september skinny out today! (even though it's still august - goodness me!)

this month's skinny is a doozy when it comes to music content. the cover story digs deep into the scottish mental health arts and film festival, talking to james yorkston, emma pollock, aidan moffat, scott hutchison and alasdair roberts amongst others about their involvement. elsewhere, words are exchanged with black mountain, manic street preachers, the vaselines and divorce, while steve mason reviews the singles.

now, on to me me me me me. ma input iz:

- interview with stuart braithwaite/review of special moves
- manic street preachers - 'postcards from a young man' album review
- the vaselines - 'sex with an x' album review
- edwyn collins - 'losing sleep' album review

and that's it. i must've been a bit of a lazy bones last month.

the edwyn collins review is already up on the blog (and over at theskinny.co.uk), while the rest will no doubt be added over the coming weeks. so be sure to check back every fifteen minutes like clockwork lest you miss this thrilling development.

reviews: miyagi, edwyn collins, for a minor reflection

Miyagi - Electrosaurus (***)

Christening your second album Electrosaurus and adorning the cover with axe-wielding thunder-lizards and a drumming diplodocus is undoubtedly awesome, but it also creates expectations that go unfulfilled: neither rock titans nor electroheads (as the cover might imply), Miyagi also unfortunately fall short of ‘awesome’. The Edinburgh five-piece specialise in sixties-inspired sedate folk-pop, and although not quite Jurassic, the results sound fairly ancient. Echoing historic influences isn’t necessarily to their detriment: for example, the gorgeous harmonies of Faithful Retainer are delivered with an astutely sensitive touch, while Sheep (amongst others) successfully evokes Big Star. But the results are occasionally bland, the ingredients beautifully sourced and combined skilfully, but the product undifferentiated. To quote the band’s wise karate-master namesake, “Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later get squished like grape.” As it stands, Miyagi’s middle-of-the-road tendencies are putting them in danger of extinction.

Out Now



Edwyn Collins - Losing Sleep (****)

Indie-legend Edwyn Collins is pretty extraordinary by any yardstick. It’s disappointing, however, that recent expressions of amazement have focussed less on the quality of what he does, than on the fact he does it at all following 2005’s brain haemorrhages. Losing Sleep, by contrast, generates astonishment not because he’s ‘bounced back’ – let’s avoid patronisation – but because songwriters in their fourth decade of recording rarely sound so fresh. Credit goes partially to the young(er) guns enlisted to assist. They leave fingerprints – What Is My Role? features Ryan Jarman vocals, while Do It Again (co-written by Alex Kapranos and Nick McCarthy) has a Franz-esque beat – but considering Collins has influenced them and their kin for decades, a reversal seems fair. The results don’t always gel, but individually, songs stand proud: from the soul-stomp title track to closing ballad Searching For the Truth, Collins proves remarkable for all the right reasons.

Out 13th September



For A Minor Reflection - Heading Towards Chaos (***)

For about fifteen minutes, For A Minor Reflection are the best instrumental post-rock band to reach these ears in years. Obviously for some, this will sound like faint praise – the relative lack of variation in the genre can make it feel like a style long peaked, but for those partial to a bit of evocative bluster, bombastic opener Kostljos and the palette cleansing Fjara are real treats.

Yet such early enthusiasm soon resides – while masters of the genre’s craft, balancing light and shade, loud and quiet, both the storm and its eye – the Icelandic quartet follow the rule-book so closely there’s little room to challenge or surprise. In the end, they’re closer to the soaring populism of Coldplay than the shiver-inducing likes of Explosions in the Sky, and as such ‘only’ deserve the epithet Mjög Góður (that’s ‘Very Good’ if your Icelandic is rusty).

