33.3 - Broken Kneecap, Velvet Spine

Oh hello almost missed deadline! I never expected to see you so soon. You're going to be visiting a lot in the next month, aren't you? Yes you are, you little scamp.

So yeah, football, a bust hard drive, and other things have all contrived to distract me today, meaning that very little thought has been put into this post, I've fired up blogger just after 11, and picked the very first song that came into my head.

I'm tempted to hide the name so that you don't know what it is until you hit play, but that's too much work, I'd need to go and change the file name and stuff, and I'm already scrambling around here.

Babble ends. Song begins.

Whale - Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe

It was this or Cherry Pie, decide for yourself which would have been better. Tomorrow I'll try and be earlier.

33.2 - Yeah, and You Thought You Knew Me?

I don't know either.

Woo, Friday night, party time! What'll it be tonight then, an indie disco floorfiller? Some fat, throbbing beats for us to get down to? A bit of The Boss to sing along to while getting pickled?

No?

Something which features domestic violence?

Yes.

Whipping Boy. We Don't Need Nobody Else is another song I turn to when alcohol influenced and in control of music, but usually not till the point where everyone is a bit too drunk, pals have passed out, pissed me off, or both, and I'm starting to hate everything a wee bit. This usually helps, although if anyone is ever still awake to hear me singing along they do look very surprised at one particular part of the song.
It's tough, but beautiful.

Also contains a nice Bono diss.

Two versions, have fun, don't hit anyone.
Whipping Boy - We Don't Need Nobody Else
Whipping Boy - We Don't Need Nobody Else (Acoustic)

Whipping Boy are Irish, released a couple of cracking albums in the 90s - pick of the bunch being Heartworm, where this song comes from - then vanished. They tried to resurface a few times, but never seemed to quite manage until a year or two ago. At the tail end of last year the band, with a mostly new line up built around singer Fearghal McKee released a new single, No One Takes Prisoners Anymore. It was ok.

Stag & Dagger: Who, Where, When?

Going to Stag & Dagger in Glasgow on Saturday? You'll probably want to know who is playing, at what venue, and when then, won't you?

Here's a handy dandy guide, with my favourites highlighted in red and everything.

SATURDAY 19 MAY

O2 ABC1 
19:15-20:00 White Denim
20:15-21:00 The Phantom Band
21:15-22:15 Django Django 

O2 ABC2 
18:00-18:30 Passenger
18:45-19:15 A Plastic Rose
19:30-20:00 To Kill A King
20:30-21:00 The New Piccadillys
21:30-22:15 Vigo Thieves

CCA 5 
19:00-19:30 Chasing Owls
20:00-20:30 Will Hanson
21:00-21:45 Eleanor Friedberger
22:15-22:45 Washington Irving
23:00-23:45 Willy Mason

THE ART SCHOOL 
18:30-19:00 White Arrows
19:30-20:00 Post War Years
20:30-21:15 Still Corners
21:45-22:15 Jonquil
22:55-23:45 Niki & The Dove Conquering Animal Sound

STEREO
19:30-20:00 Miaoux Miaoux
20:30-21:00 Random Impulse
21:30-22:15 Bear in Heaven
22:45-23:30 EMA
00:00-00:45 Forest Swords

NICE 'N' SLEAZY 
19:00-19:30 Adam Stafford
20:00-20:30 Bwani Junction
21:00-21:45 Milk Music
22:15-23:00 Holy Mountain

THE CAPTAINS 
14:00-14:30 Michael Anguish
15:00-15:30 Hot Panda
16:00-16:30 Honeyblood
17:00-17:30 The Heartbreaks
18:00-18:30 Die Hard
19:00-19:30 Ryan Keen
20:00-20:30 Holy Esque
21:00-21:45 Still Flyin'
22:15-22:45 Hidden Masters
23:15-00:00 Discopolis

33.1 - Start Big

Things I didn't think of when coming up with this stupid idea #1: title images are going to be a pain. Let's start with beer, almost everything starts with beer.

