Elba Sessions

Howdy people. This is another of those posts which start off with one thing in mind and then end up encompassing a whole load of stuff floating about my emails and head.

First up a shout out to fellow bloggers Peenko and Aye Tunes. They are having a first foray into the promotion game this Friday (27/4/10) with a rather good line up at the Captain’s Rest. Joining Campfires In Winter and Kid Canaveral are Mitchell Museum who have been wearing out my iPod in the last few weeks. Tickets are £5 on the door but if you contact either blogger in advance, they’ll knock a quid off the price cos they are just like that!

Also gigging this week are young upstarts The Girobabies who launch their brand new EP ‘Social Not Working’ with a launch party this Friday at The Buff Club. It all kicks off at 7pm and only costs the princely sum of £3. You can have a wee listen to the EP on their bandcamp page.

If the previous two gigs weren’t enough for a Friday night, there’s an absolute corker going down at our home from home The Liquid Ship. Gracing the basement once again is the wonderful Julia and the Doogans along with Stevie and The Moon and Lovers Turn To Monsters. Cracking line up, I would presume gig times will run as we run it, so first act will be on at 9pm.

Then on Saturday night, Eagleowl take on the Captains Rest in the second leg of their Edinburgh/Glasgow EP launch parties. Support comes from My Kappa Roots and Rob St John. You can pre order the EP on their bandcamp page.

The readers of this blog don’t need to be told by us that Glasgow’s music scene is buzzing and the guys over at UNESCO City of Music are putting together a music stream aiming to promote all that’s good and local going on in the city. They are looking for submissions which can be uploaded to their soundcloud page or sent in by good old fashioned mail to the following address;

Glasgow City of Music
20 Trongate
Glasgow
G1 5ES

For further information you can email info@glasgowcityofmusic.com

The Glasgow Oxjam Team are on the lookout for people wanting to help out at this years Oxjam takeover, which will take place in October. There is more details on their myspace blog and you can download an application on the Oxjam website. I went along to the takeover last year and saw some great bands, Yahweh being one that stands out the memory. The best thing is that it’s all for a great cause.

The Elba Sessions return to the Liquid Ship in Glasgow once again for the sixth Elba Sessions Presents… evening on May 6th. It falls on Election Day so what better way to spend the early part of your evening before toddling off home to watch Peter Snow on BBC with the official Houses of Parliament swingometer?

This month, it’s straight up acoustic goodness. Heading us up we have an acoustic set from local scoundrels Bad Bad Men who will treat us to their very own brand of rootsy folk. Also on the bill are the comforting songs of David Bova and all the way from sunny Gourock, marky:boyofdestiny.

As always the music starts at 9pm and it’s FREE FREE FREE to get in. Do it!

I just came across this link and thought I’d share. It’s a download of a track from John Prine’s forthcoming album ‘In Person & On Stage’ and it’s called She Is My Everything. You can download in exchange for your email address here. (Gosh, don’t I sound like Sir Peenko on a Friday!)

If you aren’t familiar with John Prine, then have a wee listen. He’s getting on a bit now but is of the Gram Parsons/Neil Young/Bob Dylan generation. His self titled first album is an absolute belter, one of my favourites, and I’d totally recommend rifling through his back catalogue. I saw him play the Concert Hall a couple of years ago and he was a great performer.

Also, the new generation of songwriters and troubadors are releasing an album entitled ‘Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine’. It features interpretations of Prine’s work by Drive By Truckers, Conor Oberst, Lambchop and heaps more. That is out June 22nd.

VOLCANIC ASH DELAYS ELBA BLOG (apologies for the slight ’10 hour’ delay)

Well this weekend seems to be dedicated to the resurgence of awful nineties acts in the fair city of Glasgow. Not only are we being honoured with an appearance by Reef but also the one hit wonder duo Shakespear’s Sister. What a worry. Anyway, onto some live music that we want to tell you about. We’ll keep it short but very sweet.

For those of you lucky enough to have received tickets, like Elba’s very own Phil Smith (we are not speaking due to this), The Phantom Band, Race Horses, And So I Watch You From Afar and Chickenhawk play King Tuts as part of the BBC United Nations tour tonight (15.04.2010). That is a ridiculously tasty line up. Do enjoy, you select few.

