Having written about Spook School from their very early days (and indeed early tracks appeared in the annual 17 Seconds Festive 50 lists in years gone by), it’s good to see just how much progress they have made.

The band will release their new album – their third –Could It Be Different? on January  26 2018. In the meantime, this Friday (December 15) they will release a Christmas single ‘Someone To Share Christmas With.’

Bass player Anna Corey says: “This is a song about figuring out how you want to conduct your own relationships when it feels like the world is full of conflicting advice about the ‘best’ way to do it, whether that be monogamy, polyamory, or something else entirely. The refrain relates to the ideal of having one important person in your life with whom you’ll always spend your special occasions. Merry Christmas from The Spook School!”

…and as a taster for the new album, the rather gorgeous ‘Less Than Perfect’:

The album tracklisting is as follows:

1. Still Alive
2. Best of Intentions
3. Less Than Perfect
4. Keep in Touch
5. Bad Year
6. Alright (Sometimes)
7. I Only Dance When I Want To
8. Hope She Loves You
9. While You Were Sleeping
10. Body
11. High School

I have written about Spook School on several occasions (do keep up), it is is great to be able to report that following on from their 7″ single on Cloudberry last month, they are to release a five-track EP on Scotland’s Soft Power label next month. Soft Power have given us some awesome releases (including Aggi Doom, Hollows and The Tambourines, amongst others), so it is the combination of an excellent band and an excellent label.

The new EP is called I Don’t Know, You Don’t Know, We All Don’t Know The Spook School (I am assuming in reference to ‘I scream, you scream, we all scream for Ice cream’ -though I could be wrong). It is another wee gem in their release schedule so far, and you can stream it ahead of the December 17 release right now, just below. Oh, and it is coming out on cassette single (if you threw your tape player away, more fool you. Serves you right.) limited to 100 copies! It’s wonderfully twee and lo-fi, and my favourite track is the closing ‘Can You Ever Trust A Man Who Think’s Matt Damon’s Really Cool?’

I bigged up Edinburgh’s Spook School several times last year on these pages, and their track ‘History’ made my Festive Fifty at the end of last year.

It’s great to report that they have linked up with US label Cloudberry to put out a 7″ single, entitled ‘Here We Go/Cameraman.’ It’s really rather fab.

Stream it here:

You can buy the 7″ at Cloudberry’s online store and you can watch the video below:

If you haven’t heard their previous releases (come on!) check them out here

Now, most of the tracks for my Christmas posts I have put up have been free downloads.

However, Scottish Fiction have put together a fine seven track EP which can be downloaded for the princely sum of £2 – or more (I paid £2.50). It features one of my favourite acts of the year – Spook School – along with six other acts. Most importantly – apart from featuring Spook School – is the fact that the money goes to Shelter, which is really, really important. Particularly at Christmas.

So: give this a listen and then go and buy it!

A few months I wrote about a new Edinburgh band called Spook School, who had just self-released an excellent single entitled ‘History’/’Hallam’ after only a handful of gigs. I did play this on my one -off show on Fresh Air back in August, too.

The band have continued to hone their very fine blend of c-86 indie pop and unique take on twee-pop and have just released another fine single ‘Are You Who You Think You Are’/’Devil Of Mine. It’s just as good…and shows Spook School as a band to be taking very seriously indeed…

They play Edinburgh’s Wee Red Bar on December 3, followed by Glasgow Popfest (December 8) and Inverness Hootenanny (December 10). What are you waiting for?

…and if you still haven’t heard that debut single (tut tut) here you go:

For a band that only formed at the start of the year, and have only played a handful of gigs, The Spook School seem to be almost frighteningly precocious and self-confident.

They’re an Edinburgh band who’ve got their roots in twee-pop and c-86 and have their own twist on it. They don’t give much away on their website (though the singer’s called Naomi, it would appear) but they are giving two excellent songs away for free. FREE. FREE!!! get ’em now or you’ll never know what might have been:

They’re playing Henry’s Cellar Bar on July 2, and the Glasgow Popfest on December 8. By which stage they will no doubt be signed to some very cool record company.