Of course a couple of years ago we had both Indian Summer and Connect to choose from for excellent festival line-ups in Scotland but they’re both gone now – and with T in the Park slipping further into the commercial shit-swamp, my pal Stu who writes the Tidal Wave of Indifference blog decided FECK IT and went to (gulp) an English festival instead – Suffolk’s Latitude, last month.

It took me a while to get it online but better late than never, here’s a wee interview I did with him about why he ditched Scotland’s biggest festival for something with a decent line-up.

Artists featured: THE NATIONAL THE ANTLERS MITCHELL MUSEUM STEVE MASON JOHN GRANT (FEATURING MIDLAKE), THE DIVINE COMEDY

Ok this takes shambolic to new disastrous proportions in terms of the excuse for links I recorded, but it has to be said the music is damn good. I didn’t have time to either edit or re-record it so my only hope is that the fuck-ups will amuse you. After all shambolic is pretty much internationally recognised as my middle name by now.

Playlist: (buy links included for Scottish bands, no time to do them all!)

1. Chilly Gonzales & Boys Noize – Never Stop

2. Gil Scott Heron – NY is killing me

3. New Ruin – Meursault (buy from www.songbytoadrecords.com)

4. The Wave Pictures – I Thought of You Again

5. Jacob Yates & The Pearly Gate Lock Pickers – You Left Me (buy from  www.luckynumbernine.co.uk)

6. The Bundles – Pirates Declare War

7. Swimmer One – You Have Fallen Way Short of Our Expectations (buy from swimmerone.co.uk from 31st May)

8. Meursault – One Day All of This’ll Be Fields

April’s slightly belated podcast features:

1. Bury Parts 1 & 3 from The Fall’s superb new album Your Future, Our Clutter, out today on Domino Records

2. Lemonade by CocoRosie plus the chance to win two tickets to their gig in Glasgow on May 12th at the Classic Grand (listen for instructions on how to enter (it’s really easy)!)

3. The King of Doublespeak by Debutant (check out their Ltd double A-side 7″ with Conquering Animal Sounds via Gerry Loves Records)

4. No Conjunction by the fabulous eagleowl (pre-order their new EP Into The Fold here and buy tickets for their launch gig on Friday in Edinburgh here)

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Tracklisting:

1. Paul Vickers & The Leg – Horse Hoof in the Soup (new single out now)

2. The Japanese War Effort – Usain Bolt (from the new album released tomorrow)

3. North Atlantic Oscillation – Hollywood Has Ended (from the new album released March 22nd)

4. King Post Kitsch – Fante’s Last Stand (from free EP out now)

5. Paul Vickers & The Leg – If I Could Turn Back Time (General Pumpkin mix) (b-side to current single)

 So seeing as I’m trying to be as productive as possible as part of this whole ’100 Days to Get My Shit Together’ thing (no I hadn’t forgotten about it!) I thought it was about time I brought the podcasts back.

This first, rather hurried one is mainly here to promote the Ten Tracks bundle and issue 1 of the zine, so apologies to those of you who’ll be sick of my constant self-promotion, but I hope the choice of some BLOODY BRILLIANT tracks is enough to make up for it. And hopefully future podcasts will have a bit more structure to them and a bit more production polish – this was recorded live with no preparation so imagine what it could be like with a little forward planning! (and apologies for over modulation and varying sound levels in places..)

Tracklisting:

1. My Latest Novel – The Greatest Shakedown

2. King Creosote – No Cigarettes (written by Withered Hand)

3. Musée Mécanique – Like Home

4. David Tattersall (of The Wave Pictures) – Happy For a While

5. Paper Planes – Doris Day

6.  Broken Social Scene - Anthem for a 17 Year Old Girl

p.s. I’m delighted to report that there’s a wee interview with me on Peenko’s blog, which was just voted top music site in the ScotBlogs Awards.

It’s the first in his new ‘Community Service’ series about people who are active in the Scottish music scene, and he asked me some very good questions about the motivations behind this blog and putting out a fanzine which took quite a lot of thought to answer.

Personally I reckon his original title ‘Care in the Community’ might be more appropriate in my case!

 

So this is Christmas, and I hope you have a very merry one indeed

If you’re in need of a soundtrack to the festivities or for your iPod while you trek through the snow/sludge to pick up that last-minute gift, the Christmas Clanger is here (slightly later than originally planned) with the first ever I Hear a New World Ten Tracks bundle!

In case you don’t know, Ten Tracks is a Scottish-based music download service where music fans can get ten tasty audio treats for the extraordinarily cheap price of a pound, whilst making sure the musicians involved get something back.

