Update: Apparently the GRV is not connected to the other closures and though it has closed the venue is due to open under another name (and presumably new owners) soon. Thanks to @nonimage for the info.

Not only have  I played live in The Forest myself (and had the microphone I stole off Mark E Smith stolen from me in the process – karma I guess) but I’ve seen some great gigs, especially upstairs – such as Retreat! 2009 and Major Matt Mason. I even saw a riotous Box Wars there, which I wrote about for The List, as pictured.

I’m not sure how much hope there is that it’s possible, but The Forest are asking people to donate so that they can buy the building. I’ve donated something, and maybe you should too. Even if you think the place is just a dive bar full of hippies, you have to realise that this is the kind of venue where real underground talent can flourish, and one of Edinburgh’s finest acts Withered Hand swears by the place so that’s good enough for me.

I don’t go to gigs as often as I’d like. This is not only because I’m an antisocial bastard. Hey, I have a job you know. I have responsibilities! I have episodes of True Blood and Curb Your Enthusiasm to watch!

 Anyway now and again there is a gig that comes up that I absolutely have to go to.  It’s usually something small, and intimate, with great local musicians or obscure antifolk heroes from far afield. And then I feel something stirring inside me. It’s an odd feeling. The desire to actually get off the sofa and leave the house fills my body and mind. I leap to my feet and grab my coat. “I’m going out, and I don’t know when I’ll be home!” I cry to my long-suffering fiancée. “But it’ll probably be by 11pm” I add just in case she changes the locks while I’m out. 

 I stride purposefully to the bus stop, with my headphones on, playing some stirring anthemic music like Boston’s ‘More Than a Feeling’ or Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin’. I get to the bus stop and realise I missed the bus.. anyway I’ll spare you the details.

 The point I was trying to make is that this December, there are what feels like HUNDREDS of such gigs. And that’s on the top of the seasonal events – the house parties, work Christmas parties, and birthdays.. you name it, it’s happening in December (and probably on the same day).

Here’s the lowdown on the gigs I would like to go to. I can’t promise I will be able to attend them all, but I will try. And in January, when I’m destitute and downhearted I might even report back on a few. Edinburgh folk, maybe I’ll see you at one or two of them.

3 December: Leith Tape Club featuring The Pictish Trail, Rachael & Laura Lancaster & Tisso Lake

Only 30 tickets can be pre-booked as it’s a tiny venue – get yours before they sell out!

4 December: Ten Tracks Presents: FOUND, Meursault & Panda Su 

Ten Tracks have a great deal for this gig – go over to their site via the link above and subscribe to a year’s worth of tracks for £10 and get a ticket absolutely bloody free! Alternatively you can prebook tickets for £7.

This is especially exciting as the I Hear a New World bundle I compiled is due to appear on the site very soon so you will be able to download it as part of the subscription. More info on this soon.

5 December: Schwervon!, Withered Hand, Enfant Bastard, The Pineapple Chunks

I wrote about this the other day Get tickets here

11 December: eagleowl single launch, the Bowery

Read my recent review of the single

12 December: Trampoline all dayer 

Details below courtesy of Euan, musician, promoter and blogger over at the Steinberg Principle 

2pm – 10pm.  It’s a fiver for the whole day or 3 quid with a student card. The artists playing are: Mitchell Museum, Lyons, Debutant, Jonnie Common, The Scottish Enlightenment, Esperi, Jill Leighton, Lady North, Conquering Animal Sound.

 There will be art work on display from the wonderful photographers We Sink Ships and Glasgow Podcart will be recording their show live during the day.

12 December: Song, By Toad Christmas Party

I think this is the last night that the Bowery are operating as a venue as well so might be worth popping along to give them a good send off.  Here’s what Matthew said about that:

 Toad Christmas Party at the Bowery on the 12th December, with Meursault, Jesus H. Foxx and the usual open-mic nonsense beforehand.  Rory from Broken Records has promised some violin-and-loop-pedal madness during that bit, which I am well looking forward to.

Did I miss any? Please tell me I didn’t, I need my bed just thinking about this! 

The wind is battering the windows, whistling through the doors and buzzing through the nooks and crannies of my ancient old tenement flat. It’s winter alright.

I’m playing the new single by eagleowl, Sleep The Winter. It’s achingly sad, like standing on the windswept petrol-perfumed deck of a ferry and seeing a beautiful coastline of a country you never wanted to leave fading into the distance. 

Today is unofficial ‘Sleep The Winter’ day. Almost all my favourite Scottish music blogs are very excited about this release and rightly so. As well as making amazing music, eagleowl are lovely people and the slow, sure beating heart of Edinburgh’s alternative scene. The addition of this band to any bill makes it a special night. 

They are launching the single with a gig at the Bowery on 11th December and the 13th Note on the 14th itself.

