Friday, July 29, 2005
Mystery Mackay Spy
Mystery
Bob is a genius on the old ukulele. I would go as far to say the best ukulele
player in Falkirk. Oh yes. There, I've said it. He also loves robots and
is a bit of a web wizard too, as you can see from his latest internut project,
Spirokeet!. Half
of Whyte and Mackay
(coming soon to the Edinburgh Festival, comedy fans) has a soundtrack of
the online novel, 666
Great Junction Street, out soon and here's a wee taster from it. I'm
not one for long-winded guitar solos, but there's a pretty damn good one
on this track from Dundee alt-rockers, Spyamp.
Mystery
Bob's Ukulele Singers - California Uber Alles
Tommy
Mackay - 666 Great Junction Street
Spyamp
- Megaman
Friday, July 22, 2005
Whyte Marmaduke Owls
The
truly special Whyte & Mackay are a rare treat in the world of Scottish
music. Their mission statement is to murder the pop classics by drowning
them in alcoholic references. Here, Kate Bush is given a good seeing to
as the boys recount late evenings in the chain store ambience of their local
Wetherspoons. Marmaduke Duke are apparently the new project from Biffy Clyro
frontman Simon Neil and a school pal. And very bouncily melodic they are
too. No shouting, surprisingly. The Eagle Owls are a distinctive Edinburgh
duo who play violin and fuzzy guitar to produce a noise like this. Kooky
combos are the future I tells ya.
Whyte
& Mackay - Wetherspoons Nights
Marmaduke
Duke - An Egyptian and an Imposter
Eagle
Owls - Into the Fold
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Reograd Tantrum Marshall
Reograd
are from what has been described rather quaintly elsewhere as "the
burgeoning Perth scene". Heavily vocoded electro is surely big in those
parts, then. Tantrum, on the other fist, play, to quote their own publicity,
"sort of hot rock ambient lofi guitar music, sometimes with vocals,
sometimes not, with quite a lot of other recorded sounds from tv, radio,
out the window and stuff". Meanwhile, Iona Marshall writes plaintive
and haunting acoustic songs accompanied by varied exotic and ethnic musical
instruments to produce a sort of neo-traditionalism if you will.
Reograd
- We Are Electronic
Tantrum
- Lift Off
Iona
Marshall - Lost Without
Friday, July 8, 2005
Help Ma Boab
Apologies for the lack of postage lately, but it's a combination of stupidly busy work stuff and also interweb problems. I don't seem to be able to store the mp3s in the usual place anymore. It's a bit of a pain the arse, so I might just give it up. While I'm here though, if you're in the Edinburgh area, make sure you catch the stunning Whyte & Mackay at the Caledonian Backpackers on Queensferry Street tomorrow night (Saturday 9th July). 9pm. Entry £4. Also playing - The Remnant Kings and Findo Gask.
Monday, July 4, 2005
Fire Salon Lyndsay
Another
Fire Engines gem unearthed over at The Perfumed Garden from the 1981John
Peel session. My, they'd grown by then. Followed by the electronic bleepery
of Salon Boris and a gorgeous wee number from acoustic songstress, Lyndsay
Sugden. It's all gone a bit stupidly busy over here, but I'm trying to keep
up. Lots of G8 alternative shenanigans abound in town. Check out Songs
For Change for details if you're in the Edinburgh area. I'm playing
The Royal Oak tonight. So be warned.
Fire
Engines - Big Wrong Time
Salon
Boris - Freak Show
Lyndsay
Sugden - Existence Erased