Rock & pop

T in the Park - Saturday

Having utterly failed to 'tweet' from T in the Park, Brendan Miles is given a second chance to voice his thoughts on some of the best acts to grace Scotland's biggest music festival

Pump up the volume - Music venues round up

Glasgow and Edinburgh play host to some of the hottest hangouts in the UK. David Pollock explores the very best and handpicks the gigs you cannot afford to miss.

Music festival fever

Scotland’s exciting music scene has paved the way for a plethora of music festivals, each a little different with something to suit every musical taste. T in the Park has grown from a little weekend event in Strathclyde Park into a huge three day…

Bon Iver - Lone justice

The breathtaking debut album from Bon Iver is evidence that isolation can produce something truly special. Colin McKean revels in this most singular of musical visions Disillusioned and frustrated by the disintegration of DeYarmond Edison, the band…

Calexico

‘It’s not what some people have called a return to form, because there are new elements on the record,’ says Joey Burns, singer, songwriter and co-founding member (with percussionist John Convertino) of the idiosyncratic alt.country outfit Calexico.

Exposure: Punch and the Apostles

‘We’re not exactly palatable, but not immediately repulsive,’ suggests lead singer Paul Napier, to sum up the sound of Punch and the Apostles, the Glasgow seven-piece who’ve been bringing chaos to traditional folk music for almost a year now. Mashing up…

Fast punk club

‘We call it a punk night,’ says Christopher Fast, ‘but it’s more about a punk attitude to music. From rockabilly, 60s soul, garage and hip hop to disco and electro, we set out to make different genres work together in an interesting way.’ For five…

Bloc Party - Intimacy

Sending out mixed messages is hardly a new tactic in the already fickle world of indie rock. Kele Okoreke and his clan have been issuing out puzzling notices for some time now, topped off with the claim that their Leeds Festival show would be their last…

Caledon

They’ve toured all over the world, but for the first time in a couple of years Scotland’s three tenors, Caledon, are performing back in their home city of Glasgow. Classically trained Alan Beck, Jamie MacDougall and Ivan Sharpe bring a programme of…

Meshuggah

Sometimes the devil is in the detail, but there are also times when the more you explain something, the less sense it makes. In Meshuggah’s case both are true. As regards the first notion, their music is arguably among the most complex and…

Dean Owens - Whisky Hearts

Dean Owens Whisky Hearts (Navigator) The craft of songwriting has become devalued in mainstream music these days, but there remain talented individuals out there waiting to be found. One such is Dean Owens, Leith-based singer songwriter with a…

Five reasons to go and see: Swervedriver

1 The shoegazing revival starts here! OK, Swervedriver were kind of more grungy than shoegazing, but the ballistic Oxford outfit had feet in both camps, creating a mesmerising racket on a par with My Bloody Valentine and Ride for the whole of the 90s…

Paul Vickers and The Leg

‘You’ve all soaked up the reverb a bit,’ noted Paul Vickers a couple of songs in, ‘which is good’. He seemed a bit dazed by this whole experience, although that might just be down to the ex-Dawn of the Replicants singer’s Henry Rollins meets Daniel…

Solange - Sol Angel and the Hadley St Dreams

So your big sister is Beyonce, one of the biggest pop stars in the world. What do you do? Open that bakery you’ve always fancied? Go help the poor kids in war-torn African states? No, of course not, you go into pop music. Knowles the younger has…

Pearl and the Puppets

With a voice that’s as elegantly fiery as the red dress she wears to take to the stage, Katie Sutherland – aka Pearl – puts on a feistily charming and totally beguiling show for what she tells the crowd is her first-ever gig at Tut’s with the…

The Wave Pictures

This trio may be from London, but the fine city of Glasgow is evidently a spiritual home for singer David Tattersall, who excitedly announces ‘I used to live here. I wrote this here!’ before one of the band’s raw but epic numbers, one of which includes…

Missing Twin presents

Missing Twin is the publishing empire of cartoon genius Malcy Duff. Alongside geek-soul brother and Giant Tanker Ali Robertson, Duff makes up half of premier lo-fi fidgets, Usurper. This popcorn-friendly triple feature of late-night wow-and-splutter…

David Holmes - The Holy Pictures

According to Holmes his fourth solo album began as a cluster of instrumental tracks which lead him into a creative cul-de-sac until seismic events in his life – becoming a dad, the death of his parents – inspired him to pen some personal lyrics and…

Glasvegas - Glasvegas

‘The Best New Band in Britain’ says the NME. And for once they have thrown their fickle arrow of instant fame at a worthy target. In 2006, former footballer James Allan assembled a motley crew to give form to his ‘poems’ – disjointed conglomerations of…

The Streets - Everything is Borrowed

Mike Skinner might be one of the finest pop artists of our generation, but there’s no escaping the fact that his fourth album is a real disappointment. Certain passages of it might well grow over time, yet the suspicion is that it’s just too damn…

Constantines - Kensington Heights

Look up ‘nearly men’ in the Dictionary of Obscure Indie Rock Lore and you’ll find a long, arduous, hand wringing essay about Constantines. A band who in nine years, have never quite had their moment in the sunshine but work away feverishly, secretly…