We've Got It Covered #60

Although I have been posting reasonably regularly on the blog, I still kind of feel as if I have been neglecting it a little bit. I guess that's more to do with withdrawal symptoms form not posting every day, which had become a bit of an obsession of mine. If you're ever considering starting your own we blog you should be warned that it really does take over you life, mostly for the better. I might have taken a break from posting, but I have still been pretty busy, behind the scenes there's been a lot going on with my label Olive Grove, lots of spamming and even more plotting, in fact the next few days are pretty fucking exciting for us. Tomorrow night the Pensioner boys are in session on Ally McCrae's Radio One show, then on Monday we are announcing the next addition to the Olive Grove family.
On top of all of that I am actually getting to spend some time away from sitting in front of my laptop as next weekend I am heading up to Inverness for the Belladrum Festival which I am pretty excited about. The standards were set at last weeks Wickerman Festival, so Bella has a lot to live up to, although with Kid Canaveral, Admiral Fallow, The Phantom Band, We Were Promised Jetpacks, PAWS and Bronto on the bill, I am sure it's going to be a cracking weekend. This weekend though I am having a very quiet one, my liver/body took one hell of a battering in Dumfries, so some time chilling with my girls and nae booze is the order for today.

Anyway, that's enough of my ramblings for one morning on with this weeks cover version which comes from my favourite indie pop duo, Over the Wall and their take on a Peter Gabriel's 'I Go Swimming'. The song was originally recorded as part of a session that they did for Vic Galloway back in May last year, you can download all three songs here (notice how I fucked up originally fucked up the track name). If you fancy seeing the boys live in the very near future then you're in luck as Over The Wall are supporting Admiral Fallow, along with Kid Canaveral at the Liquid Rooms in Edinburgh on Sunday the 14th of August. Tickets for the gig are available here.


Over the Wall-I Go Swimming (Peter Garbiel cover)

Scots Way-Hay - The Artists Album of the Year (Part 3)

When I sent emails out to all of this years Scots Way-Hay artists I honestly only expected to get a handful of replies back. How wrong I was, it turned out that most bands were pretty keen to let you all know what's been tickling their fancy in 2010. So in the last of my series of posts I give you the favourite albums of 2010 for Ardentjohn, Endor, French Wives, Lorraine McCauley and Over the Wall.....

Blud Rins Cauld by John Knox Sex Club

chosen by Gav, Over the Wall

"My album of the year is Blud Rins Cauld by John Knox Sex Club. Parts of this album sounds like a group of guys starting a riot, which is very much the sense you get when you see them play live, but the best thing for me is that there's a lyrical depth here absent from most Scottish bands about. No actually, absent from the vast majority of contemporary music. You get the sense of really big classic themes running through an album that also has time to talk about juvenile delinquency in a particularly Scottish way. There's also a burgeoning violence to the music, even when they're in the middle of one of their very tender moments, that's really compelling. I've been playing it constantly since I got it at Insider Festival (where they played the set of the weekend in my opinion) and I think when I look back on the last year later in life this will be a big part of the soundtrack"

Boots Met My Face by Admiral Fallow

chosen by all of French Wives

"Our album of the year is unequivocally Admiral Fallow's debut 'Boots Met My Face.' It is an album which has garnered near universal praise, and such praise is completely deserved. It is extremely rare in pop (to use a slightly catch all term) bands for each and every member to have quite such a high degree of general musicianship. Indeed, in many of the rare instances where this is the case such musicianship is often thrust in the face, or ears, of the listener. However, this is not apparent on this record. The bands musical skill is perfectly apparent throughout, however despite the vast instrumentation at no point do any of the parts feel self indulgent or unnecessary. Melodically and structurally the songs are so meticulously constructed that the arrangements sound like the best possible version of the original song. Add to this the interesting lyrical content and it makes it extremely difficult to watch or listen to this band without being completely in awe"

Hunting My Dress by Jesca Hoop

chosen by Lorraine McCauley

"I watched Jesca perform at a music festival last year and just loved her quirky song style and beautiful lyrics. She has an amazing imagination and creates new places and ideas to explore in each song. Favorite track, though its hard to choose, is The Kingdom and the video for it is great too.......check it out"