In the meantime, check out their last EP, For The Thoughts You Never Had on Bandcamp (you choose what to pay)

More info:

www.eagleowlattack.co.uk

www.kilterschmilter.co.uk

Hey all,

After an amazing year in our Edinburgh basement, the Bowery has decided it is time to emerge, chrysalis like, into the real world. As of December 14th, we will not longer be running in the basement of the Roxy. We’ve decided that with things changing in the running of the building, it would suit us more to run the Bowery as an outside promotions company and random purveyor of wild parties.

We’d like to thank everyone for your support over the past year. It’s been an amazing time and we are gobsmacked at what we’ve managed to achieve. Although it’s been a killer amount of work, it’s been incredibly exciting creating a space which has become so cherished in the music community, having the opportunity to put on acts like Diane Cluck as well as the local bands we love. We hope you’ll carry on drinking with us wherever we are and raise a teacup of gin with us long into the future.

The building will continue running as an independent arts and music venue after we leave. Our landlords, the EUS, aren’t kicking us out to give over the space to a commercial enterprise. They’ve helped support our existence over the past year because they believe in the values we’ve built the Bowery on – supporting grass-roots promoters, local suppliers and small intimate gigs as well as more financially viable ones – and they’ll continue these principles in the running of the space. So please all keep on supporting the independent local scene, wherever it may be.

Although this is sad in some ways as it’s the end of an era for us, we’re excited about the future and the new great things we’ll be doing over the next year. Keep in touch, and come down soon for a drink with us before we go!

Love and red lipstick,
Jane and Ruth
x

Image by posteverything.co.uk

This week brought the apparent news that the people behind the Bowery, a key focal point of Edinburgh’s revitalised scene, are being told they can no longer use the venue. The above poster represents just one of the many great gigs I’ve been to there, and there’s been very many others that I wasn’t able to go to but would have loved to. The standard of gigs there has been incredible in the year they’ve been going. In fact, now I think of it, I even played a couple of songs there at the Song By Toad Christmas Party last year (ok apart from that).

Anyway, Toad seems to have managed to engage the people behind the decision in some kind of dialogue over at his blog, so head over there to keep abreast of developments (ok, I admit it, that was just an excuse to use the word “abreast”). It doesn’t actually seem to be THE END as much as there are some changes afoot, as one of the gals behind the venue Jane Flett has said on Facebook:

“The landlords aren’t taking over in some cynical money grabbing coup, don’t worry! There are changes afoot in the building because this is what is needed to keep it alive and sustainable as an independent arts space, but hopefully The Bowery will remain involved and doing the boozy musicy things we do.”

So that’s good news then. I think… what they need is support though, and there’s a 1st birthday bash happening this weekend with a great line up so why not head along if you’ve not been before.

Twenty Tracks

 Meantime, rather ironically, The Bowery have a new Ten Tracks compilation with a lot of great music for a single squid. They are totally into the same antifolk/New York vibe (if you hadn’t guessed by the name) as I have been for quite some time, and which people like Withered Hand also strongly resonate with. In fact, his label SL Records have also got a Ten Tracks bundle.

So here’s the link – but remember though to save a pound coin in your piggy bank for the I Hear a New World compilation coming soon, which also happens to include a lovely Withered Hand track, and many more besides.

Vote for Song, By Toad & Under The Radar

Both Song, By Toad and The Scotsman’s Under The Radar, two blogs which I have mentioned many times around here, have been nominated for some kind of industry awards thingamajig arranged by an industry thingamajig known only as ‘Record of The Day’.

So go and log in to the site to vote presumably you have to log in to stop Matthew Toad and the UtR crew sitting hitting refresh and voting themselves 100 million times Anyway, their success is great for everyone who’s involved in Scottish music so make sure you support them.

 Aside: There are a bunch of other categories too, including best music magazine etc – and I noted that The Skinny Magazine are strangely absent, even from the free magazine category, which seems a bit strange given the amount of music the mag covers, including some pretty high profile bands/artists. The Skinny are also totally ignored by The Scottish Magazine Awards, which again strikes me as strange. Any conspiracy theories?

I’ve been going through an existential crisis as far as covering music is concerned due to the fact there’s so many other people doing such a good job I’m kind of wondering where I fit in to things – so a HUGE apology to anyone who’s been in touch recently and feels ignored, I swear I will get back to you soon once I get my head out of of my arse!

Anyway I couldn’t ignore this event as its for such a good cause, and the organisers have done an amazing job in terms of the line-up they’ve put on and getting the word out about it. So below are some handy links where you can find out more:

Oxjam Edinburgh: Blog

Glasgow Podcart (for info about both Glasgow & Edinburgh events)

Off The Beaten Tracks

Under The Radar

Song, By Toad

Buy Tickets

Get there early for Wounded Knee

Anyway this was not meant to be a whingy post. Basically it’s just another reminder about the Retreat all-dayer mini-fest happening this coming Sunday – because it has such an er.. smorgasbord of excellent local and unlocal music (shit I just used the word smorgasbord, what have I become?)

