It’s that time of the week once again. At 6.30pm, British Summer Time, myself and Dylan from Blueback Hotrod will be live on Fresh Air, Edinburgh’s student radio station. There will be no theme, no coherence and no real attempt to do anything more dynamic than just chatter about music, so please do tune in and listen to us blether.
Rather than emailing or (grrr) tweeting, I thought I might just leave this as an open thread for those who want to contribute, and I’ll add the playlist live as we go along.
01. The Bluetones – Glad to See You Back Again
02. James – Sound
03. Emily Scott – Pageant Queen
04. Frightened Rabbit – Old Old Fashioned (Live)
05. Kid Canaveral – Teenage Fanclub Song
06. Popup – Lucy, What are You Trying to Say?
07. Blur w. Francoise Hardy – To the End
08. Gene – Dolce & Gabanna or Nowt
09. Meursault – Hard On (Charles Latham Cover)
10. Charles Latham – Nite Man
11. Withered Hand – Religious Songs
12. Boo Radleys – Almost Nearly There
13. White Antelope – Silver Dagger
14. Cancel the Astronauts – I am the President of Your Fanclub and Last Night I Followed You Home
Quite a thin week by recent standards actually, but that’s no bad thing. Homegame is approaching and a weekend that is easy on the liver and easy on the wallet will be a very good thing. Plus we have to spend it all making up copies of the new Meursault EP, Nothing Broke. Yes, you heard me right. Terribly exciting, wot. It will mark the first offical outing for crowd favourite William Henry Miller Pt.1, albeit an acoustic version of the song, the full version of which will be available along with The Furnace, The Dirt & the Roots and William Henry Miller Pt.2 as part of a set of two 7″ vinyl releases in late Spring.
And the Maxwell Panther album is about done. And the Inspector Tapehead album is almost there, although that’s not quite a done deal yet, so I’ll keep that under my hat for a little longer.
The reason this post is so late is because I have been galavanting about going to weddings. It turns out an old friend of mine from uni made that crazy Sony Bravia exploding paint advert. Who knew what a talented bunch my classmates were. Maybe if I’d ever turned up myself I’d have known this kind of thing.
Dananandingdong are, in all honesty, a band about whom I am personally no more than lukewarm. I don’t know them all that well yet though, so that might change, but for now the recommendation is a tentative one. Favours For Sailors are newly signed to one of my favourite labels, Tough Love Records, and are garnering an awful lot of press at the moment, so I may well wander down for this. Favours For Sailors – Our Name
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Great Eskimo Hoax sound rather interesting at times. It can veer a little close to a kind of haircut-friendly indie pop at times, but there are definitely plenty of interesting things happening in their songs, so this might well be worth trying out. Great Eskimo Hoax – Camp Beatbox
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Little Pebble is excellent live and Lovers Turn to Monsters also sound quite promising. The latter plays a tense kind of awkward indie folk, of the sort that seems to be designed for Edinburgh at the moment. Lovers Turn to Monsters – The Four O’Clock
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The Gentle Invasion wonderfully (and somewhat inevitably) comes out of retirement to put on some lovely indie folk pop from Glasgow at the Bowery. Edinburgh’s most prominent Icelandic musician (I, er, think) supports, along with Fence lady Jo Foster. I hope her arm has sufficiently recovered from the skiing accident which caused her to miss her last gig at the Bowery. State Broadcasters – Our Favourite Park
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This week I will finish the live videos for Ten Tracks and eagleowl, to go with the Rob St. John ones here:
In other news, the lineup for the Fence Collective’s annual liver-bothering get together has been announced, and it’s fucking superb:
* KING CREOSOTE * MALCOLM MIDDLETON * EAGLEOWL * ROB ST JOHN * SLOW CLUB * BURNS UNIT * THE PICTISH TRAIL * THINGS IN HERDS * CANDYTHIEF * EMMA POLLOCK * JAMES YORKSTON * DAVID THOMAS BROUGHTON * MEURSAULT * DE ROSA * FOXFACE * THE RED WELL * ROZI PLAIN * RACHAEL DADD * WIG SMITH * ICHI * FOUND * ART PEDRO * ADEM * KID CANAVERAL * SO COW * WITHERED HAND * HMS GINAFORE * LITTLE PEBBLE * MICHAEL JOHNSTON * KARINE POLWART * ADRIAN CROWLEY * PLAYER PIANO * ZIGGY CAMPBELL * STEVEN CRACKNELL (MEMORY BAND) * ANIMAL MAGIC TRICKS * HARDSPARROW * VIKING MOSES * EXPEDITION GUIDE * MELANCHOLICS ANONYMOUSE * GOLDEN GHOST * COME IN TOKYO * ONTHEFLY * LOVE.STOP.REPEAT * WIQWAR * ENGLISH BORE * EMILY SCOTT * THE PHANTOM BAND * LITTLE RAY * DOUG JOHNSTONE * WILL HODGKINSON * STRIKE THE COLOURS * GEORGE THOMAS * MARTIN JOHN HENRY * MARINA & THE DIAMONDS * OLO WORMS * VIVA STEREO * GUMMI BAKO * DJ DOMINIC * BOYWONDER * THE HAND * INSPECTOR TAPEHEAD * JAKE FLOWERS * PANDA SU * FRANÇOIS * THE CHEEK * JOHN B MCKENNA * JONNIE COMMON * DOOGIE PAUL * PETER GREENWOOD *
Any suggestions for people I should particularly make time to interview and get a bit of live footage from? Not Found or the Pictish Trail, because of approaching Toad Sessions, and I won’t be interviewing Meursault obviously, although I will try and get some live video of them. Tickets here – I’d recommend going if you possibly can.
