Hmm, given I have to spend some time writing up the half a dozen bands I saw at the Great Escape who I want to tell you about I suppose it's good that there doesn't seem to be all that much going on in Edinburgh this week, from a live music perspective. At least, I can't see all that much which would be up my street, which is what this post is about, so let me know if I've missed anything obvious, because I usually have. Still, after the damage done to my liver by £300 bottles of [...]
Saturday, April 20 is Record Store Day , which will thrill those who are not cheerleaders for homogenized, major-label monopolies. Hats off to Fake Major for their initiative in turning the event into a hyperspeed tour of Scotland, with the acoustic duo playing at shops in Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow in the space of just four hours. They'll be pimping copies of their wonderful debut EP, Have Plenty Of Fun, which doesn't get a digital release until May 1. Here's [...]
Don't ask me why Ron Burgundy, it's just because, alright? This really is just one of those days, a real blue Monday, and I have no idea why because the sun has been shining, the label is ticking over nicely, we have a fine Toad Session to publish this week, the gig on Saturday went really well, and basically, in short, things are just dandy. Still, sometimes these things happen I guess. Maybe some Mongrels will cheer me up. Actually, as I've been going on about Archer for the last little while, Chris Devotion and the [...]
We hereby begin the very belated countdown of Song, by Toad's favourite albums of 2012. As I alluded to before, family issues prevented me publishing this in my usual slot between Christmas and New Year, so the end of January will have to do. Actually, if I were to try and spin this I think I'd make a play for the moral high ground by pointing out how ludicrous it is to publish a Best Of list in early fucking November, and that therefore my list must be far superior because I have sensibly waited until the year [...]
It's that time of the year when blog's are pretty dominated by end of year lists, this blog is no different. I love a good end of year list so I do, more often than not it acts as a guide to albums that I might have overlooked. In past years I have discovered amazing albums by the likes of St. Vincent, Beach House and more recently Beth Jeans Houghton. As well as having my own selection of albums, I also run the Scottish BAMS, in which I ask all of Scotland's top music sites and DJ's what's been taking [...]
Every year the BBC announce an unspeakable abortion of a list of bands who they tip to 'make it' in the coming year, and with a very few exceptions the contents of that list can be summed up in the phrase 'where music goes to die'. Ask people like me, however, and what you get is indubitably the Right Answer. After all, I wouldn't bother writing this blog if it wasn't obvious that I am the only person in the world who knows what good music actually is. Or, erm, something like that anyway. Or, to [...]
So yesterday the longlist of the Blog Sound of 2013 was announced. Last year I felt the need to preface the list with a justification of the existence of the longlist itself, but now I don’t really see the need for that; anything that is drawing attention to new music should be encouraged, and that this year’s Blog Sound longlist contains so many exciting new artists is just an added bonus. Admittedly, none of the five artists that I wrote about made it to the list, which only highlights the variety in tastes between bloggers, and the strength [...]
Randolph's Leap are a Glasgow band overflowing with pop hooks and the kind of blighted brilliance on which Scotland has an effective monopoly. On "Hermit", lead track from their EP of the same name, the band sounds intensely like British stab at the horn-soaked pop that Beulah made deservedly famous in the previous decade. Think Stornoway with a bit more punch and a relentless pursuit of a chorus that twirls under its own melodrama. It is, like so much of this type of pop, about being lost and alone. Belle and Sebastian [...]
As the " End Of Year List " season begins in earnest, so the longlist of the 15 acts that make up the 2nd annual " Blog Sound Of... " poll are announced. Venerable bloggers " Breaking More Waves " and " The Von Pip Express " collected the top five tips for 2013 from 49 UK Blogs, with the overall winner to be announced on January 3rd 2013. The Blog Sound Poll is in no way meant as a criticism of the well established (and in my eyes well loved) BBC [...]
It's The Blog Sound Poll time again, the poll of key music tastemakers, and us, that was set up as an alternative to the annual 'BBC Sound of' exercise, providing another chance to say who might be big next year [go here for our story on last year's list]. Organised by Robin Seamer and Andy Von Pip of Breaking More Waves and the Von Pip Express blogs, it involved 49 blogs [listed below] each picking 5 bands. As you might suspect this generated lots of different suggestions, but there is a longlist, and there is a winner - tipped by [...]
