Elba Sessions

Kim mentioned a few weeks ago that in her advancing years (still a spring chicken really!) she is a bit of a fan of the city fest. However, with all this lovely weather we’ve been having (save for yesterday’s snow here in Glasgow), it would seem a shame not to consider getting some good, fresh, highland air in your lungs. Whilst we aren’t always blessed with great weather here in Scotland there certainly is no shortage of good festivals and every year, another attractive option seems to open up for the festival go-er.

In my opinion, I want a festival to have good music, good food and nice beer and not be too overcrowded. Brew at The Bog (Sat May 5th) is fortunate enough to cover all bases.

Brew at the Bog is the joint brainchild of Bogbain Farm and Brewdog which basically means stunning location + great beer = a topper of a festival. Oh yeah, the line up ain’t too shabby either. There’s quite a few Elba favourites in there including Washington Irving, The Little Kicks, Kitty the Lion and the excellent Mike Nisbet (do we mention him too much on these pages?) along with a whole host of bands from our fair country as well as quite a few from further afield.

The full line-up is below;

Tommy Reilly
Washington Irving
Endor
Stanley Odd
Kitty the Lion
Over the Wall
Three Blind Wolves
Findlay Napier & The Bar Room Mountaineers
Fatherson
The Little Kicks
Open Swimmer
Jonathan Powell (WALES)
Laki Mera
Matt Norris & The Moon
Beerjacket
Megan Blyth
Bensh (WALES)
Sion Russell Jones (WALES)
KOBI
Little Fire
HelloVideo
Woody Pines (USA)
Mike Nisbet
Midnight Glory
Quickbeam
Open Day Rotation
Cafe Disco
Lost City Soul
Graham Brown
Cherri Fosphate
He Slept on 57

The guys at the farm are working in overdrive just now to get the festival site ready and you can see some snaps and an update on their progress over on the Brew at the Bog blog. I see that they have also confirmed that they will be stocking 77Lager, Punk IPA and my own current personal favourite 5am Saint. (although i may be biased as a Brewdog shareholder!).

Tickets are still on sale but are literally flying out the door so if you want in, you need to be quick. Ticket’s can be purchased here for a very reasonable £45. Camping is also available.

Recently, I have been considering the disparate activities of my flat-mate’s compared to my own. Were I to call upon my favourite bard of the central belt Aidan Moffat to set the scene; his life is the hedonistic romp of The First Big Weekend and he, no doubt, sees my own as the cyclical and serene Cages. My own interpretation of the latter is phrased a little kinder than the current misnomer I’ve been gifted: ‘old lady.’

Such teasing can be entirely attributed to the fact that I consume alcohol in much more reasonable measures than I did whilst at university. Therefore, I reject the implication that I am anything other than the excitable and immature creature that I have always been. That being said, I do have a new appreciation for certain comforts. For instance, the city based festival is something that I’ve always appreciated but now find myself increasingly excited about.

I guess the beauty of the city festival includes accessibility, advanced knowledge of the venue, a good meal being at hand and a warm bed not too far away.  You will not find yourself lacking in lubrication if we compare habits of a ‘major’ outdoor festival should my introduction be instilling this concern. My Triptych days eventually became a sleepless and overworked haze but originally as an attendee those three to five days the festival spanned were a dreamy, inebriated rapture. The talent, the sounds, the many, many drinks. The festival and the sum of its parts will of course dictate this sort of behaviour. For instance, the Glasgow Film Festival won’t lead to any liver damage, (un)suprisingly(?) Celtic Connections might.

My attention has been drawn once again this year to the Stag and Dagger festival.  It boasts over 50 bands and DJs, seven venues and one ticket. The first acts that have been announced have the Elba ‘we’ salivating; with White Denim, Phantom Band, Django Django, Willy Mason and Bear in Heaven all due on May 19th.

The ticket is a very reasonable £17.50 or was £12.00 if you snatched an early bird price. The previous years’ line up promise another impressive selection of acts. I guess the greatest dilemma you will be faced with is what head line act you choose.  Ultimately you may have to sacrifice some mid evening bands to guarantee a spot for whichever finisher you have your eye on though it is a small complaint that exists at all festivals; indoor or out.  Perhaps there isn’t so much different about the two, as Aidan says:

A new life is just a new routine,
a new function for the old machine

I think there’s a time and a place for a cover version and I realise they are not for everyone. I’ve read numerous lengthy rants about why they shouldn’t be tolerated but from time to time, I quite like the odd cover. In fact, Jonnie Common’s Deskjob is a fine example of an album of covers.

Today’s example of a cover version comes courtesy of Portland’s Chromatics and is a re-working of Neil Young’s Hey Hey My My (Into the Black). I’ve heard a couple of covers of this in the past, by some pretty below average bands which haven’t really done very much for me but Chromatic’s echoey and sparse take on it has certainly got me repeating it on my iPod. This is the second single to be taken from their forthcoming album, Kill For Love. I hope you enjoy.

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.