High Violet by The National

chosen by David McGinty, Endor

"The most commercially successful album to date by a band who spent years in the relative wilderness is often seen as one of two things: a crossover or a breakthrough, The National’s High Violet is certainly the latter. Whilst the band’s crossover potential is evident on this release, and comparisons could be drawn to the early albums of stadium fillers like R.E.M, this record is evolutionary not revolutionary. Its breakthrough into the mainstream charts follows the critical acclaim surrounding four previous records and years of slugging it out on the road, yet in 2010 it seemed The National proved they could no longer be ignored. Over the course of their last few releases the band have been honing a sound, primarily based around true craftsmanship in terms of their songwriting. Sure, since Boxer there’s less shouting, and knee-jerk purists have been arguing whether or not that record is better than it’s predecessor, Alligator, since 2007; the fact of the matter is that High Violet is the latest instalment in the evolution of a band which has be lauded by critics, and rightly so, since their debut almost a decade ago. Not only is High Violet the most evolved National record, and debatably the finest example of their ability as songwriters and musicians, it’s got to be one of the best albums of 2010"

The Courage of Others, by Midlake

chosen by Seth, Ardentjohn

"It is a beautiful album and, after Trials of Van Occupanther, it was always going to be hard to top it.

The band chose a different genre for the album (which in itself is difficult) and this gave it, instantly, a different vibe from their previous but their harmonies are always to die for and the old english feel of the album is wonderful.. They seem to put their mark over anything they try.

A beautiful album which gets better with every listen: a bit like their last one, but not the same at all. Wonderful"

Over The Wall - Treacherous: Track By Track

So this is a bit of a late post, it had been pencilled in to tie in with the release of the album, which was weeks ago now. I had actually given up hope on actually getting sent this, so when it popped into my inbox a couple of days back it came as quite a nice surprise. Part of me almost felt like what's the point, it's been for ages now, but then I started to think of it in terms of me being a uni lecturer (god forbid) receiving an essay from that one pupil who they know 'this is going to be good', but it's late. Was it worth the wait, in short fuck yes. They might well be the most useless band in Scotland at replying to emails, but Over the Wall are also one of the most exciting too. In 'Treacherous' they have managed to recreate that over whelming sense of joy with an added sense of sombreness. It's been a cracking end to the year for Scottish albums, with the Scottish Enlightenment, Seafieldroad and now this.

I think that's enough of my ramblings for one post, here's Gav, one half of Over the Wall, to talk you through Treacherous....


1. Shifts

We wanted to throw everything at the opening track, all of the themes of growing older, searching for escape but being pinned down by your circumstances, the corrupting power of greed, it's all in there along with some heavy-handed lyrical and musical Springsteen references. We referred to the beat on this one as 'The Timbaland Beat' when we were working on it. It was originally twice as long with a big quiet bit at the start with loads more lyrics but eventually the decision was made to get to the fucking point straight away. There were a few decisions like that which made the album much stronger.


2. Settle Down

It's shite working in an office or call centre, and while that may be tedious to keep pointing that out, it's fucking tedious to have to do it. This is a song about feeling very limited in your choices which manages to sound quite joyous as it is also probably the closest thing to a love song that we have. Also, do you know of any one of your friends, and I mean any one, who didn't have some sort of mental episode in their early twenties? I honestly can't think of one person. This generation feels the guiltiest about it's laziness and lack of ambition of any in history. Sometimes idleness is the morally correct choice, as Bertrand Russell would say. Life's not a race. I also think this is the catchiest song we've ever done.

3. Guts

The way this opens out at the end is one of the biggest changes from our demos to what ended up on the album, as there's version on myspace which is very low-key electronica. By just adding certain sounds and spacing them out we managed to make it really kick out in a way that I didn't see coming at all. When I told Ben this he was surprised as he'd always imagined the song with the big chorus at the end, and he'd finally managed it. When I realised that it gave me a bit of heart as it became clear there was at least some method to what often seemed like our meandering madness (the album took a lot longer to make than we'd anticipated.)


