bottle rocket

do it for elm farm ollie

2012-02-10T11:17:00.001Z

michael has a history lesson for y'all.

18 February is a hugely significant day in the calendar. As we all know, it was on this date 82 years ago that Elm Farm Ollie became the first cow to fly in a fixed wing aircraft. She is also the first cow to be milked in flight.

Come join us to celebrate this anniversary. Have a white russian, get your moooooves out and dance to some udder belters at Bottle Rocket. No bull - just 100% indiepoppostpunknewwavepoptastic sounds. But enough milking it:

BOTTLE ROCKET!
SATURDAY 18 FEBRUARY!
NICE N SLEAZY!
11:30PM - 3AM!

Anything you wanna hear? Let us know via the medium of facebook wall. Or just come and yell at us on the night, whatevs.

mull historical society @ ABC, 3rd february

2012-02-09T12:58:00.001Z

Tonight is Washington Irving’s second visit to ABC as part of Celtic Connections 2012. The first occupied the smaller ABC2, but the band seems undaunted by the main venue’s substantially larger dimensions, with a robust run through single Abbey Gallop a memorable highlight. Elsewhere, an as-yet-unrecorded instrumental offers a tantalising glimpse of their in-the-works debut.

Colin MacIntyre’s freshly-sparked commitment to the Mull Historical Society label is affirmed tonight by a setlist selected almost exclusively from his first three albums, plus new release City Awakenings. Only Samuel Dempster R.I.P makes the cut from the brace released under his own name, though as an ode to his great grandfather, it fits with the evening’s ‘This Is Your Life’-style reflective tone: Public Service Announcement is accompanied by dispatches from MacIntyre's directory enquiries days; later, The Lights is introduced with a story of a childhood visit to Glasgow (he found the metropolis overwhelming, only to be told they’d only reached Oban).

MacIntyre’s friendly enthusiasm loosens up an appreciative but starchy crowd, as do plentiful Loss-period highlights, from a solo, acoustic I Tried to the evergreen perkiness of Watching Xanadu. Unfortunately, the room never quite generates the atmosphere his performance deserves, but as he pushes hard against the curfew, MacIntyre chalks up a modest victory regardless.

errors: stop making sense

2012-02-08T09:00:00.003Z

if you've picked up a copy of this month's skinny you'll have noticed errors gracing the cover - here's my interview feature with the band!

Before Errors storm the land with their cosmic third LP, we sit down with the Glasgow trio to talk good fortune, aborted album titles and the joys of making a bedroom record.

Since their formation in 2004, Errors have forged twin reputations: first, as pigeonhole-shirking ‘post-electro’ soundsmiths; second, as reliable pun-providers. From How Clean Is Your Acid House? to remix LP Celebrity Come Down with Me, they’ve long exercised a penchant for baptising serious music with firmly non-serious labels.

By comparison, their third album’s title seems disarmingly direct, surprisingly free from irreverence. Should the lack of reference to Channel 4’s daytime listings be taken as a sign that the comedy of Errors is on the wane? “I think there was just less terrible chat when we were making this record,” suggests Simon Ward, discussing Have Some Faith in Magic just days ahead of its release. Not for the first time during our conversation, Stephen 'Steev' Livingstone respectfully disagrees. “I don’t know about that,” he laughs, “we just didn’t write as much of it down. One alternative I do remember we considered was ‘You Know Where the Bin Is’. We imagined someone giving a demo to a band, and the band just saying that in response. Not us, like, another band…” he hastens to add, preserving their upstanding reputations in the nick of time.

It seems their collective sense of humour remains intact, an observation borne out by the memorably eccentric promo for latest single Pleasure Palaces, which translates the track’s shiny, shimmering charms into garish, gif-inspired graphics and some silky dance moves (from a bubble-headed Steev in particular). Never mind placing faith in magic – they presumably had to invest a fair chunk of confidence in director Rachel MacLean [who also kindly designed the cover of this very magazine] not to make them look like eejits. “I was thinking about it this morning and I wouldn’t even know where to begin with doing something like that, just the amount of layers,” marvels a de-bubbled Steev. “It made me think that what we do is really primitive in comparison.”

Maintaining such modesty can’t be easy of late, what with Have Some Faith in Magic already rubber-stamped within these pages (and beyond) as the band’s finest work to this point in its seven year lifespan. “The reviews have all been pretty encouraging so far, and I think that helps you a wee bit ahead of going on tour, the fact that at least a few people think it’s good,” says Steev, before considering the potential brainwashing effects of such positive press. “Hopefully that will pollute other people’s minds, make them think it’s good before they’ve actually heard it.”

Are reviews, positive or otherwise, something they pay much attention to? “I try not to,” says Simon, “I think they can change your opinion, change what you thought of your own music in some ways – which I find quite worrying, that I’m so easily swayed.” For Steev, this has its advantages. “You’re not always really aware of what it is you’ve done and it can take other people to tell you,” he suggests. “I’ve noticed that a lot with response to the titles and the artwork, stuff that we didn’t really think about.” Simon agrees: “It’s amazing some of the interpretations that people come up with,” he smiles. “It makes us seem really smart, like we’ve thought about these things, but most of it is just by accident pretty much…”

Errors insist that such “happy accidents” are rife, yet ultimately they place great faith in their own instincts. “With past records, I’ve always kind of looked back, to go, ‘well, on the last record there was this tune, so we need to have a version of that for this one,’” says Steev. “But this time it was just about looking forward and not thinking about what came before.” The results are, in the band’s own words, their “biggest change of direction” thus far, though they’re keen to stress that any developments were wholly organic. “It was a natural thing,” suggests Steev. “We didn’t sit down and plan out how the album would differ from the others.”

The only exception was the decision to use vocals more extensively than ever before. “That was one of the few conversations that we had before we started writing the record,” starts Steev, but Simon looks puzzled. “Do you think it was as deliberate as that?” he asks. “Because I just said the opposite to someone else yesterday… I mean, I know we talked about it, but I think it came more through experimentation.”

Such dalliances have certainly produced unorthodox results, influenced by Panda Bear, Atlas Sound and, most tellingly, Liz Fraser of the Cocteau Twins. “I quite like the process she goes through,” says Steev. “Like, she goes through dictionaries, takes words from different languages, and puts them together. So it’s more like a collage, but it’s still emotional and powerful even though what she’s saying doesn’t make any sense. I think that’s quite a unique talent to have – to be able to say something, but not mean anything.”

If that was their intention, it’s a lesson successfully absorbed; the lyrics are so masked in digital effects that it’s impossible to tell whether they’re profound or gibberish. “It is gibberish,” deadpans Steev. “It’s mostly just a stream-of-consciousness, just whatever is in my head at that time. It’s more about the sounds that the words make rather than what the words are.”

With their prior comments regarding peculiar misinterpretations of song titles in mind, I wonder how they feel about the prospect of lyric websites trying to elucidate said gibberish? “I don’t really want people to know what the actual lyrics are,” says Steev, “because it’s not important, but people will try and figure out what they are regardless.”

Elsewhere in this issue’s takeover, Errors have interviewed a range of artists about the different spaces in which they work, investigating how environment influences expression. It’s perhaps an inevitable talking point for the band, what with Have Some Faith in Magic having been written and recorded predominantly in Simon’s flat after their studio’s roof collapsed. “It probably changed the actual sound of the record a bit,” reckons Steev of their forced relocation, “because it was obviously a more relaxed space, and we could take our time. We could take plenty of breaks if we needed to; before, you kind of felt that if you weren’t getting anything done, then you were just best to go home, where at least at Simon’s, you were at home already."

The close quarters helped foster a fairly regimented routine. “We just got on with it,” Simon recalls. “I think it was a good set of circumstances in the end. It didn’t really affect the way we worked too much, in terms of just getting stuff done.” By Steev’s reckoning, “we did more or less seven days a week for three or four months – it was pretty intense, but in a good way.”

Does that make going out on tour less of an adjustment then – if you’ve already spent all that time living in each other’s laps, what strain could a few weeks on the road add? “I think we’ve kind of gotten used to that in a lot of ways, particularly with the American tour [by Mogwai's side last spring], which was five weeks in a car together. Not a van,” Simon stresses, “a car.” Coping mechanisms were swiftly improvised. “I think we did pretty well considering the lack of space,” says Steev. “We all just put our headphones on and ignored each other for a month.”

2011 culminated with a show at the Barrowlands, again supporting their label bosses. “We tried a couple of the new tracks there, and they seemed to go down pretty well,” says Steev. “But the thing that made me feel quite comfortable about the whole show was getting up, and looking out, and realising I knew loads of people in the first few rows. I was shitting myself up until that point.” Simon takes somewhat less comfort from performing to friends and family, stating a preference for “a faceless mass,” to Steev’s amusement. “Really, you’d prefer just loads of bald Mogwai fans looking back at you, aye?” he mocks, but Simon’s steadfast. “Oh definitely – just loads of bald guys, like the cover of Being John Malkovich.”

This month they’ll set out on a headline tour of their own, placing Have Some Faith in Magic squarely in the spotlight for the first time – a daunting prospect, all things considered. “With this record, we didn’t think about how we were going to recreate it live,” says Steev. “Since it was more of a bedroom record, we didn’t jam in the studio – there wasn’t even a drum kit set up.”

Complicating rehearsals further is the band’s recent line-up change, with four becoming three following the amicable departure of guitarist Greg Paterson to pursue a career in dentistry. “We just carried on, not really thinking about how we would deal with it, in terms of our live set-up,” says Simon. “It was just a case of ‘finish the record, and worry about that sort of stuff afterwards’.” The band's downsizing affects new material and old alike, but they’re confident they’ve got all bases covered. “We’re keen not to just have Greg’s parts running off a laptop,” says Steev. “We want to cover as much of that as possible with what we do, but obviously that’s difficult when there’s just three of us, and only two of us playing keyboards and guitars. But I think we’ve worked out a way of doing it.”

Ignoring their previous warnings against reading too much into their album’s title, I ask whether they feel lucky to be doing what they’re doing. “There is a big chunk of luck, definitely,” reckons Steev, pondering the break that led to their signing with Rock Action. “I mean, if certain people hadn’t been at early shows, who knows what would have happened…” He pauses before joking. “Maybe there would have been a guy from a better label, who knows. I guess it’s best not to think about these things…” Faithful? Perhaps not entirely. Magic? Oh aye.

reviews: icarus, matthew bourne, the law

2012-02-07T17:03:00.002Z

Icarus - Fake Fish Distribution (***)

Icarus’ ninth album presents something of a conundrum for reviewers. Fake Fish Distribution reconfigures the notion of limited edition physical releases for a digital environment, restricting its purchase to 1000 ‘unique downloads.’ The latter phrase is not as oxymoronic as you might expect: through algorithms and “parametric techniques” we won’t pretend to understand, each downloader will receive a singular, structured variation of the music, with no two versions of the album alike.

As a concept, it’s academically provocative, raising myriad questions pertaining to digital ownership and artistic expression. As an album of music, it’s… well, that’s harder to call. Juddering, syncopated beats and a dense, sometimes atonal atmosphere make for a challenging listen, though nothing so demanding as, say, Autechre at their most impenetrable. But while the album’s inventive, electric storm is repeatedly rewarding, our enthusiasm must be measured: after all, your version could be guff for all we know.

Out Now

Matthew Bourne - Montauk Variations (****)

There’s much to admire about Matthew Bourne – the good grace with which he takes being regularly confused with the ballet choreographer of the same name, for instance, or his maverick inter-genre curiosity (in addition to these solo piano/cello pieces, Bourne’s “Scott Walker + Meshuggah” outfit Bilbao Syndrome promise a full-length in 2012). Then there’s his sharp sense of humour, demonstrated by sleeve notes which follow a paragraph of self-analysis pondering the inspirational qualities of “personal unquietness, solitude and heartbreak” with the summation that “this idea was bullshit.”

But the bulk of praise should be levelled at his boundless talent, both technical and compositional; his improvisational skills are already renowned in jazz circles, and these pieces sound precise and consummate without exception. Whether mellow and romantic (Juliet) or tumultuously erratic (Étude Psychotique), Bourne’s work is ceaselessly inventive and always absorbing, with a wistful cover of Chaplin’s Smile at the close to seal the deal.

The Law - Trigger (**)

You can see why much of The Law’s reputation has come from their live shows: I’d hazard their music sounds best when you’re a few jars down and feeding off the energy of a core crowd of died-in-the-wool enthusiasts. Without such stimulants to hand, their second album sounds tired and conservative, a handful of moments aside – see first single Holiday’s breezy lure, or 7th Avenue, which underscores its title’s Springsteen echo with a nicely-judged saxophone.

Otherwise, Trigger demonstrates little in the way of originality, with repeats both specific (the verse of The Moon Is All owes a debt to Marillion’s soft-rock paragon Kayleigh) and more general: on Paraglide, vocalist Stuart Purvey’s accent journeys south to chum with Burgess and co, while Time By a Side suggests Marchin’ Already’s a well-worn tour-van favourite. There’s a punishing lack of ambition – actual ambition, not just swaggering self-assurance – that means Trigger ultimately fires blanks.

Out Now

WRITE IT IN YOUR DIARIES FOLKS

2012-02-05T12:12:00.003Z

GFF 2012: Sound and Vision

2012-02-03T09:19:00.002Z

As with last year, i wrote a brief preview/overview of the Glasgow Music and Film Festival for the Skinny. While the actual GMFF mostly coincides with the main festival run, some of the additional recommendations at the bottom begin a little earlier, as part of the preceding short film fest. Check out the full programme for a complete listings.

