See below for words on all the tracks featured.
Come May we ought to be preparing ourselves for four months of long hot days lounging about in beer gardens in a sun-drenched reverie, complemented by Grease-style summer nights of holiday romances and other such debauchery. However given the unpredictability of the typical Scottish summer it might be best to rely more heavily on decent music - and this month's podcast features just the right mix of slightly off-kilter summery indie pop with a dash of folky goodness thrown in for when the heat gets too much and you need to cool off in the shade.
The Vaselines - Son of a Gun
Classic songwriting genius from Glasgow but it took a certain Seattle band to bring them to most people's attention. First released back in the 80s, it's rare that a re-release makes this column but this is still instantly thrilling in the way that only a perfect pop song can be.
Jason Lytle - Brand New Sun/Flying Thru Canyons
Y'know when I told you Grandaddy had gone to "a better place" and wasn't coming back no more? Well he's back. Ok, he's not quite the same Grandaddy you used to know, he's more sprightly, carrying less weight, and though he has a haunted look in his eyes he's finally got his shit sorted. He gives you a big, comforting hug and he smells of tobacco and polo mints just like he always used to.
Meursault - William Henry Miller Part 1
There are a few William Henry Miller's on Wikipedia. Which one of them, if any, this song is about will hopefully be revealed on the podcast, when we chat to Matthew of Song By Toad Records, who has signed this bloody excellent Edinburgh band. They're perhaps better known for their blistering electronica-based live sets but here they excel in the acoustic realm with impassioned vocals, banjo, handclaps and harmonies.
Grizzly Bear - Cheerleader
Not to be confused with Grizzly Man, whose love for big furry not so cuddly real-life teddies was perhaps taken a tad too far resulting in his and his girlfriend's untimely death. No, Grizzly Bear are in fact a highly-rated band from Brooklyn. And Cheerleader is nothing to do with the jailbait out of Heroes - it's a blissed out indie-animal, lumbering about a peaceful mountain forest full of honey-laden beehives.
"Twee" Special!
Pretty girls and cute animals really are the nicest things in the world – FACT. And when you combine them both, plus an utterly mad bloke, you get this month's podcast – a big furry, slightly unhinged twee-monster stomping into your life and leaving seeds in your living room carpet from which sprout smiley daffodils and the onset of spring. No more bedroom-based melancholy, no more unhelpful unrequited love, the time to rejoice in an endearingly self-conscious fashion has come!
Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
New music from the not-so-obscure Glasgow band who make twee indie kids’ hearts flutter all across the world. It's exactly what you'd expect – self-effacingly life-affirming, rose-tinted glasses retro, and bloody lovely.
Je Suis Animal - Fortune Map
Psychedelic dreamy indie pop from Oslo, with more than a hint of Stereolab. It's actually a surprisingly strident guitar-driven beast which turns into a ferocious, snarling, claws-out carnivore just when you're leaning in close to rub its tummy. Available this month as a split 7" with Wake The President from Lucky Number Nine records.
Men Diamler - Black as a Cat in the Morning
Does this count as twee? Perhaps it does, at least the sinister side of it, the lopsided grin of the joke gone too far, the failed attempt at being nice which ends up in tears. Men Diamler is pure mental, he sings about cats and suicide and screams "one of these days you'll feel much better". He gets up and runs about like his arse is on fire. He makes us all sing along. Thing is, we feel better right away.
Animal Magic Tricks - Poor Heart
A woman with flaming red hair makes a keyboard sound like crunching rocks. Her voice flutters and flounces round like a ballet dancer. Beeps intrude on our intimacy. Rough recordings only hint at the pleasures of Animal Magic Tricks in the flesh.
Panda Su - Moviegoer
"The problem with myself is that I long to be someone else," sings Fife songstress Panda Su. But on this evidence, recorded with the Beta Band's Steve Mason, she's doing very nicely indeed. At one point some children cheer loudly, which is surely the height of twee, and she and Steve close the curtains and settle down with a big bag of popcorn to enjoy watching home movies from their old-school 16mm movie camera.
