As you know, I’m always trying to post towards exciting Scottish bands on here, so tonight I’m going to do a wee post on Ballboy. Like My Latest Novel Ballboy were a band I saw supporting the Delgados (RIP. one day I WILL do a post on Chemikal Underground records and the Delgados). Like Arab Strap, there’s just a real honestness here, and maybe the fact that they come from my adopted hometown of Edinburgh and singer Gordon McIntyre was a Primary School teacher (alright, so I’m secondary bu

t.) Ballboy may have a fair bit in common with the aforementioned Strap, Novel, Delgados and Belle and Sebastian, they are also quite political: ‘I hate Scotland’ was dedicated to Brian Souter and his ‘Keep Clause 28’ campaign, while ‘The Sash My Father Wore’ was actually an attack on sectarianism. They also covered Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA, minus the bombast, but with th

e direct hit of the man’s intent. Not to mention ‘Sex is Boring’ which reminds me of one of my exasperated rants at trendier than thou types. Though not about sex, obviously.

Ballboy -‘I Hate Scotland.’ mp3

Ballboy -‘Sex Is Boring (John Peel Session version March 21 2000).’ mp3

If this whets your appetite, please check their website which has a whole load of downloads. Then, as always,, go and buy Ballboy

Also check out their website sl records which has more on Ballboy and other bands.

Finally, I have now changed the blog so that people can leave comments if they do not have a blog. However, these are monitored – i.e. if you write stuff that’s unpleasant or offensive, it won’t be permitted, and you’ll be hunted down like a dog. There’s also a really nifty little counter letting me know how many poeple have read the blog so I can see how many people are reading this!

Various usually means what it says on the tin. But in this case, it’s a fantastic set of wonderful leftfield elec

tronica stuff that seems to be destined to throw people off the scent. i heard this 7″ a year ago…if

you haven’t already, do so!

Various -‘Hater.’ mp3

Let me know if you know anything more about this!

Reportedly, Razorlight could be No.1 in the UK on Sunday.

Overall, I welcome this, as it’s nice to see them do well, even if it’s not the best single they’ve done, and it’s been kinda good to see the scissor sisters at no.1 But hey! I have commented here before how much I think they sound like Bruce Springsteen…but what about the Boomtown Rats? Bob Geldof’s much-maligned band, with

out which etc.. Whaddya reckon?

Razorlight – America

Buy the Razorlight album on Amazon. Or even better, go t

o your local high street indie s

tore and buy the single. On vinyl.

boomtown rats _ dont like mondays

Buy the Boomtown Rats on Amazon

You know that feeling when you buy a bunch of stuff and there were things you set out to get and yet it ends up being the afterthought that you enjoy the most? Yes? No?! Well, it happened almost ten years ago, when I was at uni and my friend Emma and I went into town to buy Pop by U2, which was new out that day. As an afterthought, maybe ‘cos it was on Island as well, I went back and bought Broken English by Marianne Faithfull. The U2 album has had very little play over the last ten years, if I’m being honest. The Marianne Faithfull album is one of my favourites. Just goes to show…

Anyway, I had a similar experience today. I went to get the new Razorlight 7″ (or should I say 7″s, ‘cos multi-formatting now seems to happen on vinyl, after all this time, though i’m not complaining!) and being vaguely aware of Love Is All picked up their new single ‘Make Out.Fall Out. Make Up.’ I am now playing this for about the fourth time already, and that includes all the b-sides too.

Sometimes when I try and make comparisons between artists, I know I run the risk of falling on my face (though I compared Razorlight to Bruce Springsteen in 2003, and that one seems to be being born out more with every passing year). I just feel that they sound so fresh right now, that all I can say is just ‘cos they come from Gothenburg don’t expect them to sound like the Cardigans. I hear maybe a slightly more frantic Concretes and a bit of X-Ray Spex too. That saxophonist is repairing years of damage.

Anyway, this is a brief post as I have to sort out some stuff for teaching tomorrow. But please follow this link here to hear some stuff and see the video for the single.

Then, obviously, go and buy Love Is All

Gig review: Teenage Fanclub/Bevis Fro

nd

Glasgow Barrowlands, September 29, 2006

Once bands have a fair back catalogue behind them, say about five albums, in most cases, there are one or two albums that stand out about the rest. They may not always the band’s favourite, but the fans seem to converge on them. In 2003, when Suede decided to call it a day, they played each five of their studio albums on consecutive nights at the ICA in London. Somewhat inevitably, the dates sold out and were going for silly money on ebay. However, whilst tickets for Dog Man Star were going for £1000, tickets for A New Morning were going for a mere £100. This, then, can be the dilemma of playing shows that relate to specific albums that are not concept albums, a la Floyd or the Who; is it going to run the risk of pinpointing that the band’s peak is long behind them? And do you play the album in sequence, providing a perfect facsimile that people could have got simply by listening to the album at home, or re-work it? And what about the rest of your back catalogue?

Not necessarily my problem to worry about. After all, having had a tip-off that the tickets were go

ing to go on sale, there was no way I was going to miss this. And it really was one of my gigs of the year: Teenage Fanclub playing their seminal 1991 album Bandwagonesque in its’ entirety.