For its 2012 retrospective, the Glasgow Film Festival toasts inimitable hot-stepper Gene Kelly by screening a selection of his most celebrated celluloid. But for those with music tastes beyond Gershwin and Bernstein, the festival’s most intriguing syntheses of sound and vision lie elsewhere in the programme.

Back for a fourth time, the Arches and GFT-curated Music and Film Festival offers up every combination of its titular arts that you could hope for: films about music, music about film, and plenty of more tricky-to-classify listings besides.

In the first category are a diverse selection of documentaries, spanning Icelandic block parties (Backyard, which sees Reykjavik’s finest play a show in FM Belfast’s Árni Rúnar Hlöðversson’s garden) and hip hop reunions (Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest, which follows the New York trailblazers on their 2008 tour, with contributions from the likes of Mos Def and De La Soul). Then there’s The Other F Word, which quizzes members of Rancid, Pennywise and Black Flag, amongst others, on the subject of fatherhood; as Fat Mike of NOFX points out in the trailer, explaining away prominent dominatrix tattoos to a four year-old ain't easy.

While the film selection holds definite promise, it’s the innovative live events that have made the GMFF such a compelling fixture of the main festival, and this year’s line-up looks set to maintain the high standard. Particularly exciting is a rare visit from Simeon Coxe III of influential electronic-rock pioneers Silver Apples: in addition to performing live at Mono, Simeon will attend the world premiere of Silver Apples: Play Twice Before Listening, taking part in a Q&A alongside the film’s director Barak Soval.

Elsewhere, much of the schedule lurks in the shade: as well as Umberto’s horror-synth stylings, classic Universal monster movie The Phantom of the Opera will screen with live Wurlitzer accompaniment, while the enigmatic The Psychocinematic Ritual promises an occult celebration of 'the disturbing power of music and cinema', with members of Desalvo, Sons and Daughters and The Unwinding Hours joining forces for a dark mass at the Old Hairdressers. Meanwhile, those with less sinister appetites can look forward to the return of aquatics/acoustics amalgam Wet Sounds, its singular pool-based performance certain to send shivers of a different kind down swim-suited punters’ spines.

+ Three more recommended music/film events scattered throughout the rest of the strands…

Douglas Hart Music Videos (Short Film Festival // 11 Feb, 9pm, CCA) – Ex-Jesus and Mary Chain bassist Hart introduces a selection of his work
Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (Weimarvellous // 18 Feb, 3pm, CCA) – Renowned 1927 documentary, featuring an improvised jazz score by Trio AAB
This Must Be the Place (Gala // 20 Feb, 8.30pm, Cineworld and 21 Feb, 1.15pm, Cineworld) – Sean Penn dons Robert Smith-esque goth-rock get-up in Il Divo director Paolo Sorrentino’s Cannes-winning drama

emir kusturica & the no smoking orchestra @ royal concert hall, 29th january

2012-02-02T09:21:00.000Z

A raucous troupe of misfit musicians specialising in frenzied polkas, gypsy-punk, “vulgar jazz” and such like, playing to an all-seated venue staffed by itchy wardens clamping down on unauthorised dancing: not, it’s fair to say, a match made in heaven. “If we continue to be so happy, he says they will stop the concert” grumbles Emir Kusturica, drily undermining security’s efforts to kettle front-of-stage carousers into the corners.

Tonight’s set draws from Kusturica’s twin careers as filmmaker and guitarist in one manifestation of The No Smoking Orchestra: cuts from the Black Cat White Cat soundtrack are amongst the former, while “the song that everybody knows in Europe – well, Eastern Europe”, Unza Unza Time, is one of many highlights in the latter. But tonight is memorable for more than just its music.

As hapless guards round up stragglers, the band spirits the crowd onstage to dance instead, an anti-authoritarian gesture that raises cheers. A conga-line snakes round the back of the stalls; a paper plane glides in from the monitored dance-pens; cheery revellers join hands and encircle a stationary, stony-faced steward: it’s as if a teacher has momentarily abandoned a classroom of children, and returned to a wild rumpus.

All we need is for a flock of geese to be bothered into the fray, and it would really start to resemble the playful chaos of Kusturica’s movies. By the time violinist Dejan Sparavalo plays his instrument with a twelve-foot bow, the evening has cemented itself as a joyfully ludicrous, if ludicrously mis-situated, triumph.

clap your hands say yeah @ swg3, 28th january

2012-02-01T13:48:00.001Z

Last year, Hysterical exploded the myth that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s introductory hype was blogger folly. The myth was already shaky – Some Loud Thunder is pretty awesome for a supposed sophomore slump – but nonetheless, the way they quietly re-ingratiated themselves after a four year absence made clear they weren’t yet ready for the chalk outline and toe tags. But another reputation lingers; that for all their appeal on record, they’re not much cop live.

On the contrary; the apathy and laxity that marred certain early shows has hardened into a steely professionalism, tonight's set streamlined and invigorating. Predictably, tracks from the debut garner the most enthusiasm – The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth has lost none of its vitality, while the crescendoing synths that close Details of the War command attention – but they’re surrounded by evidence of CYHSY’s enduring appeal, not least the moderate eccentricities of Maniac. Welcome back.

february skinny!

2012-01-31T21:47:00.002Z

hey look, i wrote another cover story! well, my errors interview is part of a larger editorial take-over by the band, but i'm chalking it up regardless...

here's the full list of mr me's bits and pieces:

- 'stop making sense': errors interview
- 'sound and vision': glasgow music and film festival preview
- m83/porcelain raft @ the arches gig review (read here!)
- a winged victory for the sullen @ oran mor gig review (read here!)
- rm hubbert - 'thirteen lost and found' album review (read here!)
- icarus - 'fake fish distribution' album review
- matthew bourne - 'montauk variations' album review
- boy friend - 'egyptian wrinkle' album review (read here!)

t'other stuff will be up shortly, so just haud yer horses.

album reviews: rm hubbert, boy friend, lal

2012-01-27T10:21:00.003Z

RM Hubbert - Thirteen Lost & Found (****)

First & Last was perhaps ungenerously characterised as a ‘low-key introduction’ to RM Hubbert’s solo methods within these pages as we greedily anticipated its already-in-the-works successor two years ago. While such impatience undoubtedly sold his debut short, Thirteen Lost & Found is certainly the more immediately satisfying volume; where that first release was a straight-up expression of his compositional style, its follow-up adds guest vocals and more varied instrumentation, with wholly positive results.

The credits are a who’s who of Scottish talent, each diversifying Hubbert’s songwriting in their own particular ways – from Aidan Moffat’s characteristically droll contribution to The Car Song, to Alasdair Roberts’ traditionalist take on folk standard The False Bride. An ovation for all concerned, then – yet, unexpectedly, it ends up being the solo, instrumental pieces that impress most. Set amidst this record’s more mixed aesthetic, their expressive qualities are brought sharply into focus, with For Joe the album’s peerless highlight.

Out 30th January

Boy Friend - Egyptian Wrinkle (****)

Those looking for a short-cut introduction to Boy Friend’s sound could do worse than track down their cover of Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man after Midnight) online. Slowed a beat, with glassy vocals draped across woozy synth washes, Christa Palazzolo and Sarah Brown transform the overly-familiar ABBA standard (thanks, Mamma sodding Mia) into something fresh, without sacrificing the track’s finer qualities amidst the serene coos and tasteful echoes.

This balance between esoteric atmospherics and pop accessibility is carried across to the duo’s ten track debut, its somnambulist drift reminiscent of an extra-dreamy Cults, or Blouse after a mitt-full of Nytol. It’s a winning combination – and, unlike Stephanie Franciotti’s more abstract, shrouded Sleep ∞ Over project, with whom Palazzolo and Brown used to play, Boy Friend are comfortable piercing the ambience with some straight-up emoting; see, for instance, In Case, a torch song Shakespear’s Sister would be proud to call their own.

Out 6th February

LAL - LAL (**)

For thirteen years, LAL have sat proudly outside the mainstream, embodying a multicultural, multi-genre approach that combines political activism with elements of trip hop, soul and dub (amongst other influences).

On their fourth album, Rosina Kazi’s lyrics address civil liberties and political disillusionment (“where’s the integrity you spoke about last week…trying to act, act like they’re leaders/ they’re kicking us down”), but are let down by unfortunate dips into cod-philosophical hippy territory (see Live Your Light, the chorus of which has echoes of pre-Timbaland Nelly Furtado, without the youthful naiveté).

Similarly, for every successful sonic blend (I Know Your Face’s bassy Portishead-like brooding; Red Room’s thick electronics) there are moments of boredom (Background, for one, makes little impression), meaning that, while LAL the album successfully demonstrates the breadth of LAL the band’s ambition, it stops short of achieving them. An intriguing record, if not quite an exemplary one.

Out Now

m83 @ the arches, 19th january

2012-01-26T09:08:00.000Z

Like post-Fromageau M83, Porcelain Raft is effectively one man’s nom de plume, but, also like M83, Mauro Remiddi is not performing alone, with live drums augmenting his array of electronics. It’d be fair to say that there are quite a few similarities between headliner and support, in fact, though Remiddi’s dreamy electro-pop is considerably less bombastic than Anthony Gonzalez’s recent work; more hesitant and personal than M83’s comparatively unsubtle accomplishments. Tonight is Porcelain Raft’s debut Glasgow show, and it’s an excellent introduction.

Over an hour passes before the evening’s next Intro; by the time the Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming opener takes flight, the oscillating drone piped from the PA between sets has fair outstayed its welcome. A stellar opening run initially helps quell any potential doubts that M83’s tardiness might have instilled in a packed-in Arches crowd: a Teen Angst/Kim & Jessie double prompts a mental note to dig out half-remembered eighties-films when The Skinny gets home, while Reunion’s opening chords add The Breakfast Club to the viewing list.

Thereafter enthusiasm dips; by all measures, Sitting should ignite the room, but it’s knocked out coolly and, in response, dancing remains minimal, with neither band nor crowd as animated as you might expect. Midnight City successfully hoists audience buzz up several gears, but the fresh spark it generates has nowhere to go - Gonzalez is unwell, and the set is brought to an early close. On the plus side, though, that leaves plenty of time for a post-gig Gleaming the Cube/Dreamscape double-bill.

a winged victory for the sullen @ oran mor, 15th january

2012-01-25T09:21:00.000Z

“You can keep chatting – Dustin’s just having a meltdown” explains A Winged Victory for the Sullen’s Adam Wiltzie as their expected start time creeps past. Apparently, Glasgow’s Baltic temperatures are playing havoc with tunings, a weather report that rings personally true after spending a half hour shivering at Oran Mor’s entrance due to a guest-list mix-up. It’s a minor hiccup, but one that unfortunately means missing most of Sleepingdog – though from what little we hear through the outer wall, their unhurried, crystalline atmosphere is the perfect mood-setter.

With meltdown averted, AWVFTS are ready to begin, but not before issuing an apology for the list error (Dustin O’Halloran sheepishly claims responsibility) and due notice that they may not be wholly fighting fit (“I just ate a plate of fish and chips and I want to fall asleep” cautions Wiltzie). Wiltzie is walking a dangerous line: the duo’s sedative ambience is never dull, but its chemical effects are often soothing to the point of requiring a ‘do not operate heavy machinery' warning. That said, this is emphatically AWVFTS’s non-drowsy guise: all the components sound more pronounced than on record, particularly the robust drones that rumble beneath the gentle neo-classical strings and piano lines. When they announce they’ve all but exhausted their material and bid Glasgow good night, it’s a shock akin to being roused from slumber – with no rough edges to their beautifully sonorous yet minimalist sound, the evening flies past.

reviews: mull historical society, chris devotion and the expectations, hyperpotamus

2012-01-24T14:27:00.003Z

Mull Historical Society - City Awakenings (***)

After two albums under his own name, Colin MacIntyre has readopted his former moniker for the first time in eight years. While the intervening releases only nominally diverted from the established MHS sound, his latest fizzes with such optimism that the name switch makes sense; City Awakenings exaggerates past strengths tenfold.

As a result, it risks overdosing on positive energy – Must You Get Low, for one, resembles a Patrick Wolf Glee-guest spot, and the degree to which you find that analogy amazing/horrifying may determine your tolerance levels for this charming but relentless collection of big choruses and (mostly) high spirits.

Constant nods to the thrills of city-living add to the air of musical-theatre (half the tracks contain a reference in title or opening line alone, which, coupled with the persistently upbeat tone, suggests On The Town- levels of urban-enthusiasm), but Macintyre’s sharp ear for a winning hook keeps things appealing throughout.

Out Now

Chris Devotion and the Expectations - Amalgamation and Capital (****)

Encounter Amalgamation & Capital anonymously and you might presume it a greatest hits rather than a debut, its no-nonsense new-wave suggesting a lost genre classic from a contemporary of Elvis Costello – a Jags, or an Any Trouble perhaps, with extra punk crunch in some of its more straight-up rock n roll numbers. It’s packed to the gills with big hooks and boundless charm, Devotion’s song-writing so expertly lean that the occasional non-starter is easily overlooked.

Highlights include I Don’t Need You Anymore, an old-fashioned pop hit in all but sales and timing; Blister’s robust yet radio-friendly riffing; and closer Better than This, sounding positively epic after so much bubblegum. Needless to say, Devotion and his Expectations are not exactly reinventing the wheel, but nor are they attempting to; instead, they’ve elected to rev it into a rubber-shredding spin, sparks flying from every boldly-struck power chord and cheeky lyrical bon mot.

