This Week's Stuff

Records:
It's getting into a slow time of year for records, but a really busy time for gigs, so for the next few weeks this'll probably be quite lopsided.
Meursault have a pair of double A-side 7" singles out, featuring new recordings of William Henry Miller Parts One and Two along with A Few Kind Words and the Dirt & the Roots from Pissing on Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues. These have been on sale at gigs recently You should be able to pick those up in your local independent record shop, or at the Song, by Toad Records website. They are also available as a download too, for those of us without record players. Available from iTunes, eMusic and the like.
Today's Christmas Song of choice, El Dog's cover of Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow, is as mentioned previously available today, for the wallet pleasing price of free.
Camera Obscura have a Christmassy single out today too, a cover of the Jim Reeves song The Blizzard, backed with Swans from their last album My Maudlin Career.
He Slept on 57's Turn Your Back On All We Know EP is available on iTunes from today.
The Gothenburg Address album is available on all good download sites now. For a CD, go here.

Gigs:
I mentioned these two last week, but here's a reminder anyway. Monday December 7th, that's tonight, sees The Gothenburg Address launch their critically acclaimed debut album with a gig in Mono. Support comes from The Bucky rage and Loss Leader, with Aiden Moffat doing some DJing for good measure. You du not want to miss the Gothenburg Address album, you can order it here if you can't make the gig.
He Slept on 57 and City of Statues are also playing on the 7th at King Tut's.
On Thursday Malcolm Middleton brings his Long Dark Night tour to the Òran Mór. Support comes from some chap named Aidan Moffat.
You Already Know play their final gig of the year on Friday, in the 13th Note. Having missed their last Glasgow gig, I've been eagerly awaiting this one, and only being trapped under something heavy, or worse, will keep me from going.
If you like crap, well beyond their prime rock, then The Stereophonics are playing at the Classic Grand on Saturday. You need to win a competition to go.

The Edinburgh people have a few belters to look forward to this week.
On Friday eagleowl launch their new single, Sleep The Winter, with a gig in The Bowery. Glasgow folks, we get a single launch gig too, on Monday the 14th in the 13th Note. You might remember that I rather enjoyed that single.
On Saturday there is not only the Trampoline All Day shindig, but also the Song, by Toad Christmas Party. If you want to go to Trampoline, then on to the Song, by Toad bash, tell them at the door you'll only be there for a while and Euan will let you in a wee bit cheaper. Both have cracking line ups, and you can get hours of good live music for hardly any money. Your liver might hate you though.
The Aye Tunes Christmas Party won't be a patch on either of those, since it will mostly be me having a few pints in a pub on my own.

Christmas Songs - Day 7

Today's offering comes from El Dog, offering up their take on Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, available as a free download below.

El Dog - Let It Snow by Lo-Five Records

Here's the video too:



El Dog

Christmas Songs - Day 6

Carrying on with this till I run out of songs.

Today it is the turn of Frightened Rabbit, who if you haven't been paying attention are quite popular round Aye Tunes towers.

It's Christmas So We'll Stop has been released twice in different versions, back in 2007 and again in 2008. I've plumped for the 2007 version for this post. No real reason why. If I panic I might end up using 2008's version later in the month too.

Frightened Rabbit - It's Christmas So We'll Stop (2007)

Frightened Rabbit MySpace

Aye Tunes - Too Nice?

Almost wrote this post last night after drinking a significant amount of tequila, but thought better of it, and wrote a surprisingly coherent album review instead. Tonight I'm sober, but I'm going to go ahead with the post anyway, even though it might come back to haunt me.

If you read my blathering on Twitter - and if you don't you aren't really missing much, but why not? - you might have heard me mention an email I got yesterday relating to Aye Tunes. On one hand this was nice, as I don't get very much in the way of comments or feedback round here. On the other hand, as it called me a variety of names and had a go at me, it was a bit less fun.
In between the cursing at me, there were a couple of reasonable points raised, so I'm using it as an excuse to have a wee vent and address a few things. Names have been taken out to protect the innocent and guilty alike, quotes from the email are in italics, and I've edited out most of the swearing. I did leave some in though, so be warned. And away we go!

Christmas Songs - Day 5

Day five, and due to scheduling issues, a song that's already appeared on a million other places before I've been able to slot it in. That'll teach me to plan ahead!

Today's offering is a brand new free download Christmas song by There Will Be Fireworks, a band who blew me away twice live this year, and whose debut album is still slugging it out for inclusion on my top ten of the year.

There Will Be Fireworks - In Excelsis Deo

Album Review: Isa & The Filthy Tongues - Dark Passenger

Recently I've found myself with a bit of extra cash floating around in my Paypal account, annoyingly while I'm skint in the real World, and so I've been doing a bit of impulse music buying with it. Long story short, that's why I've got a copy of the new Isa & the Filthy Tongues album a bit ahead of it's proper release in January of next year.

