Mark Robertson

Jay-Z - live review

SECC, Glasgow, 20th July 2008

21 Jul 2008

If there were any haters still doubting after his decisive clamping of Noel Gallagher at Glastonbury a couple of weeks back, this man of a thousand monikers, J Hova, God MC, Hovito, Jigga or, as his mother knows him best, Shawn Carter remains very much…

Last Word - Rigmor Gustafsson

17 Jul 2008

Rigmor Gustafsson is one of Sweden’s premiere jazz vocalists and brings her show to Scotland for the first time as part of the jazz festival. Welcome her with open arms and wild strawberries First record you ever bought The first one I can…

T in the Park - Up-and-comers

3 Jul 2008

MGMT What Psychedelic synth-pop duo from Brooklyn Unique Selling Point They sound wonderfully woozy on record but the MGMT live experience reveals a harder, darker and much more edgy side to the band. Imagine full-on swampy rock colliding with…

Beck - Modern Guilt

3 Jul 2008

POP (XL Recordings) Beck seems to have found his mojo over the last few albums, the self-conscious idea of him being an ‘artist’ is gone and he lets the ideas flow. Modern Guilt is as sharp, clean and crisp a record as you’ll find, a compact, focussed…

Irvine Welsh - Crime

3 Jul 2008

CRIME DRAMA (Jonathan Cape) Irvine Welsh has never shied away from the seamy side of life, and for his ninth novel he crosses the Atlantic to the balmy climes of Florida, only to uncover a cesspit of evil that would put some of his previous local…

My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges

3 Jul 2008

ROCK (Rough Trade) Having never trod the most conventional paths, Kentucky natives MMJ have almost been Wilco, The Eagles and The Grateful Dead in their long, productive life but have always spun off into their own otherwordly orbit. Evil Urges is a…

The Hold Steady - Stay Positive

3 Jul 2008

ROCK (Rough Trade) If ever a band suited a time, a place and a mood then it is The Hold Steady. Their innate ability to capture that great moment on a warm summer Friday night when everything comes together and things are just . . . right. For four…

Various - A Boy’s Own Odyssey – mixed by Farley and Heller and The Misterons

3 Jul 2008

HOUSE (Defected) There was a time back when Oasis were a relevant creative musical force, Tony Blair was a politician and it cost less than a month’s wages to fill up your car. And around this time clubbing was myriad of appealing adventures. DJs like…

Fitter Happier - Radiohead interview

19 Jun 2008

They’re one of the biggest bands in the world despite refusing to play the music industry’s game. Mark Robertson talks to Radiohead about success, self-indulgence and their reputation as the most miserable men in rock

Vanity Fair Portraits

5 Jun 2008

We didn’t need Princess Diana to die to know we live in a celebrity-obsessed age. The love/hate relationship between the people and the famous is now more fraught than ever. Fame has never been so easy to come by, but we seem to take even greater joy in…

American woman - Estelle interview

5 Jun 2008

Estelle is a busy lady. It takes three weeks, three reschedules and three attempts at a transatlantic phone call to finally get a word with her. ‘Yeah man, its been promo city lately’ she giggles from a room in the heart of her US label Atlantic’s…

Festivals

5 Jun 2008

Until 8 June Leith Festival Various venues, Leith, Edinburgh, prices vary www.leithfestival.com Leith Festival showcases its trademark brew of home-grown talent and big name headliners with over 100 musical acts, 50 comedians and a dozen visual…

Paul Weller - 22 Dreams

5 Jun 2008

ROCK (Island) For a man so conscious of the art and craft of songwriting, this sprawling old school double album – that is, 21 tracks over 70 minutes, like double albums were before CDs – this is a truly liberating record. Rather than trying to build…

Spiritualized - Songs in A&E

5 Jun 2008

ROCK (Sanctuary) It’s not unfair to say that Jason Pierce has been essentially rewriting the same couple of songs over and over again for the last 20 years. He scratches away inventively at the same formula, much like his much vaunted blues heroes…

The Fratellis - Here We Stand

5 Jun 2008

ROCK (Fallout) It’s easy to understand what The Fratellis are for – they are here to help us expel those more primal emotions and meaning we don’t have to take a hammer to the neighbours every time they leave the window open whilst playing Cher – but…

Public Enemy

22 May 2008

HIP HOP ABC, Glasgow, Tue 27 May Do you know the one about the ahead-of-his-time internet entrepreneur, the clock-obsessed reality TV star, and the boyish looking, alleged anti-Semite? No punch line here, just excerpts from the long and vivid history…

Drive-By Argument - Drive-By Argument

22 May 2008

INDIE (Lizard King) Who says you don’t get anything out of further education these days? This quintet formed as part of a college course and rather than that eternal sound of compromise, they came up with this: throbbing Altern-8 keyboard riffs…

Matt Groening & Various - Big Brilliant Book of Bart Simpson

22 May 2008

COMEDY (Titan Books) The boast that The Simpsons is now the longest running animated TV series of all time is a bit of a double-edged sword. For as it rolls out episode after episode, into the multiplexes and beyond, the permutations for new plot…

Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head

22 May 2008

COUNTRY POP (ATCO) To consider the pedigree of actors turned musicians is to consider a whole bunch of people walking the line between self-indulgence and inpsiration: David Soul, Richard Harris, Billy Bob Thornton, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Robert Downey…

Singles & Downloads

22 May 2008

It may be happy coincidence, or just a refusal to write about the new Rascals single, but there’s only good stuff left in the pile this issue, meaning everyone deserves a big sloppy one on the lips for their efforts. Dead or American have run at…

Mark E Smith with Austin Collings - Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E Smith

8 May 2008

MUSIC BIOGRAPHY (Viking) The real joy of Mark E Smith and The Fall has always been expecting the unexpected. His music has always stuck to a rigid formula but is somehow never formulaic, and he’s survived every British musical subculture since punk…

Rachel Unthank and the Winterset

8 May 2008

FOLK Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Fri 9 May; ABC, Glasgow, Sat 10 May It’s a decidedly domestic vibe at chateau Unthank when Rachel comes to the phone. ‘I’ve just been doing a bit of gardening and I had to go into town to pick up a new cello case,’ she…

Nick Cave

24 Apr 2008

Nick Cave is in his car. It’s a big car, but no Chelsea tractor. He’s in the driving seat, howling madly along with the bombast blaring out of the speakers. This isn’t a cruise down endless stretches of autobahn, freeways of America or through the arid…

Joy Division

24 Apr 2008

DOCUMENTARY (15) 96mins After last year’s Control, Anton Corbijn’s considered and stylish dramatisation of Ian Curtis’ life, it would be easy to think that everything you need to know about the legend and legacy of English post-punk outfit Joy…

Also Released - Music

24 Apr 2008

The Ossians - The MacPherson Tapes (45b) Akin to Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, this long lost Edinburgh quartet ‘coulda been contenders’ had they not ended up imploding in a hail of rock’n’roll misfortune. This is the recently uncovered album that…