Out 30th January

Hyperpotamus - Delta (**)

Hyperpotamus’s talents are unquestionable – search for video evidence of his looping skills, and marvel as he builds complex tracks from no more than a microphone, a pedal board, and his own voice. This is as refined as the ‘one-man band’ concept gets, with not only every idea emanating from its creator, but every single sound stemming from his adaptable larynx.

When visible, Hyperpotamus shares with all loop-pedal practitioners that curious alchemy of witnessing the singular made plural – the thrilling orchestration of inconspicuous vocal components into incongruously busy compositions. But on record, when this layering process is cloaked, only the final product matters – and it is here that Hyperpotamus’s skills lose their fascination. Unfortunately, when divorced from their notable assembly method, most of these tracks just aren’t particularly compelling, leaving novelty their only sturdy point of recommendation. As a performer, Hyperpotamus raises eyebrows; as a songwriter, he lifts shoulders into shrugs.

Out Now

aye, sum 41, WHATABOUTIT?

2012-01-23T11:57:00.002Z

(here's saturday night's bees-knees playlist)

1. the legends – something strange will happen
2. superchunk – digging for something
3. ladybug transistor – clutching stems
4. deerhoof – chandelier searchlight
5. feist – my moon my man
6. martha and the muffins – echo beach
7. new pornographers – letter from an occupant
8. rem – exhuming mccarthy
9. frankie rose – night swim
10. sparks – at home at work at play
11. rusted root – send me on my way
12. eleanor friedberger – my mistakes
13. hefner – hymn for the cigarettes
14. los campesinos – by your hand
15. sebadoh – licence to confuse
16. andrew wk – party hard
17. battles – ice cream
18. errors – pleasure palaces
19. beck – the new pollution
20. yuck – get away
21. the wedding present – brassneck
22. the rolling stones – sympathy for the devil
23. super furry animals – herman loves Pauline
24. the clash – hateful
25. the dead kennedys – kill the poor
26. dum dum girls – bedroom eyes
27. etta james – in the basement
28. orange juice – blue boy
29. the who – can’t explain
30. buzzcocks – harmony in my head
31. pixies – planet of sound
32. robyn – konichiwa bitches
33. m83 – reunion
34. david bowie – modern love
35. xtc – that’s super, supergirl
36. deacon blue – real gone kid
37. dexy’s midnight runners – the celtic soul brothers
38. kurtis blow – do the do
39. beyonce – crazy in love
40. beastie boys – sabotage
41. violent femmes – I held her in my arms
42. ash – girl from mars
43. the go-betweens - ?
44. talking heads – burning down the house
45. prince – when doves cry
45. the hollies – bus stop
46. fleetwood mac – go your own way
47. the smiths – is it really so strange?
48. bruce springsteen – dancing in the dark
49. placebo – nancy boy
50. queen – I want to break free
51. sleater kinney – oh!
52. sum 41 – fat lip
53. the undertones – teenage kicks
54. rod stewart – maggie may
55. arab strap – it’s a heartache

bottle rocket, nice n sleazy, TONIGHT.

2012-01-21T20:30:00.002Z

that's all ye need to ken, ken?

x

if it's good enough for edison it's darn well good enough for you

2012-01-17T20:39:00.003Z

Bottle rocket is, obviously, totally rad. But don’t take OUR word for it – let’s hear from our celebrity fans.

“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% BOTTLE ROCKET” – Thomas Edison

“BOTTLE ROCKET is a constant source of inspiration, surprise and wonderment” – Gloria Estefan

“A multitude of small delights constitute BOTTLE ROCKET” – Charles Baudelaire

“To be truly happy and contented, you must GO TO BOTTLE ROCKET” – Confucius

“We’re fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance AT BOTTLE ROCKET” – er, Japanese Proverb…

You heard em folks!

bottle rocket!
21st january!
nice n sleazy!
indiepoprocknrollnewwaveotherstuff!
11:30pm-3am!
£3 or free before 11:30pm!
any requests, stick them on the facebook wall!

2012 preview: the history of apple pie

2012-01-14T18:07:00.002Z

here's a short piece i wrote for the skinny's january edition, as part of a feature previewing bands and albums we (as in, the music team as a whole) were looking forward to in 2012. i settled on the history of apple pie; other writers tipped the likes of grimes, laurel halo, and (slightly cheating ifyouaskme, since everyone knows they already kick large amounts of ass) future of the left. Click here to read the full feature over on the skinny's website.

The History of Apple Pie apparently selected their awkward moniker for its easily-Googleable qualities. So we went ahead and looked them up, and it turns out they’ve been around since 1381 – though back then they were known as ‘Tartys in Applis’. Butseriouslyfolks, such pastry-related webpages are growing increasingly outnumbered by those extolling the virtues of these London slacker-rock nostalgists.

Released in May 2011, debut single You’re So Cool modestly announced their sound’s twin illuminations – Stephanie Min’s breathy vocals and Jerome Watson’s fuzz-saturated guitar lines – while B-side Some Kind dialled up the distortion to add depth to their appeal. The DayGlo food-fight video for second single Mallory gave that appeal a fitting visual metaphor: as converse and denim get splattered in cake and jelly, their messy but sweet charms revealed their full potential.

The divisive Yuck have already come out as fans, which is fitting when you consider how neatly the two bands’ influences dovetail: to Dinosaur Jr, Malkmus and the rest, THoAP fold in shoegaze (check out Before You Reach the End’s feedback bedrock) and noise-pop (early Primitives to give a period reference; Asobi Seksu a contemporary one), to delicious effect. When their debut album arrives, they’ll leave deserts for dust in the Google rankings.

january's skinny

2012-01-13T14:13:00.003Z

the new issue's been out for a couple of weeks now - here's a cut out and keep guide to my personal contributions!

- 2012 preview: the history of apple pie
- robert redford/django django/she's hit @ nice n sleazy live review (read here!)
- muscles of joy @ oran mor live review (read here!)
- errors - 'have some faith in magic' album review (album of the month! read here!)
- letka - 'far off country' album review (read here!)
- francois and the atlas mountains - 'e volo love' album review (read here!)
- chris devotion and the expectations - 'amalgamation and capital' album review
- hyperpotamus - 'delta' album review
- three cane whale - 'three cane whale' album review (read here!)

new poster! no, you're right, it doesn't make any sense!

2012-01-12T16:25:00.003Z

GFT programme note: The Artist

2012-01-11T12:22:00.004Z

As i mentioned in a previous post, i'm fair smitten with The Artist, so much so i'll be seeing it again this evening for the third time. Below are my GFT programme notes, but if you haven't already seen the film, be warned: i discuss the plot openly, so these are best read after watching, not before. Incidentally, if you're in the Glasgow area and fancy seeing the film tonight, i will be leading the GFT's screen salon later, which basically entails giving a brief introductory presentation, and then leading a post-film discussion. It starts at 6.15pm, and tickets are available from the box office.

No, you can't have a partial refund if i'm cack.

Please note that this article contains spoilers.

Even before its first reel begins, a screening of The Artist at the Glasgow Film Theatre evokes an older fashion of filmmaking. Once advertisements and trailers have been dispatched, the theatre’s curtains move in towards one another, closing off the screen’s outer edges and confining the available space to the once-dominant 1.33:1 ratio. Such boxy dimensions were an industry standard in Hollywood’s early days, until widescreen formats such as Cinemascope re-configured screen proportions and established a new, more spacious norm, and so the contemporary use of such a comparatively ‘square’ ratio is immediately indicative of The Artist’s nostalgic ambitions.

The story opens with the premiere of silent screen idol George Valentin’s (Jean Dujardin) latest cinematic spectacular. We join the film-within-a-film near its climax, with Valentin’s character bound and tortured, but remaining heroically resistant to interrogation. ‘I won’t talk!’ he declares via the first of the film’s inter-titles, underscoring the character’s valour, whilst announcing The Artist’s chief novelty – the absence of sync sound for the majority of its duration. As a black and white, silent production, The Artist is a period piece in both content and style – a description that could equally be applied to director Michel Hazanavicius’s previous two features, the spy spoofs OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006), and its sequel Lost in Rio (2009), set in the fifties and sixties respectively. ‘Usually, when you do a period movie, you just recreate what you are shooting’ says Hazanavicius, ‘[but] you don’t recreate the way you shoot it’.^[1] In The Artist, as in his OSS films, he endeavours to do both, albeit with modern technology on hand to simplify the task.

With his film a roaring success, George exits the theatre to meet his fans. In the bustle, he is jostled against aspiring actress Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), and together they pose for photographs, landing Peppy on the cover of industry paper Variety. Peppy’s sudden press exposure kick-starts her career, but as she begins her rise to the A-list via bit-parts and supporting roles (a rise charted in montage form, her name ascending the credits with each successive picture, from misspelled, bottom-of-the-page ‘beauty girl’ to principal cast status), George finds his silent acting style threatened by the arrival of ‘talking pictures’. Even from this brief synopsis, echoes of Singin’ in the Rain (the transition to talkies and its impact on silent cinema stars) and A Star is Born (one actor’s rise to fame set against the declining popularity of another) are obvious, but while The Artist’s narrative may be simple and familiar, it’s the execution that has had critics effusively praising its charms.

As his career flounders, George sinks his fortune into an ill-fated directorial venture, labelling ‘talkies’ a soon-to-pass fad, and declaring himself an artisan, in contrast to other celluloid ‘puppets’. Hazanavicius is evidently a silent-cinema enthusiast, as evidenced by the affection with which The Artist recreates the period’s iconography and cinematic grammar, not to mention the film’s numerous allusions to the works of Pickford, Fairbanks and Garbo, amongst others. But The Artist complicates its protagonist’s equation of silence with some form of ‘purer’ artistry by characterising George’s resistance as a combination of stubborn pride and debilitating fear. In an imaginative nightmare sequence, George’s dreams are infiltrated by deafening sound effects, with the dull clunk of a glass placed on a dressing table building into the deafening crash of a feather landing on tarmac – even his faithful Jack Russell (played by Palm Dog-winner Uggie) finds his voice, barking away as his owner’s mute panic escalates. Thus, the aforementioned interrogation scene becomes, retrospectively, a metaphor for George’s tribulations, as his refusal to respond to the public demand for talking pictures leaves him destitute and alone.

While George’s recalcitrant attitude can be taken simply as arrogance, the final scene suggests another possible motivation for his obstinate behaviour, one relating to the popular conception of silent cinema as ‘Esperanto for the eyes’, as Kevin Brownlaw puts it.^[2] ‘When people say, ‘We lost something with the arrival of the talkies,’ that’s what they are talking about’ suggests Hazanavicius. ‘We lost the utopia of a universal language.’^[3] This perceived loss seems to influence The Artist’s conclusion: with his career at rock-bottom, George is thrown a life-line – a co-starring role in Peppy’s next picture. ‘No one wants to hear me speak’ he protests, but a solution is at hand. The film is reconfigured as a musical, and The Artist closes with an exuberant dance routine (foreshadowed earlier in the couple’s relationship when they trade tap steps from either side of a partition). To refer back to the aforementioned dream sequence, the dance finale sees George finally embrace sync sound (with the rhythmic tapping of their feet integral to the routine’s effect), without having to speak on-camera – replacing one utopian ‘universal language’ with another. When their dance concludes, the couple hold their stance, and the score is replaced by the sound of their exhausted breathing, followed by the film’s first line of audible dialogue: ‘Cut!’ The director asks for ‘just one more take’, and we hear George’s voice for the first, and only, time. In interview, Hazanavicius has noted that with silent film you ‘bring your own dialogue’, but also ‘your own accents’,^[4] so George’s heavily-accented response seems to reveal an important psychological motivation for his steadfast resistance to sound’s advancing hegemony in Hollywood. As Bryony Dixon notes, the oft-repeated myth in which actors with ‘disagreeable voices’ were forcibly made redundant by the arrival of sound is an easily-refutable one,^[5] but The Artist’s final gag works regardless – after all, in the movies, historical accuracy is no match for entertainment.

Dr Christopher Buckle
Researcher and Journalist
January 2012

[1] Sheila Roberts, ‘Director Michel Hazanavicius The Artist Interview’ Collider, accessed 9/01 at http://collider.com/director-michel-hazanavicius-the-artist-interview/126248/

[2] Kevin Brownlaw, Hollywood, the Pioneers (The University of Michigan: Michigan, 1979) p. 7

[3] Alistair Harkness, ‘Interview: Michel Hazanavicius, film director’ The Scotsman, accessed 09/01 at http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/film/interview_michel_hazanavicius_film_director_1_2019264

[4] James Bell, ‘The Sound of Silents’ Sight and Sound, January 2012, p. 33

[5] Bryony Dixon, ‘Life After Sound’ Sight and Sound, January 2012, p. 34

album reviews: francois and the atlas mountains, three cane whale, letka

2012-01-10T14:36:00.002Z

Francois and the Atlas Mountains - E Volo Love (****)

Saintes-born Francois Marry has been on Scottish radars for some time already, as a continental cousin of Fence (who released previous album Plaine Inondable) and touring member of Camera Obscura. Signing to indie titan Domino would suggest a calculated bid for wider recognition in the UK and beyond, but if E Volo Love is destined to push its creator into the spotlight, it will do so gently.