That’s right, for the price of a box of Maltesers (admittedly also an excellent purchase), you get to download ten of the best tracks which have featured on previous I Hear a New World podcasts, a number of which aren’t available anywhere else. See below for what I wrote about them in my column for The Skinny Magazine. 

Above: IHANW ten tracks bundle

Wounded Knee – Anthem for the Call-Centre Worker

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.

Employee of the Month – Brainwave – Corrupt

Call it jazz or post-rock if you like, and it’s true that Employee of the Month bear comparison to the likes of Boards of Canada and Tortoise, but their hyper-modern aesthetic is all their own.

Withered Hand – Religious Songs (early EP version)

“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 combines themes of faith, doubt, sex and inexplicably uncomfortable furniture without blinking an eye.

Kazoo Funk Orchestra – Robots in Your Eyes

All songs about robots are brilliant – FACT. This 1:12 minutes of mechanical mayhem is even better than that one from the Flight of the Conchords and will probably single-handedly hasten the onset of the singularity, when machine intelligence finally overtakes our own (if that hasn’t happened already).

Les Enfant Bastard – Michael Jackson

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.

 Ambulances – Raasay

 Get your tie-die dress on and skip bare-foot down to the river, light up a giant spliff (if you like that sort of thing – or a nice cup of camomile tea if you don’t). Raasaay is a laid-back love-in that will make dreamers out of over-achievers.

Gummi Bako – I’m Depressed

Here, Gummi seems to have the bakery-related blues (“too much hot-cross loving”), but then things take an abrupt turn for the positive and you realise he has the ability to free himself from adversity through sheer, glorious absurdity.

Men Diamler – Black as a Cat in the Morning

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.

Meursault – William Henry Miller Part 1 (acoustic version from the Nothing Broke EP)

Meursault are 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.

White Heath – When the Watchmen Leave Their Stations

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.

 Grab these ten musical gems for the barely noticeable price of one single quid courtesy of www.tentracks.co.uk 

Related post:

I Hear a New Gramophone - an interview with Sean Michaels

Picture by Le Vingtieme Siecle (click through to flickr)

In a change from our regular programming…

My IHANW podcast and Skinny column is currently on a hiatus (for various reasons which I’ll not go into just now) so this time around I want to draw your attention to a bunch of other great podcasts and downloadable sessions featuring the best of new and innovative music from Scotland and beyond (some of which I have mentioned before on this blog).

Simple Folk Radio

Broadcasting in Brighton and recording stunning live sessions with all and sundry from the international modern folk scene, if you are in anyway acoustically-inclined you’ll absolutely love what this lot are doing.

The DayTrotter Sessions

Featuring exclusive live session versions that are free to download by great artists like Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear and Wire which sometimes even top the album versions.

The Toad Sessions

With exclusive sessions featuring the cream, oo-er, of Scotland’s best musicians plus excellent live footage from the likes of Broken Records, we featured Matthew Toad on our May podcast so you really have no excuse not to know about his excellent site already.

The Waiting Room

The Waiting Room is a brilliant show broadcast all the way from Wales every Saturday but rather subversively broadcasting a number of IHANW approved Scottish bands such as King Creosote, the Kazoo Funk Orchestra and Eagleowl via Ohio’s highly acclaimed internet broadcasting site Woxy.com.

Glasgow Podcart

Their weekly podcast features so many braw new bands I have difficulty catching up, but among others they’ve brought my attention to the brilliant Cheesecake, Yahweh and Electric Fan Death whilst being great craic to listen to in the process. They also have exclusive live sessions of the likes of French Wives and Panda Su.

Off The Beaten Tracks

With gorgeous, high quality videos of Malcolm Middelton, Slow Club, Frightened Rabbit and more, taken in Scotland’s strangest and most beautiful nooks and crannies, and downloadable on iTunes. Also well worth checking out is www.theblackcabsessions.com which they cite as inspiration.

This Is Music podcast

HP, Tallah and co have been putting on shows in Edinburgh for 3 years now with great success as well as broadcasting via the city’s student radio station Fresh Air. Now they’re putting out a regular, ultra-professional podcast featuring tons of great tracks and interviews.

Beard Radio

What began as a brilliant underground music fanzine has developed into a regular radio show on Glasgow’s Sub City Radio, featuring a dizzying array of cutting edge and innovative music. Also worth checking out are their pals at Winning Sperm Party.

Under The Radar Podcast

Billy and Nick are new to the podcast game but in their brand new second episode for the Scotsman’s cracking music blog they’ve got a nice wee feature debating the future of music journalism vs blogging which is worth a listen – expect more highbrow high-jinks from these two in the future.

