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The new single from The Boy Who Trapped The Sun released September 20th on Geffen.

One of the standout tracks on his acclaimed debut album ‘Fireplace‘, ‘Dreaming Like A Fool‘ was co-written with Ed Harcourt and is the waltz-y, wry tale of an ex-girlfriend who tried to stab The Boy. Lately it feels like we’re drifting apart, he sings. It could be because you’re insane.

For anyone who doesn’t know The Boy Who Trapped The Sun is 25 year old Colin MacLeod from the Isle of Lewis and now based in London. In September Colin heads out on a tour of the UK in support to Fyfe Dangerfield to play the following dates:

September

Thu 16th Manchester, Sound Control
Fri 17th Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
Sun 19th Bristol, Thekla
Mon 20th Exeter, Phoenix
Tue 21st London, O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
Wed 22nd Brighton, Komedia
Fri 24th Oxford, Academy 2
Sat 25th Birmingham, HMV Institute
Mon 27th Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
Tue 28th Gateshead, The Sage
Thu 30th Glasgow, Oran Mor

It’s quiz time again! After giving away 6 Glastonbury tickets in the first round of the Gaymers Music Quiz, round two opened last week.

This time, the festival prizes are being distributed more regularly. Instead of having a load of festival tickets as the prize at the end of the 6 week round, on offer are a pair of tickets to the person with the highest score each week - this time you could catch amongst others The Flaming Lips (above) with tickets on offer for for the sold out Bestival.

Go HERE to take part and good luck!

Pic: Rokbun @ Glastonbury

It’s been a while since Aberfeldy’s last album but time hasn’t blunted their edge-the twelve tracks that make up Somewhere To Jump From are as sharp as they come, despite the somewhat depressing conditions that led to their creation. Dropped by their label and bruised by the departure of both female members, it could have been curtains for the Edinburgh outfit, whose 2004 debut album Young Forever garnered universal praise upon it’s release and led to high profile touring support slots, an NME single of the week (Heliopolis By Night) and the dubious honour of having one track (Summers Gone) feature in adverts around the world for products including online Bingo, Diet Coke and Spanish nappies (have to pay the bills somehow).

The new line up of Aberfeldy consists of songwriter/lynchpin Riley Briggs, his brother Murray Briggs on drums, and fellow founding member Ken McIntosh on bass. In addition their ranks have swelled to include multi instrumentalists Chris Bradley, Kirsten Adamson, daughter of Big Country’s Stuart Adamson, and Poppy Ackroyd, a brilliantly versatile pianist/violinist with a grounding in Classical musical.

Aberfeldy release their second album ‘Somewhere To Jump From‘ on 23rd August, you can preview In Denial from the record below.  The band play Loopallu festival late September before a collection of Scottish dates in October.

SEPTEMBER//

17 // ULLAPOOL // Loopallu festival

OCTOBER//

2 // ABERFELDY // Town Hall
7 // DUNDEE // Duke’s Corner
9 // GLASGOW // O2 ABC2
10 // ABERDEEN // Lemon Tree
15 // EDINBURGH // Liquid Rooms
16 // INVERNESS // Ironworks

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Scotland’s leading music social club, Born To Be Wide, is to host a special celebration of Edinburgh’s music scene with live previews by local bands and DJs selecting their favourite four tracks by acts from the capital.

Taking place at the Electric Circus on Thursday 5 August, the night will feature ten-minute taster sets by acts performing at various music events taking place during the month. These include The Edge, Retreat, Acoustic Edinburgh, Forest Fringe and the Jazz Festival. Guests will also have the opportunity to win golden tickets in a capital music quiz.

“Edinburgh’s music scene is more vibrant than it has been for a generation, and in August musicians will be challenging the dominance of theatre, comedy and mingers squeezing into corsets in the name of burlesque,” says BTBW co-organiserOlaf Furniss. “This is an excellent opportunity for both visitors and locals to catch some of the great acts who make things happen throughout the year and get a taste of the music events being hosted during the Fringe.”

In addition to the live previews by artists including Meursault (pictured), Stanley Odd, Carrie Mac and Emily Scott – which will take place on the hour and half hour – key figures from the city’s scene will play their favourite records by Edinburgh bands.

