Music and Laura Ennor

Stag & Dagger, various venues, Glasgow, Sat 19 May

Eleanor Friedberger and Miaoux Miaoux play as part of 13 hour gig crawl

22 May 2012

While its London sister seems to have died a death, presumably smothered by a surfeit of such hipster-friendly crawls and brawls in the English capital, the Glasgow leg of multi-venue one-dayer Stag and Dagger happily lives on, albeit with perhaps a…

Tinariwen - Oran Mor, Glasgow, Thu 5 Apr 2012

An evocative but occasionally flat show from the Tuareg blues guitarists

23 Apr 2012

A beguiling mix of blues guitar sounds, gently insistent but sometimes complex rhythms and desert sensibilities is what’s always made Tinariwen unique. Live, the blend is all the more compelling, which must be due, at least in part, to the sheer…

The Cornshed Sisters - Tell Tales

Reminiscent of The Unthanks with extra dollops of pop sensibility

26 Mar 2012

(Memphis Industries) A gentle debut with just enough edge and earthy Northern lilt to balance the sweetness of the bell-like vocal harmonies, Tell Tales is the work of four non-sisters from Tyne and Wear. The tales told stretch from the overtly…

First Aid Kit - King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow, Mon 27 Feb

Young Swedish sisters' take on country hints at originality and potential

16 Mar 2012

One of the things that really stands out on Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg’s recent second album, The Lion’s Roar, is the maturity of the songwriting. It’s striking how these two, with barely 40 years on this planet between them, have…

Human Don’t Be Angry - The Arches, Glasgow, Sat 25 Feb

Malcolm Middleton's side project gets a satisfying full-band outing

29 Feb 2012

For those who knew Malcolm Middleton only from his days as one half of the funniest band ever to be famous for misery, or even as the alt folk jangler behind ‘A Brighter Beat’ and one-time Christmas No 1 outsider ‘We’re All Going to Die’, this, the…

King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - O2 ABC, Glasgow, Thu 26 Jan 2012

Expanded line-up works well in large venue - once everyone relaxes

16 Feb 2012

The few gentle piano chords and overheard Fife chit-chat that form the start of ‘First Watch,’ the opener on King Creosote and Jon Hopkins’ Diamond Mine, are all it takes to bring a sold out crowd to what is, for this venue in particular, an uncannily…

The Unthanks, Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Tue 24 Jan

Sisters deliver inventive tribute to Robert Wyatt and Antony Hegarty

3 Feb 2012

This Celtic Connections show was the last planned outing for what Rachel Unthank, with inordinate modesty, refers to as ‘our self-indulgent experiment’ – that is, the Northumbrian folk collective’s double tribute to the songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony…

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…

Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard - The Third Door, Edinburgh, Wed 26 Oct 2011

Near two-hour set pulls disparate parts into satisfying whole

15 Nov 2011

For this, one of the first gigs at the refreshed and renamed Third Door venue (formerly Medina, and now boasting a beefier new sound system), big personalities and hearts on sleeves are very much the order of the day. Opener Viking Moses is one Brendon…

Best Coast and Spectrals - Bongo Club, Edinburgh, Tue 30 Aug

1 Sep 2011

It’s easy to see why Best Coast take Spectrals on tour with them every time they come to Europe: the Leeds-based band’s sound mirrors that of their LA buddies in almost every way – up to the bit where the singer is an insouciant lad from Heckmondwick…

Weezer interview - UK music festival dates for US alt-rock band

US pop hook machine tour setlist includes best of first two albums

28 Jun 2011

In the roster of songs custom-made for belting out in the midst of a giddy summer festival haze, Weezer have surely snatched a few of the top spots in their two decades as a band. Escapist grooves like ‘Island in the Sun’ and ‘Holiday’ complement…

tUnE-yArDs, Captain’s Rest – Glasgow, Wed 15 Jun 2011

Merrill Garbus is an offbeat, un-obvious, must-see pop act

23 Jun 2011

Three years after she self-released homemade album BiRd-BrAiNs, recognition and even a degree of hype are finally starting to come the way of Merrill Garbus, aka tUnE-yArDs, and so it is that her Wednesday night show at the Captain’s Rest (a venue she…

