Tag Archive for 'gigs'

get off the internet;

Published on August 22, 2010 in music. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

I’ve spent most of the past couple of days home sick, so it seems only reasonable that I start dreaming of the places I can go. My mate Duncan has been leaning on me to mention the Stop Making Sense Festival, taking place in Petrçane, Croatia in a couple of weeks. It seems an odd combination, but since I discovered I already know a couple of people who are going the inaugural party’s reputation clearly precedes itself.

There’s something about the summertime that makes me want to weed all the alternative country out of my iPod and play nothing but scuzzy pop and the Clash and the Ramones. Of course, I say that as it starts to rain and on a weekend I’ve been mostly spinning new or forthcoming albums by Lissie and Thea Gilmore. It’s nearly September: traditionally my favourite month. I love the sound of it, and its colours. I only hope it’s less eventful than last year’s.

The Stop Making Sense lineup is more dance-y and DJ-focussed than you’d probably normally put me down for; what the organisers describe as a mixture of “house, rock and roll, flamenco, disco, balearic, techno, south American/African sounds, blues, psychedelia, dubstep, soul and beyond” and names include Friendly Fires and Django Django as well as Glasgow’s own Optimo DJs.

Django Django – Storm by Last Year’s Girl

Stop Making Sense takes place from 3rd – 5th September at The Garden, Petrçane, Croatia. For more information, visit sms-2010.com.

Closer to home, there is fun stuff happening as well. Retreat!, Edinburgh’s DIY music festival, is back for a third year next weekend featuring previously written-about and due to be written-about acts such as Benni Hemm Hemm, The Douglas Firs, eagleowl, Meursalt and Withered Hand. The organisers have put together a free 15-track sampler of the acts performing at the festival, available to download via Bandcamp.

Retreat! takes place from 28th – 29th August at Pilrig St Paul’s Church, Edinburgh. Find out more at RetreatFestival.co.uk.

Finally there’s Rock Chic, a fashion-meets-music event hosted by Jim Gellatly at Glasgow’s SWG3 Warehouse on Friday, 17th September. There will be some familiar DJs, artists and designers, as well as sets from Miaoux Miaox, Pooch, Attic Lights and Figure 5. And it’s all for a good cause too: all proceeds from the event will go to the Paul O’Gorman Leukaemia Research Centre at the Beatson, who have been treating event organiser Laura Boyd since her diagnosis with the illness last year.

Rock Chic takes place on 17th September at SWG3, Glasgow. Find out more and buy tickets.

we’re gonna build something this summer;

Published on July 13, 2010 in books & literature and music. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

It seems like I’ve been spending much of the last week declining Facebook event invites because they coincide with my upcoming New York trip – oh GOD Lis, I KNOW, your life is so bloody hard isn’t it? Anyway, as I take my duties as both lazy blogger and public service announcer very seriously indeed here is a roundup of some of the events coming up in the central belt in the next fortnight that you really should try to get along to.

Aye Tunes vs Peenko Round 2: We’re Only Afraid of NYC, Randolph’s Leap and Little Yellow Ukuleles
Glasgow, Saturday 17th July
Okay, this one I am hoping to get along to – stress levels permitting. Lloyd and Jim’s first foray into gig promotion was an epic, sweaty success so this show – particularly We’re Only Afraid of NYC, who already get my vote despite the name – should be a good’un.
MORE INFO: via Peenko.
BUY TICKETS: and download a song from each of the bands at Ayetunes Bandcamp.

King Tut’s Summer Nights: Kitty The Lion, Julia and the Doogans, Martin James, Second Hand Marching Band
Glasgow, Tuesday 20th July
Sometimes, the best festivals don’t even need a field. King Tut’s Summer Nights aims to bring 75 top Scottish acts to Glasgow over the space of a fortnight and this show – four class acts, most of whom I’ve written about before, who put a thoroughly modern spin on weirdly-vaguely-folky-sounding stuff – is a definite highlight.
BUY TICKETS: for cheaps from SHMB.