DJs include the owners of venues Cabaret Voltaire, Sneaky Pete’s and Electric Circus, the BBC’s Vic Galloway, Avalanche Record shop owner Kevin Buckle and the promoters of many of the month’s big music events.

“The response has been amazing,” says Furniss. “All the musicians, event organisers and DJs invited to take part, said ‘yes.’ It is going to be great to have all these acts in one place and to hear what records end up being played.”

Members of the public posting their favourite four tracks by Edinburgh acts on the BTBW Facebook page will be given a place on the guest list.

LIVE PREVIEWS

On the hour and half hour
Fueldiva, Steve Heron, Carrie Mac, Haftor Medboe, Hidden Orchestra,
Holden, Meursault, Emily Scott, Stanley Odd, Enfant Bastard

CONFIRMED DJS

Muslim Alim [BBC], Tallah Brash [This Is Music / Lach’s Antihoot], Kevin Buckle [Avalanche Records], Jason Clarkson [Electric Circus], Dave Corbett [DF Concerts/The Edge Festival], Dave Cuming [Limbo], Sarah David [Cabaret Voltaire], Vic Galloway [BBC], Chris Knight [Astrojazz/Kelburn Garden Pary/Departure Lounge], John Paul Mason [Is This Music?], David Pollock [Journalist], Mark Robertson [Edinburgh International Festival], Colin Somerville [Broadcaster/Journalist], Ed Stack [Ten Tracks],
Nick Stewart [Sneaky Pete’s], Jonathan Tait [Academy Of Music And Sound], Kevin Willliamson [Author/Broadcaster], Matthew Young [Song By Toad]

Picture: Meursault @ Glastonbury 2010 (rokbun)

To celebrate the release of their live DVD and album on 23rd August, Mogwai will be hosting a very special screening of their live film ‘Burning‘ tonight at 8pm (GMT)

You can view and take part in the screening by going direct to here

This film, Burning, is just one of a thousand Mogwai concert films to have ever been made. No, in fact, tens of thousands. How many people have seen the Scots rock band play live since they formed in Glasgow in 1995? That many, anyway. From sci-fi dystopia to kitchen-sink drama, everyone who experiences this band in concert will make a brand new movie in their head every time.

Mogwai create their own instrumental soundtrack to the imagination, and it’s up to us what we do with it. This isn’t a band who tell us what to think, this is a band who show us how much we can feel.

For directors Vincent Moon and Nathanaël Le Scouarnec (REM: Supernatural Superserious; Take-Away Shows), the three night residency they recorded at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg in early 2009 presented itself as a modern urban noir thriller, a black-and-white journey which starts on the same electrifying New York streets Bernard Hermann scored for Martin Scorsese. Manholes his steam, taxi headlights flare in the camera lens and strangers wait in street corner shadows.

Behind it all, ‘A Precipice’ rises into life, which is as good a place as any to start. A Mogwai gig can often feel like climbing a mountain, or falling off one: whichever feels more likely to remind you that you’re alive.

In grainy black and white, the show unfolds. The band make their way through a rain-washed Manhattan as ‘I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead’ hovers like a commuter’s MP3 soundtrack in the background; louche New York hipsters congregate before the show as the familiar echoes of ‘Hunted By a Freak’ kick in; the beatific, nodding faces of the crowd inside are contrasted with the going-to-sleep streets outside.

Meanwhile, the finest moments of one of the most individual live bands of our time are perfectly captured in grainy close-up: ‘Like Herod’s wall of noise; the dreamy ‘New Paths to Helicon pt 1’; ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’ (speaking of Bernard Hermann, there’s a shock worthy of Psycho in this song); the funereal ‘Scotland’s Shame’; strident finale ‘Batcat’.

In the words of Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite, “I don’t think we’re a very ‘Greatest Hits’ kind of band, but if we ever did release one, we’ve already decided to call it ‘The Sh*test P*sh’. I think that fact alone means we can never go through with it.” Which means, in other words, that Special Moves is probably the closest we’ll get to a ‘best of’ from them.

Moon and Le Scouarnec call their film an “experience of the senses… a lifetime of feelings in just one night.” You may prefer the quote which opens the band’s debut album Mogwai Young Team and which appears during the film as an intro to Batcat, a recording of a Norwegian fan reading a review of the band: “this music is bigger than words, wider than pictures; if the stars had a sound, they would sound like this.”

