Malcolm Jack

Damian Thompson - Counterknowledge

17 Jan 2008

HISTORY (Atlantic) Conspiracy theories, alternative medicine, creationism and the like are all notions consigned largely to the outer reaches of societal thinking, right? Wrong, according to Damian Thompson. Having spread – largely care of the…

The Young Republic - 12 Tales From the Winter City

17 Jan 2008

ECLECTIC (End of the Road) It’s a rare thing to have to turn the term ‘genre defying’ against a band, but in the case of Boston octet The Young Republic there’s little alternative. Although rich in melody, texture and skilled playing (all eight…

Haight Ashbury

4 Jan 2008

PSYCHEDELIC POP Out to Play @ Brel, Glasgow, Thu 29 Nov Naming your band after the San Franciscan centre of all things hippie hardly leaves a lot to the imagination as a reference point, so the fact that Haight Ashbury resemble the sort of folks…

Rufus Wainwright - Rufus Does Judy At Carnegie Hall

4 Jan 2008

SHOW TUNES (Polydor) There can have been few camper shows in living memory: 21st century gay icon Rufus Wainwright, performing a carbon recreation of ultimate 20th century gay icon Judy Garland’s legendary 1961 Carnegie Hall concert. Staged six times…

Hot 100 - 2007's hottest talent

13 Dec 2007

Scottish culture has shone in 2007, and so have Scottish stars. Throughout the year we have been working tirelessly to spot the hottest talent out there. We also invited you to nominate the people, places and events you think have made the greatest…

SL Records Christmas Shindig

13 Dec 2007

Except for booze, baked beans and the occasional book, can you remember what you spent your student loan on? Probably not. Ed Pybus is hardly likely to forget however: his spirited indie label SL Records was launched using funds from a student loan…

Isosceles

29 Nov 2007

Tomorrow’s music today. This Issue: Isosceles Band names don’t come much more angular than Isosceles, but math rockers this Glasgow quartet certainly aren’t. You’ll much sooner find them slaving over a hot cowbell or a full blooded Hammond organ than…

The Parsonage

Choral folk country blues

29 Nov 2007

Choirs are not cool, right? Wrong. Glasgow 50-strong vocal ensemble The Parsonage have played at festivals including Indian Summer and Connect, contributed to Echo and the Bunnymen’s forthcoming new album and recorded an EP for release on Optimo’s…

Correcto & The Gummy Stumps - review

29 Nov 2007

Stereo, Glasgow, Tue 13 Nov Shiny new things galore at this gig: two (very different) Glasgow bands, both fresh out of the can, play in a venue so virginal it still resembles a building site in places. Post-punk noise-mongers The Gummy Stumps…

New Scottish bands

15 Nov 2007

Over the last couple of years, it has sometimes seemed like the end of an era for Scottish indie music. Starting with the amicable split of the seminal Delgados, and, more recently, the demise of Falkirk’s Arab Strap and underrated noiseniks…

Futuristic Retro Champions - gig review

Popshop@ABC2, Glasgow, Fri 21 Sep

1 Nov 2007

Originally started as an ‘art college project’ (ie ‘skive’) in late 2006, Futuristic Retro Champions have sprouted arms, legs, wonky keyboards and a barrowload of bona fide electro-indie-pop crackers over the last year. The Edinburgh six-piece have also…

Found - album review

Eclectica

1 Nov 2007

ECLECTICA FOUND This Mess We Keep Reshaping (Fence) While far from being an actual mess, there’s certainly not a huge amount of form to Edinburgh hip hop/folk experimentalists Found’s second album. Ever the slaves to the right side of their brains…

Peter York & Olivia Stewart-Liberty

18 Oct 2007

SOCIAL HANDBOOK Cooler, Faster, More Expensive: The Return of the Sloane Ranger (Atlantic) Conspicuous for their vast, inherited wealth, public school education and cushy jobs in the City, Sloanes (aka ‘rahs’, ‘yahs’ or ‘upper class twats’…

Northern Alliance

18 Oct 2007

LO-FI The Hand of God (Fence) Named after Maradona’s infamous goal against England in the ‘86 World Cup, East Lothian lo-fi shamblers Northern Alliance’s fourth LP might seem like a jingoistic poke southwards, but in substance it’s an inward looking…

The Royal We

18 Oct 2007

INDIE POP The Royal We (Geographic) Brevity characterises Glasgow indie darlings The Royal We’s first (and final) album to the letter: it lasts just 15 minutes, contains only eight tracks, and roughly marks the band’s end, the sextet having already…

The Royal We

4 Oct 2007

Optimo@Sub Club, Glasgow, Sun 23 Killer glam-pop songs, a look that could stop a blind charging rhino in its tracks and the backing of Glasgow indie movers and shakers from Stephen Pastel to Franz Ferdinand: The Royal We seem to have the lot.

Edwyn Collins - album review

Soul blues folk

4 Oct 2007

Although recorded prior to his near fatal double cerebral haemorrhage in 2005, Edwyn Collins’ sixth solo long player can’t help but resonate more poignantly in light of everything the ex-Orange Juice frontman has been through. At one stage he looked…

Ladybird •••, Kattparaden ••

20 Sep 2007

INDIE POP The Winchester Club@The Flying Duck, Glasgow, Sat 8 Sep The performance space (calling it a stage would be a stretch of the imagination) at Glasgow’s newest nightspot The Flying Duck is obviously far from ideal – not least because of…

Catweasels

20 Sep 2007

INDIE PUNK Between the broad north-east English accents, quirky vocal harmonies and tunes possessing more angles than a job lot of geometry sets, Chester-Le-Street quintet Catweasels will be constantly dogged by comparisons with The Futureheads. The…

Neil Boorman

6 Sep 2007

LIFESTYLE TALE Your response to this book by London lifestyle journalist and publisher Neil Boorman is likely to correspond directly with your attachment to the very thing it challenges: brands, and the emotionally loaded consumerist machinery that…

Bobby Gillespie

23 Aug 2007

Fire Engines ‘I’m a big Fire Engines Fan. They were a big influence on us: fifteen minute sets, very intense. ‘Get Up and Use Me’ – their single. ‘Candy Skin’, ‘Meat Whiplash’, ‘Sympathetic Anaesthetic’, you know? Big fan of the Fire Engines…

Singles & Downloads

23 Aug 2007

Without the right tunes, a buff set of pipes are about as much use as a pair of boxfresh Nikes to a landmine victim. For proof, check out London’s latest supposedly hot-prospect Bobby Kray ’s ‘Silly Games’ (V2) ** – four minutes of rangy vocal…

Roddy Doyle

(Jonathan Cape)

23 Aug 2007

In light of the lucrative offers put his way over the years to pen a full sequel to his 1987 classic The Commitments, it’s so very Roddy Doyle that he instead gave one of the book’s major characters – manager Jimmy Rabbite – a rebirth in the pages of a…

Singles & Downloads

16 Aug 2007

A pair of lovely lady sounds open this issue’s whip through the short players, which has a strange males vs females dynamic incidentally. ‘Mr Blue’ (Tallgrass) *** by Catherine Feeny ambles along in a loved-up winsome haze, its head lost in a cloud of…

Singles & Downloads

9 Aug 2007

Nose plugs and a pair of Marigolds were required to sift through this week’s singles bag, such was its predominantly stinky content. The main offender being Shop Boyz’ gang banging rotter ‘Party Like a Rockstar’ (Universal) lllll, the fastest selling…