Following support from his brother Jack (sounding not a million miles away from Jonathan Richman) and Edinburgh's own Withered Hand, Jeffrey Lewis and band take to the stage for a hurried soundcheck. He continues to half-ironically hone the audio levels throughout the set, promising it would all come together for one perfect song at the end. In fact there’s more than one perfect song, such as the singalong whimsy of Roll Bus Roll.

This leads a convoy of material from latest album ‘Em Are I, but a spoken word rap about murdering mosquitos and the narration of his own dog-eared drawings are the elements that make this unlike any ordinary gig. One such story being a pulp detective novel parody with some sordid saxophone shenanigans.

What’s really special about Lewis is his lyrical flair - as most dramatically evident on the awe-inspiringly wordy Willamsburg Will Oldham Horror - but he and his brother clearly enjoy thrashing out garage punk numbers like Posters and Time Machine even more. Whilst these are the weakest on record, they are an ideal counterpoint here to his more thoughtful side, and End Result from his record of Crass covers tops things off in an appropriately sardonic way.

For The Skinny

Image: Dylan Matthews 

For their second annual mini-fest celebrating local talent, the promoters of Retreat! crammed as many of their favourite bands into a single day as possible. The Skinny turned to shift work to cover this year's event.

Read the first part, by Lauren Mayberry at The Skinny's website

With the early shift at an end, Milo McLaughlin picked up the baton of alt-folk and home-brewed ales.

Rob St John brings the first phase of the day to a sublime close with his rich, stately vocals and impressive guitar work, for what was, alas, his last gig in Edinburgh for a while. He's ably assisted by his usual band including Emily Scott on double bass. In fact there's no doubt that the Do It Together ethos laid out by Withered Hand in the suitably lo-fi Retreat programme is in full evidence today as everyone here is doing it for the love, with musicians helping each other out at every opportunity and friends providing assistance with sound desk duties and the merch stall.

After a break for grub, the families with young children dissipate and the boozier late-starters arrive to sample the Forest Cafe's unusual own brand brew. Rob St John is there again, playing harmonium on the sidelines, as My Tiny Robots demonstrate their ukelele-driven pop jangle. The sight of a few twitching thighs and hovering ankles suggests that if there had been room to dance, a few would have broke out some Ian Curtis style dance moves.

Enfant Bastard puts an end to any thoughts of the day settling into comfortable complacency though. Uncompromising as ever, he apparently decided on waking that day not to showcase his new gameboy/chip music direction and instead we're treated to a rare full-band run through of some of his classic anti-folk back catalogue, with a reformed and brilliantly under-rehearsed Love Gestures. The set finishes with the surreal Michael Jackson which crashes uncertainly to a halt with a viciously unhinged and overloud guitar solo.

The scene is set for a couple of noisy appearances by both Come in Tokyo and Pineapple Chunks, and despite both creating a powerful racket, they seem to be lacking the killer tunes needed to ensure they stood out in such a strong line-up.

Meursault, however, once again prove themselves worthy of the growing hype surrounding them. Incorporating new album tracks, some laptop mangling courtesy of their Artfag side band, a shortened version of their beast of a track from the Playing with the Past project and the banjo-tastic lead song from latest EP Nothing Broke, their willingness to constantly develop their sound in public ensures there is no apathy from the audience, many of whom have seen them a good many times.

Speaking of beasts, events close with a coruscating performance from Auld Reekie's answer to Slipknot, The Leg, with their freaky horrorshow masks. They're a refreshingly raucous bunch even without sometime collaborator Paul Vickers, and a now notorious vomiting-in-mask incident proves to be the reward for the diehards who stay right to the end of a long and satisfying day - further proof that Edinburgh's music scene is growing ever more potent.

After the rollicking full band sing-along of first EP Religious Songs, this second EP showcases the more reflective side of Withered Hand's Dan Willson, here performing solo with a beautifully restrained multi-instrumental accompaniment by King Creosote, who also produced. The same endearingly fragile delivery and razor sharp one-liners remain, but this time around the emotional clout is a whole lot more forceful. Opener No Cigarettes with its Dylan-esque rolling guitar and Oldsmobile Car (aka Red Candle Bulb) with its killer line "I am what was once widely known as a sensitive soul" are accompanied by a moving tribute to the late local artist Paul Carter and a transcendental harmony-laden version of Tiger Saw's R U Courageous. Gorgeous.