Anyway my plans to do a bumper podcast promoting the event and interviewing Bart and Emily hasn’t happened alas due to the fact I have been unreasonably busy for someone as naturally lazy as me. But I have featured many of the acts on previous podcasts and you can hear a bunch of tracks by artists involved over at the last.fm event page, and if you do a bit of hunting there’s a bunch of free downloads too.

You can also read a nice, much more detailed preview by my productive pals over at The Scotsman’s Under The Radar Blog.

Here’s the full line-up in case you missed it, and oh,if you fancy helping out on the day (and why wouldn’t you) the details are also below.

12.15 - 12.40 - Wounded Knee1pm - 1.25 - Tisso Lake1.45 - 2.10 - Hexicon2.30 - 2.55 - Jo Foster3.15 - 3.40 - Moustache of Insanity4pm - 4.25 - Allo, Darlin'4.45 - 5.10 - Withered Hand5.30 - 5.55 - Rob St. John6.45 - 7.10 - My Tiny Robots7.30 - 7.55 - Enfant Bastard8.15 - 8.40 - Come In Tokyo9pm - 9.25 - The Pineapple Chunks9.45 - 10.10 - Meursault10.30 - 10.55 - The Leg11.00 onwards-Broken Records & This Is Music DJs.

Yes, we are seeking volunteers.

First, for a Tessa Lynch-led paper-cutting workshop / production line at the ECA on Wednesday afternoon (c.5pm-8pm). We’re looking for four or five more people to join this team.

Second, on the day of the fest (Sunday Aug 16), we need up to a dozen people to volunteer for a two-hour shift either selling tea & toast (inside the hall) or selling merch (on the landing outside). You can pick your time slot (as long as some of you pick the early ones), and we will deploy you in pairs – either you choose a partner or we couple you up according to our own romantic logic.

Had we the resources, we would reward you most handsomely for your efforts. As it is we will see what we can do in the way of mini mars bars.

To join in, please respond below or email me at tracer-trails @ hotmail dot co dot uk. Turns out I can only ‘tag’ so many people in this note, so I’ve tried to be strategic, but the invitation is open to all.

I’m delighted to say that Playing with the Past is back in Edinburgh for a second night on August 22nd. This combination of film and live music was my highlight of this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival (ok I only saw one other film, what of it?) bringing together three of my favourite Edinburgh bands eagleowl, Meursault and Found, to provide original soundtracks to some bloody ancient, but fascinating pieces of footage.

The picture above is from the film Granton Trawler, for which eagelowl provided a lovely instrumental sea-shanty, complete with a brilliant replication of a creaking boat, which Bart somehow created merely by twisting his guitar strap (via an effects pedal). Living in the vicinity of Granton Harbour, it was great to see this genuine slice of life from over 70 years ago, and although the fisherman’s life looked very tough indeed, it’s hard not to romanticise their seafaring ways just a little bit when you’re stuck on the number 8 bus due to endless roadworks. Notice I didn’t mention the word ‘salty’ once. The ‘owl also provided a fast and furious accompaniment to a strange little animated film from Canada called Begone Dull Care which let us see the other, less laid back side of the band.

Meursault were up next, for Stan and Ollie, a bizarre piece of newsreel about Laurel and Hardy’s visit to Edinburgh, back in the day when there were those old-fashioned trams.. (cough). Their accompaniment to this piece was quite subtle, with their main contribution to the event an epic twenty minute piece de resistance to the 1936 short Night Mail, about the postal train from England to Scotland.

This was a bit of a blast from the past as I was shown this film as part of my degree many moons ago. Like Granton Trawler it made by the GPO film unit, which was a pioneer of British documentary, if I remember rightly.

I’ve included a very brief extract from the Meursault track below, to give you a sneak preview if you weren’t there, and am hoping that the band won’t mind (if they do though, it will be removed sharpish..) Cheers to Chris Bathgate for his recording expertise.

Finally it was Found (who I’ve seen live so often recently they must think I’m stalking them). They had a particularly tricky piece called Camera Makes Whoopee, which included montages of various instruments, making it difficult for them to deviate from the footage, but the band cleverly brought in samples and beats to match what was on screen.

What I enjoyed about this was the creative, and different approach taken by each band, and the genuine enthusiasm of the crowd. I’d like to see some contemporary local film-makers teaming up with the city’s musical talent more often, but I can see that it would take a lot of work to come up with something like this completely from scratch.

Anyway, it’s great that there’s another night in the offing making this an almost unique, two-night only event that you’ll not want to miss the second time around.

  Meursault – Night Mail (extract from Playing with the Past live performance)

Playing with the Past is on at the Filmhouse, Edinburgh on August 22nd: more info here.