Airily produced by Jean-Paul Romann (best known for his work with Tinariwen), it’s unfussy, yet intricate; redolent of the past, yet inventively forward-thinking. It’s also unabashedly romantic: hopeless mono-linguists won’t have to recruit Babel Fish to unlock the beating hearts of Les Plus Beaux and Cherchant Des Ponts – they’re right there in the former’s afro-beat sway and the latter’s string-backed duet. A study in understatement delivered with finesse, be sure to find time to let E Volo Love in; it is tray bon.

Out 23rd January

Three Cane Whale - Three Cane Whale (****)

Recorded live in an eighteenth-century church, in a single eleven-hour sitting, by a minimalist-folk-jazz ‘supergroup’ wielding lyre and bowed psaltery: it’s fair to label Three Cane Whale’s debut a somewhat anachronistic proposition. But it’s also a pleasantly surprising one; the aforementioned backstory might suggest a tediously niche slog for anyone but the most ardent of aficionados, but the Bristolian trio lock on to an accessible aesthetic that speaks to a wealth of musical traditions and triggers a broad range of emotions.

Each short instrumental piece (few breach the four-minute mark) finds its own tone, tweaking the presiding atmosphere in a multitude of interesting ways: Look Up at the Sky (And Remind Yourself How Insignificant You Are) belies its unsubtle title with an air of whimsy; Dancing Ledge trades trumpet and acoustic guitar lines to great effect; while Cassiopeia’s simple glockenspiel melody gradually cedes to one of the album’s warmest segments.

Out Now

Letka - Far Off Country (***)

Letka have the fixings of something special: Sandra O’Neill sings beautifully; Peter Chilvers has proven his diverse talents through collaborations with Brian Eno amongst others; while Eno himself contributes to opener Beyond the Fold, a presence guaranteed to boost their debut’s visibility. And yet something feels amiss, their pace-less alt-country pitched too safe to match its ‘post-ambient’ billing.

More imaginative song selections might have helped (trying to reinvent a genre via staples like Country Roads seems somewhat futile), though their chillily pristine version of Not a Job fares little better, paling next to Elbow’s soulful original. But then redemption arrives for the finale, the ingredients finally clicking for a haunting cover of I Dream a Highway. Of course, one great track does not a great record make, but as it stretches through fourteen sumptuous minutes – a third of the album’s length – it goes a long way towards redressing the balance.

Out 16th January

album of the month: errors - have some faith in magic

2012-01-08T19:09:00.001Z

here's my five-star review of the new errors album, out at the end of the month.

For their latest trick, Errors have produced their most impressive album thus far. Tusk is an impeccable introduction – bombastic and tight, its opening is a Richard Burton monologue-short of Jeff Wayne, its central melody a crystal-prog wonder. It’s one of their third album's boldest points of progression from past releases, though the echoing vocals that slink through single Magna Encarta also refresh the band’s palette.

It’s not the first time a human voice has entered Errors’ sphere – as far back as 2006's How Clean Is Your Acid House? EP, Terror Tricks arrived with vocoder over its glitches – but on Have Some Faith in Magic the typically instrumental quartet exercise their larynxes in a more sustained fashion. It’s a significant alteration, one with an attendant danger of homogenisation, but – in a manner comparable to Battles’ recent evolution – they make good on their promise to treat the vocals like any other instrument.

Despite these tweaks, Errors' strengths remain consistent, dextrously push-pulling the listener between dance floor and headphones, the latter to appreciate the invention on offer, the former to get lost in its folds. The pointillist-style artwork is nicely representative in this regard – intricately clever up-close, unfussy yet beautiful when surveyed as a whole: quite simply, magic.

Out 30th January

favourite films of 2011!

2012-01-06T14:05:00.003Z

in order to meet the december print deadline, i was asked to submit my top ten to the skinny back in november. my personal selections and the skinny's ended up surprisingly similar, with six of my choices appearing in the final list. of course, the problem with writing a top ten so early is that it locks out worthy contenders - and since winter always contains the lion's share of award fodder, the chances of overlooking something truly great are high - as proven by my number one choice.

i am but one man, with one set of eyes and ears and a limited number of hours, so, naturally, plenty of films slipped by unseen. i didn't see tom boy, senna, weekend, jane eyre, archipelago, mysteries of lisbon, pina, tyrannosaur, attack the block, the guard and loads of other movies. i've also opted to include only those films that received a uk cinematic release in 2011 - ruling out bela tarr's masterful the turin horse, alex de la iglesioas' brilliantly bonkers the last circus, and gen takahashi's confessions of a dog, finished in 2006 and brought to the glasgow film festival back in february. my new rule does mean, however, that how i ended last summer - number 7 on last year's list - reappears.

1. the artist (dir. michel hazanavicius)
i'll have a more comprehensive write-up of the artist in the next few days, which i'll link back to then. it's on general release today, and i urge you to go and see it if you haven't alraedy done so.

2. tinker tailor soldier spy (dir. tomas alfredson)
this was initially my number one - a superb adaptation deserving of every superlative chucked its way.

3. project nim (dir. james marsh)
i aint ashamed to admit it: i cried. then i saw it again, and blubbed again. click here to read my five-star review.

4. the tree of life (dir. terence malick)
loved and loathed in seemingly equal measure, i fell firmly in the former camp. and not just because of the dinosaurs.

5. meek's cutoff (dir. kelly reichardt)
"As with most of Kelly Reichardt’s filmography, the triumphs of Meek’s Cutoff are as much in what it doesn’t do as what it does." i wrote for the skinny's december edition. "A female-focussed western that doesn’t involve saloon girls, anachronistic behaviour or a rootin’ tootin’ Doris Day is a rarity in itself, while the director’s typically measured pace has a hypnotic allure, drawing the audience deeper and deeper into screenwriter Jonathan Raymond’s tale of a diminished wagon-train’s fateful progress through the Oregon plains. But perhaps fateful isn’t the correct word; as desperation mounts, a careful ambiguity anti’s the climax just as tensions reach a head, ensuring it lingers long in the mind."

6. we need to talk about kevin (dir. lynne ramsay)
a tense and not entirely pleasant viewing experience, but so intricately and imaginatively structured that it's worth the discomfort - let's hope ramsay's next feature isn't quite so long coming.

7. drive (dir. nicholas winding refn)
a b-movie pitch with a-movie polish, imbued with sufficient smarts to win over both cool-loving teens and haughty cannes-crowds alike.

8. son of babylon (dir. mohamed al daradji)
"Mohamed Al Daradji follows Ahlaam’s flashbacks and dreams with a straightforward road movie of sorts." i wrote in my GFF11 review. "This devastating indictment of Saddam Hussein’s legacy – a million missing; 250,000 bodies dug from the earth thus far – is desperately sad, the soundtrack filled with the anguished ululating of grieving mothers and widows, the character’s journey a series of mass graves. But the sadness has purpose: visit the Iraq’s Missing campaign to find out how you can help."

9. le quattro volte (dir. michelangelo frammartino)
another one which i wrote about for the skinny's end-of-year write-up. "Taking inspiration from the Pythagorean concept that we each cycle through four lives – human, animal, vegetable and mineral – Michelangelo Frammartino’s second film studies the unhurried pastoralism of a remote Italian town to haunting effect" i reckoned. "As goat-herd cedes to goat, goat to tree, La Quattro Volte pares away causal relations until we’re left absorbed in simple scenes of branches in the breeze. Though the temporality of existence may seem a potentially uneventful theme, its treatment is never less than fascinating; Frammartino leavens his metaphysical meditation with beauty, grace and – in a single-take scene of collie-caused destruction – humour, and the result is unforgettable."

10. incendies (dir. denis villeneuve)
one of several films i wrote GFT programme notes for this year - read em here.

11. warrior (dir. gavin o'connor)
12. a separation (dir. asghar farhadi)
13. the deep blue sea (dir. terence davies)
14. melancholia (dir. lars von triers)
15. 127 hours (dir. danny boyle)
16. true grit (dir. joel and ethan coen)
17. the skin i live in (dir. pedro almodovar)
18. kaboom (dir. gregg araki)
19. the interrupters (dir. steve james)
20. black swan (dir. darren aronofsky)
21. midnight in paris (dir. woody allen)
22. animal kingdom (dir. david michod)
23. how i ended this summer (dir. aleksey popogrebskiy)
24. kill list (dir. ben wheatley)
25. poetry (dir. chang-dong lee)

right, i'm off to watch the artist again.

albums of 2011!

2012-01-05T18:28:00.003Z

as with last year, i've limited the list to a top 25. it could easily have been 2 or 3 times that length, but it kinda cheapens things if you end up listing everything you quite liked, as opposed to just those albums that really hit the spot. no blurb this time, just a video each for the top ten.

25. suuns - zeroes qc
24. mogwai - hardcore will never die, but you will
23. yuck - yuck
22. los campesinos - hello sadness
21. atlas sound - parallax
20. danananaykroyd - there is a way
19. world's end girlfriend - seven idiots
18. destroyer - kaputt
17. deerhoof - versus evil
16. battles - gloss drop
15. bright eyes - the people's key
14. the go! team - rolling blackouts
13. kate bush - 50 words for snow
12. remember remember - the quickening
11. conquering animal sound - kammerspeil

10. fucked up - david comes to life

9. vampillia - alchemic heart

8. james blake - james blake

7. bon iver - bon iver

6. m83 - hurry up, i'm dreaming

5. parts and labor - constant future

4. pj harvey - let england shake

3. mountain goats - all eternals deck

2. bill wells & aidan moffat - everything's getting older

1. tune-yards - w h o k i l l

most played artists of 2011!

2012-01-04T23:14:00.005Z

another day, another list - here's a countdown of the thirty bands/singers/etc that have been played the most times at our last twelve dancing parties! wherever there's a tie, i've ignored it and gone with, well, whatever really - not like it matters...

30. the radio dept.
29. depeche mode
28. kate bush
27. surfer blood
26. dexy's midnight runners
25. the strokes
24. the rolling stones
23. idlewild
22. bon jovi
21. the ramones
20. elvis presley
19. dananananaykroyd
18. rem
17. the magnetic fields
16. ash
15. pulp
14. pixies
13. the b-52s
12. sons and daughters
11. the beastie boys

10. weezer

oh hi, can you play some weezer? like, early weezer, obviously?

9. belle and sebastian

well, it wouldn't be a scottish indie-pop evening without em...

8. abba

for a long time, abba basically equated to 'lay all your love on me', but lately we've been diversifying...

7. talking heads

there's a crazy amount of danceable stuff to choose from in their discography - this one went down pretty well i recall...

6. the smiths

see #9 - if we don't play them, someone will sulk. truth.

5. prince

oh lordy, that little purple fella sure ups the dancefloor ante...

4. fleetwood mac

the top four are all tied on 11 appearances in 12 nights. wowee. when it comes to fleetwood mac we basically just rotate the same three or four songs, but what marvellous songs they are.

3. david bowie

nicely flexible with pretty much all eras getting a look-in, though eighties bowie has the edge.

2. blondie

parallel lines used to dominate, but only because it was the only one of theirs we carried with us. it's a bit more varied these days...

1. bruce springsteen

naturally.

top ten scottish albums of the year!

2012-01-03T19:39:00.003Z

happy new year! I hope 2012 is going swimmingly thus far - since we're three days in already, it seems high time i put 2011 to bed with a trio of 'best-of-year' lists. i know, they're boring and self-indulgent, but humour me for goodness sakes.

first, my favourite ten scottish releases of the last twelve months. my main list will be a bit lengthier, and will probably see four or five of these appear again - a pretty good showing really.

10.

Zoey Van Goey - Propellers Versus Wings

I reviewed this for The Skinny back at the start of the year. “One of their best assets has always been the vocal contrast between Kim Moore and Matt Brennan – both pleasant individually, but bringing out the best in one other when combined… In this way they echo early Camera Obscura and the sorely-missed Delgados, while also helping ZVG stamp their own name on Scottish indie-pop with equally persistent ink.”

United Fruit - Faultlines

I feel like United Fruit snuck up on me a bit – no easy feat when they’re known for making quite the racket. Looking forward to seeing where they go next…

Jacob Yates & the Pearly Gates Lock Pickers - Luck

Here’s another one I reviewed for The Skinny… “Yates growls like a Weegie Cave on album centre-piece Mary Hell’s haunted strut, but it’s the closing When You Left Me’s tale of bereavement that will floor those expecting an uncomplicated good time. Yet amidst the finale's mourning, there’s room for some jet-black humour – a balancing act few manage so adroitly.”

We Were Promised Jetpacks - In the Pit of the Stomach

And another one! “A gutsy rebuttal to the whole concept of ‘Difficult Second Album Syndrome’” I reckoned. “It’s not quite perfect – a little spark dissipates whenever they take the foot off the pedal – but on those (numerous) occasions where the band locks in and nails it, the Jetpacks truly soar.”

King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mind

It took a few listens for this to click, and if it hadn’t been received so enthusiastically elsewhere, I probably wouldn’t have persevered. Glad I did, like; it’s a corker.

Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will

They chuck out great albums with such consistency that it’s easy to take Mogwai for granted – I feel like if I’d listened to this just a teeny bit more often this year, it might well have been squaring off against messrs wells and moffat for the top spot.

Dananananaykroyd - There is a Way

I wasn’t responsible for reviewing this one, but I did throw together some words on their final Glasgow show, where we bid farewell to The Most Funnest Band Live You Ever Did See. “And then it’s over: but in the words of their almost-namesake (after accidentally conjuring a giant marshmallow man, blowing up a high-rise, and getting sued by half of New York): yeah, but what a ride.” Ach, at least we’ve There Is A Way to remember them by.