For The Skinny

Bananaz and Good Dick were shown at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2008. I was pretty underwhelmed with both, but for what it’s worth here’s my thoughts.

http://www.bananazfilm.com

This is basically a roughly shot documentary featuring lots of footage of Damon Albarn and to a lesser extent Jamie Hewlett, mainly arsing about. There isn’t much insight in terms of the artwork or technology involved in creating the visuals, with the focus being on the hassles that are involved in doing press and gigs for what is basically an imaginary band. There are some interesting bits; the brilliant musicians Albarn is able to enlist; when he and Hewlett have an argument about staying in character for press interviews; when Albarn is quizzed on the meaning of the lyrics for Kids with Guns by a devout Christian Gospel troupe leader, and when Dennis Hopper admits to being terrified about appearing live and reminisces about a former lover. Plus a terrifying clip of Shaun Ryder (the best argument yet for not taking drugs, kids).

All in all it does give an insight into the process behind one of the best musical marketing ideas ever (for what is basically Albarn’s solo career) - but it’s far too long, the filming is perfunctory at best, and while it would make a great DVD extra, it wasn’t really worthy of being shown in a huge cinema.

http://www.gooddickthefilm.com

This bizarre film, which is about a guy who works in a video shop who attempts to start up a relationship with a girl who regularly comes in to rent porn films. Marianna Palka, director and lead actress, and her co-star Jason Ritter were there for a Q&A afterwards, and as Palka originally hails from Glasgow her entire family were there, including her Granny (who must be very open-minded for someone of an older generation, given the sexual nature of the subject matter and explicit dialogue).

They both seemed great people and this film was also obviously a labour of love. The producers were also there, and announced they would be self-distributing the film in the US after it didn’t get picked up by a major distributor in the US. The film is funny - but it’s an uncomfortable funny because you don’t actually get to know the motivations for either characters’ behaviours until near the end of the film. So you could easily mistake Ritter’s character’s behaviour for that of a stalker, and find it inexplicable why he would continue to pursue a woman who has repeatedly told him to leave her alone.

It does all make sense in the end though and once you find out the whole story it is quite moving and gives an insight into sex from a particular female point of view that is rarely seen onscreen. But I thought some of the events in the film don’t seem to ring true and it all seems a bit misguided, though well intentioned. It also felt quite amateur, not helped by the terrible soundtrack which I think dated the film unnecessarily. Having said that I can understand that low-budget filmmakers often can’t afford to be picky about the music they use. Despite my reservations the film has got good reviews from The Skinny and elsewhere.

"The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta." Bob Dylan

On 2nd Dec 2008 Odetta, one of the great vocalists and a dedicated civil rights campaigner, died of heart disease. This is a review I wrote of her gig with James Blood Ulmer at Edinburgh on April 29th 2006 which was published in issue 22 of Is This Music? Magazine.

Before Odetta appears we are treated to a raggedy performance by James Blood Ulmer, a true old testament bluesman with a uniquely off-kilter electric guitar style. His physical presence is as impressive as his musicianship, but as he growls his lyrics into the mic, some of his message is lost. This isn't the case though when he sings 'Katrina', named after the hurricane which almost destroyed New Orleans. The song's message is that it was the US government's failure to raise the levees that was to blame for the disaster, not to mention their less than speedy response. The song makes the blues relevant - condensing hundreds of hours of news footage into one brutal, angry truth.

So frail she has to be helped up the few steps to the stage, 75 year-old Odetta's spirit shows no such signs of faltering. She begins by reading from a passage encouraging us all to live up to our full potential, then instructs us to sing along to her first song with that in mind. It would be saccharine in anyone else's hands but she gives it gravitas. 

"This is my first time in Scotland, and I've been spoiled rotten" she tells us, with a wide, beautiful grin and then lets rip her powerful voice, probably the most amazing I've ever heard in the flesh, at times as fierce as a wronged God, at times as gentle and joyful as a child's- but always utterly mesmerising.