Out 6th September

september poster might give you nightmares

or it might make you feel happy and warm - i dunno, i'm not a bloomin mind reader am i?

august playlist

cor, that was fun. i reckon saturday night was as fine an introduction into bottle rocket's third year (!) as we could have hoped for, so thanks to everyone that made it along. apologies to anyone who made requests that went unfulfilled - i realised towards the end that i'd said aye to waaaay too many to fit in, so if you waited patiently for tv on the radio, the beatles or david bowie (amongst others), i hope you didn't leave too disappointed...

here's what we did play:

1. apache beat - another day
2. guided by voices - my kind of soldier
3. superchunk - art class
4. pet lions - roman holiday
5. violent femmes - gone daddy gone
6. au revoir simone - another likely story
7. broken social scene - forced to love
8. the fall - mr pharmacist
9. the cranberries - salvation
10. yeah yeah yeahs - date with the night
11. dum dum girls - bhang bhang i'm a burnout
12. house of love - shine on
13. sleigh bells - rill rill
14. jens lekman - the end of the world (is bigger than love)
15. frightened rabbit - the modern leper
16. beck - sexlawws
17. cake - short skirt/long jacket
18. dogs die in hot cars - i love you cos i have to
19. danger mouse, sparklehorse and julian casablancas - little girl
20. the cure - boys don't cry
21. interpol - barricade
22. monotonix - fun fun fun
23. dananananaykroyd - pink sabbath
24. the rolling stones - rip this joint
25. the who - i can't explain
26. little richard - i don't want to discuss it
27. the kills - sour cherry
28. wild nothing - summer holiday
29. pains of being pure at heart - young adult friction
30. rilo kiley - portions for foxes
31. kirsty maccoll - a new england
32. sleeper - inbetweener
33. kim wilde - dancing in the dark
34. janelle monae - tightrope
35. big boi - shutterbug
36. pulp - misshapes
37. the libertines - don't look back into the sun
38. kain - satellite
39. the strokes - hard to explain
40. idlewild - roseability
41. the breeders - cannonball
42. the triffids - beautiful waste
43. julian cope - world shut your mouth
44. blondie - one way or another
45. b-52s - private idaho
46. thelma houston - jumpin' jack flash
47. the concretes - can't hurry love
48. lush - ladykillers
49. devo - that's good
50. duran duran - planet earth
51. fleetwood mac - go your own way
52. the supremes - stop in the name of love
53. abba - voulez vous
54. beastie boys - intergalactic
55. bon jovi - runaway
56. franz ferdinand - this fire
57. prince - i could never take the place of your man
58. plastic bertrand - ca plane pour moi
59. the stone roses - she bangs the drums
60. talking heads - stay up all night
61. deacon blue - wages day
62. roy orbison - love hurts

bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow:

there'll be bottle rocket

august skinny

if you aint picked up a copy of the skinny yet, yer missing out on loads of good musicy stuff - interviews with the burns unit, !!!, big boi and raekwon for starters.

and as always there are things written on THISVERYKEYBOARDONWHICHITYPETHISNOW by THESEVERYHANDS. things like:

- interview with milk (read!)
- the dirty dozen single reviews (single of the month: these new puritans. its ace yknow) (read!)
- s. carey - 'all we grow' album review (read!)
- mt. st. helens vietnam band - 'where the messengers meet' album review (read!)
- women - 'public strain' album review (read!)
- commercial alternative live review (read!)
- milk live review (read!)

go on, give it a read!

on the ferris wheel

bottle rocket is cool for cats

wot with best coast an' wavves an' keyboard cat (is keyboard cat still funny and hip?) an' that, cats are SO IN right now.

despite this, nice n sleazys do not, to the best of my knowledge, permit felines in the building (i suppose they'd probably hide their shit in the speakers, and it's not like they'd enjoy themselves anyway, i mean they're cats forchrissakes). but if one WERE to find its way downstairs at half eleven on the... 21st of august, well by jove, said kitty would be so darn delighted with what they encountered that they'd look like the one in the poster. i mean, just look at that face - some proverbial cream has totally been got. of course, rather than lounging about all tired-like, it'd be hot-pawing across the dancefloor to all the cracking tunes.

should you wish to join this metaphorical dancing cat at bottle rocket's 25th installment, simply follow the instructions below:

1. don yer party clothes and dig out yer dancing shoes.
2. mosey on down to nice n sleazys on sauchiehall street - if thee mosey fast and get there before half eleven its free. but if thee mosey slow, it's £3.
3. dance dance dance dance.

if you've requests, stick em on the wall of this here facebook page.

reviews: leif vollebekk, millimetre, s carey

Leif Vollebekk - Inland (**)

