Yeah, so, we drone on constantly about our love of the album format and how our unshakable desire for full length records is what drives this blog. But this year, finally, we woke up to the fact that not every release needs seven tracks or more.
In no particular order here are ten shorter releases that tickled our fancy this year. Each one is utterly splendid, and hopefully this whets your appetite for our full annual album countdown which is nearly ready…
The New Fabian Society – Exhibition of Love
Ok, we’ve said this is in no particular order but we wrote this one down first as it probably is the EP of the year. From Lost in Berlin’s slow, building intro, the downbeat anger of Necropolis to the pumped out Devious Minds and its bookending outro – this was an absolute belter and they’re not half bad live either.
Town Hall – Sticky Notes and Paper Scraps
This concise little release was a much better showcase for the NYC act’s potential than the patchy full album which followed. Five songs, all absolutely lovely.
Plastic Animals – Automaton
They really do get better on every viewing. Five tracks of atmospheric, noisy melodies, they’ve also a song on the upcoming Song, by Toad 12”. We’re thinking ‘big things’ and not just because we stuck them on this year.
Frightened Rabbit – State Hospital
The Selkirk boys have been productive since 2010’s The Winter of Mixed drinks with this, their second interim EP before next year’s Pedestrian Verse. If this is what they chucking out in advance (only the title track will feature on the album), then we’re VERY excited for February’s album.
The Cherry Wave – The Cherry Wave
We chatted up new Glasgow shoegaze specialists the Cherry Wave for Radar. Nice guys and this was an assured debut.
The Son(s) – Leviathan
It’s only six tracks but we rather cheekily slipped this in as an album of the week this year. Album or not, its lush melodies are another prime example of why the Son(s) are one of Scotland’s best bands.
The Last Battle – The Loudest Say the Least
Would be a stop-gap release, if the ‘gap’ wasn’t already on the verge of stopping. The ever-evolving Edinburgh troupe will release their second album in the New Year. This was the first of two EPs of demos that haven’t made the cut.
Public Service Broadcasting – The War Room
Jolly spiffing instrumental, sample-based from a couple of tweed-wearing musos. A hell of a lot louder live than what you’d think too.
Holy Esque – Holy Esque
Huge potential on here from a relatively new Glasgow band. A recent UK tour with the Raveonettes suggests their star is in the ascendant.
Various Artists – The Tidal Wave of Indifference Sessions
We couldn’t let this segment pass without mentioning our lovely little bargain charity “help the pussies and puppies” for, ahem. ‘Indifference Records’. Sales have been slow, so get the finger out, tightwads.
To say Jo Mango’s second album has been a while coming is like suggesting Axl Rose is a studio perfectionist. Six years have passed since the release of Paperclips and Sand, an almost untenable period of time.
In this fickle world, people forget, lose interest or, put simply, the creative spark can be snuffed out when a regular flow of art is dammed up.
This time though, Mango is backed by the ever-improving Olive Grove Records, home of the Son(s) (when they’re not involved in charity releases for Indifference Records), State Broadcasters, The Moth and the Mirror and more. We’re tempted to suggest this might be just about the best thing the label have been involved in to date.
Murmuration is music with all that unnecessary fat picked off the bones – arrangements so minimal it makes eagleowl sound like Battles; melodies so simple you’ll wonder why they haven’t seen the light of day as a nursery rhyme.
Kingdom is that rare moment when Mango’s guitar is strummed that little bit harder and voice slips above more than just a few octaves, with various harmonies drifting in and out. Evermore is much more typical with just a marimba (we think!) and a perfect example of Mango’s honeyed tones – think a Joanna Newsom that won’t begin to irritate after a few songs – working all by themselves. Frankly, the instrumentation is superfluous at times.
That said we wouldn’t surrender the haunting violin on The Moth and the Man or the calming piano on Ludwig for anything.
Adem Ilhan – creator of some fine, and not wholly dissimilar, records in the last decade – is manning the controls here and he’s captured something rather wonderful.
Downbeat but delightful, you couldn’t imagine these songs being enjoyed by much more than a living room of 20 reverential friends or at most, a tiny pub where the only other sound is the occasional bottle of Corona being cracked open. Mango may have to get used to bigger rooms with greater potential for background noise though – Murmuration has been festooned with praise from all quarters. We’re delighted to add our name to that lengthening list.
We spoke to Jo this morning (but of course!)