Launch party: The Year of Open Doors
Glasgow, Tuesday 27th July
Burnt Island’s ridiculously talented Rodge Glass got in touch recently to let me know about the launch of The Year of Open Doors, a great new anthology featuring a host of up-and-coming Scottish authors, that he is editing. Musician and storyteller Aidan Moffat – better known as one half of Arab Strap – will be performing at the publication’s launch at Waterstones, Sauchiehall St, which will also feature readings from some of the book’s contributors including Words Per Minute maestro and good friend Kirstin Innes. Also featured between the covers are Kevin MacNeil, Duncan McLean, Sophie Cooke and Alan Bissett – and there’ll be an audiobook version out too through none other than Chemikal Underground records. Burnt Island themselves will also be supporting Adrian Crowle of Chemikal, along with some of the book’s writers, on the last night of the Edinburgh Book Festival and hopefully things will have quietened down somewhat by then so I can make it along and report back.

Never one to waste good email space, Rodge has also pointed out that his band’s track “Hiding Out”, from the Music and Maths EP, is out now as a free download (backed with new track “Gambler’s Dream) through Wiseblood Industries.

Trapped In Kansas/Yahweh split single release shows
Edinburgh, Thursday 29th July and Glasgow, Friday 30th July
Edinburgh DIY label Gerry Loves Records’ second release is a split single from two of Scotland’s most exciting young acts, both of whom have crafted sunny, anthemic pop songs which fit together perfectly. Single release shows will take place on both sides of the M8: at Edinburgh’s Wee Red Bar on Thursday, 29th July [tickets] and Glasgow’s Nice n Sleazy on Friday, 30th July [tickets].
PREORDER: the 7″, complete with download codes and exclusive bonus tracks from both artists, at gerrylovesrecords.com [out 2nd August].

We Sink Ships: Elements
Edinburgh, Saturday 31st July
Photographic and musical pals We Sink Ships will be screening their first short film at the Wee Red Bar as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival 2010, accompanied by music from eagleowl and previous Gerry Loves alumni Conquering Animal Sound. We Sink Ships: Elements contains material from the collective’s recent online exhibitions themed around the medieval elements, put together by London-based Scottish independent filmmaker Sleepsoul.
VISIT: wesinkships.co.uk for more information.

Got any tips that I’ve missed? Feel free to plug your wares in the comments!

you should be doubly gratified;

Published on June 20, 2010 in music. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

It’s not every day I check my email on the bus home after work to find one of my favourite singer-songwriters chatting about the music from Glee and indulging my still-lingering X-Files fandom, but such a rare occasion is a special one indeed. I first came across Mike Doughty when his distinctive growl – then fronting alt.rockers Soul Coughing – seeped through the windows of Max Fenig’s trailer in a first season episode of my longterm favourite show. But it has been his wryly cynical, clever solo stuff that has captured my heart most, and with Sad Man, Happy Man due a UK release in the next couple of weeks I seized the opportunity to put a couple of questions to him by email.

“They just called us out of the blue,” Doughty says in response to my nerdy question. “Sadly, I haven’t watched much of the TV that my songs have been on – I’ve had songs on Bones and Gray’s Anatomy recently, and I totally missed out on watching. So, yeah, didn’t see the second X-Files flick.”

I asked Doughty if there was anything different about the songwriting process as a solo artist, as opposed to the more anonymous band tag. “No, not really,” he replied. “It’s easier though, because you don’t have to please three other guys in order to get the song played.”

The album sees a return to a stripped-down acoustic style of songwriting, more reminiscent of Doughty’s earlier releases Skittish and Haughty Melodic than 2008′s Golden Delicious. Doughty admits this was a conscious decision. “There were a couple of reasons,” he says. “I was touring a lot as an acoustic guy, with my cello player Andrew ‘Scrap’ Livingston, so this naturally stretched into the recording process.

“But I also knew that my US crowd was grumbling to hear some stuff more like my acoustic album Skittish, so I accommodated them.”

Rabbit-eared (sorry, it’s late and I’m trying to find a similar metaphor to “eagle-eyed” in the deepest recesses of my brain) readers of this blog might have noticed a track of Doughty’s called ‘How To Fuck A Republican’ on 2009′s year-end compilations. I wondered if Doughty considered himself to be a political songwriter, or if there was much negative response to the track in the US. “I find the right-wing press on your side of the Atlantic faintly terrifying,” I admitted.