On Inland, Leif Vollebekk aimed for 'Hank Williams meets Sigur Rós'. Surprisingly, the results reflect the aim, with the influence of both (just about) discernable, but the amalgamation is less satisfying than might have been hoped. From the former comes an emotional tenor, from the latter a grandly forlorn atmosphere, but from their synthesis stultifying disappointment is born – seems Williams + Rós = a down in the dumps Fionn Regan in Dylan fancy-dress. This is Serious music, about Serious affairs of the heart, but ‘Serious’ has unfortunately translated to an unleavened tone that puts the ‘dour’ in ‘splendour’. Nonetheless, his soul-bearing intermittently hits hard: for example, he is lyrically fascinating throughout (“your body’s been honest but here again it lies”), and the trembling In The Morning evokes tumultuous emotion delicately. While sad songs needn’t be so dull, Vollebekk’s debut is intriguing enough to hope for another instalment.

Out Now


Millimetre - 13 Homes (***)

While summing up Millimetre’s sound isn't easy, The Blue Nile with laptops (or The XX remixed by Hot Chip, to put contemporary references to work) evokes some of the dislocated urban atmosphere which ebbs from Hymmigrant’s low-key opener, through industrial percussion to the claustrophobic echoes of A Stranger’s Face. Though born in small-town Ireland, the tone and timbre of city life flows through Millimetre’s baggy, synth pop creations (the cover is aptly illustrative).

The results can be glassy and distant: “I can’t walk these streets, tar and paving swallows me” begins one prickly track; “London dark draws its love... kill the newborn” threatens another. But there is levity, when the sun rises and dispels shadows from alleys and underpasses: Photo-Finish is cut-up Super Furry Animals churned out from circuits, while an old home-recording of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star at the close reaffirms familial closeness amidst the alienation.

Out 16th August


S Carey - All We Grow (***)

You’d have to add a montage before it hits cinemas, but Sean Carey’s allegiance to Bon Iver has inspirational triumph written all over it. A morose inspirational triumph admittedly, but get Glee to cover Skinny Love for the soundtrack and it’d whip up that Almost Famous-vibe for sure. After a fortnight spent memorising For Emma, Forever Ago, Carey approached Justin Vernon at a gig, impressed him with his homework and was invited to join the band.

Unfortunately, it seems that in slavishly regurgitating Vernon’s music, Carey is stuck emulating it with lesser success. All We Grow’s evocative, rustic atmosphere is unquestionably beautiful, but lacks For Emma’s incisiveness. It nonetheless skirts close to excellence, but truthfully, if these nine tracks were released by someone unconnected to Bon Iver, they’d have to dodge justifiable charges of plagiarism. Yet if anonymously presented as Bon Iver’s second full-length, they’d spark more disappointment than excitement.

Out 30th August

the skinny: the dirty dozen

this month i was in charge of the skinny's single reviews - here's what i wrote:

Armed with a pair of headphones and a fistful of plastic discs, Chris Buckle wanders off on the hunt for an August soundtrack

It’s difficult to get an angle on twenty-one year old Jade Williams, a.k.a. Sunday Girl. Her cover of 80s Italo disco classic Self Control (***, 2 Aug) is sweetly sung and pretty enough, but plaudits are more deservedly directed to the original artist. Sunday Girl adds a lick of zeitgeist friendly Ellie Goulding-style electro, but doesn’t reveal much of herself (and neither do the five additional remixes).

Aspiring dance anthem After Dark (**, 23 Aug) is, according to the press release, a “new chapter in the history of forward-thinking, electronic dance music”. Which is odd, since the Count & Sinden’s collaboration with the Mystery Jets seems to be ticking the obvious boxes without ever thinking outside them.

Next, Athens, Georgia’s Dead Confederate return less murky than before, with the verse of Giving It All Away (***, 16 Aug) resembling fellow Athenians R.E.M. in their formative years. They’ve managed to clean up the grunge despite collaborating with J. Mascis, who delivers a typically gnarly closing solo - a balancing act to be applauded.

Raincoats (****, 23 Aug) is an enchanting but imperfect ambassador for Efterklang’s ‘pop-album’ Magic Chairs; though typical of the magnificence the Danes have it in them to evoke, its awkward and brittle beauty is too quiet and slow-burning to astonish when shorn of its context. A deconstructed version of Harmonics on the flip-side, however, is worth a purchase in itself.