Entry number one then, what should it be? Something like The Delgados, Arab Strap or Teenage Fanclub would be an easy way to go, but all a bit too obvious. We'll get to them, but not tonight.
No, I think we'll skip straight to one of the big guns to kick things off. If you only know me from reading the blog this one might be a bit of a surprise to you. If you've ever witnessed me in a situation where I'm in control of music, particularly if beer has been consumed (I knew I'd manage to work beer in, go me!) whether by being one of my pals, having seen one of the rare occasions where someone has foolishly gotten me to DJ (I still miss you Pin Up Nights) or just had the misfortune to be one of my Twitter followers, you'll know some songs are just inevitable. This one? This one isn't just inevitable, it's pretty much essential.

Skee-Lo - I Wish

A while back I got into a bit of a hip hop discussion, with the other party being somewhat surprised that I even liked hip hop, and upon being asked to name my favourite hip hop song without thinking about it, I Wish was my first, instant answer. I love a lot of hip hop, and there's a ton of more influential, more important, "better" songs than this one, but ask me to pick a favourite and I will go with Skee-Lo every single time.
Genuinely, without a hint of me trying to be smart or "ironic", one of my favourite songs OF ALL TIME.

Ain't that fresh?

33 - A Month Long Exercise In Annoying You

Have you seen this cake? Please contact your local police.

In 33 days I turn 33. Do a birthday gig again? Goodness no, the one last year almost gave me a nervous breakdown, and cost me most of my birthday money. Yet another Aye Tunes gig in July though. Shh, I never said that.
To "celebrate" I'm going to try and tackle my status as Scotland's Laziest Music Blogger, and annoy you with rambling, by doing a post every day.

That's right, every single day for the next 33 days - unless it goes horribly off the rails - you'll have a chance to look in and think "wow, after 4 years of this he still can't write about music?". No great theme here, no songs that changed my life, because that would be lies.

It'll just be songs I like, bands I like, that sort of thing. Lots of stuff I love but wouldn't normally be able to fit on the blog without a crowbar. Sort of like This Is My Jam, but with more words, and pictures of Transformers. It'll probably be terrible. Expect Britpop.

33.1 coming later tonight, when my computer stops acting like a petulant child and does what I tell it. Try to feign interest.

SAY Award Shortlist Announced

I keep forgetting to mention the Scottish Album of the Year Award. The shortlist of the ten albums that'll be in the running for the prize has been announced today, so now is as good time as any to finally get around to it, I suppose.

Firstly, a wee bit of background:
The SAY Award was concieved by The Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA). Earlier in the year 100 music and arts industry figures from across Scotland were invited to submit their nominations for the Scottish Album of the Year, before a longlist featuring the 20 highest scoring records was announced on April 12th. That longlist has now been reduced to a shortlist of 10 following the deliberations of a specially invited judging panel. The shortlist features one record voted for by the general public who have been able to listen to all 20 longlisted albums online and via a specially designed SAY Award app. With the voting ‘window’ only open for 24 hours on May 14th, more than 9,000 votes were submitted online and via the app.

The winning album will be announced at a prestigious ceremony in Glasgow Film City on Tuesday 19th June, earning a grand prize of £20,000. The nine runners-up will each receive £1,000. All ten shortlisted finalists will receive an artwork from the winner of a unique SAY Award art commission which celebrates the enduring links that exist between music and art. The commission, valued at £20,000, will be offered to graduates from Scotland’s four principal art schools with the winning graduate (selected, in this pilot year, from Glasgow’s School of Art) producing ten artworks to be donated as prizes for the shortlisted finalists.

The shortlist:

• Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - Everything’s Getting Older
• Conquering Animal Sound - Kammerspiel
• Happy Particles - Under Sleeping Waves
• King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine
• Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
• Mungo’s Hi Fi - Forward Ever
• Remember Remember - The Quickening
• Rustie - Glass Swords
• Tommy Smith - Karma
• Twin Atlantic - Free (public vote winners)

Confirmation there that I'm out of touch with what the public likes. Personally I'd be delighted to see any of Bill & Aidan, Conquering Animal Sound, Happy Particles, Mogwai and Remember Remember win the prize, although my public vote went to CAS, because imagine all the fun toys they could buy with twenty grand. Slight disappointment from me that FOUND didn't make the shortlist is balanced a bit by relief that Bwani Junction didn't either.