Jeffrey Lewis - Willamsburgh Will Oldham Horror
This month's podcast features exclusive extracts from The Skinny's interview with Will Oldham, aka Bonnie Prince Billy. It seemed like as good a time as any to big up this song, by New York anti-folk hero Jeffrey Lewis, which tells the (possibly imaginary) tale of an encounter with Oldham on a train which descends into Lewis being brutally beaten and defiled by the generously-bearded indie legend. Amazingly, Oldham told us that he's a big fan of the song.
Punk Is Not Dead - The Japanese War Effort
Another song which mentions defilement (don't say we don't treat you). In this case it's some nasty accusations of necrophilia in relation to the endangered musical genre of punk. However if the inclusion of the lyrics "who smells like poo" are anything to go by then the punk attitude at least lives on in the land of Lothian Buses which Martin Moog calls home. Snowbird, his debut, is pure class and is available on tape cassette for a couple of quid or free to download via www.winningspermparty.com - plus keep an eye out for his new record out on Fabrikant Records soon.
Miss Tierney - Wake The President
Infused through and through with the unmistakeable aura of the Glasgow/Scottish indie tradition, Wake the President have followed the route of their heroes Belle & Sebastian with their superb debut album, You Can't Change That Boy, released on Stow College's legendary Electric Honey Records this month. Must make a nice change to have others helping with the promotion as front-twins Bjorn and Erik have been busy releasing excellent music by other bands such as Endor and Zoey van Goey through their own Say Dirty Records. With this sublime ode to teenage lust they again invoke the ghost of Stuart Murdoch's band at their early best, but with an added dose of jangly guitars that would make Johnny Marr proud.
Found - Let Fidelity Break
Edinburgh electro bods Found seem to have gone all evil on our ass with this growling little devil of a tune, exhorting listeners to drink, drink, drink, and throw up in the sink (or something) and quite possibly to top up such a sickening display by being unfaithful to your other half into the bargain. God only knows what the message would be if you were to play it backwards. It's from their Fidelities EP which comes out on 9th March as a joint release by German label Aufgeladen & Bereit and Fence Records, and you can also do them a favour and donate a few quid for their 'snarebrained' compilation to help fund their trip to South by Southwest.
Published at www.theskinny.co.uk
I Hear a New World February 2009
Chemikal Underground Pod Sketch 1
The Phantom Band - Folk Song Oblivion
Ironically for a band that once changed their name with every gig, you will be hearing the name The Phantom Band everywhere this year. Possibly the first true contenders to the Beta Band’s crown - not because they’re trying to sound like them, but because their melodies and inventiveness are equally as effortless. This is but a taste of the eclectic first album Checkmate Savage, out now on Chemikal Underground Records.
Thomas Truax - Joe Meek warns Buddy Holly
3rd February 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of Buddy Holly’s death. In this ingenious tribute, New York musician Thomas Truax tells the tale of how Joe Meek, the unhinged record producer (and this column’s patron saint) was warned of the exact date from beyond the grave, and some years after his prophesy was proven to be true he shot himself and his landlady - again on the very same date. And in another genius piece of release date irony, it is released by Edinburgh’s SL Records on .... yes - the 3rd of February.
Aidan John Moffat & The Best-Ofs - Oh Men!
As if last year’s I Can Hear Your Heart wasn’t outrageous enough, here the king of over-sharing and under-shaving lets loose a beery, salacious knees-up about the inability of his fellow fellas not to gape like morons at the sheer loveliness of the female form in all its guises. From the album How to Get To Heaven From Scotland, it’s released by Chemikal Underground with a sleazy wink and a hand up your skirt on February 14th, Valentine’s Day.
Recording the Impossible - Popsex
Now Paul Vickers has been responsible for some weird shit in his time, both with Dawn of the Replicants and The Leg. However his latest collaboration inspired by Ivor Cutler and at times sounding like a lost episode of Father Ted directed by David Lynch, is off-the-scale bananas. Popsex is a weird little ditty about pop-up books and filthy thoughts. Out now on SL Records.