Monday morning brings new tunes: a couple of pop tunes, a couple of holiday tunes. If it's available, we'll feature holiday music until Christmas. Get yourself a cup of coffee or tea (it's about that time in Europe, right?) and enjoy. LISTEN: Pinact - "Into the One" from Spill Your Guts, Let Out Some Noise released 2 September 2012 on Fat Cat Records Glasgow-based duo are actually high school [...]
Music Liberation is pleased to announce the results of this years Blog Sound Of 2013 poll. For those unaware of this interesting snapshot from the blogosphere here's Robin from the Breaking More Waves blog to explain more. "The Blog Sound Poll was first published in 2011 . The concept of the poll wasn’t to criticise the established BBC Sound of list, but simply an experiment to see if UK music bloggers could come up with its own list of emerging artists [...]
Dec 3, 2012, 6:35am
SGTMT
Tweet Every January the beeb publishes their BBC Sound Of (insert year) list. The fact that they don't ask our help in compiling this list isn't a problem, it's really not. I mean, we are the world's most respected authority of new music criticism AND we are, like, the best and all but, we don't take it personally that they didn't ask us (chumps). To sorta complement the BBC's list (but not in a 'why didn't you ask us?' way, seriously we're OVER [...]
It's that time of year once again when a team of some of the finest bloggers of this land come together to nominate a few bands and artists that we think could and should become successes next year. Every blogger gets to nominate five of their favourite up-and-coming acts, and then put together by Robin of Breaking More Waves, and Andy of Von Pip Musical Express into the list you see below. There were 170 acts in total nominated by the 49 bloggers, showing the breadth of opinion across the group, and then the 15 with the most votes become [...]
It is with great delight we and 48 other UK music blogs present to you the Blog Sound of 2013 Poll as organised by Robin and Andy from Breaking More Waves and The Von Pip Musical Express respectively. This poll was designed as a complimentary alternative to the BBC's Sound Of Poll, Robin and Andy set out in 2011 to ask the UK music blogosphere for their top 5 emerging artists. This is what they came up with . It's cool to see acts like Alt-J, Daughter and Lucy Rose on [...]
Shortlist and winner announced 3rd January 2013 The Blog Sound Poll was first published in 2011. The concept of the poll wasn’t to criticise the established BBC Sound of list, but simply an experiment to see if UK music bloggers could come up with its own list of emerging artists that was more representative of their community and give the artists that were nominated some extra publicity. Indeed the idea was to compliment the BBC list in many ways by providing an alternative to compare and contrast. Last year’s final long list provided some interesting [...]
I try not to cut and paste emails received and pass them off as my own (you'd be surprised just how many blogs do) but on this occasion I think the accompanying fact sheet serves as a better introduction than I could possible do, so here goes. My own words will follow in a separate post. The Blog Sound Poll was first published in 2011. The concept of the poll wasn’t to criticise the established BBC Sound of list, but simply an experiment to see if UK music bloggers could come up [...]
Follow #blogsound2013 on twitter The Blog Sound Poll was first published in 2011. The concept of the poll wasn’t to criticise the established BBC Sound of list, but simply an experiment to see if UK music bloggers could come up with its own list of emerging artists that was more representative of their community and give the artists that were nominated some extra publicity. Indeed the idea was to compliment the BBC list in many ways by providing an alternative to compare and contrast. Last year’s final long list provided some interesting alternatives to [...]
Woohoo! Finally it's here! In all honesty I've been looking forward to 'list season' since January. My own yearly top 10 lists will make an appearance in the coming days, but before that here's a more collaborative effort that looks to the future rather than the past. Spurred on by the ever-increasing irrelevance of the BBC's annual "Sound Of..." poll, Andy from the Von Pip Musical Express decided to start his own. This is the second year it's run, and once again I'm proud to have been a part of it. It's an interesting project. Of last years recommendations [...]
It was four years ago today that the first ever Peenko blog post went up, now that might not mean a lot to you, but for me it's pretty massive. When you hit so called milestones like this, it makes think back on how much has happened over the past four years. I am not going to sit here and blow my own trumpet too much, but prior to starting this site, doing this such as running a record label, putting on gigs, managing bands, etc, etc, were just pipe dreams. Seeing as I have no musical talent to speak [...]
Song, by Toad
The Pop Cop
Peenko
Not Many Experts
32ft/Second
music like dirt
Both bars on
The Dadada
Music Liberation
The Blue Walrus
A Pocket Full Of Seeds
Mad Mackerel's Blog
Just Music That I Like
The VPME
the Eaten by Monsters blog
Nueva canción de Arctic Monkeys: Do I Wanna Know
M.I.A. – “Bring the Noize”
