
Today is The Queen's 53rd birthday. Rather than a feeble attempt at celebration here, this year you need to read Adem's Happy Birthday Madonna post, filled with quotes and videos. A choice example: If I was a girl again, I would like to be like my fans, I would like to be like Madonna. Message to the lady: Bring your A-game in 2012. Nothing less.

Much to my own disappointment EITS 's 'Take Care, Take Care, Take Care' is not just doing it for me. I can certainly live with the same old sound but not without its beating heart. So in an attempt to relive former glories we return to 2007 and an reinterpretation of 'Welcome, Ghosts' by Londoner Adem (remember ' Launch Yourself '). Hard to imagine this music with its core elements surgically removed (the guitars), replaced by something less organic (the electronics) and still sounding immense but that's the success of this reinterpretation. In many ways it has a Sufjan [...]

Gisteren was ik met twee van mijn beste vrienden in de kroeg. Op de kop af 5 jaar geleden hebben ze beiden voorspeld hoe ze nu in het leven zouden staan, en anderhalf jaar geleden deed ook ik voorspellingen over hoe ik het op 27 november 2010 zou hebben. Ik zal niet ingaan op de details, maar er waren dingen goed en fout voorspeld. Het leukste was echter om te zien hoe we in die tijd keken naar de toekomst. We dachten dat we inmiddels getrouwd zouden zijn, dat een van ons al kinderen zou hebben en dat [...]
Créer une musique à mi-chemin entre les sons industriels et la pop accessible autant pour les clubs que les festivals, telle est l'ambition du projet Silver Columns . Johnny Lynch a co-fondé le micro-label écossais Fence Records. Depuis 2003, il mêle lo-fi et folk sous le nom de scène The Pictish Trail et prépare un nouvel EP composé de 50 chansons de 30 secondes chacune : In Rooms . Alors qu'il étudie les maths à Warwick, Adem Ilhan est guitariste du groupe post-rock Fridge qu'il forme avec [...]
Grande péninsule située au sud-est de l'Europe, les Balkans constituent depuis toujours une zone charnière entre l'Orient et l'Occident. L'histoire de la région est bien connue, et pas toujours réjouissante. Théâtre de nombreux conflits, de conquêtes et de résistances, de souffrances et de migrations ; mais aussi terre de rencontres et d'échanges, creuset de culture entre les populations les plus diverses. Grecs, Turcs, Slaves, Albanais ou Tsiganes ; chrétiens, juifs ou musulmans… de gré ou de force, tous ces peuples ont dû apprendre l'art du vivre ensemble, sans pour autant renoncer aux marques d'identités fragiles et souvent menacées. [...]
I remember interviewing the Silver Columns up at Homegame this year and their combination of seriousness and playfulness struck me quite strongly. Whilst they came across as enjoying themselves hugely, and their approach to the songwriting process seemed light-hearted and not in any way precious, there was a definite undercurrent of something a little more [...]
This is my video diary from the first day of the Fence Collective's Haarfest. This one doesn't have much beyond me burbling, King Creosote explaining the festival and then some tunes from Adem, Admiral Fallow and Silver Columns. Following installments will have a bit more Anstruthery atmosphere and so on, just as soon as I can get up there properly instead of coming back and forth from Edinburgh every night.
This is my video diary from the first day of the Fence Collective's Haarfest. This one doesn't have much beyond me burbling, King Creosote explaining the festival and then some tunes from Adem, Admiral Fallow and Silver Columns. Following installments will have a bit more Anstruthery atmosphere and so on, just as soon as I can get up there properly instead of coming back and forth from Edinburgh every night.

I remember interviewing the Silver Columns up at Homegame this year and their combination of seriousness and playfulness struck me quite strongly. Whilst they came across as enjoying themselves hugely, and their approach to the songwriting process seemed light-hearted and not in any way precious, there was a definite undercurrent of something a little more focussed there. They are not, in other words, just arsing around. Generally, I don't discussion of their previous work is really applicable or relevant, but I think that if there is one area where it is actually appropriate to discuss the [...]

