State Broadcasters - Ghosts We Must Carry: Track By Track

Part of me has been putting off publishing this post for a while now as I thought it made more sense to stick it on the blog around the time of the album launch gig (which is this Sunday in case you were wondering). The other side of me has delayed posting anything simply because quite simply I don't believe that I have the vocabulary to portray just how much this album means to me. Over the past couple of months 'Ghosts We Must Carry' has received some mighty fine reviews, it even received this amazing review from Mike.
For those of you who aren't already aware, the album came out on Olive Grove Records, the label that I co-run. Now I have always been a wee bit paranoid about posting anything on the site about releases that I have been directly involved with, what with the conflict of interest and all. Then I realised that the label is essentially an extenuation of this blog. I post about music that I like, so if I like a band enough to release their record, it makes sense to me that I would want to post about them on here. If you disagree, then that's your opinion, as long as my conscious is clear that's all that matters
Rather than trying to justify myself, I guess it would make more sense to tell you a bit more about my relationship with the band and how all of this came to pass. It was way back in December of last year that Pete from the band got in touch to see if we might be interested in working together. Now to my shame it took me a few weeks until I actually listened to the album that they'd sent over, but once I did there was really no way that I could say no. So after many many months of planning it came to pass that we sized each other up and agreed that we'd love to work together. Seeing as we haven't released an album on Olive Grove since back in October of last year, I am so glad that we held out and didn't just rush into our next release. Quality over quantity and all that jazz. This is an album that I have been lucky enough to live with for almost a year now, I am so pleased at the plaudits that it has received since it's release. Sometimes it's good to know that it's not just me that believes in a band. Anyway, I have rambled at you more than enough, so you'll be pleased to know that I am now going to pass you across to Graeme from the band to talk you through the album...

The Only Way Home 

I wrote this about halfway through the making of the album. By this time the feel of the album was pretty clear and, in some ways, was dictating what kind of songs I was writing. The truth of this song is that the only certainty in life is that we will die, some people choose when that moment will be and sometimes I can understand why people make that choice. I hoped for this song to be a fitting tribute to 2 of my favourite songwriters, Mark Linkous and Vic Chesnutt.  


Kittiwake 

Written during a holiday in Orkney where I hoped to see lots of Kittiwake but they are in decline on the islands so I didn't see too many, other than on postcards. It's a pretty straightforward story song about a husband losing his wife suddenly and far too young. The arrangement on this song is one of the best on the album and the band did a brilliant job. I wanted the album to have lots of singing on it and I'm pretty pleased that the first 2 songs have all six of us singing on them albeit quite quietly.    


Trespassers 

A love song: 'Take off your coat, sit by the fire, I'll brush out your hair, your true friend is here.' Could be State Broadcasters motto. The instrumental bit in the middle is affectionately known as Mr Twinkles by the band and I look forward to hearing it every time we play this song. It's like I got my own little bit of Sigur Ros into one of our songs.  


The Only One

I wanted to have a harp led song on this album and doing this Billy Bragg song seemed to make sense. The lyrics are unsurpassable, Bragg is a fine chronicler of unrequited love and broken hearts. I'm really pleased with the way this turned out as we've always been rubbish at cover versions before. I knew putting Gill in charge of the vocal and the lead instrument we couldn't really go wrong. I think Billy likes it too!  


Takeshi 

The first song Pete and I worked on together back in 2004! There's a different version of this on our debut self released EP which is basically just me, Pete and Fergus plus a couple of pals helping out and a lot of people loved it. We decided the song didn't quite fit on our first album but this version had to go on Ghosts We Must Carry, it fits the mood perfectly. It features the duel trombone talents of Pete and Cam and sometimes when we play this live I just look over and watch them and the sound seems kind of magically mesmerizing to me.   



Outside The Bakery 


Written not long after the first album but signalling the intent of where we were going next - a quieter, more melancholy mood. This is a song about the beauty of friendship and the small, often unspoken and even unacknowledged, gestures that humans can make to each other to provide hope in hopeless situations. Did the protagonist in this song deliberately fall over in the muddy path because he knew it would make his friend laugh for the first time in a long time?   