On Friday I got an email accusing me of being too nice in my reviews and this seems like a good chance to put the accusation to the test. You see, Isa & The Filthy Tongues aren't really a band I'm a huge fan of. Obviously I enjoy a fair amount of their stuff, otherwise I wouldn't have been on their mailing list to find out about their new album in the first place, however in the past they've also done a bit that's left me decidedly cold. Also, they aren't friends or relations, so I've got no bias coming in to the album, other than hoping it was worth my money. I'll be impartial all the way.

Jim's Killer kicks things off, sounding little bit Echo and the Bunnymen, a bit Jesus and Mary Chain. That's fine with me, I like both those bands and this is a good, solid song. Although it brings The Bunnymen and The Mary Chain to mind, it doesn't sound like a rip off, helped out in part by pleasingly moody and husky female vocals from Stacey Chavis. I tend to look favourably on songs with my name in them, but as this is mostly about someone called Jim dieing in a fire, I'm slightly frightened. Not a bad start though.

New Town Killers, co-written with Richard Jobson for his film of the same name, comes up next. This song has been about for ages, and is one I've heard before. I didn't pay an awful lot of attention to it before, and right now I'm wondering why. It's actually a beauty. Martin Metcalfe contributes the majority of the vocals, which doesn't leave Chavis with an awful lot to do, but does give some nice melodies between the two of them. Two tracks in and I'm enjoying this a lot.
I'm not going to do the rest track by track, apart from anything else it is almost 3am and I do like to sleep sometimes. For the same reason I won't, at least for now, touch the second disc, featuring mainly remixes of tracks that appeared on previous album Addiction.

The Mary Chain and Bunnymen reminders remain present for much of the album, but not enough to distract from what Isa & The Filthy Tongues are doing here. There's a hint of Pixies mixed in there too. I don't mean to sound like this is a sound-a-like album, it most certainly isn't, it's just that a lot of music reminds me of other music, and sometimes I get a wee bit stuck on that. Big Blue, for example, is another gem, with a chugging bass line, and gorgeous surfish guitar.

The rest of the album might not throw up much in the way of surprises, but remains at the very least good, with a few more belters in there, like Memories, and the bluesy swagger of Beautiful Girl. I'm not always a massive fan of the lyrics, but when I'm not the music is generally god enough to carry them. Oh, and I might be a little bit in love with Call Me.

So, there we go. Even coming into the album with no bias or agenda I've thoroughly enjoyed it. Boiled down to the simple question of was it worth my money the answer is a quite resounding yes, and that's all I really care about.

I'll pay a bit more attention to Isa & the Filthy Tongues after this.

Isa & the Filthy Tongues - MySpace - Website

The special double CD version of the album, the one I impulse bought (#199 out of 200 fact fans, got in there just in time), is now sold out. You can however order a regular single CD edition here.

Gig Review: The Whisky Works, Trapped In Kansas

Thursday, December 3rd 2009.
The Whisky Works and Trapped In Kansas, The Mill at Òran Mór, Glasgow.

I did say I wasn't going to review every single gig I go to, but I could do with a break from writing up my favourite albums - lots of half finished posts and headaches - so last night's gig is getting a quick write up.

I'd been looking forward to this gig for a while, I think I'd grabbed tickets almost immediately after the became available on The Mill website. I hadn't counted on my poor financial planning meaning it would use up every bit of my remaining cash to get there, although by this point I should have known better. Happily it was worth it, it was even worth the long walk home from the centre of Paisley to the arse end, where I live.

I hadn't seen The Whisky Works before, but I did pick up their debut EP when it was released. To be honest, I wasn't completely convinced by it. While it was mostly enjoyable, there were a few bits that left me cold. Nonetheless, they were a band I'd fancied catching for a while.
I'm very glad I caught them now. Having not seen the band before, I can't say what effect the recent addition of a new bassist, Ross Jenkins - also of Hey Vampires, but the band sounded fantastic. Energetic, moledic, engaging and loud. All those issues I had with their songs on the EP were gone live too. Really very impressed.

Incidentally, I've just realised one of the reasons I wasn't completely sold on the EP, Deficit Attention Program, that The Whisky Works released earlier this year is that the copy I got from eMusic skips all over the place. What I though were weirdly arranged and repetitive bits are actually screwed up mp3s. Oops!

I could have sworn I'd written about Trapped In Kansas before over here, but looking back it seems that other than mentioning a few of their gigs, I haven't. I'll rectify that more fully sometime soon. Last time I saw them, a while back in The Flying Duck, I was shaking off a cold, so wasn't in the best of form for judging bands. However what I heard that night, along with the songs I'd heard previously and since, were more than enough to rocket them up my bands to keep an eye on list. Thus, getting to see them again last night was something I was rather excited about.
I wasn't alone in that either, there were a whole score of familiar faces in the crowd last night. I dare say none of us went home disappointed. Well, except perhaps the member of Team PodcART who wanted five more songs, but if you ask me being left wanting more is far, far better than a band that outstay their welcome.
Trapped in Kansas make songs that are all at once complex and intricate, yet crowd pleasing and catchy, showing that you don't need to dumb things down to get the audience singing along.
A special mention also has to go to Finn Le Marinel's vocals. They are distincive, beautiful and are one of many things that helps this band, for me, stand out from the pack.