Or the words of an excitable young English woman speaking over the closing credits: “it’s like acid, but there’s no comedown.” Yes. It’s exactly like that.

Pic: Tomas Hermoso Edinburgh Corn Exchange October 2008

Wild Nothing was Inspired by a longtime love affair with nostalgia. His debut full- length album, Gemini, out now on Captured Tracks, is full of dreamy, carefree synth-pop songs that linger with an inexplicable sense of regret.

Prior to embarking on this recent solo-project Tatum sang and played guitar with the Abe Vigoda-ish tropical punk band Facepaint and the singer/songwriter project Jack and The Whale. In the summer of 2009 The Virginia tech-college student decided to embark on his first creative-solo project playing bass, guitar, synthesizer and drums while recording in his home-studio. He soon emerged with a unique brand of dreamy pop-songs influenced by bands like,My Bloody Valentine, Shop Assistants, Go-Betweens andCocteau Twins. In 2009 he delivered a memorable cover of the Kate Bush song Cloudbusting, making it clear that Wild Nothing transcended the lo-fi pop-mold.

On his debut album, Gemini, Tatumʼs frail vocals come warped in an oozing neon haze. Carefully orchestrated synth-pop arrangements, trebly guitar riffs and tattered drum machines blend together to create an intriguing, texturally rich glo-pop album that could come only from the young at heart.
Wild Nothing will play with his full band (including Jeff Haley (bass), Nathan Goodman (guitar and synthesizer) and Max Brooks (drums)

You can catch Wild Nothing at the Captains Rest in Glasgow on the 28th of July, tickets are here.

Scotland’s leading music scene social night, Born To Be Wide , is set to host a booking agent seminar on Thursday 1 July at Edinburgh’s Electric Ballroom. The panel is geared to explaining what the job involves, what musicians should look for in an agent and what they need to be aware of if they decide to book their own gigs. It will also aim to provide an insight into what is involved in getting festival slots and tour dates.

“With the live sector becoming increasingly important, getting a good booking agent can often be harder than getting a record deal,” says Born To Be Wide co-organiser, Olaf Furniss. “Finding the right person is one of the most important decisions an artist will have to make.”

The panel includes Jason Edwards, who has been running his Glasgow-based The Art Of and is set to move to Brighton based 13 Arists (Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys), Lisa Whytock, founder of the largest agency in Scotland, Active Events. She will be joined by Joanna Ashmore from ITB agency (Guns N Roses, Aerosmith, Biffy Clyro, Aaron Wright, Mitchell Museum.) and Alex Lloyd from Mainstage Artists, who are both based in London but represent Scottish acts. An additional guest will be announced later this week.

The agent seminar will be Born To Be Wide’s second event at its new home the Electric Circus. May’s Music PR panel attracted over 100 paying guests (watch a video above), while the discussions hosted by BTBW organisers at the Go North conference in Inverness drew capacity audiences.

Video: Benjamin Cowie on Vimeo

‘Pulled Apart By Horses’, the debut album from the Yorkshire quartet of the same name, is due for release through Transgressive Records on 21st June 2010.

Led by the single Back to the Fuck Yeah, released on digital download and limited-edition 7” vinyl, available just prior to the album on June 14th, Pulled Apart By Horses is a blistering document of a band that manages to rock extremely hard yet still remember the importance of vital hooks and incredible songwriting (and having fun).

The band’s highly-anticipated debut album will not disappoint those lucky enough to witness their incendiary live shows over the past months. ‘Chaotic’ is a massive understatement for the nuclear-powered PABH live experience, their every show a violent whirlwind of noise and acrobatics - of the body as much as the guitar. In a much kinder sense, the band’s onstage antics echo the medieval execution technique after which they were named. Certainly, the members have the scars to prove it. Guitarist James, who had a tendency to jump on his knees, ended up in hospital on a drip after an infection turned his leg into a gigantic yellow balloon. “The Doctor said if I’d left it a couple more days it would’ve spread to my balls, and once it gets to your balls it spreads everywhere.”

At last year’s Leeds Festival, vocalist and guitarist Tom knocked a chunk out of his shin and ended up with a ‘spurter’. It wasn’t until the end of the show that he even realised his jeans were black with blood. “I thought, I’ve smashed my leg and broken my guitar strap, I may as well crowd-surf. I got back onstage and realised I had a bloody hand print on my shoulder,” he laughs.

