The Big BBQ Show - Gala Drop

Admittedly I have been a bit rubbish with this years West End Festival, so far I have managed to miss the Fence Collective show and the Electric Honey Records Showcase. I am however hoping to make it along to the Big BBQ Show at Oran Mor which being put on by innovative promoters, KMR Promotions as part of the closing party for the West End Festival on Sunday 26th June. Running from 1pm through until 10pm, the event will showcase some fine local talent alongside some unique international acts, plus be a massive BBQ, pig on a spit, a mariachi band, margaritas, so it might be an idea to book the Monday off work.
Tickets for the gig are only £10 and the line up so far looks something like this:

Banjo or Freakout,
Vessels,
Wet Paint,
Gala Drop,
PAWS,
Washington Irving,
Top Dollar,
Male Pattern Band
Ryan Bisland

Further details on the event can be found on KMR's homepage.

Banjo or Freakout - Upside Down

Vessels - Art Choke

Gala Drop - Ital

PAWS - Boo Hoo

Washington Irving - Phantom Buck

Gigs, News and Sunday night blues

I am going to start this post by apologising to anyone who might be waiting for a reply email from me. Normally I am pretty on top of my inbox, but this weekend I have succumbed to the dreaded man flu, so much of today has been spent lying on the couch feeling sorry for myself. It's pretty safe t say that today hasn't been the best of days. Thanks to me overdosing on Lemsip I have 'manned up' and will stop moaning so I can get this post done. I did say recently that there would be some random gig/new posts cropping up every so often, so being true to my word here's some news and a few good gigs coming your way over the next month or so...


First up we have a wee shindig being put on at the Captains Rest at the end of the month featuring the pop-tastic Endor, Olive Grove's very own Randolph's Leap & Esperi, plus Amber Wilson, who I have heard a lot of good things about but have yet to see her live. The gig is being put on as a VS night by Pelmet Nights and Gathering Whispers, if past performances are anything to go by this should be a great evening.

If you're in a band and you're thinking about applying to play at this years goNorth Festival and you haven't already done so, then you best get your finger out as submissions close at the end of this week. I know I have raved about this event before, but it really was great fun for me last year, I learned a lot, drank far too much and I even got to meet Mimi from Shameless. By meet I of course mean 'saw', as she was signing autographs in Poundland, classy as fuck.



Promoters, No Dancing are continuing to step away from the norm and bring together an array of amazing bands that you wouldn't normally see on the same bill. Last time round they had Bronto Skylift and Withered Hand. This time round they've brought together Peenko favourites The Scottish Enlightenment, Miaoux Miaoux and Male Pattern Band for a cracking evening of music. It takes place on Saturday 9th of April at The Admiral Bar and it's only £5, bargain.

It's been a while since I mentioned Pin Up Nights, so I thought it was about time that I gave the night a wee plug. This coming Friday they've lined up some stellar bands in Milk, Sonic Hearts Foundation and Galleries, plus there will be all the usual shenanigans that makes the night so much fun. Find out more over on their homepage, also if you've got a minute check out their fanzine which is always a pretty good read.


The fabulous Washington Irving make a welcome return next month with the release of their new single 'Abbey Gallop'. Out on the 25th of April, the band are heading off on a massive UK tour to support the release of the single, this includes a number of Scottish dates this April:

2nd Edinburgh - Sneaky Petes
5th Glasgow - Captains Rest
6th Dundee - Dexters
7th Aberdeen - Snafu
8th Stornoway - Jager Rooms
9th Inverness - Coel Mor
10th Aviemore - Old Bridge Inn
26th Glasgow - Love Music in store
28th Communion Glasgow Launch @ Stereo

You can stream a live version of the B-side to the single, French Leave below.

French Leave - Live session on Radio 1 by Washington Irving

Continuing on from Fridays video post, the awesome Detour boys have continued to post up their video diaries, make sure you check out this wee video of Withered Hand, Kid Canaveral, Errors, Twin Atlantic, Admiral Fallow and The Twilight Sad. They also made this mind blowingly good video that I'd urge to check out...

Edinburgh outfit, Scrap Brain who caused a bit of a controversy a few months back when they aired their opinions on the 'anti-folk' scene in their home town. There's nothing like a good bit of contention to get yourself noticed, so with the grunge-punk trio set to release their debut single, ‘Nal’, at a launch gig on Friday 8th April it's going to be pretty interesting to see what kind of reception they get. The gig takes place at Maggies Chamber, with support from the much lauded Lady North, Jump: Press A and Art of Privilege.
The single was recorded at Verden Studios and is being promoted by New Found Sound as part of the band’s development deal awarded to them for being judged the best band of the 2010 ‘Friday Night Live at Frankenstein’s’ competition. Tickets for the gig are available in advance for £3 from TicketWeb or from Scrap Brain, and will be available on the door for £5. Doors for the gig open at 7:30pm. I wonder how many folkies will make it along...

