Video: Vimeo - YouTube Photos: Flickr Audio: zip download - right click, save as I am rather embarrassed to confess that we recorded this session absolutely bloody ages ago. First the Festival, then the mixes, then intervening sessions, and finally just the sheer amount of time these take to edit managed to delay things. But now, finally, at long, long last here it is: the Kid Canaveral Toad Session. This was another relatively [...]
In all the craziness of Christmas our in-box got overwhelmed with videos from all sorts of interesting folk. So here's your chance to give them a viewing and pick up one or two nice mp3s. Those Lavender Whales have come up with a novel way of showcasing their track Growth In Question from their new record, Tomahawk Of Praise , which is due for release on the 17th January on Fork & Spoon. a The Red Shoes video [...]
It might seem a bit odd to be releasing a video for a single which came out back in April of last year, but that's exactly what Glasgow based six piece, Washington Irving have done. Having just secured funding to record their debut album, the band are obviously in a jubilant mood, so to celebrate they made a video of a man building a shed in the middle of a forest. Makes perfect sense to me.

Frightened Rabbit Just when I thought I had this weeks Freebies post all finished up cropped two free tunes from two of my favourite bands. First off we have the Frabbit boys with their new Christmas tune, Cheap Gold which you can download for nowt from their Soundcloud page. The band have also just announced that they'll be playing at the HMV Picture House in Edinburgh on the 10th of February. Tickets for the gig are on sale now . The Twilight Sad The other surprise freebie came from [...]

If you're already getting sick of all of this talk about albums of the year, then you might want to stay well away from this site for the next two weeks. Continuing on from last week, here's the second out of four scheduled Artists Albums of the Year. This is the bit where I get folk who've done interviews for me over the past two years to tell me a bit about what's been tickling their fancy in 2012, we even have one of our artists choosing an album by someone else who's writing about their favourite album - I [...]

I have been promising myself a beak for ages now, but there's always been something that's sprung up that's made me keep going. However, seeing as it's the summer time and things are a wee bit quieter I have decided to cut back on my posts for a few weeks. I will still be posting the odd session here and there, plus I will have a few Fresh Monday posts and perhaps a sporadic ramble or two. However, there will be no Friday Freebies posts for the a few weeks and I'll also be taking a break from my Scots [...]

Admittedly I have been a bit rubbish with this years West End Festival, so far I have managed to miss the Fence Collective show and the Electric Honey Records Showcase. I am however hoping to make it along to the Big BBQ Show at Oran Mor which being put on by innovative promoters, KMR Promotions as part of the closing party for the West End Festival on Sunday 26th June. Running from 1pm through until 10pm, the event will showcase some fine local talent alongside some unique international acts, plus be a massive BBQ, pig on a spit, a mariachi [...]

I would just like to apologise to anyone who has emailed me over the past few days and hasn't heard back from me yet, I have been up north visiting my parents and have avoided turning on my laptop for a good few days. Now that I have logged in, I have a shed load of emails to work through. So to make my job that bit easier I thought I'd bring you all of the worthy news to you in one big handy post. So without further ado here we go... [...]

So, I spent the morning tidying up my desk and the office, and I now think I know why tidy people are tidy: it makes you feel enormously efficient, without ever actually having to accomplish anything ! Sly, skiving bastards! It's like people making a great outward show of their piety, whilst generally acting like judgmental, ungenerous bigots. Never trust tidy people, they are just trying to mask their ineffectiveness - there's a new axiom to live by! Also, in today's bone-headed news update of the week, apparently Edinburgh legend Withered Hand is being denied his visa [...]

These things never really seem to last so I guess I better say something nice about it while I can: it's really quite a pleasant morning here in Edinburgh today. Presumably by the time I hit 'Publish' all that will have changed and we'll be back to the shitty old January we're all so very familiar with around these parts. Still, at least the old live music machine is coughing and spluttering its way back to life. Just wait until the second week in February though, because judging from my calendar that's when it really does kick off [...]
Track Listing 1. The Magician 2. Si Si 3. French Leave 4. Abi Gallop Download
Would you care to introduce yourself? Hello i'm Jamie Webster founding member of Instinctive Racoon i live in Partick. Instinctive Racoon consists of 3 main people- myself Creon Brock and Ben Soep, we all live in Partick. What inspired you to start your own label? I first saw Ross Clark perform at Oran Mor around 4 and 1/2 years ago and his powerful, confident and accomplished performance blew me away. After talking to him later to discover [...]

You should hopefully remember I featured Washington Irving back in June, great wee band they are too. They're stable mates with the excellent French Wives on innovative Glasgow label Instinctive Raccoon, if you haven't already downloaded yourself a copy and you like this cover, then make sure you hunt down their 'Little Wanderer, Head Thee Home' EP, it's full of cracking indie pop tunes. Washington Irving - Boy From School (Hot Chip cover)

Firstly, the flurry of posts yesterday, from my rather tardy podcast to radio show post, meant that my brother's Sunday Supplement - a rant about classical music - was buried rather too fast, so please do go back and check it out if you have a little time to waste this afternoon. Secondly, the Edge Festival goes bloody nuts this week, and if I listed all the gigs then I'd be here all day, and there really is no need for that, so you can have it in paragraph form instead: on Monday 23rd we have Field [...]

Monday - The Douglas Firs brought us some Fresh Meat-y goodness Tuesday - The Zephyrs session for Vic G, plus Steve Mason did a wee tune for 5Live Wednesday - the fabulous Yahweh became the 29th member of the Scots Way-Hay club Thursday - Withered Hand in session for Marc Riley, plus one of Admiral Fallow 's live tracks from their gig in Paisley last week. Friday - the world famous [...]

Set Lists 1. French Wives - Live Set From T Break 2010 2. Mitchell Museum - Live Set From T Break 2010 3. The Seventeenth Century - Live Set From T Break 2010 4. Washington Irving - Live Set From T Break 2010 5. Night Noise Team - Live Set From T Break 2010 Download

Track Listing 1. Admiral Fallow - The Way You Were Raised 2. Silver Columns - Always On 3. Silver Columns - Cavalier 4. Washington Irving - The Magician 5. North Atlantic Oscillation - Ceiling Poem 6. North Atlantic Oscillation - Drawing Maps From Memory Download

I suppose that if we are talking about Scottish gigs this week, I really do have to mention T in the Park, or Nedstock as my far-funnier-than-I friend refers to it over at the Vinyl Villain . I've actually only been once myself, back in 1996 I think it was, when Radiohead and Pulp headlined the Saturday and Sunday spots respectively. The thing is, I looked it up on Wikipedia and it seems that was indeed 1996, but then, it says Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds were also on the bill and although I cannot for [...]
I'm not sure if it's just my perception, but there seems to be a lot amazing indie-folk bands coming out of Scotland at the moment. The latest band to add to this list, are Glasgow based six piece, Washington Irving. Taking their name from one of my all time favourite books, 'Catch 222, they were [...]