Elba Sessions

The title says it all really, or maybe it doesn’t actually. If you scroll your mouse down you will see that the last time we posted, it was still the month of March, and there was over a week left of that month. It’s not the case that we’ve been up to nothing mind you, life gets busy and sadly the things you love get pushed to the side a little bit. After all, it’s more important to be able to put sneakers on your kids’ feet right?!

When I say drought we’re talking strictly in a writing sense, getting the words into my keyboard so that they appear in wordpress and end up on the Elba blog. You see, this is a time issue, pure and simple. It’s not because there is a lack of things to write about, if I could pay myself a lovely salary I’d do it all day but needs must and off to work I go each day.

So here I am, finding time in my complete lack of time, to moan about not having the time to write. Kind of ironic, maybe I’ve just wasted a precious 200 words that could have been better spent giving a lot more attention to some of the things I’m sure I’ll go on to mention.

As I have said, there’s no lack at all of good things to write about. I’ve found an abundance of new things to listen to recently and I’ve also filled in a few gaps with old albums I’ve not ever had the chance or even inclination to listen to at the time. I found that I’m really liking the lo-fi/west coast (USA) type bands at the moment, y’know some of the bands who sounded like the kind of band my brother listened to in the early to mid nineties. Smith Westerns, Ringo Deathstarr, Girls (okay so this ones not just out but I’ve been listening to it for the last year), Lower Dens and have I rekindled my interest with Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Best Coast in anticipation of the former’s new album and latter’s gig at The Arches on the 27th of this month.

Talking of things I’m liking at the moment, I’ve received a couple of really great records in my emails recently that I really must mention.

The first EP in question here is The Whittling EP from Andrew Lindsay and The Coat Hooks. Chock full of jangly guitars and sing-a-long melodies it’s been the perfect listen for me on my way to the office in the morning. The Coat Hooks include, amongst others, Shambles Miller and Matthew of Elba favourites Loch Awe. If you fancy giving it a go, you can head over to their bandcamp where you can purchase either a digital copy of the album for £3 or a nicer wee package including badges, a note and some demos for a couple of quid more.

Knowing of my slight penchant for their music, Johnny Reb have sent me over their first album, or ‘debut exertions’ as they have put it. It was recorded in Portugal with Boz Boorer, him being Morrisey’s guitarist and that, and it will be released through their Bandcamp on April 18th. It really is rather excellent.

Also, if you’ve not yet picked up the Song, By Toad label sampler yet, you really should. It can be downloaded for free over here. My personal favourite is the Lach track. I’m looking forward to hearing that album when it comes out in July.

I’ve not just been hiding away listening to records though, I’ve been to a couple of cracking gigs by Deerhunter and Josh T.Pearson (Skinny Review Here) in the last couple of weeks and rather looking forward to seeing Marina Celeste and Best Coast over the next weeks.

Also coming up on the 21st this month, three days after the official release date, is the Le Reno Amps album launch at The Captain’s Rest. Not only are LRA playing, obviously, it’s a monstrous line-up completed by The Douglas Firs, Super Adventure Club and Galoshins. It will be awesomes!!!! You can stream or buy the album over here!

Anyways, we’ll be back again shortly with more stuff, hopefully in a more timeous manner giving a bit more focus to stuff.

x

It’s that time of the month again where we give a wee nod to our buddies over at Armellodie and mention this months Barmellodie residency at Bloc in Glasgow.

This months musical shenanigans come in the shape of jazz/rock/pop adventurers ‘Super Adventure Club’. If you haven’t seen SAC play, prepare to be dazzled and wonder just how the three of them could actually be that darn good! They are going to be playing their debut album ‘Chalk Horror!’ in it’s entirety.

Musical interludes on the evening will also come in the shape of The Brazen Cars, Hagana and From Paris to Prison.

Also, there’s usually a guest DJ but it seems the guys at Armellodie were either a bit worried about Aye Tunes playing Skee Lo or they knew that nothing was going to better our effort from January along with the choices of Crash Test Dummies and Dire Straits from last months post-gig resident.

Barmellodie takes over Bar Bloc this Friday (18th March). It’s Free until 11pm and then £2 thereafter.

Dee it!

Our final annual comes from Elba Sessions’ constant and reasoned voice; Phil. You will be well acquainted with him by now I’m sure.  For those of you who are not: he is a man of great taste, intelligence, wit and charm.  As a great driving force behind everything Elba I’ve found him to be exceptionally motivated and particularly good at knowing what buttons to push to get the most out of everyone he works with.  It is holding all these elements together and only ever snapping when things have reached well passed boiling point which leads us to his alter ego.  With a quiet and calm demeanor, a patience like no other, an ability to maintain organization even whilst working under potentially incendiary conditions and the occasional (and very understandable) melt down, who else could we select?