Where I Belong 

I wrote this really quickly and didn't think much of it to be honest but when I played it to Pete he really liked it and persuaded me, eventually, that we should try it. I'm glad he did as it's one of the strongest songs on the album. I love the sound of the recording of this it feels kind of earthy and warm to me, it's those trombones again and the accordion part is sublime. Happy to report that there's lots of singing on this too, a 4 part harmony no less. It's kind of about agoraphobia and it's kind of about how records can help you through rough times and it's the first time we've ever employed fade out  at the end of a song which pleases me enormously.  


The Writing's On The Wall 

This is a very poppy song for us but I think we just about get away with putting it on this album. I think I was listening to the Ben Kweller album when I wrote this and it has some brilliant pop tunes on it like Penny On A Train Track and Sundress. Ours doesn't sound like that but in my head it sort of does, the lyrics are fairly self explanatory and well explored: self loathing, hopelessness, 'that bloody black dog' as Winston Churchill would say. Everyone feels like that sometimes, don't they? WE ARE HERE FOR YOU WHEN YOU DO.


This Old Table 

The original guitar version of this is kind of a Smog, Palace rip off but I never wanted it to be like that when the band did it. We had this idea of using a harmonium and having unison singing to make it feel like a kind of Church Of Scotland hymn. Fortunately, Malcolm Lindsay (Glasgow based producer and composer) let us use his harmonium and studio to record this in and I think it sounds perfect. Lyrically it is the song I am most proud of and I am delighted that the performance came together the way we hoped. It's a very personal song to me but I think the way we present it makes it more meaningful to the listener, that's what I hope anyway.  


New Years Day 

Pete wrote most of this I just added a couple of lines. Gill's vocal performance on this is great and the piano is a creaky old thing that Pete has which is just about in tune with itself and nothing much else, but it sounds perfect here. Our first album ended with a little, short song at the end and so does this one. I like that. This song does the one thing that is most difficult for a song to do: sound simple and yet convey emotion and meaning. That's proper pop music.

Ghosts We Must Carry is out now on Olive Grove Records. You can buy a copy in person from LoveMusic, Avalanche Records, Groucho Records, Monorail, Fopp (Union Street) and One Up Records. As always it would be great if you could do your bit to support your local record store.

If you can't get to one one of these stores then the album is available via Bandcamp or you can always download it through all of your usual digital stores.

The band are celebrating the release of Ghosts We Must Carry, this coming Sunday at the Wellington Church (off University Avenue) in Glasgow. Support on the evening comes from the fabulous eagleowl.
Plus we will also have the premier of the video for the bands single, Trespassers. It's £4 to get in and it's also BYOB!!! If you can come along it would be great to see you there. Here's the Facebook events page if you want more info.

It's been a while...

Hello stranger! After what feels like an age this is my first post on the blog in ages and I have to admit that I have missed my rambles (although I am sure that most of you haven't). It's been pretty strange having other folk write for me, good weird that is. My only fear is that by bringing in Steve, Boab and Mike to write for me just highlights what good writing should be like!

So although on the surface it might look like I haven't been up to much, but trust me I have been a busy boy as of late, there's always scheming going on in one way or another. Some of which I plan to share with you in this post, plus there are still other plans afoot that I am going to keep a lid in for now. Trust me though, it will be worth the wait.

First things first I'll start with the blog, my more frequent visitors might well have noticed a distinct lack of sessions being posted lately. The reason for this being that I got a polite email from someone at the BBC pointing out that the majority of their sessions are available on line and would I mind stopping recording them. I did cheekily ask if it was something that they could perhaps turn a blind eye too, but alas not. Fair play to them for being so nice about it all, I was pretty surprised that I hadn't been pulled up for it well before then. So from now I am afraid that there will be no more BBC sessions getting posted, I have been exploring other avenues to find sessions, so all is not lost, not yet at least.