Remember Remember - The Quickening

It doesn’t matter how late you leave these lists – they always end up a compromise. A couple of weeks ago, this wouldn’t have featured at all – I loved the debut, but never got round to picking this one up (I was probably sulking about missing their much-talked-about planetarium gig at The Science Centre). A top twenty placing in the Skinny poll reminded me to check it out, and I’m smitten.

Conquering Animal Sound - Kammerspeil

I reviewed this back in January: a “gracefully busy tapestry of scuffling electronic loops and toy-box tics”, which carried echoes of Sally Shapiro, Bjork, Mogwai, The Deer Ticks and Múm. “For some, this is confirmation of the significant promise demonstrated live; for others, it will be a remarkable unveiling.”

Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - Everything's Getting Older

I’ve written a pretty lengthy appraisal of this album already (read it here): suffice to say, if you haven’t given this a spin already, you’re a mad un.

a christmas gift for nice n sleazy: or, what we played last night at bottle rocket!

2011-12-18T13:05:00.004Z

1. half man half biscuit - it's cliched to be cynical at christmas
2. jens lekman - waiting for kirsten
3. hefner - hymn for the cigarettes
4. zoey van goey - you told the drunks i knew karate
5. yuck - get away
6. surfer blood - miranda
7. telekinesis - on a plain
8. weezer - my name is jonas
9. cults - go outside
10. the ronettes - sleigh ride
11. charlie feathers - bottle to the baby
12. ivan - real wild child
13. kurtis blow - christmas rappin'
14. imperial teen - runaway
15. jimmy eat world - last christmas
16. frankie goes to hollywood - born to run
17. sally shapiro - anorak christmas
18. men without hats - the safety dance
19. ladytron - runaway
20. eux autres - jamais
21. the ronettes - frosty the snowman
22. st etienne - i was born on christmas day
23. japan - quiet life
24. blondie - call me
25. css - let's make love and listen to death from above
26. the sugarcubes - hit
27. le tigre - hot topic
28. men - credit card babies
29. mariah carey - all i want for christmas
30. lcd soundsystem - drunk girls
31. david bowie - blue jean
32. shonen knife - sweet christmas
33. yeah yeah yeahs - date with the night
34. bon jovi - bad medicine
35. john parr - st elmo's fire
36. simple minds - don't you forget about me
37. the replacements - alex chilton
38. fleetwood mac - everywhere
39. prefab sprout - king of rock n roll
40. prince - raspberry beret
41. arcade fire - keep the car running
42. the wedding present - step into christmas
43. talking heads - girlfriend is better
44. the ventures - walk don't run
45. low - just like christmas
46. tim wheeler and emmy the great - jesus the reindeer
47. the smiths - sheila take a bow
48. the ramones - merry christmas (i don't want to fight tonight)
49. bruce springsteen - ain't good enough for you
50. jose feliciano - feliz navidad
51. prince - extralovable
52. roxy music - virginia plain
53. depeche mode - just can't get enough
54. the waitresses - christmas wrapping
55. big country - in a big country
56. the cars - my best friend's girl
57. the osmonds - crazy horses
58. belle and sebastian - jonathan david
59. spin doctors - two princes
60. pulp - babies
61. the pogues and kirsty maccoll - fairytale of new york

MERRY CHRISTMAS X X X X X X X X X

hark, is that bottle rocket?

2011-12-17T19:38:00.003Z

damn right it is!

from 11:30pm, the basement of nice n sleazy is gonna sound something like this

and this

and this

kapow!

11:30 - 3:00am, nice n sleazy, YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

the skinny's albums of the year #3: bill wells and aidan moffat - everything's getting older

2011-12-16T14:32:00.004Z

as with yesterday, here's a wee piece i wrote celebrating the bloody marvellous everything's getting older for the skinny's albums of the year round-up!

Arab Strap’s recent reunion had the potential to overshadow all else its erstwhile members were involved in this year. But in Everything’s Getting Older, Aidan Moffat not only co-created one of the best albums of his career, but one of the finest of 2011

It features many of the expected lyrical themes – bitter infidelities, lust, STDs – but they surface in novel ways: Glasgow Jubilee sees Moffat re-stock turn-of-the-century play La Ronde with grubby Glasgow trysts (replacing counts and housemaids with groupies and randy bosses), while elsewhere, characters dismiss their consciences (Ballad of a Bastard’s confessions of an adulterer) or are reined in by them (Let’s Stop Here’s almost-fling).
But the sinful and the salacious only account for a slither of the narratives; though Moffat’s barbed wit and earthy poetry is undiminished, protagonists are as likely to be trapped by 'shopping lists and school runs, direct debits and tax credits' as runaway libidos. Rapscallions of yore are, as the title suggests, maturing, a theme carried through to the artwork: aged portraits inked by Frank Quietly. “The cover has become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy for me,” Moffat tells us now. “My mother can’t look at it, she thinks it’s horrible! I don’t mind at all. I’m ready to embrace age and all it brings.”
Bill Wells is equally comfortable confronting his personal Dorian Gray-style likeness (“admittedly, it isn’t so flattering personally, but then again it’s beautifully drawn”). From instrumental opener Tasogare onwards, the renowned maestro stamps his authorship as firmly as Moffat, demonstrating great versatility across the likes of Glasgow Jubilee’s lounge-funk riff, the anxious jazzy-whirlpool of Cages, or the understated piano refrain that sharpens The Copper Top’s melancholic ruminations. It’s a fruitful partnership that both hope to repeat. “We’ve talked about it, aye,” says Aidan. “I think it’ll happen eventually. After we wrote a couple of new songs for the Cruel Summer EP I felt quite inspired again. There's no rush though, we've both got plans for the future. I've got at least two albums planned for next year, along with a possible vocal group and hopefully a children's book too. I've got another album planned for 2013 too, but I have a habit of starting things and finishing them years later, as Everything's Getting Olderillustrates.” Work began circa 2003, but as Wells clarifies, “for at least five of these eight years we did nothing whatsoever, [so] I really hope it won't be so long 'til the next one.”
The album concludes with a brace of songs about fatherhood, the first of which pairs biological detail ('the lucky sperm and egg collide/ the zygote’s little cells divide') with balanced sentiment ('and remember: we invented love/ and that’s the greatest story ever told'), before And So We Must Rest’s lullaby closes with the sound of Moffat’s son snoozing. “He usually plugs his ears if I start singing a song,” says Aidan, “but when I was away [on tour] his Mum played The Greatest Story Ever Told to him and he said he liked it and wanted to listen to it again, which would have made me cry a wee bit if I hadn't been sitting in the front of a tour bus. Now that I'm home, though, it's back to plugged ears and nonchalance…”
Is Moffat concerned about what his son might make of his lyric sheets as he gets older? “I often wonder how I'm going to deal with that, aye. I can't hide it from him, not in this day and age, so I expect I'll have to be open and honest about it all. So he's either going to be a perfectly sensible, balanced young man or a complete steamer, it could go either way! But fuck it, if I can cope with my Mum listening to Arab Strap, then I'm sure I can deal with my son.”
While a series of gigs have kept the pair busy for much of the year (for Wells, the highlight of 2011 was “stepping through the door of my flat after returning from tour”), we ask what albums they’ve been bowled over by in the last twelve months. Wells singles out a re-release of Annette Peacock’s I’m The One (“still completely underrated – one of the most original and ground-breaking pieces of recording ever”), while Moffat doffs his cap to Slow Club’s Paradise. “I've seen some amazing gigs too: Remember Remember and Miaoux Miaoux at the Glasgow Planetarium, and Baby Dee in Bologna last week was amazing. There are many more, but I'm really bad at answering questions like this – I never remember anything. Everything's getting older indeed…”

(so, the skinny's complete top ten looked like this:
1. st vincent - strange mercy
2. bon iver - bon iver
3. bill wells & aidan moffat - everything's getting older
4. pj harvey - let england shake
5. king creosote & jon hopkins - diamond mind
6. battles - gloss drop
7. death grips - ex-military
8. low - c'mon
9. m83 - hurry up, we're dreaming
10. fucked up - david comes to life

i'll post my own list sometime after christmas!

the skinny's albums of the year #10: Fucked Up - David Comes to Life

2011-12-15T09:26:00.003Z

I'm not going to run through all of the skinny's albums of the year this way, but since i wrote the wee blurb for this one, here it is!
It’s a tale as old as time: boy meets girl, girl gets killed by bomb, boy goes full-Pirandello and duels the narrator, boy is born again – we think. As the meta-layers accumulate, David Comes To Life becomes increasingly opaque, though is no less exhilarating for it.
With such expansive ambition, Fucked Up’s densely-plotted rock-opera could well have fallen flat, a risk the band were all too aware of. “I was at my most worried right before the record was released,” recalls Mr Jo, A.K.A drummer Jonah Falco. “I always have this intense dread right before a record comes out that it will be our final and most failing gesture – as though the whole facade of Fucked Up as a 'good band' is going to crumble away.”
While any anxiety was soon quelled by strong reviews across the board upon its release in June, should it come to it, David Comes To Life would make for a triumphant final opus; as the inimitable Pink Eyes (vocalist Damian Abraham) sings on Truth I Know, “I have my legacy and I am proud.” Abraham has repeatedly suggested that he may soon quit touring, placing the band’s current incarnation in jeopardy, but obituaries can wait: Jonah acknowledges some uncertainty, but notes that Fucked Up have “never been a band whose future is firmly predicted.” He describes David… not as a eulogy, but as “the shake-up we needed,” and as far as he’s concerned, “Fucked Up will always be the six of us.”
Unless, that is, the right collaborators get in touch – after all, there’s a tradition of turning concept albums into films or stage shows. Hell, Green Day made Broadway… ”I think it would be best to wait for the offers to come to us,” laughs Jonah. Any thoughts on who they’d trust this hypothetical task to? “I'm thinking that Sergio Leone should be exhumed and reanimated to do the directing, David would be played by Jackie Mason, Veronica by Katy Perry, and Octavio by Jimmy Pursey. The whole thing would be re-written by the guys from Peep Show and it would debut at the Curzon.”
Sounds good to us – while we wait for their respective agents to hammer out the details/resurrect their clients, we’ll continue to pick through the album’s enigmas. “In fact”, Jonah suggests, “you should probably just all dedicate your entire existences to listening to David Comes To Life. It's for your own good!”

muscles of joy @ oran mor, 27th november

2011-12-14T13:50:00.000Z

Having separated from Divorce, it seems Palms have full custody of singer Sinead, and anyone only familiar with the caterwauling dervish schtick she deployed in the former may be surprised by the latter act’s restraint. Atonal guitars hint at Pod-period Breeders, but there’s a coarser edge, marking the trio out as an exciting prospect that we look forward to watching flourish.

If Palms’ potential comes from their confident execution of familiar stylistic cues, Muscles of Joy’s magnetism originates in something near-wholly idiosyncratic. The seven-strong collective open their album launch with avant-garde oddity Swan Shape, its theatrical gaggle of woops, giggles and cymbal splashes intimating something deeper than the average pop ditty, even if its abstruseness denies easy understanding.

While the remainder of the set is comparatively straightforward – as straightforward as phonetically sung Venezuelan folk songs and multi-part a-cappella can be – they remain consistently captivating, the music’s improvisational origins evident in the organic momentum with which tracks layer vocals and diverse instrumentation into beguiling wholes. But the temptation to go full-pseud in their presence is tempered by their clear sense of fun; their music engages the brain, but that doesn’t mean the heart can’t get involved as well.

robert redford, django django, she's hit @ nice n sleazy, 26th november

2011-12-13T09:57:00.001Z

Tonight’s line-up is a riddle alright, with Hollywood royalty atop a bill of curiously monikered support. First up, the erratically capitalised SHe’S Hit, who smother rock n roll bravado in dirty feedback and shoegaze layers. Their inspirations sit pretty on the surface, but it’s delivered with thrilling confidence; they’re men of few words, but achieve a lot with their time.

Next Fortean puzzle: just how do the so-good-they-named-it-twice Django Django stay cool despite having a song that sounds a bit like an Egyptian electro-Macarena (Skies Over Cairo). Looking bonny in matching Ts, they set pulses racing via curiously broad influences, and the packed-tight, enthusiastic crowd duly treat them as heroic headliners. Which they maybe, sort of, kind of are – or were, at least, back when the gig was first announced…

But when you’ve got none other than Robert Redford on your schedule – cinema icon and silver fox extraordinaire – you’d be remiss not to make space for ol’ Sundance as main attracti… Ok, so efforts to conceal the headliners’ true identity have been long abandoned, but while the arrival of The Phantom Band on stage surprises precisely no one (for starters, they’ve used the pseudonym before), it fair invigorates everyone who a) secured a ticket for this sold-out show, b) braved the monsoon whipping Glasgow to tatters outside and c) prevailed through a rather lengthy between-band wait (though the latter is no slog, thanks to sharp sounds from hosts The Hot Club).

“You’ve been waiting ages eh?” says Rick, swigging from a hip flask, “what, you got a bus to catch or something? Oh, you’ve missed it…” Thankfully, they make revising transit a no-brainer: a propulsive A Glamour opens strong; Throwing Bones’ krautrock-cruise ups the ante, while Left Hand Wave appears to hypnotise the fan to our left, spotted waving limbs like Drunken Master. Their performance may not showcase the band at their absolute best, but tonight was worth the wait.

a very bottle rocket christmas!