I Hear a New World Podcast 9 - January 2009
Ish Marquez - Pipe Dream Memorieswww.myspace.com/ishmarquez
I can't imagine a better track to kick off 2009 with. The New York musician is an unbelievable guitarist who totally blew the audience's mind when he played a gig with Jeffrey Lewis, Stanley Brinks and Withered Hand at Edinburgh's Henry's Cellar Bar at the end of last year. He's ended up a part of the anti-folk scene more by his NYC location than sound, his tunes funky and soulful twists on guitar virtuosity that should really see him become a massive star. Damn it, you've just got to get up and dance to this track from his Goin' Thru album, currently only available at his gigs (but you can hear it on this month's podcast of course).
Sellotape – My Left Titwww.myspace.com/sellotapemusic
Viki Sellotape has been described as Scotland’s answer to Mark E Smith due to her single-minded musical vision, inspired by the likes of X-ray Spex and Siouxsie Sioux. But given that her live performances consist of her strutting around the stage in tiny hotpants, I know who’d I’d rather spend quality time with, and it's not the gnome-faced old Manc, genius though he is. Along with her bandmates, let her stamp you under her foot like a spurned lover with this seething sexually charged put-down.
A-Lix – I Know a Manwww.myspace.com/alixland
A-Lix know a man. But then doesn’t everybody? What most people don’t know though, is that A-Lix are really rather good. A truly international band based in Glasgow, including members of French and Argentinian origin. As pop as they are post-punk (some call it death disco), they wield their guitars like automatic rifles on this blistering, swaggering beast of a tune from their album Never Grow.
White Heath –When The Watchmen Leave Their Stationswww.myspace.com/whiteheath
You know you're in for a treat right away when a big feckin' tuba kicks in, but just wait for the chorus when it all comes together in a swinging, serenading New Orleans-march-through-the-streets-then-onto-a-boat-down-the Mississippi-river of lovestruck majesty. One of the highlights at the recent songbytoad.com Christmas party held at the brilliant new Edinburgh venue The Bowery, this is an early mix of the song, with an even better version promised soon.
Published here: www.theskinny.co.uk/article/44606-i-hear-a-new-year-world-january-2009
and in the January issue of The Skinny available throughout Scotland.
Herman Dune - Try To Think About Me
Herman Dune are an anti-folk band based in Paris/Berlin/New York. They embody that genre's international elasticity - they are pop, folk and indie rock - at once everything you could possibly want from a band and at the same time there's nothing you can put your finger on to define them completely. From new album Next Year in Zion, this is a melodious pop song pure and simple, but the lyrics hold layers of meaning and emotion that will fill your heart with love, longing, loneliness and lust.
Pumajaw - Horseshoe Nail
Pumajaw describe their sound as "ancient melodies mutating into psychedelic laments and ecstasies." Whilst many try to raise the buried pagan gods and goddesses of folk's past, few do psychedelic fervour as convincingly as Pinkie Maclure and John Willis. Listening to this passionately psychotic track from superb new album Curiosity Box, you're almost persuaded that the duo have lived through some serious medieval shit and magicked themselves into the future to make sure we hear all about how profoundly dark and terrifying it was.
Major Matt Mason USA - Rockstar
Following on the alternative/anti-folk theme, New York's Major Matt Mason USA is the perfect embodiment of anti-folk's refusal to pander to the cliches of rock and roll posturing. Hell, he doesn't even want to be a rock star anymore - but as this lyrical lament shows, he really can't help it, even if he does sound a bit like Kermit the Frog on downers.
Les Enfant Bastard - Michael Jackson
Here, Edinburgh based lo-fi genius Les Enfant Bastard is trying to convince us that although he appears to be a skinny white bloke, he is in fact the facially-challenged post-black moonwalking nutjob who refers to himself as the King of Pop. By the end of the song you'll be convinced of one thing at least - he is equally insane - but thankfully for us, in a way that results in this piece of perverse brilliance, instead of the turgid excuse for an audio-turd that was Earth Song.
