Help Ma Boab, It's The Return Of The 62-Word Review

Hi folks, it's Boab here. Long time no see, etc. We're bringing back the 62-Word Review as a regular weekly feature so if you'd like to be reviewed you'll find my contact email somewhere among all the other stuff that's at either side of this blog.
Get in touch!
Thanks,
Boab

Rainbow Fisher – By The Sea
There's a very soothing country feel to opening track By The Sea, although it rarely strays from safe territory. The best the EP has to offer comes in the second half. The standout track is Wind In Sail, its lively acoustic guitar and double-tracked vocal making for a very atmospheric listen and leads very nicely into the delicately textured, Beta Band-esque Horizons.

Buy/listen to By The Sea here.

Coat Hooks – To The Water And The Wild 

The main highlight is Popcorn Blues which builds and dies pleasantly with some Ebow-ed guitar. To The Staring Husks! - a poppy number reminiscent of Teenage Fanclub – is good, however Give Me Back My Keys is a bit dirty-Americana-by-numbers. Decent, but there's real potential here so a shift away from the tried-and-tested sound could see Coat Hooks become something far superior.

Buy/listen to To The Water And The Wild here.

Sonny Carntyne – Unicorns & Ghosts

This new release from the Wiseblood stable is an acoustic singer-songwriter affair, pulling together the dark edges of Sparklehorse and Nick Drake. Like Rainbow Fisher above, the best is saved for the last two tracks, with some lovely vocals on Lies Framing Snapshots. Some subtle percussion and discordant sounds on the utterly superb closing track Unicorns & Ghosts finish it off perfectly.

Buy/listen to Unicorns & Ghosts here.

FIN.

Festive Freebies

Frightened Rabbit
Just when I thought I had this weeks Freebies post all finished up cropped two free tunes from two of my favourite bands. First off we have the Frabbit boys with their new Christmas tune, Cheap Gold which you can download for nowt from their Soundcloud page. The band have also just announced that they'll be playing at the HMV Picture House in Edinburgh on the 10th of February. Tickets for the gig are on sale now.

The Twilight Sad
The other surprise freebie came from Kilsyth's finest sons, The Twilight Sad, who have also decided to share a wee Christmas present with us all. For reasons that are explained in the link below, they've decided to record a version of INXS's "Never Tear Us Apart". To find out more and download the track for free just head here.

Woodenbox
I'll warn you now, if you're not a fan of Christmas songs, then you might want to give this weeks freebies a very wide berth. If like me, you're a sucker for alternative festive tunes, then you're going to love this weeks post. First up we have a festive offering from Woodenbox (they've dropped the Fistful of Fivers bit), they've written a festive tune wittily entitled The Christmas Song, which is pretty fucking ace, you can download it for free from their Bandcamp page.

Zoey Van Goey
You might remember a few months back that Zoey Van Goey had a wee launch night for their remix EP launch. At that time the only way to get hold of the songs was on a limited edition CD that was only available at the gig. Now that the CD's are all gone, they've decided that as a special Christmas gift to us all they've made the tracks free to download on their bandcamp page.

Washington Irving
We really do have Christmas tunes a plenty this week, here's some more festive renditions which Washington Irving recorded on a tape deck in one of the bands room a couple of years ago.

The Stormy Seas
Another band getting well and truly into the festive spirit are Edinburgh outfit, The Stormy Seas who have just posted up their very own festive tune, The Christmas Before Last, for nowt on their Bandcamp page.

Café Disco
If you haven't check out the Pop Cop blog this week, then you really should as he's got a cracking wee feature on a band called Café Disco. He's just helped to fund the recording of a new song from band, which is now being given away exclusively on his site. I think it's a cracking wee tune, but even if you don't like it, it's worth reading just for the crazy scheming behind it all.

Kowalskiy
I appreciate that I'm a bit late with this one, but last week my fellow blogger Kowalskiy released his lastest monthly EP. Signing off the year in style, his eighteenth release features free tunes from Now Wakes The Sea, Wiredrawn, a cover of CYHSY from Reverieme, The Strangers Almanac and as if that wasn't enough there's also an exclusive track Happy Particles.

Coat Hooks!
You might remember them as Andrew Lindsay & the Coat Hooks, but since the addition of Sunshine Social multi-instrumentalist Nav Noorbakhsh their sound has changed somewhat, so they're now the Coat Hooks! They have an EP out in January, plus they're also playing at Tut's New Year's Revoloution gig, ahead of all of this they've made their new song, "Popcorn Blues", to free download here.

The Recovery Club
It feels like ages since we last heard anything from The Recovery Club, so their interpretation of the Christmas classic Silent Night came as a nice surprise. You can download this tasty wee treat for nowt on their Bandcamp page.

Fat Janitor
If you like your music to be noisy as fuck, then you're going to love Fat Janitor. I don't know too much about the band, aside from the fact they're from Glasgow and they'll make your ears bleed. You can download their self titled 7 minute song for nowt on their Bandcamp.

Bronto Skylift
While we're on the subject of noisy bands, that noisy as fuck duo the awesome Bronto Skylift have stuck up their track Cobblepot for free download on SoundCloud.

SubPop
Those lovely folk at SubPop have postted all of their free MP3s from the year that was 2011 all in one place handy place. For free tunes from band like the Head & The Heart, Dum Dum Girls, Vetiver and Fleet Foxes, just head here.

Drunk Mule
Hey you didn't think a week would go by without a freebie from the Drunk Mule kids did you?! This week offering is called 'I Built A Death Ray', if you still miss the Aliens (the band) then this might be up your street.

Lykke Li
It's been a pretty good year for Lykke Li, so as a wee treat to us all she's decided to give something back in the form of a free download for the “Lost Sessions,” which features some alternate takes for Wounded Rhymes cuts.

DOLFiNZ
Noisy two piece, DOLFiNZ have just announced that they'll be releasing a split single with PAWS some time in the new year. Sweet. Until then you can fill your boots on their Facebook page where there a whole load of free tunes up for grabs.

TheMirrorTrap
Last but not least we have a free tune from Dundee outfit The Mirror Trap who've posted up a free download of their track 'Broken Crown' for nowt on their Bandcamp page