Festive Freebies

PAWS
I fucking love PAWS, actually I htink the general consensus amongst the Scottish blogosphere, is that we all love PAWS. If you haven't already been converted then you're in luck as they've put up nearly all of their back catalogue on their SoundCloud page to download for nowt.

Ambulances
It feels like an age since we heard anything from the 'neenaws', actually I just checked it's been over three years. Thankfully now they're back with a bang (and a free tune), with their second album in the bag, they're giving us all a wee teaser of what to expect with a free christmas single called 'The True Meaning Of Christmas' which you can find on their Bandcamp page.

Errors
If you head over to Radio Magnetic's website you can find yourself a free download from the forthcoming third Errors LP, Have Some Faith in Magic, which comes out in January of next year.

Cut Ribbons
Welsh girl-fronted indie rocke outfit, Cut Ribbons, just so happen to be making their first ever appearance in Scotland tonight at the Captain's Rest. The gig which is being put on as a collaborative effort by local promoters, Instinctive Racoon and the Radio One DJ, Ally McCrae, also features Open Swimmer and Sunshine Social. So if you're looking for something to do with yourself tonight, then look no further. If you fancy getting acquainted with our Welsh cousins, then head on over to their Bandcamp and download yourself some free tunes.

Nevada Base
Ahead of their headline show at the The Captain's Rest next Saturday (10th December) with Crash Club andMachines In Heaven, Glasgow Synth-pop outfit Nevada Base are giving away their track 'An Avenue' as a free download in exchange for your email address.

Okkervil River
Will Sheff and his motley crue have just released their second Golden Opportunities EP as free download. This time round they're giving away an EP featuring five covers all of which were recorded live to a two-track in Austin. You can download Golden Opportunities 2 here for nowt.

Scottish Fiction
Although it's been going for a while now, I guess you could still consider Scottish Fiction to be relatively new to the blogging scene. That's not to say that it's not worth checking out, if you are free on a Monday and not already listening to Vic G's show, then you should check out his show on Pulse Community Radio. He's also been pretty busy in promoting local talent with his free EPs, this months offering features tunes from The Spook School, Wrongnote, If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home By Now and The Lonely Boy, which you can find here.

Wavves
A collaboration between Wavves and Best Coast, sounds like a hipsters wet dream to me. But hey it happened (I am guessing most hipsters already knew about this), if you haven't heard their song Nodding Off, then head on over to KEXP where you can download it for free.

Cameo Colours
In case you missed their Fresh Meat post on Monday, now's the time to do some catching up with Edinburgh four piece, Cameo Colours who have made their self-titled EP free to download on their Bandcamp page.

Silvermash
Fife outit, Silvermash have a whole host of live recordings up for free download on their SoundCloud page. If you like what you hear then you should get yourself along to the Captain's Rest tomorrow night to catch them play with Mondegreen and St Deluxe.

Tom
In an age when solo artists have to dream up crazy name for themselves (step forward I Build Collapsible Mountains, King Post Kitsch, etc), it's a bit odd to find someone just going by the name Tom. Well that's what Aberdeen-born, Stonehaven-bred, Edinburgh-based musician, Tom (I've got no idea what his full name is), has gone and done. He's got a song called 'Subtle Lie' on his Bandcamp, it's pretty fucking ace, it's also free. You should download it. Go on, you know you want to.

Allan J Swan
The ex-You Already Know guitarist has posted up his new song, "Time Runs Out" for free download on his SoundCloud page. The song has already been causing a wee buzz in the blogosphere, having been chosen by The Pop Cop as his Song of the Week.

Craig_FS
My partner in crime at Olive Grove, Halina, has been creaming her pants over Craig_FS for a while now. Being the stubborn fucker that I am, I only just got round to listening to some of his music. Turns out that one making music in his bedroom is actually pretty fucking good. You can make your own mind up by visiting his SoundCloud and downloading loads of free songs.

