When I was compiling this list of the 10 albums I most enjoyed in 2011, I found myself at complete odds with what the vast majority of critics and media types have been frothing over. Acclaimed releases by muso darlings PJ Harvey and Bon Iver did little for me, and even closer to home, I still struggle to see what all the fuss is about with Scottish bloggers' favourite Everything's Getting Older by Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat. There was one album I continually revisited this year (actually, there were two but the Endor record came out in 2010) [...]
I didn't know what to get you for Christmas... so I came up with an idea. The Jukebox player on the right-hand side of this blog was launched 17 months ago and, since then, 39 people have paid £5 each to get a track on it for a month, raising a total of £180.06 (after PayPal took their cut). I pledged to use every donation "to support grassroots music" and now you're about to find out what I blew the budget on... I've been a huge fan of [...]
Last month The Pop Cop launched an appeal for Scottish bands to send in their T-shirts, partly because doing something charitable in the run-up to Christmas (all of the ones which were sent in are being donated to refugees and asylum seekers by Unity Centre Glasgow) is not the worst thing in the world, but more so because there's something quaintly romantic about band T-shirts that felt feature-worthy. Like it or not, strangers will instantly pigeonhole you into a genre if you wear such a T-shirt in public - either they'll know what kind of [...]
Music blogging is such a selfish discipline, an autonomous vanity project in which you attempt to convince readers that your music taste is clearly so much better than the blog next door. The quirky thing about having such an opinion-driven cartel is that you end up with lots of authors but very little authority. That might help explain why the opportunity to join forces with other bloggers in an effort to wield collective influence is so tempting. Around 30 UK music websites, The Pop Cop included, contributed to a poll called The Blog Sound [...]
December 2, 2011: The first batch of T in the Park 2012 tickets are on sale from 9am this morning. Katie Sutherland has ditched the moniker Pearl And The Puppets and is now going by her real name. She has also signed up to PledgeMusic to encourage fans to help fund the release of her debut album by reserving their copy in advance and purchasing exclusive goodies. December 1, 2011: Hog The Street have chosen a shortlist of 10 acts who will take part in a "busk-off" [...]
The Save BBC Introducing in Scotland campaign is in its 60th day so it seems like a good time to let you know how things are progressing as we've made some enormous strides. November 9: We were invited to the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh to meet Joan McAlpine MSP , who has been the campaign's most vocal and proactive supporter within the Scottish Government's zanily-designed corridors. She and her researcher Gail Lythgoe were tremendously receptive - they were keen to find out what help we needed/wanted to move [...]
For some, Christmas is an excuse to whinge about commercialisation, fret over political correctness, or smugly remind everyone that its most common customs and traditions have secular origins. If you are one of these people, you might want to hit that little 'X' at the top-right corner of your screen. I know I can be a cynical mofo about a lot of things in life, but never Christmas. I love nearly* everything about it - homebrewed mulled wine, the possibility of snow, turkey sandwiches, Christmas specials on the telly, feelgood movies set in a New York winter, [...]
Everyone has their own survival story about December 2010 in Scotland and the most brutal winter week in living memory. Mine involves standing in the middle of the busiest motorway in the country, trying to push cars and vans up a slip road buried somewhere beneath thick layers of snow and ice. Fun times. The inaugural Glasgow Popfest had the misfortune of taking place during this savage cold snap. With Scotland being pummelled into submission, the Monumental Freeze wreaked havoc with the [...]
It's time to launch The Pop Cop's Best Scottish Music Photo of 2011 competition, which will see legendary photographer Harry Benson again judge the submissions. The award is now in its fourth year and exists for no other reason than to highlight the wealth of talented live music photographers, both amateur and professional, operating in Scotland. Steve Parks bagged first prize for his 2010 shot of a Sham 69 gig at Cafe Drummond in Aberdeen, pictured abov e. Here's how Steve [...]
Arches playing Stereo. It's all very confusing. What's even more perplexing, though, is the fact that the venue is rammed to capacity. This is the Glasgow band's first ever gig, although there's nothing in their performance that could possibly give it away. All five members are slick and highly competent musicians, aided no doubt by the fact that, individually, they can count Jocasta Sleeps, Yashin and Young States as past projects. As much as a degree of professionalism is to be admired, it can also be a little excessive. [...]