Come On Gang are one of several Scottish bands who are facing the considerable bill of dragging their arses out to SXSW this year, and will be holding a bit of a fundraiser to help cover the costs. They are punky, poppy and brash and I haven’t seen them play for ages. This will also be a chance to catch fellow Edinburgh indie-poppers Cancel the Astronauts. Indie pop (which is probably not quite the right term for these bands, but bear with me) is actually a significantly neglected genre in this city, what with the recent rise of all these indie-folksters so it’s about time I went to something where they wield their guitars with a bit of bite for a change. Come On Gang – Fortune Favours the Brave
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Withered Hand are, basically, fucking brilliant. It’s confrontational punk-folk, although the punk side comes from the attitude and the delivery, rather than the instrumentation. Nevertheless, if you want to be told that “a hard-on doesn’t mean you’re in love” with some force, then you really have to see this band. Withered Hand – Hard On
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This gig has sold out, I’m afraid, so unless you’re going already, you’re stuffed. I thought it was worth bringing to your attention anyway, though, because Little Pebble (one of Edinburgh’s most under-rated and neglected live performers, including, embarrassingly, by myself) is going to be putting these nights on on a regular basis and they look like they’re going to be really good. Little Pebble – Hold That Thought
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This is a Benbecula Records night which looks like it will be showcasing their signature style of experimental, ambient music infused with sensibilities of both the folk and electronic persuasions. Wounded Knee might be this city’s foremost loop pedal black belt, and has a new record approaching soon, so if you want to hear his new material then I would guess that this is likely to be a good chance to do so. Flowers of Hell – The Strength of String
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Found will make their Bowery debut this week, in another gig that is being put on in association with Ten Tracks, as part of their fundraising efforts for their own SXSW adventure. Come. That is an order. Advance tickets can be bought here. Found – Closed Time Like Loops
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Sorry for the silence over the last couple of days. Yesterday we recorded the Samamidon Toad Session, which took a while and generally distracted me from the business of writing the blog, so I’m afraid this weekly update is a day late. Which you are just going to have to fucking live with.
I’d almost say that there really wasn’t much on in Edinburgh this week, but what I would really mean is that there is not much high-profile stuff going on in Edinburgh this week. There are, actually, some very good gigs to be found.
It’s a bloody good thing that the impending arrival of Baby Trampoline didn’t kill this night off altogether because I’ve always liked their lineups. For the first show of the new year we have a couple of bands about whom I know far too little – Endor and Cancel the Astronauts – beyond being able to tell you that the latter are indie-popsters whose demo CD I rather enjoyed last year. Team Turnip I know a little better, having heard Russell’s EP which will hopefully be self-released later this year. He plays very friendly twee indie-pop and has some really good songs, so I am hoping the timing works out with the Rob St. John performance at Cabaret Voltaire such that I can catch both. Team Turnip – Photos of the Staff
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I’ve picked this particular show because I am a big Rob St. John fan, but Cabaret Voltaire are putting on a whole series of Duty Free gigs (ie free entry) gigs over the course of the next week or so, so if you fancy checking out some emerging bands for free, this is a bloody good chance to do it. Rob is all excited about this gig, too, because he will be playing with the full band and really going for it so if there’s one don’t-miss gig in the city this week it is definitely this one. Rob St. John – Paper Ships
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This one’s a little new on me, but I rather fortuitously received an email this morning from Stace, who has just brought her Concrete Campfire night through from Glasgow, and set up shop downstairs in the City Cafe. The bands will be performing stripped down sets, I believe, and entry is free with the first band on stage at nine. It’s a nice idea, and I’ve always liked the City Cafe for some reason so I think I will go along to this and say hello. I can’t quite imagine how the prettiness of Emily Scott will mesh with the off-kilter eccentricity of Enfant Bastard and the somewhat epic (judging by a quick MySpace listen) music of The Moth & the Mirror, but then I’ve always preferred the slightly unusual bills to the predictable ‘one headline band and a couple of supports who sound sort of like them’ approach. Enfant Bastard – How Much Do You Need?
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