4. A History of British Welfarism 1945-1984

This is as close as we get to prog on the album, although there are another couple of wee trips down prog alley here and there! The title is deliberately grandiose but we're trying to pin historical events down into a personal story. I think when the brass goes it alone with the synth sitting quietly underneath it is my favourite part on the whole album, and it's a part that if you pulled it out of it's context you would never guess would appear in an album of mainly pop songs. We wanted to evoke the feeling of the old colliery brass bands and how that ties in with the old way of looking at society which Thatcher tried to destroy (and to a great extent she succeeded) which again seems odd out of the context of a song which is driven by a very insistent hammering beat and the biggest guitar sound we've ever used.


5. The Crucible

I wanted to write a song for a laugh called The Crucible which was about a witch hunt (like the play The Crucible) at a snooker tournament (like the one held at The Crucible theatre in Sheffield.) Unfortunately I grew attached to singing from the point of view of a snooker player's wife in a ballad and that's ended up not really being what the song is about at all. It's kind of like a 'stand by your man' message now, as the husband has been unfaithful, and I got a bit emotional singing it in the studio. We set up the microphone at the other end of the room and I just stood and sang it out as loud as I could, so it's the full noise of the room that you hear in the vocal rather than my voice removed from it. I think of a certain generation of women, like the characters in Angela and Shifts too, quite a lot in lyrics. It probably relates to a recurring fantasy I have about Freud's father... I mean mother!


6. Two Nightmares

Often nightmares are merely your mind making up images because of physical discomfort. If you've eaten a large kebab or loads of cheese and you go to bed you may well see flying vampires tearing your friends apart as Ben describes in this song. However, they can also be there because you're worring about something, like receiving a text from that special someone. So the whole story of the dream could actually be you trying to sort your love life out in your head. As Ben is a rampant misogynist he must see all women as vampires. In seriousness, I remember telling Ben during a terrible spate of nightmares he was having to write down every detail as soon as he wakes up as it kind of disarms them (I suffer quite badly myself) and he ended up writing these amazing lyrics, so obviously I take full credit. Musically we tried really hard to bring the story out with instruments rather than go down the path of dodgy sound effects of screaming and sirens, and it makes for a pretty strange arrangement, but it's one that most people have reacted really well too. I think if you like this song you really like it.

Over the Wall album tracks

7. Don't Listen To Them, Son

Sometimes referred to as 'The Paul Simon Song' (and we've even encouraged people to chant along like an African choir when we play it live) or 'The Dirty Song' as it is a little bit blue, as Bernard Manning would say. The thing is it's not actually really about sex, it's about lust and greed and the shite that people fill your head with when you're younger about what you should be doing with yourself. It has the bounciest and yet the strangest beat of any of our songs, we were struggling with how to arrange it for some time in the studio so Ben took it away and worked on the beat on his own for a while and it totally brought it to life. There are a lot of oddly timed clicks and booms in it that make me want to move.

8. Istanbul

Liverpool were losing 3-0 to AC Milan at half time in the Champion's League final in Istanbul in 2005, yet went on to win the trophy. What was said at half time? Ben is a life-long Liverpool fan (his dad is scouse, although his parents were originally from Glasgow, it's a funny old world) and this is his take on what could have been said. This also contains a guitar trick stolen wholesale from Metallica, where you split the riff over two guitars and pan them hard left and right over the two speakers. I remember trying to explain that to Ben and feeling like a bit of a fool until we played it and it turned out to be the most fun two guitar players of limited technical ability can probably have together. It's always going to be hard saying "I think we should do this thing that Metallica do..." but then it's almost always going to be worthwhile, unless it's suing fans or anything like that.

9. Stages

This had the working title of 'What Would Gabriel Do?' after the erstwhile Genesis frontman who's solo work we are so fond of copying! The main lesson to be taken from Peter Gabriel is that you can have really immediate pop music which, if you scratch the surface, is in other ways quite intelligent and complex. Stages has a very poppy chorus while, along with 'A History..' is another nod to the proggyness we find it hard not to indulge in.