So after yesterday’s geek watch, onto the wonderfully incestuous Edinburgh music scene where the big controversy this week is the new Broken Records album. Fellow Skinny scribe Ally Brown has written a review which has generated a lot of anger, disbelief and dismay amongst the band’s pals/fans, as you can see in the comments below the review.

Personally I think the two stars may be slightly harsh, I’ve never been quite as in thrall of them as other people seem to be, but they do put on a good live show. but Ally is a great writer who knows his stuff (check out his blog), and is of course fully entitled to express his opinion – after all he writes for The Skinny because he loves music and cares about it. Perhaps a lesson for music writers everywhere – forget honesty, it’s diplomacy that’s required. Or has he in fact helped raise the band’s profile by causing such a storm in a teacup?

The album is available to stream online on Spotify so you can make up your own mind. Update: Sorry should have mentioned – you can also see a load of very high quality videos of the band over at Song, By Toad.

Here’s what promoter Andy Lobban had to say about his experiences putting on Black Tape, which finished on Friday with a headlining set by My Latest Novel (whose new album is also on Spotify). I really loved the club (I wrote this ages ago) but couldn’t make it as often as I’d have liked due to my stupid working hours. Andy is now very busy with Off The Beaten Tracks which we featured last week, and in the short time since has already been featured on the front page of Pitchfork and on The Scotman’s Under The Radar blog.

Meanwhile Under The Radar also showcase three great bands The Japanese War Effort, Eagleowl, and North Atlantic Oscillation (who I keep missing live despite being a big fan of Sam’s other band Employee of the Month) check the blog out here.

Dylan over at Blueback Hotrod has some great photos of the King Creosote, Pictish Trail, Found and Player Piano gig at the GRV a couple of Saturdays ago (including the one pictured here). The gig was great, and served as a good post-Homegame celebration – though the Daily Record had a very strange review which seemed to be suggesting that PT was trying to steal KC’s thunder. Hilariously wide of the mark as you’ll know if you know anything about these two. Unfortunately on the night I made a bit of a tit of myself by volunteering to buy Gav from Found’s microkorg and then realising the next day that I couldn’t afford it (or probably work out how to use it). Sorry Gav

Finally: Withered Hand Watch: This week the man Dan and his merry crew played a blinder on Marc Riley’s BBC6 Music Show, listen again on BBC iPlayer if you’re in the UK. You can also read my slightly gushing (but justifiably so I think) reviews of Withered Hand and Meursault‘s latest EPs – but please note some subediting has taken place – I have never knowingly typed the sentence “a must for modern folk fans”..

Hmmm. These weekly round-up posts take a bit of work, am I just telling people things they already know? Probably. Let me know your reaction…

If anyone was in any doubt, the Song by Toad Christmas Party at the highly recommended new venue The Bowery drove it home – an hour of so-called open mic, which included already established acts like Eagleowl, Les Enfant Bastard, and one of the blokes out of Broken Records, along with some great new discoveries (for me at least) – White Heath with their tuba/fiddle, and the Japanese War Effort with his “amazing” tape cassettes. (disclaimer: Believing it was an open mic and not realising everyone else was going to be so bloody good, I also played a couple of songs which everyone was very nice about considering the company I was keeping!)

Not only that, but after a lovely set of ukelele tweeness by honorary Edinburger Allo’ Darlin, Meursault played a blinder that cemented their status as the best band in the city at the moment. That is, on top of their rave reviews by Plan B, Mojo, Word Magazine, Said The Gramophone, The Skinny, etc etc blah blah blah.

And then there was that letter to the NME.. (don’t believe what they say about Les Enfant Bastard though!)

All I can say is congrats to Meursault, obviously, and Matthew Song By Toad for all the hard work he put into this. I reckon his blog, which I’ve only recently discovered, is one of the reasons why the scene has improved so much here, along with of course a bunch of very clued up and enthusiastic promoters such as Tracer Trails, the Gentle Invasion, Trampoline, Limbo, Black Tape, This is Music? etc, and of course the wonderful peeps who work their asses off getting the word out, on the whole for zero pay, at Fresh Air radio, Leith FM, The Skinny Magazine and www.isthismusic.com (apologies, and let me know if you should have been mentioned here, I can be a bit dozy sometimes).

With his new label Song By Toad Records, he’s made it possible for anyone who wants a copy to get hold of two of this year’s best releases Meursault’s Pissing On Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues (album artwork by the aforementioned Mr Bastard ) and eagleowl’s For the Thoughts You Never Had both digitally and in CD format – and he’s done a damn professional job of it too. There are a few other obvious people he needs to sign too but the poor bloke must be knackered so perhaps he can sign Withered Hand, Rob St. John, Les Enfant Bastard and the rest in the New Year.