Bottle of Steven
Take one half of the duo, Bottle of Evil and hey presto you get Bottle of Steven. He has a free download of his track 'No More Tears' up on his SoundCloud, a cracking wee tune it is too.

Fresh Meat Monday - Cameo Colours

Would you care to introduce yourself?

Hi, we are Cameo Colours, an alternative rock band based in Edinburgh, Scotland. We have four members – Scott Bruce (Vocals/Guitar), Jack Bruce (no, not that Jack Bruce, this one plays drums), Danen Sloan (Bass) & Daniel Crichton (Guitars).


How would you describe the music you make?

I would say that our music is well written pop songs disguised as alternative rock. We don’t really mess about, the majority of our songs are 3 minutes or less of infectious melodies and riffs. Scott focuses a lot on his lyrics as well. The lyrics are generally about political issues or about personal experience.


How did you start out making music?

This could be a long answer; I’ll try and give the shortened version so as not to bore people! THE CAMEO COLOURS STORY! A long time ago in a far away place called Aberdeen two boys named Scott and Daniel started playing guitar and writing music together. A few years later Scott’s brother Jack got a drum kit and started jamming with Scott and Daniel. Ever since then the 3 of them have been playing in bands together. Fast forward a few more years and Scott and Daniel are living in Edinburgh, they meet a Canadian called Danen and they start writing a new style of music. They call it Cameo Colours. So, that’s the jist of it really. There’s lots of stuff that happened in-between like drug addictions and near death experiences but that’s not worth getting in to.


What process goes into the way you write songs?

Usually Scott brings in a song that he’s been working on and Danen and myself (Daniel) will work on it with him adding in our own contributions. Then we’ll all work on the song structurally and harmonically. It doesn’t take us too long to write a song. Unfortunately, we all live in Edinburgh and Jack lives in Aberdeen so we don’t really get a chance to practice or write as a four piece. Scott goes back and forth from Edinburgh and Aberdeen though and does songwriting sessions with Jack as well as with Danen and me.


What can people expect from your live shows?

A lot of energy. I know that’s an incredibly dull and clichéd answer to give, but it’s true. Like I said, because Jack lives in Aberdeen we don’t really get much band practices. So when we go to play a show we often haven’t played as a full band in weeks and all the excitement that comes with playing in a band just comes out in a short sharp burst of rough and ready music. I really look forward to playing gigs, it’s one of the only times that we get to play as a full band! You can also expect a bit of improvisation when we play live. Not in the jazz sense of the word, but just occasionally lengthening songs or improvising an interlude in-between songs.


What are you all listening to at the moment?

I had a big collection of CD’s that were sitting in my parent’s house in Aberdeen that I never bothered to take to Edinburgh with me, but I decided recently to move them to my flat in Edinburgh. So I’m currently falling back in love with a bunch of albums that I loved when I was a teenager – Fugazi 13 Songs, Television Marquee Moon, Weezer Pinkerton, Teenage Fanclub Grand Prix are some of my favourites at the moment. I can’t really speak for the rest of the band because I’ve had to do these questions in a bit of a rush (need to get to work!) and I haven’t had a chance to ask them. But we all really love bands like Incubus, Nirvana, Bloc Party, Smashing Pumpkins, Reuben, Jeff Buckley, Biffy Clyro, Dinosaur Jr, etc. Also, there’s a band from Edinburgh called Miasma who released an album called Feathered Feet this year. We’re all really into that album. It’s definitely worth checking out.


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

We just released our self-titled debut EP for free download on our Soundcloud and Bandcamp. We’ve done acoustic recordings of some of the songs off the EP and we recorded the audio from one of our live shows as well, so in the next few months we’ll probably be releasing acoustic and live versions of the EP. Apart from that we’re just continuing to write music and play gigs. We have a gig in Edinburgh on the 2nd December at the HMV Picturehouse playing at a charity event and we also have a gig in Aberdeen in the new year supporting Tubelord at Cafe Drummond on the 23rd January.

Cameo Colours by CameoColours

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