Tom’s girlfriend will no longer watch the band live through fear of what might happen, but none of this has made them tone down the intensity. “That’s what it boils down to,” considers James, “because when we play it’s just what happens. It’s not something we plan or think about it just happens because we enjoy it.” And as their reputation grew, they found themselves princes of a new UK underground as support band of choice for aggro-rock’s ivy league, racking up tours with Future Of The Left, Biffy Clyro, Glassjaw, The Bronx and will be supporting MUSE later this summer.

Pulled Apart By Horses on tour:

17 // GLASGOW // King Tuts TICKETS
26 // Glastonbury Festival: BBC Introducing Stage

THURS 17TH JUNE, ORAN MOR:
ZOEY VAN GOEY, PETER PARKER, ENDOR

ZOEY VAN GOEY released their stunning debut album ‘The Cage Was Unlocked All Along‘ on legendary indie label Chemikal Underground in 2009.

A work of charming ambition loaded with full-blooded sing-along choruses, understated keyboards, close harmoniesand irresistible melodies - all underpinned by various musical ephemera including vintage Super Mario sound effects - it rightly received widespread critical acclaim.

An accomplished, highly entertaining live act - their uniquely engaging brand of indie-pop translates brilliantly to the stage.

PETER PARKER followed their successful 2009 debut ‘Swallow The Rockets’ in April of this year with the infectious ‘Pretty Living’. The band are fast becoming a leading light of Glasgow’s musical landscape and will be taking their ebullient, gritty pop, to the Belle & Sebastian curated All Tomorrow’s Parties later this year.

Set to release their self-titled debut album on 5th July, ENDOR’s brand of lush harmony laden indie pop has made them one of Scotland’s most promising acts in recent years. “Perhaps now the time is right for Endor to make the sort of impact they’ve always promised.” (Jim Gellatly)

BUY TICKETS HERE (over 14s):

FRIDAY 18TH JUNE, BREL:
ASTRAL PLANES (formerly Paper Planes) & MALE PATTERN BAND.

Recently proclaimed as “the best band in Glasgow” by The Herald,  Astral Planes will be performing a rare, stripped down acoustic set featuring alternative versions of the tracks on their critically acclaimed releases - not to be missed!

Male Pattern Band are a new lo-fi garage outfit currently forging a strong reputation for their exciting ‘Junkyard Pop’.

Tickets: here.

SUNDAY 27TH JUNE, BREL:
WOODENBOX WITH A FISTFUL OF FIVERS & MAPLE LEAVES.

Woodenbox With A Fistful Of Fivers’ first two singles were ’single of the month’ in The List and The Skinny respectively and their debut album ‘Home and the Wildhunt’ was released in April to similar reviews. This is a rare chance to see that record played in a stripped-back, acoustic setting.

Maple Leaves have written some of the best folk-pop songs that Glasgow has to offer (and we have our fair share). Despite being a relatively new band they have already played T in the Park and performed guest vocals on Stuart Murdoch’s ‘God Help The Girl’ album.

Tickets here.

As work on the  T in the Park site continues at pace in preparation for 85,000 music lovers turning the festival into Scotland’s fifth largest town for one weekend in July, a trio of additions are added to the 2010 bill.

Fresh from supporting Snow Patrol at their Bellahouston Park show in Glasgow at the weekend, chart-topping Editors return to Scotland on Friday 9th July to play the Main Stage at T in the Park. Renowned for their stirring lyrics, emotional vocals and striking live performances, the critically acclaimed British four-piece will make their fourth T in the Park appearance.

As we announced last week also joining Editors on the bill at Bellahouston Park on Saturday were one of Scotland’s hottest bands, Frightened Rabbit, who will play the King Tut’s Wah Wah Tent on Saturday 10th July. With their star in strong and steady ascendancy in 2010, the band recently played a string of sold out shows and performed on ‘Late Night With Jimmy Fallon’ in the US.

The young Liverpudlian singer-songwriter Delta Maid has a modern take on the blues that will seep into your soul. The artist will make her T in the Park debut in 2010 opening the Radio 1/NME Stage on Sunday 11th July.