If psychadellic rock is calling you this weekend, Californian Wooden Shjips play Stereo Saturday.

RM Hubbert and Moon Unit will be in Mono as part of their Record Store Day festivities. Not only that but it’s free!

*UPDATE TO THE ABOVE* Them pesky Zombie avoiders Super Adventure Club play Avalanche on Saturday 17th as part of their record store day celebrations. That’s at 3pm.

Greetings! We here at Elba wish to offer our sincerest apologies for being quite so hushed last week. As already mentioned in our brief appearances there was some recovery required. We’re back now! Aren’t you glad?

What a lovely week for us to re-appear again as well. Record Store Day falls this Saturday (17th April) and we’ll be talking about that more extensively later in the week. We just wanted to mention it now and encourage you to get yourselves along to Mono, Avalanche and Mixed Up who will be heading up the Glasgow festivities with live bands, silliness (face painting!!!), the token limited edition releases and lots more.

Its also a good week for Swedish music. Former Bon Iver touring companion The Tallest Man on Earth releases The Wild Hunt today. This is Kristian Mattson’s second full length release under his alter ego. He’s a songwriter who echoes Dylan but not in that awful way that you are thinking. That comparison alone would usually put me off were I to read it but it really is an apt summary of his music. However, if your tastes lay more on the grander side, EF return with another great release. They have that magical quality inherent to a lot of Scandinavian music that completely alludes. They make your heart raw with the delicateness of their songs and then make it swell with grand, energetic arrangements.

We’ll have our usual peek at gigs midweek but just wanted to highlight a couple of things happening early this week. Julia & the Doogans, Aspen Tide and Dougie Greig play Pivo Pivo tonight as part of the Exposure Scotland run.

Also over at Oran Mor this very eve a concert for Chilean Earthquake Disaster Fund is taking place with a full and varied line up: Pauline Goldsmith(compere), Ballboy, Ken McCluskey, The Low Miffs, Kid Canaveral, The Boppin Heads, Bruce Morton (comedy), Susan Calman (comedy), “The Wee Man” (comedy), Carlos Arredondo & Galo Ceron, Tam Dean Burn (political theatre), Amy Duncan, Cora Bissett, Rustic City Fathers, Skye Lonegran, Drew Taylor (poetry), Brokeback Jockstrap, Ali Macrae, Mike Gonzalez (guest speaker).

Laura Marling will be appearing at The Old Fruitmarket on Tuesday night. I’m a sucker for pretty folk and she’s just lovely live accompanied by her full band.

Finally, in other live news, Stag and Dagger announced more of their now very busy bill for the May event last week (we’re playing catch up, sorry). Go have a gander here.

So it seems that we’ve been getting way too much into the Easter spirit here at Elba. Loads of easter egg munching, drinking, holidaying and then the inevitable back to work ‘blurgs’ have left the Elba blog looking like a bit desolate. That being said, things are busy busy busy over at Elba Studios. We should maybe follow their good work ethic? Never fear though, I’ve taken a bit of a time out from, well, housework, ‘work work’ and watching trashy TV (yes, Cougar Town, it’s you I’m talking about) to let you know of a few gigs coming up over the next couple of days.

Tomorrow night (Friday 9th) there is a couple of things on our radar. First up an artist who we unfortunately didn’t manage to get along to at Hinterland (sad faces and regret all round), The Boy Who Trapped The Sun, is supporting Australian bluesman (with a penchant for Hip Hop beats) the John Butler Trio at the O2 Academy. Heading back over the River Clyde, recent visitors to Elba Studios, Inner Sight, launch their forthcoming single with a support slot for Edinburgh favourites Isa & The Filthy Tongues who also launch their album on the night. The ‘cosmic dance rockers’ take to the Stereo stage tomorrow night and it’s £7 to get in. We’ve been told to expect some surprises????????

On Saturday, it’s a veritable feast. I’ve had serious trouble deciding where I’ll drag the better half, behold the options…

A) Another good gig at Stereo featuring a rather stellar line up headed up by Three Blind Wolves who are launching their new album ‘Sound of The Storm’ (looking forward to hearing that one), one of last weeks ‘Elba Hinterland highlight‘ bands, French Wives and the chaotic but excellently named John Knox Sex Club. Tickets are fiver.