“You’re not alone,” he replied. “But that song isn’t really a political song; it’s just about, you know, fucking a Republican. Pretty much everybody I’ve fucked, it’s not been political. I had one Republican write me and say she was boycotting me – which was a drag, because I don’t think she heard the song, just read the title.

“I don’t consider myself a political songwriter – I’ve written a few political songs, but that’s not really my focus. Actually, I don’t think I have a focus.”

Which brings us neatly to the subject of influences. “Words,” he responds, like a man close to my heart. “Words heard everywhere. Tunes – both cheesy pop tunes that are omnipresent, and more esoteric ones. I don’t try to emulate any specific other artists, but I do listen (and gank) specific tunes.

“Also? Food. Food is more important to the songwriting process than you might expect.”

Asked what he is listening to at the moment, Doughty responds, “Jose Gonzales and Bon Iver; some of those radio-collage recordings that Sublime Frequencies puts out – especially the Arabic music ones, they’re really hypnotizing. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Some weird, freaked out harpsichord and voice songs that my friend Yevgeniy Sharlat wrote. And the Glee version of ‘Don’t Stop Believin” – no, seriously. It’s pretty great.”

[Like he needs to tell me..!]

Doughty is a fairly active blogger on his own site, although lately he has become as equally sucked into Twitter as the rest of us. “It really has replaced the blogging, which is uncool as far as I’m concerned. My fans are pestering me to get back into it, and I really should. Twitter I do because I just enjoy it – I’d do it just as obsessively if I had 900 fans rather than 9,000. I’m not sure that it’s really useful, exactly, but I do think some people in my crowd enjoy it.”

But it’s on the road, where Doughty spends up to four months a year, that he is at his best – and Londoners have the chance to drop a note in the onstage “Question Jar” during a couple of his legendary live performances later this month.”What do I like best about touring? I’d have to give you a list,” he muses. “My friends that I tour with, certain off-beat food places that I know in certain cities, the sort of floaty free feeling that you get, playing the gigs themselves. On and on and on.”

Catch Mike Doughty live in London on the following dates:

26/06: Royal Festival Hall with They Might Be Giants [buy tickets]
29/06: Underbelly (headlining) [buy tickets]

FOLLOW: @MikeDoughtyYeah on Twitter
LISTEN: Lord Lord Help Me Just To Rock Rock On [mp3]
BUY: Sad Man Happy Man at Amazon.co.uk

lock your bedroom door and listen to your records;

Published on May 10, 2010 in music. 3 Comments Tags: , , , .

The first time I spun Heaven is Whenever, the fifth album from the band it’s fair to call my favourite, I wondered if I’d even got the right record. Kicking off with some country chords, perhaps a tribute to that tour with the Drive-By Truckers I’da killed to be a part of, “The Sweet Part of the City” is the Hold Steady like you’ve never heard them before. At first it doesn’t even sound like Craig Finn’s voice on there – there’s a sweetness to his vocal delivery I’ve never really heard before, a wistfulness; this ‘some nights she was gorgeous’ line I can’t stay away from. I’m not sure if it’s a sign or not that one of my favourite bits of the album comes at under a minute in.

As frontman, Finn has played a multitude of roles through the Hold Steady’s discography: hedonist, storyteller, back in the bar band. These records take on grand themes, feature a recurring cast of characters, play out like their own little chapters of a greater story. If there’s a narrative this time around though it’s harder to spot, and plays out more in the liner notes than in the lyrics – be prepared for the cover art to change all meaning when you look beneath the surface. Taking out the flashbacks might set the album apart from the Hold Steady canon to a certain degree, but on repeated listens I start to wonder if maybe it’s actually a stronger album than 2008′s Stay Positive. I’m still reserving judgment.

But those same characters do sneak in there, even if their role isn’t quite as blatant. “The Weekenders”, for example, tells the story of what happens after ‘that whole weird thing with the horses’ in “Chips Ahoy!”, and a happy ending is too much to ask for. Lyrically, melodically, this is the album’s stand out track, even if a little clairvoyance is ‘not always a positive thing’.

