Elba Sessions

It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to a track on my ipod then gone back and re-played it 4 or 5 times in a row. It’s not for lack of good music either, the recent Turntable Kitchen playlist has been on repeat for the last few weeks but there’s 20 tracks there, so you’re getting a bit of variance.

However, this morning, the only thing that stopped me playing the latest Hazey Janes track ‘Carmelite’ was that I arrived in the office.

I was maybe overly-excited when Al from Armellodie told me that The Hazey Janes were going to be next band to release a record on the label. They’re one my favourite Scottish bands and nobody does sunny indie pop songs better. My only issue is that their two and half minute songs are so good that I’m left disappointed that they only last for two and a half minutes. A minor gripe I assure you.

You can download the new single ‘Carmelite’ for free below from the Armellodie soundcloud player.

The Hazey Janes will release the album on October 24th. Can’t wait to hear it!

Carmelite by The Hazey Janes by Armellodie

We’re a bit down in the dumps here at Elba, and it’s all because of the poster above. Yeah, sure were pretty excited at the line up, all of the bands have played at our Elba Sessions gigs and if that isn’t a ringing endorsement, then I really don’t know what is! No, we’re a bit glum because it will be the last appearance for the foreseeable future of Le Reno Amps. They’re all off to explore pastures new. Al’s off to China to teach kids doric, Jase is in Elgin, Mandy’s going to France (on Holiday) and Scott will be conquering Castlemilk Chateau Lait (well so their facebook brags anyway).

We’ve had some good times with the amps so we’ll sorely miss them (like a hole in the head hurts) but the gig should be the perfect send off.

Joining Le Reno Amps on the night will be label-mates Chris Devotion & The Expectations and Cuddly Shark along with bad ass cowboys Bad Bad Men.

All the fun kicks of around 7pm on Friday 5th August and it’s a mere £5 to get in. The facebook event page can be found here

There’s a couple of labels who when they release a new record i’ve always got a pretty good idea that before I’ve even heard it, I’m probably going to dig it. Song, By Toad Records definitely fit into this category, ever since they got me hooked with Meursault’s All Creatures Will Make Merry, there’s always been some anticipation whenever an email from SBT announcing a forthcoming release finds it’s way to my inbox. This is further backed up by my social networking declaration earlier in the year that King Post Kitch’s ‘Don’t Touch My Fucking Honeytone’ was a “bona-fide beezer!”

One of the latest releases on Song, By Toad Records is from Florida (yeah, Florida, in America, the land of the free, a long way from Leith) natives Lil’ Daggers, a move incidentally I think is to be applauded. Why in this digital age must we stick to releasing records by bands from our neighbourhood? The world’s a big, big place!

The simple facts are, this is a great EP. Lo-Fi in an ever so slightly polished way, catchy and there’s something about it which I can’t quite put my finger on, but it whispers some similarities to The Strokes first record. There’s also some hammond floating through the songs which gives it a bit of a psychadelic feel, maybe more California than the Florida Coast but it evokes a bit of sunshine either way so I guess that fits. It’s probably also why I like it so much.

‘King Corpse’ is out now on Song, By Toad Records – Buy here

I quite liked that it was appropriate for me to use the title of a Public Enemy track for this post, y’know the song that Anthrax featured on?

Anyway, the title of the post isn’t about rap music, it’s about noisy stuff.

Firstly, we were delighted to see that our friends at Brain Burner, after a brief hiatus, have returned to The Liquid Ship for some more experimental noise gigs. The first in the current run will take place on Aug 14th with a 9pm start. On the bill are Now Wakes The Sea whose ‘lush ambient folk drones’ we gave a live debut to at one of our Elba gigs last year. There’s some free NWTS downloads here if you wish to have a listen. Also in the line-up is Boom Edan, Neil A.Simpson, Falconry and Uzuruzu. These nights are always ‘a little different’ and they’re free so get yourself along to it if you’re stuck for something to do on the 14th! The event page is here.

Keeping on the same lines, we picked up this free download by The Masked Eldorados of the Americas recorded at the School of Noise in Falmouth. Now, that’s the second mention of Falmouth on this blog in the past few weeks, which is a bit strange for a blog based in Glasgow, but we came by this download after a recommendation from Lynch(ed) Records who are based down there. It turns out now that Lynch(ed) have ‘signed’ them up and they’ve got an EP out called If You Are Prepared To Eat It You Can Kill It.

The members of the band have been kept under lock and key with their live performance being performed by two men behind animal masks. Their numbers have now swelled to four and the EP sounds rather different to the live drone improvisation mentioned earlier. What we have on the E.P. is four instrumental ‘pop’ tracks lasting around 3-5 minutes each. It was absolutely not what I expected to sound like but it’s enjoyable listening with riffs and hooks abound. The tracks were all recorded remotely with each member retreating to their own home studio to bash out their parts of the record. It’s a worthy listen from a label who seem to really be putting out a really varying selection of music.

As a footnote, after going on to Lynch(ed) bandcamp I notice that they have the new single from Birdengine coming out at the end of this month. If you aren’t already familiar with Birdengine, we’d recommend you right that wrong.

