Weekly Round Up (31/10/10)

Monday - Amy Duncan kicked the week off with some Fresh Meat action
Tuesday - Steve Mason and A Band Called Quinn sessions
Wednesday - Inverness post-rockers, Shutter took on some Scots Way-Hay action and I also let you know about a couple of exciting new projects which I am involved in.
Thursday - I had quite a few sessions up for download, Cancel the Astronauts, Isobel Campbell and the Twilight Sad all did there bit. The good folk from Off the Beaten Tracks also did some Community Service
Friday - this weeks Freebies included tunes from Le Reno Amps, Tapes 'n Tapes, Remember Remember and FOUND
Saturday - didn't get tickets to see Take That, then why not console yourself with the Seventeenth Century's cover of Patience, did I mention that they're also playing at AvP3 next Friday? Apparently tickets for that are a bit easier to get your hands on...


News, gigs and any other gubbins......

So the week of THE big gig has finally arrived, Ayetunes vs Peenko 3 is back and this time it's personal (no I have no idea where I'm going with that either). If you haven't already got yourself a ticket sorted what's been stopping you?! In the unlikely event that you don't know who we've got lined up, it's the Seventeenth Century, Come On Gang! and I Build Collapsible Mountains. It's going to be awesome sauce! It's this Friday night, it's only £6, it all kicks off at 7pm at the Classic Grand. We'd love to see some familiar and some unfamiliar faces coming down for the evening. There will of course be the usual free sweets on offer from this bearded twat - man that just sounds plain wrong. I should think these things through more in my head before I say them.....


On Thursday night, Elba Sessions are back with another cracking wee evening of intimate entertainment. Making his first live outing in Glasgow as I Build Collapsible Mountains, Luke Joyce warms up nicely for the following nights show at AvsP, by making an appearance. Joining him for the evening they also have Iglue and Now Wakes The Sea.



Also on Thursday (4th) night, Benni Hemm Hemm, Second Hand Marching Band & Tannahill hit Stereo in Glasgow for an evening of folk pop tinged fun. I won't be usual presumptuous self and expect you to have heard all of these bands, so here's a wee blurb (ie a copy n paste) about them all....
"Benni Hemm Hemm, the delightful pop troubador from Iceland, whose Scottish band features members of Eagleowl, SHMB, Withered Hand, The Occasional Flickers, How to Swim, The Trembling Bells, The Pineapple Chunks, Jesus H Foxx, Captain Slackship's Mezannine Allstars and more (and there's only 6 members). Benni has, in the past, collaborated with Alasdair Roberts and Jens Lekman and is currently recording a joint album with SHMB.
The Second Hand Marching Band will be a 17-or-so piece indie folk funhouse who shall play to the crowd and in the crowd, with post-rock influenced buildups, quiet folk songs and dance party tunes.
And the last group, Tannahill, are particularly special, made up of Alasdair Roberts, Wounded Knee, Sean from John Knox Sex Club and SHMB members Alistair, Pete, Ross and Rich. Their set will consist of reinterpretations of Robert Tannahill songs. Robert Tannahill is a Scottish poet from Paisley who died 200 years ago, but whose legacy is now coming to more people's attention after years of being overshadowed by his contemporary and inspiration, Robert Burns.This will be the first performance of the group, who will be releasing an album of Tannahill songs next year."
Kick off is at 7pm and door charge will be £5.

Next Saturday, the 6th, promoters 45 A-Side Records have a cracking wee gig lined up at Stereo in Glasgow. For your evenings entertainment they have Meursault, Olympic Swimmers and Happy Particles for just £5. The evening kicks off at half seven, it should be quite a night.



I'll leave you this week with a video from a band who have been getting me pretty excited as of late, they're called Let's Talk About Trees, a side project from some of the members of John Knox Sex Club and Washington Irving. The band will be making their live debut at Stereo in Glasgow on the 20th of November, so get the date down in your diary...

Friday Freebies

Ghost Pants
Paul Carlin (aka the dude from Dananananaykroyd) is back with the third in his series of lo-fi EP's, and you know what, I reckon this might just be his best yet. Sticking with the 'heart's theme, this one is called 'Active Hearts' and although it's down as being free, I asked the man himself if it would be okay to say to folk that they can download it for free, he said 'yes'. What a nice man he is. You can get yourself a copy here. Ghost Pants make their live debut at the first ever Peenko 'Tea Party' next month at a very intimate venue in Glasgow (hint I mentioned this earlier in the week).