If Stay Positive saw a band recognising the consequences, looking out with sometimes weary eyes on the “little lambs” who were the kids at the shows with kids of their own, Heaven Is Whenever sees Finn embrace an almost advisory, kindly role. ‘I know what you’re going through,’ he advises on “Soft in the Center”, in a couplet that’s among the most poetic things he has ever written, ‘you can’t get every girl, you’ll get the ones you love the best.”

The album has picked up a lot of mediocre reviews, with many people pointing to Franz Nicolay’s departure as a potential reason. Now I love Franz as much as the next person, and I’m sure I’ll notice his absence when I see the band in London next month, but while it might be because of my fondness for the earlier albums anyway I don’t see a mustache-shaped hole in any of these songs. There are missteps, of course there are: “The Smidge” with its heavier, crunky sound isn’t great, and “Rock Problems” and “Our Whole Lives” tick all the usual bar band boxes without being anything particularly special, but they’re more than compensated for by the moments of brilliance.

Okay, you want to know why I adore this band? I love how Craig Finn can put together one of the most beautiful songs he has ever written based on nothing more than shutting yourself in some girl’s bedroom and listening to Husker Du on vinyl (“We Can Get Together”). I love how “Hurricane J” is nothing like the best track, but I still managed to listen to it 24 times in that first week because I too really ought to know better. I love how I keep thinking that the final track, “A Slight Discomfort”, is pretty boring but then it does that bit at the end where everything goes all melty and it sounds like the apocalypse is in my head, and I change my mind.

And I love that I can see myself down the front, singing we were bored, so we started a band // we’d like to play for you. That’s going to be a showstopper.

The Hold Steady play London’s HMV Forum on 22nd June. See you there?

BUY: Heaven Is Whenever at Amazon.co.uk
READ: Graeme Thompson’s interview with the band for The Herald.

the little things i love the most: rm hubbert interviewed;

Published on May 7, 2010 in music. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

Anybody who’s ever sent me a piece of music to review will happily tell you that I have this horrible habit of sitting on things for a very, very long time. It’s myself who suffers though: I could have had Glasgow musician RM Hubbert in my life well before his flamenco-inspired compositions sneaked their way into the soundtrack to my trip to Israel.

“I’m not so different – I just want to tell my story, the same as everyone else,” Hubbert tells me. “Granted, there aren’t that many huge, hairy, tattoo covered instrumental guitarists playing solo flamenco based post rock about their chronic inability to communicate clearly. Still, the sentiment stands, we all just want someone to listen to our story.”

It was the Buzzcocks that inspired Hubbert to pick up an electric guitar for the first time, after watching a music video when he was fifteen. Membership of various local bands, including “twitchy hardcore band” Glue and El Hombre Trajeado, who dissolved after ten years in 2005, followed. “It was weird,” he remembers. “Once I started playing, it seemed really odd that I hadn’t done so earlier.”

The emotive compositions that comprise his album First & Last are a far cry from these early projects. The songs that make up the recording are, Hubbert freely admits, influenced by three separate life events: the death of his father, his recent diagnosis of chronic depression and the death of his mother. But this isn’t to say that the album is an exorcism – much of it almost seems to bounce with a joy that is infectious. “I’d always loved the energy and emotive frenzy of flamenco – it reminded me of the best punk music,” he explains. “I began studying and learning that as a way of taking my mind off things.

“Basically, performing this music and talking about the subject matter makes me feel better. It is my catharsis. Not even a good one, but it’s all I have. I would gladly trade doing this for the ability to communicate honestly and clearly with those that matter to me.”

Hubbert cites his biggest influence as the Minutemen’s Mike Watt. “The band had a saying along the lines of ‘punk is whatever we make it’ – I think that is an amazing concept,” he says. “When people ask what my music sounds like, I tell them it’s punk. It just doesn’t sound like it.

“Other than that death, depression and love are the other constants from First & Last. It used to be an even split between the happy and sad. Not so much anymore.”