2011-12-08T08:53:00.003Z

Q. Michael, why should people come to bottle rocket on the 17th december?

A. Adeste fideles pals, adeste fideles. If you think you're sick of Christmas music now, just wait until Saturday 17th December. Yes, it's the one time of year we get to play Mariah Carey and damned if we're going to let that opportunity pass us by. Gather your nearest and dearest, grab a mulled white russian and come and pay homage at the altar of indiepopnewwavepostpunkandsoul, for lo! a single star shall be hovering above Sleazy's. Get there by 11:30 to ensure there WILL be room at the inn.

Expect the usual confused musical offerings with added festive cheer (i.e. Mariah Carey). What better way to start Christmas week? Don't answer that...

BOTTLE ROCKET!
SAT 17TH DECEMBER!
NICE N SLEAZY!
11:30pm - 3am!

First person to solve the cryptic video-based riddle and name the Christmas carol on the facebook wall below gets a special present. Maybe.

take a worm for a walk week say naughty things in the spirit of christmas

2011-12-07T22:29:00.004Z

once upon a friday in november, three quarters of take a worm for a walk week came round to my gaff, dressed up as santa and a pair of elves, and said despicable things in the course of passing judgement on the skinny's december singles pile...

Take A Worm For A Walk Week Dirty Dozen

Image: Euan Robertson

We invite Santa and his helpers (A.K.A. Joe, Ian and Johnny from Take A Worm For A Walk Week) to rate and slate December’s singles. Will the yuletide season instil peace and goodwill to all men? With unprintable chat revolving around home-made flesh lights, don’t count on it…

She & Him – Christmas Day (Double Six, 19 Dec)
Johnny: Is this it started aye? Shite.
Joe: This sounds like a hairy mince pie that’s been shat out. It’s shite, but she’s hot. So I’ll score her 3 out of ten.
Ian: For a Christmas song, 10 out of 10…
Joe: You can’t give her 10 out of 10 just because she’s hot!
Ian: …but for a song, minus 10.
Joe: We give this 'Tits out of 10'.

Band of Skulls – The Devil Takes Care of His Own (Electric Blues Recording, 4 Dec)
Johnny: Sounds like open mic night at Fury Murry’s.
Ian: I think that riff’s really shite, but the rest of the tune’s good. Unfortunately that riff is most of the tune…
Joe: If they played it through decent amps it might sound good, but it really doesn’t.
Johnny: Two out of ten.

Laki Mera – Crater (Mogwai remix) (Just Music, 5 Dec)
Johnny: This sounds like the last boss in Street of Rage 2.
Joe: This is shite.
Ian: I quite like the vocals…
Joe: Pish, they’re the worst thing about it!
Ian: It’s something I’d listen to in a warm bath; it reminds me of One Tree Hill.
Joe, checking sleeve: They paid top dollar to get Mogwai to remix that – that’s why it sounds like Kraftwerk.
Joe: 5 for this one.

Rise to Remain – This Day is Mine (EMI, 19 Dec)
Joe: Is this Shaggingforce?
Johnny: This is pure scuzz-core. Zero out of 10 – turn that one off, it’s shite. I hate that music so much. It makes me want to eat my own face from the inside out.
Ian: It makes me want to count my chest hairs.

The Lovely Eggs – Allergies (Too Pure, 5 Dec)
(Joe pulls a face like someone shat in his stocking…)
Johnny: Fucking hell…
Ian: Sounds like Echobelly or something…
Joe: It sounds like fucking egg and chips.
Johnny, spying the cover: Hold on, this is called egg and chips!
Skinny: Well, The Lovely Eggs…
Joe: Seriously? Well The Lovely Eggs sound like egg and chips.
Johnny: She needs singing lessons so she doesn’t sing in that accent all the time: [picks up the tune and starts crooning like a castrato Dick Van Dyke], ‘egg and chips, egg and chips, eeeegg and chips’. That’s what it sounds like: chips and egg.
Joe: Double egg, with an egg dip
Johnny: Egg, chips and egg, with an egg dip. Zero out of ten.

Girls – Myma/Lawrence (PIAS, 5 Dec)
Johnny: Is this at the wrong RPM? It’s pure slow as fuck.
Ian: The guitar tones are cool.
Joe: This is really reminding me of something but I can’t put my finger on it… Who is it?
Skinny: It’s the new single from Girls…
Johnny: But is it actually girls, or is it guys?
Joe: It just sounds like a straight-up Band of Horses rip-off
Johnny: And they’re not even girls – I’d call that false advertising. If I bought that, I’d expect to see girls, but no.
Ian: Compared to Rise to Remain, this is alright – I’d listen to this. I’d give it an 8.
Joe: 8?! 6.

The Vaccines – Wetsuit (Columbia, 4 Dec)
Ian: I’ve heard this tune [starts singing along].
Joe: 1 out of 10 for Ian’s singing. This song sounds like a scotch pie that’s been left out in Greggs for too long.
Johnny: This tune’s alright, 7 out of 10
Joe: No fucking way…
Ian: Make it 4 – it’s like Doves speeded up.
Joe: It’s more like Dove hand cream.
Johnny: Aye, this tune is Oil of Olay.

Twin Atlantic – Free (Red Bull Records, 5 Dec)
[Vocals begin; everyone starts laughing.]
Joe: Twin Atlantic! This sounds like my first pubes. Nah, actually, it sounds like my first pube, singular.
Ian: I’d listen to it if I was working out.
Joe: Aye, naked in front of the mirror with a hard on.
Ian: This is actually better than most of these songs, so 7.

First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar (Wichita, 5 Dec)
Johnny: This is just boring – it sounds like a cheese board.
Joe: It sounds like some lassie broke up with her boyfriend on Facebook and is posting shite from YouTube about how hurt she is…
Ian: Crying into her beef and tomato pot noodle…
Joe: They sound like their music needs a first aid kit – it’s shite, but we’d probably pump them, so 'Pumped out of 10'.

Theme Park – Milk (Luv Luv Luv Records, 12 Dec)
Johnny: This is just ripping off Talking Heads.
Joe: It’s not milky enough. It sounds semi-skimmed.
Johnny: It’s soy milk.
Joe: No way, soy milk’s good, I drink soy milk all the time so I’m defending it. This is definitely semi-skimmed.
Johnny: You can get a lower rating than semi-skimmed, it’s like white water.
Joe: Aye this sounds like purple milk. 1 out of 10.

Cast – See That Girl (Cast Recordings, 19 Dec)
Johnny: If I could say one thing to Cast, it’d be “Stop. Give up. You’ve had your day”. They played my sister’s prom…
Joe: You’ve got a sister?! Since when?
Johnny: Just a couple of weeks ago. She’s 86.
Joe: No, but seriously, how old is she? I seriously didn’t know you had a sister…
Johnny: I’d give this song zero – mediocre bullshit.
Joe: I’d give it one to represent the pound that they’ll make on their comeback. This is the musical equivalent of standing in a dog shite wearing your new trainers. Zero.
Johnny: 0.00001
Skinny: Well that puts them above The Lovely Eggs…
Johnny: Eggs need to get the lowest score. Mainly because they’re called The Lovely Eggs.

Single of the Month: We Were Promised Jetpacks – Human Error/Ink Slowly Dries (Fat Cat, 5 Dec)
Joe: Is this Jetpacks aye? I’m playing a gig with them in December – doesn’t mean I have to give them a good review though. In fact, that’ll be a good talking point…
Johnny: This one reminds me of getting cleansed. It’s like using a nice shampoo and conditioner before I hit the living room with a wee glass of coke.
Joe: Nah, not coke: own-brand cola. Nae ice, not even chilled.
Johnny: Straight out the wee bottle.
Joe: Eight out of ten.

dashing throught the snow!

2011-12-05T21:47:00.002Z

like a santa on a penny farthing!

the skinny's top ten films of 2011

2011-12-03T18:15:00.002Z

after banging our heads together, here's what the skinny's film writers jointly decided were the finest ten films released since january...

1. the tree of life (terence malick)
2. drive (nicolas winding refn)
3. meek's cutoff (kelly reichardt)
4. senna (asif kapadia)
5. we need to talk about kevin (lynne ramsey)
6. blue valentine (derek cianfrance)
7. tinker tailor soldier spy (tomas alfredson)
8. a seperation (asghar farhadi)
9. le quattro volte (michelangelo frammartino)
10. the fighter (david o. russell)

there's a fair bit of overlap with my own votes, but i'm gonna keep tweaking my personal list up till the end of the month. however, two that will appear are numbers 3 and 9, which i contributed little write-ups for:

Meek's Cuttoff (Kelly Reichardt)
As with most of Kelly Reichardt’s filmography, the triumphs of Meek’s Cutoff are as much in what it doesn’t do as what it does. A female-focussed western that doesn’t involve saloon girls, anachronistic behaviour or a rootin’ tootin’ Doris Day is a rarity in itself, while the director’s typically measured pace has a hypnotic allure, drawing the audience deeper and deeper into screenwriter Jonathan Raymond’s tale of a diminished wagon-train’s fateful progress through the Oregon plains. But perhaps fateful isn’t the correct word; as desperation mounts, a careful ambiguity anti’s the climax just as tensions reach a head, ensuring it lingers long in the mind.

Le Quattro Volte (Michelangelo Frammartino)
Taking inspiration from the Pythagorean concept that we each cycle through four lives – human, animal, vegetable and mineral – Michelangelo Frammartino’s second film studies the unhurried pastoralism of a remote Italian town to haunting effect. As goat-herd cedes to goat, goat to tree, La Quattro Volte pares away causal relations until we’re left absorbed in simple scenes of branches in the breeze. Though the temporality of existence may seem a potentially uneventful theme, its treatment is never less than fascinating; Frammartino leavens his metaphysical meditation with beauty, grace and – in a single-take scene of collie-caused destruction – humour, and the result is unforgettable.

you can read the full article here.

GFT Programme Note: We Have A Pope

2011-12-02T13:20:00.002Z

Nanni Moretti's latest film is on selected release from today - here's a programme note commissioned by the Glasgow Film Theatre...

In the lead-up to its release in Italy earlier this year, We Have a Pope was met with outrage in certain quarters, with one bishop going as far as to label director Nanni Moretti an ‘instrument of Satan.’[1] The Holy See’s concern was to be expected: Moretti’s previous feature, the Berlusconi-baiting Il Caimano (The Caiman, 2006) did little to disguise its target’s identity, nor its director’s disdain. With multiple scenes of corruption and a daring denouement hinting at civil war, Il Caimano consequently raised heckles amongst the Prime Minister’s supporters when released during an election year; Berlusconi went on to lose.

We Have a Pope’s synopsis certainly carries seeds of blasphemy (which, as it happens, is all lawyer Bruno Volpe had to go on when launching his defamation lawsuit, having refused to watch the offending film).[2] The College of Cardinals congregates in the Vatican to elect a new Pontiff; upon appointment, Cardinal Melville (Michel Piccoli) suffers an acute crisis of confidence. A psychoanalyst (played by Moretti himself) is summoned to ‘cure’ the Pope of his affliction, but, finding his efforts excessively curtailed (discussion of sex is predictably off-limits, but so too are his childhood, fantasies, dreams and memories), he recommends the Pope visit another analyst incognito, so as to discuss his anxieties more openly. On his first visit to the second therapist’s office, the Pope escapes the watchful eye of the Vatican’s spokesman (Jerzy Stuhr), and re-discovers his dormant passion for theatre whilst traversing the streets of Rome; meanwhile the assembled believers maintain their vigil in St Peter’s Square, patiently awaiting their spiritual leader’s unveiling.

Papal fallibility and hints of corruption in the conclave may be less than reverential, but the satire is far from aggressive; should avowed atheist Moretti have wished, there are numerous scandals with which he could have attacked the Church. Instead, the ecclesiastical crisis is handled compassionately, the result affectionately humanising the upper echelons of an institution desirous of positive PR now more than ever. Similarly, while the set-up might imply some degree of conflict between science and religion, as represented by psychoanalysts and cardinals respectively (‘the concepts of soul and subconscious cannot possibly co-exist’ – ‘we’ll see’), Moretti is willing to mock both sides (the second analyst is fixated on ‘parental deficit’, and prescribes ‘three sessions a week for a couple of years’ after a solitary, short assessment of her patient’s mental health). This possibly explains why, outside the aforementioned examples, the Church’s response has been relatively muted overall, with some Vatican-affiliated commentators going so far as to praise its realistic depiction of Papal burden.[3]

But while less insolent than some might have expected, Moretti’s depiction of the College of Cardinals is nonetheless far from deferential. As the Cardinals gather in the Sistine chapel, reporters camped outside awkwardly explain the electoral process, emphasising that ‘nothing regarding the conclave can filter through to the outside.’ The assumed gravitas of the assembly is, however, undercut when the lights fail in the chapel, causing one hapless Cardinal to trip and fall in the darkness. During the ballot itself, the cardinals act like members of a very different kind of college, resembling schoolboys suffering through a test: copying ‘answers’ from their neighbours; scribbling corrections; tapping desks incessantly with their pens. As the votes are counted, they whisper the unfolding results to one another as if surreptitiously keeping abreast of football scores, all the while praying silently not to be called upon, as if God’s will were akin to a teacher selecting participants for a spelling bee. The following day, three of the visiting cardinals try to sneak out for doughnuts, but are rebuked by their seniors, despite sulky protests that they ‘won’t go far’. Later, when the analyst criticises their excessive diet of prescribed medications (one of the film’s more biting attacks – the clergy literally cannot sleep at night), they turn tattle-tale and grass one another up.