Bear Bones
It was only when I added this freebie in did I realise that I probably haven't mentioned Bear Bones on here before. I am pretty sure that I played them on one of my shows on Fresh Air, or at least I intended to, my memory is terrible for these kind of things. Anyway, enough of my ramblings, Bear Bones are Scottish, they write catchy indie folk pop tunes and they also have a wee freebie up for grabs. In December they are due to release a new single through new innovative label, Eli & Oz, as a wee taster of what to expect you can download their song 'Oil & Lacquer' for free here.


The Second Hand Marching Band and Benni Hemm Hemm
You might remember a few months ago that I posted a wee freebie from these two that they had posted in order to promote their joint gig in Aberdeen. Well now they're back giving away even more free songs as a wee taster of what you can expect at their co-headline gig at Stereo in Glasgow on November the 4th. Just click this link to download 3 free tracks.

The Go Team
They're quite possibly one the most fun live bands about at the moment, they're playing at Oran Mor in February and now they have a free track up for grabs. If you head over to their Soundcloud page, then you'll find their new track T.O.R.N.A.D.O which you can stream and download.

FOUND
As will be the norm for the foreseeable future, I have no idea what this weeks free track from those fabulous FOUND kids will be. I can however tell you what last weeks was, yes, I am that helpful/useless, last Friday they posted up a free download of Blood - Grumpy (FOUND's Blood Donation) . Bloody brilliant it was too, I am sure they'll have another corker for you this week, find out by clicking the link.

Gruff Rhys
Remember that rumour that was kicking about a couple of months ago that the Super Furry Animals had split up, thankfully it wasn't true. The band are on a bit of a break at the moment, but that doesn't mean they've gotten lazy, well at least their singer hasn't. He's been off working on some solo material, if you head over to his homepage, then you can download one of his new tracks 'Shark Ridden Waters' in exchange for your email address.

Interpol
I am not too sure how this link came about, but during the week the Pixies tweeted about how they'd played a gig with Interpol in Mexico and because of that they were going to be giving away two free tracks. Confused, then you're not alone.

Freelance Whales
The New York band have certainly been making massive waves this year, sorry that was a terrible pun. No seriously I'm sorry, I can't help being so cheesy. If you haven't already checked them out then I'd urge you to do some much needed catching downloading their track 'Enzymes' here.

Andrew Bird
I have the good folk at the Skinny to thank for this freebie, they RT'd it on twitter (if you don't know what that means I can't be arsed explaining), just right click save this link to enjoy a free download of 'Hot Math' from Andrew's instrumental LP 'Useless Creatures', which is out on October 25th.

Arran Arctic
Scottish musician Nonima has produced a cracking remix of Arran Arctic’s latest single, Interrupt Me! The remix takes the My Bloody Valentine / Kevin Shields / Asobi Seksu elements of Interrupt Me and whips them into a cavernous mish-mash of distorted techno frenzy! Download it here for free.

CMJ
I'm sure that a lot of you are already aware that there is a major music conference/festival taking place in New York this week. Scotland's very own Phantom Band are out there working their backsides off to show America how it's done. Sadly this free compilation that Stereogum have posted up doesn't feature a track from the Phantom's, instead it's got tracks from Marnie Stern, Sleigh Bells and Lower Dens. Sounds like hipster heaven to me.

Gizeh Winter 2010 Sample
Conquering Animal Sound have an awesome new track on the Gizeh Winter 2010 Sampler, also on there are free songs from Sleepingdog and Glissasndo, you can download it here.

City and the Sea
Canadian outfit, City and the Sea's new EP, ‘Leave A Light On’, is up for grabs for free, the band have worked with some of the producers that were involved in records by Feist and Apostle of Hustle. If that sounds intriguing, then you can find out more here.

Epic26
Edinburgh's Epic 26 have posted up their new EP up for free download, all you have to do to get a copy is just follow this link.


Kowalskiy's Komplimentary Korner

For those of you who are more regular followers of Friday Freebies might have noticed that my fellow blogger Kowalskiy has cut back on his regular freebie tip. We agreed that it would probably make sense to have him come back every month to bring you his 'Free Monthly Scottish EP'.
I know I keep saying it, but he does continue to up his game with every EP. This month he as a cracking wee EP featuring four of my favourite Scottish acts of the moment, The Seventeenth Century, RM Hubbert, Randolph's Leap and Zoobizaretta. There's another band on there too, I am probably best not mentioning what I think of them though....

