Tagged: scotland

Earlier today the Scottish Music Industry Association announced via press release that eleven Scottish bands, DJs and producers will showcase as part of this year's South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. The updated list adds several new acts to those that were already made public by SXSW last month. According to today's SMIA press [...]

Mull Historical Society, "Animal Cannabus" get it on Loss (2001) The real curse of being old is knowing that you're destined to be old-fashioned. As the idiot Abe Simpson once said, "I used to be with it. Then they changed what it was. Now what's it seems scary and weird to me." Not exactly the same, because I do like the glitchy bedroom electronics skipping over the internet these days. But a lot of times I miss a good, carefully [...]

• Mull Historical Society - Animal Cannabus

Over the months I've written about some difficult and disturbing books. Duncan McLean's 'Bunker Man' immediately springs to mind, but perhaps Toni Davidson's 1999 debut novel 'Scar Culture' unsettles more than any other Scottish novel I have read. It's never as salacious as McLean's novel often becomes, but like 'Bunker Man' it deals with abuse; [...]

You need a degree in accountancy to be a Rangers fan these days. On Tuesday, the Daily Record broke the story that Rangers' owner Craig Whyte sold four years' worth of Rangers season ticket sales to fund his takeover of the Govan club. Later that same day, Whyte released a statement admitting the deal happened [...]

Tweet Time and time again we've seen bands with an interesting or mysterious background help bring them to fame ( The Weeknd or WU LYF come to mind, for example), but, really, this is a music business, and the music should really do most of the talking. French Wives hail from Glasgow, Scotland and wish they had an interesting back-story as to how the band formed. Instead, they've got some great tunes to serve as their introduction. The five members of the Scottish band (Siobhan [...]

Across the world, there are people who specialise in getting what they want by any means necessary. In Japan, they have the Yakuza; in Hong Kong, the Triads; in Italy (and Little Italy), the Mafia. Maybe we should add the Scottish Football Association to that list. Those criminal groups can, and do, use violence, but [...]

Prelude To The Hunt 
From: Aberdeen, Scotland Lazy equation: All Pigs Must Pie + Gaza x Charger = YES PLEASE. URL: Facebook // Bandcamp Thrash Hits Verdict: 
If we had to pick one set of set of people guaranteed to recommend good new bands for us to check out, then it's people in other good new bands. That's how we stumbled across Prelude To The Hunt - their name kept popping up in the mutual Facebook Likes of other bands we've previously [...]

The Girobabies are under no illusions when it comes to platinum selling records and rockstar status, their regional bluntness and utter satisfaction in digging lyrical mischief towards a cracked social system would never allow such a monstrous thought - although with a wry smile and a Glaswegian wink, they`d probably die trying. The album `Bus Stop Apocalypse` is a mad-eyed collective finding themselves through a cross section of musical influences and sheer bloody mindlessness encapsulated by a raised middle finger - A mix mash of suburban genres and glorious subcultures, the lyrical content is as calming as a Government health warning [...]

• The Girobabies - I Want Answers

A trawl through the 2012 SXSW music schedule published earlier today reveals that there at least 8 Scottish bands who have been invited to attend this year's festival in Austin, Texas. We expect more to be announced in the next few weeks. The 2012 music festival will take place in Austin from March 13th to [...]

It's another Saturday morning, so time for another dose of jangle-pop. Last week it was Austin's Literature. This week we go a few thousand miles to the upper right for the new single from Glasgow's Strawberry Whiplash . It comes in the form of a 7-inch single for better aural absorption. The A-side Stop, Look and Listen is another slice of sugar coated jangle from the band, harvested from the same cane fields as early Primitives and Darling Buds records. The single serves as a preview of their upcoming album Hits [...]

• Strawberry Whiplash - Stop, Look And Listen

On the heels of a strangely straight-forward remake of obscure Motown holiday ditty "Purple Snowflakes" , forever-long "Next Big Thing" Theophilus London kicks off the '12 by gifting his fans with another freebie delight in "Last Night (LVRS Anthem)", a ri-DONK-ulously bad(-meaning-good) electro-hop flip on Scottish producer Rustie 's 2011 Glass Swords jam "After Light" . Fronted by a chopped-n-screwed request for all the ladies within earshot to "show (their) nasty side", London basically guarantees that many lady asses will touch floors as he expertly rides atop the track's [...]

This week, while the First Minister set a start date for Scotland's divorce from England - 2014, if Alba says aye - the Chief Operating Officer of Rangers has proposed a new marriage between the Auld Enemies: a merger of the Scottish and English League Cup tournaments into a British League Cup. Ali Russell suggests that the [...]

Award-winning electronic dance music producer and artist Maya Jane Coles (She Is Danger, et al.) is...

Having spent Hogmanay with Vic and Primal Scream in Edinburgh, Sons & Daughters have headed for some summer sunshine in Australia and will be in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth this week. Vic has more on them as well as the only complete listing of every Scottish gig outside the UK. Sons & Daughters in [...]

Lately, I've been waking up with this song in my head a lot. It's weird, because I haven't listened to this album since I was about 16 years old. And yet, there it is, each morning, almost perfectly formed in my memory. Even the words of the chorus, impeccably preserved as if in some kind of ancient teenage amber. Maybe it's because the 90s (particularly the early 90s) are back in full force, and I'm not just talking about tiny floral print, vests, jean jackets, big floppy hats and Doc Martens (not being worn by [...]

Came across this track from Tragic O'Hara who was tipped as a one to watch from Under The Radar in Scotland... What do you think of it? I'm quite impressed. If you like it then when not check out the 99 Years and Counting EP at their bandcamp which you can buy for just £2. Bargain... you [...]

No-one predicted 2012 would be the best year for Scottish football in decades, and looking back, it's still hard to believe what just happened. Motherwell's amazing form from mid-January to May pushed the Old Firm until the last day of the season; three teams are in Europe past Xmas; and the national team sit clear [...]

Lately, I've been waking up with this song in my head a lot lately. It's weird, because I haven't listened to this album since I was about 16 years old. And yet, there it is, each morning, almost perfectly formed in my memory. Even the words of the chorus, impeccably preserved as if in some kind of ancient teenage amber. Maybe it's because the 90s (particularly the early 90s) are back in full force, and I'm not just talking about tiny floral print, vests, jean jackets, big floppy hats and Doc Martens not being worn [...]

• Travis - Slide Show

When these columns started in November 2009 I suggested that there was a noticeable change happening in Scottish writing, and attempted to answer why. Here's a short excerpt to give you a flavour: 'You can argue the reasons for this new confidence in Scottish writing, when it began, or even if it exists at all, [...]

Millions of kids all over the world opened their Santa stockings on Sunday morning to find football gifts of joy: Leo Messi's garish yellow boots, FIFA '12 for the X-Box, a new Dundee top. Me, my Xmas football gift came a few days early this year, and the Santa wasn't a fat man with a [...]