Lastly, a small group of undergraduate students from Heriot-Watt’s Scottish Borders Campus are organising a music event in Edinburgh to raise money for MS Society Scotland.

The band night entitled ‘Gig for MS’ will showcase three up-and-coming Scottish bands from both the Edinburgh and Glasgow music scene: ‘My Tiny Robots’, ‘Ghost Ride the Whip’ and ‘Chris Hunter’, with a DJ playing until late. The night will be held at Edinburgh’s ‘Electric Circus’ located at 36 Market Street - on Wednesday the 6th of April 2011. Doors will open at 7.30pm with tickets being sold on the door at £5 each. All proceeds will be donated to MS Society Scotland. Further details can be found here.

Friday Freebies

Letters
Edinburgh band Letters, have developed a bit of a buzz about themselves lately, with an array of Scottish bloggers already tipping them for big things. Kudos has to go out to Kowalskiy for being the first one to pick up on them. Personally, I think they sound like they have potential but I am not getting overly carried away, not yet at least. They've just release their new double a sided single ‘Grand National/Pipe Dreams’ as a free download. If you want to see if the hype is justified then you can make your own mind up by grabbing a copy here.

Male Pattern Band
If you're going along to see the French Wives tomorrow night in Edinburgh, then make sure you get down nice and early as the awesome Male Pattern Band are supporting. They're also supporting PAWS at their EP launch next month and as if that wasn't enough they've made their Summer Sampler CD-R available to download for free.

Maple Leaves
If you like your indie-pop with a touch of twee then you're going to love Maple Leaves, the Glasgow trio have just made their 'Threads EP' available for free download. Rather lovely it is too.

Kowalskiy
As I've already mentioned, our former Komplimentary Korner star has been pretty on the ball as of late. Not only has he been uncovering an array of talent that a lot us bloggers have completely missed, but he's been busy organising his eighth Free Monthly EP. This month he has an absolute corker up his sleeve, he's roped in some new up and coming stars in Wrongnote, I See Horses and Josef Llama, on top of that he's got exclusive tracks from the amazing Call To Mind, plus a hidden gem for Olive Groves very own, The Son(s). Hats off to the doc for his great work, you can download the EP on his Bandcamp.

Esperi
Our very own Olive Grove starlet, Esperi has just posted his new single 'My Tear Dissolved The View' up for free download on his Bandcamp. There's an awesome wee video to acompany it, which you can watch here.

French Wives
If you missed any of the French Wives series of 'Homefires' freebies then you're in luck as they've put all of the tracks up on their Bandcamp to download for a limited time.

Yeasayer
As a wee Valentines gift Yeasayer are giving away their 'I Remember' EP as a free download, get it here.

Panda Bear
Stereogum have a free download of new Panda Bear track 'Last Night At The Jetty' available for free download

Dam Mantle
If you sign up to his mailing list then he'll send a free download of his song 'Theatre', that kids is one awesome deal, dae it.

Moby
Blimey, I thought Moby had given up the ghost ages ago, I guess all the goes to show is that I clearly don't know what the fuck I am talking about. Then again I am sure you knew that ages ago. He's got a new EP called 'Be The One' and it's free to download here.

SXSW
In a months time pretty much anyone who's anyone will be descending upon Austin, Texas for this years SXSW festival. Sadly, I'm not 'anyone' so I will be staying in sunny Scotland, there will however, be an array of amazing talent from our wee nation heading over to showcase quite how amazing our music scene is. In fact there are shit loads of bands going over and you can download tracks form every single band by downloading this torrent which is a massive 4.49GB. Get it here.

Bear Driver
Talking of SXSW, Peenko favourites Bear Driver will be heading over too, I know they're not Scottish but I really think this band are pretty fucking awesome. In the build up to their big adventure the band are giving some freebies, this week they've made their track 'Enemy' available for free download.

Bloodhouse
There's a whole load of lo-fi scuzzy pop available to download for nowt courtesy of Bloodhouse, it'll leave your ears ringing for days, in a good way. Get it from their Bandcamp.

The Clyde
This freebie comes courtesy of my blogger mate Favourite Son who pointed out that The Clyde have a couple of free downloads on their Facebook. Nice work that man.

Sun Dogs
Traffic Cone Records newest signings have made their son 'Drip Effect' available on Soundcloud for a free download.

tUnE-yArDs
tUnE-yArDs are giving away free MP3 'Bizness', download the it here

John Vanderslice
The San Franciscan indie stalwart has a free download of his song 'Convict Lake' available here.

Strawberry Ocean Sea
The Scottish outfit who note their influences as being the Arcade Fire, Echo and the Bunnymen and early U2, have 3 tracks available for free download on their homepage.

