Malcolm Jack

Summer Festivals 2012: Music

T in the Park, Wickerman and Belladrum among the music fests pleasing your ears this summer

25 May 2012

T in the Park Basics: Balado by Kinross, Fri 6–Sun 8 Jul, tinthepark.com Price: Weekend: £179 (campsite tickets available separately). Day: £70–£77.50. Line-up: The Stone Roses, Snow Patrol, Kasabian, New Order, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds…

Summer Festivals 2012: Death in Vegas - interview

A chat with Richard Fearless ahead of his RockNess performance

25 May 2012

As British music finally dragged itself out of a post-Britpop hangover around the turn of the century, Death in Vegas were among the most quintessential of festival bands. 1999’s The Contino Sessions and 2002’s Scorpio Rising were staples of any…

Austra set for UK tour

Toronto electro-goth-pop six-piece take Feel It Break on the road

22 May 2012

Having rated spine-tingling coldwave-disco banger ‘Lose It’ as one of our favourite songs of 2011, The List are big fans of this Toronto electro-goth-pop six-piece based around one-of-a-kind Latvian-Canadian singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist…

Ultravox - Brilliant

Dull and pompous record from the no-longer-relevant Ure and co

22 May 2012

Does the world really need another album, the first in 26 years, from the ‘classic’ Midge Ure-era Ultravox – a group of negligible lasting impact on music even at their mid-80s arena synth-pop zenith? The Trade Descriptions Act-violating Brilliant is…

Dexys - One Day I’m Going To Soar

Full of wit, panache, brutal self-examination and abundant tunefulness

21 May 2012

The title alone gives you a tingling feeling that something glorious and redemptive lies within: and so it proves on Dexys’ – formerly Dexys Midnight Runners – first new album in 27 years. Following the young soul rebels’ disastrous plunge in fortunes…

Exposure: Friends

The Brooklyn hipster quintet make disgustingly cool indie post-punk-funk

25 Apr 2012

The List makes two predictions with regards to this fresh Brooklyn indie post-punk-funk ensemble. 1) They’re going to be the sound of many people’s summer, and 2) they’re going to have music journos punning furiously on their sitcom namesake. They’re…

Django Django's Tommy Grace looks forward to Stag & Dagger and RBS Museum Lates gigs

23 Apr 2012

Glasgow city festival Stag & Dagger returns in a lower-key format than usual this May, but there’s abundant quality nevertheless, from Death Grips to White Denim, the Phantom Band and Bear in Heaven. And Django Django, whose uncategorisable distillation…

Beach House - Bloom

Fourth album sticks to style favouring atmosphere over structure

18 Apr 2012

(Bella Union) With 2010’s totally immersive Teen Dream, Baltimore two-piece Beach House – France-born vocalist/keyboardist Victoria Legrand and guitarist Alex Scally – went from American indie try-hards to one of the most critically-acclaimed bands of…

Jesus H. Foxx - Endless Knocking

Long-awaited debut admirable in perfectionism, but feels laboured

18 Apr 2012

(Song, by Toad) ‘I’ve waited two bloody years for these muppets to finish this album,’ writes Song, by Toad boss Matthew Young in an amusingly frank note accompanying Edinburgh seven-piece Jesus H. Foxx’s debut. We’ve shared his frustration in…

Colette Thurlow of 2:54 - interview

The indie singer/guitarist discusses sibling bandmates and significant influences

27 Mar 2012

Like a louchely worn black leather jacket, moody guitar music will never go out of fashion – see 2:54 for proof on both counts. Having toured with Warpaint and The Big Pink since emerging a year ago, the London four-piece based around sisters Colette…

Exposure: Hannah Cohen

The NY model/photographer-turned-singer/songwriter is beloved by The National's Thomas Bartlett

27 Mar 2012

Two years ago New York-based model and photographer Hannah Cohen met Antony and the Johnsons and The National pianist Thomas Bartlett, aka Doveman, at a party. She shyly played him some songs she’d been secretly penning, and he immediately offered to…

OFWGKTA - The Odd Future Tape Vol. 2

Hip hop crew's major label debut impressive but dogged by usual obsessions

23 Mar 2012

(Columbia) Declared ‘the future of the music business’, controversial young California alternative hip hop crew OFWGKTA – aka Odd Future – make their major label debut off the back of a reputation forged through mix-tapes and bad behaviour. With…

Alt folkie Feist to play Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall

The Broken Social Scenester to play tracks from latest album Metals

29 Feb 2012

Leslie Feist isn’t the first artist successfully to balance the welcome commercial exposure a ubiquitous hit song can yield with a desire for continuing creative integrity and freedom. But not many manage it quite as gracefully as the Canadian has with…