Amusement Parks on Fire - Alafoss Exit
This is a leaving song, a goodbye song, a 'moving on to greater things and not looking back no matter how much you want to' song. This is Amusement Parks on Fire - their name itself a stunning visual image, this particular track being the musical equivalent. The past, the well-trodden path, is up in flames, and there's only one way to go - forward into the unknown.
I Hear a New World Podcast 7 - Fence Special part two
The second part of a two-part special on Scotland's Fence Collective.
1. King Creosote - Don't Ask Me How My Weekend Went
2. King Creosote - Houston Tharoule
3. Rozi Plain - Stolen Shark
4. The Pictish Trail - Into the Smoke
5. Rozi Plain - Roof Rook Crook Crow
6. King Creosote - On Esther's Planet
illustration by Leigh Pearson http://thunderheart.co.uk
Read the accompanying column in the October issue of The Skinny and online at www.theskinny.co.uk soon.
Podcast 6 - Fence Collective special (part one).
1. James Yorkston - Queen of Spain www.jamesyorkston.co.uk
2. The Pictish Trail - I Don't Know Where To Begin www.myspace.com/pictishtrail
3. Rozi Plain - The Lang Toun (James Yorkston cover)
4. David Thomas Broughton (James Yorkston cover)
See www.myspace.com/jamesyorkstoncoversalbum for more info.
See the September 2008 issue of The Skinny for my interviews with The Pictish Trail, King Creosote and James Yorkston of the Fence Collective.
Podcast 5 (featuring Thee Moths, Eagleowl and Sans Trauma)
Retreat! artwork by Withered Hand. www.myspace.com/witheredhandmusic.
www.myspace.com/edinburghretreat
Thee Moths - Don't Let the Crows Take Your Eyes
"It's time to end. Thee Moths has been around in many forms for almost 8 years. Over 55 releases and hundreds of songs I've said all I can say with the project." So sayeth Alex Botten, the man behind Thee Moths and countless other underground indie bands over the last 20 years, as detailed in his tragi-comic self-published book Hanging Around, available from Lulu.com (well worth a read for insights into the Dundee and Birmingham music scenes, and the strange workings of Botten's own mind). This track is from a recent avian-themed download-only EP, 'Sparrows and more Sparrows', and It's a strange, sad track, and suitably so, given that it's quite possibly inspired by one of the more brutal deaths in Omen II, and has a prescient feeling, perhaps foreshadowing the end that was to come. But not to worry, because Botten is continuing along the feathered friends theme with new project Wings and Claws.
Eagleowl - Blanket
This song sums up why Eagleowl are so damn perfect - the name couldn't be more suitable for a song that envelops you in warm fuzziness, and allows you to drift off into a melancholy, untroubled state of consciousness. And with it's mournful violins, warmly comforting double bass, and delicately played guitars and gorgeous, understated harmonies, Blanket is one dream you won't want to wake up from. The track is from their new EP 'For the Thoughts You Never Had' which they are launching as part of the Retreat! anti-festival in Edinburgh during August, as previewed elsewhere this issue.
Sans Trauma - The Day I Woke Up
Sans Trauma are a sleeping giant of the Scottish music scene whose time must surely be about to come. And like a giant that's woken up on the wrong side of the bed, realising he's wasted too much time, this epic masterpiece wades ferociously through the listener's psyche, leaving huge footprints. Live, the band layer shoegaze guitars with krautrock rhythms and post-rock violence, building whispers of lyrics and modulating, fuzzed up guitar into monolithic soundscapes, that judder off instinctively into different directions at the most unexpected moments.
Podcast 4 (featuring Kazoo Funk Orchestra, Dirty Summer, Ulrich Schnauss and Lach)
Read the Skinny column accompanying this podcast
Podcast 3 (featuring Errors, Stanley Brinks, Gummi Bako and Wounded Knee)
Employee of the Month – Brainwave Corrupted
Call it jazz or post-rock if you like, and it’s true that Edinburgh band Employee of the Month bear comparison to the likes of Boards of Canada and Tortoise, but their hyper-modern aesthetic is all their own. What’s even more striking is how well the band recreate their recorded sound live. From the pristinely produced Brainwave EP, this track is crying out to be used to soundtrack a film with similarly innovative, mind-blowing visuals.