I’ve been meaning to write about this album for ages. I suppose ever since I got a copy of their single ‘RE:Peater” sent over to me last year, I knew I couldn’t wait for the album. So here we are some 7 months later, i’ve been listening to the album for a couple of months and I’m glad to say it doesn’t disappoint in the slightest.

The first thing that hits me, as it did with the single, is that She’s Hit are loud, like really loud and not in a horrible thrashy racket way, loud in the way that you just know the person recording the album has a volume button that goes up to 11, not 10. It’s a bit like when you’re watching the telly and all of a sudden the adverts come on 10 times louder than the programme was. So, top marks on the volume front.

The album opens with title track ‘Pleasure’ and sets it’s stall out as an album which will give you a good kick up the backside. The vocals almost sneer and spit at you and guitars clunk and echo around your ears. It’s a full on aural assault which continues throughout the rest of the album. ‘Part 1′ and then ‘Lustless’, still mercilessly feedbacking and wailing, give a brief respite but is immediately trumped by my standout track RE:Peater.

All in all, it’s a great album, sure you could say that they take influence from the Jesus and Mary Chain and Iggy Pop, but at the same time they sound like nothing else going about here at the moment. Also, if you do get your paws on a copy of the album you will be rewarded by a second album with each track on the album receiving a remix courtesy of a variety of different artists including, Dam Mantle, Remember Remember, The Unwinding Hours and Fox Gut Daata.

‘Pleasure’ is out now on RE:Peater Records and you can pick up a copy over here at the RE:Peater store.

…are just some of the novelty ways which bands have decided to release their new records over the last couple of months. I’m not sure if anyone has told their label bosses that there’s a dodgy economic climate but fair play to them for injecting some fun into the whole event of releasing a record.

First up we have the now famed 7″ Chocolate Vinyl release from FOUND. There were only 50 copies of this up for grabs so I suspect not many of our readers own one but with the medium of youtube, you can watch Edinburgh band Eagleowl listen to and then eat the record here. I suspect the remaining 49 have gone the same way and been melted down for hot chocolate or something.

Keeping the theme with the edibles is the rather swish looking clear vinyl package from Japanese War Effort. The EP, Surrender to Summer which is out on Edinburgh’s Song, By Toad Records comes equipped with a bag of those lovely sweets that you see on the front cover. You can pick up a copy of the record here, it’s limited to 250 i think.

Rounding up this post on novelty releases is Glasgow’s Mitchell Museum who recently released their new single on a 16-note keyboard. The download code for said single is hidden inside the keyboard so you can either systematically dismantle the keyboard to preserve it or if you feel like smashing the living daylights out of it, get yourself a mallet from the shed, both methods are recommended on the Mitchell Museum website. There’s still a couple of them left here for a fiver.

I received this little gem in the post today courtesy of Falmouth based Lynch(ed) Recordings. It’s the label’s recent release, a 7″ by Brighton band Clowns.

Clowns came together a while ago now and are made up by bits and pieces of Electric Soft Parade, Field Music, Brakes and Garageland. A fairly impressive list really. The A-Side ‘Idiot Bouncing’ is a melodic riff filled three and a half minutes of garage rock which asks ‘Do you wanna bounce?’. Yep, we do actually.

The 7″ comes in a limited run of 250 and you can have a wee listen for yourself and buy it here.

This has been a firm fixture in my browser all week. Get yourself on to it for some burrito goodness and GET INVOLVED!

GLASGOW MEGA BURRITO

Aff to build a burrito!!

They say all good things must come to an end at some point and with that sentiment so it is that we say farewell to Barmellodie at Bar Bloc (Friday June 17th). Whether or not the nights will resume at some point, who knows but it’s fair to say the last 6 months have provided us with some great live music and sketchy dj’ing by the resident disc jockeys. There have been too many highlights to pick only a few and I’m sure that list will grow with the final night’s action.

Heading the bill are Armellodie stalwarts Cuddly Shark fresh from writing and demo’ing new tracks, they played at our 1st birthday party and they really aren’t one to be missed. Joining Cuddly Shark will be Galoshins, Lady North and recent Armellodie signings Something Beginning With L (new album is quality, check it oot) who you will no doubt spot from afar as they will be travelling in this colourful creation.

As ever, the fun starts at around 10:30pm with bands and DJ’s, it’s Peenko playing Kid Canaveral this month, going on until around 3am. It’s free if you turn up early enough too!

Another month and another new presenter for the podcast. This month it was Kim’s turn to pose the questions and our guest down the Hidden Lane at Elba was Mike Nisbet.

It’s fair to say that we got a bit giddy when we heard the new tracks by Mike Nisbet a few months back, we’ve now wrapped our ears around the new album, titled ‘Vagrant’, and it doesn’t disappoint. Mike popped by Elba a few weeks back to chat about why it was so great to tour with Washington Irving, writing songs whilst not really having a fixed home, whether the East coast are a bit more melancholic than the West and his forthcoming album and the launch for it, which takes place at The Ivy on Argyle Street, Glasgow next week (Thurs 9th June).

More info on the launch can be found here at the Facebook event page and to stream/buy the album, just manoeuvre your mice or trackpads here.

Mike Nisbet (June 2011) by elbasessions