While the Cardinals spend their time acting like children, the Pope-elect is trapped in an act of a different sort. After hesitantly accepting his role as Bishop of Rome, Melville flees the red-curtain-draped balcony (and the adoring, packed audience that await him), his anxiety akin to stage fright. Such theatrical allusions are later made explicit, when the AWOL Pope adopts the guise of an actor so as to conceal his Papacy, citing occupational stresses including ‘travelling from one city to another, the rehearsals [and] the opening night’ as contributors to his agitated state of mind. Back in the Vatican itself, the spokesman spins to press and church alike in order to conceal the full extent of their predicament, whilst a member of the Swiss Guard is drafted in to impersonate the absent Pope, twitching curtains in the private chambers like Home Alone’s Kevin McCallister fending off burglars. But ultimately, it is a more troublingly deep-rooted artifice that torments the reluctant Holy Father. By confessing his fear that ‘God sees abilities in me I don’t have’, he admits to a core self-doubt with which the majority of non-Pontiffs must also contend at one time or another, regardless of individual faith (or lack thereof). Leadership, the film’s conclusion suggests, requires more than a confident façade; courage, on the other hand, can be as simple as recognising as much.

Dr Christopher Buckle
Researcher and freelance writer
University of Glasgow
November 2011

[1] Philip Willan (2011) ‘Pope film sparks Catholic controversy’, The Telegraph, 19 April 2011, accessed at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/8461379/Pope-film-sparks-Catholic-controversy.html

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ben Child (2011) ‘Nanni Moretti’s pope film receives mixed Vatican verdict’ The Guardian, 19 April 2011, accessed at http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/apr/19/nanni-moretti-pope-film-habemus-papam

new skinny!

2011-12-01T20:04:00.005Z

cor blimey, it's practically christmas! since 2011 is all but over (sort of), the last skinny of the year follows custom and rounds up the year's best releases, crowning st. vincent's strange mercy album of the year and the tree of life film of the year. I voted in both polls, but i'll hold off posting my actual favourites in each till i've had a chance to check out all the stuff i've missed...

here's what i contributed:

- album of the year #10: fucked up - 'david comes to life' appraisal (including interview with mr jo)
- album of the year #3: bill wells and aidan moffat - 'everything's getting older' appraisal (including interview with wells and moffat)
- film of the year #3: meek's cutoff appraisal
- film of the year #9: le quattro volte appraisal
- dannananykroyd gig review (read here!)
- take a worm for a walk week review december's singles
- bill wells - 'lemondale' album review (read here!)
- she & him - 'a very she & him christmas' album review (read here!)
- kid chocolat - 'kaleidoscope' album review
- butcher the bar - 'for each a future tethered' album review (read here!)
- poetry dvd review (read here!)

ho ho ho!

reviews: bill wells, butcher the bar, m+a

2011-11-30T19:05:00.004Z

Bill Wells - Lemondale (****)

Following his collaboration with Maher Shalal Hash Baz on 2009’s GOK, Bill Wells returned to Japan to record Lemondale, corralling an impressive array of musicians to breathe life into its eleven tracks. The unorthodox orchestra featured the inimitable Nikaido Kazumi, Saya and Ueno from Tenniscoats, and Tokyo-residing experimentalist Jim O’Rourke amongst its numbers, and the disparate members evidently gelled.

Lemondale is a sweet treat for the ears throughout, from Toon City’s opening jazz-strains – suggestive of Joe Hisaishi’s soundtrack work – to the delicate title track’s cooed refrain. The latter borrows chords from Procol Harum (or Bach, if you want to split hairs), while Mizo Tur is Windmills of My Mind in all but name, but while the echoes are blatant, such similarities are never detrimental. Lemondale’s thirty-four minutes are imbued with a gentle charm by turns wistful, romantic, bittersweet and playful, cementing Wells’ status as both gifted composer and well-connected bandleader.

Out 5th December

Butcher the Bar - For Each a Future Tethered (***)

For Each a Future Tethered does everything a second album should, evoking its predecessor’s blueprint whilst comfortably improving on it. On his follow-up to Sleep at Your Own Speed, Joel Nicholson has added busier instrumentation and even a guest star in the form of Seasick Steve (barely perceptible on X), without sacrificing the breezy atmosphere that marked out his debut as promising if imperfect.

There are, it must be said, limitations to Butcher the Bar’s sound: Nicholson has a knack for crafting instantly-pleasing melodies, but his work lacks the painful undertow of the likes of Elliot Smith (to whom Nicholson owes a definite debt of gratitude), and consequently risks blandness. But let’s focus on the positives, for there are many: Blood for the Breeze pairs haunting alt-folk with some of his best (and most bitter) lyrics, while tracks like Bobby and Sign Your Name generate a warmth that’s impossible to deny.

Out 5th December

M+A - things.yes (**)

The ‘M’ of ‘M+A’ is Michele Ducci, the ‘A’ is Alessondro Degli Angioli, but the ‘plus’ affixing them is less easy to identify; though a pleasant listen, their debut is hardly overflowing with positives. They’ve a simple set-up – M sings gobbledygook over the pair’s joint electro collages, which run from flute-swept opener Yeloww, through to ambient-ish closer Ly (with multiple genre detours along the way) – but the duo remain oddly un-engaging.

The clutter is one culprit, the air of pretension another: in their own words, they’re less a band, more ‘two people moving forward parallel to one another’. Of course, they could witter any old nonsense were the album itself sufficiently strong, but, save some not-inconsiderable exceptions (Bam’s piano-backed digital ballad; Liko Lene Lisa’s playful textures), it’s rather dull. They’re young and ambitious and will no doubt effloresce in future, but things.yes garners a reluctant but firm ‘no’.

Out Now

GFT programme note: The Deep Blue Sea

2011-11-24T22:34:00.001Z

Terence Davies' new film is out tomorrow, and jolly good it is too old boy. Here's my programme note for the Glasgow Film Theatre to whet your appetite...

‘Was it so hard to stay and continue?’ The question is naively asked, yet it encapsulates the emotional upheaval at the core of The Deep Blue Sea. It is posed by Sir William Collyer (Simon Russell Beale) to his estranged wife Hester (Rachel Weisz), as he pleads with her to return to their comfortable but staid marriage – a life left behind for romantic fulfilment with pilot Freddie (Tom Hiddleston). But the petition is moot: logic and reason are, the film indicates, impotent in the face of love – even (nay, especially) a desire as self-destructive as the non-reciprocal adoration which Hester feels for Freddie. After a sad soliloquy in which she expresses her wish to die, Hester attempts suicide via pills and an open gas fire, before being revived by her neighbours. The remainder of the film details the fallout of this desperate act over a twenty-four hour period, as relationships strain and tear, and flashbacks fill in the gaps.

As might be expected from director Terence Davies, time and memory are prominent thematic hallmarks: in the opening sequence alone, a ticking clock is heard over the credits, while the passage of time is emphasised by the elliptical editing, the image fading in and out from black caesuras, mimicking Hester’s failing consciousness. Davies freely modifies Terence Rattigan’s 1952 source play to match these interests, altering chronology so as to more openly evoke the associational cycle of memory. Stylistically, there are overt echoes of Davies’ past work; for example, the opening panning shot across the outer-wall of Hester’s home recalls a similar shot in Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), which carried similar implications – the move beneath an outer façade, to the emotions that teem within.

William’s question, ‘Was it so hard to stay and continue?’, is also suggestive of another protagonist’s sacrifices – that of Laura in Brief Encounter (Lean, 1945), when faced with a comparable choice. Where Laura forsakes possible happiness with Alec, opting to ‘stay and continue’ with her husband, Hester cannot ignore her passions. This comparison has its limits – Alec’s quiet humanitarian is a world away from Freddie’s tempestuous Ace, while class complications are more pronounced in The Deep Blue Sea than in the middle-class triangle of Brief Encounter – but nonetheless, the films make for complimentary viewing. Davies inserts frequent nods to this cinematic bedfellow: a shot of Hester and William sitting together in a room, but in separate frames (physically proximate, yet nonetheless distanced) is reminiscent of Brief Encounter’s book-end scenes of internal confession; while the scene in which Hester contemplates stepping into the path of an approaching train is a self-confessed homage.[1]

Throughout, period detail is well observed, from the thick smoke that hangs in the air of pubs and living rooms, to the antiquated language used by Freddie, but Davies is uninterested in naturalism per se, with dialogue self-consciously suggestive of its own artificiality (‘this isn’t a line’ promises Freddie when he and Hester first meet; ‘I’m not the villain of the piece!’ William later protests). Yet its theatricality does not detract from the principle characters’ believability, with motives, flaws and impulses expertly delineated. The supporting characters, too, have been sketched with a certain level of verisimilitude, with Davies drawing on personal recollections to refine those elements of Rattigan’s play which, to him, didn’t ‘ring true.’[2] His alterations bring not only authenticity, but heart to potential caricatures like Freddie and Hester’s landlady, who provides Hester with a humbling dose of perspective in the film’s latter stages. ‘Because I grew up in the 50s, I know not only what it looked like,’ Davies explains, ‘but what it felt like.’[3]

Naturally, the Second World War looms large, its aftermath apparent in ways visible (the bombed-out building next door to Hester and Freddie’s home; a flashback to sheltering from the blitz in an underground station), behavioural (Freddie’s struggle to readjust to civilian life after the adrenalised (and traumatic) experience of flying sorties in the Battle of Britain) and metaphorical. ‘It’s [Hester’s] story, but other lives go on’ says Davies. ‘And at the end, without making it sound unbearably pretentious, Hester’s life has been broken, but she’ll carry on, as the country did. It’s a small implication… but it’s just saying that we’ve looked at one life over one day, and look how rich it was! And all these people have lives and stories.’[4]

In his study Britain in the Second World War, Mark Donnelly comments upon the increase in divorces from 1945 onwards, and contemplates the possible cause for the spike. ‘Part of the explanation could be that women developed higher expectations of marriage in the post-war world and greater self-confidence to break a marriage that was not meeting these expectations.’[5] Hester’s dissatisfaction with William is suggestive of this altered attitude towards romance and companionship, emphasised by their age gap. ‘Beware of passion Hester – it always leads to something nasty,’ William's mother warns her, ever respectable and reserved; when asked what it should be replaced with, she suggests ‘a guarded enthusiasm – it’s much safer.’ ‘And much duller,’ Hester rejoinders, her desires intractable. Later, William exasperatedly asks what happened to her to make her so unhappy. The reply is idealistic and fatalist: ‘Love, Bill, nothing else.’

Dr Christopher Buckle
Researcher and freelance writer
University of Glasgow
November 2011

[1] Geoff Andrew (2011) ‘Reckless Moment’ Sight and Sound December 2011, p. 22

[2] Ibid, p. 20

[3] Stuart Jeffries (2011) ‘Terence Davies: Follow Your Hormones’ The Guardian, accessed 22 November at www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/nov/23/terence-davies-deep-blue-sea?newsfeed=true

[4] Andew, p. 20

[5] Mark Donnelly, (1999) Britain in the Second World War (London: Routledge) p. 44

dvd review: poetry

2011-11-23T09:06:00.000Z

Superficially, Poetry is a miserable tale of rape, suicide, and the onset of Alzheimer’s, yet its most important keyword is its title. While the plot components may suggest a relentlessly grim wallow (a teenage girl takes her life after terrible suffering at the hands of her classmates) or heavy-handed melodrama (a woman diagnosed with dementia is inspired to pen verse), the reality is neither. Deteriorating memory and poetic aspirations instead knit into an affecting metaphor for fully appreciating the world around you, and every moment spent in it.

Jeong-hee Yoon, in her first role since 1994, is superb as aspiring poet Mija, her subtle performance anchoring the film through occasional periods of narrative slackness. But the unhurried pace feels appropriate, as Mija searches for inspiration in the present, whilst her past is stolen by illness and her future threatened by a heavy familial burden. When her writing is eventually voiced in an enigmatic denouement, the emotional impact is considerable.

Out 28th November

reviews: she and him, simian ghost, charlotte gainsbourg

2011-11-22T10:17:00.002Z

She and Him - A Very She and Him Christmas (***)

A She & Him Christmas album feels as natural a fit for the yuletide season as tinsel, turkey and strained family relationships. While she already had a handful of acting credits to her name by 2003, most were introduced to Zooey Deschanel’s dulcet tones via twin tunes in Elf, the film which ignited her career via a thousand hopeless crushes.

A Very She and Him Christmas declines to restage Elf’s Santa Claus Is Coming To Town finale, but Baby It’s Cold Outside is present, nestling in a conservatively chosen, safe but snug selection box of covers. Its obviousness is a limitation (everything sounds precisely as you would expect) but also its strong suit. A Christmas album isn’t the place to seek strong artistic statements or surprises; this is cosy, warm and nostalgic, and would soundtrack chestnut roasting, decking the halls, dashing through the snow, and any other cliché you care to suggest, perfectly.

Out Now

Simian Ghost - Lovelorn EP (****)

With Simian Ghost, Sebastian Arnström of Swedish post-rockers Aerial swaps out sprawling guitar epics for frothy electronic pop sheen with impressive results. The cynical might detect an element of opportunism in the blogger-friendly chillwave shimmer, but Arnström is such a smooth operator that any such charges slide right off.

Lead track Free Agents is the EP’s sparkling high-point, with warped-tape effects ruffling a pristine synth melody, while Bicycle Theme is blissed-out pop of the finest calibre. Where Simian Ghost’s debut full-length Infinite Traffic Everywhere (released in Sweden earlier this year and available online/on import), felt like a compromise of sorts, Lovelorn is the sound of Arnström embracing his new guise vigorously – as well he should; it rather suits him.