The Belle Hops
Spme of you might remember that this indie pop outfit gave away a cracking we Christmas tune back last year, now they've just made their new EP available for free download.

Rodrigo y Gabriela
Give them your email address and they'll let you download their song 'Triveni' for free.

Peter Bjorn & John
RCRD LBL have a free download of 'Breaker Breaker' up for grabs here.

Friday Freebies

This weeks freebies was sponsored by the letter J. J is for Jim. Jim is also known as Ayetunes (or the ginger bunny) and he very kindly tipped me off about a lot of these freebies. For that I am very thankful and so should you be.

Mogwai
Scotland's finest post rock outfit are set to release their new album, ' Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will' next month. If you can't wait that long then you're in luck as you can now download "San Pedro" from it here.

Findo Gask
The electropop outfit might well have called it a day, but all is not lost as they've posted up their single 'Go Faster Stripe' for download on their Bandcamp. It's not necessarily a freebie, it's one of those pay what you want downloads, whether you decide to pay is up to you. Just make sure you download it, as it's a corking wee single, from a sadly missed band.

Withered Hand & Woodpigeon
Edinburgh's finest, Withered Hand sets off on UK tour with Canadian artist Woodpigeon later this month, in celebration of this they've posted up this cover they did together of Velvet Underground's 'I'm Set Free'.

The Head And The Heart
No sooner had I tipped the Seattle outfit as one of my ones to watch in 2011, then the next thing you know they've signed up to Sub Pop in the US and Heavenly for the rest of the world. Yes, that's right I am taking all the credit for it, or perhaps not. To celebrate this awesome news they're giving away a free download of their song 'Down in the Valley' on their website.


Pablo Eskimo
The Glasgow outfit posted this cracking wee video of their song Dot Dot Dot yesterday, in celebration of this momentous occasion they've made the song available to download for free. Just follow this link and use the code code fl8u-5mm3. Hey presto you've got yourself a free tune.

FOUND
Last week we had FOUND doing a wee remix of King Creosote, this weeks freebie sees Kenny returning the favour. Awesome stuff. As if that wasn't enough they've also made a cracking wee remix featuring an array of artists including Bon Iver, Silver Columns and Malcolm Middleton, download it here.

Evening Chorus
For those of you with good memories, you might remember that I had the Evening Chorus as one of my ones to watch in 2010. The Welsh folk outfit might not have quite become house hold names, but they still released some pretty amazing material. This year they look as if they're going to be at it again, their new single 'No Wreath, No Crown' is sounding pretty fucking awesome to me. Download it for free here.

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
The New York experimentalists return to the UK in April for a joint tour with Rival Schools, not an evening to be missed. To mark their return RCRD LBL have made their new song 'Weight of the Sun' available for free.

French Wives
Some of you might have noticed that I have really been enjoying my weekly free downloads from those lovely French Wives. This week they've posted up their cover of Passion Pit's 'Sleepyhead' recorded for the Beeb at Rockness. I don't know for certain, but I am pretty sure that they must have downloaded it from this here blog and now here I am posting a link to download it elsewhere. I am sure there's a certain degree of irony in there too. The 'Wives have just announced a full Scottish tour for next month in support of their new 4 track EP, 'Feel Safe Small', which is due out on Mon 21st of February.

Beneath Us The Waves
This freebie came in just at the last minute, courtesy of our friend Neil Milton who goes under the name of Beneath Us The Waves. He recently came across track that he had almost no recollection of recording. Being the kind soul that he is, he's stuck it on bandcamp for folk to take if they want to.

Old Monk
The exciting new Brooklyn lo-fi outfit have made their new single 'Butter & Toast' available to download for free on their Bandcamp.

On Volcano
My partner in crimer, Jim AyeTunes posted about this Finnish band earlier in the week, if you fancy checking out what made him decide to post about a non-Scottish band then you can download their new EP for free here.

The Soft Collapse
Brookyln anti-folkers, The Soft Collapse have made their album 'Little Songs' available to download for free on their Bandcamp page, rather beautiful it is too!

The Deloreans
Download 'American Craze' from their Bandcamp.

Young Circles
Their EP 'Bear Bones' is free to download on their Bandcamp.

Male Pattern Band
Male Pattern Band stuck their first EP up as a free download here

Cheer
Techinically not a freebie, as it's one of those pay what you want downloads, either way you can find 'Breezes in the Abyss' a new album for Cheer on his Bandcamp.

Bedroom Problems
There are a whole load of freebies up for grabs on their Bandcamp.

Conquering Animal Sound
RCRD LBL have a free download of Conquering Animal Sound's remix of Sea of Bees’ “Wizbot”.

The Boosts
Colin Frasers(ex-Jyrojets singer/songwriter) new project have put their first EP online for free at this link.