Hubbert is “currently getting started” on his next album. “It’s a totally different process as it will be made up entirely of collaborations between myself and some of my favourite artists,” he says – artists who, at current count, include Alasdair Roberts, Aidan Moffat and Emma Pollock.

RM Hubbert is playing as part of Frost and Fire at the Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow tomorrow night. The lineup also includes iSSHO Taiko drummers, Lucy Duncombe & Nerea Bello and Cath & Phil Tyler.

Alternatively, he’ll play for food..!

DOWNLOAD: RM Hubbert – Skyeburn [MP3]
BUY: First & Last via Bandcamp.

the things we won and the ones we lost;

Published on May 6, 2010 in music. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

My favourite bands are spoiling me at the moment, with at least five of them on new releases in as many weeks. It means my loyalties are divided all over the place – which is why it’s taken me almost a fortnight to get something up about Love It To Life from Jesse Malin’s new band, the St Mark’s Social.

My relationship with Malin’s music is a simple one. There’s no pretentiousness, no hyperbollic music blog shite. Truth be told, there aren’t really any adjectives. The essays I’ll write for other acts don’t apply here: I’ve loved the man’s brand of soul-on-sleeve gutter rock and roll music for a long time, and even if nobody else did it wouldn’t make a difference to me either way.

I’m not sure of the significance of the St Mark’s Social “rebrand”. I know there was discontent, I know there were record label troubles but the revolving cast of characters seems much the same: even Ryan Adams and the missus are in the mix. Producer Ted Hutt (whose work with current labelmates The Gaslight Anthem I already rate) has done a great job on the mix – these ten tracks lack the more polished sheen of 2007′s glossy Glitter in the Gutter. It’s a feel a songwriter who has always seemed more of a Strummer than a Springsteen is much more suited to.

It does mean the album lacks the immediacy of its predecessor, and certainly I’ve been guilty of focussing most of my attention on the first four tracks. Lead single “Burning the Bowery” opens the album with a battle cry from guitars that wail like sirens. I feel that a succesful Malin song is one that can transport me to that version of New York City that exists in my mind – a place with just enough overlap with a similar metropolis I’ve only visited once – and on that criteria this track ticks all the boxes: it’s clubs and nights and places and people long gone, but that you suspect still exist – just like they do in mine – in his head and his heart.

“All The Way From Moscow” is one of those hellfire bollocking rock and roll numbers that Malin delivers with such conviction, screaming you don’t get your money back, kid over the boots and chains of the girl at the centre of that song. I’m always half thrilled and half scared by the feral punk rock girls at the centre of his songwriting – I van sense their vulnerability, but they’d kick my ass before they’d let me see it long enough to force them to admit to it.

I knew “The Archer” before its album incarnation: then, it was a piano-driven ballad co-performed with Christine Smith and rumoured to be on the soundtrack to a biopic of the late JD Salinger I never heard anything else about. On record it’s been cleaned up, and at first I wasn’t keen on the extra layer of production, but on about the fourth listen it broke my heart in the early morning sunshine. “She’s the catalyst,” Malin swoons, “the one girl I never got over.”

“St Mark’s Sunset” is ostensibly the weakest among these early album tracks, but it’s so bouncy it utterly charmed me. One I’ll enjoy live, I reckon, in much the same way as “Burn The Bridge” and “Revelations” feel as though their live renditions will add an extra layer of punch-the-air epic singalong. While Malin’s over-earnest persona always lends itself to the odd cringeworthy lyric (and “Disco Ghetto” and “Black Boombox” are certainly examples of that particular subgenre), this was for me definitely a collection worth sticking with – and with my pal Claudia planning a trip to Scotland to coincide with a recently-announced UK tour defintely another reason why summer 2010 is gonna rock, baby.

Jesse Malin plays Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh on 30th June and King Tut’s the following night. Full UK itinerary on the Myspace.

BUY: Love It to Life at Amazon.co.uk.

i wanted a drink, i wanted a dance // i wanted to love you, i wanted a second chance;

Published on May 2, 2010 in music. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

I meant to go out tonight, to the launch of eagleowl’s frankly stunning new EP, “Into The Fold”. Instead I curled up at home and made chili and watched this week’s Doctor Who and Ashes to Ashes. Sometimes you need Saturday nights like that. It shouldn’t put you off buying the EP, which you can preorder before its Monday release via Bandcamp.