You might also have noticed that I have revived my Fresh Meat Monday posts, what with Flutes and Siobhan Wilson, I think we are off to a bit of a flyer, plus the artists that I have lined up for the next few weeks are pretty damn brawsome too. It's nice to have the post back.

For those of you who are missing Friday Freebies, you should check out Aye Tunes who's now taken up the mantle of trawling the Internet for the weeks best free songs from that week. It has to be said that he's doing a mighty fine job of it too.

Also, form Saturday coming I'll be bringing back my weekly cover version posts, We've Got It Covered, which died away mainly due laziness on my part. That and it's pretty tricky writing something half readable whilst looking after a two year old (watching Peppa Pig marathons doesn't really help the old writers block!)

So that's us caught up a wee bit with what's going on with the blog, now for a wee bit of what else I have been up to and what I've got coming up in the next few months. When I posted a while back that I was taking a break from blogging to concentrate on running Olive Grove Records and manage Randolph's Leap, that's exactly what I have been up to. A couple of weeks back we released, Ghosts We Must Carry by the State Broadcasters which seems to have gone down pretty damn well. Having lived with the album for almost a year now, it's great to see that it going down so well with others. If you haven't heard the album then I'd urge you to check it out, not just because it's on my label, but mainly because it's a great fucking record.

If you come back here later in the week, I am going to be posting up a wee Track By Track that Graeme from the band has written for me, it's pretty damn ace. Although the album came out on the 17th of September, we've not actually had the the album launch yet, we've been building up to that in order to make it pretty special. On Sunday the 21st of October we're going to be taking over Wellington Church Hall (off University Avenue) in Glasgow for an evening of entertainment. We will of course have the State Broadcasters playing live with Edinburgh's finest, eagleowl supporting. Not only that but we're also going to have the premier of the bands video for their song Trespassers. It's only £4 to get in, plus it's BYOB, so it should be a pretty fun evening.

Another gig that I am going to be involved with is going to be in conjunction with my pals over at Fence Records. On Friday the 26th of February we're putting on a joint shindig at the Glad Cafe in the southside of Glasgow to celebrate the release of Randolph's Leap's new Hermit EP which comes out on Fence that same day. As I am sure you are aware my life has very much become entwined with the Leap and their adventures. So the fact that they've now signed up to Fence is a pretty big deal to me. Tickets for the gig are available in advance from the Fence Records website, we've got some pretty special guests lined up for the evening so it should be a cracking night.

Last, but most certainly not least, I have one last gig to tell you about. Myself, Jim from the Aye Tunes blog and Neil from newbie blog, Scottish Fiction, have teamed up to put a series of monthly gigs at the Flying Duck in Glasgow. Our first night is on Saturday the 27th of October and I reckon we've got a corking line up in store. We've got French Wives, Cancel the Astronauts and The Bad Books, all for the measly sum of £6. For fear of overloading you with information I will let you a bit more about the gig closer to the time. Just get it pencilled in your diaries for now!

And that as they say, is that. It's the blogs 4th birthday in less than two weeks time and I have something pretty damn special lined up, which I will of course tell you more about nearer to the time...