10. Angela

There were certain women who lived in the scheme I grew up in that kind of acted like everyone's auntie. Whether this be through nursing a skinned knee, handing out ice poles or choc ices on a sunny day or acting as umpire in the constant warfare between kids they're often the unsung heroes in communities. All that the song consists of really is one rousing verse and chorus, which I like. It doesn't go near the danger of outstaying it's welcome.


11. Thurso

It seemed appropriate to have Thurso on the album as it does kind of sum up a lot of what we're about. We made the decision not to include a few of the songs that were people's live favourites cos they just didn't fit and there was new stuff we wanted people to hear, but the album would have definitely felt like there was a piece missing if this song wasn't on there. I think it's thought of as our theme tune, and I think we're actually both pretty happy about that. It's about coming to terms with death, ultimately, and at the end we kind of just play all of our cards in making it sound as joyous as possible.

Over the Wall - Settle Down

Treacherous is available to download now from all of usual download outlets such as iTunes and the like. You can also buy the CD directly from their label Motive Sounds. If you're still not sure what to get your mum for Christmas, then look no further. She'll love you to bits for it.

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Over the Wall - Fresh Air Session (13/11/10)

I must admit that it at the moment I am finding it a bit tricky to come up with a post for every day of the week. This is mainly because of the lack of radio sessions available for me to rip, I am getting quite picky in my old age. Thankfully though help is it at hand, thanks to a lovely chap by the name of Brian Pokora, who is very kindly going to be letting me post an array of sessions that he recorded for his show on Fresh Air. Kicking it all off we have the Over the Wall boys, but before we go on with the tunes here's Brian to tell you a bit more about the show, this session and how to get in touch with the show....



"This semester has seen the start of a new music show on fresh air. Myself and Charlotte who run Found In Sound on freshair.org.uk have been focussed on playing the best new music in Scotland and bringing our listeners sessions from some of the best bands around. Having these great bands in to play some stripped back sessions has resulted in a new weekly segment here on Peenko where we'll be posting the latest tracks from the fresh air studio. We've got even excellent bands coming up on the show over the next few months so you can check us out here, on our own blog Found In Sound or live on freshair.org.uk every Sunday 2 til 3 during term. If you'd like to get in touch you can contact us at foundinsound@ymail.com
Our first session comes from Over The Wall, the Glasgow duo have just released their debut album 'Treacherous' and I must say it is very good! We had a great time recording the session with the guys and along with songs from the new album we had a few exclusives. These were a special a cappella version of the track 'A History of British Welfarism 1945-1984' and 'Coming Home' which as far as I can tell, we have the first recording of. Enjoy!"

Track Listing
1. Thurso
2. Shifts
3. A History of British Welfarism 1945-1984
4. The Crucible
5. Coming Home

Download

Over the Wall - Vic Galloway Session (10/05/10)

Track Listing
1. Settle Down
2. I Going Swimming (Peter Garbiel cover)
3. Thurso

Download

Weekly Round Up (04/04/2010)

Monday -I had two cracking Fresh Meat posts, Shambles Miller and Beneath Us The Waves, took the time out to answer some questions for me.
Tuesday - my planned sessions from RM Hubbert and the Last Battle both went to pot when Leith FM's internet stream went dead. So I shamelessly used the time to plug our gig with Kid Canaveral, Mitchell Museum and Campfires in Winter (if you're sick of me going on about it, prepare yourself for a fairly nauseating few weeks).
Wednesday - thing started to pick up a bit with sessions from Erland and the Carnival and an absolutely cracking session from Errors. I really need to get my finger out and but myself a copy of the album. plus even more excitingly we had one of my favourite bands Over The Wall as my ninth 'Scots Way-Hay' band. I love this band, and I hope you do too (god I sound like such a cheesy twat sometimes).
Thursday - barely a week goes by without some kind of Frightened Rabbit session, this time it was a recording of a session that they did for the Sun newspapers Biz section.
Friday - we had the usual Freebies, bloody good it was too. It's almost gotten to the stage now where I have too many things that I want to share!
Saturday - nowt happened as I was out at Hinterland (top day was had)

News, gigs, gubbins...........

