Nicola Meighan

Singles and downloads - September 2012

Errors, Withered Hand and Miaoux Miaoux among highlights

We’re not just here for the nasty things in life, like reporting that vapid-folk yawn-patrol Mumford and Sons return with ‘I Will Wait’ (I wish they had) (●●, Gentlemen of the Road/Island Records). We’re here for the sexy pop goods too, such as RM…

Deacon Blue - The Hipsters

It starts like all the best Deacon Blue records – gradually, subtly, waiting and wondering – just like Raintown, their debut, did 25 years ago. Then it eases into the melodic drive-pop that made the Glasgow band a household name. Produced by ex-Delgado…

Adrian Crowley - I See Three Birds Flying

War, gorgeous alt.folk from the Malta-born, Galway-raised troubadour

Autumn was made for Adrian Crowley. His sixth LP sees the Malta-born, Galway-raised troubadour further hone his gift for warm, rich, fertile psalms that hang heavy with melancholy, earthly wonder and mellow fruitfulness. From the russet…

Glasgow quartet Divorce promise 'a big dumb racket' at album launch

The experimental band will launch their self-titled debut album at Nice'n'Sleazy on Sat 8 Sep

D.I.V.O.R.C.E, find out what it means to me! What it means to me is bleeding ears and free-sax fuck-rock squall. But what does it mean to you, oh harbingers of Glasgow carnage, aka Divorce? ‘We really love making a big dumb racket – none of us have…

Zadie Smith - NW

Orange Prize-winner's fourth novel breathes and mutates like the city it encapsulates

The fourth novel from Orange Prize-winner Zadie Smith takes its title from a universal urban sign-post, that of the North-West district in a(ny) city. But its geographic, social and cultural landmarks are so embedded in Smith’s hometown of London (the…

Cancel the Astronauts - Animal Love Match

High-octane, ultra-bright indie-rock sounds recall Jetpacks and King Creosote

Continuing in that great Scots tradition of fuelling loved-up alt-rock with an interstellar designate – see We Were Promised Jetpacks, or King Creosote’s Rocket DIY – let’s hear it for Edinburgh vim-pop five-piece Cancel the Astronauts. They’re not…

Cat Power - Sun

A joyous, illuminating rebirth from the American alt.rock darling

As the title suggests, Cat Power aka American alt-rock darling Chan Marshall is hailing this record as something of a rebirth, and it is a joyous, illuminating thing to behold. Forgoing her languorous, long-term attachment to Delta blues and Memphis…

David Byrne and St Vincent - Love This Giant

Two of our greatest pop creators having a ball

There is something ironic about the fact that the futuristic art-pop icons at the heart of this much-hyped endeavour are almost outshone by that most traditional of sonic devices: the good old brass band. The horns and fanfares that populate this union…

Chilly Gonzales - Solo Piano II

Second anthology of self-penned neo-classical piano works

Eighteen months after telling The List that ‘the guy from Muse is asking for an ass-kicking, pianistically speaking’, and three years since he tanned Andrew WK’s proverbial in a New York piano-battle – not to mention his world record-breaking…

Nile Rodgers, the man who brought us disco, to talk at the 2012 Edinburgh Book Festival

How one man helped shape a generation of pop

As the Book Festival programme announces, Nile Rodgers is ‘The Man Who Brought Us Disco’. Or, to be more accurate, he is: The Chic Frontman Who Brought Us Disco; Who Worked with Mick Jagger, Prince and Debbie Harry; Who Produced Madonna, David Bowie and…

Karine Polwart - Traces

The collaboration-friendly folk artist's latest solo effort reaffirms her striking reputation

For all of Karine Polwart’s unquestionable folk appeal (the multiple awards; the clarity of her voice; the history and humanity in her songs) it bears noting that she has stolen the limelight in three of our finest indie collaborations – The Burns…

Dan Willson aka Withered Hand looks forward to upcoming gig with Darren Hayman, Gordon McIntyre and Josie Long

All-star cast for lauded Edinburgh-based singer songwriter

Withered Hand, alias thrash-pop heartbreaker Dan Willson, is amped for his forthcoming indie spectacular. ‘Two of my songwriting heroes are playing special sets: Darren Hayman [Hefner] and local legend Gordon McIntyre [ballboy]. A grand piano has been…

