Friends In America - Pop Cop Subcity Session (08/04/12)

Track Listing

1. Gaffe

2. You're

3. Sparks

4. I'm Your Captain

Download

Cafe Disco - Sub City: The Pop Cop Session (11/03/12)

Track Listing

1. Start Again

2. Persona

3. What Do You Love?

4. Terra Nova

Download

Stream the show 

(warning it features me gibbering rubbish)

Superstar DJ?

Yes that is my cheesy mug up there, and yes I am ever so slightly tipsy. The photo was taken at last years Bloggers Delight night at the Flying Duck for Pin Up Nights. It wasn't my first foray into 'spinning tunes', however, it was the first time that I did it as Peenko. From what I can remember of the night it was really good fun, I don't recall making too many mistakes aside from dropping my pint. It was just after the first ever Ayetunes vs Peenko gig, so I had already had a few sherbets to calm my nerves/celebrate.

Since that night I have done a couple of other stints behind the decks at both the Kid Canaveral and Come on Gang! album launches. Now it appears that folk reckon I might actually be no bad at this putting a record on and pressing play, malarkey. In the next couple of months I will be inflicting my musical tastes on the general public.



On Thursday of this week I will be taking part in this months latest Born To Be Wide at the Electric Circus in Edinburgh for a seminar on blogging, alongside Jason from The Pop Cop, Matthew from Song By Toad and Scott Hutchison from Frightened Rabbit.
The aim is to provide an insight into how to go about setting up your own music blog, to discuss the importance of blogs in helping emerging acts and basically anything else that happens in the blogosphere. It should be a really interesting evening as we're all quite opinionated people.
Following the seminar, we are all going to turn our hand at spinning some records that we will have selected from Edinburgh’s Oxfam record shop that day, with everything that gets played being available to buy, with the proceeds going to the charity.
The evening all kicks off at 19:30, with the seminar running through until 2:130, you'll be pleased to learn that there's an interval half way through, oh and there's also a bar. Tickets are just £4.50, £3 to Musicians Union members and £2.50 for under 18s, you can buy them in advance here.



After Born To Be Wide, I will also be doing a couple more sets in May. Starting off with Miaoux Miaoux's single launch at Mono on the 17th, details for this one are still being finalised so I will let you know more about it nearer to the time. After this me and my fellow bloggers, The Pop Cop, Radar, Glasgow Podcart and Ayetunes, will be returning to play at the second Bloggers Delight evening being put on by the awesome folk at Pin Up Nights at the Flying Duck. There will also be live music on the evening from Endor, Mondegreen and Tokamak. Sadly my choice, Michael Cassidy has had to pull out of the evening.





My last stint behind the decks will be at the final Barmellodie night at Bar Bloc on Friday the 17th of June. The music for the evening comes from Cuddly Shark, Galoshins, Something Beginning With L and Lady North. Talk about going out with a bang, the first band will on about 11pm through until the wee hours of the morning. Entry is free until 11pm, then £2 thereafter.
Fuck knows what state I am going to get myself into, I guess it will be fun to find out!

Scott Hutchison-The Modern Leper

Miaoux Miaoux - Snow

Cuddly Shark - Bowl Of Cherries

Mondegreen - Casting Error

Endor - Without the Help of Sparks

Rachel Sermanni - The Pop Cop Sessions

Track Listing

1. Eggshells
2. In The Hollow

Download

My fellow blogger and friend, The Pop Cop recently had Rachel in to record this session for his show on Sub City Radio. Being the nice fella that he is he passed the songs over to me to share with you all. You can listen back to the show in full on his Sub City page, along with all of his shows to date.

Wide Days 2011 - The Peenko Review

It's taken me a few days, but I am now just starting to get back to normality after attending last weeks Wide Days event in Edinburgh. For those of you who are in the dark as to what Wide Days is, it's a music industry event featuring seminars and workshops during the day, then showcase gigs in the evening. It's put on by the innovative Born To Be Wide folk, who you might remember me talking about after last years goNorth event.

