Music and Brian Donaldson

Mull Historical Society - City Awakenings

Varied collection of often backwards-looking eccentricities

5 Jan 2012

(Xtra Mile Recordings) A decade after the Mull Historical Society debut Loss, Colin MacIntyre marks the event with another gentle, curious and occasionally awkward platter, as they called them back in the early 00s. In some ways, MHS are becoming…

Chris Isaak - Beyond the Sun

Listenable but redundant take on some of Sun Records' finest

5 Jan 2012

(Vanguard Records/Rhino) During its 1950s heyday, Sun Records churned out standards by the bucketload from the likes of Elvis, Cash and Orbison. During the recording of Beyond the Sun, David Lynch’s favourite bequiffed rockabilly star was presumably…

The Hot 100 2011: 100-50

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

100: Gordon Ferris. Kilmarnock crime author makes good. The already packed Scottish crime writing field has finally found a bit of elbow room for another burgeoning talent. Joining the likes of Rankin, Brookmyre, McDermid and co is this Ayrshire-born…

Hot 100 2011 - No. 49 to 1

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

The Hot 100 is the definitive list of Scottish creative talent. From fashion designers to performance artists, everyone who has made a sizeable splash in 2011 has a place in this countdown. It’s for people who’ve created a buzz, but it’s also about…

Tunng - This is Tunng: Live from the BBC

Warped magic of eccentric east London glitch folk collective

7 Dec 2011

(Full Time Hobby) With a line-up alteration or two, eccentric east London collective Tunng have gone from glitchy cut and pasters to singalong folksters. Their This is Tunng compilation features bouncy numbers (‘Jenny Again’, ‘Bullets’) from 2010’s…

The Midnight Beast - Book At Us Now

Unfunny pop-parody book designed to cash in on upcoming TV fame

18 Oct 2011

(Coronet) ‘We mock the living hell out of stuff for a living,’ claim London pop parody trio The Midnight Beast. Even in this disposable age, simply poking fun at more talented people can only stretch so far before the game is up. Success rarely…

The Hazey Janes - The Winter That Was

Unoriginal effort from the Dundonian indie-poppers

12 Oct 2011

(Armellodie Records) For those looking to uncover evidence that the reservoir of originality has truly dried up on contemporary music, this new effort from Dundee’s Hazey Janes might well seal the deal. After an intriguing, brief opening salvo which…

Blueflint - Maudy Tree

Déjà vu melodies and clichéd narratives winds up down the same old cul de sac

14 Sep 2011

(Jorock) If ever there was a band best suited to be heard in the ale-imbued confines of a wee folk club rather than in the car or at home, it’s Scottish quartet Blueflint. For every song on Maudy Tree that seems to begin promisingly with a subtle…

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…

Fringe 2011 comedy: 5 musical comedians

Isy Suttie, Steve Pretty, ATF?, Pistol & Jack and Gareth Richards

29 Jul 2011

Isy Suttie. Dobby (from Peep Show not Harry Potter, silly) brings us Pearl and Dave, another heartwarming multi-character tale. With his Perfect Mixtape, Pretty recalls the tunes played at his own wake in 2005 (there’s a story there) and wonders what…

Viva Brother - Famous First Words

Dull and pointless album of Britpop-era rejects

13 Jul 2011

(Geffen) ‘If you don’t give yourself the option of fucking up, then you can’t fuck up,’ boldly announces Viva Brother frontman Lee Newell. And yet, time and again, their ‘gritpop’ (oh dear) debut album offers chance after chance for the band to make…

Lamb - 5

Diverting aural oddities abound on this return to action

13 Jul 2011

(Strata) Have you ever seen anything more 80s than Lamb’s cover design for 5? No, we’d venture, you haven’t. Yet curiously, their big comeback album (they’d put themselves on ice since 2003 and not, as you might guess first time, during the summer of…

Capercaillie, Lau and Eddi Reader set for Fringe by the Sea 2011

North Berwick festival offers alternative to August in Edinburgh

30 May 2011

What is there to dislike about Fringe by the Sea? For those in the capital mid-August sick and tired of being jostled by flyer-folk, it’s a wonderful opportunity to seek a retreat and still get a shot of culture. For residents in the North Berwick area…