All that sucking up needed balancing out with something ridiculous. Ironically he will, of course, love this comparison. Here is Phil’s account of 2010:

Album of The Year - This is a tough one. There have been quite a lot of albums I’ve really liked over the course of the year and the title of ‘favourite’ constantly seems to change. I think ‘Method’ by Thirty Pounds of Bone gets the win though. It is an honest album and really nicely put together and produced. For the first couple of months, Los Campesinos! and Field Music would also be in with a shout as well as notable mentions for Chris T-T, Meursault, Super Adventure Club and The National.

Best Gig - There have been several people I have really enjoyed seeing this year, RM Hubbert, King James, Super Adventure Club (possibly the most fun that can be had watching a band, as well as the most jealous at how ridiculously good individually they are). Best gigs are usually defined for me by notable things or songs that were played. In that sense, there have been two or three great gigs for me in 2010. The National, which seems to be on everyone’s lips really stands out just for the whole occasion. Mr November, including a tour of the crowd by singer Matt Berninger, was a biiig standout as well as the completely unplugged sing-along to Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks.

Also, on two occasions I’ve seen a band play a song this year that has just made the hairs on my neck stand up. When The Scottish Enlightenment bellowed into Little Sleep at the end of the set at their album launch in the 13th Note and when they played it at The Liquid Ship on one of our Elba gigs, i knew that there was something pretty special happening.

Favourite New Band(s) - Probably could make a lengthy list here but I’ll try to keep it short. Bella Ruse play the kind of sweet indie folk pop that I’m just a sucker for. I’ve also been digging Caitlin Rose, The Mariner’s Children and more locally Johnny Reb, She’s Hit, Yusuf Azak and The Douglas Firs.

Musical Memories of 2010 - Putting on some great bands at The Liquid Ship as part of our Elba Sessions gigs…Chris’ boundless enthusiasm for Springsteen…Kim’s boundless enthusiasm for music and her awesome writing…Kim and Chris’ support and patience when I get ‘the rage’… The National at the Academy…Willy Vlautin at the Captains Rest (if indeed that was this year)…The return of Le Reno Amps…Making some new musical acquaintances…oh, and being thanked in the sleeve notes for the Thirty Pounds of Bone album was pretty sweet.

Hopes/Plans (music) for 2011 - To kick on with Elba a lot more. I really want to get a good focus going on the blog, going for a bit of a wider viewpoint on the music we all love here at Elba rather than the same old. We’ll also get the Elba Sessions gigs going again in a few months, peepers on the lookout for bands to play already. I’m also looking forward to Dj’ing at the first BARmellodie night at Bloc on January 21st. Also, I want to start getting along to a lot more gigs and seeing some bands to get excited over.

So that’s us for 2010. Have a grand old time this evening!  We wish you a bonne année and we will return before you have fully recovered fully from the celebrations.

Going into the home straight in this year’s Elba annual with just a handful of posts left, the last installment before Christmas comes courtesy of Al from Armellodie Records. It’s been a fairly hectic year for Armellodie (must be hard releasing all those excellent records!) and it shows no sign of slowing down in the New Year with a Glasgow residency (more on that at the foot of the post) and a pile of great releases planned.

We decided not to go with the Armellodie logo adorning the top of the blog, instead, here’s Al looking like a crazy fool!

Album of The Year

Have One On Me by Joanna Newsom.

And another two on me…Ivory Tower by Chilly Gonzales. American Gong by Quasi.

Best Gig (by someone else…)

Have three on me… Joanna Newsom at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow (September). Randy Newman at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow (May). Pavement at All Tomorrows Parties in Minehead (May).

Favourite New Band(s)

Depends on your definition of ‘new’ but have another three on me…

The Douglas Firs.
Nosferatu D2 (so new they’ve split up already).
Honeytrap.

Musical Memories of 2010

The year that Armellodie became a little less tiny and the great records that made it so, Super Adventure Club, The Scottish Enlightenment, Kill The Captains, and Thirty Pounds Of Bone, the pleasure was all mine.

Hopes/Plans (music) for 2011

BARmellodie is where it’s at in 2011. From January to June, Armellodie Records is going residential in Bar Bloc in Glasgow on the third Friday of every month, with Armbands, and guest acts performing, plus guest DJs and ArmelloDJs spinning Armelloditties at the Armellodisco. You couldn’t accuse us of not driving the brand home. Good times and more good times.