B) The Ruck In The Duck. (The poster leaves me no choice but to use boxing lingo…apologies.) A heavyweight bout of champions. A battle between Glasgow’s two best, unknown, record labels. Taking place at (the name gives it away) The Flying Duck, the line up includes She’s Hit and Calacas representing the awesome Lucky Number Nine Records and in the ‘other’ corner showing off the Armellodie stable are Sheffield’s ‘tough as steel’ upstarts Kill The Captains and Cuddly Shark. The first bell rings at 8pm so get in early for your ringside seat.

So there you have it, two options for Friday and Saturday. Take your pick!

*This is in no way meant to be a definitive gig guide, just gigs we like the sound of. If you do have a gig coming up that you think we should know about, just holler at us, we’re always looking for somewhere to go!

Now, it has taken us a little longer than anticipated to gather our thoughts about Hinterland here at Elba. It is possible that there is a causal link between the amount of enjoyment (beer) and our slight delay (burnout). Do not fret though! We have returned to the land of the lively in order to bring you tales of Hinter and of land.

We set off on our quest with the aid of some excellent scran and a lot of caffeine on the part of one of the Elba team following excess the previous evening; we shall let you decide who was so irresponsible the night before the big event. We opened our evening at Ivory Blacks with Make Sparks; a band who command your attention. Now I’m struggling to come up with an analogy that is not so hugely inappropriate that you’ll close your browser window in disgust… I think it is the lingering effects of the holiday weekend. So, I will just say: this band are tight. They even made an Eminem cover work. They closed with their single Rewind, which is the most sensitive, beautiful guitar driven pop song. This band surely have big things ahead.

We scooted off promptly to enjoy something that would please all in our little collective at The Admiral. Kitty The Lion brought (and clearly stole – read on) a lot of the sunshine of the day. Their little stage was just right for them and they charmed the pants off of everyone in the room. A hiccup in song announcement was endearing and handled gracefully and hilariously. Bird Flu was the song that had me singing their praises for the day with some beautiful harmonies to the ‘grovel song.’ Of the whole festival, these guys were definitely my favourite band.

We bounced out of the Admiral into the rain, which was rather ironic as we had spent the afternoon commenting on how nice a day it was proving to be, and dashed to Macsorley’s. Our hope was to catch Spectrals before heading to The Arches. Unfortunately this was not to be as we were informed along with a crowd of other soggy gig goers that the venue was full. We dashed back to catch ten minutes of The Darien Venture at Ivory Blacks who blasted us back out the door with their pounding tracks in the direction of The Arches.

Here we remained for the rest of the evening and this was where things got a little weird. The combination of the sound sucking venue and our high hopes took a little of the enjoyment out of the next couple of hours. Ambulances suffered worst in terms of sound. Their particular brand of melancholy music would have to be sonically spot on to work live. Mixed in with the nerves of their first big Glasgow show they came off shaky but they held tough and delivered some great moments. What I Thought of worked really well despite the interferences.

French Wives got the majority vote Elba posse when it came to picking their band of the day. Live this band are just going from strength to strength. They have picked up the reigns of the masters of twee in Glasgow. Its all violins, guitars, little quirks and dancing. French Wives even managed to make you look past the terrible sound.  Though there is a chance we were just distracted by Stuart, the tallest man alive, showing his dancing skills.

Jeffrey Lewis drew a huge crowd and told stories then sang stories then put his foot in it big time with a geographical mistake that confounds international acts more than our nation would hope but won most over in the end. As a particularly small person I missed out on being able to see a thing for the duration and was subject to some ranting by a merry fellow to my left. Plus the beginning of set was plagued by a strange high pitched tone. These factors left me confused and distracted. I believe the hard core of NY anti-folk fans were in heaven for the duration, alas I could not quite reach that elysium.

The last stop for us was Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. Now, as the only one out of our few who enjoys, nay, cannot resist a little boogie, I was itching to get a dance in as soon as he took to the stage. Decked in lizardish-head-wear the set that was delivered even managed to put a smile on the face of Phil ‘I don’t do dancing’ Smith.

So our day was most delightful musically, not to mention catching up with some rather sound blogging peers. The new setting for the festival definitely worked as we managed to catch a lot of music even though we were running from venue to venue. The atmosphere was great in every gig. The two day recovery period tends to point towards the success of the one day extravaganza. Here’s hoping this has set the bar for years to come.

