Fresh Meat Monday - Marthas and Arthurs

Would you care to introduce yourself?

Hello, we are Marthas & Arthurs. Mary, Esther, Vlad the Impala, and Tom. How do you do?


How would you describe the music you make?

With the inevitable musician's toe-curling, oh-please-don't-pigeon-hole-us-you'll-steal-our-souls... but basically we're a vocal harmony pop group with a toe-nail in folk. That's already two mentions of the word 'toe'.


How did you start out making music?

Me and Mary used to be in a band together making a racket with guitars and electronic things. Esther was happily singing in the shower to no-one in particular til her brother (me) made her join the band. Vlad came out of a specially-engineered musician's birth pod 5 years ago, fully-formed, guitar in hand, with the right hair and clothes.


What process goes into the way you write songs?

Generally I'll come up with the words and melodies and then we'll sit around trying out different vocal arrangements. it's all about the vocals really. it can get quite confusing keeping all the different parts in our head as they're evolving and sometimes our brains shut down so we have to have a tea break.


What can people expect from your live shows?

Amateurish passion conveyed through uplifting singing.


What are you all listening to at the moment?

we've just been playing at festivals so we're listening to things that inspired us there. Silver Columns, Joe Gideon and the Shark and Joanna Newsom. also Errors. and personally i'm obsessed at the moment with the Jellies 'Jive Baby On A Saturday Night'.


What can we expect to see/hear from you in 2010?

We're going to start some more recording soon so hopefully that'll turn into an album before the year's out. some more gigs, including a launch for our EP (did we mention that it's free for download on bandcamp?) and some other nonsense that we haven't thought of yet.


Marthas and Arthurs - Clamour For A Fudge

Myspace
Bandcamp

Friday Freebies

Mondegreen
I caught this three piece supporting we're only afraid of NYC last Friday, bloody great they were too. You can have a listen for yourself by downloading their 'Headless' EP for free on their Bandcamp page.


Marthas & Arthurs
The first band to take me up on my newly embeded link to email me any Freebie suggestions, and a wee cracker it is too. They're partly Scottish and they make some gorgeous wee tunes, a fine start if ever I had one. You can download their new EP, 'Apes in Aeroplanes' for free on their Bandcamp page.

Broken Records
The Edinburgh outift have been hidden away writing their second album, 'Let Me Come Home' which is due out on the 25th of October. Recorded in Glasgow with producer Tony Doogan, plus guest vocals by Jill O'Sullivan from Sparrow and the Workshop, the album is highly anticipated by many of us Scottish bloggers, as a taster of what to expect you can download, 'A Leaving Song' by signing up to their mailing list.

Conquering Animal Sound
The good folk over at Gerry Loves have just posted up Meaursault's remix of 'Giant' by Conquering Animal Sound up for free download. I'm not normally a fan of remixes, but I think this is rather nifty, get downloading here.

Gold Panda
The experimental instrumental hip hop type has announced that he will release his debut album, 'Lucky Shiner', in October, preceded by a single, 'Snow & Taxis'. However you can already download 'Snow & Taxis' from www.luckyshiner.com just now, which makes feck all sense to me, but what do I know.

Sub Pop
I'm not sure if I have posted this before, mainly because there are so many free compilations up on Amazon these days, even if I have this is worth repeating. There are a load of free tracks up fro grabs from the likes of Wolf Parade, Avi Buffalo, Nirvana and The Shins. Download it here.

Departures
The Detour boys described this band as 'one the best bands in the whole country right now', high compliments indeed. See if you agree by downloading their EP for free here.

Epic26
Give them your details and they will send you a link to download their track “Sorry It Hurts”.

Jim Noir
Mind this guy, he did that 'Eanie Meany' tune a few years back, well he's got a new EP out, it's called 'Melody Junction' and it's free to download here.

Abunai
There is a whole host of free stuff to download from the psychedelic outift, get it over on their Bandcamp page.

The Concretes
A new album is due in November, it's apparently going to be a disco album. Fuck knows what that'll sound like then, This is Fake DIY have a free download of 'Good Evening' taken from said album, if you fancy checking out this new direction they're taking, then you can download it here.

Fight Like Apes
The Irish outfit have posted their track, 'Poached Eggs' taken from their forthcoming album, 'Body of Christ and The Legs of Tina Turner'. All you have to is hit the 'Pay With A Tweet' button and with one tweet or facebook post you get a copy of the song.

Gay Blades
You can get a free download of 'Try To Understand' from The Gay Blades new album 'Savages' for free here.


Kowalskiy's Komplimentary Korner

5-track Scottish EP #2
Continuing on with his series of rarities, Mr Kowalskiy has pulled another rabbit from the proverbial hat this month with a cracking EP featuring rare and unreleased tracks from five Scottish artists. This month he has Beerjacket covering the Xx, The Fusiliers, Evil Hand, The Little Kicks and Washington Irving. The boy continues to outdo himself!

Invisible Elephant

Also featured this week by our good pal the doc featured these guys earlier in the week, he described them as "as easy-listening post-rock, at times like a stripped-back My Bloody Valentine". If that sounds like it'd be up your street, then you can download their album 'The Lights Go Out', up on their Bandcamp page.