Aye Tunes Vs Peenko II Update

A week and a half to go until AVPII, so it is probably time for a wee update on things.

Advance tickets for the gig are now available. As with last time we won't try and charge you any add ons, no booking fees and free postage too (unless you order too late for me to safely post them, then we'll keep one for you to collect). This time we are even throwing in a little download pack, with a song from each of the bands playing on the night.

Tickets are available here. At least they are if I haven't messed up Bandcamp along the line.

So that's We're Only Afraid of NYC, Randolph's Leap and Little Yellow Ukuleles, at The 13th Note, on Saturday July 17th. Doors at 8:30.
See you there? There's a Facebook event page too, for those that like to click things.

Single Review: Skies Fell - Statues

Glasgow four piece Skies Fell came to my attention a little while ago when they made their first single available for free download, which was good enough to make sure I kept an eye out for them.
Now their follow up single is ready for release, and it too is pretty good.

Skies Fell do the same kind of melodic alternative rock that many bands in Glasgow do, which often isn't really up my street. Some bands do it well enough that they stand out from the pack and make music that I enjoy, even when I don't expect to.
Obviously since I'm writing about Skies Fell, they manage to fall into the small bunch that I enjoy. Statues is punchy and short, with a big anthemic chorus and staccato guitar riffs, and does it's job well. I prefer b-side Sharky and George though. It doesn't seem to be related to the crime busters of the sea, but does have a bit of a water theme to the lyrics. It is a wee bit overblown, but entertaining rather than annoyingly so.

Good stuff from a band that have raised the bar for themselves rather high already, fingers crossed they keep living up to the standards they've set themselves.

Skies Fell: Website - MySpace - Bandcamp

Statues is available August 9th from Bandcamp.

The BAMS World Cup

You might have noticed there's been some football on recently, but what you might not have noticed is some of the Scottish Blogs and Music Sites (the BAMS for short) showing a higher than normal desire for a North Korean full back to pick up a clean sheet, a Uruguay striker to net a brace, along with howls of outrage at an unjust booking or an injury time goal.

The reason for all this is simple, we've got a World Cup Fantasy League. With the semi finals a day away now seems a good time to check in, see who has been doing well, and mock those that have underachieved.

The Aye Tunes team has suffered from mixed fortunes. Stays at the top of the table have been sighted, but only briefly. Accidentaly using half of the allotted transfers while drunk one night did us no favours, neither did rash decisions made after a poor afternoon game, inspiring points chasing changes for the evening game which almost never worked well. That being said, team Aye Tunes has for the most part lurked around the higher parts of the table, and with four games to go sits n third place. The final games of the tournament will decide whether I can hold on to that spot, or plummet down the table. With all my transfers used up half my team will only have one meaningful game left, but I will be more interested in Saturday's Third/Forth Place Playoff match than I normally would.

Currently, the league looks a bit like this:

If by the end of the week you find that myself, Dear Scotland, The Tidal Wave of Indifference, Jocknroll, Elba Sessions and Favourite Son aren't talking to each other, or one of us is laughing at all the others, you'll know why.
Additionally Jockrock has an excuse for being bottom, Stuart hasn't been able to access his team since before the World Cup started. Jim Gellatly has no excuse though..

This Week's Records

A few good records out this week.

The Last Battle release their debut single Ruins on 17 Seconds Records.
Endor self release their debut album. To celebrate they are doing a couple of instore gigs, which I forgot to mention on the gig guide. On Monday they'll be in Avalanche in Edinburgh, before heading to LOVEmusic in Glasgow on Thursday. Predictably enough you can get the album on Bandcamp, as well as the usual record & download shops.

Kid Canaveral have their debut out today too. Keen eyed readers will be aware of that already, but there's no harm in reminding you. You can pick up a download here, or buy a CD here. Also, you can read my review of it here.

The Boy Who Trapped The Sun has a new single, called Katy.

The Recovery Club have their debut single out too. Rest And Be Thankful is released today by Antimatter Music. It is quite lovely, as I mentioned during the last Round Up Reviews. You can get hold of it direct from the label, on Bandcamp, or from all the usual download shops.

American Men get in on the debut act too, with the Cool World EP.

droy is a later entry, just coming to my attention on Tuesday afternoon. Probably better know as David Roy from Dananananaykroyd, droy has made an instrumental summery indie pop record called Bird Drums. It is available on Bandcamp, and well worth the £4 asking price.