At a few recent gigs at The Mill I've noticed a few issues with the sound, but happily there were none noticable last night, both bands sounded great. Good night? As that wee nodding dog off the telly might say, oh yes.

The Whisky Works MySpace
Trapped In Kansas MySpace

Christmas Songs - Day 4

Day 4 and I'm not bored with this yet (admittedly that's because I wrote all the posts on Tuesday and scheduled them rather than writing them day by day), so hopefully you aren't either.

Today Teenage Fanclub get a turn. I won't hear a bad word said about Teenage Fanclub, they've made some of my favourite songs. Their Christmas offering comes from an old XFM compilation album, It's A Cool, Cool, Christmas. It was for charity, but now seems to be out of print, so I don't need to feel too guilty about posting a song off it.

Teenage Fanclub - Christmas Eve

Teenage Fanclub Website

Christmas Songs - Day 3

Another day, another Christmas song.

Not just another song, but one of my favourite bands ever doing it too.
Recorded for a BBC session along with two of their own songs and a Sugababes cover, with backing vocals from Lauren Laverne. It's one you might want to miss if you've recently been dumped.

Arab Strap - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

Best of 2009: The Phantom Band - Checkmate Savage

Before I put out any kind of Best of 2009 list I plan to write a bit about some of my favourite albums of the year. Re-reviewing a couple, but mostly - because for the first half of this year at least Aye Tunes was shit at reviews - reviewing them for the first time, even if they've been out for ages. I'm not touching albums of the decade, I think my brain would explode if I tried.

Waaaay back in January I got all excited about the debut album by a Scottish band I'd spent a chunk of 2007 and all of 2008 stalking, catching live as much as I could and playing the Hell out of the one single of theirs I owned. That debut release was Checkmate Savage by The Phantom Band. To say it was long awaited by me is a bit of an understatement, ever since catching the band supporting Mother & The Addicts in August 2007, while they were still unsigned and everything, I'd been desperate to hear more from them.

Thankfully when the album eventually hit in January it didn't let me down. Every time I'd seen the band they sounded a bit better and by the time I got to hear the songs recorded they sounded fantastic. Despite my familiarity with some of the songs from live shows the whole album sounded fresh to me. Nearly 12 months it still sounds fresh with each listen, and there has been a lot of them over the course of this year.

I'm fairly sure there's a rule that when talking about The Phantom Band you have to talk about Krautrock, and it does rear it's head a few times throughout the album, especially on Crocodiles, but it is just one of many influences and styles that crop up throughout. The swampy rhythms and occasional staggering riff grab hold of you, hold on and take you along for the ride.

Checkmate Savage is an assured, mature debut, no jitters by a band finding their feet are noticeable to me. I'm sure having veteran producer Paul Savage on board helped with that, but nonetheless, it's a fine debut that never fails to be rewarding and lives up to it's ambition.

My only issue with it is that having lived with the earlier single version of Throwing Bones for so long (it was named one of my favourite tracks of 2007 on one of my old blogs), the new version on the album still doesn't feel quite right to me. A minor quibble at best, other than that the ablum remains one of my favourites of the year.

The Phantom Band - Folk Song Oblivion

The Phantom Band MySpace

Christmas Songs - Day 2

Originally something else was scheduled for day two, but after Boab from Campfires in Winter sent me this over I decided I couldn't hold it back, I'd be cheating mankind if they had to wait.
Well alright, maybe not, but the song did make me laugh hysterically for quite some time.
If Boab doesn't mind, I'll quote his description of the song - "it's about 2 guys getting pished, one of them decides to burn down the tree and pretends to be a bear and asks the other one to join him. It's a lot of shite." Me, I think it might well be my new favourite Christmas song.

Campfires in Winter - Christmas Song

It doesn't represent the music Campfires in Winter make in the slightest though, it was something they put together as a pisstake, for a laugh. It does that job nicely, but get yourself round to their MySpace to hear what they normally do, and get a better understanding of why Glasgow Podcart recently raved about them.

Campfires In Winter MySpace

Christmas Songs - Day 1

Well, it is the first of December, which means you get to open the first door on your advent calendar.
On my old blogs I used to run a musical advent calendar, where for each day of December up until Christmas Day I'd post a wee Christmas song. This year I don't think I'll be doing that, but I will be posting a few.
If I can find 24 good seasonal songs by Scottish artists, then I'll go for the full on Advent calendar, but I've only got about 10 so far. Suggestions are welcome!

To kick off proceedings I've picked out one of my favourite Christmas songs, reworked by a fabulous Scottish band. Miss the Occupier recorded Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses for a Vic Galloway session last year. It is, of course, wonderful.

Miss The Occupier - Christmas Wrapping

Miss The Occupier MySpace