Benny Hemm Hemm - Marc Riley Session (11/05/10)

Track Listing
1. Shipcracks
2. Blood of My Blood
3. Retaliate
4. Blood On Lady Lawson

Download

Out and About

There's a fair few things going on in Glasgow this week, most of which I can't make, but seeing as there's so much happening I though it'd be a good idea to post them in one handy post.

There's not much on this Monday, unless you fancy hanging out with all the neds at Stereo for the View. Actually how the fuck did the View end playing in Stereo, that just seems wrong to me. Yes, I know it's snobby as fuck, but it's just wrong, wrong, wrong.

Thankfully things pick up on Tuesday night at Sleazys, where you have dd/mm/yyyy, backed by an array of local talent which includes Galleries, Mice and the Macabre Scene (we like em a lot round these parts).

On Wednesday night The Lost Generation and Healthy Minds Collapse at Tuts. Whilst one man troubadour Shambles Miller struts his stuffdown at Pivo Pivo.

On Thursday, indie label and artist collective Antimatter debut their first Musicbox night at Universal. 'The concept of Musicbox is simple. Musically, each line up features four of the best new up and coming artists around. We operate an open mixed genre policy. Acoustic artists play side by side with electronic, folk musicians next to experimental. Each artist has been specifically chosen to compliment the rest.'
Sounds like a good idea to me, the line looks like this The Recovery Club, Engine7, Paul McLinden and Lamplighter. Out of all of them I have only heard Engine7, who's album 'Me, But Perfect' rather impressed me last year. Tickets are only £3, the evening kicks off at 8pm, further details are available on the Anitmatter website.

Friday, you have one of two options The Unwinding Hours at Stereo (reminds self that I need to get me finger oot and get a ticket for this - anyone fancy it?) or alternatively there is always the Local Natives at Tuts, which I'd be surprised if it wasn't sold out already. Can't be arsed checking.

Saturday night at the 13th Note should be a good un, Flowers in the Dustbin have a showcase of local talent lined up, including The Fire And I, The 123’s, Hitlist Youth and Foxgang. That's going to be a beast of an evening.

Finally if you want to see the week off in style then you should head down to Mono next Sunday for Burnt Island's (more on them later in the week) mini-album launch. Support on the evening comes from Aidan Moffat and Benni Hemm Hemm backed by the Second Hand Marching Band (that reminds me where's my EP?????).

We Have Lift Off

Launch nights, are they really like buses, na not really but alas we have two which have come up pretty quickly after one another. January is notoriously a pretty shitty month for gigs, everyone's skint and there's generally not much going on apart from Celtic Connections. This year might well buck this trend as there are not one but two cracking wee gigs lined up in the first couple of weeks of January. First up is the launch night for We Sink Ships Radio, at the 13th Note this Friday (08/01/10), which boasts a line up of the second hand marching band, Benni Hemm Hemm, Euan McMeeken (The Kays Lavelle) and beneath us, the waves (DJing). A cracking wee line up if I do say so myself, it's only four quid so it shouldn't break the camels back in that long wait until payday.
We Sink Ships is an interesting collaboration between Heidi Kuisma, a Finnish, Glasgow based photographer and Neil Milton, a Scottish photographer, musician and record label owner who now lives in Warsaw in Poland. Together they create and curate online photo exhibitions and now present a show on Radio Magnetic called (unsurprisingly) We Sink Ships Radio, you can download a sampler of the Podcast here. Well worth checking out if you like your Scottish music.

The following Friday (14/01/10) after that we have Ten Tracks in Stereo, a new monthly gig night in Stereo, Glasgow. Which boasts a line up of Super Adventure Club, Tokamak, Fear the Fives. Quite a nice wee line up they have going on there, cash might be even tighter by then, so you can't really complain at £1 entry fee. Personally I'd be there in a shot, except I'l; be away n Bremen for a mates stag, anyone been there? Anything worth visiting?
Anyway, I digress, if you haven't heard of Ten Tracks before it's well worth checking out, it's a monthly Scottish-based music download service (run by the Skinny I think) where you can download ten quality songs for the bargain sum of one measly pound. It's a great wee idea as it allows you to discover great music for not a lot, while also making sure that the musicians get something back. For a more logical explanation as to what it's all about head on over to their website, Ten Tracks. Further details on the night at Stereo are available on their Facebook page.

