Music

10 Best gigs in Scotland

July-August

1 Jun 2009

We Were Promised Jetpacks, Jarvis Cocker, Emiliana Torrini, Malcolm Middleton, Come On Gang, The Cat Empire, The Wilders, Bruce Springsteen, Orkestra Del Sol and Frightened Rabbit.

Futuristic Retro Champions

1 Jun 2009

During music festival season there will likely be lots of ‘cool’ new indie bands thrust upon us. But Anna Docherty meets a bright young band that is unashamedly pop.

The Mill

1 Jun 2009

The Mill is a new free music night run in conjunction with Miller beer. But, as David Pollock discovers, the new bands on display are anything but run of the mill.

Live Music

1 Mar 2009

As you’ll know from reading the feature on Hinterland festival elsewhere in this mighty organ of Midgieness, it’s going to be an even more exciting spring than usual for Glasgow’s musical scene. But hold on, you’re travelling and you’re on a budget…

Sound Advice - 10 Best gigs: Scotland (March–May) 

1 Mar 2009

Franz Ferdinand Thu 5 Mar, 7pm, Barrowlands, Glasgow (H5), 0141 552 4601, £20 The cream of Scottish indie play their home town; it doesn’t get much better than this. The Xcerts Sun 8 Mar, 8pm, Kings Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow (E3), 0141 221…

Sound Advice - My Top 5

1 Mar 2009

1 Kraftwerk - Ruckzuck This is a fantastic driving song and quite possibly my favourite song to utilize the flute, which always gets you extra points with me. It also has some great motorik drumming (a repetitive beat specific to Krautrock music).

Sound Advice - Our New Favourite (Scottish) Band

Withered Hand

1 Mar 2009

The name sounds like it could be the title of a twisted fairytale about a reclusive boy with a deformed limb (or maybe that’s just me?). But upon listening to Withered Hand this sinister moniker becomes all the more fitting, as embedded within the music…

Your New Favourite Scottish Band: Zoey Van Goey

1 Dec 2008

We live in a world that likes labels. As a result, Zoey Van Goey have often found their sound folded up and slotted into tiny boxes. ‘Sometimes people say they pick up a Canadian indie influence and some have mentioned a Celtic or traditional Irish…

12 Questions: Travis

1 Dec 2008

1. What are you most proud of? My son, Dylan, he is perfect in every way. 2. What do people not know about Travis? That we really aren't such nice guys at all. Behind closed doors we are some of the vilest people you would ever encounter. 3.

Rockin' All Over The World

1 Dec 2008

Primal Scream – ‘Swastika Eyes’ You always get to that point of the night where the Scream go on. When we used to tour in a splitter van (a transit van with sections for people and equipment), we'd stop at traffic lights with music blaring and open…

Sounds of the Suburbs

1 Dec 2008

Arab Strap Known for the dry wit of lustrously bearded singer (or mumbler) Aidan Moffat and the incessantly depressing tone of their music, they are from a small town called Falkirk, midway between Glasgow and Edinburgh. It’s famous for the Falkirk…

The Buzz

1 Dec 2008

THOSE DANCING DAYS Popping and bopping their way towards a hyperactive fit, Those Dancing Days have a boundless energy. All five band members are freshly out of high school and busy making bouncy Swedish pop. Their songs rattle with smoky vocals…

Bloc Party - Intimacy

1 Oct 2008

Bloc Party’s 2005 debut, Silent Alarm, has been a definitive album of the noughties, laying a sonic template for spiky indie-dance with a thumping beat that’s been well observed by bands ever since. Their latest offering, Intimacy, displays many signs…

Glasvegas - Glasvegas

1 Oct 2008

Glasvegas like to tell stories. Their self-titled debut CD is a little circular storybook, filled with distinctly Scottish tales of city living and working class heroes. Album opener ‘Flowers and Football Tops’ is a tender tribute to the murder of a…

Live in Edinburgh

1 Oct 2008

Henry's Cellar Bar My first stop is Henry’s, a tiny cellar bar with a jam-packed musical schedule. As I amble down the spiralling stone staircase, I can hear a hearty racket coming from inside. In typical Henry’s style, the band onstage are…

Lykke Li - Youth Novels

1 Oct 2008

There is a sea-softened purity to Swedish singer/songwriter Lykke Li’s voice, and this – her first longplayer – is awash with 80s beats, sparse keyboards and airy, monotone vocals. New single ‘Breaking It Up’ is a playful schoolyard chant sung over a…

Upcoming music

1 Oct 2008

No need to ask what the most eagerly-anticipated album of the autumn is - Oasis’ Dig Out Your Soul is out on 6 Oct, and pundits are already declaring it a huge leap forwards from Don’t Believe the Truth. They say that after every one though, so at this…

Your New Favourite Band

1 Oct 2008

Glasvegas were iconic before any of us had even heard of them. Discovered by Alan McGee (who was out with Dirty Pretty Things’ Carl Barat at the time) in Glasgow’s King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, the band must have known they were on the cusp of something…