This Week's Gigs 5th - 11th July

I made it Edinburgh and back alive, you'll be pleased to know. My lighter didn't though, as soon as I arrived in Edinburgh the cheap lighter died on me, thankfully that wasn't some kind of omen.
Not much in the way of gigs this week, presumably most promoters reckon that punters will be saving up their money to stand in mud at the weekend. What's on is good though, so think of it more as a quality over quantity week.

Monday:

Scunner, Glasgow Glam Bangers and Creative Martyrs. Spangled Cabaret, Rio Cafe, Partick. Free.
A wee freebie to kick off the week.
The Corleones, A Day Overdue. Classic Grand. £6.

Tuesday:

French Wives and Rachel Sermanni. Brel.
Even though the West End Festival is finished it still manages to get in to the gig guide, with this gig rescheduled from a couple of weeks ago.

Saturday:

Kid Canaveral, Standard Fare and Water Wolves. The Flying Duck. £5.
I'd rather stab myself in the face than go to T In The Park, but happily Half My Heartbeats are providing an alternative for Saturday night. The Kid Canaveral album launch gig was a ton of fun, and this likely will be too.
Also on Saturday, in the Kitchen bit of The Flying Duck is the second Blog Rocking Beats night, where The Vinyl Villain and A North Country Bhoy will be playing some records, so long as they can remember how to work the DJ gear.

COMPETITION - Win the new Cancel The Astronauts EP!

As mentioned, and reviewed, earlier in the week, Cancel The Astronauts have a new EP out now, titled Funny For A Girl. You can buy it here.

To celebrate I'm going to give away a CD of it to one of you lucky people.

To be in with a chance of winning simply email your name and something funny* to competition@ayetunes.org.uk.
Competition closes at 6PM on Wednesday July 7th, at which point I'll pick a winner out of a hat, or other form of answer selecting container.

* Funny ha-ha, funny peculiar, whatever!

Submissions

It occurs to me that I haven't actually mentioned for a while how you can send me music for review or whatever, so this is just a wee quickie to say the best ways to do it, and what to avoid.
it is hardly a complicated process, so don't be put off by the things below, it is just intended to give you an idea of the best way to stand out in a crowded inbox, or at least avoid going straight in the bin.

Things to do:

The best thing to do is send me an email. If you are only sending a couple of songs go ahead and attach them, if there's more than that then upload them somewhere and email over a download link. There's loads of places you can upload a zip file to without much hassle, personally I like Dropbox, but others are fine too. Please don't attach a zip file to your email though, Gmail eats attached zips. I'll never get it, you'll think I just ignored it.

An alternative is Soundcloud, you can upload tracks to my dropbox there.

If you don't want to give me a download for free (which is of course fair enough) then send me somewhere I can stream the songs easily. Again, Soundcloud is good for this, but even better is Bandcamp, where you can try and sell me something too.

CDs. You can offer to send me a CD, but I usually prefer to hear what is on it first. This reduces the chances of you wasting time and money on sending me a CD I don't like, which just lays in a pile somewhere in my house. If you still want to send me a physical copy go ahead and ask for my address.

If you are sending me something for review it is handy, though not essential, to include a wee bit about yourself or your band. A quick bio, any useful links, that kind of thing. Oh, and do try and include details on the release, most importantly the release date and where it will be available from, what format, etc. Don't leave me guessing, I'll just get it wrong, or not get round to checking! MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, all that kind of thing are handy too.

Things not to do:

Be a dick. That should go without saying, but every now and then someone gets the bright idea that I'll pay more attention if they act like an arsehole to me. I won't.

Show a complete lack of research. Half the stuff that clogs up my inbox comes from American PR firms that have missed the point. Others start off with something along the lines of "Hi Ayetunes". Aye Tunes isn't my name, Jim is. It says so on every post. You might be sending the same form email to every blogger around, but at least do a little checking on things like that first.

Send me straight to MySpace. I really don't like using MySpace, if that is the only option I have for listening to tracks from the EP you want me to review I more than likely won't bother. Apart from anything else, have you ever listened to your music on MySpace? It sounds awful!

Likewise, don't send me to straight to iTunes, I don't buy anything from it. Again, if you want to lure me into paying for your new release right away, Bandcamp is your best bet.

That should cover the main things, any questions go ahead and ask.

I do my best to reply to all my emails, but it takes a while sometimes. If you think I've missed something feel free to remind me after a week or so. I can't review everything I'm sent, there aren't enough hours in the day, but I do listen to it at least.
If I don't like something I likely won't review it, unless I can offer constructive criticism. Don't take it personally. Also bear in mind that a lot of the Scottish bloggers talk to each other, if you bitch about us to the others, there's a good chance we'll hear about it!