While most bands with a sense of adventure head into western Europe when they want to spread the joy further afield, this summer Inverness quartet THEATRE FALL went north - way north - to the great plains of Norway. And later this month they will be the sole representatives of Scottish interests at Iceland Airwaves , an annual music festival in Reykjavik where the likes of Bloc Party, !!!, Annuals and local talent Johnny Sexual (brother of Homer?) will also be playing. Theatre [...]
There's an oddly disproportionate amount of resentment towards THE DEPARTURE for a band so commercially unsuccessful. The ill-feeling seems to stem from the fact the Northampton band didn't do things the hard way. They signed a record deal with Parlophone in 2004 after just three gigs and four months in existence - and even more eyebrows were raised when it later transpired that singer David Jones had, in fact, been working at the major label on a placement as part of his Commercial Music course at Westminister University. [...]
After hearing the new Oasis effort Lord, Don't Slow Me Down, it suddenly struck us that it has been 10 long years since they last released a genuinely exciting single - D'You Know What I Mean in 1997. Rather than suffer the triennial letdown of a new album from the brothers grim, a better idea would be to cut your losses and seek out the pretenders to their throne. So who are they? Kasabian are too intense, Arctic Monkeys are too talented, The View are too cuddly... so that just leaves THE ENEMY [...]
Depending on just how extensive your BELLE & SEBASTIAN collection is, you might already know Scotland's favourite band have recorded a song called I Don't Want To Play Football. But this wasn't the case yesterday afternoon for B&S frontman Stuart Murdoch ( above ). Representing Oxjam , a nationwide music festival in aid of Oxfa m, he led his celebrity soccer team in a charity match against Oxfam volunteers at Hyndland Secondary School ( right [...]
Take one look at the top 40 and you'd probably come to the conclusion that there's no better time than the present to get a few mates together and start a band called 'The' something. Be it Enemy, Twang or Klaxons, boys dressed in skinny jeans and accessorised with guitars are as common as fake ID cards in Freshers' Week. So it's no surprise THE RIFLES are trying to muscle in on the action, with their [...]
When Leslie FEIST strolled on stage at Oran Mor last night, the Canadian songstress announced that ever since her previous visit to Glasgow (at Nice 'n' Sleazy on November 20, 2004), she has been raving about it on her travels around the world. And once again there was more than enough magic and drama to make you think she'll to be talking about this gig for a few years too. Feist [...]
It's difficult to define why one man with a heartbreaking story and an acoustic guitar can take you on a captivating journey, while 99 others will drag you down with them. There's something wonderful about the simplicity of it all. Boy meets girl, girl screws boy over. Devastation. Boy meets guitar, girl gets bad-mouthed. Redemption. Essentially, the chords and characters are the same but the outcome is different. In the hands of DAMIEN RICE it's as though no-one has ever [...]
Nothing gets us furiously nodding the head in approval quite like some kick-ass American punk pop. However, you might have not realised it by reading The Pop Cop since many of our current crop of favourites (we're thinking Jack's Mannequin and The Format here) rarely set foot in Europe, never mind Scotland, so we have little justification in writing about them. In truth, it's your loss as well as theirs, especially when it seems like the bands who do make the effort to go transatlantic - and subsequently find their way onto your local radio station [...]
Forgive us if you've heard this one before but our favourite JACK PENATE tale is of the time he visited Glasgow three months ago, when he relieved his boredom at Optimo in the Sub Club by scribbling anti-monarchy slogans on any piece of furniture he could find with a marker pen. Despite being caught ink-handed, the Londoner refused to compensate the very pissed off nightclub manager for the damage and seemed to have got off with his vandalism when the police said they didn't have enough evidence to [...]
Describing a group as "a great live band" can often be as damning as complimenting someone on having a nice personality or getting overexcited about their ability to make a good slice of toast. But in the case of MAXIMO PARK it is a strength that allows them to fill venues twice as large as those played by some of their more famous peers. The fact that the Newcastle quintet already have a wad of indie-pop gold in their setlist such as Apply Some [...]