TBreak 2012 Line-up Announced

Well, it's that time of year again, as the bands chosen by a select band of elite soldiers to play the TBreak stage at this year's T in the Park have been announced.

The bands are:

Anderson, McGinty, Webster, Ward and Fisher
Bacchanal Party
Beerjacket
Blank Canvas
Brown Bear & The Bandits
Capitals
Chris Devotion and the Expectations
Crusades
Davey Horne
Nevada Base
Open Swimmer
Randolph’s Leap
Roman Nose
TeKlo
The Machine Room
The Mirror Trap

I fed these details into an insane super computer, which rated them as shite (0) alright (5) and ace (10). Here are the results.

You can't argue with science.

And here's a bridge burning.

Another Aye Tunes Gig: Exit_International, Wrongnote & Supermarionation

Been a while since I put on a gig, having all but decided to hang up my occasionally used promoter hat at the end of last year. When the chance came up to put together this one though, I couldn't resist.

And so Aye Tunes Presents is back, a wee bit different this time. We've spread our wings a bit and are bringing a band all the way from Wales for this one, along with one from Glasgow, and one from the scariest place of all, Edinburgh.

Exit_International first came on to my radar when they supported Ginger of The Wildhearts in Glasgow at the tail end of last year. That gig took place on the same night as the now infamous "Hurricane Bawbag", and it is fair to say the wind wasn't the only thing blowing people away. The Cardiff three piece shun six strings, instead coming armed with a pair of bass guitars, to thrilling results. Loud, frantic, sleazy and sexy, with more hooks than a tackle box, Exit_International call to mind hints of Girls Against Boys, Pulled Apart By Horses, Pixies and Motorhead, while always being their own distinct kind of rock beast.
Tours with Ginger Wildheart, Hawk Eyes, Monster Magnet, Blitz Kids, and dates with Kids In Glasshouses, Pulled Apart By Horses, Gay For Johnny Depp and The Bronx, and debut album Black Junk saw Exit_International pick up plaudits in the British rock press, with Rock Sound, Tis is Fake DIY and Kerrang! all praising the band.
A 7” single of Chainsaw Song/Glory Horn – both re-recorded with the latter track featuring vocals and guitar by Ginger - is set for release in May, with the band off on tour to promote the single. I'm delighted to be bringing them to Glasgow for the sole Scottish date of their tour, and hope you'll join me in giving them a warm welcome. Possibly a sweat drenched welcome too, but certainly a warm one.



Wrongnote have been tickling my ears for a while now. Debut album Rech Out, Disconnect took a couple of listens for me to really get into it, but once it took hold, it wouldn't let go without a fight. Jagged and off kilter, Wrongnote are probably lazily best described as falling somewhere into post-punk, but there's a lot more to them than that with elements of progressive, punk, post punk, power-pop, jazz, metal and everything in between mixed in. There's something slightly, and endearingly, demented about the Glasgow four piece. Recent single Heart of a Rat is available to download for a price of your choosing from Bandcamp, and sounds ace to me. Also, at the risk of me getting a beating for mention it, Wrongnote must be one of very few Scottish bands to have a member receive the compliment of "I don't mean to be crass, but I'd bang him like a drum" on the IMDB message boards. There's many more threads about the looks of said band member, I'll say no more about that.



Supermarionation are a band I've tried to lure to Glasgow for one of my gigs a few times, but have always been dashed by schedules. Happily this time around the stars aligned, and Supermarionation will be bringing their own brand of punky, poppy rock to the night. No lusty fans on IMDB, but the band do claim to be made up of mad scientists and warlords, so maybe the creepy female fanbase is in a different location.



The gig takes place on Thursday May 3rd at Stairway in Glasgow. If you've not been there before it's on Union Street, right next to Central Station.
Advance tickets are available from Brown Paper Tickets here.
If you are into that kind of thing you can claim you'll come on Facebook here, but I'd much rather you actually came along than just clicked that button.