Six years between albums is an eternity – why so long?
I know!! It flew by though, honestly!! Well… the first couple of years were all a whirlwind touring all over the place with Vashti Bunyan (and I’d only just released my first album then). At SXSW in 2007, Adem and I started plotting to record an EP, which we did the following year. But we both felt the results were just too good for an EP and we should expand it into an album. But then the ensuing years got really busy for both Adem and I – Adem had Silver Columns that he was working on, he had his covers album release, and he wrote the music for a bunch of films etc. Oh… and he had a baby too!! And I was writing my PhD thesis, which it turns out is the HARDEST THING IN THE WORLD EVER!! So between all those things, it was really hard to find the time in the studio to finish it off. I was writing bits and pieces and sending them to him, so we were still thinking about it and working on it. We just needed the push to finish it. We actually finished it at the end of 2010, but the inbetween time was spent talking with labels about putting it out etc, before finally deciding we needed to get it out NOW, foregoing any larger label chat, and going down the DIY route with Olive Grove.
How did you get involved with Olive Grove?
I first met Halina on the ‘Sauchiehall Crawl’, I think it was, a number of years ago, and was really impressed with her amazing enthusiasm for music and her passion for local bands. I hadn’t seen her for quite a long time after that but about the time when Adem and I got to the point where we were tiring of the label run-around, I went along to the album launch for The Moth and the Mirror – my friends Stacey (Sievwright) and Louis (Abbot – also Admiral Fallow) are in the band – and there I met Halina and Lloyd again. I was just beginning to feel like I needed to surround myself with the kind of people that just really love music for the sake of music, and could help me feel excited about the album again. And Olive Grove are those kinds of people! So we met up and ate cake and made plans. And thankfully they said they’d like to release the album!
Tell us about the songs on Murmuration.
Wow… well… there’s a lot that could be said I suppose. They are all very contemplative songs really, and although they have lots of layers of lyrical meaning and have been very closely considered and distilled, I think it’s a very listenable album. It’s a kind of middle-of-the-night sound – soft and hushed but with some darkness. The lyrical themes are about how we know things and how we say things so it’s about language and knowledge. But not in an abstract way… sometimes related to love – in the way we ask ourselves how can we really know someone, or know that we love someone – sometimes related to nature. It also has a theme of death in there too… for some reason these topics got intertwined for me.
And musically, there are a mix of influences from Scandinavian indie/folk music, to 60s artists like Karen Dalton or Linda Perhacs, and more way out sounds like Indonesian Gamelan or Gaelic Psalm singing. But these are all really delicate influences I’d like to add!! All in all it’s a gentle acoustic sound that mixes strange instruments like musical saw, bowed glockenspiel, omnichord, marimba, kalimba, with acoustic guitar and piano in a way that doesn’t sound as leftfield as any of those things might make you imagine. But those things are all in there if you choose to listen hard enough and uncover them.
Gosh… that’s a really rambly explanation… I think you might just have to listen (agreed! – Ed).
Have you been surprised by the reception it’s had?
I’ve been really overwhelmed so far by the amazing positivity of all the reviews and the reception around the album. It’s been really exceptional! It’s not just that it’s all been positive though, the types of things people have been saying too have just been really phenomenal. One reviewer compared listening to the album for the first time to watching David Lynch’s Eraserhead for the first time!!?!? Now I’m just really looking forward to getting out playing shows a lot more and letting new people hear the songs live and giving back a wee bit to amazing people who have been so supportive.
Can we expect to see more shows coming up?
Yes! That’s my big aim now. Just to play, play, play. Before Christmas I’m playing the Union Chapel, London on the 24th Nov; Paisley’s Brough Hall with Stevie Jackson in a songwriters circle on the 26th Nov; Shhh Festival at Platform, Glasgow on the 1st of Dec; the Arctic Circle Christmas show at Vortex Jazz Club, London, on the 11th Dec; and the Olive Grove Christmas Party at the Glad Cafe, Glasgow on the 14th of December. Then we’re currently plotting an Olive Grove tour in the new year, (with Randolph’s Leap) between our big shows at Celtic Connections, Glasgow on the 27th of Jan, and the Queens Hall Edinburgh on the 16th of Feb. So expect announcements for new year shows in Aberdeen, the Highlands and Islands, as well as England and Ireland.