Every dog has his day and it looks like DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS have had theirs. Barely a peep has been heard from the Glasgow-based Fifers in the three years since debut album Please Describe Yourself was released, with rumours rife that the schoolfriends had called it a day but hadn't bothered to make any official announcement. Until this week. On a statement on their Myspace site headed 'Band News', they wrote: "At the end [...]
THE FRATELLIS are like Yorkie bars - not for girls. Want a football chant that Rangers AND Celtic fans can unite in harmony to? Want to sing the words when you're too wasted to form sentences? Want something to bounce to while having a heterosexual group hug? The Fratellis are your pop band. The royalties from Chelsea Dagger will ensure they never need worry about where their next haircut is coming from - however, the greatest achievement of this shambolic group of lairy drunks [...]
Who said the festival season was over? Nobody in Ullapool, that's for sure, where this Friday and Saturday sees the third year of Loopallu (which is Ullapool spelled backwards in case you hadn't noticed). Headlined on respective nights by The Saw Doctors and Franz Ferdinand, the already sold out shindig will see the entire population of the town multiplied by three for a weekend - and could add a few numbers on to the permanent figure depending on how friendly the locals are. Particularly impressive has been the organisers' ability to attract some genuinely [...]
Date: August 28, 2007 Time: 13.00 Location: Cottiers, Glasgow Background info: Roddy Hart started out his music career as a guitarist for a band called The Dendrons. When they broke up, Roddy put together a tape of his own songs which brought him to the attention of Independiente boss Andy McDonald, who called it "the best demo he'd heard since The La's". But when that deal [...]
THE WOMBATS are the equivalent of "a sure thing" in gambling. Like Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand before them, the Liverpool guitar pop trio have already established a fanbase whose size is completely out of proportion to their overground profile. That, together with their no-fuss hook-heavy leanings, means you just know these unapologetically fun-loving youngsters aren't going to stay a secret for much longer. And experience tells us there's scarcely a better time to get on board for the ride. With a massive internet following [...]
FRANCE 0 SCOTLAND 1 b October 13, Scotland v Ukraine, Glasgow b October 17, Georgia v Scotland, Tblisi b November 17, Scotland v Italy, Glasgow
Two hearts believing in just one mind. Just the two of us. Two can play that game. The power of two has always had a special place in music and, similarly, the duo of David Thomson and Andrew Bush have had a special place in the Glasgow scene since they were teenagers. From Pariah to The Liberty Parade to The Sky At Night, they have continually aspired to make songs of grandeur and ambition yet layered with unconventional beauty. None of those bands had less than five members, so the fact they [...]
There's no getting away from the fact that THE GO! TEAM are a one-trick pony, but it's still a nifty trick they have nonetheless. Taking their cue from Northern Soul, funk and blaxploitation influences, their Avalanches-esque party sound has barely changed a jot from debut album Thunder, Lightning, Strike to this year's Proof Of Youth. While the Brighton collective number half-a-dozen and female vocalist Ninja dominates the vocal contribution, The Go! Team are very much the baby of the not-so-dramatically named Ian [...]
At the start of every year the BBC carries out a survey amongst 130 music critics and broadcasters to find the top 10 most hotly-tipped new talent. What at first looks like a list of randoms usually turns out to be an accurate premonition of the future. While Mika, The Twang and Klaxons have all justified their inclusion in 2007's most wanted, not all acts manage to live up to expectations. AIR TRAFFIC were No.6 in the list but it's fair to say [...]
Do you remember the first time? The Pop Cop does. It was March 26, 2003 - a Wednesday night in Glasgow. Two miles across town the relentless Biffy Clyro are continuing their slowly-but-surely rise to fame at the QMU. Here at the Art School, another band is about to take a much quicker route to the top. The first thing that looks out of place is the audience. We're in a student union, yet the crowd is a curious mixture of middle-aged English gentlemen (record label heads) and overexcited kids (overexcited kids). On stage, [...]
The Pop Cop
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
