Evening bairns.
This seems to be happening with increasing regularity. Us getting sent lots of stuff that we want to tell you about, that just don’t fit with our Album of the Week/Bandcrush template.
- So what’s on our minds just now? Well, we’ve made no secret of our love for French Wives, even them roping them into our debut gig, which we promise to shut up about one of these days, but we’re now happy to say that their pre-album release promotion trail is now in full swing with a new single and live dates upcoming. The single’s called Numbers, and you can listen to it below and catch them at the following dates. Do go, etc…
Oct 19 Aberdeen Drummond’s Café
Oct 20 Glasgow Mono – single launch with Endor and Blochestra
Oct 22 Edinburgh Third Door
Oct 23 Newcastle Tyne Bar
Oct 24 London Bull and Gate
- And while we’re on the subject of plugging tours, Brooklyn’s Numbers and Letters are over for an unusual, and dare we say brave tour, taking in the following dates:
Oct 11 House show at 26 Peterswell Brae, Stirling
Oct 12 Gourock Cafe Continental
Oct 13 “Surprise Show” in Glasgow (nope, us neither)
Oct 14 Inverness Hootananny
Oct 15 Thurso Newmarket Bar
Oct 16 Glasgow Brel
God knows what dark folkie types from NYC will make of Gourock and Thurso, but good luck to them. We like how they sound anyway, so here’s hoping they find a willing audience in Scotland. You can have a listen to them covering Tom Waits below.
- Soooooo, speaking of gigs, you’ll have got your ticket to Pendulum Man’s night of Michael Feerick, Matthew Collings and Debutant in Edinburgh on October 16, yes?
- And how about this… Laki Mera who we featured earlier in the year are in the final five in a competition to head to the Big Apple. They’ll perform two songs in front of a panel of, ahem, “industry experts” at the Garage in Glasgow for their chance to play at Scotland Week 2012 in New York and at the prestigious Scottish Music Awards – The Tartan Clefs in November 2011. Also up for the cup are Woodenbox and Song of Return so it sounds like an evening of quality music is in the offing. We like Laki Mera muchly so wish them the best of luck. They’ve also had album track Crater remixed by Mogwai. It’s rather splendid and available to download for nowt over on their Facebook page, where you can also win tickets for the above event.
- You can’t fail to have missed the latest announcement by the BBC on cuts to staff, services and so on to cope with the licence fee freeze, and in particular the imminent end to Ally McCrae’s BBC Introducing show on Radio 1. Now we found the midnight-2am Sunday night timeslot a little prohibitive, and often didn’t quite manage to go back on iPlayer, but that’s by the by. McCrae is an engaging presenter with maximum focus on up and coming young Scottish talent and the axing of this show removes an excellent chance for new bands to be heard from the airwaves. Let’s face it, a non-regionalised BBC Introducing show just won’t present the same opportunities. There’s a whiff of last year’s (successful) campaign to save 6 Music about this, but a petition to save Ally’s slot from the axe is now open. If you’re interested in Scottish music we suggest you sign it.
- More promisingly, entries for the 2011 Radar Prize are now open. Last year’s winners French Wives (yes, yes, them again) have gone from strength to strength and with 60+ entries already received for this year, we’re hoping for the same quality that 2010 presented. As a Radar contributor, we’ll be on the judging panel too. Details HERE.
- Finally. something a bit different. A friend of a friend has made a feature-length documentary about the Oxford music scene, not just looking at the biggies like Radiohead but mainly at other guys like Ride, Foals and the smaller fish from way back like Talulah Gosh and the Candyskins, called “Anyone Can Play Guitar”. You might have heard of it. Anyway, you can read more here, and director Jon Spira will be taking it to Edinburgh’s Cameo on November 29. There’s no distributor and he’s doing the whole thing independently, so come along and show your support for good music and fine film-making! Here’s the trailer. Guten nacht!
Anyone Can Play Guitar Trailer from video jon on Vimeo.