So with a faint whiff of inevitability, after blogging, promoting, DJing and presenting, we’re moving into putting out other people’s songs.
This won’t be a ‘proper’ record label but Indifference Records is the title we’re using for what will almost certainly be a one-off release, the Tidal Wave of Indifference Sessions.
These songs were recorded as part of our Freshair shows back in August. Back then we promised to put up podcasts of each show, but only managed one, once the idea to do some worthwhile with the songs took hold – releasing a short album for charity. And with cats in particular being a big favourite round this parts, the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home (EDCH) seemed like an obvious choice.
EDCH have been caring for lost or abandoned animals since 1883. It takes a great deal of money each year to care for animals and support from the public is essential. Supporting the Home by buying this album will make a real difference.
We’d really appreciate your support. Hopefully the bands – Fuzzystar, The Bad Books and The Son(s), all Tidal Wave favourites – will get a little boost in profile, but more importantly, after pissing about on the interwebs for the last few years, this is probably the biggest and most worthwhile thing we’ve done.
The mini-album (it’s only six tracks) is available over at our freshly-created Bandcamp page for a princely £2 and you can stream it below.
Having successfully returned to an old favourite in the Son(s) a few weeks back, Olive Grove Records have shown they’re not content to rest on their laurels and have picked up the State Broadcasters.
Who they? Well, you could be forgiven for asking, with barely a peep from the band since their 2009 debut album The Ship and The Iceberg, which itself followed some impressive support slots and no little critical acclaim.
The band will return with an expanded line-up and new album in September, but to whet our appetite, first single Trespassers is available now for free download with a launch gig at Glasgow’s Captain’s Rest on Thursday (June 14).
It’s part of the West End Festival which we understand is some kind of cultural celebration of being Glaswegian. Support comes from Jo Mango and Randolph’s Leap, so if you’re from that neck of the woods you’d be nuts to miss it, not least because Trespassers picks up where the last album left off – moody, downbeat indie folk sounds that go down very well indeed at Tidal Wave Towers.
We spoke to the band’s Graeme Black about what’s in store.
So who the hell are you?
We are State Broadcasters, formed in Glasgow in 2004 by two people and now, eventually, we are seven people. First album released in 2009, second album due September 2012 on the wonderful Olive Grove Records. It’s called Ghosts We Must Carry and it’s rather good.
Describe your sound in ten words or less!
That graffiti on that toilet wall says it all.
You’ve had an awfully low profile of late – what gives?
Well………uhm…. I can’t really explain that, haven’t we always had a low profile? I think it’s important sometimes to take a bit of time to think about stuff, it shows we care doesn’t it? I’ve never really liked this idea of just churning out everything you record just because the technology now allows you to do that, I find that a bit insulting to fans. So, I hope people will understand that we’ve taken our time in an effort to make music that has been thought about and that we worked hard on.
Tell us a bit about the new single!
Trespassers, it is called. It’s really about two people born in the cold, dark miserable winter of Scotland who are madly in love with each other. They can’t possible imagine ever being apart and this is the one simple message. A simple love song really. The best kind.
How did you get involved with Olive Grove?
They heard our new album. They liked it. We liked them and then they liked us and then we all cried and then we dried each others tears on each others handkerchiefs then gave each other high fives (well the rest of them did I’d never indulge in such churlish behaviour) and the union was sealed.
How’s the album looking?
We’re really pleased with it. I think we’ve managed to distill the sounds we liked from the first album to make something more cohesive. Better playing, better singing and better songs. I’m very proud of it. There is a clear sense of melancholy throughout the album but I hope the listener can hear the warmth and hope hidden away in the corners of the songs.
What can we expect to see at your launch gig?
Well it’s been a while since we’ve played so we’re really excited. We’ll be playing live with a drummer for the first time ever, which is something we’ve thought about a lot over the years but never been brave enough to do. We think it works well and gives us a new dynamic without damaging the more fragile elements of our sound. It’s also a great bill with Randolph’s Leap and Jo Mango playing sets too. Being honest we should be opening up for both of these acts and not the other way round!
BBC aside, who’s your favourite state broadcaster?
I’ve heard North Korean television is very good.
Bzzzzt. Wrong! The correct answer was in fact Russian news agency TASS.
You can download Trespassers for free now and listen below.
After the success of their/his self-titled debut album, the mysterious beast known as ‘the Son(s)’ is back with a six track mini album.
