Spoon - King Tuts Wah Wah Hut Glasgow 14 Feb 2010

Article originally published on Is This Music?, and is therefore their copyrighted material:

American college indie rock is a well-explored genre in the States, but the barrage of t-shirt and jeans bands rarely seem to bleep on our radar. Two such examples are Spoon, who hit their stride in the mid-naughties, and White Rabbits, more recent scenesters.

White Rabbits’ light rock guitar songs are made especially eerie and dancey as their six-piece line-up includes a percussionist as well as a drummer, who thundered drums and cymbals alike in spite of a rather nasty-looking cast on his arm. The band’s broken-beat Dirty Projectors-style harmonies, subtle use of piano and gritted-teeth lead vocals can be used to create either strange little pop oddities or off-kilter post-rock epics. Add their warm booming basslines and you’ll be following White Rabbits into Wonderland.

Spoon (pictured) are much more rough around the edges, with some spiky guitar clashes, staccato piano and laid-back but agitated vocals. The Texan four-piece’s songs are often made up of minimalist riffs and uncluttered drum parts, allowing the instruments to stay well-separated, creating a sort of hollow space in the middle range for you to listen to the song from. Lyrically, they float between odd and sometimes unreadable metaphors, and sentiments that ultimately convey a general discomfort with the world they inhabit.

Describing the music as “indie” by British definition is way off. There is little to nothing in common with Britpop or art-rock or the Madchester scene or any of the other things we class as indie in this country. This is music that will make most sense at 1AM to tired students going over their revision notes for the hundredth time. Interesting, then, that it cast a similar spell from the darkness of the King Tut’s stage. Highlights of the set included new single ‘Written In Reverse’ (below) and the sombre but dramatic ‘The Beast and Dragon, Adored’.

Myke Hall

Myke Hall

News: Edinburgh in March 2010

Orange Slice Records presents Pensioner live at Sneaky Pete's on 17 March 2010 in support of their debut self-titled EP, out now. Their mathy rock sounds tracks the epic voyage of four musical journeyman individuals and their rock odyssey... or at least that's what their PR would have us believe. Support comes from the dazzling Bronto Skylift and completing the bill are the criss-crossing guitars of Edinburgh veterans Degrassi and Curators.

A week later, Sneaky Pete's will be host to Edinburgh's own Night Noise Team. The 'France pop meets 80s rock' band will perform on 27 March 2010, promoting their new single, 'Menolick' (pictured right), which has already been talked about by Lamacq on 6Music, Radio 1 and other stations and podcasters.

Myke Hall

YRock - Cabaret Voltaire Edinburgh 13 Feb 2010

Casino Queen (pictured) make a lot of noise for just two lads, be it Connor Doherty's growling grizzly bear voice, his biting blues guitar, or Stewart McLachlan's juggernaut drum thrashing. Playing dirty delta-blues-rock, the duo verge on what The White Stripes would sound like if Meg was a better drummer. Guitarist Conner plays complex Mississippi style riffs effortlessly, at one point even having an onstage conversation with drummer Stewart while executing a solo, all without missing a note. Stew's rise and fall from subtle accompaniment to crashing explosions add dynamics to his counterpart's strums.

Edinburgh trio Radiokills play rock tunes along the lines of young American bands, drawing on the emotionality of the emo scene to play alternative rock melodies. Where they get interesting, though, is their use of multi-effects boards on both the bass and guitar. The power trio are able to create synthetic but energetic sounds reminiscent of modern progressive indie rock bands like Muse and Radiohead.

The crowd really swelled, though, for the evening's headline act Genetic Radio. The blue-eyed pretty boys are an indie-rock/Britpop four-piece. While they clearly draw a lot of influence from Oasis, as noted by their cover of the Gallagher brothers' 'Falling Down', there's evidence of artists like David Byrne and Edwyn Collins in their remorseful pop rock. This was only magnified by their charming onstage personalities and smiling faces, which the crowd ate up like chocolate drops.

Myke Hall

The Red Stripe Music Awards - Cabaret Voltaire Edinburgh 3 Feb 2010

A version of this review is also published in The Journal.