In the early hours of thursday morning Vic Galloway announced on his Radio One show that the series of 'United Nations' gigs that the station has been putting on, are coming to Glasgow. The Phantom Band will be headlining the event, alongside a rather tasty bill which includes And So I Watch You From Afar, plus Chickenhawk (?) and Race Horses (?). The tickets are free, although by now I'd presume that they might well all be gone, there's no harm in trying though.

Up and coming promoters Exposure Scotland, kick off their series of April gigs with a launch night at the Captains Rest tonight (4th). The line up for the evening boasts a trio of exciting new Scottish bands, What The Blood Revealed, Out of Samsara and Oslow. Further gigs lined up this month include Jousting With Dracula, Trapped In Kansas and Esperi. Check out their Myspace for all of the important details.

The full line up for this years Tigerfest got announced on Thursday, the event runs from the 5th-22nd of May, taking place in Edinburgh, Dunfermline and Aberdeen. Highlights include Malcolm Middleton, King Creosote, Withered Hand and the Unwinding Hours. Further information on all of the goings on can be found on the Tigerfest Homepage.

In case you missed it on Wednesday, Over the Wall are having a wee shindig on Monday to launch for their excellent new single 'Settle Down'. It takes place at the Captains Rest, it all kicks off at two and there will be free sandwiches. I can't think of a better way to spend my Easter Monday.

It might be a wee bit late, but if you are free this afternoon then there is another afternoon gig taking place down in Stereo, for a gig being put on by Hazy Recollections. Running from 2-6, the Easter Sunday's line up includes The Injuns, Rachel Sermanni and her fiddle Pixies, Julia and the Doogans and resident host, Findlay Napier.

Woodenbox with a Fistful of Fivers launch their new album, 'Home And The Wild Hunt' with a gig at Mono in Glasgow tonight. It's free and it all kicks off at 8pm.

This Thursday (8th)in Edinburgh, a very interesting event is being put on by the good folk from Born To Be Wide. If you are looking to further a career within the music industry then this might be a great place to find out more information. The event is being put on under the title of ‘Wide Days’, it's an all day seminar featuring a number of major players from the UK music industry. Their keynote speaker for the event is Gavin Bain (who conned the music industry, toured the world with D12, partied with A List stars and earned vast sums of money in advances, living a superstar lifestyle by faking American identities and accents). They also have a number of major festival organisers, including T in the Park, Rockness. On top of this there are live showcases in the evening featuring acts like Meursault, Found, Carrie Mac and Gavin Bain’s new band. Sounds like a cracking event, shame I can't get the time of work to head through. Anyway, enough of my self pity, you can buy tickets and check out the full line up here.

Scots Way-Hay #9 - Over The Wall

photo by Louise Madsen


When i first started blogging I really didn't know where I was going with it, there was no real plan other than to try and introduce some of my friends to good music that they might have missed. It's not like I set out to promote Scottish music, it was just something that I found myself being sucked towards. In fact if I was to try and pinpoint the two most important factors in what I do now, then the first one would be my inability to find a copy of a live Frightened Rabbit recording, which in turn led me to recording radio sessions. The second would have to be an article I read on the Line of Best Fit about 'Over The Wall'.
I had what I can best describe as a 'Eureka' moment, crossed with a touch of 'how the fuck have I managed to let this band pass me by'. It was at that moment that led me to a point where I started to me realise just how much great music was out there in my own backyard.
Anyway, that's enough about me, I should really get on with introducing two charming young men called Gav and Ben, collectively known as Over The Wall.
I don't think it's much of a secret that I like my music to be fun, there's a lot to be said for a band that can put a smile on your face. These guys have me grinning from ear to ear when I see them live, they genuinely look like they're having the time of their lives every time they're on stage.
They're one of my favourite bands to have emerged from this country in many a year, their lo-fi pop sound just exudes energy that you just won't to resist.


Would you care to introduce yourself?

Ben: Hello there! Ben from Over the Wall here. Happy New Year?

Gav: Pleased to meet you, I'm Gav, also from Over the Wall.

How would you describe the music you make?

Ben: We make pop music. That's not to say that it's that popular, more that we seem to like writing triumphant euphoric tunes. Some of it is more electronic, some a bit folky. I guess it sounds the way it does because of the instruments we have at our disposal, so it's hodgepodge of guitars, keyboards, beats, trumpets and anything else we can think of.