Now we know what you’re thinking: ” HEY TIDAL WAVE OF INDIFFERENCE, YOU ONLY REVIEW ALBUMS!!!’ Well, it’s a fair cop. We made an exception with Homework’s six tracker last year because it was bloody good, and that’s why we’re also covering this. So there.
Anyway, we’re digressing a tad. Leviathan is by no means a progression from last year’s album, but given how close that came to achieving perfection you’ll find no complaints over at Tidal Wave Towers over this.
Half a dozen tracks of sleepy psychedelia, the Son(s) and their label (Olive Grove) have take the novel approach of putting it out on tape. Now, we’re not big fans of the unreliable, hassle-some format, but kudos is due for thinking outside the box.
Musically, Roaring Round the House is a beautifully arranged piece, capturing chief Son Karl’s fractured voice amongst delicate guitar and organ. If I Hear You Talk in Apostrophes Again comes across more like a Northern Soul stomper at first before bringing in multi-layered harmonies, a bloody great melody and even a rough guitar solo.
Cocksure Boys has a calmer feel and Half Lived is a dreamlike affair with a steady, constant rhythm throughout. Shot Out A Cannon, may well be the pick of the bunch, evoking a Beach House/Grizzly Bear kind of vibe, and every bit the equal of both.
The Son(s), as with everything else they’ve produced, can be very proud of Leviathan. If we could only talk them into playing some shows (and trust us, we have BEGGED them), they could become one of Scotland’s finest musical assets.
We had another chat with “Karl” a few days ago.
Welcome back! What have you been up to since the first album?
Since the first album we have been growing, writing, recording, packing, drinking, sleeping, haversacking, moving back to Aberdeenshire from Edinburgh, then more packing and back to Edinburgh from Aberdeenshire. Experimenting with facial hair and quite obscure archtop guitars (separately and in combination), semi-stalking Withered Hand and briefly meeting RM Hubbert after some dodgy dim sum.
What’s inspired Leviathan?
What inspired the songs or the name? The songs all came, one after the other, in the order they are on the record. I was staying in Edinburgh through that winter working away from home down here. Course I missed family, home and friends back up north a lot. Not constantly moping mind, coping manfully. For a few months I stayed in one of those amazing georgian flats that Edinburgh has more than it’s fair share of. It was so empty and it sounded so good. Then the weather was unbelievable! It stopped the trains and closed the roads and trapped me away from home. So those sort of feelings came out in those 6 songs. Not that you’d sit down to write that sort of song deliberately, that would be miserable. As for the name, well it took ages to settle on a satisfactory name and a cover, but I’d read a little about the history of the SS Leviathan/SS Great Eastern and then happened upon the painting you see on the cover. I like the story of the ship – endeavour made redundant.
Is this a stop-gap release or were you just desperate to get the tunes out?
Well neither. There’s only so much appetite for new songs by any band isn’t there? Especially so for a wee band like us. Even if you had the money you’re a fool to pump out song after song, record after record. That’s simply irritating, at least I find that sort of thing massively irritating. But an EP or a mini LP seemed like an interesting thing to do, and it seemed like we’d left a decent period of quiet since the last time we were out mithering folk. I was also keen to use a format other than CD, and as we can’t really afford to do vinyl or 8 track cassettes we thought we’d do a tape. These songs having come pretty much together, together, reinforced the EP/mini LP idea. And anyway, personally I prefer shorter 6-9 song albums to longer, bloated ones.
Not everything in the judging process for this year’s Radar Prize took our fancy. In fact, let’s be honest, there was rather a lot that really, really didn’t.
But in the many, many dozens of acts that entered there was enough quality to make it a genuinely enjoyable process and a few acts that hadn’t previously registered came to the fore in the voting process.
One of those was Bottle of Evil. Yes, we’d heard of them, but the sum total of possessed knowledge amounted to a link with Evil Hand, who put out the rather good Huldra album for diddly squat earlier in the year.
So it turns out that Evil Hand is Derek Bates, one half of Bottle Evil, with the other half (Steven McGilvary) also playing under the amusingly-named Bottle of Steven. Still with us? Jolly good.
Not unlike Huldra, Bottle of Evil’s songs are a sort of sleepy shoegaze – light touch hissing reverb rubbing up against some dainty melodies. Not a million miles away from last year’s eighth best album from the Son(s) if we’re being perfectly honest.