The Times They Are A Changin' In Peenko Land

In a couple of months time this blog will be hitting the grand old age of 4 years old. Now that may not mean a lot to you guys, but it means a lot to me. Ever since I started this site it has pretty much taken over my life, for the better I might add. On reflection, I am really proud of what I have managed to achieve in such a short period. Prior to 'Peenko', I would never have dreamed of doing half of the stuff that I have done, such as putting on gigs, releasing records and the like. Okay, so in the grand scale of things, that might not mean a lot to most people, but it has meant a shit load to me. There is one downside to it all, which is something that folk often ask me about, namely 'how do I manage to fit it all in?'. The simple answer to that is that I sacrifice nearly all of my spare time either doing blog or label stuff, plus I have also recently started managing Randolph's Leap, which leaves me with not a lot of time for anything else. If you add into that equation my daughter, my wife and a full time job, it does all add up. So much so that I have to admit that I am pretty knackered at the moment. I love writing this site, family and work aside, it's been the main focus of my life for coming on four years now. But what with two albums coming out on Olive Grove in the next few months, I realise that I don't have the time to do everything. Not unless of course someone wants to pay me to write this blog so that I don't have to work full time. You never know there might be a Sugar Mummy out there just waiting to help support a rambling music blogger. Don't tell the wife mind...
Basically for the next few months I have decided to take a bit of a break from posting every day. In short for the next wee while Friday Freebies and Fresh Meat Monday posts are going on a wee hiatus. The reason for this being that the freebies post takes up so much time to organise and research, that I'd quite like a wee break. If you're looking for someone to keep you posted on free Scottish music, then get following my partner in crime Aye Tunes Twitter account. As for the Fresh Meat posts, in the past two years I have posted a whopping 132 Fresh Meat interviews, so I would quite like to take some time out to go out and discover some new music without the pressure of having to come up with something new and exciting every week.
Recently a number of my contemporaries have decided to call it a day, most notably Favourite Son and then today, the man who partly inspired me to start this site, The Pop Cop, has announced that he is going to be going on hiatus for a bit. Although that being said he's handing over the reins of his site to a mysterious young lady in a kind of Doctor Who-Esque metamorphosis. Seeing as I am going to be quite busy with other things for the next few months, I did think about taking a break from the site all together. That lasted all of two seconds, as I realised that I would miss this too much. So instead I thought about bringing in some new faces to write for me. The trouble with that is that I wanted to bring in folk who shared similar music tastes to myself and could write well (or at least better than me that is - not hard I know). Easier said than done I should add, but alas find them I did. So in a bit of a coup for the site I have managed to rope in two new folk to write reviews for the site. You heard me right, reviews. Hey, I might not think that I am the greatest reviewer in the world. but these guys are pretty damn fine. So here's the plan, I am going to continue to post up sessions, We've Got It Covered posts and the odd news post and Boab is going to continue to review EPs and singles in his Help Ma Boab, It's The 62 Word Review posts. Plus from tomorrow onwards I also have two new reviewers joining the Peenko crew, Mike and Steve.
Both are figures that you might already have heard of, Mike, previously wrote the blog, Songs Heard On Fast Trains, which I had always thought was an amazing read. So when he recently announced that he was calling it a day I decided not to hang about, so I tapped him up and thankfully he was up for it. He's already drafted up his first post, which should be going up at some point tomorrow.
In addition to adding Mike to the team, I have also just drafted in a fellow by the name of Steve, a man who has previously written for the likes of Muso's Guide, Glasgow Podcart and John Robb's Louder Than War site. With a pedigree like that I am not to sure how I have managed to get him on board, I am sure he'll soon realise what a mistake he's made, but for now I am chuffed to bits to have and Mike on board.
Welcome to the team gents.

As for me, I guess that this would be a sensible time to update you all with what I have planned for the next few months. In September coming, the label I co-run, Olive Grove Records, will release our first album of 2012, from the Glasgow six piece, State Broadcasters. It's called 'Ghosts We Must Carry', and it's a gorgeous wee album that I can't wait for the rest of the world to hear. Having had the album since December of last year, I am genuinely really excited that it will finally be out there for others to hear. In case you missed the memo, we released a free single from it back in June.



If you like this, then you're going to love the album. Also ahead of the albums release, we're going to be releasing a second free download single, 'Kittiwake' on 27th August. We also have a video for Trespassers currently in production, which will feature a giant moth man. If it's half as good as I am told it's going to be, then it should be pretty damn special. As for the album it's out on 17th September, and we're currently finalising plans for a launch venue for the album. Hopefully I should be able to share more info on this for you soon, I'll be sure to post something up once it's finalised.

As well as the State Broadcasters album, we're also going to be releasing the album from the massively talented Jo Mango in November. As with the State Broadcasters, I still have to pinch myself that her album is going to be coming out on Olive Grove. The album was originally going to be called The Moth And The Moon, which could have gotten a bit confusing what with us having The Moth & The Mirror on the label. Instead Jo has opted to go with 'Murmuration' as the album title. If you want a wee taster of what the album is like, then have a listen below.