The support band was Bevis Frond, or at least, two fifths of them (their official website seems to have disappeared but there are a lot of articles on them on the web). They were an excellent choice to support Fanclub, especially given that Fanclub once covered their song ‘He’d Be A Diamond.’ This, they wryly point out, made them ten times more money than anything else they had ever done. Support acts that are just a couple of people with guitars can be a risky choice for support acts, but Frond win the crowd over, the realisation that whilst we may not know many of these songs, we damn well oughta. I spent a happy hour googling them the next day.

And then fanclub come on. Armed with the drummer who drummed on Bandwagonesque, Brendan O’Hare. Since leaving the fanclub, O’Hare has played with Telstar Ponies, BMX Bandits and was also -and I quote ” Mogwai’s musician without portfolio.” He should also consider a career in stand-up comedy, and I mean that as a complement. Fanclub tear straight into The Concept -usually a song they might encore with – and it’s pretty much a total high from then on. People genuinely love this album, and I should know, I’m one of them. They play The Concept right the way through, including that coda, before roaring stright into an even shorter version of Satan than on the album (which itself is only 80 seconds long). “Best band in the world” roars someone in the audience in front of me, and fanclub reply with December. They blaze through the album, in order, and it works. It’s faithful, but it’s still played with passion and the crowd love every minute of it. Brendan jokes inbetween songs, introducing them. the rest of the band seem happy to let him get on with it (perhaps as I might gently indulge a slightly hyperactive but loveable rogue in my classroom. Within reason.) Before the album’s closer ‘Is This Music?’ Brendan thanks everyone, before planting a kiss on the security gaurd’s head. Aww. The band then fluff the intro, causing Brendan to smirk ‘Who was that? It was not me! I don’t play on this!’ which indeed he doesn’t. But they carry on, and it does sound like an album f

inisher. The guitars still sound like bagpipes on this one (am I the only person who thinks it’s reminiscent of Big Country’s soundtrack to Restless Natives? Probably. Oh well.) So where to from here?

Well, this may be billed as Bandwagonesque, but of course fanclub have hardly rested on their laurels ever since. We get a greatest hits set from the subsequent albums, and you start to hope that maybe they might even do the same, er, concept for Grand Prix or Songs From Northern Britain. I wasn’t blown away by Manmade when it first came out last year, but it’s grown on me, and songs like It’s All In My Mind really is a classic that rates up there with I Don’t Want Control Of You and Verisimilitude. The band sound so tight as well. I saw them twice in Edinburgh last year, and at moments they were shambolic (part of the scottish indie rule-book at times, I think!) but tonight they are absolutely on fire. They finish the set with Mellow Doubt and Sparky’s Dream (OK this is now a plea: please do a Grand Prix show).

That, of course, would be a pretty cool way to finish a show, but they come on with the aforementioned two-fifths of Bevis Frond to do an electric version (in both senses of He’d Be A Diamond) and with Brendan back on drums the final song of the night is Everything Flows. Sixteen years since it was released, it was of course Fanclub’s first classic single, though as tonight shows, there have been many more since. Long may they continue. And may they never forget their superlative back catalogue.

Many thanks also due to my friend Jared, the

biggest fanclub fan I know who accompanied me there and who also supplied the following setlist:

“Bandwagonesque”

1. The Concept
2. Satan
3. December
4. What You Do To Me
5. I Don’t Know
6. Star Sign
7. Metal Baby
8. Pet Rock
9. Sidewinder
10. Alcoholiday
11. Guiding Star
12. Is This Music?

Rest of the show…
Near You
It’s All In My Mind
Don’t Look Back
I Don’t Want Control Of You
About You
I Need Direction
Start Again
Verisimilitude
Ain’t That Enough
Your Love Is The Place That I Come From
Mellow Doubt
Sparky’s Dream

Encores:
He’d Be A Diamond
Everything Flows

Go and buy as much Teenage Fanclub as you possibly can

Yup, or another The Sound of Young Scotland post! Flicking through a few other posts, it seems that the US bloggers are getting very excited about a the imminent release of Wolves by My Latest Novel. Rightly so, though the album has been out in the UK for some time. Whilst trying to provide reference points can seem pointless at times

for so many bands, I would recommend that fans of Arab Strap, Aberfeldy, The Delgados, Sons and Daughters, Idlewild (particularly The Remote part-era Idlewild), and I think I hear a bit of Gorky’s and Ooberman too. Whereever you live on the planet, this is an album you want to check out.

Don’t miss the chance to see ’em live either; I first happened upon them supporting The much-missed Delgados in February 2005, and within the next six months also saw them supporting Abe

rfeldy and The Pixies, as well as their own headline show at Edinburgh’s Cabaret Voltaire. They have also supported Low. May all this come together to help them to sell the hugs amounts of records they so clearly deserve too. This debut is rich and varied, and you can hear parts of the album both at *Sixeyes and The Merry Muses of Caledonia. Then, obviously, go and buy yourself a copy.