The winners of the Red Stripe Music Awards will get to play at The Great Escape festival and get a load of Fender equipment, so it’s not surprising some of Edinburgh’s finest bands signed up for the Edinburgh showcase. The evening starts with Carrie Mac, a singer/songwriter with an acoustic guitarist accompaniment. Carrie’s songs might start from folky roots, but grow into pop saplings with branches into funk and R&B. Her voice is unbelievably powerful and pitch perfect throughout. Let’s pray we can enjoy her raw performance for a while longer before the big record label bosses can turn her into an over-produced pop princess.

The Fire and I’s lead singer/bassist Gordon is joined only by drummer/ backing singer/ keyboard fiddler / drumstick twirler Hooligan. The duo create dirty, rough grunge/rock with angry Scots vocals. The fuzzy distorted bass sound never fails to make guitars seem obsolete, and Hooligan fills every space with drum fills or cyberpunk synth noises. With a never ending supply of energy, they are the Irn Bru 32 of bands.

Pose Victorious prove the least innovative band of the evening. With their traditional five piece line-up, their Brit-pop inspired songs of laddish antics, equal parts Oasis, Stone Roses and Kasabian, are paths that have already been re-tread by every indie band around since the early 90s. Donning scarves and skinny jeans, their show may be stylish but lacks spirit.

Rather unusually, power trio Come On Gang's lead vocal comes from the girl behind the drum kit. Sarah’s voice is folksy, which is something of a juxtaposition next to the dance-tempo rock music the lads play. Guitarist Mikey plays chiming trebley riffs while bassist Trev plays a thick, slightly distorted bassline.

Strangest yet are funky, hippy-pop ensemble The Banana Sessions. Their lineup is made up of female vocals, acoustic guitar, flute, tuba, and brushed drums. Their songs include an ode to the favoured drink of neds (‘Buckfast Gets You ****ed Fast’), but their party piece is a 10 minute Prodigy medley, turning songs like ‘Out of Space’ and ‘Smack My ***** Up’ into psychedelic summer meadow romps.

Myke Hall

Johnny Foreigner Interview

edRock.net chats with Birmingham ADHD-punk band Johnny Foreigner in the green room before their gig at Cabaret Voltaire about bands from Birmingham, the controversial Christmas number one, their new album, and Craig Finn.

Myke Hall

Chew Lips - Sneaky Petes Edinburgh 27 Jan 2010

A version of this review is also published in The Journal.

The show opened with Leith based outfit My Tiny Robots, appropriate to the electro-disco genre of the other bands in name alone. The band gave a rather awkward and self-conscious performance, switching between instruments at every opportunity: including guitars, bass, synth, drums, trumpet, melodica, maracas and ukulele. Unfortunately they seemed to think a variety in instrumentation could make up for their lack of performance skills. Only their lead singer had the charm and charisma to warrant the audience’s attention.

Conversely, every member of Glasgow four-piece Boycotts was a well oiled indie-disco machine. The female vocals had the toughness of alternative rock, without being angry or angsty, and were backed by very snappy high-hat beats on the drums, overdriven, fidgety guitar, and disco-funk rhythms on the bass. The songs are designed to get the heart pumping and the foot tapping, and succeeded.

By the time London based Chew Lips (picture by Edmund Fraser) came on stage, Edinburgh’s smallest venue was packed sardine-style. The band is made up of lead singer girl, Tigs, centre stage, flanked by her two musical lads: Will Sanderson and James Watkins. The drums and most of the bass is pre-programmed and sequenced. The boys play synthesisers most of the set, sounding very 8-bit and glitchy, but will sometimes pick up a guitar or bass to add some buzz. Tigs’s vocal parts are poppy like Little Boots or recent Kylie Minogue.

More than any other instrument, the use of drums can affect the on-stage energy of a band, and although programmed drums blend well with synthetic music, the atmosphere ultimately suffers without having someone banging the kit. Fortunately, that’s the only area where the band lacked energy. The singer skipped happily to cyber-bleeps, while the boys convulsed to the beat like they were receiving very well timed miniature electric shocks.

The stand-out song from the set was ‘Salt Air’, whose uplifting melody is a refreshing in contrast to the dance-punk claustrophobia of the rest of the set.

 Myke Hall

Orange Slice Records Interview

As an apology for getting too smashed to remember his last gig that I was supposed to be reviewing (and possibly drunkenly hitting on his girlfriend), edRock.net asks Dan some intimate questions about Orange Slice Records, running an events promotion company, and the music scene.

Myke Hall