Will let you know soon what’s happening with the usual podcast.

Despite what seems to be a physical inability to get to gigs these days, and a feeling of general malaise as I ponder exactly what I’m doing with my life (once again), I have just about managed to pull together the latest podcast which also features an interview with Nick Mitchell on his trip to the Primavera Festival in Barcelona.

Nick is a friend of mine who writes for The Skinny and The Scotsman’s Under The Radar Blog and who often comments on this blog (for which I am grateful!) Apologies to him and to you, dear listeners, for the awful sound quality of the telephone call, note to self MUST CHECK LEVELS IN FUTURE.

You can read his full review of Primavera over at The Skinny, and this podcast should also appear there soon.

I Hear a New World June 2009 

right-click to download or Subscribe in iTunes

Malcolm Middleton – Carry Me 

Malcolm is back – and his latest solo album will be his last under his own name for a while. Here he alternates spoken word musings about lycra and ‘superpowers in the post’ with heart-tugging choruses about death and that. It’s lifted to the heights of a gospel hymn to heartache with the aid of backing vocals from King Creosote and The Pictish Trail doing their best Pepsi & Shirley impression (in the words of Malcy himself). It’s a cry for help that can’t help but make you cry. I weep, and a single tear falls into my glass of Carlsberg, increasing the alcohol content by 100%. Don’t leave us Malcolm.

Ambulances - How Could You Leave Me

Get your tie-die dress on and skip bare-foot down to the river, light up a giant spliff (if you like that sort of thing – or a nice cup of camomile tea if you don’t) and realise that retro-tinged isn’t always a bad thing. Ambulances new album The Future That Was is pure joy from start to finish and How Could You Leave Me is a laid-back love-in that will make dreamers out of over-achievers. Is it really possible for another excellent band to come frae Fife? Apparently so.

The Foundling Wheel – Mixed Minds and Missteps

Our own Billy Hamilton gave the Foundling Wheel’s album a thumbs up last year. It took me this long to give it a listen. Once again, I need to slap myself on my big old forehead, and this is the perfect soundtrack for such self-flagellation. It’s beepy, it’s insane, it’s shouty. It’s angry but clever. It makes me want to drive a motorcycle the wrong way down the motorway. Naked.

Zoey Van Goey – We Don’t Have That Kind of Bread

It was falsely claimed that Bobby McFerrin took his own life because no-one believed he was quite as happy as he made out. But if you could record grammy award winning, multi-million dollar earning tracks merely by slapping your own body parts you’d be just as bloody ecstatic. The Glasgow-based popsters Zoey Van Goey attempt just that with this cheery number, which I have scientifically calculated using the ‘don’t worry be happy’ algorithm to be the exact musical opposite of Malcolm Middleton. Thus balancing our audio chi for another monthly podcast extravaganza. See you next time!

Yep, it’s podcast time again and this month is jam-packed full of damn fine music kicking off with a golden oldie from The Vaselines. Seeing as I’ve got a bit of man flu (nothing to do with swine, honest), I’ve spared you my nasal delivery and have instead been replaced by a hot killer robot, partly because I had just watched the season finale to The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and partly because of my mounting excitement for the new Terminator Salvation film which may or may not be any good..

But don’t worry the humans haven’t completely lost (yet) as we also have an entertaining wee interview from Matthew aka Mr Toad of Song By Toad Records which has just released an excellent acoustic EP by Meursault from which we’ve included the track William Henry Miller Part 1.

Matthew, who must never sleep given the amount he seems to get done, has just written a damn fine interview with Jason Lytle for this month’s issue of The Skinny, and the issue also has interviews with The Vaselines and Grizzly Bear (a UK exclusive, apparently). So make sure you check it out, either online or in various locations around Scotland (once you’ve listened to the podcast obviously).

Finally, please Subscribe in iTunes and if you like what you hear please leave a review, we picked up another nice one from the lovely GangreenOwl recently

I Hear a New World May 2009

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.

This month’s podcast features two tracks from Edinburgh’s SL Records by Thomas Truax and Recording The Impossible, plus a chat with editor of The Skinny Dave Kerr on what’s in the music section of this month’s issue.

Then stay tuned for the first ever podcast recorded by Glasgow’s Chemikal Underground Records themselves, which features the other two tracks featured in this month’s column, by The Phantom Band and Aidan Moffat & The Best-Ofs, as well as other great music on the label.  Enjoy!

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.

http://www.chemikal.co.uk

http://www.slrecords.net