They are also on myspace too.

Every so often, you hear about about a band that seem to be get

ting s

o much coverage, with so many blogs salivating over them that you wonder if there’s someone hyping things or what (maybe we bloggers are guilty of this at times…)

However, when the band in question sound as good as Canada’sJunior Boys, then who is complaining? I hadn’t heard this track until about half an hour ago – term is kicking in, and I’m having to do those things that I’m paid to do, like prepare lessons, mark, and y’know, teach. However, sometimes you need to do something else.

I know very little about them, but if there is any justice, next year they, CSS and 120 Days are going to be giving u

s what the electroclash movement should have.

Junior Boys -‘In the Morning.’ mp3

Junior Boys -‘Birthday.’ mp3

Buy Junior Boys on Amazon.

Sorry for the lack of posts – have been trying to l

ink a couple of videos from You tube to here and for some reason, twenty four hours later they have not appeared. Hmm. Not Pleased.

I have, however, updated quite a few more blogs into the right hand column, as well as adding links to several more bands. I would suggest to anyone who has yet to hear The Fratellis album Costello Music that they do themselves a favour and hear it, preferably by buying it. personally I think it’s better than the Arctic Monkeys album, thoug

h I realis

e this may be a capital punishment-worthy offence.

Oh, and Long Blondes fans

should check this link out : )

Apologies to anyone who thought the post was unattended. The computer was playing up last night when I tried to post. Anyway, due to difficulties with posting the pictures here are the two vids they hav

e made so far.

Aberfeldy – Hypnotised

LOVE IS AN ARROW

Buy Aberfeldy on Amazon

BTW here are the photos I struggled to post

90

and not fogetting

the wonderful Dateless

Aberfeldy/Catherine Feeney/Dateless

Edinburgh Liquid Rooms September 18, 2006

With venues disappearing to be turned into Executive flats, it’s good to see that Edinburgh’s Liquid Rooms remains very much open for business. It’s especially good to see Aberfeldy headlining a packed Liquid Rooms, having seen them supporting the Fire Engines and Sons and Daughters here in December 2004.

But first, the evening starts off with Dateless. One fella and his keyboards, and two girls wearing matching blonde wigs and pink skirts, they take to the stage without much fanfare, but by the end of their opening number (something along the lines of ‘I don’t see as much of you as I’d like to’) they are winning the crowd over. There are eight young girls dancing in front of the stage, and I can believe that they could fill places with girls inspired to copy not just their dancing, as they do tonight, but their clothes too. They sound similar to Client with the keyboards and the long-lost act that was Dubstar. You can dance, you can clap and you want to take their records home, if there were any to buy. Their six song set is a delight. I wanna know more (and please post some tracks on your myspace site!
After this, Catherine Feeney is kind of an odd choice to follow on. She’s got a suitably ever-so-slightly husky voice, nice songs and enough stage presence to fill the place, which is no mean feat for anyone who has to play to a packed room with just an acoustic guitar in a full venue. And she plays that guitar well…but the songs don’t linger. Yet.

As I say, I saw Aberfeldy supporting here less than two years ago. Now they are headlining a homecoming gig that’s full, including many people who have rooted for them for years. As they open with ‘A Friend Like You’ it’s clear from here on until the rest of the evening that they have grown so much. The songs just flow, and sound bigger than ever, without bombast. In all the times I’ve seen them, Riley Briggs has never lacked for confidence -and I wish I could pull off a safari suit like he does – but they just so have it now. Thye songs have always been there, but they are so tight you wonder if Pete Doherty’s a former label-mate cos he knows he’s gonna struggle to keep up.
Riley’s stage patter suggests a sense of humour that must see them through the gigs when there aren’t many there (12 at Brighton a few days earlier. So much it being the hippest city in Britain). He jokes about his guitar-shaped swimming pool in Leith (if you’ve never been to

Edinburgh…well, just come here, go to Leith and you’ll understand why it’s funny). Hell, if the man would like one, we shouldn’t deny him it (though being Scotland it’s going to take some serious heating. We’re hardy folk b

ut not inuits). When so many folk come here and kinda forget where they are, it’s reassuring to here someone who grew up here greeting a crowd.
The whole band are just on fire, frankly. Ruth darts about from keyboard to keyboard, and Sarah plays a mean violin that just puts most fiddlers to shame. I envy her former pupils. Ken beams behind his bass and drummer Murray seems like a perfect foil for brother Riley.
A couple of weeks ago I saw the video for latest single Hypnotised in the back of a taxi. Astute marketing from someone. The wolfboy video should be taking them to new heights. It’s a real highlight live, as is ‘Do Whatever Turns You on’ which Riley dedicates to his family allowing him and his brother to feel free growing up. This apparently included using lego to create bands that would die in car crashes, according to Scotland on Sunday. I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s a great story.
They finish their encore with Heliopolis by Night (my runner-up single of 2004, behind Take Me Out). As the crowd do the ‘radio ga-ga’ handclaps, it’s clear this is a classic.
Two years down, two albums out, and Aberfeldy are hitting their stride. If you never saw them before, get out there!