Illustration by Mike Are you having fun yet? I know I am! nobleybones mixtape yesterday & an itty ari interwebs today, but whoa-ho-ho-ho, we ain't done yet! Not even remotely! We got more mixtapes coming at you. I sure hope you cleared off a little room on your iPod, iPhone, iTouch, or, to be more topical iPad! Speaking of the iPad. I saw a photo yesterday, a photo from Saturday's launch of the iPad that struck me as so powerful, so telling, [...]
Homegame this year was a distinctly danceable affair for me. Not that I did dance (I wasn't that drunk) but the bands I enjoyed the most were the ones like Findo Gask and Django Django who are most definitely very friendly to those of the dancing persuasion. I had to miss Silver fucking Columns though, because it clashed with the Cold Seeds gig which, being a record released on our label , I really had to attend. Homegame was in fact the first ever Silver Columns gig, and Johnny and Adem were nice enough to [...]
Hotel Sex Date: 2010-02-23, 3:39PM EST Reply To This Post So, I'm minding my own business and I hear a woman masterbating in the next room...she came 5 or 6 times. Very hot. I called your room and left a message of encouragement... Tell me what hotel and I'll tell you the room.... (I know it's a million in [...]

Track Listing 1. Silver Columns - Brow Beaten 2. Silver Columns - Cavalier 3. Adem - Song To Siren 4. Remember Remember - Mountains 5. Pictish Trail, King Creosote and Adem - It's A Wonderful Life (Sparklehorse cover) 6. OLO Worms - Back From England 7. Four Tet - Love Cry Download

We're in Anstruther this weekend for Homegame, and so we got incredibly pissed late at night and recorded a podcast for you all, just as a special extra Sunday Supplement. This should give you a taste of our Homegame fun and, sadly, also an idea of just how much of a wreck we all make of ourselves in Fife once a year. Honestly, this is my favourite festival in the fucking universe, possibly only equalled by Pickathon, which is incredibl e. Toadcast #113 - The Anstercast 01.Withered [...]
You might have noticed yesterday that we have a brand new face around here ! Our very good friend Niels is going to be a regular contributor from now on, popping up as much or as little as he likes. So be sure to give him a warm-whale-in-a-cubicle-welcom e so he'll feel at home on here! Niels has been a close friend of mine and Logan's for a long time, and a big part of our musical taste for just as long. In fact, I'm pretty sure the first time the three of us hung out was going [...]

I'm kinda disappointed Silver Columns wasn't Jimmy Sommerville in the end but whatever. Three people who commented on the original Introducing post were correct in the assumption that Silver Columns are Adem & The Pictish Trail . So now we move on to their new release. Cavalier is coming out on Moshi Moshi in April. The followup to 'Brow Beaten' and 'Yes And Dance' will be put out on 123 vinyl with an embossed sleeve. While I haven't heard the original yet, here's the 8-minute Time and Space Machine [...]

A list of events taking place over the next seven days in Dublin. Friday night is jam-packed. Tuesday 24th November - Ian Brown, @ Olympia Theatre (€39.20) - Yngve & The Innocent, Little X's for Eyes, Louisiana Joyride @ Whelan's (€10) - Gary Numan @ Tripod (€22.50/€27.50) Wednesday 25th Nov - Ash - The Button Factory (€23) - The Infomatics @ The Bernard Shaw (Free) [...]

Silver Columns I am not sure if it is still hush as to who Silver Columns actually, in case it is let's just say that they're two well known faces from Fence Collective . More importantly what you need to know is that they sound amazing, imagine Jimmy Somerville fronting Hot Chip and you're half way there. Their debut single, 'Brow Beaten' is free to download over at the NME , while you can grab a copy of their remix of Peter, Bjorn & John's 'It Don't Move Me' from their [...]
Teaming up with Foggy Notions singer-songwriter Adrian Crowley has co-curated a festival of music & visuals drawing on the themes of community and kinship in the arts. The festival is HOMELIGHTS . It takes place over four nights, Friday 27th of November to Monday the 30th. The line-up is pretty special, made up of comrades and inspirations to Crowley; who has been recently signed to Delgado run Scottish label Chemical Underground . His first album with them (fifth in total) Season of the Sparks will be released later this month. [...]

"N othing lasts for ever in the cold November rain" is a lyric Axel Rose wrote after he was kicked out of Whelans and left holding a bag of half-cooked chips from Roma II one pissing November night. Sure enough, those chips never saw the watery dawn, and Axel suffered inside himself. However, suffering begets inspiration, and earth is now one hair-ballad the richer. Like Axel, many of us find the month of November as grim as a greying carpet of tripe of left out in a butcher's window in Phibsborough. Yet, we needn't turn [...]