But then, as should be obvious by…

Vic Godard and the Subway Sect/The Sexual Objects

Vic Godard and Subway Sect/The Sexual Objects

13 Nov 2008

Citrus, Edinburgh, Fri 14 Nov; Stereo, Glasgow, Sat 15 Nov. If Subway Sect hadn’t supported The Clash at the Edinburgh Playhouse on 7 May 1977, it’s unlikely Postcard Records, Fast Product and Fire Engines would have happened. Thirty-one years on…

Exposure: Super Adventure Club

Exposure: Super Adventure Club

12 Nov 2008

With possibly the most exciting band name ever, ever, Super Adventure Club could hardly be a bunch of stale dullards now could they? Nope, the Edinburgh trio’s very, um, special mixture of jazzy exploration, sonic GBH and facetious sarcasm is a wacky…

The JD Set

Jack Daniel's JD Set, Lynchburg, Tennessee

11 Nov 2008

The most surprising thing about Jack Daniel's isn't that it is distilled in the town of Lynchburg, Tennessee, in a dry state where the law decrees that alcohol can neither be bought nor sold. It isn't that it's the world's biggest selling single brand…

Exposure: Cage The Elephant

Exposure: Cage The Elephant

11 Nov 2008

Who are Cage The Elephant? They are ‘five blue-collar renegades’ - namely Matt Schultz (vocals), his brother Brad (guitar) and their friends Daniel Titchenor (bass), Lincoln Parish (guitar) and Jared Champion (drums). Matt, Brad and Daniel grew up on an…

Exposure: Rosie and the Goldbug

Exposure: Rosie and the Goldbug

10 Nov 2008

Who are Rosie and the Goldbug? Singer Rosie Vanier, who gave her name to the band, explains: ‘We’re from Cornwall, have been together for a year and a half and are made up of me, Pixie the bass player who’s a real life pixie, and Plums the drummer who’s…

Exposure: The BossHoss

Exposure: The BossHoss

7 Nov 2008

‘The BossHoss are seven urban cowboys from the city of Berlin,’ says Hank Williamson, who takes charge of harp, mandolin, washboard and stylophone duties for the band. ‘We love country music, blues music and rock&roll. We love playing gigs and having a…

Slayer - Carling Academy, Glasgow, Mon 3 Nov

Slayer - Carling Academy, Glasgow, Mon 3 Nov

(4 stars)7 Nov 2008

Relentless. That’s what Slayer are. Relentless in that they have been battering us with a music that they pretty much help invent in the early 80s -- they were original thrash metal pioneers alongside Anthrax, Megadeth and Metallica -- and still revisit…

Exposure: Volcano!

Exposure: Volcano!

6 Nov 2008

Is it possible to make experimental, technically intricate music fun? Volcano! say hell yes! Their second offering Paperwork – which follows on from critically-acclaimed debut Beautiful Seizure, released in 2005 – manages to mix noisy post rock, free…

Todd Rundgren interview: Full transcript

Todd Rundgren interview: Full transcript

6 Nov 2008

What follows is a transcript of an interview I did with the great American musician and record producer Todd Rundgren on Tuesday 21 October. He spoke to me down the line from his Hawaii home, it was 8.30pm UK time and 12.30pm Pacific Mean Time when we…

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