Aberfeldy – Claire
A friend of mine called Matt, who runs Bladen County Records in Portland, said to me over the Summer that he thought it completely inevitable that music blogs expand and become record labels as well. This makes sense I suppose. Basically, the underlying motivation behind starting a record label is generally: ‘fuck this is so good, everyone has to hear this!’ Generally, this is the precise same motivation behind starting a music blog – it’s all just about ways of expressing your love for particular kinds of music and trying to spread that message as far and wide as you can.
As I have mentioned in the past, entirely unbeknownst to one another, two Edinburgh bloggers, myself and Ed from 17 Seconds, have spent the last year building record labels based on the foundations laid by our respective blogs. Ed’s first act was to sign up Aberfeldy for 17 Seconds Records, an established band with two good albums behind them and a good reputation in the industry; not bad at all for a novice label without a history – well played!
Well, after vinyl manufacturing nightmares, their first single is now ready for purchase. Due to Ed’s taste for incredible amounts of excercise it is now in pretty much independent record shop in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and can also be bought online from Rough Trade.
Musically, this is classic Aberfeldy: sugar-sweet folk pop, with a gentle sixties inflection, showing that their recent quiet has had no effect whatsoever on their knack with a catchy tune – single of the week on NME Radio no less! I can’t really make a brand new single available for download, but have a listen to a song from Aberfeldy’s debut album below, and pop along to their MySpace page to preview Claire.
Aberfeldy – Heliopolis by Night
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Oddly enough, I alluded to this very idea in my own blog last week, and in the same post ALMOST compared a musician (Jason Bajada) to Aberfeldy, but feared no one would know who the hell I was talking about.
The very idea that great bands such as Aberfeldy are being deserted by larger labels seems to reinforce the thesis that bloggers must become labelmakers — though I’d also suggest that the concept of expansion may be broader than just “label”. For example, larger version of that discussion includes some suggestion that we are the inheritors of Alan Lomax, and that Daytrotter is a generator/producer of content, especially for those of us who prefer those albums generated almost accidentally, like both Patty Griffin and Bon Iver’s first full albums (intended to be a rough cut, released as “the album”).
I bought a Rough Trade CD Sampler a few years ago that had Aberfeldy’s Vegetarian Restaurant on it. I really liked that tune. Kudos to Ed on this one.
Cheers for this, Matthew!
What a stunning signing for a new independent label.
I swear Ed must be pulling our legs.
Good for Aberfedly as well for ‘taking a punt’ on a non-established label. Refreshing!
I’m beginning to think that Scotland, or perhaps Edinburgh, is the center of the freaking universe. And as boyhowdy states, labelmakers spring forth from it like water from a geyser. Well, let is splash over this way a bit, I’ve very much enjoyed hearing what you fellas think is good music! And bravo for not being (or sounding at least!) competitive on the issue. Bravo! And thank you xoxoxo
Nah, Gav, I’m not pulling your leg or anyone else’s, for that matter! I got tired of waiting for someone else to sign them. As for Edinburgh being the centre of the universe, it could well be Edinburgh’s year. Who knows what will happen know that Broken Records have signed to 4AD? Will it be a repeat of English A&R men dashing up here (a la Franz Ferdiand five years ago)? We can but wait and see… And as for being competitive on the issue, no point. We’ve been gentlemanly about it so far (I’ve given great reviews to Meursault and Nightjar, because they warranted them)!
Well apart from the fact that Ed is a friend and I want things to go well for him on a personal level, competition doesn’t even come into it.
Even if you’re being totally cynical and selfish about it, there’s little enough buzz about Edinburgh in the grand scheme of things that any success at all around here is good for everyone. Besides, it’s easy to get competitive in the field of music, but I just don’t think music fans see it that way. Do I love Nick Cave any the less because I love Tom Waits?