Accompanied by a pianist from New York on grand piano, she sings a selection of carefully chosen pieces, a few from Leadbelly such as Poor Man's Blues and TB Blues and one of his children's songs. She revitalises Labi Siffre's 'Something Inside So Strong' discarding it's usual cliched arrangement to focus on its central message of survival and protest. 

It's her encore which brings the audience to their feet though, a blistering 'House of the Rising Sun' which merges into an unaccompanied version of Scottish folk ballad 'When I Was a Young Girl', both of which she informs us, deal with prostitution. It's a performance which almost rivals Billie Holiday's famous rendition of 'Strange Fruit' for menace, tragedy, and power. 

Odetta - Battle Hymn of The Republic

Odetta - Rising Sun/When I Was a Young Girl (live at hardly strictly bluegrass)

mp3s via Anyone's Guess

Recorded live one evening in Edinburgh's Stockbridge Church and accompanied by members of the city's underground folk scene, this short EP is a fragile and haunting thing. St John's guitar jangles discordantly from time to time, the harmonium wheezes gently in the background, and the eerie warblings of a saw occasionally rises from the ether, lending the whole thing a comforting, after-hours feeling reminiscent of James Yorkston or David Thomas Broughton. Along with releases this year from Eagleowl, Withered Hand, Meursault and Les Enfant Bastard, this is further proof that the Edinburgh alt-folk scene is burning as brightly as a petrol-doused Wickerman.

www.theskinny.co.uk

Amazing how someone with a voice as stunning as HMS Ginafore could lack faith in their abilities. However, Ginafore - real name Jenny Gordon - is infamously reluctant to perform live despite collaborating with most of the Fence collective at some time or another.

Better late than never though, as Ginafore has one of the loveliest female voices to come out of Scotland in recent years. Her songwriting also stands up well beside new tracks by Creosote, and musically it's all held together by slick production that's equal parts electro sheen and shimmering banjos and guitars - lending a sunny, dreamy vibe to what is pretty much the perfect partnership. But don't expect any I Got You Babe moments - this is a joint offering of individual tracks from both artists rather than an all for one collaboration, despite the sexy shenanigans suggested by the 70s style cover art.

Published in the November issue of The Skinny Magazine

 www.fencerecords.com

Even though hipster’s fave Bon Iver is appearing up the road at the Queen's Hall, there are lengthy queues outside The Caves for tonight's Fence Club and a few unlucky souls are turned away due to a last-minute sell-out. The subterranean den is absolutely rammed both with the Fence faithful and a large contingent of curious newbies. It's a spacious venue, but unfortunately the layout makes it difficult for everyone present to get a clear view of the stage.

The performances and friendly atmosphere though, more than make up for the squeeze. Things kick off with alarming speed with  a tantalisingly brief joint set by The Pictish Trail and Rozi Plain and a well-received guest spot from fence affiliate Malcolm Middleton. The main event though is undoubtedly James Yorkston and the Athletes. Something about the quiet confidence of Yorkston’s voice is enough to send a hush throughout the venue for at least a few moments, before the drunken rabble who can't get close to the stage drift back into conversation.  But those of us who continue to pay attention are rewarded with luscious live versions of tracks from his new album such as Tortoise Regrets Hare and the title track When the Haar Rolls In plus some well chosen gems from his back catalogue including the gorgeous I Awoke. The set highlight was probably his epic cover of Lal Waterson’s Midnight Feast, with trusty henchmen King Creosote and The Pictish Trail giving it laldy on backing vocals.

Creosote then tied things up with an eclectic DJ set that made a pleasant backdrop to some last minute boozing and bonding, before he and Yorkston drove off into the night in a car held together with some sticky tape. And with an exclusive piece of vinyl on the way out, this is one club that even Groucho Marx would have wanted to be a member of.

Published by The Skinny

I gave the newie from the Aliens a spin yesterday and it's a much more expansive, chilled out album than the predecessor. Here's the review I wrote of that back in March 07.