Exposure: Gotye

An introduction to the YouTube-conquering ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ singer

29 Feb 2012

Meet 31-year-old Wouter ‘Wally’ De Backer, aka Gotye, a Belgium-born, Melbourne-raised singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose inescapable international super-hit ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ (featuring Kimbra) possesses an almost…

Frankie Rose - Interstellar

Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist goes solo and makes clean break from fuzz-loving past

22 Feb 2012

(Memphis Industries) Years of flitting between scuzzy indie-pop bands from Vivian Girls to Dum Dum Girls, Crystal Stilts and her own ensemble Frankie Rose and The Outs have led this Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist finally to conclude what we could…

The Twilight Sad set for UK tour

Kilsyth trio take third album No One Can Ever Know on tour

27 Jan 2012

With their third album No One Can Ever Know, masters of the dark side anthem The Twilight Sad add impressively to a catalogue that includes one of the finest Scottish debuts of recent years. It’s a bit of a surprise then to discover that the Kilsyth…

Friendly Fires - Barrowland, Glasgow, Tue 20 Dec 2011

Triumphant end of year show from the St Albans indie-ravers

6 Jan 2012

2011 didn’t quite belong to Friendly Fires, as some had predicted it might, but they owned significant parts of it off the back of their euphoric second album Pala – not least the flying feet and skyward waving arms of a few summer festival crowds. The…

M83's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming combines ambient roots with pop sensibilities

We reassess the albumprior to Frenchman's upcoming UK tour

6 Jan 2012

The Associates’ Alan Rankine once opined that the best way to make an album is to ‘start with a climax, then go further.’ It’s a maxim that Frenchman Anthony Gonzalez – an Antibes-born, LA-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist with an idiosyncratic…

The View - O2 ABC, Glasgow, Mon 19 Dec

Raucous, lager-soaked rock'n'roll show

6 Jan 2012

Being partial to the occasional shandy, it pained The List to witness the mass lager sacrifice that occurred at the ABC this night – nary a punter was spared a shower of the gods’ amber nectar as high-spirited young souls sent pint after pint looping…

The Big Pink - Future This

Second electro-pop offering let down by over-egged desire to be anthemic

6 Jan 2012

(4AD) It’s easy to assume that London duo Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell’s oft-scrutinised industry connections have earned them their breaks while ignoring the fact that the dark, feedback and effects-swathed element of their music honours 4AD’s goth…

Boy & Bear - Moonfire

Mumford-esque mimsy-folk from down under

6 Jan 2012

(V2) If you’ve considered moving to the opposite side of the world to escape Mumford & Sons, think again – their Australian kindred spirits and touring partners Boy & Bear await you, ready to close the jaws of a vice-like international folk-pop mimsy…

Best Christmas album 2011: Emmy the Great and Tim Wheeler’s This Is Christmas

Justin Bieber, She & Him, The Wurzels and Glee also reviewed

13 Dec 2011

Now more than ever the discerning music fan has about as much reason to look forward to Christmas as a poor Primark employee looks forward to the stampede of burly, booze-breathed horrors thundering through them at opening time on Boxing Day en route to…

DJ Shadow - O2 ABC, Glasgow, Mon 5 Dec

Stunning live show continues to break new ground

9 Dec 2011

For innovation and impact, genre-mashing LA turntablist DJ Shadow, aka Josh Davis, has never bettered his entirely samples-based 1996 debut Endtroducing... But his visually stunning live shows continue to break new ground, and prove DJ sets can be just…

Guided by Voices - Let’s Go Eat the Factory

Reformed lo-fi cult heroes do their unmistakable glorious shitness like no other

7 Dec 2011

(Fire) It was maybe only a matter of time before Guided By Voices got back together and made a new record. Responsible for 16 albums in 24 years and led by a guy in Robert Pollard credited with over 1000 songs, expecting them to totally curtail their…

Little Dragon on UK tour

Swedish electro-pop quartet and Gorillaz collaborators take third album Ritual Union on tour

16 Nov 2011

You’d expect a band to delight in having artists from Gorillaz to DJ Shadow and Big Boi beating their door down to work with them – especially if they’ve hitherto existed in relative obscurity. But while Little Dragon find it ‘super exciting’ to have…

Stone Roses headline T in the Park 2012 - but is it a good idea?