Gav: I usually just say euphoric pop. If you listen to really good pop music, and I mean often quite commercial chart music from through the decades, it'll always have bits of everything thrown in. We have strange bits thrown in that reflect who we are but at it's core it's pop.

How did you come together as a band?

Ben: We both met in the fair city of Glasgow and realised we shared a love for rom coms. I guess I would be the John Cusack to his Tom Cruise, though he may not be too happy about me getting to be Cusack. Since neither of us can act it was only a matter of time before we resorted to playing music together. Gav had already started playing solo gigs around Glasgow and I would come round to his flat and we would both both chip in bits and pieces to each other's songs. We were both involved in a night that we put on called Over the Wall. By the time we stopped the night we had already played a few gigs together so we decided to commandeer the name for ourselves.

Gav: I could never afford to be a Scientologist, even taking into account the amount I'd save on prescription drugs. We did come together over a shared love of Cameron Crowe films though, as well as the type of music that Cameron Crowe likes to use in his films.

What process goes into the way you write songs?

Ben: Usually one of us will have been playing with some hook or melody. Then we will see what we can do with it.

Gav: We still don't really think of ourselves as a band and that helps in that our roles aren't particularly well defined. If this is a band then it consists of two frontmen and nothing else, but that's definitely to our advantage. Either of us could come up with a part for guitar or keyboard or trumpet or whatever and we'll just work from there.

Settle Down (the new single, which is out on Monday!)

You always look like you’re really enjoying yourself when you play live, do you enjoy that side of it more than recording?

Gav: You've caught us at a point when we're mixing our album so right now I'd love to not be in a studio and just be playing to people, but then if you're on tour you just want to slow down and come up with new ideas. The grass is always greener. People often mention as something unusual that we enjoy ourselves when we play live - what a sorry state of affairs if most bands don't really enjoy themselves when they play. I think it's more likely that they want to look like they're not when they actually are. And that is worse. I don't at all mean that you should have a grin on your face when you're playing a sad song by the way, it's just about honesty. There's often more honesty in clowning around than in staring at your shoes and trying to look like you don't want to be there.

You released your debut EP, 'The Rise and Fall of Over The Wall' on Motive Sounds Recordings, can we expect to see you putting an album out with them, or anyone else for that matter?

Ben: You can indeed. We will be bringing our album out this summer through Motive. Before we do that we are bringing out our new single Settle Down on the 5th April on 7 inch and download. We're really glad to be bringing something out on vinyl. Whenever we go and watch bands it's always the record I want to buy rather than the CD. It's bigger and much harder to lose.

Lastly, what can we expect to see/hear from you in 2010?

Ben: We are going on tour late March/early April. Dates are still being added but they are all up on the myspace. It will be fun because we are heading out with Three Blind Wolves who really can make some noise.

Gav: Then there's the album in the summer and more imminently the single, out on 5th April on 7 inch vinyl and on iTunes and the like. Did we mention we have a single coming out on the 5th April? We've been working on the album for a while trying to get it right, and we're starting to get pretty excited about it now. Hopefully it will be worth all the hard work. I think I might as well exclusively reveal the title to you actually - it'll be called 'Treacherous' (peenko - this was an exclusive a few weeks ago, sadly I missed out on that front, but hey it made me happy!).


Over The Wall - Gimme Five (MP3)

Over the Wall's new single 'Settle Down' is released on 7 inch vinyl and digital download on Monday 5th April through Motive Sounds Recordings. To celebrate it's release they are having a single launch at 2pm (a single lunch - very clever) on the same day at The Captain's Rest, it's free and there will free sandwiches too. Personally, I can't think of a better way to spend an Easter Monday.

Myspace

Introducing - Over the Wall

I have postponed posting about this band so many times now that I am starting to get annoyed with myself for not having done so already. My first reason was that I wanted to see them live before I said anything, unfortunately I have missed them so many times that I though it about time that I actually just get something out there. OtW came to my attention after reading about them on Line of Best, towards the end of last year, the gushing review got me somewhat excited and to be fair to the reviewer they pretty much had it spot on. Fusing a blend of Scottish indie rock with a splice of euphoric folky pop (does that sound right? probably not, but then again it might make more sense if you give them a listen), the band have just re-released their debut EP after the initial copies sold out. You can catch the duo supporting Baulky Mule at the Captains Rest on the 10th of May followed by a slot at the Stag & Dagger Festival on the 23rd, I really hope I catch them at one of these nights....