On top of all of the Olive Grove stuff, as I said before I have now started managing Randolph's Leap. Why am I taking on even more work you might wonder, well the answer to that one is pretty simple, I love the band. Having worked with them so closely for almost two years now it felt like a natural step to take on more of a managerial role. This year alone the band have released two albums, played at festivals including Away Game and T in the Park, plus there was the recent headline slot at Tut's. Yes, I am showing off, but fuck it, after all of the hard work that's gone on behind the scenes I feel comfortable with shouting about these achievements. The best thing about it all is that there is still loads of great stuff still to come, there is an EP coming out on Fence Records in October (I think), they're playing the London Palladium with the Pictish Trail in September, there's an album coming out in Japan some time soon, also there's the little matter of them recording their debut album proper. So yeah, all of that might take some of my time up.



Last, but not least (I know, I know, I don't half ramble on), there is the small matter of the blog celebrating it's 4th birthday in October. For those of you who have frequented this site for a few years (poor you), you might recall that I have tried to do something special for each birthday, in year one I gave away badges, year two we had the I Build Collapsible Mountains EP and last year I had my ill fated podcast, which may one day return - mainly because I reckon rambling on a podcast would be easier than having to type up of all my inane thoughts. Anyway, for this years birthday I have something pretty special lined up, or at least I think it's special, you might disagree. Either way it could turn out to be the best/worst thing that I have ever done. For now all that I'll say is that it involves some of my favourite artists recording songs especially for me, which will be released on a special format. I don't want to spoil the surprise, so trust me this is going to be pretty damn cool.

Right I think I best stop there, if you got this far thanks for sticking with me. I am really looking forward to the next few months, I have a cracking team on board and some amazing music to share with you all. The times they are a changin', for the better I reckon.

Friday Freebies

As there was no Friday Freebies last week as I was still up north recovering from my post-goNorth hangover, this weeks post is a bit a monster. A good friendly monster, filled with lots of free goodness...


The State Broadcasters
I haven't really posted much about what has been going on with the label I co-run, Olive Grove Records, for a while now. Not because I have intentionally tried to keep the two apart, more so because I am a bit forgetful, once I have been doing all of my promo stuff for Olive Grove, it doesn't dawn on me that I haven't bothered to mention it on my own fucking blog. That's what old age and sleep deprivation does to you kids. If you want to remember things, don't try running a label and a blog whilst also trying to maintain some kind of sanity. Oh and adding a child to the mix would just be crazy. Anyway, I'll get to the point, in September we're going to be releasing our first album of 2012 and it's ridiculously good. It's from a Glasgow 6 piece, the State Broadcasters, who some of you might remember from their debut album, 'The Ship & The Iceberg' which came out all the way back in 2009. In a few months time we'll be releasing the follow up album. 'Ghosts We Must Carry' and we're understandably pretty damn excited about it. On Monday their we made their track, 'Trespassers' available as a free download on SoundCloud.  I hope you like it.




Touch Sensitive
Our friends at Touch Sensitive launched their first ever album last week in Glasgow and from all accounts it sounds like it was a pretty successful evening. The online directory is looking to establish greater links between underground and alternative music coming out of Scotland, Spain and the rest of the world. As part of their efforts to create greater links between the different nations they've released a compilation which features six of their favourite artists from Spain and Scotland respectively. It's available now as a free download over on their Bandcamp page, featuring tracks from the likes of The Son(s), Plastic Animals and Zoey Van Goey, plus six Spanish bands that are all well worth checking out.





I Build Collapsible Mountains
There's nothing quite like a new I Build Collapsible Mountains to make the day feel that little bit better, admittedly his songs aren't always the cheeriest, but you can always be assured that they'll be good. Luke, aka  Mr Mountain, has posted up a free download of a new instrumental song by the name of 'Sleeplesser', bloody great it is too. You can find it on his SoundCloud page, if you're looking for something to soothe you into the wee hours of the night, then this my friend is the perfect soundtrack, lovely lovely stuff.