As Al mentioned, Armellodie are launching their monthly BARmellodie residency at Bar Bloc in Glasgow from January. I’ve had a peek at some of the line ups and they look absolutely cracking. January sees Elba blog favourites Le Reno Amps take the stage along with Battery Face and The Douglas Firs as well as the ArmelloDJ’s and yours truly taking on the wheels of steel. This all takes place on January the 21st. If you need any other info, head over to Armellodie HQ. Some future dates will include Thirty Pounds of Bone, The Scottish Enlightenment and Super Adventure Club playing their hit-laden albums in their entirety

Instalment two in this year’s Elba Annual features one of our favourite musicians/persons/wanderer (delete as applicable) here at Elba. I came across Johny a few years ago when a friends band released a record on the same label as Johny had released his first album ‘The Homesick Children of Migrant Mothers‘. His music has since featured prominently at my wedding, we’ve had him and King James cohort Laurence up to play one of our nights at the aptly named Liquid Ship and now he’s gone and released an album on Armellodie Records. The record is called Method and it doesn’t need us to tell you that it’s bloody good.

If you haven’t yet sampled Thirty Pounds of Bone, we’d really urge you to. As a wee treat, and we don’t do this often round these parts, you can download The Jonah Shanty which Johny recorded at Elba Studios during our podcast in February. This track is taken from his EP released last year on Woodland Recordings. And apologies for the size of the file. The blame firmly lies with Stephen at Elba Studios for that!!!

Hello Elba Sessions, I’ll probably change my mind about all of this tomorrow, but nevertheless:

Album of The Year – This is really tough…. Not because there’s a lot to choose from, but because I’ve not paid attention. I’ve listened to a lot of Harry Parch, and lots of really old field recordings. Will that do? No? Ok. Both ‘The Scottish Enlightenment’ and the ‘Super Adventure Club’ albums are great, and I’m not just saying that. Oh, I don’t know, the three records I like the most aren’t out yet but I suppose I’ll big them up anyway. ‘Lakes, Meres, Ponds and Waters’ by the Diamond Family Archive, ‘Music at Court’ by Birdengine, and SBL. Worthy of a mention also are Chris T-T’s ‘Love is Not Rescue’ and the Great Park’s ‘If You Can Hold It You Can Throw It’.

Best Gig – I had a great gig in Berlin, but I’m ashamed to say I can’t remember the name of the venue. It was the first night of a run of shows and I was nervous and tipsy, and I jabbered and stuttered like a fool. Luckily the audience forgave me and were great. It was one of those gigs that could collapse at any moment, so you have to concentrate almost till you pass out. Those are the best. I should also mention Hasenschaukel in Hamburg. The Audience and Staff were just impossibly kind. A great night.

Best Gig (by someone else…) - Absolutely no question on this one and I’m sorry to those people who also did amazing shows, but this was just amazing. Bygrayvpartynmyrytarm at the Performance Centre at Tremough in Cornwall. Jaw droppingly brilliant. Possibly the best guitarist on earth as well, which is to not even get to the drummer and extraordinary frontman/ synth player.

Favourite New Band(s) – See above. There’s also a young songwriter down here I’ve got my eye on. Proper writer.

Musical Memories of 2010 – mostly E flat major and all associated minor chords in and around that key. Drones in C. Not singing quite as well as I’d like. Harry Parch, and Ewan Macoll singing ‘Isles O Sicily’.

Hopes/Plans (music) for 2011 – Tour in the UK as much as possible, sell out of copies of this new album, finish writing and most of the recording of the next one. I’m very excited about it. It’s in three different places. There’s lot’s of field recording and guest players. A much more complicated kind of thing. I’d like to do another King James album. Laurence and I are discussing another, slightly different collaboration. There’ll be loads. Oh, and an album of trad songs for Woodland Recordings, some recording with ‘Danny Kendal’, maybe something exciting with Le Reno Amps and hopefully a full band album for Chris T-T too. Busy busy.

‘Method’ is released on Armellodie on Monday 6th December and you can pick up your copy at the Armellodie store.

Thanks to Stephen at Woodland for the following link! Most kind!

Download The Jonah Shanty – mp3 – 5.54mb

The Jonah Shanty (Elba Sessions – Feb 2010) by elbasessions

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.

Super Adventure Club want to eat your brains. It is the only logical conclusion.

Exhibit A – Look at them!

Exhibit B: Their brain tenderizing, blood boiling, sophomore album Avoid Zombies:

Don’t believe the title and the awesome zombie themed launch. They are trying to trick you into a false sense of security!!! Run god-dammit, run!