The Aliens - astronomy for dogs

If you're expecting Astronomy for Dogs to be the fourth Beta Band album in all but name, you'll be disappointed. There is a great deal of sonic experimentation going on, but its generally within the confines of much more traditional structures, and some tracks are all out retro space-rockers clearly heavily inspired by the likes of the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and Primal Scream. But the sheer enthusiasm of the delivery, the strength of Gordon Anderson's songwriting and the subtle but unpredictable electronica and sound effects weaved throughout means it improves with each listen. The singles 'Robot Man' and 'The Happy Song' are as upbeat as a lorry full of lottery winners, but the gorgeous, languid melodies of 'She Don't Love Me No More' and 'Honest Again' are evidence of the broken heart behind The Aliens' almost otherworldly cheerfulness.

A review of the new album from Herman Düne will follow shortly, meanwhile here's the one I did of the last, for Is This Music?

Herman Düne - Giant

I knew little about Herman Düne before last summers' 'Hey You, Get Off My Pavement'(other than having heard the sublime 'Not on Top') but their performance, led by the endearingly goofy David-Ivar, convinced me right away that they were something special.  David-Ivar's songs are effortlessly, instantly memorable. From the first single, 'I Wish That I Could See You Soon' onwards, their new album (or in David Ivar's Swedish-Chef-from-The-Muppets-accent "alboom") alternates between songs penned by he and his brother Andre (who sadly no longer tours with the band). Whilst David-Ivar's songs are lyrically playful, melodically simple and wear his heart on their sleeves, Andre's songs are a stranger, more exotic breed which makes this an uneven but fascinating listen. The album's varied instrumentation, including a brass section and girl group the Woo-Woos on backing vocals, reflect the family's multinational background. But it's that other, more accessible and humorous side of Bob Dylan that comes to mind with David-Ivar's songs, as well as nods to Leonard Cohen with use of a jew's harp and a mention of his famous blue raincoat. There is a noticeable theme of long-distance relationships running through songs such as 'Take Him Back To New York City' and 'When the Water Gets Cold and Freezes on the Lake', songs that cheer the heart but also leave a sense of sadness and loss. 

Unboxing of James Yorkston 'When The Haar Rolls In' Boxset from Milo McLaughlin on Vimeo.

In his behind the scenes role at Fife's Fence record label, Johnny Lynch has obviously been well-placed to soak up all the best aspects of the label's varied output. Secret Soundz Vol.1 is a collection of intricate but playful electronica as colourful as its striking cover art. The album's joyously schizophrenic combination of strong pop songs and wistful experimentation are given focus by Lynch's plaintive vocals and there's also musical accompaniment by various members of the Fence Collective, and on three key tracks The Earlies. This contributes an autumnal depth of field that perfectly complements the fairground incandescence of Lynch's own arrangements. Words Fail Me Now is a supernatural carousel with such melodic strength it could spin you off your centre of gravity, The Lighthouse might appear to emit a lasting glow of metaphorical optimism but in fact hides a darker tale of psychopathic behaviour, and Into The Smoke is a slow-burning anthem that recalls the effortless transcendence of prime Beta Band.

Published today by The Skinny

James Yorkston's new album is, on first listen, a much more straightforward affair than its sublime predecessor, 2006's The Year of The Leopard. But like the haar itself this is merely an illusion, because it's full of rich instrumentation and quietly devastating lyrical turns - with flourishes that will appear over repeated listens and floor you with their unexpected beauty. As ever, Yorkston has an uncanny knack of stirring those deep mysterious oceans within the soul with a well-chosen turn of phrase or subtle melody. The title track swells and retreats like a midnight tide and The Queen of Spain swaggers with the magnificent romance of a wedding ceremony aboard a storm-tossed trawler; Tortoise Regrets Hare is a Darwinian reverie, whilst the cover of Lal Waterson's Midnight Feast is performed by Yorkston and members of Waterson's family with all the passion you'd expect of such folk royalty.

Published today by The Skinny

Published in The Skinny 15th July 2006

Two members of Down the Tiny Steps hail from Birnam on the edge of the Highlands, and the band have the enviable backing of the Fence collective. It’s not hard to see why on the evidence this cracking three track single, which has shades of folk but with a rough-edged blues backbone. Although I hate to employ an often over-used association at the moment, comparisons with the Beta Band are unavoidable, particularly vocally. The third track ends in a Stone Roses style instrumental wig-out which sits astride the borderline between enjoyable and self indulgent. Overall though, a very promising first single.

www.downthetinysteps.co.uk (nice website!)

www.myspace.com/downthetinysteps