Campfires In Winter 
Croy four piece, Campfires In Winter have pretty much become synonymous with this blog, not only have I been championing the band for several years now, I also have their lead singer writing reviews for me. So I guess I am ever so slightly biased about their music, but fuck it, I wouldn't champion the band if I didn't actually like their music. Having been a bit sporadic with their releases, they continually seem to emerge with new demos which are a massive improvement on the last. In the case of the new songs that they've just posted on their Bandcamp page, they do appear to have developed a much more mature sound that bodes well for their debut album, which should hopefully see the light of day before the year is out. Although I wouldn't hold my breath as I have been waiting for an album for more years than I care to remember. For now though get stuck into these new demos, be warned they're catchy as fuck.

Secret Motorbikes
Do you know what Glasgow really needs, a great surf-pop band and you know what, Secret Motorbikes might well be that band. They've got two EPs up for free download on their Bandcamp page, both of which are pretty damn ace. Ch-ch-check 'em out.





Capitals
Edinburgh electronic duo, Capitals, released their new single 'All These Years' on a pay what you want basis on their Bandcamp page. Dare I say it, but this might well be the best thing they've released to date.





Gummy Stumps 
If you like your pop music to be a wee bit bonkers, then you really need to check out the new Gummy Stumps album, "New House Whites" which is available for free download from the good folk over at Winning Sperm Party.





Allan James
Sick of all of the downbeat indie nonsense? well then Mr James might well be your man. His track Don't Look Down is pretty damn awesome, it's also free to download, making it doubly awesome. Nab it for free from his SoundCloud page.





Honey
Glasgow shoegazers, Honey, have two new songs available for free download, if you're not sure which one to check out first, then I'd go for Cape Canaveral, as that's my personal favourite.

The Last Battle
Edinburgh folk-pop outfit, The Last Battle, released their new single, 'Hope Is Gold' earlier this week, as a wee teaser they've made the B-Side to the single, 'The Crunching' available as a free download on their Bandcamp page. Actually scrap that, it's not free anymore, sorry. It's still worth checking out though. The band launch the single with a gig on the 22nd of June at Pilrig St. Paul's Church Hall in Edinburgh.




Supermarionation
Another Edinburgh band who this time are actually giving away a free download are Edinburgh power pop punks Supermarionation who are giving away a free live recording of a couple of tracks on their Bandcamp page. If you like what you hear and you've got a spare grand kicking about, then you could always invest your pennies in their Limited Edition Supermarionation Card Holder!

Video-rama!!

What with  Mothers Day and the cup final earlier in the day I have almost managed to spend  a whole day without logging into blogger, but alas I just can't resist the temptation of going online. So I have decided that today is as good a day as any to post up some videos that I have been enjoying this week...

First off we have a dems new single Inner O, which is released on 2nd April 2012 on Bad Life Recordings...

Next up we have a the new single from Fife outfit, Ambulances, their double A side single Feeling Sick is out now on Bandcamp and they've made this rather nifty video to accompany it.

Where We Lay Our Heads new single, "Bury You", comes out tomorrow, to celebrate they're playing a headline show at the Captain's Rest on Wednesday night with support from Letters and Cafe Disco.

New Scottish DIY label, Comets & Cartwheels have announced something a bit a special to celebrate the the release of their first release with Quickbeam. Choosing to do something a bit different to the norm, the single launch is going to be held on a ship, yes a ship. The Tall Ship in Glasgow to be exact, support on the evening comes from their label mates Endor plus there will also be an acoustic set from Washington Irving. Further details on the gig can be found here. To get yourself in the mood check out the excellent new video for the single, Seven Hundred Birds below...

Lastly, rather than post up yet another music video I just wanted to point you in the direction of a new project that the State Broadcasters are involved in. For their forthcoming single, Trespassers, they've managed to rope in the award winning director, Jessica Ashman, but they need your help. All you need to know can be found here, or you can just watch the video below...

Trespassers - Indie Go Go Video Plea from Jessica Ashman on Vimeo.