Recent release Inside Looking Out is four songs of this ilk and the only fault to be found with it is its brevity. Lead track The Boatman was submitted to the aforementioned Radar Prize and propelled the band to a deserved runner’s up spot.
They’re a band we want to hear a lot more from in 2012 and take in live too, but as Derek confirms below, that’s not likely to happen any time soon.
So who the hell are you?
We are Bottle of Evil, a duo consisting of Derek Bates and Steven McGilvary, and occasionally some other bodies we pull in along the way to help us create noises.
Describe your sound in ten words or less!
Experimental music with layers of melodies buried in reverberation.
3. You weren’t far away from scooping the Radar Prize last year – a
nice feeling?
Yes definitely – one of the best things to happen to us since we started. Especially since it wasn’t biased by popularity or image, and was voted for by the panel on music alone. So we’re glad that people out there are getting some enjoyment from it.
How do you balance out ‘Bottle of Evil’ with the ‘Evil Hand’ guise?
I’m always working on something myself under the Evil Hand guise, but get a lot of enjoyment writing with Steven as Bottle of Evil as he brings many ideas and talents into the mould. It also allows me to have more objective view and work more on production – sometimes it’s hard to see the end goal when you’re trying to do everything yourself. We’ve recently put out a Bottle of Evil EP – Inside Looking Out, Steven has his Bottle of Steven EP – Eventual Progress for free at Bandcamp, and I released a free Evil Hand album Rain Check on Bandcamp earlier this month. So we keep ourselves busy but still find time to keep it all going.
What kind of music inspires you?
Hard to say, I can usually tell very quickly what I like and don’t like though. This year I’ve really enjoyed King Creosote and Jon Hopkins, Martin John Henry, Blouse, Cliff Martinez, Monoganon and Bill Callahan to name a few. I’m always interested in listening to production – whether for use of mixing techniques & effects or for effective stripped back engineering.
Can we expect to see a few more live shows in 2012?
Nothing lined up at the moment I’m afraid – maybe later in the year.
And how about an album – anything in the works?
We’re planning on starting the second Bottle of Evil album just after the summer. Going to take our time again and hopefully have it ready by the end of the year. There’ll also be a few more people involved in this one too to take it in some different directions. We’ll probably put out a single or two in the first half of 2012 to keep peoples ears content though!
If you could bottle one particular evil-doer who would it be?
That prick from the Go Compare advert.
We’re not going to argue with that! Some music below!
And that can mean only one thing – the BAMS (Blogs and Music Sites Scotland) are back. The unofficial guild/club/clique voted High Violet by the National as our album of the year in 2010 and I* was delighted to be a part of voting once again. The top ten – in reverse order – was as follows:
10= PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
10= The Moth and the Mirror – Honestly, This World
10= FOUND – factorycraft
7= The Son(s) – The Son(s)
7= Conquering Animal Sound – Kammerspiel
5. King Creosote and John Hopkins – Diamond Mine
4= Mike Nisbet – Vagrant
4= Bon Iver - Bon Iver
2. Adam Stafford – Build a Harbour Immediately
1. Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat – Everything’s Getting Older
Now then. Bearing in mind that each blogger only had three picks, if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll note that my top three is nowhere to be seen. Metronomy is lurking just outside the top ten and Ringo Deathstarr are considerably further down – no great surprise to see a slightly obscure US fuzz-pop three-piece making little impact in a Scottish poll.
What is a surprises me is that it looks suspiciously like – from the breakdown of voting – is that the The Tidal Wave of Indifference is the only site to have voted for Mogwai’s superb latest. EH???
The winner’s something of a surprise too. I have the Wells/Moffat album but am less than blown away by it. It’s had a few listens and I’ll certainly come back to it but it’s not album of the year for me. But who are we to argue? Naebody, especially when it comes to actual factual science of a poll which has again been put together by blogging ledge Lloyd ‘Peenko‘ Meredith so big thanks to the friendly fella from the west for taking the time to do it all again.
Lloyd also managed to catch a word with this year’s winners and the full interview is below.
Congratulations Bill and Aidan, you are this years’ winners of the Scottish BAMS award, how do you feel? Does this rate as a career highlight then?
Aidan: I think it might be the first award I’ve ever been presented with, with the exception of the joint 4th Year English Prize at Falkirk High in 1989, so it’s very exciting indeed. Not sure about a career highlight – that accolade is always reserved for the work itself, and Everything’s Getting Older is certainly one of my favourites, yes.