Over The Wall are Gav Prentice of old steel town Bathgate and Ben Hillman of old seaside town Bridlington, who met in Glasgow in 2002 and have been inflicting their relationship on others through the medium of euphoric pop music using keyboards, laptop beats, guitars, mandolins, trumpets, cowbells, harmonicas, hurdy gurdys and kazoos since 2006. In 2007 they were selected from 1200 unsigned entrants to play at T in the Park's 'T Break' stage and in 2008 from 800 entrants to play at The End of The Road Festival in Dorset. This year, on 17th November, also marks the release of their debut E.P. 'The Rise and Fall of Over The Wall' on Motive Sounds Records and some recognition from the likes of Radio 1, 6Music, Xfm, Radio Yorkshire and best of all Sunny Govan. The List said that they lack "broad appeal" and it has been suggested that they should ditch the funny electronic gadgets, get a drummer and a bass player, behave themselves onstage and be in a proper band like everyone else. They enjoy wandering around the country playing to small numbers of dedicated dancers and confirmed barside watchers alike.

Listen to their EP, 'The Rise and Fall of Over The Wall' on
Lastfm
Buy their EP
Myspace

Discover excellent new bands for not a lot of pennies

I came across this a couple of days ago after it was featured on the Scotsman's rather good 'Under the Radar' page, basically it's a compilation of live recordings from various up and coming Scottish bands, recorded at the Edinburgh Voodoo Rooms as part of their Limbo Club Night.
You'll find all the details and important facts if you click on the link below, the point I want to highlight, is that it's a bargain £6.30 (incl. P&P) if you order before the 1st of May.

Copies are limited to a run of 750
Buy it here

here's what's on it
1) Zoey Van Goey - City Is Exploding
2) FOUND - When You Fall
3) Punch & The Apostles - Asylum
4) Meursault - Pissing On Bonfires / Kissing With Tongues
5) Sparrow & The Workshop - Last Chance
6) Isosceles - Get Your Hands Off
7) Over The Wall - A History of British Welfarism 1945-1984
8) A-lix - Never Grow
9) Cancel The Astronauts - Slow Dance At The Disco
10) Thieves In Suits - Clockwork
11) Come On Gang! - Spinning Room
12) Kid Canaveral - Second Time Around
13) Haight-Ashbury - Favourite Song
14) Night Noise Team - Menolick

Stag & Dagger News

Details of where all of the bands are playing has been announced, and now it looks as if the Twilight Sad are playing after all, here's hoping. there are some tough choices to be made, at the moment the Art School looks like the place to be, but then again so does the Captains Rest and Stereo, and then there's the 'Sad. Anyway, get your tickets, they're only a tenner, can't say fairer than that. (This infor was pinched of the Skinny website)

Glasgow School of Art: Meursault, White Denim, The Phantom Band, KONX-OM-PAX, Clark.

GSA - Vic Bar: Young Fathers, Lemonade, Joy Formidable, Record Playerz DJs, Art of Parties DJs.

Nice N Sleazy: Boycotts, Findo Gask, Cursive, Hot Club DJs.

Captain’s Rest: Over the Wall, Paper Planes, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, Dananananaykroyd, The Mae Shi, Huntleys and Palmers Audio Club DJs.

Stereo: Woodenbox with a Fistful of Fivers, De Rosa, BMX Bandits, The Aliens, Men & Machines, Optimo.

Classic Grand: Elvis Suicide, Gringo Star, Mika Miko, Black Lips.

ABC1: The Twilight Sad, Cold War Kids.

the Skinny

Stag & Dagger

5 Scottish bands to watch out for in 2009

1. Over The Wall
Myspace


2. Broken Records
Myspace


3. The Phantom Band
Myspace

4. We Were Promised Jetpacks
Myspace


5. Zoe Van Goey
Myspace