So apart from on ego terms the competition would be meaningless anyway. Johnny from Fence Records deserves a nod in this too, because he has been so helpful with advice, contacts, press info and all that, despite the fact that I in particular am encroaching on their turf slightly, seeing as I do a lot of indie-folk stuff. But he’s been consistently amazing about everything which, honestly, has set something of an example as far as I’m concerned.
And bear in mind that Edinburgh is still very small-time, as much as we love what’s happening here. The biggest bands in Edinburgh are probably Broken Records and Found. Glasgow: Franz Ferdinand, Belle & Sebastian and Glasvegas. So it’s still on a whole different scale, whatever we like to say amongst ourselves.
Thing is, though, I don’t think that matters. I really think that in this business you’ll tear yourself up if you don’t just find something you personally really like, do it as well as you can, and never worry at all about what other people may or may not be achieving because it just doesn’t matter.
As Mrs. Toad said to me when we kicked this whole stupid nonsense off a couple of years ago: ‘Even if the whole thing falls totally flat, what would you rather look back on when you’re fifty, that stupid time we tried to start a record label, or that time we talked about it for a couple of years and decided it wasn’t very sensible’.
And Ed’s right, incidentally, I think that blogging brings you a lot closer to a lot of bands, and then the likelihood of finding yourself sitting there thinking ‘Why the fuck isn’t someone releasing this?’ becomes much greater. And once you think that too often, you’re doomed!
yeah sometimes just being a humble fan is sometimes just not enough…….must buck my ideas up!!!
Yeah Tom, you’re shit. You could at least try and look like you’re making an effort.
….cunt…..anyway with regards to this single…i was pleasantly surprised with this and it’s total poptastic sing-along-ness (previously I’d always thought these lot were overrated, which was a shame really cos they seemed to have the right ideas but not a lot of the substance to back it up, which is a lot like my thinking on couple of a similar bands that shall rename nameless)….might go and buy myself a copy
I don’t know their second album, but the first one is terrific. It’s easy to dismiss it because it is very twee indeed, but absolutely all of it is catchy as hell.
….thats it!!!!….i was thinking who does this sound like….Josh Rouse!!!
Tom and I may not see eye to eye on everything, but people like him are why being a musician in Edinburgh is fuckin great. There is a community here of musicians, bloggers, labels and fans who care about the city’s music scene and rather than compete just help each other out and the music scene is all the better for it. Music for me is not, and should never be, a competition. When it becomes such it is to the detriment of everyone. Broken Records getting signed is brilliant news, as are the brilliant reviews Meursault have been getting for their album and it will all be to the benefit of this city’s music scene which is rich in diversity and full of great, great bands. More importantly its full of great people who make it possible for those bands to be heard, or support those bands by buying their music, attending their shows, taking pics for them etc.
Also – lets be honest, the Glasgow bands you mention Matthew may be better known, but the Edinburgh bands you mention are simply better.
I like Belle & Sebastian.
Cheers for the comments guys. It’s nice to read them. It’s also been kinda cool, if very geeky to walk down cockburn st and see the single in the windows of both Avalanche and Underground solush’n. Does this change the world? Of course it doesn’t, but I always wanted to do it…and at least I can look back and say I tried. Not bad for a 32 year old RE teacher!!
Every time I walk past Fopp I go in for a look as well. It’s so sad, but so cool!
is it in Fopp….well that makes it easy for me!!!
I don’t.
Meursault is in Fopp, but I don’t know about Aberfeldy. I don’t think Fopp do much vinyl these days.
Aye, they’ve taken it, both stores in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Head for where the LPs are, the 7″s are below.
sorted i’ll get one on my way home
must be sold-out….cos there was no copies left in Fopp on Rose Street
Shit, they can’t have done, they didn’t even have them racked out the other day. Avalanche and the others have them…Oh, and check 17 seconds blog (www.17seconds.co.uk) for details of our latest signing!
I haven’t heard (or of) Aberfeldy for ages, thanks for the reminder! Will look it out again and look it up during my next homage to Fopp
Our assistant checked in Fopp earlier today, apparently they are not yet on the system but should be very soon…