Fresh Meat Monday - The True Gents

Would you care to introduce yourself?      

A "psychedelic alt-folk/celtic collective"     


How would you describe the music you make?      

It’s a mix of different stuff. Euan and Toby's songs are influenced by indie-folk and 60s psychedelia - artists such as Incredible String Band, Elliott Smith, Byrds, John Martyn, Turin Brakes... but working on the arrangements, the rest of the band all bring different influences. There is obviously a big traditional folk element to our music (Ross, Gordy, Dave and Ian are all involved in the traditional music scene in Scotland).     


How did you start out making music?      

Euan and Toby started writing songs together in Invermay (Perthshire) 2006. Initially performing around the local area as an acoustic duo, they met local record producer Robin Wyn Evans (who's worked with The View/Manic Street Preachers) and recorded a couple of demo CDs at T Pot studios, after which the band lineup grew - with the addition of several local musicians (there have probably been around 12-13 people playing in the band over the last few years!). We met up once a week in an upstairs room at the local pub in Dunning, writing and arranging Toby/Euan’s songs for a larger group of instruments.     


What process goes into the way you write songs?      

Typically, one of the band will come up with the basics for a song - chord structure and lyrics. From there, we would then jam it around as a band, adding instrumentation and working on the arrangement to keep it exciting and fresh.  With so many people in the band it's not always possible to get everyone together and so we'd often bring some recording gear to practices and record rough ideas to send over the web to those who couldn't make it.     



What can people expect from your live shows?      

A high-energy, foot-stomping party vibe. Stage invasions and crowd surfers are encouraged.. We tend to lean more on our upbeat tracks for gigs...  dropping in the occasional nostalic tear-jerker for waterworks.     


What are you all listening to at the moment?      

Euan - The Antlers/Suede  

Toby - Neil Young  

Ian - Old-School Hip Hop  

Dave - Grandaddy/Elliot Smith  

Pug – The True Gents album hahah! (Pug only recently joined the band, and is learning the basslines)     


What can we expect to see/hear from you in the future?     

We’re currently re-working our live set, and hope to do a bunch of gigs this year to support the album, as well as working on new material. Our album took a long time to finish, so we’re looking forward to exploring some new sounds.

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Friday Freebies

Zoey Van Goey
Tomorrow night at Stereo, Zoey Van Goey are going to be celebrating the released of their very limited edition remix EP. The EP which is called ‘Sexy Rave Eye Zooming’, is limited to just 350 copies, features remixes from local luminaries such as We Were Promised Jetpacks, FOUND, Jonnie Common, Adam Stafford, GRNR, K-Projekt, Gareth Griffiths, On The Fly, and Miaoux Miaoux. The only way to get a physical copy of one of the CDs is by going to the gig, which also features special guests Kid Canaveral, live remixes from GRNR, plus visuals from Katy Wilson.
In anticipation of the gig/EP you can download We Were Promised Jetpacks remix of City Is Exploding for free on Bandcamp.

Stevie Jackson
Not one to rest on his laurels, Belle & Sebastian's Stevie Jackson has been busy working away on his debut album, (I Can't Get No) Stevie Jackson. As a wee taster of what you can expect he's made the track 'Man of God' available for a limited period as a free download. If this is anything to go by then this could be one cracking wee album, it certainly sounds a lot more enjoyable than his full time band have done in recent years.

I Build Collapsible Mountains
The older I get, the more time flies by, I could have sworn that the forthcoming I Build Collapsible Mountains album wasn't out for months yet. It is in fact out on the 11th of October, almost exactly a year to the day after I released his debut EP. I have heard the album and can vouch that it's a fucking great wee album, you don't have to take my word for it though as you can download the lead track from the album, Face Of Thunder Grin, for free here.

The True Gents
Perthshire musical collective, The True Gents' are giving away their new single as a free download here (right click save). Fans of folk like Washington Irving and the French Wives should really check these guys out.

Asian Dub Foundation
Bloody hell, who knew that Asian Dub Foundation were still going, obviously not fucking me that's who. It's always nice when something like this from your past comes along, it reminds me of fun times dancing like a loon ball to 'Free Satpal Ram', ah those were good times. Anyway, they band have released an exclusive free remix of their track “Where’s All The Money Done?” which you can find here.

Bird And The Monkey
Scottish left-field pop duo, Bird And The Monkey have their new Ossie Dean EP free to download on their homepage. I have only had a chance to listen to the EP once, but I will certainly be going back for a few more listens as this is rather lovely stuff.

Honey
The Glasgow dream poppers have just released their new single 'Nowhere Floating', as a free download on their Bandcamp page. If you like what you hear then you can catch the band live on the following dates: G2 - September 30th, The Captain's Rest - October 9th, Club 520 - October 21st and Stairway - November 4th.

Tanera Heights
Glasgow three piece, Tanera Heights have made their new E.P free to download, you can grab yourself a copy here.

Drunk Mule
Bloody hell, Drunk Mule aren't ones for sitting on their hands, having only just recently posted up an albums worth of free material, they've now just made new track 'Crash Test Y'self' free to download on Bandcamp.