Malcolm Jack ponders the significance of the Roses at T in the Park 2012

15 Nov 2011

I am not in favour of The Resurrection, I’ll be honest about that. Like all bands of yesteryear that matter to me – and The Stone Roses were a staple of my teens – I believe they should be remembered as they were in their prime. I was too young to…

Lykke Li - O2 ABC, Glasgow, Sun 30 Oct 2011

Passive response suggests lesson in stagecraft required

15 Nov 2011

Having transformed radically and impressively from indie pixie into purveyor of arty, bleeding-hearted Spector pop on her second album Wounded Rhymes, you hardly expected Li Lykke Zachrisson to be exchanging high-fives with the crowd all night. But then…

Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow

The sensual, seductive Bush dominates a sparse, wintery, piano-led slow-burner

10 Nov 2011

(Fish People/EMI) In a burst of prolificacy unmatched since her 1978 debut year Kate Bush makes two new albums in 2011, raising her total for the last 18 years to a whopping three. Where Director’s Cut saw her reinterpret old songs, 50 Words For Snow…

Atlas Sound - Parallax

Deerhunter multi-instrumentalist's third and best solo album

10 Nov 2011

(4AD) The term ‘side-project’ somehow doesn’t do justice to Atlas Sound, the title under which the prolific Bradford Cox operates as a solo artist when he’s not doing his squally noise rock thing with Deerhunter. The Athens, Georgia based…

Odonis Odonis - Hollandaze

Auspicious introduction that further mines the fuzz-and-feedback-as-bliss school

10 Nov 2011

(FatCat) Toronto’s Odonis Odonis – the solo project turned full live band of Dean Tzenos – join a swathe of other North American artists presently mining the trashy, scuzzy, fuzz-and-feedback-as-bliss end of post-punk and its various derivatives from…

Bon Iver set for 2011 UK tour

The collaboration-friendly indie-folk icon is still strongest on his own two feet

21 Oct 2011

‘Profit, profit, nigga I got it, everybody know I’m a motherfucking monster.’ Of all that Justin ‘Bon Iver’ Vernon might have done next following the huge critical acclaim and popular devotion for his exquisite 2008 debut album For Emma, Forever Ago…

Exposure - Lana Del Rey

The 'Videogames' singer's second stab at stardom looks set to be a sure thing

20 Oct 2011

The List hesitates not a moment in declaring this picture of dusky American pop perfection a star in the making – how could the self-styled ‘gangsta Nancy Sinatra’ not be? The New Yorker’s debut single ‘Video Games’ – a YouTube sensation that’s scored…

Loch Lomond - Little Me Will Start a Storm

Tenderly sung and delicately arranged busy, decorative chamber-pop

20 Oct 2011

(Chemikal Underground) After Band of Horses’ song ‘Funeral’ helped to launch Danny MacAskill to worldwide fame when it featured on his breakthrough viral video, the young Scottish pro-cyclist then gave Portland six-piece Loch Lomond a punt by picking…

M83 - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming

Strong album watered-down by weaker tracks leads to 'spine-tingle fatigue'

19 Oct 2011

(Naïve) French dream-pop auteur Anthony Gonzalez’s last album, 2008’s magnificent Saturdays I Youth, well deserved this double-album follow-up, which came trailered by a triumphant teaser video – all flowers in bloom, jets in flight and misty city…

Justice - Audio Video Disco

Highly enjoyable electro-rock from the Parisian duo, if notably less serious than earlier efforts

17 Oct 2011

(Ed Banger/Because) Hip Parisian electro label Ed Banger’s leading lights aren’t the first dance artists to make like rock stars – see The Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy and fellow French duo Daft Punk among others. But between their wiggly synth…

Electric Frog September Weekender – SWG3, Glasgow, Sat 10–Sun 11 Sep

19 Sep 2011

‘It’s good that this is in Glasgow, ‘cause not a lot of great things happen in Glasgow,’ praised Errors’ Steev Livingston of Electric Frog. His tongue was possibly ever so slightly in cheek, but these micro festivals – of which this September Weekender…

Real Estate - Days

Chiming, melancholic, reverb-bathed songs from some glorious, stoned daze

16 Sep 2011

(Domino) From The Byrds to Avi Buffalo, baked dudes kicking out jangly, gently psych-frazzled pastoral jams is a tradition as old as the hills in American pop and Real Estate are keeping it alive and well. If the trio of New Jersey childhood…

We Were Promised Jetpacks set for new album and UK tour

Edinburgh quartet recorded new album in Sigur Rós' Reykjavik studio

16 Sep 2011

‘It sounded like a bad demo,’ grumbles We Were Promised Jetpacks singer and guitarist Adam Thompson of his band’s 2009 debut album, These Four Walls. The 40,000 people worldwide that bought a copy would presumably disagree, but they’ll be cheered to…