Stanley Brinks – Stanley Brinks
The artist formerly known as Andre from the band Herman Düne no longer plays live with his brothers, though he contributed a number of gorgeous tunes to their last album Giant. Since leaving he has reinvented himself as Stanley Brinks, a self-proclaimed 'enemy of society' and an amusingly unlikely moniker for a Frenchman. This song is an autobiographical statement of independence, detailing his life right up to the transformation into his new persona.
Gummi Bako -I’m Depressed
Let’s face it, without the odd dose of depression most songwriters wouldn’t have produced half of their output. Here, Gummi seems to have the bakery-related blues (“too much hot-cross loving”), but then things take an abrupt turn for the positive as he sings “I wanna go ballooning, right up past the Moon and Mars, and get lost amongst a million billion drillion, zillion super-shiny shooting stars” and you realise he has the ability to free himself from adversity through sheer, glorious absurdity.
Wounded Knee - Anthem for the Call Centre Worker
Some might say that it is the shortsighted economic policy of the past that has led to a large proportion of Scotland’s workforce being qualified to do little else other than man the phones. Working in a call centre is, on the whole, low-skilled, low-paid work with an extremely high staff turnover - due to the fact it is soul-destroying in the extreme. Edinburgh’s Wounded Knee takes the corporate-speak of the robot voices that greet us on the other end of the line and reclaims them as a call to arms for all downtrodden customer service representatives. Using his sublime skills with repeating vocal loops, he transforms a common depression into a perversely uplifting anthem.
First published in the May 2008 issue of The Skinny and on their website.
Podcast 2 (featuring Errors, Withered Hand, Cheer and Paul Hawkins)
Inspired by the cosmic concept album of the same name by pioneering producer Joe Meek, this brand new monthly column will highlight a selection of unique and essential tracks by groundbreaking artists from Scotland and further afield, all of which can be heard on the accompanying podcast.
Errors – Salut! France
Errors’ seemingly effortless, organic blend of live instruments and laptops makes for a stupendously good live show. An updated version of Salut! France is due to feature on their long-awaited debut album (almost finished at time of going to press), but in the meantime this single version, released on Mogwai's Rock Action label last year, has lost none of its uplifting, blistering modernity.
Withered Hand – Religious Songs
Not many religious songs contain the line “I beat myself off when I sleep on your futon” but the title track from Withered Hand’s new EP (released on new label Bear Scotland) combines themes of faith, doubt, sex and inexplicably uncomfortable furniture without blinking an eye. A key member of the delightful but short-lived anti-folk outfit The Love Gestures, he’s also recently played at the Fence Collective’s Homegame festival in Anstruther and at a special Scottish Hobo Society event as part of the (sob) last ever Triptych.
Cheer – Every Forest Has Its Shadow
Alec Cheer is a Glasgow-based artist, animator and experimental film-maker, and he brings this same accomplished, avant-garde sensibility to his gorgeous ambient compositions, available from Benbecula Records. The evocative title suits this hypnotic track perfectly, its subtly spliced sounds like shafts of sunlight illuminating dense treetops.
Paul Hawkins - I Like it When You Call Me Doctor
A highly disturbing tale of an underachiever with a burning need for the kind of approval only proven medical authority can bring. From his album The Misdiagnosis of Paul Hawkins, and also available on the first compilation CD from Antifolk UK, it really begins to get weird when the protagonist admits, “I got myself a uniform and hung around in hospitals looking round for patients who looked lost.”
First published in the May 2008 issue of The Skinny and on their website.
Podcast 1 (featuring Adam Gnade)
Adam Gnade was an Unsung Hero on the radio show. This podcast features his fantastic song "The Winter, Their Apartment." For more info see www.myspace.com/adamgnade