How to put on a festival: Essential dos and don'ts

Organising your own music festival

30 May 2011

There are days now when The List can barely pop out for a pint of milk without tripping over a pop-up shop, flashmob silent disco or warehouse rave; and that’s not just because we live in a particularly hip part of town, it’s because this is the age of…

Metronomy - Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Mon 25 Apr 2011

Danceable electropop from new album The English Riviera

26 Apr 2011

There's a sweaty buzz about Cabaret Voltaire even before Metronomy step on stage, but it takes a little while before the band themselves really warm up. While Joseph Mount's gang of electropop maestros are never less than competent and the quality of…

tUnE-yArDs: w h o k i l l

Quirk-pop enthusiast Merrill Garbus treats to another helping of audacious genre mixing

21 Mar 2011

(4AD) Having graduated from the dictaphone plus editing freeware set-up of first album BiRd-BrAiNs to a real studio, Merrill Garbus returns with a little more sheen and clarity than before, but still flaunting the junkyard beats, catchy playground…

Aidan Moffat's Valentine Revue - Oran Mor, Glasgow, Wed 16 Feb 2011

28 Feb 2011

Aidan Moffat's standing on stage at Oran Mor, bathed in the seasonal glow of a red light, singing about how he'd probably stick by his girl even if she had some sort of debilitating brain disease. He's here to sing about love, and that's about as…

LCD Soundsystem and Fever Ray highlights of Electric Picnic 2010

Stradbally, Ireland, 3-5 Sep 2010

15 Sep 2010

The Picnic is one of two major events bookending the Irish festival season, and it feels like all of Ireland has turned out for summer’s last gasp. Which, as it turns out, is a rather wet one. But no matter, for the craic is good, the pies are hearty…

Sleigh Bells' Treats

30 Jul 2010

From the moment ‘Tell ‘Em’s machine-gun beats and bombastic guitars pummel your ears into stunned submission, Treats struts up and down before you like some aggressively flirtatious hipster girl, just daring you not to fall for its fuck-you…

Edinburgh Tattoo: Everything you need to know

A 21-gun salute of facts about Edinburgh's military show of strength

16 Jul 2010

Everything you need to know about that noisy thing with all the crowds up at the castle. Laura Ennor offers up 21 handy bitesize chunks of facts about the Tattoo

Kelburn Garden Party 2010

Kelburn Castle, Largs, Sat 3-Sun 4 Jul

14 Jul 2010

It’s a garden party Jim, but not as we know it. Forget canapés on the lawn, straw hats and refined company – this weekend is all about waterproof trousers, bacon rolls, and neds and hippies coming together in shared appreciation of a good pounding bass…

T in the Park 2010: Black Keys, Frightened Rabbit and Eminem

T in the Park blog

11 Jul 2010

Saturday 10th July For the obsessive music fan, it’s one of the eternal frustrations of festivals that sometimes the bands you love don’t get the attention they deserve. This was very much the case with Broken Social Scene, who took to the stage at…

CocoRosie

Classic Grand, Glasgow, Wed 12 May 2010

28 May 2010

The music made by Bianca (Coco) and Sierra (Rosie) Casady pelts the listener with such an array of different styles and influences that the closest order-loving critics have got to describing it is with the catch-all term of ‘freak folk’. Which is odd…

Exposure: White Hinterland

12 May 2010

Wilfully unpredictable and hypnotically evocative, the music of White Hinterland calls to mind everyone from Feist to the Dirty Projectors via jazz divas and tribal rhythms. Leaving behind the piano-led songwriting of past work, singer and songwriter…

Laura Marling

Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Wed 14 Apr 2010

21 Apr 2010

Everyone knows by now that Laura Marling (lest we forget, a 90s baby) is something of a prodigy, but even so, only a doting mother could have thought that the girl wonder had written ‘The Needle and the Damage Done’ (Neil Young’s song about heroin…