Okay, so we’ve done our planning and know exactly who we are going to see at Hinterland this evening, well, I’m sure there’s maybe a squabble or two inside us yet but we’ve got a rough idea. The thing is, we hadn’t quite figured out what to do tomorrow after all this excitement and much blogging. How will we relax? Luckily, salvation could come in the form of Hazy Recollections at one of our favourite haunts, Stereo.

The bi-monthly nu folk jamboree includes performances this month from Injuns, Rachel Sermanni and her Fiddle Pixies, Elba favourite Julia and The Doogans as well as a set from Hazy Recollections co-founder Findlay Napier. The fun kicks off at 2pm downstairs in Stereo and it is £6 to get through the door.

This week I had the privilege of getting a few words out of the elusive, intriguing and entertaining Graham from Ambulances. Below is a peek at their story so far, from Drumnod to their first Glasgow gig.

For our readers who don’t know you, could you introduce the band?

Scott (Vocals / Guitar), Sara (Vocals), Graham (Guitar /Vocals), Chris (Guitar / Vocals), Oz (Bass), Big Al (Drums)

Your debut The Future That Was arrived late last year after an intense recording process with Mark Kramer. Can you tell us a little about how did you found that experience?

Kramer flew in from Miami Florida with vintage ribbon mic’s, laptop and a teapot, polarised the band with his passion for Chinese Oolong tea and then got down to serious work at a super fast rate. The album was recorded and mixed in 8 days in two small rented farm cottages in Fife, we lived in Drumnod West and worked in Drumnod East…….There were lots of sleepless nights working round the clock until the farm yard animals woke up and halted recording, if you listen closely you can here the farm yard connection on tracks like “Rainy Night” and “Whoa”. Overall its was a great experience and one we are all very proud off.

Has that experience impacted the band’s approach at all

Kramer really enhanced our DIY approach to music, leaving us with the tools and equipment to carry on making our music our on way.

Are there any particular influences or inspirations that the band draw from?

As a six piece we have many influences, to list a few, Kate Bush, Tom Waits and Ivor Cutler. What inspires us is, bands that have maintained a free and independent spirit.

You’ll be playing at Hinterland this weekend, are you looking forward to the show?

Aye, this will be our first Glasgow gig, we are all very excited and a little nervous, but really looking forward to it.

Is there anyone in the line up at Hinterland that you’re excited about?

The Kay’s Lavelle, Little yellow Ukuleles and Sara’s really looking forward to the Mystery Jets.

You’ve had some great response to your debut and it definitely feels like momentum is building for the band, what plans do you have for the next year.

Next up we will be playing Tigerfest in May at the Carnegie Hall, Sara will finish her degree in June, which gives us the opportunity to take on more gigs. We have also been recording new songs which will be available this year.

Finally, tell us a story about big Al, from all we’ve heard so far he is quite a legend.

Big Al played a day with Bert Weedon which felt a lot longer with his ” Strictly no fills” rule. Eventually Bert would refer to Al as his “Fishermans Friend” before going on stage Bert would offer the sweet to the band members and Al was the only member ever, to take one from Bert.

I’ve now had the benefit of not only seeing who Chris and Kim’s picks are for Hinterland but I’ve also seen the timetable so I’m resigned to knowing that I can’t see everyone I want to. I’ll not let that cloud my judgement though. Here is my top 5 ‘must sees’ at Hinterland…

5. Spectrals @ MacSorleys – There’s something very 60′s California about their sound. I like that!

4. Kitty The Lion @ The Admiral – They never fail to get my toe tapping and put a smile on my face!

3. Dam Mantle @ MacSorleys – A recent addition to the line up but I’ve heard very good things and he’d be a good one to get you buzzing for the night ahead.

2. French Wives @ The Arches – Yesterday’s feature on the blog. A lovely bunch of people and their music ain’t too shabby either!

1. Ambulances @ The Arches – Okay, so they have featured on all three of our lists so guaranteed you will find us looking cool slightly around the ‘middle-to-back’ of the room enjoying their set.

Now, maybe Jeffrey Lewis could concoct a super hero in one of his comic books that could let me be in two places at once…