The home of traditional Scottish music at T in the Park returns in 2010 with the Ceilidh Tent. The line-up this year mixes it up with Ceilidh acts of a traditional style performing alongside those with a contemporary take on the Scottish institution. T in the Parkers of all musical persuasions can’t resist a fling round the tent at some point over the festival weekend – the infectious energy of a Ceilidh Tent in full flow will see even the hippest of festival goers enter for a lively session of elbow swinging and foot stomping!

There will also be Costume craziness with Fancy Dress Friday returning for the third year. This time T in the Park is encouraging festival goers to get into the spirit of ‘The Madder Hatters T Party’ – we’re not talking Alice and the Queen of Hearts here but Stetsons and sombreros, bonnets and boaters, panamas and porkpies! Any T in the Parkers still needing inspiration for a fancy dress outfit should get their thinking caps on and hit the hat shop!

Festival goers who fully embrace the dress up shenanigans whether sporting fabulous headgear or togged up in a terrific outfit of any fancy dress inspiration or theme should make their way to ‘The Mad Hatters T Party’ in the Indie Disco in the campsite from 1pm to 4pm on Friday 9th July to be in with a chance of winning tickets for T in the Park 2011.

Twenty years in the making, the second Vaselines album is here. Behold…’SEX WITH AN X’ will be released on Subpop on Sept. 14, 2010. They are giving away a free track here.

Formed in Glasgow in 1987, The Vaselines released two singles and one album, Dum Dum, on the 53rd & 3rd label. Splitting up in 1989 (in the same week their album was released), they might have faded into obscurity but for the intervention of a certain band from Seattle. Nirvana covered three Vaselines songs, helping to fuel a growing after-the-fact appreciation of their seedy, two-and-a-half chord, garage pop manifesto.

Founding members Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee remained musically active throughout the intervening years: the former with Captain America aka Eugenius and finally as a solo artist; McKee with Painkillers and Suckle.

Eugene and Frances collaborated intermittently in the intervening years. They toured jointly and played a few of the old songs together in the wake of their respective solo project releases in 2006. But an acclaimed, unannounced appearance at a fundraiser in Glasgow’s Mono for Malawi Orphan Support in 2008 was the real catalyst for their latest, exciting bout of creativity.

Ensuing tours of America (including a stand-out appearance at Sub Pop’s 20th anniversary festival, SP20), Brazil, Japan and some UK festival dates saw The Vaselines “re-connect” with wildly appreciative audiences who had blinked and missed them the first time round. Buoyed by the success of their live return, the two punk rock chums decided to go back into the studio.

The new record was recorded outside Manchester at the Analogue Catalogue studio in Mossley with Julie McLarnon engineering and produced by Jamie Watson who produced that first album Dum Dum, Sex with an X was recorded the old-fashioned way: twelve songs in thirteen days (plus two b-sides). The Vaselines ca. 2010 is Eugene and Frances with guest musicians Stevie Jackson and Bob Kildea from Belle & Sebastian on guitar and bass, and Michael McGaughrin from the 1990s on drums. It may have taken The Vaselines 20 years to get round to making this baby, but it was worth the wait—bringing their solo careers to a climax. The irony has not been lost. Who says indie music can’t be fun? No hand-wringing on these tracks—just good clean smut with a twist of bitter.

Scottish dates in SEPTEMBER 2010:

15 Edinburgh Bongo Room £12.50
24 Glasgow Glasgow Oran Mor £12.50 adv

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With the release of Frightened Rabbit’s 3rd album ‘The Winter Of Mixed Drinks’ and their March UK tour – their biggest yet - a complete sell out, 2010 has seen the band’s star continue it’s steady ascendance. There were fevered scenes at SXSW shows (their 3rd consequitive visit to the festival), followed by a sold out European tour, but the momentum has been brought to an abrupt halt by the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, forcing the band to cancel their Coachella appearance at the weekend (17th April) and postponing the start of their US tour which was due to start today (19th April). However the band are in the process of confirming their summer festival schedule and release a new single ‘Living In Colour’ through FatCat on 14th June.

12th June – Bellahouston Park, Glasgow (with Snow Patrol, Band Of Horses)
27h June – Glastonbury Festival (Other Stage)
10th July –  T in the Park
15th Aug – Summer Sundae, Leicester

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Pic: Euan Anderson @ Liquid Room Edinburgh December 2008