Avoid Zombies opens with a Big bassy twang that, from the off, releases the full insanity of Super Adventure Club. Over the course of the album, it is apparent that they have perfected a controlled chaos in their work. There is constant shifts and jerks. You are unprepared for each development in every song. Especially the vocal coda of Hip Hop Hot Pot Pot Noodle. You’ll be left scratching your head because whilst you will be hugely thrown off kilter during your first listen, you will also at one and the same time love this jazz-pop-punk-indie-super-insanity.

Super Adventure Club are tuned into a musical genius that will leave you reeling. This is the main thrill of this band. They are unafraid to battle their way through anything. This effect peaks during Nosferatu and on current single SAC Attack. However, there are also moments to breathe during this album. The truly wonderful Pick Up Sticks settles into a more conventional structure. It’s light and though still of SAC’s signature jerky style, it has more of a foot tapping feel. Pointless Self-Indulgence too, fades the album out softly; on a new note.

Avoid Zombies! is released on Armellodie Records 05.04.2010 and the album launch is tonight (25.03.2010) in the Captain’s Rest.

Everybody likes to get mail. Look at this haul I got today (factor’s bill omitted from picture!)!

Wilco and Chris T-T tickets as well as the latest Armellodie releases! I’m a happy lad tonight!

We’ve been lucky enough to see loads of local bands this year and one of the ones that we keep coming back to are Super Adventure Club. If you haven’t had the chance to see Super Adventure Club, where have you been?!?!? Not many a month goes by without Super Adventure Club unleashing a sonic assault on the ears of anyone who will listen at various venues around Glasgow and Edinburgh as well as further afield. We’re also SUPER excited as a little birdie tells us there will be a single and an album out next year on Armellodie Records. Quite simply, we love SAC and can’t get enough of them. Here’s our daily fix…

Album of the Year – Sports by Rodent Emporium

Hopes for 2010/Things you’re looking forward to – We’d like to have a real hip-hop-hot-pot-pot noodle and we’re looking forward to finally releasing the new album! We’d also like to be featured on the front cover of anything with the title ‘SAC’s bomb’ or ‘Anglo Sacsons’ etc etc, more puns please.

You can catch your SAC fix on the following dates;
17th Dec with Bronto Skylift, Lyons and DJ Vic Galloway @ Stereo, Glasgow 7:30pm £3
19th Dec with Pummel and Rage @ The Bongo Club, Edinburgh 7pm, £6

www.myspace.com/superadventuremusic

Today’s featured band on the Elba Annual are Glasgow’s self proclamed finest hillbilly rockers, Cuddly Shark. After the release of their eponymous debut album in November (Elba review here), things have gone rather well for the two guys, one girl band. A slew of fine reviews for the album has been backed up by being named album of the month on Vic Galloway’s Radio 1 Session in Scotland. They are also doing a live session this week on Vic’s Radio Scotland show, not to be missed. Colin, Jason and Ruth took some time out to tell us what made their year…

Album of The Year

Colin: Super Furry Animals – Dark Days/Light Years

Jason: Future Of The Left’s Travels With Myself And Others. Didnt do that much for me to begin with but found i’ve been playing the heck out of it recently! We call that a grower in the industry. Waiting with bated breath for a shotty of the new Heavy Trash LP fae Scott Maple!

Favourite New Band

Colin: Super Adventure Club

Jason: We recently played with Sleepy Vole in Edinburgh. Really enjoyed his Lo-Fi distorted carry on.

Best Gig (Cuddly Shark)

Colin: Aberdeen, Moorings, Nov 09

Jason: had a few fun ones this year but guess it would be the album launch at Captains Rest. It was ace to have it finally out and was a fun night.

Best Gig (Other)

Colin: Faith No More, Peace & Love Festival, Sweden

Jason: Faith No More at The Corn Exchange on the 25th of August. Was amazing!

Best Memories of 2009

Colin: Releasing our debut album. Watching Faith No More with my fellow Swedes

Jason: Releasing two albums this year (Shark’s debut and Le Reno Amps Tear It Open). It’s been a mental busy year. But roll on mental 2010!

Hopes for 2010/Things You’re Looking Forward To

Colin: Touring the album and playing places i’ve never been to before.

Jason: A busy mental 2010!

Cuddly Shark do a live session for Vic Galloway this evening on Radio Scotland from 8pm. Their album is out now on Armellodie and can be purchased from the Armellodie Record Store, from all your usual download providers and from Avalanche Glasgow.

They will be embarking on a tour early next year and all the dates can be found on their myspace page here…