Bill: Feels good – though when it dawned on me, obviously quite some time ago, that awards are only ever decided upon by other people, not by some almighty, all knowing, arbiter of taste and quality looking down from the clouds, I thought it always best to never get too excited about any of them coming my way, not that there’s been much occasion to, right enough.
How did you end up collaborating together in the first place?
Aidan: Bill says we found ourselves at the same table in a pub and I immediately asked him to play on some Arab Strap songs. I have no recollection of this at all, but at the time I was very much in love with his Also In White album so I’ve no reason to doubt him. After he played on the Monday At The Hug And Pint album, we did one song together and then took years to book a studio to do some more. We always seemed to have other things to do, but I’m glad we waited because I can’t imagine the album any other way. It would’ve had an entirely different theme and tone if we’d finished it in 2005, and I really don’t think it would have been as good from my side.
Bill: Indeed this is what happened – I was very surprised and flattered actually because although I was a huge Arab Strap fan, and though we were all from Falkirk, or, more likely, because, it never occurred to me that we’d ever all be in a studio together, so it did, for me at least, even at the time, feel like quite an occasion, and looking back, even more so now.
"Yay! Go us!"
I am guessing that you’ve spent a lot of time in each others’ pockets this year; has this bonded your love for each other, or are you sick of the sight of each other?
Aidan: We haven’t really spent that much time together at all, to be honest. We haven’t done a lot of touring, although what we did do was quite hard work. There’s more gigs being planned for next year, so hopefully we’ll have more to do, but it’s not as though we’re a young rock band out on the road and in the NME every week, there’s not a lot of fuss or constant attention to deal with; there’s been a minimum of upheaval, thankfully.
Bill: Yeh, sorry, you’re guessing wrong.
If the love is still there, are there any plans to work together again in the future?
Aidan: We’ve just started talking about our second album now, so it will happen but we’re not sure when. Certainly not next year, we’ve both got a couple of albums each planned for 2012, so we might try and have it ready for 2013. There’s no rush though, it’ll be ready when it’s ready; the last thing i want to do is dive into it and force it out, that’s why a lot of second albums these days are a bit shit. Bands and labels are desperate to hold onto any momentum and profile a new band has, but we’re lucky in that respect because we’re not really a new, young band; we’ve both been making records for ages and there’s no pressure on us at all. So 2014 at the earliest!
Bill: Just to add that I’m really looking forward to this, the musical ideas for first album were pretty much all on one cdr I gave Aidan ages ago, then the EP happened pretty quickly this year so, personally, I’m more hopeful for the 2013 result but, whatever and whenever, it’ll be great to get working together in the studio again.
Seeing as we are on the subject of albums of the year, what have been your personal favourites of 2012?
Aidan: I would’ve said Slow Club’s Paradise a couple of weeks ago (which I still love) but it’s been pipped at the post by the last-minute release of Josh T. Pearson’s limited live LP, The King Is Dead, which I think is far superior to his studio album. There’s been a lot of very good music this year though, but my memory can never work when it’s put on the spot, sorry!
Bill: I look at these end of year lists and realize I haven’t heard so many of these records, so it feels like a very uninformed opinion. The last time I was asked I said the re – release of Annette Peacock’s ‘I’m The One’ which is truly one of the greatest records ever made. However after writing that I realized that “That’s Reality’ by Yumbo, which is Koji Shibuya’s (bass player in Maher Shalal Hash Baz) Pop masterpiece, came out in Japan in early 2011.
If the above list seems to be lacking in links, I’m writing this in a rush and don’t have the time to link everything just now but I’ll come back to it. Most are linked at the bottom of the page though!!
Finally, as Christmas is approaching I’d like to say a MASSIVE thank you to everyone that’s read the Tidal Wave of Indifference in 2011. There genuinely seems to be more and more each week, which is a lovely feeling on top of this being a big year generally. My first gig in September was a roaring success, I’ve done a stack more writing for Radar and my inane witterings have even popped up on scotsman.com and theskinny.co.uk and I’ve even done a bit of DJing and some radio presenting for Freshair (with hopefully a bit more to come in 2012).
The site will be back with more album reviews, band features and random bullshit in the middle of January. Stay tuned! In the meantime, here’s some Christmas cheer…
* Grammar pedants like Last Year’s Girl will note that I’m writing this in the first person as it’s a more personal post.
