Pop, Issue 619

Songs of the Year 2008

‘Skinny Love’ Bon Iver One man’s heartbreak becomes our joy from the album of the year. ‘Like the Rest of Us’ Atmosphere The leftfield dwelling purists may sneer but this is beguiling, introspective hip hop brilliance. ‘Run Run’ Those Dancing Days…

Biffy Clyro headline Rockness 2009

If all the world’s a stage, there are an impressive amount of players lining up to showcase their wares in Scotland over the coming months. Local lads, Biffy Clyro will take to the stage as one of the headliners of RockNess, setting out their stall in…

The Vaselines

INDIE ‘No-one would be listening to us now if Nirvana hadn’t covered our songs,’ says The Vaselines’ Eugene Kelly with disarming honesty. ‘We’d just be another band who released an album, broke up and then disappeared. But the Nirvana connection…

Rozi Plain - Inside Over Here and Pictish Trail - Secret Soundz Vol 1

FOLK-POP-ROCK These two wonderful offerings from the ever-expanding Fence Collective serve to highlight just how diverse and ambitious the East Neuk’s musical cottage industry has become. Rozi Plain is a young Bristol-based singer-songwriter, and…

Asobi Seksu

SHOEGAZE One thing people weren’t doing a lot of during Ladytron’s support slot, a shimmering, feedback-drenched set from New York’s Asobi Seksu, was gaze at their shoes. Frontwoman Yuki Chikudate, a stony-faced dainty doll of a girl, kept her small…

Angil and Hiddntracks - Ouliposaliva

AVANT-GARDE POP Introduced to Chemikal Underground by shared acquaintance Jim Putnam of Radar Bros, Angil and Hiddntracks are a quality addition to the roster, a bizarre but still indefinably soulful combination of chamber pop and jazz. While Mickaël…

Le Le - Flage

EUROPOP What do you get if you put together a cult graphic designer from Amsterdam’s red light district, an ex-writer from uber-arch Vice magazine and a Dutch electro-funk producer? A euro-trash, piss-take, party-mix of half-hilarious, half-horrific…

Trost - Trust Me

ELECTRO POP The sound of Berliner angst then, is a woman saying over and over and over again how things are wrong. Her shoes are wrong. Her apartment is wrong. Her cheap lipstick is wrong. That particular track, then, is entitled ‘I Was Wrong’.

Runrig's Loch Lomond voted Scotland's greatest song

Runrig’s Loch Lomond has pocketed the title Scotland’s Greatest Song in a poll run by charity ScotsCare. The band secured 40% of the vote narrowly beating Big Country who scored 37% of the vote. Surprisingly, Dougie McLean’s stirring Caledonia…