Meeting a very bleary eyed Pop Cop at an ungodly hour of the morning at Queen Street Station in Glasgow, it almost felt like we were on holiday for the day as we made the trip east through to the Capital for my first ever experience of Wide Days. Despite our inability to read a map, we manage to locate the venue with relative ease.

photo by Dom Holt

The event, held at Teviot House which is part of Edinburgh University, was introduced by Wide Days main man Olaf Furniss who announced that the last time he was on that stage he was naked. Not exactly the kind of image you want in your head first thing in the morning (and the rest of the day). The first seminar of the day was titled 'Making Touring Pay'. Having never been in a band or been on tour for that matter, I was surprised by how much I took away from it. The seminar had focused on the importance of the need for bands to do their homework before they even think about setting off on tour, as when you add up all of the various factors it is really expensive to tour. The general consensus from the panel was that artists should look to their contemporaries and what they're doing, but that the best way to learn is to simply do it yourself. Bands needs to make sure they budget their costs, making sure that the route of the tour makes financial sense. Plus they should always over budget and have a contingency plan in case things go wrong as they often do. When you are budgeting for a tour also make sure you only base your figures on guaranteed fees.
In economic terms, for any Scottish bands thinking of touring south of the border for the first time, it makes more sense for them to go down to London and play numerous shows across the city as opposed to a more financially crippling UK tour.
Also, if it's your first ever tour then you are highly unlikely to make any money, so as you are going to be on such a tight budget make sure you agree terms with promoters well in advance, for things such as technical requirements and the possibility of getting food before a show. If you can, scrap asking for drinks on a rider and ask for things like food or accommodation instead.
In terms of doing your research it makes more sense to think about where an audience might be for your music, using social media tools such as Facebook stats and the like.
In terms of merchandise, this is something that can make touring financially viable. You can often make more money from selling t-shirts and CDs after the gig than you do from the fee for the gig itself. It's important though that you make merchandise affordable.

In terms of royalties I was genuinely surprised as to how important this was, for example bands who have played on the lower stages of festivals (on things like the BBC Introducing stage at Reading) can make thousands of pounds from MCPS or PRS. The best way to find out about these kind of things is to speak MCPS or PRS directly, as they are approachable and willing to help you out.
Also, make sure that any money that you do make is saved and make sure you plan for the future (this almost sounds like the kind of lecture my mum used to give me).

The best way for you to sell records is still by touring. If you have people working for you such as a press agency, booking agent or manager then it's vital that all of these people talk to each other to make sure that everyone is working towards the same goals.

Lastly, even once you have finished touring the job isn't done, you need to continue to work on the relationship with your fans through social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, etc.

I know I have talked a lot about this seminar, but I genuinely found this to be the most informative seminar of the day and the most important one to share with you all.


Following on from this seminar there was workshop with the journalist Neil Cooper, on how to Write A Killer Bio. Seeing as we have our own label I was looking forward to getting a good few tips. In all honesty though I don't think I learned all that much, it was more a case of reinforcing what I already knew. The important points that you need to think about are things like ensuring your press release contains all of the facts, that you have a background story in order to make it interesting and that what you are saying is factually correct. Make sure you include any press quotes about the band and that you note who does what in the band.
If you've got something interesting that the writer can use, then give them something that they can grab hold of. Make sure that your bio is no longer than one page, don't ramble and most importantly don't miss out any practical information like contact details.

photo by Dom Holt

The seminar, Not Just SXSW, was pretty interesting, it was aimed to provide an insight into the numerous showcase events that are held across the UK and Continental Europe, discussing the opportunities that they provide. Outside of things of the Great Escape, Liverpool Sound City and In The City, I must admit that I was pretty clueless about what else is out there for bands. The general consensus seemed to be that Eurosonic in Holland, is a great showcase event, with it's size and also the fact that by playing at it they guarantee you slots on various European festivals. This is similar to what goNorth is doing this year with guaranteed slots at Wickerman, Belladrum, etc. Other events that were of note included Brighton Live, which takes place in October and Belam Festival in Oslo, although this festival is particularly aimed at Scandinavian bands.
One point that was stressed was the importance of being 'export ready', as in you need to have built yourself up back home before you should be thinking about going to any of these kinds of events. You also need to think about what the event can offer you afterwards, how you're going to stay in peoples minds. There is a need to remember that you are dealing with a business audience, so it's important to network and that your job isn't done once you've finished playing, you need to get out there and catch them while they're hot.

When it comes to applying for events like this it was stressed how important it is to complete all of the fields of the application form. That might sound pretty obvious, but from the sound of it you'd be amazed at the number of bands who don't seem to bother to do this.