Am I Just A Man (****, 16 Aug) asks Steve Mason on the latest single to be lifted from his sterling Boys Outside album. Depends how you look at it Steve: your firm grasp of pop dynamics ensures this cut grows from its humble opening into something special, so if you are ‘just’ a man, you’re one heck of a gifted one.

For a band now exclusively dedicated to the single format, Ash seem to produce a lot of album filler-material these days. If you’re still following their A-Z project (they’ve been releasing a single every 2 weeks since October last year), Carnal Love (***, 2 Aug) is a pleasant ballad entry, but back in their heyday it would have been lucky to be picked as a scraping-the-barrel fifth single.

If Bruce Springsteen is the Boss, The Gaslight Anthem are part-time customer service advisors at best. And like an apathetic and cheerless “thank you for calling!” The Diamond Church Street Choir (**, 9 Aug) struggles to demonstrate authenticity, despite some evocative lyrical storytelling about “hub city girls in their ribbons and curls”. But the Jersey Shore shtick is predictable – if Tommy and Gina wandered up from the diner and into this soft rock chest-beater, they’d fit right in with the clichés.

Identify Reinvention, Enact Reinvention, Fly Into The Charts, right? On Collapsing Cities (*, 9 Aug), Sam Duckworth (aka Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly) is transformed into a Shy FX-collaborating, dancefloor-preoccupied, T4-on-the-Beach-er, a shift which doesn’t quite rival Plan B’s shamelessly shiny makeover, but is just as forgettable. At least Plan B dropped the social commentary in order to focus on the cash; Sam’s still preaching from his first-year politics textbooks.

Thankfully Sky Larkin have foregone any major refurbishment of their indie-rock chops. Dusting off chunky riffs and a big chorus ahead of second album Kaleide, Still Windmills (****, 2 Aug) has the pace to get blood pumping and feet moving. They’ll get the audiences they deserve yet.

As well as supporting them in London later in the month, Teeth could act as a gateway drug for the dark allure of the ascendant Sleigh Bells. See Spaces (****, 16 Aug) mines a similarly hard electro sound, but with the aggressive edge smoothed down and coated in lush synths. And the shouty, grimy, propulsive B-side just might be even better.

And penultimately, Monotonix: a band so Rock their acoustic All Tomorrow’s Parties show was shut down by worried Butlins staff after just five minutes. Fun Fun Fun (****, 9 Aug) lives up to its triple-joy billing, the Israeli garage punks doing their best Stooges impressions without a hint of originality but with plenty of raw aggression.

SINGLE OF THE MONTH

Though only a third as long as the first single lifted from Hidden, These New Puritans cram so many textures and so much originality into Hologram’s (****, 9 Aug) two and a half minutes that playing it three times in a row is both recommended and rewarding. There are hints of Pit Er Pat in the hollow woodwind and space-jazz structure, but what makes this so thrilling is the sense of wide-open possibility. While we contemplate where they’ll go next, here’s a Single of the Month accolade to mark where they’ve been.

meet milk

here's an interview piece i wrote recently for the skinny on nifty new glasgow act Milk:

Ah Milk. Great source of calcium, won Sean Penn an Oscar… er, hang on, something’s off. Google has failed me – guys, you’ll have to introduce yourselves…

“Callum, up in the crow’s nest, is all guitar-cradling and neckerchief-wearing, while Sam will go down with the ship, laughing to the last at his cockpit of keyboards,” collectively explain Glasgow (via Fife) quartet, Milk.

“Michael plays at drums and dressing up down in the engine room, and Pablo stands at the prow, full of windy rhetoric and last night’s leftovers.” Any room for a celebrity endorsement on board? After all, that 'Got Milk' campaign has done wonders for dairy sales over the years –want to co-opt any Milk-the-Drink lovers as spokespersons for Milk-the-band?

“Can we breed them? If so we'll take the lithe and insatiable sexuality of Isabella Rosellini, couple it with the high-society histrionics of Elton John, and marry that off with the future-race breeding of the Olsens and the ruthless art-as-a-sacrificial-cow ambition of James Cameron.” Finally, this sexual, ambitious future-race progeny would be “wrapped in plastic, à la Joan Rivers.”