Jeffrey Lewis - A Turn in the Dream-Songs

Lots to adore on sixth Rough Trade album of wry, nerdy, verbose tunes

14 Sep 2011

(Rough Trade) ‘A cult boyfriend is like a record in a bargain bin,’ rambles Jeffrey Lewis, paralleling his calibre as a date with his music; both acquired tastes, ‘no one knows its worth ’til a collector comes in.’ While we can’t advocate going…

Cults - Nice’n’Sleazy, Glasgow, Wed 31 Aug 2011

New Yorkers' difficult attempt to recreate reverb-soaked debut album

14 Sep 2011

When their chiming, summery debut single ‘Go Outside’ ricocheted around the blogosphere last year, then on TV ads for Brothers Cider this summer, New Yorkers Cults made a very immediate impression. Live, their undoubted charms proved much slower to…

Dum Dum Girls - Only in Dreams

Fizzily catchy, if too clean-cut to entirely convince

14 Sep 2011

(Sub Pop) It’s little surprise to discover that The Raveonettes’ Sune Rose Wagner co-produced this Californian all-female quartet’s second album. By progressing from trashy, distorted beginnings towards something more polished and unashamedly pop…

Laki Mera - The Proximity Effect

Sleepy chillwave effort from Laura Donnelly and co

24 Aug 2011

(Just Music) While the chillwave likes of Washed Out and Toro Y Moi purvey a fresh brand of electronic pop music that’s both soothing and stimulating, Glasgow quartet Laki Mera’s second album harks back to a time when it made people fall asleep in…

The Jayhawks - Mockingbird Time

Winningly upbeat and hope-filled return

24 Aug 2011

(Decca) Marking a long-awaited reunion of the band’s two principal songwriters Gary Louris and Mark Olson – the latter of whom acrimoniously left to live in the desert with his folk-singer wife (now ex) Victoria Williams in 1995 – Mockingbird Time…

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Hysterical

Splashy disco beats, floaty synth-strings and wounded puppy yelping

24 Aug 2011

(V2/Co-op) Brooklyn’s CYHSY were trailblazers for the internet-savvy, straight-to-fans DIY indie generation with their self-titled, self-released 2005 debut album. After a cool response to 2007’s Some Loud Thunder and a four year-interim during which…

Will Hanson - Moving a Body

Spine-tingling guitar melodies and off-kilter pop

16 Aug 2011

(12/26) The genesis of Londoner Will Hanson’s solo debut was a move from New York to Glasgow – go figure, it being a city that’s produced audibly two of his biggest influences in Mogwai and The Delgados. He cut his teeth previously with defunct…

M83 and Jens Lekman among highlights of August singles and downloads

Wynter Gordon, Toddla T and How To Swim also feature

10 Aug 2011

Music must mostly be on its holidays considering how light the singles bag is this month, but in the pursuit of assessing shortplayers The List does not rest, just don’t blame us if we’re grouchy. That means you, Hard-Fi. Why must you offend us so with…

Various artists - Johnny Boy Would Love This . . . A Tribute to John Martyn

Mixed bag of cover versions from Robert Smith, Beck and Vashti Bunyan

10 Aug 2011

(Hole in the Rain/Liason) However affectionate a tribute album, they can still make you wish classic songs, like historic buildings, could somehow be listed to preserve their original splendour. Case in point on this set dedicated to late, great…

Stephen Kelman set for Edinburgh Book Festival appearance

Author of Booker longlisted Pigeon English

9 Aug 2011

Probably most humdrum offices in Britain hide an aspiring creative type who dreams of ditching the day job and succeeding at what they love. For Stephen Kelman, the dream came dramatically true. Penned while he worked as a council administrator, his…

AL Kennedy - The Blue Book

Surreal drama from the talented comic/author

3 Aug 2011

(Jonathan Cape) Her first novel since 2007’s Day, celebrated Scots miserablist AL Kennedy’s sixth full-length work of fiction attempts to mess with readers’ minds in a way that few other authors might dare. The Blue Book is laced with cryptic…

Alma Mater - One-person experience blending film and promenade theatre

Sneak preview of what might well be the future of the Fringe show

26 Jul 2011

In the vast sun-drenched glass-ceilinged foyer of Glasgow’s Briggait, there’s a room within a room -- a rudimentary windowless wooden box of about 18 cubic metres. It might resemble a wonkily-constructed homemade garden shed, but it’s the collapsible…