If you are looking to find out more about the events that are out there then the best places to check are the AIM calendar for music events and the Finish Music Export site.


Some of you will be pleased to learn that around this time we decided to take a break for lunch and more importantly that I stopped taking such detailed notes about all of the seminars and workshops. In the afternoon session we were treated to a seminar that turned into more of a debate on the subject of Digital DIY vs Record Labels. Although I didn't learn too much it was probably my favourite seminar of the day, with the debate getting a bit tasty. It was interesting to hear Stewart Henderson from Chemikal Underground talking about running a label. It was strange to hear how they still haven't really embraced new platforms such as Bandcamp and the like. The main thing that I took away from it was that we are all still learning. Which was quite a comforting thought for someone in my position.

The Music In Films seminar was interesting in that it gave more of an insight into how much money there is to be made from having your music in films and documentaries. The figures varied quite a bit, but it was still well in the thousands. So definitely an avenue that should be worth pursuing. They also emphasised how important it was to have instrumental versions of your songs and that you should try and make sure the BBC know who you are.

Other workshops on Online Promotion and Music Making Money filled out the afternoon, the latter was taken by a fella by the name of Scott Cohen (who manages the Raveonettes and also works for a company called The Orchard) and was particularly interesting as he argued that the idea that piracy was killing the music industry wasn't factually correct. He was able to demonstrate this with various graphs showing that in fact sales of recorded music had actually risen. He pointed out that all that has changed is the way that music is consumed. People are now buying individual tracks as opposed to albums and it seems as if the industry hasn't kept pace. He had a lot to say and to be perfectly honest I would happily have listened to him talk for a lot longer.

The afternoon finishes with a Keynote Q&A with Barry Wright of Regular Music in conversation with Olaf Furniss, in which he retold stories from his 4 decades of experience in the music industry. He recalled stories about how he started running his punk gigs, how he was one of the first people to put on stadium gigs in Scotland, right through to how he started putting on the world famous Hogmanay parties.

It was a fitting end to a fine afternoon, having been to numerous events like this south of the border, I must admit that Wide Days is a breath of fresh air as the compares didn't allow the panellists to go on an ego trip about what they've done. Instead, they asked the questions that are relevant to the audience, taking no bull shit as they go. With the perception that Scotland is continually ignored by the London based industry, events like this are vital in order to educate folk and also for us to show that we can stand on our own two feet and achieve something for ourselves. Hats off to you boys!




After all of the seminars and workshops had finished for the day we found ourselves kicking about afterwards for ages, which meant that we ended up getting to the showcase gigs pretty late. So late in fact that as we arrive at the first venue Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh band Letters are literally just finishing up for the evening. So I can't really comment on them, PAWS however, absolutely blew me away. This was the first time that I had seen them play a full on rock show, the only other time I had seen them they were playing their first (and last apparently), acoustic show. Anything following that had a lot to live up to. Rachel Sermanni who wowed the crowd at the Cabaret Voltaire was next. I must admit that as great as she is, I still haven't heard a song of hers yet that will perceivably break her through into the mainstream. I look forward to being proved wrong though.

Next up at the Cab Vol we have Withered Hand, or the 'visa guy' as he's now more commonly known. This was the first time that I had seen Dan play with a full band behind him. To say that it made a difference would be a massive fucking understatement, as with the help of his friends, his sound was much bolder, the added confidence of having a band behind you really shows, allowing Withered Hand to steal the show out of all the bands that played.

After this we head off down to the Electric Circus for the final showcases of the evening from Capitals and GoGoBot. Neither of whom really do much for me I am afraid, so I soon found myself in a corner discussing We Were Promised Jetpacks new side project, drinking JD & Cokes with my 'new best friends' from Gerry Loves Records and I think I even tried to sign a band at one point. From then on in the night descended into chaos, with me rambling pish to anyone who would listen, laughing at Olaf Furniss dancing on the dance floor, until I finally decided enough was enough and I headed for the warmth of my hotel.
Unfortunately for me, the night didn't finish there as I drunkenly found myself locked out of my hotel room at 4am in just my pants and socks, lets just say reception weren't exactly pleased to witness that site. Wide Days you educated me, you got me drunk, you destroyed what little dignity I had left, butit's safe to say I will be back next year for more of the same if you'll have me.