Welcome to the 38th edition of the Music Alliance Pact, the planet's greatest mixtape. Seeing as the end of 2011 is fast approaching and thoughts are turning to potential albums of the year, I wanted to shine a light on an album that really ought to feature highly on the list of music critics and fans. Diamond Mine by King Creosote & Jon Hopkins is that album and, thanks to their label Domino , you can download a stunning reworked track from it for free below, along with 34 other songs hand-picked by 34 bloggers around the world. [...]
Whenever you first realise that you're in the same room as someone you know, it's usually because you've spotted them. The first time I was ever aware that I was in the same room as Halina Rifai came about not because I knew what she looked like (I didn't), but because I instantly recognised her laugh. This was no ordinary laugh. This was an almighty, shrieking howl which shattered the between-song calm of an Esperi gig at the 13th Note in Glasgow two years ago. Halina's presence in the city's underground music scene is [...]
If the most basic function of a promo video is to enhance the song it represents then most of the ones I have come across would be deemed expensive failures. It's incredibly difficult to come up with and execute a visual concept so captivating that it persuades fans to play the video instead of the mp3 when they want to hear the song, but that's precisely the challenge the most talented video directors rise to. Two Scottish band promos have really caught my eye this year: Paint Them Silver by [...]
THIS IS AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT AND IF YOU IGNORE IT YOU ARE UNCHARITABLE AND MEAN AND DON'T DESERVE ANY CHRISTMAS PRESENTS Now that I've got your attention (I do have it don't I? If not: Tits! Willies! Talking dogs! Michael Jackson's cold naked body!) we have an important announcement to make. We need your band T-shirts. We need every Scottish band / artist with a band T-shirt, to send us their band T-shirt. We will then stroke it gently and lay it out carefully beside all of the other T-shirts [...]
Glasgow institution Nice 'N' Sleazy is celebrating 20 Years of Sleaze this month and seeing as the place has been a major part of my social life for about half of that time, it seems only right that I should devote a post to it. To my oldest friends, Sleazy's is warmly referred to as The Pub, which is quite apt as I've always preferred it more for its qualities as a drinking den (bottles of Kronenbourg have cost less than £2 for as [...]
When I first listen to a song, I don't hear the lyrics, I hear the music. I hear the sounds, the melodies, the various instruments, the key changes, the harmonies. If the music merits repeated plays, I'll inevitably start singing along as a matter of subconscious habit but, unless it's blatantly obvious, I often have little idea of what the song is actually about. If I do manage to discover the true meaning behind the lyrics of a song, it never fails to enhance my appreciation and enjoyment of it. (Two of my favourite interviews on The Pop [...]
The ever-expanding Celtic Connections is becoming increasingly like the Edinbugh Fringe, with a programme so weighty you need at least a couple of days just to digest everything that's happening and work out a practical action plan for tackling the multitude of events. If, like me, your music tastes lean more towards alternative than, say, the Americana/Gaelic/jazz/traditio nal/world side of things that Celtic Connections also caters for then you've still got a heap of options to pick from at the eclectic winter festival which will be [...]
I'm guessing most people who listen to the BBC Introducing in Scotland show couldn't care less about the UK singles charts but take a look at it this week: right up there at the very top is Calvin Harris and his collaboration with one of the world's biggest pop stars, Rihanna. Back when Calvin was a relative nobody, his songs were played by Scotland's new music show on Radio 1, then presented by Vic Galloway, and he was invited into the BBC studios in [...]
I've always secretly admired the solitary dancing fan you occasionally see when guitar acts play live. You know the type: completely lost not just in the music but in their own world, weirding out the rest of the audience by responding to songs with actual bodily movements that are not the ubiquitous Indie Head Nod. For these individuals, watching their heroes on stage is a golden ticket to dance as though no-one's watching. In reality, not only is every other person in the crowd desperately trying to avoid making eye contact, they have the decency to create an [...]
This is the third anniversary edition of the Music Alliance Pact, the inter-blogging project I started in October 2008 to showcase the best of the globe's music on the 15th of every month and tell the world about some of the finest up-and-coming artists Scotland has to offer. You can investigate the previous 36 selections via the MAP Archive on the right-hand sidebar - most of the free mp3s are still downloadable either individually or collectively. This month's pick is Panda Su . Raised in the [...]
The Pop Cop
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