The Fence Collective’s Away Game - Isle of Eigg Fri 20-Sun 22 Jul

Island festival including Meursault, Jon Hopkins and Nathan Fake

I miss the smell of the all-night toilets: like camping and school trips and warm wood and wet clothes. I miss the bagpipes on the pier. The polystyrene cups of tea. The cows and sheep and dogs and cats that milled round our tents and danced in the…

Sesame Street Live - Elmo Makes Music at 2012 Edinburgh Fringe

TV stars make muppet melodies

He has dueted with pop siren Katy Perry and upstaged opera don Andrea Bocelli. Now huggable Sesame Street muppet Elmo is bringing his loveable musical prowess, and furry companions, to the Edinburgh Fringe. ‘This is a real feel good, fast paced, fun…

CBeebies comedy duo Andy and Mike talk about their Tick Tock Time Machine

Comedy duo swap CBeebies for time travel

‘If you mix Back to the Future with The Mighty Boosh and Goonies, you get a glimpse of where we wanted to go,’ says CBeebies presenter Andy Day, co-star of Andy and Mike’s Tick Tock Time Machine. The follow-up to 2009’s Box of Bananas, this new show was…

Dying of laughter: Shows about death at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe

Dead funny Fringe has comedians inspecting death from every angle

Earlier this year, William Shatner made the headlines by advising that he might die onstage in his new one-man show. His life-threatening sales pitch was a literal one: at 80, the former Star Trek legend admitted that embarking on regular 100-minute…

Meursault - Something For The Weakened

Cohesive, gorgeous and forceful album from Edinburgh chamber-folk ensemble

You would break your heart – or part with it – for that album title alone, would you not. And that’s before we speak of ‘Hole’, the greatest desolate / optimistic ballad since Smog’s ‘Rock Bottom Riser’. ‘Hole’ slowly burns at the centre of Something…

Summer Festivals 2012: Music

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

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: Nile Rodgers - interview

The disco legend talks to us ahead of his set at RockNess with Chic

Disco and pop icon Nile Rodgers is recalling the first time his band Chic played Atlantic Records their biggest hit. ‘We emptied the boardroom,’ he says of multi-million selling 70s wig-out, ‘Le Freak’. ‘We started it – “One, two, awwww Freak Out!” And…

Summer Festivals 2012: Ones to watch

A selection of industry experts and List writers choose their musical highlights for this summer

Lanterns on the Lake Chosen by Jonny Ensall, Editor, The List What does that name bring to mind? Boats on the water? A night to remember? An ethereal choir of knitting together a sense of the magical past and the optimistic future? You’re spot on with…

Bobby Womack - The Bravest Man in the Universe

A wise yet not world-weary record from the soul legend

‘As a singer grows older, his conception goes a little deeper, because he lives life and he understands what he’s trying to say a little more...’ So said Sam Cooke back in the day, and so opens electro-soul hymn ‘Dayglo Reflection’, the fourth track…

Mary Epworth - Dream Life

A lavish and eclectic debut album from the folk-rock singer

Where shall we begin? With the banjo twang, Black Sabbath fuzz and Goldfrapping blues-stomp of ‘Black Doe’? With the brass-toting folk-rock euphoria of ‘Long Gone’? With the swirling psych-pop of ‘Come Back to the Bough’? Or perhaps we should start…

Patti Smith - Banga

Unique album of punk poetry populated by rocky arias, improvised psalms and lyrical reveries

You may have heard that Patti Smith dedicates a song to Amy Winehouse on her 11th studio album, Banga. This takes the form of a syrupy ballad, ‘This is the Girl’, and its intentions are honourable, but look beyond it: there are greater, more defiant…

Eye o’ the Dug - St Andrews, Sat 14 & Sun 15 Apr 2012

Fantastic bill featuring Django Django, Malcolm Middleton and more

They may have quadrupled the size of their show, and conscripted beefcakes to man the doors, but the spirit of Fence chiefly prevailed at the inaugural Eye O’ The Dug – a musical hoopla which (kind of) filled a Homegame-shaped hole in the calendar (and…

Holy Mountain - Earth Measures

A cacophonous, riff-driven release imbued with savage axe-mastery and vintage spirit

What we are basically dealing with here is a delirious, hirsute rawk mob – a cacophonous, riff-driven Glasgow trio who’re as heavy as Led and thrice as cool. Notorious for combustible live shows (they once blared out the back of a van, with a cigarette…