I’m planning on getting along to the first Words Per Minute, my mate Kirstin’s new monthly spoken word/film/music event at Creation Studios tomorrow afternoon. There will be readings, and Miaoux Miaoux from last month’s mix is playing, so I’m looking forward to it.

So, blogging. I know a lot of people either don’t understand what it is that I do here or think that the whole medium is a waste of time, but I haven’t half had some great nights because of it – as well as meeting some of the best people I have ever met. And last night, what will hopefully be the first of many gigs promoted by my blog brothers Peenko and Aye Tunes was just one such night.

I was a bit late, as is my wont these days unfortunately, and so missed Campfires in Winter which is a shame as I think I still owe Bob a drink from Hinterland. Plus the other two bands on the bill were fantastic, and I was hearing them both live for the first time – there’s no reason to doubt the other wouldn’t have been the same.

300410 - Mitchell Museum
mitchell museum

So Mitchell Museum bounced onstage pretty soon after I wriggled to the front with the enthusiasm of wide-eyed puppydogs, and suddenly it’s all speed and mental and yelps and catchy choruses and awkward sentences like this that stumble through conjunction after conjunction and these giddy Casio samples that sound like they should be on the soundtrack to some low bitrate version of Super Mario Brothers. They play this ace song called “Tiger Heartbeat” or something like that, and then they play their debut single which is coming out on Electra French Records on the 14th of next month. That one is called “Warning Bells”, and it is almost as good.

kid canaveral
kid canaveral

And THEN, just when I think it isn’t going to get much better and I might want to sneak off early because I have work in the morning, I remember that actually I really liked this one Kid Canaveral song they gave away as a free download the other month enough to put it on a mix and, you know what? That isn’t anything like a fluke – Kid Canaveral can spit out shiny breakfast cereal pop nuggets like “Smash Hits” and new single “You Only Went Out To Get Drunk Last Night” they’re going out of fashion and I’m not just saying that because the song I loved before is called “Good Morning”. That said, with their catchy melodies and cute boy-girl harmonies they can tug on the heartstrings with the best of them: just listen to “Stretching The Line”‘s lovelorn tribute to the London to Glasgow train if you’ve ever been in a long-distance relationship – even if it only turned out to be for three months – and tell me I hope you’ll always keep my bed warm // and when you’re not I’ll keep it empty doesn’t bring a lump to your throat.

For the most part though, this set is sheer joyousness: ba ba ba and la la la and arms flailing, crazy dancing particularly from Lloyd and Jim themselves. If they’re a sweaty, drunken mess by the end (no change there then), it’s thoroughly deserved for a job well done.

I walked the full three miles home from work tonight, all the old favourites like “Constructive Summer” and “Hotel Columbia” playing in my ears, a spring in my step and full of the joys of summer and music and plans and friends. The end of June is shaping up to be incredible: in the space of a week I’ll be seeing the Hold Steady and the Gaslight Anthem, in London and Glasgow respectively, and potentially Jesse Malin twice if I decide to spring for the Edinburgh date too among his just-announced summer UK dates. In a way I wonder if the next six weeks are going to feel like a way of marking time but I always did have a problem with anticipating too hard – I’m starting to realise that the best times really are right now.

By the way, you can still become a fan on Facebook! :)

the heart of saturday night;

Published on April 3, 2010 in music and uncategorized. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Here is what my Saturday night looks like. It’s Hinterland, peoples! There are still tickets left for the multi-venue Glasgow music festival, and I’ll see you down the front. Should be an excellent start to a bank holiday weekend – and then there’s Hazy Recollections, with Findlay Napier and Julia and the Doogans, at Stereo tomorrow afternoon to round it off.

Although, in my case, it’s the beginning of two weeks off. Saying that, I am currently typing this up at work – this post should have been up a couple of days ago, but with the best timing in the world my laptop imploded. Still, nothing like a bit of healthy pressure to get everything finished before I fly out to Israel on Wednesday…

…right?