Buy Expensive Plastic, You Capitalist Pigs! (Or: Record Store Day 2012)

Hey, look, I'm alive! Surprised? I am.

Record Store Day is coming up this Saturday, so I figured I should make some attempt at doing something here, even though I am Scotland's laziest music blogger. Me and RSD don't really get on that much, in part because I don't buy much vinyl, and in part because I call shops shops, not stores. For a more enthusiastic bit about record shops hop over to our pals at Echoes and Dust.
One good thing about Record Store Day is that you can always catch some bands playing for free though. Yes, I'm missing the point, no, I don't really care.

In Edinburgh there's in store activity at Avalanche Records, and VoxBox Music.

Avalanche have:
Withered Hand (2pm)
Gordon McIntyre (Ballboy) (3pm)
Ryan Hannigan (Star Wheel Press) masterclass on how to make album covers
Afterwards the shop is teaming up with The Tidal Wave of Indifference for a gig at The Electric Circus from 7pm, with Star Wheel Press, The Last Battle and Emily Scott.

Over at VoxBox, the line-up is:
PAWS (3pm)
Neil Pennycook (Meursault) (4pm)

Through in Glasgow everyone is getting in on the act.

Insularis Records are bringing their pop up shop to Nice & Sleazy from 12pm, with the following live acts promised:
Call To Mind (2pm)
Any Color Black (3pm)
Withered Hand (5pm)
They'll also be having a raffle for some rarities, including one of the last remaining FOUND chocolate 7" singles, and hint that there'll be some surprises too.
Following their takeover upstairs, Insularis are also hosting a gig downstairs at Sleazy's, with Holy Mountain, What the Blood Revealed, and Adam Stafford, which frankly sounds brilliant.
Here's some Holy Mountain.

Love Music have:

Dolalay (1.30pm)
Cathode Ray (2pm)
White Heath (2.30pm)
French Wives (3pm)
Woodenbox (4pm)
The Murderburgers (4.30pm)
Admiral Fallow (5pm)

Down at Monorail you can catch this lot:

Organs Of Love (4pm)
Gerard Love DJ set (4.30pm)
Human Don’t Be Angry (5.30pm)
Stuart Braithwaite DJ set (6pm)
Snowgoose (7pm)
The Brogues DJ set (7.30pm),
Linden, Edwyn Collins & Dead Flamingos (8.30pm)

As always there's a whole pile of Record Store Day exclusive product available on the day too. Get along to the shops early for those limited edition over priced records from the major labels kids! Or buy them from scalpers on eBay later.
I've dug through the full list to find some RSD exclusive from Scots (and Garbage), so I can carry on pretending to be a Scottish music blog for a little longer.

• Admiral Fallow: Boots Met My Face LP
• Belle & Sebastian: Crash 7"
• Django Django: Storm 7"
• Edwyn Collins: Tape Box 6x7" box set
• Emeli Sande: Heaven 12"
• Garbage: Blood For Poppies/Battle In Me 7"
• Human Don't Be Angry: Human Don't Be Angry LP
• Mull Historical Society: Must You Get Low 7"
• The Wicker Man OST: Willow's Song/Gently Johnny 7"
• Snowgoose: Harmony Springs LP
• Twin Atlantic: Make a Beast of Myself 7" picture disc
• Various Artists (inc. Simple Minds): The Breakfast Club OST LP
• Finally, and not on the list, Cath Records have a pair of releases, a tape from Bronto Skylift and Sean Armstrong cassette/DVD. No idea where they'll be on sale right enough, but if you keep an eye on their Facebook I'm sure they'll tell us.

Track By Track: Black International - In Debt

One of my favourite albums of last year, Black International's In Debt, has been picked up by Spiralchords Records, and was re-released on Friday. For those that missed it first time round here's a repeat from last year, when Black International's Stewart Allen shared some behinds the scenes secrets about the songs on the album.

Thanks to the magic of Bandcamp embeds you can listen to the whole album as you read. If you like it, buy it. Now, read on to learn about the mysteries of the Brazilian Trilogy, and other things.