Wide Days

PAWS - Winners Don't Bleed

Withered Hand - Cornflake

Rachel Sermanni - Eggshells

Letters - Grand National Master

For a more informative round up on Wide Days you should check out the reviews on the Pop Cop, Is This Music and over on Jenny Soep's blog.

thanks to Jenny Soep for letting me use this cracking wee picture

Friday Freebies

The Music Alliance Pact
My good mate The Pop Cop had a special wee celebratory post earlier in the week, if you haven't come across his Music Alliance Posts before then now is the time to do some catching up. I'll leave PC to explain what it's all about, all you need to know from is that he's posted up a cracking wee compilation of songs for you to download for free. You can get your hands on some exclusive and rare tracks from some of the following, We Were Promised Jetpacks, The Seventeenth Century, The Unwinding Hours and Kid Canaveral to name just a few. Download it here.

FOUND
Last week they gave us a free download of OnTheFly's Remix of 'Let Fidelity Break', what this weeks freebie is a mystery to me. If last weeks tune is anything to go by then once again boys n girls you're in for a treat, plus we're also one week closer to the release of their new album. Double Bonus.

Quiet Lights
Here's a great wee freebie that you should be checking out this dream pop outfit Brooklyn who have just recently released a 3-track pre-release, which they're giving away as a wee taster of things to come to from their forthcoming full release. Their album which is currently being mixed by John Congleton (St Vincent, Explosions in the Sky) then mastered by Alan Douches (Frightened Rabbit, Sufjan Stevens) should be out early next year. If that sounds like your kind of thing then just click the link.

Bella Union
One of my favourite labels are giving away a whole host of freebies this week, first up they have a wee free album sampler up for grabs, it features tracks from Beach House, Lawrence Arabia, The Acorn and Department of Eagles, you can get your hands on it here. They are also giving away a whole host of MP3's on Soundcloud, including tracks from The Walkmen, Abe Vigoda, Our Broken Garden and The Kissaway Trail.

Kori Pop
Her real name really is Kori Pop, or at least that's what she tells me, she even has as the birth certificate to prove it. Not long ago she released her first record From The Outskirts, which was made in a barn located in rural Ontario, I think that's about all that you need to know. Oh and there is also the small matter of her giving away her first single Nowhere Near My Heart for free on her Bandcamp page.

The Japanese War Effort
Gerry Loves have posted up the Fresh Air Session that The Japanese War Effort recorded for them. You can download it here.

The Twilight Singers
You can download a new song from the forthcoming Twilight Singers album due early next year on Sub Pop Records. "Blackbird and the Fox" features a duet between Greg Dulli and Ani DiFranco and you can get it here.

Hot Chip
Those funky Hot Chip kids have released a free track, 'Didn't Know What Love Was' through Converse, it features Bernard Sumner & Hot City, and you can get it here.

Scrap Brain
Edinburgh's Scrap Brain are giving away their track 'Caspian' for free all you have to is tweet about it, find out more here.

Neil Milton
This week saw the return of Scottish music label, Too Many Fireworks, although now it's based in Warsaw. Label owner and also musician Neil Milton relaunches his label with an new EP, you can get your hands on song air (Or The Dragonfly) from it for free in exchange for one tweet.

Selebrities
The Brooklyn outfit have been compared to a 'downstroke Beach House', if that sounds good to you then you can download their Ladies Man Effect EP for free.

Mopp
You can download a remix of Dream About You by former Fresh Meat-er 'Dems' here for absolutely nothing. I think this falls under the category of tune!

Spokes
You can get a free download of their song 'Torn Up In Praise' here, be quick as it's only available for the next few days.

Club Seat
Yep the car maker, it's amazing how many want to use music to promote their product these days. Mots of it being bland shit music, not that I am saying that the free music being offered for free doesn't fall into that category, I'm sure that some of you guys must like Foals and Bombay Bicycle Club. Hence the reason for me posting this link, however, if you find yourself getting all excited about the prospect of a free Ellie Goulding session, then I really have failed you all.

The Van Doos!
The nice folk over at 'Young & Lost Club' are giving away an“essential first offering from London based threesome The Van Doos” which you can get for free here.

Three Blind Wolves
Ross Clarke and his band have a wee freebie up for grabs on his Myspace, you can download 'The Maybe Forest' simply by clicking the link.