Friday Freebies

Y’all is Fantasy Island
Under appreciated, is the phrase that springs to mind when anyone mentions now defunct Falkirk outfit, Y’all is Fantasy Island. I am not going to start kidding myself that I wasn't one of the folk that didn't fully appreciate what we had until they were gone. Thanks to Wiseblood Industries we can all do some much needed catching up as they've re-issued the whole of Y’all is Fantasy Island’s entire back catalogue digitally for free. This includes five LPs, totalling 55 tracks all in. So if you're not Home Game-ing this weekend, then this should pretty much be your weekend sorted.

State Broadcasters
It feels like ages ago since we last heard anything from the Glasgow's finest twee-Americana band. In fact it's been that long that I actually thought they'd called it a day, so it was good to hear that not only were they still going, but they've also been busy recording new material. They've just made new song 'Kittiwake', which comes from their forthcoming album due out in the summer, available for free download.

Steven Milne
At the tail end of last year I got sent a copy of Aberdeenshire singer songrwiter, Steven Milne's album Chasing Phantoms. Really good it was too, somehow I seem to have misplaced my copy of the album so it slipped out of my mind. Admittedly I do feel kind of guilty about that now, I am going to have to do some much needed hunting to find it. Anyway, what reminded me of all of this was that his label Bedford Records have made a remix of his song Best Of Times available for free download.

The Little Kicks
It's funny that I just mentioned Steven Milne, as he crops up twice in this weeks Friday Freebies. This little freebie comes courtesy of his other project, The Little Kicks, who are going to be out touring for a lot of this month. They've made their new single 'Call of Youth' available to download for free on their Bandcamp.

Fucked Up
I had forgotten quite how much I liked the last Fucked Up album, I must go and give my copy a a good airing. If you're already a fan then you might be chuffed to hear that Stereogum have a free download of their new song “Queen Of Hearts” for free.

Dropkick
One of the reasons I reckon a lot of folk like to search out new music is because it can be quite daunting when you find a band with a back ground as it requires a lot more effort to try and sift through a more established artists back catalogue. Knowing where to start can be pretty off putting when you have so much stuff to listen to. Which in a roundabout way brings me to Dropkick, as East Coast outfit whose music flirts between alt country and power pop. They've recently made 59 of their previously unreleased songs available to download for free on their website. Some of which I am assured are "reasonably good". Having already built up a bit of a cult following in Spain, the band are set to release their new album 'Time Cuts The Ties' on the 14th of May. If that sounds like your cup of tea then you can download a tonne of free songs from their website.

The Spinto Band
Mind the Spinto Band, whatever happened to them then? One great album, one stinker, then I never heard of them again until now. They've apparently been away recording a cover of theme music for Arthur. I am sure that makes perfect sense in Spinto-land, if you fancy hearing what it sounds like then you can by downloading the track for free in exchange for your email address.

Smack Wizards
The up and coming new Glasgow 3-piece , featuring members of Plaaydoh/Mr Peppermint, have made their debut album available for free download through Winning Sperm Party.

The Son(s)
In the midst of everything going on at Olive Grove HQ, it might seem as if we have overlooked some of our artists. I hope that isn't the case, as we love each and every one of our 'children' equally. It's been a while since we talked about the Son(s), so this feels like as good a time as any to be mentioning that they're giving away a free track in exchange for a tweet. So if you were wondering what all the fuss was about then you can find out for yourself here.

Jonathan Sebastian Knight
He of My Cousin I Bid You Farewell fame, has made a whole host of tracks available for free download on his Soundcloud page.

RM Hubbert
I am afraid that this freebie is only open to folk in the US, so if you're not from across the pond then you might want to look away now. He might well be currently be holed up in a studio with Alex Kapranos recording his new album, but we've not forgotten about wur pal Hubby. If you haven't already checked out his album 'First & Last', then you're missing a trick. Chemikal Underground were smart enough to reissue the album, so if you don't trust me, trust them. Our American friends are also in luck as they can download my personal favourite track 'For Maria' for nowt on Amazon. Everyone else, well you've been told enough times, by now you should've already bought the album.