Echo and the Bunnymen and Anna Calvi among highlights of Belladrum

Music festival set in deepest, brightest Inverness-shire

30 May 2011

The award-winning festival event returns for an eighth time with a big bunch of music acts parking their campervans in deepest, brightest Inverness-shire. Alongside the music fare, there’s whole lot of entertainment for children, street theatre…

New music books: Luke Haines - Post Everything, Andy Kershaw - No Off Switch,

Simon Reynold - Retromania, Scott Weiland - Not Dead & Not for Sale

23 May 2011

Semi-absent fans of former Auteur and Black Box Recorder man Luke Haines might have received something of a jolt on suddenly Googling him. The words on the second entry would have immediately caught the eye: ‘It is with deep regret that we have to…

Celebrity memoirs: Rob Lowe, Barbara Sinatra, Stacey Solomon, Judy Golding and Bear Grylls to publish books

13 Apr 2011

While Charlie Sheen implodes in front of the world’s eyes, he could take comfort in the salutary tale of his old Brat Pack boozing buddy Rob Lowe. In 1988, grainy video footage of him having a wild time with two women became the first commercially…

Mark Radcliffe to tour new book, Reelin’ in the Years: The Soundtrack of a Northern Life

13 Apr 2011

When David Bowie implores the public to indulge in thieving, you know it must be for a very good reason. His call to serious felony was raised on the publication of Mark Radcliffe’s Thank You for the Days: A Boy’s Own Adventure in Radio and Beyond, in…

Robin Adams' 'Be Gone' contains some worthwhile tracks, but ultimately lacks the depth of its forebears

13 Apr 2011

(Eye Dog Eye) It’s a bold move for Be Gone to kick off with a protest song called ‘Investment Graveyard’ which is so reminiscent of Bruce Dylan (or is it mid-period Bob Springsteen?) to be almost parodic. Fortunately, Robin Adams swiftly gets into…

Alela Diane: Alela Diane & Wild Divine

Family-made folk album from Diane

24 Mar 2011

(Rough Trade) Something of a family affair this for Alela Diane’s third album, with husband Tom Bevitori and daddy Tom Menig helping out on, respectively, co-writing and guitar duties. In this patchy yet occasionally uplifting collection, a downbeat…

33 Revolutions Per Minute, by Dorian Lynskey (Faber)

Comprehensive history of protest music

9 Mar 2011

While acknowledging that the protest song has its roots way before the 20th century, music journo Dorian Lynskey kicks off his impressive and extensive history book in 1939 because ‘that is where things get interesting’. This was the year of Grapes of…

Ian Green - Fuzz to Folk

Autobiography from founder of folk record label Greentrax

19 Jan 2011

(Luath) The life of Ian Green is certainly a packed one. Speedway champ, Korean veteran, grower of prize-winning chrysanthemums, police inspector and folk music entrepreneur are among the entries on his CV, but whether he can add ‘accomplished writer…

The best upcoming events in Scotland in 2011

Highlights of the 2011 cultural calandar from Film, Music, Comedy, Theatre and Visual Art

3 Jan 2011

Huge gigs, inspiring theatre productions, comedy legends and two cute little waving bears – just a few of the things coming up in ‘11 that we can barely contain our excitement about

The Hot 100 2010 - Mark Millar, Kevin Bridges and Alasdair Gray take top 3 spots

Our annual chart of the people from Scotland being interesting, successful and creative

16 Dec 2010

The Hot 100 is a list of Scots who’ve made a sizeable creative splash in 2010. It includes musicians, artists, writers, actors, fashion designers, technological innovators, shop owners, festival directors, record label heads and one mad cyclist.

The Greenhornes - ****

15 Nov 2010

(Third Man Records) According to some worldviews, the 1960s officially ended when The Beatles announced they were splitting up or when Charlie Manson and his followers unleashed a summer of hate. Clearly, no one ever informed Cincinnati garage band…

Video Killed The Radio Star

Nostalgic documentary on pop promo world profiles Russell Mulcahy, David Mallet and Wayne Isha

2 Nov 2010

(IND3D) Did you know that, with the dawn of MTV in the 1980s, the pop promo became almost as important to an artist’s career as their actual songs? Everyone who has studied that period or, worse, lived through it, won’t need telling twice. Well…