Live Review - The Second Hand Marching Band, Benni Hemm Hemm, applesofenergy and Meursault at Stereo

Since I started this blog I have tended to veer away from doing reviews, I think the last time I did a live review was within the first week, and that was of a festival in San Francisco, I have always erred on the side of caution and passed the buck and get Boab to do my dirty work. Basically I am getting my excuses in early if this turns out as bad as I fear.

Sunday nights for me can be pretty terrible, the combination of hangover and the dreaded fear of having to go back to work on the Monday morning can be a real killer as the blues start to kick in on a Sunday evening. Fortunately though this was no ordinary Sunday, I had been looking forward to this gig for a while now, I had seen apples and Meursault a couple of time before, but I was popping my proverbial cherry with the SHMB and Benni Hemm Hemm.

Having arrived at the venue fairly early I was unsurprised to find Jim Aye Tunes propping up the bar, so after grabbing a quick drink with him we sauntered downstairs for some aural pleasure. The gig was part of a series of gigs being put on by From a Stolen Sea to promote the release of the forthcoming applesofenergy album 'Mirror/Echo', they seem to be trying to a more personal touch back to gig going, as we have old school tickets with proper band logos, none of this pre-printed ticketbastard shite, no siree. As someone who keeps all of his tickets stubs, I think the term is sad bastard, these little touches mean a lot.


Anyway, I digress, the first band of the evening were The Second Hand Marching Band, Scotland's equivalent to say the Polyphonic Spree or I'm From Barcelona, except they have the tunes to back it up. If you have no idea who any of the bands are then I suppose I should explain, there's hundreds of folk up on stage, fifteen or sixteen I think, I can't be sure as there always seemed to be someone lurking in the shadows, and by the time I had spotted them, someone else had moved to play another instrument (talented buggers this lot).
Opening with 'A Dance To Half Death' the lead track to their EP (which you can freely download here), was a great way to kick the evening off. personally I fucking love that song, the build up to the chorus of voices is just epic. Although the rest of their set never quite lives up this blindingly good opening I must admit that I am a definite convert to the ways of the SHMB, with so many folk on stage I kept expecting it to descend into chaos, but fuck me for such a lrge band they're pretty damn tight, plus every single one of them seems to giving it laldy with a massive grin on everyone of their faces. When I grow up I want to be a Second Hand Marcher.


Next up is Benni Hemm Heem, to be perfectly honest I didn't know too much about these guys, Bob had been banging on about them for a while now, so being the stubborn twat that I am, the more he preached the less impetus I had to listen. To put it simply Bob was right.
Singing in half English and half in Icelandic, is quite a novel experience for me, and to be honest I actually preferred the songs sung in the native tongue. Backed by trio of SHMB
the horns, their anthemic songs really hit he spot for me, imagine an Icleandic Sufjan Stevens singing about ancient kings and you're half way there. They closed their set with a song called 'Retaliate', which for me was a highlight of the whole evening.



I think I have to be honest before I say anything about theapplesofenergy the solo project of Steven Gribbin, I consider him to be a friend, so it's difficult not to be seen to giving him a favourable review. What's even harder is trying to describe what he does, as the music he makes is not normally something that I would listen to and trying to find the words to describe it is even harder. Having seen him a number of times recently, you'd think that I would have managed to find some kind of way to convey to you what kind of music he produces, but each time I found myself very much outwith my comfort zone. His experimental ambient sound for me is a very personal experience, with each looped sound making it such an intimate experience for me. Each time I see him it's always different, almost as if you are being taken on a journey that mirrors the musical ride that fits your surroundings, Magical stuff, even if I do say so myself.


The last band of the evening are Edinburgh's Meursault, this was the third time I had seen them this year, my initial interest in the band came after someone compared them as a 'more electronic Frightened Rabbit'. I can understand why this association might be made, but then a lot of bands sing with a Scottish accent these days get lumped with that tag.
Singer Neil Pennycook's is one of the strongest bow in the Edinburgh bands sheaf, his voice is both booming and delicate at the same time. Tonight they were on good form, the new songs sound a lot more morose than those from their debut album, 'Pissing On Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues', their second album is pencilled in for release in Arpil, it really could be a contender for the album of 2010.

Meursault - Crank Resolutions (6Music Session track)
applesofenergy - Summer Dreams
Benni Hemm Hemm - Beginning End
The Second Hand Marching Band - A Dance To Half Death

A massive thanks goes out to Wullie for the pics, check his flickr out.