Here’s one I’m gutted to be missing: a music industry seminar day by Derick and the guys at Born to be Wide. Wide Days, taking place in Edinburgh on the 8th, will feature veteran artist managers, music lawyers and other industry professionals speaking on how to stay relevant in the digital music climate. With a band showcase in the evening featuring the likes of Meursault, Found and Carrie Mac, it sounds like the perfect combination of my geekish interests. Also speaking will be Gavin Bain of D12 Silibil N’ Brains, the band who toured the world and lived a superstar lifestyle by faking American identities and accents. I can’t remember who was telling me about this recently but it’s a fascinating story.

Tickets and full line-up information available here.

a hazy shade of springtime;

Published on March 17, 2010 in music. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Got an email through the other day about the second Hazy Recollections, an afternoon of Scottish nu-folk taking place at Stereo on Easter Sunday. A lineup including the Injuns, Rachel Sermanni and – my favourites – Julia and the Doogans meant that the poster’s pretty springtime colours were sure to get my attention, and a daylight gig reads like the perfect sort of antidote to the morning’s chocolate hangover.

In my case, it’s more likely to be a serious case of coffee jitters, but you get the point I’m sure.

Hazy Recollections was created by local singer-songwriter Findlay Napier and Pearl and the Puppets drummer Blair MacMillan, and it’s only £6 on the door.

Get it on yer calendar!

ALSO! On the subject of singer-songwriters, and in “coolest thing I have heard this week” news, my pal Daniel Pearson sent me his band’s punkish take on Springsteen’s “Dancing In The Dark” and has given me permission to post it here for you kids to enjoy.

DOWNLOAD: All Those Heroes – Dancing In The Dark
LISTEN: All Those Heroes on Myspace
BUY: Daniel Pearson – Satellites from Saint in the City Records

sooner or later this will feel like home;

Published on March 3, 2010 in music. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

You may or may not remember, but a little before Christmas I wrote a bit about Matthew Ryan’s latest album, Dear Lover. It got a bit of attention – not least because, uhhh, Matthew actually tweeted it. And usually when I get attention, it means I get free music.

Of course, with it being just before Christmas – and my first Christmas in retail since 2004, at that – actually finding the time to write anything about that music proved difficult. But this is when a phenomenon I have mentioned before, but never actually named – let’s call it iTunes Shuffle Roulette – comes into play. And this song comes on that you’ve never heard before, but it almost feels as if you’ve known it your whole life. And that song makes you want to jump and dance and scream and fight and kiss. That song comes close to being everything you love about music in three minutes of simple chords.

In this case it was “Sooner/Later” by Kasey Anderson, and I couldn’t believe I’d left it so late.

Nowhere Nights, the third album from the Portland-native singer-songwriter, is what he describes as his coming-of-age record, leaving behind the small community in Bellingham, Washington where he spent eight years. “Bellingham Blues” sums up his frustration, with its repeated motif – this ain’t never been my home – setting the tone for the rest of the album.

Nowhere Nights is the sound of escape from the smalltown blues. When it’s up (“All Lit Up”, “Torn Apart”) it’s like a freedom drive down some distant highway, the windows down and Born To Run blaring from the tape deck. When it’s down (“Home”, “Leavin’ Kind”), um, that’s probably a good description of it too.

Kasey Anderson is, I believe, just off the back of a tour with Matthew Ryan himself and if you like the sort of stuff that I like you will love this album.

DOWNLOAD: Kasey Anderson – Sooner/Later
BUY: Nowhere Nights from Red River Records

Also worth mentioning is Jonathan Barnes, whose bluesy, five-song Treatable EP is a gorgeous, low key treat for a late night or a laid-back, rainy Sunday afternoon.

DOWNLOAD: Jonathan Barnes – Swiftly Now
BUY: The Treatable EP from CDBaby.

And I suppose, if I’m writing about music… remember my cynicism about the so-called Hole “reunion”?

Well… I might have tickets to see them, and be ridiculously excited.

I mean, she’s even using the same logo.

I can’t help it. I’m going to be in the same room as Courtney Love. Fairywings and babydoll dresses at the ready!