Annie Clark is now a VERY BIG DEAL. This hotly anticipated follow-up to 2009’s acclaimed Actor (in turn a successor to the wonderful Marry Me) did not disappoint, capturing both the reflective tone of her earlier work and the pumped up tunes on Actor. Oh, and did we mention we were in love with her?
9. Cymbals Eat Guitars – Lenses Alien
That’s what 2011 needed – some scuzzed up guitar distortion. With J Mascis distracted by his acoustic solo project, a hole needed filling and this Staten Island foursome were just the band to do it. This trumped 2009’s worthy debut Why There Are Mountains, making them one of the most exciting bands in US guitar pop.
8. The Son(s) – The Sons(s)
We tipped the Son(s) for Radar at the end of last year and were delighted to see them, or let’s face it, ‘him’ produce the goods with a lovely little record. Breathless melodies and subtle psychedelia.
7. The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar
It mattered not that we’d heard versions of no fewer than four of these songs on 2009’s mini album A Balloon Called Moaning. Re-recorded versions and eight new tunes made for a noisy, raucous album full of huge guitars and thunderous drums.
6. Star Wheel Press – The Life Cycle of a Falling Bird
And to think were it not for a chance meeting with a dapper, ginger-bearded musician in the most inauspicious place (Edinburgh’s unsavoury stag party magnet the Three Sisters pub) we may never have come across this album that helped define our year. This album of fifteen well crafted folk melodies was taken from Aberfeldy to Edinburgh for our first gig back in September and it’s still a mainstay on the Tidal Wave stereo.
So we’re, ahem, tossing off the shackles of our usual WE ONLY REVIEWS ALBUM REVIEWS AND DO Q&As WITH BANDS, WE DON’T DO NEWS, NO WE WON’T ‘JUST PUT UP YOUR VIDEO’ mantra and, well, doing exactly that.
We’re not going to be doing a regular news slot but if a clump of interesting things that tickle our fancy crop up at around the same time, we’ll try and do something with them.
First up, following our exclusive Amusement Parks on Fire feature from a few months back, we’re delighted to hear that the band’s Michael Feerick is coming to Edinburgh on October 16. Hooray! To quote Pendulum Man, for tis he that’s putting on the gig:
Amusement Parks On Fire have variously been described as “sporadic, hedonistic, teenage genius”, “a subconscious, sleeping study in nightmarish beauty”, and “adventures in sound that merely wipe the floor with every seismic pretender who’s ever tried to work out the lyrics to ‘Soon’ and recreate every chord sequence found on ‘Isn’t Anything’ “.
This, though, promises to be something rather different to their usual thunderous crescendo of stargazing as perfectly highlighted in their third album, 2010′s ‘Road Eyes’.
In his first visit to Edinburgh since May 2009, Michael Feerick will return for a unique, intimate, acoustic solo show. This promises to be a rare chance to experience the ethereal APOF assault stripped back to it’s most haunting, beautiful rudiments.
Oh yes. It’s at the Wee Red Bar, £5 a skull with support from Matthew Collings. More details on the Facebook event page.
Get your asses along.
Staying with gigs, those big bairns Ayetunes and Peenko are staging their fourth gig on Saturday night (August 20) in Glasgow’s Stereo. The thunderous PAWS have pulled out, but it’s the launch night for Adam Stafford’s acclaimed new album with support from Miaoux Miaoux and Mondegreen.
£6 on the door, hope to see you there.
Finally, some news from Tidal Wave faves the Son(s). There’s a lovely new video for old single Dogs, Boys and Men doing the rounds and they’ve made another two songs to download for free as well. That makes us immensely happy, as does the video:
If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you may have picked up that I was on Freshair at the weekend.
For the uninitiated, that’s Edinburgh Uni’s student radio station which has an annual Festival Fringe programme, involving hordes of performing comedians, live music and, most ominously, roping in bloggers to present shows.
And that’s where I come in.
This is my debut effort. Not too bad I think, although I was pretty damn nervous to start with.
It’s not the whole thing sadly, as we only remembered to press record half way through the first of two session tracks from the Last September. You also miss my opening blurb and songs by Loch Awe, Ringo Deathstarr and the Son(s).
Shame. But I’m back on the air 9-10 this Sunday (August 21) - www.freshair.org.uk.
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