If their creation sounds elaborate and messy, it fits their musical identities; if their answers sound articulate yet obfuscating, it reflects their crafty, cultured smarts. “We think that bands are too readily vilified for not nailing a signature sound,” they argue. “It seems to us that using a broad palette can produce the most interesting and enjoyable results.” Their particular palette reaps the rewards of a four-way musical input that doesn’t necessarily flow naturally in the same direction.

“I think it would be fair to say that we began this at odd angles, and so the approach has been to try and challenge each other, taking our disparate inspirations and finding ways to harmonise them. We enjoy sifting through the noise.” When the sifting is finished, nuggets of Lizard King stargazing, smooth 80s grooves, moody atmospherics, deadpan humour and prog-squiggles remain. The unorthodox blend slips through genres like cow lactose through fingers. “We converge in strange places,” they acknowledge.

Milk confound classification in part through tactical shyness. Their low-profile moniker and lower-profile web presence constitute a genuine attempt to avoid the pigeonholing that rubberstamps acts straight from the womb. Milk are leaving their options open and keeping followers guessing.

“We're still in the formative stages of playing this music together, so anything that allows the freedom to go off on creative tangents is a must,” they explain. “The name gave us the blank slate. If you treat a band's name as a statement of intent, then ours remains open to interpretation.” Refreshingly, in an age where choosing a MySpace background sits uncomfortably high on new-starts' 'to do' lists, they’re uninterested in cultivating a potentially-straight-jacketing online persona. “We want the opportunity to surprise others and ourselves.”

Live, they don’t let such opportunities pass them by. But what about recordings? Any releases on the horizon? “In this regard,” they assert, “we reserve the right to remain mysterious.” Seems Milk will be whetting appetites a little longer yet.

reviews: women, mt st helens vietnam band, the coral

Women - Public Strain (****)

The static storm cover for Public Strain is as good an entrée for its unsettling brilliance as the damaged symphony of first single Eyesore. The obtuse but beautiful art reflects what at times can be an uncomfortable listen – an oppressive and shady din of echoes and feedback, machinery and drones. Many of the tracks are to be praised more for the uneasy atmosphere they evoke rather than their individual qualities – for example, the opening Can’t You See groans with heavy pressure while Patrick Flegal coos amidst the disintegration, producing an effective scene-setter.

But Women can – and do – exploit an accessible pop side: for example, Drag Open drugs Sonic Youth and extracts their vigour while Venice Lockjaw is a funereal waltz, the Velvet Underground raised up from graves to woo the stars. In the synthesis of these two facets, one of the year’s most rewarding listens is born.

Out 23rd August


Mt St Helens Vietnam Band - Where the Messengers Meet (***)

A cavalier attitude to song structure, awkward pop melodies and a lead singer pitching his chords with theatrical verve: take a number, guys – half of North America got there first. Their second album improves on a decent debut, but it won’t usurp their forebearers; while it sounds vaguely like the kind of project Spencer Krug could be involved in, it would prompt concerns the lad was spreading himself too thin if he was.

Though not without ideas of their own, the Seattle five-piece spend too long tugging on the sleeves of pantheon-members like Arcade Fire and Modest Mouse to fulfil their potential. Letting the guitar sit exposed in the mix gives them a degree of differentiation, with the Dead Weather riff of At Night rattling away robustly and Hurrah stomping along nicely. But its consistent tones can grow tiresome, and their general lack of vision fundamentally undermines their talent.

Out 2nd August


The Coral - Butterfly House (****)

With Oasis deceased, another sixties-indebted Brit act has obligingly begun to proffer perpetual ‘best since their debut’ pre-release promises. The Coral clearly operate on a significantly different scale – especially eight years after that self-titled success, when hype-stores are long diminished and their continuation goes unnoticed by many erstwhile fans. Fortunately, they differ from the Gallaghers in various other ways: Butterfly House is indeed the Merseyside outfit’s finest release since their first.

The title track augments its breezy melody with vaguely eerie whispers, Green Is The Colour combines a Donovan-esque chorus with Spector-echoing verses to superb retro effect, and the slight Falling All Around You is perhaps the prettiest three minutes they’ve penned thus far. And these aren’t even necessarily the best tracks, the quintet's understated, John Leckie (Ride, Radiohead, Stone Roses) produced sixth album housing no hits-in-waiting but generating its success from an overall sense of harmony.

Out Now