The Dawn Fanfare
This freebie comes courtesy of our radio pal, Pop Goes The Revolution, who are planning on posting a free download every Monday for the next few weeks. So if you fancy a freebie on a Monday get following their Facebook page. This week they came up with The Dawn Fanfare, who are new to me, possibly because they're not Scottish.

Rock The Fort
The mini festival held up in Fort William, finishes up tonight with Bronto Skylift, Homework and James MacKenzie & the Aquscene. From what I have heard from folk who have played it at it, it's been a rather successful start to the festival. What does that have to do with free downloads you might be wondering, well there's a free mini album featuring Bronto, Mitchell Museum and Pareto among others. Get it here.

Bear Driver
Mind we like this lot, they make me smile. Their new demo Colours Run, works for me, see if it does for you by downloading it for free here.

State Broadcasters - Marc Riley Session (25/01/10)

Track Listing
1. Grass Stains
2. Kittiwake
3. Takeshi

Download

Peenko's Albums of 2009 #41 to 50

It's that time of years boys n girls for my annual Top 50 Records of 2009, it's time for me to bore you with the albums that have been floating my boat over these past 12 months, some of them I am sure you can predict, others might come as a bit of a shock. I am pretty sure that some of these records came out towards the tail end of 2008, but I didn't come across them until this year so please excuse me, anyway I'll stop rambling and get this part started.

50. Discover - LP

49. Winter Sleep - Welcome to the Night Sky

48. The Kabeedies - Rumpus

47. The State Broadcasters - Ship & Iceberg

46. Wavves - Wavvves


45. Engine7 - Me But Perfect


44. Telepathe - Dance Mother


43. Woodpigeon - Treasure Library Canada


42. Danananaykroyd - Hey Everyone


41. Remember Remember - s/t

State Broadcasters - Rapal Session (04/02/09)

Track Listing
1. My binoculars
2. The ship & the iceberg
3. The tenderness of wolves
4. Ivor Cutler suggests/Let's make t-shirts

Download
Rapal Videos
Home
Myspace

The State Broadcasters album 'The Ship & the Iceberg' is available to buy now on Electric Honey records, so if you like what you hear, then head here

Electric Honey Showcase @ Popmorphic - CANCELLED

Having sent out what felt like a barrage of emails/posts Pomorphic have cancelled the Electric Honey Showcase event this Thursday. Here's what the lovely Honey folk had to say

Hey everyone,

I'm really sorry to let you all know this but the Electric Honey Showcase at Popmorphic planned for this Thursday has been cancelled.

We are very sad about this.

However, to cheer us all up State Broadcasters are playing at Captains Rest, Glasgow next Wed night! Yippee! Hope you can make it there instead.

Love,

Electric Honey

On the plus side this means you can go to the Mill and catch Diamond Sea and Nacional, get your tickets here

FREE Electric Honey Showcase @ Popmorphic, East Kilbride

This sounds like it could be a fun evening, plus even better it's free!

Popmorphic are putting on a showcase of all of Electric Honey's bands (Wake The President, State Broadcasters & WOODENBOX with a Fistful of Fivers) at their state of the art studios in East Kilbride on Thurs April 23rd.


The event is a free and everyone is welcome! All you have to do is email electrichoney@popmorphic.com with your name so that you are on the list for the night!

Popmorphic will kindly supply buses taking us all from Stow College (near Cowcaddens Subway) to their studios.
Free booze and food will also be provided!

The bus will leave Glasgow between 6.30pm - 7pm and should be back around 11pm.


Anyone else fancy this?

Electric Honey
Popmorphic

The State Broadcasters - Marc Riley Session (19/02/09)

Tracklisting
1. The Tenderness of Wolves
2. After The Fight
3. Instrumental/Let's Make T-Shirts
Download

Home
Myspace
BBC

The State Broadcasters will be celebrating the launch of their debut album with a gig at sloans Ballroom on the 19th of March, and best of all it's free.