A Million Mouths

This song probably had the longest gestation period of anything we’ve written, as I was terrified that I couldn't think of any lyrics for it, and always felt ill whenever I contemplated doing them. I think we started rehearsing this in 2008 before temporarily abandoning it, but the general chord sequence may have been kicking around for two or three years before that. We finished it a week before recording started. Nail biting, etc.

Destruct-o-

I can’t remember much about the process of writing this one, but the basic structure was finished before I took it to the rest of the band, which is quite unusual for us these days. Believe it or not, we had a sort of Sly & the Family Stone thing in mind when we were arranging it, which I think shows in the rhythm section. Imagine there are trumpets and grunts on it and you’ll see what I mean.

Dread (Excerpt)

The ‘excerpt’ in the title refers to the introduction, which was originally a complete song but wasn't very good, so we binned most of it and bolted it onto another song. The first of what I’ll call the Brazilian Trilogy, as it was written on a little Spanish classical guitar I got from a charity shop while I sat around trying to copy Jorge Ben.

The lyric idea owes a little bit to McCarthy’s Charles Windsor, but doesn’t have quite the same level of joyous nose thumbing. I’d say it was supposed to be ‘darkly comic’, if I were a bit more of a twat.

Word Virus

Imagine my disappointment upon finding out that the title was subconsciously pinched from a William Burroughs book. I thought I’d struck gold, but alas, he’d beaten me to it. Still, at least it was Burroughs and not Enid fucking Blyton.

This one was written extremely quickly in rehearsal, and I finished off the lyrics at work the next day when I was supposed to be doing some dull task or other. If my former boss is reading (doubtful), I’m sure he’ll be pleased.

Know You Exist

Originally this had the somewhat childish working title of ‘Sonic Urethra’ when I first started it, as it sounded a bit like… actually, do I even have to explain that? It doesn't sound like Sonic Youth anymore. Musically it was very much a collaborative effort, if it’d been left up to me it would have been a shapeless twenty-minute drone. Luckily Craig has a good ear for structuring stuff.

I can’t say for sure, but the “Here’s your hair shirt, son” line was probably cribbed from the title of a Birthday Party song, called (strangely enough) The Hair Shirt. I was in a bit of an odd place when I wrote these lyrics, but it’s ALL FUCKING FINE NOW OK?

Interval

Does what it says in the title. We just fancied having a bit of breathing space and dividing the album in two, so did this one evening near the end of mixing. I could give a proper in-depth description of how it was made, but nobody wants to read that shit.

The City Is Dead

This song dates back to around 2007 along with Monument and You Can Trust Me, so I can’t really remember much about its inception. It’s supposed to be a rockabilly type thing, but has been put through our patented ‘bombastic washing machine’ and the colours have run a little bit.

Lyrically it’s a bit of a jumble, but I suppose it’s about dropping out of repetitive cycles of living and doing something fun instead. We’re deep, man, what can I say?

Monument

Again, it was written a while ago and my memory is hazy… I remember doing some of the lyrics in a bar on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh one Saturday afternoon. Spot the deliberate mistake, metallurgy fans.

Idle Worship

The second of the Brazilian Trilogy, I’d have thought it was quite obvious in this instance. Close your eyes, visualise it slowed down, samba rhythm, acoustic guitar, singing in Portuguese… You could almost be mugging tourists in São Paolo!

Feed Me Rhetoric

Brazilian #3 (sounds like a humiliating waxing routine). I’m doing my best Jim Morrison croon on this one. Should I buy a pair of leather trousers, hmm? Call myself ‘The Crocodile Baron’ or something? Anyway, Lovely Latin drumming from Craig I must proclaim, and it seems to be a firm live favourite with audiences, so we hardly ever play it.

And yes, I know how ‘rhetoric’ should be pronounced, but it doesn’t fit in that way. So fuck off.

You Can Trust Me

This started out as a little folky number but when we began working on it properly we focussed it through a Birthday Party-esque prism and noised it up a bit. Are you still reading this? If I were you I’d have gone home ages ago. You really are a glutton for punishment.

Black International: Website - Facebook -  Bandcamp