Out Now

Charlotte Gainsbourg - Stage Whisper (***)

‘Brave’, ‘searing’, ‘extraordinary’: Charlotte Gainsbourg’s acting has quite rightly prompted many a critic to splutter enthusiastic paeans (even those who hated Antichrist took the time to praise her ladypart-lopping performance). Her music has had a more mixed reception, with praise often measured, or, somewhat insultingly, directed at her collaborators – Jarvis Cocker and co on 5:55; Beck on last year’s IRM.

The latter returns for the studio-half of this double album, though you wouldn’t necessarily detect his presence on the Goldfrapp-aping Terrible Angels, a strong opener that sees Gainsbourg confidently embody her role as electro-pop siren. Thing is, Terrible Angels has already appeared on its own EP, as has closing gem Memoir (written by Conor O’Brien of Villagers, for anyone keeping track). Which leaves just five tracks (less than twenty minutes-worth) of previously-unreleased material – a slightness that makes the live disc seem less like a bonus, and more like compensation.

Out Now

playlist for november bottle rocket!

2011-11-20T15:11:00.002Z

a hearty 'thank you' to everyone who came out and danced with us last night - twas a pure belter. apparently okkervil river were there and everyfin!

1. wild nothing - drifter
2. slow club - 2 cousins
3. allo darlin - kiss your lips
4. patti smith - till victory
5. best coast - gone again
6. veronica falls - bad feeling
7. silver jews - animal shapes
8. rem - strange
9. talking heads - burning down the house
10. duran duran - girls on film
11. kate bush - cloudbursting
12. jens lekman - maple leaves
13. electric light orchestra - all over the world
14. the go! team - buy nothing day
15. tune-yards - bizness
16. kid canaveral - cursing your apples
17. libertines - don't look back into the sun
18. vampire weekend - a-punk
19. pixies - i've been tired
20. dananananaykroyd - think and feel
21. idlewild - i'm a message
22. superchunk - where eagles dare
23. archers of loaf - web in front
24. the fall - psycho mafia
25. del shannon - runaway
26. elvis costello - i can't stand up for falling down
27. wilco - i might
28. dexy's midnight runners - geno
29. super furry animals - golden retriever
30. david bowie - queen bitch
31. beat happening - bewitched
32. blondie - call me
33. the velvettes - needle in a haystack
34. ladybirds - shimmy shimmy dang
35. kenickie - come out 2nite
36. the ramones - i wanna be sedated
37. genesis - jesus he knows me
38. manic street preachers - faster
39. los campesinos! - you! me! dancing!
40. the rezillos - i like it
41. surfer blood - territorial pissings
42. the specials - a message to you rudy
43. otis redding - love man
44. smokey robinson and the miracles - shop around
45. hall and oates - you make my dreams come true
46. ash - angel interceptor
47. terrorvision - perseverence
48. prince - my name is prince
49. beastie boys - shake your rump
50. beyonce - single ladies
51. altered iamges - don't talk to me about love
52. fleetwood mac - everywhere
53. the smiths - bigmouth strikes again
54. bon jovi - runaway
55. b52s - 52 girls
56. adam ant - ant music
57. joan armatrading - drop the pilot
58. j geils band - centrefold
59. jeff wayne - the eve of war
60. dire straits - money for nothing
61. zz top - gimme all your lovin
62. deacon blue - wages day
63. shirley ellis - the clapping song
64. bruce springsteen - born to run

kaboom!

TOOOONIIIIIIITE

2011-11-19T21:08:00.003Z

COME ON DOWN!!!!

toomarra! toomarra! ah luv ya! toomarra!

2011-11-18T10:00:00.002Z

it's only a daaaaaay awaaaaaaaay!

los campesinos! @ oran mor, 10th november

2011-11-17T13:48:00.000Z

With low slung guitars and double denim uniform, Strange News From Another Star resemble a rockabilly-flecked Future of the Left (with whom frontman Jimmy Watkins also plays); all teeth, riffs, claws and barbs. “You’re in for a treat” Watkins promises as they depart. “I still get a raging erection every time I see Gareth on stage…”

The trouser-bothering Los Campesinos! are indeed on fine form, showing off the pick of Hello Sadness without over-loading on new material – not that a little thing like release-dates has prevented sections of the crowd from memorising every lyric already. LC! continue to inspire keen devotion, which makes for an exhilarating atmosphere: You! Me! Dancing! still fizzes electric joy; Miserabilia manages to feel life-affirming despite its less than cheery message (“a song about how every one of us is going to die alone”, as Gareth puts it), while new track To Tundra confirms there’s much more to their songwriting than infectious energy and a witty turn of phrase. But it’s Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks that steals the show at the close, uniting all with its defiant chants and earning the band their exclamation mark.

Arab Strap discuss motivation to reform...

2011-11-16T13:49:00.002Z

Here's a brief follow-up to the cover story i wrote for this month's skinny. in a nutshell: if you haven't already got tickets for the arab strap gig tomorrow night, you've missed the boat...

Tomorrow night, Arab Strap will perform together at Nice 'n' Sleazy as part of the bar’s month-long 20^th birthday celebrations. Tickets, predictably, disappeared faster than subatomic neutrinos (that's science, kids), resulting in a lucky few fans taking to the streets and bellowing “I’ve got a golden ticket!” like a lifetime of Wonka bars had suddenly paid off (probably).

But those left pouting and cursing slow broadband connections can at least cling on to the hope that more gigs might follow, right? Is there any chance of a repeat down the line? “None at all, not a whisper nor a hint,” kiboshes Aidan Moffat.

“What happened was that Sleazy's asked us to do a night together – i.e. a set by Malcolm [Middleton] and a set by me – but I love the place so much that I asked Malc if he was up for doing a few of our old songs, and he was. I suspect that might have been Sleazy's intention all along, right enough, but I don't mind; I love the place dearly and it'll be a pleasure. We're doing it all for free, too – there's absolutely no commerce involved, it's purely from love. Although I have been promised all the beer I can drink, which sounds like a challenge to me.”

Not as big a challenge as wrangling your way in to this hotly anticipated reunion without a ticket: the bereft may commence their greetin' now...

bottle rocket november!

2011-11-11T18:59:00.002Z

Hey guys! Bottle Rocket cordially invites you to boogie till the wee small hours to all manner of wonderful music, from Arab Strap to Otis Redding, Prince to Los Campesinos. Plus, it’s Nice N Sleazy’s 20th birthday month, so if you don’t come along, you’re effectively shitting in their birthday cake. DON’T SHIT IN THEIR BIRTHDAY CAKE.

BOTTLE ROCKET!
NICE N SLEAZY!
19th NOVEMBER!
11:30pm START!
3:00am FINISH!
INDIE-POP-NEWWAVE-ROCKNROL

L-SOUL-ANDTHEREST!

(and as always, stick requests on the facebook wall so that we can bitterly disappoint you by completely forgetting about them on the night).

november skinny!

2011-11-09T18:24:00.002Z

the november edition of the skinny has malcolm middleton and aidan moffat on the cover. and whaddaya know? arab strap will be playing in nice n sleazys as part of their 20 year celebration! wizard! tickets are all long gone like, but it's cool nonetheless...

as i might have already mentioned, i wrote this month's cover story, which features interviews from the aforementioned arab strap blokes, plus members of franz ferdinand, the twilight sad, mogwai and the phantom band, on the subject of nice n sleazy's 20th birthday celebrations. Read it here if you haven't already.

also in this week's issue are the following me-penned pieces:

- herman dune live review (read here!)
- envy live review (read here!)
- simian ghost - lovelorn' ep review
- charlotte gainsbourg - 'stage whisper' album review
- ane brun - 'it all starts with one' album review (read here!)
- wooden wand and the briarwood virgins - 'briarwood' album review (read here!)
- portugal. the man - 'in the mountain, in the cloud' album review (read here!)
- johnny foreigner - 'johnny foreigner vs everything' album review (read here!)
- seafieldroad - 'seafieldroad' album review (read here!)

pick up a copy from all the usual places!

dananananaykroyd @ O2 ABC, 29th October

2011-11-08T11:00:00.000Z

It’s in no way a slight to suggest United Fruit are pretty peripheral to tonight’s euphoric highs. They hurl out riff after riff with dependable vigour, but stage left, the slowly snaking queue for the merchandise stand indicates the anticipation with which the ABC awaits its headliners.

Dananananaykroyd’s ‘closing down’ sale sees brisk business as fans clamour for last-chance mementos of a soon-to-be fondly-remembered career. Technical gremlins mute David Roy’s guitar for the opening number, forcing early improv from the band’s irrepressible vocalists (“I said to myself before tonight, ‘don’t turn it into a stand-up show…’” Calum deadpans as the jinx drags out the banter), but a lead swap later and then they’re off, with all the zeal fans have come to expect. It’s a full-house of highlights: the disco swagger of farewell single Think and Feel makes their impending dissolve all the more bittersweet; The Greater Than Symbol and the Hash socks the crowd with a nostalgic sissy hit; while the ‘Wall of Cuddles’ is resurrected for the encore, as Some Dresses rounds out the sextet’s tenure on the Scottish live scene. And then it’s over: but in the words of their namesake (after accidentally conjuring a giant marshmallow man, blowing up a high-rise, and getting sued by half of New York): yeah, but what a ride.

film review: marwencol

2011-11-04T17:52:00.002Z

I just found this review up on The Skinny's site, which i wrote back at the beginning of the year and promptly forgot about. Marwencol's already been shown on 4OD under the name Village of the Dolls, and it's well worth checking out should it get repeated any time soon...

Eleven years ago, Mark Hogancamp was beaten into a coma, wiping his memories. Unable to pay for professional therapy, Mark built the tiny titular town of Marwencol and populated it with 1/6 scale alter-egos of real-life friends, family and acquaintances, exorcising fears and realising hopes through a miniature world of his own creation. He photographs his Lilliput for prosperity, and the World War 2-themed images soon catch the eye of the art world. They’re remarkable not only for their lifelike detail, but for the poignancy evoked by their painstaking positioning, the tableaux brought to life by Hogancamp’s surreal storytelling (stocked with buxom beauties, Nazis and time-travelling witches). The film might be accused of exploitation if Hogancamp didn’t appear so comfortable with the filmmakers’ presence; director Jeff Malmberg even earns a diminutive twin of his own. Throughout, the mixture of whimsy and suffering is well balanced, inviting the viewer to empathise with Mark’s pain, yet marvel at his unfettered imagination.

reviews: ane brun, wooden wand and the briarwood virgins, seafieldroad

2011-11-03T18:29:00.003Z

Ane Brun - It All Starts With One (***)

A couple of years ago, a Cyndi Lauper cover for a Sky HD ad looked like it just might break the stalemate scenario whereby Norwegian-born, Sweden-residing Ane Brun would conquer charts in Scandinavia, yet was largely unknown beyond the Baltic. It didn’t, it transpires, so It All Starts With One presents a fresh opportunity for international recognition, and as ever, Brun’s voice is its principal selling point.

Her remarkable range and tone are as striking as ever (occasional excess warble notwithstanding), particularly when offset by José González’s earthier tones on Worship. On Do You Remember?, First Aid Kit add velvet backing vocals to the pot as well, but there’s more than Nordic semi-celebrities to recommend Brun’s latest. Her songwriting has taken a turn for the darker, particularly on the aforementioned Worship, where swirling strings crackle with drama. But it’s Undertow that best showcases her talents; simple in melody and metaphor, though with a potentially huge impact.

Out 14th November

Wooden Wand and the Briarwood Virgins - Briarwood (**)

James Jackson Toth, the phenomenally-prolific songwriter oft-known as Wooden Wand, recorded Briarwood in Alabama, and boy, does it show. This is Toth’s Southern rock opera, a sour mash concoction of country rock and gospel, Hammond organ and lonesome-road lyrical journeys. He sings of stays of execution, bourbon and salvation in the kind of rough-hewn drawl that renders the word ‘man’ as ‘may-an’.

And all of that is, of course, pretty cool, but only if taken as knowingly recycled: if Toth is self-consciously channelling oft-reprinted hymn sheets, his odes to good whiskey, bad women and other such clichés warrant a hallelujah from the congregation, but take Brairwood straight-faced and it's exasperatingly limited, with little to recommend it over a re-spin through The Band’s back catalogue with a whiskey chaser. Pedal steel and aching breaking hearts are an irresistible combination, but ultimately Wooden Wand’s latest resembles a Drive-by Truckers you’ll wish had kept trucking on by.

Out 7th November

Seafieldroad - Seafieldroad (****)

Released almost exactly a year after his debut as Seafieldroad (itself released a mere six months after Swimmer One’s Dead Orchestras), Andrew Eaton-Lewis’s latest makes this stately adult-pop piano-ballad bag look effortless – though to be fair, he’s been at it a while, with hundreds of home-recorded albums already on tape. On this self-titled release, evocative titles like What Became of Pinky and Honker are backed ably by Eaton-Lewis’s redolent croon and deftly sketched narratives.

Though erudite, Eaton-Lewis evidently knows not the meaning of the words ‘diminishing returns’, as this is a comfortable improvement on There Are No Maps For This Part of the City, despite operating from roughly the same stable.The only real complaint is its brevity – just seven songs, plus a nicely-arranged cover of Empire of the Sun’s Walking on a Dream – but at the rate he works, album three is no doubt already on the horizon.

Out 21st November